Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. It has no natural satellite. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it has been referred to by ancient cultures as the Morning Star or Evening Star. Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). However, it has also been shown to be very different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth's. With a mean surface temperature of 735 K, Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System. It has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor does it seem to have any organic life to absorb it in biomass. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space invisible light. Venus's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and periodically refreshed by volcanism. Venus was a proposed testing bed for early terraforming projects, and atmospheric generation. Several aerostat habitats orbit the planet, containing the only ‘citizens’ of this hot, harsh world. Most of the population among the aerostat habitats are scientists, working towards the habitability and colonization efforts of the surface of Venus. All of the work done so far is purely theoretical, or contained in small scale experimentation. However, hopes are high that one day, Venus may be a testament to man’s power, and the birthplace of proper planetary terraforming.

The primary aerostat habitat, that serves as the 'capital city' of the Venus colonists, is Aphrodite Station, the Greek name for the planet's namesake, the Goddess of Beauty. The other aerostat habitats are designated by a serialized system of numbers and letters, and transport to and from each is provided from the main station. All the colonists live on the station, while the ancillary habitats are reserved for specific facets of terraforming and atmospheric research. Because of its high importance as a scientific community, Aphrodite Station hosts a prestigious school dedicated to some of the finer points of theoretical and practical sciences related to planets, and the ability to transform and mold them to a livable state. This prestigious school has a reputation for being very challenging to get into, and after graduation, almost all of the students remain on the inner planets of Mercury or Venus, joining the teams working to make those planets viable colonies. There are rumors of much more sinister research taking place alongside these ideal pursuits, but such rumors usually exist around places that have very rare outsider access, and stringent entry requirements. The Venus Academy is funded by various lower corporations of the Dominion, and overseen by Morpha, a company on the verge of joining the elite corporations of the Dominion as the prime designer and manufacturer of terraforming equipment.

Other well known features of the station, aside from the school, is the artist district. While Venus has become a place primarily for higher learning, the Goddess of Beauty does much to inspire. The artist district is a part of the station that holds many museums of art, and is where many painters choose to reside, as long as they promise that their paintings are exclusively held within the walls of Aphrodite Station. Venus is also a haven for those that enjoy spicy foods, and Aphrodite Station has a few premier vineyards, that somehow thrive so close to the sun, creating wines that are full of warmth and fire, and are typically associated with romance, and sexual desire. Some would even go as far to say the wine itself is an aphrodisiac. And like most bastions of learning and culture, Aphrodite Station has its underworld contacts, and is infamous in the drug trade for more volatile, forceful forms of romance-inducing substances, including "Rose", a powdered narcotic that can be dissolved into food or drink, and triggers the chemical responses required for true affection and insatiable lust.