World Building

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER SIX.

Because of Aeneas' low gravity:

"Through ages, water molecules have ascended in the thin air and been cracked by energetic quanta; the hydrogen has escaped to space, the oxygen that has not has tended to unite with minerals. Thus little remains of the former oceans, and deserts have become extensive." (p. 420)

So why was Aeneas colonized?

"The chief original inducement to colonization was scientific: the unique races on the neighbor planet Dido, which itself was no world whereon a man would want to keep his family." (ibid.)

Thus, Aeneas takes its place in a planetary system - and also in the Empire and history:

"The result was a stock more virile and gifted, a society more patriotic and respectful of learning, than most." (ibid.)

The remote descendants of exiles from Aeneas will retain these qualities millennia later.

Dido and Didonians are prominent in this volume but the sequel, The Day Of Their Return, is set entirely on Aeneas.