A Colony on Mars (12 page)

“How about installing and moving the air locks can one crew keep up, Johnson fielded that question, “That is a definite yes but they would be kept busy. As long as we have plenty of workers we should probably assign two crews. One crew can set the small temporary locks while the other can set the larger permanent sliding air locks once the tunnels have been enlarged. Can our system handle the load of pressurizing that much new space. “Certainly not al at once but if we only had to do one small cavern per week the answer would be yes, We have some old oxygen making equipment over in supply that could keep the atmosphere breathable without running any risk at all. Lets say we can handle the atmosphere problem throughout the whole system as we go but none of what we have said so far applies to Utopia .”

“If any of the smal caverns turn out to be larger than anticipated then we wil install additional atmosphere apparatus along the way. While we are at it we might as wel have several more systems on order. We do have three backup systems in the supply yard now but it is important that we always maintain twice as much atmosphere equipment as we need so if we have an equipment failure we will stil have atmosphere. We could instal the new systems as we go and keep ordering more back up systems from the Company. Actually the more area that we are providing atmosphere for the safer we will be. We should discuss our needs in this area with the government employee who handles the atmosphere now and assign more workers to that function. If they are not needed on a given day he can release the workers to perform other work until he does need them but they should all be trained to install and maintain these systems. When we reach Utopia we'l need several new systems to maintain atmosphere in a cavern that large. I won't know just how many until we get there and I make some calculations.”

As for our maps and our estimation of the size and shape of the caverns we will be going through keep in mind that this information was gathered several years ago by flying over the area and taking infrared pictures. For a number of reasons they may not be completely accurate.

“How many men can we spare now to start digging?” “With all of the problems that I know we wil encounter, my estimate is that we wil need, fifty or more. That would cover all of the support operations. I suggest that today we select who we want on our tunneling crews, gather our equipment and start them out in the morning under Johnson's supervision. Our first tunnel is going to be a little over eight hundred feet long, we have plenty of people and we can work them four hours on and 24 hours off. We won't need to set the air tight seal until they are in seven hundred ninety feet. Then we wil set the door and the men wil have to start working in Mars suits for the last ten feet to breakthrough.”

Johnson and Tim spent the rest of the day going over lists of employees and picking out the men that they wanted on the first four crews. The men were notified by cell phone that they would start tunneling the next morning. They were then asked to join Johnson in the supply depot and start locating all the equipment they could find. A concrete block wal was erected in front of the tunnel site but set back 20 feet to give the men room to work. The electricians ran power over to the site and trenches were dug to catch the debris. Any of the soil removed would be moved to where the farm was being set up. The farmers could use it to make topsoil or the crews could use it in the wal that would run along the river to protect the lake and stream from being contaminated by the crop runoff.

January 19, 2108: Among the cargo Items unloaded from Mars Supply One was the new equipment for processing human waste. As soon as Carter saw it and read the setup manual he set two crews to installing the equipment. One of the Scientists looking over the equipment decided that the machine would fit in the small cavern attached to the Government cavern that had been used as public bath rooms. Once it had been installed men dril ed a four Inch hole down from the surface and attached a power vent. Then put an air lock on the door leading into the Government cavern. When the machine was in use they would shut the air lock and work in Mars suits until they had finished processing the waste matter.

The machine separated the matter into three parts. The liquid was processed through reverse osmosis equipment and then allowed to run off into the crevasse where they had been dumping everything. The non biodegradable matter, ie the plastic porta potty liners or any other non biodegradable matter that had found it's way into the sewer system, were compressed into bricks and spat out the front of the machine where workers stacked them to the side of the cavern. The machine then processed the biodegradable mass which came out as a kind of mulch which was odorless and and only slightly damp. All harmful bacteria had been removed but the mulch was stil rich in nutrients. The men captured this material in large plastic garbage bags. Once the machine had finished processing the batch for the day the crew turned on the power vent to the surface and opened a vent pipe that ran along side the air lock. It only took a few seconds to exhaust all the stale air in the cavern. Once the air was clean they could they would close the vents and inject a strong ammonia based deodorant into the small cavern and open the air lock. It took three men working in Mars suits about two hours per day to process the waste. The result was about five hundred pounds of fertile mulch and thirty or so plastic bricks that could be very valuable as light weight building materials.

The mulch was taken over to the farm where Abner could combine it with mineral nitrates and other fertilizers before it was mixing it with Mars dirt to make top soil. Abner would soon need lots of top soil. This daily processing chore was considered to be an undesirable job. There were plenty of volunteers when they learned that they only had to work about a four hour day.

January 20, 2108: The farm was coming along nicely. A large farm house, lab and barn were being constructed. This would be the only house on Mars with a ful y functional kitchen, two bathrooms and four bedrooms. The reason for the four bedrooms was that both couples had indicated that they were probably on Mars to spend the rest of their lives and both couples intended to start a family. Tim real y liked the farm couples and it got him to thinking about how they were making a commitment to live out their lives on Mars after only being here a few days.

Tim asked Abner “What was it you said you wanted to show me next time I got over this way” “The Ivy, Tim, The Ivy, look at this stuff.” By then the little green shoots were up almost half an Inch. This stuff is like a weed, it wil grow anywhere even in ordinary cave light, it looks pleasing to the eye, especially against these stark cavern walls and it wil improve our atmosphere, or at least take some of the load off our atmosphere apparatus.” “Sounds good but maybe we better discuss it with the scientists before we start spreading the stuff around.”

That evening Tim and Carla had a long talk. “How do you feel about Mars now Carla?” I like it so far, it seems more vibrant and alive and it certainly has a low crime rate. The work that I do is the same as I was doing on Earth but the people are nicer to work with and the way The Company bends over backward to provide us anything we ask for is wonderful. The only thing that bothers me is that my biological clock is running and I would like to start a family. We could start one here on Mars but there would be fines and penalties, you know.” “I want a family also Carla, in a little over a year we wil break into Utopia Cavern and even if it takes two more years to seal and pressurize, we are stil looking at living in Utopia when our kids start school.”

“There we wil have regular streets, with electric cars darting around, we wil have schools and churches and businesses. Bob told me that one of the other prime investors in Mars Colony, Inc. is the family that owns all the biggest store chain on Earth but they want to hold off opening up on Mars until Utopia is ready”.

“OK Carla, no more contraceptives. This is our home now and I love the place. When our contract is up we can either renew once or stay on Mars and go into business. I already know that The Company and Government are going to sell off most of the real estate in Utopia to developers, businesses and private citizens. If things go as I see them going we wil be in on the ground floor of the nicest city in the solar system. Besides I think I would have a lot more difficulty in adjusting to Earth gravity than I had in adjusting to Mars gravity.”

CHAPTER – Earth is having problems

Never in history had the difference between the developed nations and the third world been so pronounced.

Nuclear proliferation treaties had not been effective. There were, by the year 2100 more than sixty nations on Earth that possessed nuclear weapons. Some had delivery systems and some just relied suicide bombers that carried some sort of nuclear devise in suit cases.

Around 2050 coal liquefaction had been perfected to the point where 100% clean burning, non polluting liquid fuel could be made from coal. Many countries on Earth that did not have petroleum had enormous coal reserves. There was no longer any demand for petroleum or products made from petroleum.

Lithium Ion batteries had been perfected and powered all transportation equipment, they could be recharged in under ten minutes. Canada and Australia were the only two remaining food exporting countries. Al the other developed countries had to scramble to keep up with feeding their own burgeoning populations.

So many people in the third world were dying of malnutrition and starvation every year that the total population of the planet peaked at nine billion and had begun to recede. Many of these third world countries had acquired nuclear weapons.

With the loss of oil revenue the middle east had become even more of a powder keg. Because of the wealth created during the years when petroleum dominated Earth's fuel needs there remained several thousand people in the middle east who had a net worth in excess of fifty million dol ars. The rest of the people living in the area lived in disparate abject poverty. Death from malnutrition and starvation numbered in the thousands every day. The very rich managed to place the blame for the unfortunate circumstances of the poor onto the developed nations. Jihad was more popular than it had ever been. It was said by one Western Philosopher of those in the middle east who had not died of starvation, “Hatred of the West was the only thing that was keeping them alive.”

Africa had not fared as badly as you might imagine. Disease and hunger had taken so many that the land was beginning to recover. The Africa of 2107 once again began to resemble the Africa that the White Man had first visited seven hundred years earlier.

The story in Asia could be summed up in one word, overpopulation. During the twenty first century many Asian nations had pushed their way to the forefront in the areas of science, industry and world trade, only to fail because they were unable to control their growing populations. No matter how industrious they were they just could not feed all their people. This was the situation on the planet Earth in the year 2107. The international situation had become a ticking time bomb.

CHAPTER – Swap Meet and Currency

January 21, 2108: Back on Mars work had started on the first of the new tunnels and had progressed smoothly. This first tunnel would run eight hundred feet.

The new arrivals were extremely qualified people with a good attitude. It was difficult for Tim to find enough work to keep them all busy until they made the first breakthrough. The air lock had been set where the dig had started. The dig had not turned up any new diamonds but they were finding many semiprecious stones that would make great jewelry.

SWAP MEET

A lot of people had accumulated things that they no longer needed or used so they decided to hold the first swap meet on Mars. It was really a kind of pitiful beginning to what was to become a Martian tradition. Surplus personal property would always be in short supply even after stores began selling merchandise. There were dozens of vendors and hundreds of buyers but everyone needed change for a $100.00 bil .

CURRENCY PROBLEMS

Most people had plenty of cash and no place to spend it. Making change was a problem for those buying or selling anything. Most of the cash was in large bills. There was a real shortage of small bil s. Almost no one missed the coins because nothing on Mars would be sold for odd change for a while yet. At least not until Burger Boy's opened. Bob told Tim that when the next ship arrived he would have three mil ion Dollars in change but that wouldn't be until May. Until then people were just writing out IOU's and signing them. Then that person would pass the IOU along to someone else and sometimes the IOU that someone had written would find its way back to the one that wrote it. Some people kept track of their outstanding IOU's and some didn't. Everybody took IOU's willingly because that was about the only medium of exchange other than large bills. People began to get concerned about all the money they had stashed in their unlocked homes.

CHAPTER – A bank is organized

February 5, 2108: Alan Jeffery, and Remar Otton two of the men who had completed their Government contracts and remained on Mars as private citizens decided that they had just figured out the perfect small business to go into. They arranged through Thelma to lease a lot in The Company cavern business district right next to where the Burger Boy's building stood. They went to work building a store front with their own hands. They were able to negotiate for and acquire from the Government a surplus safe and a good supply of rebar reinforcing rods used to reinforce concrete. They paid a couple of men that worked as welders to come over and weld a metal frame on all four sides of their store front then they used Mars cement to cover the walls. Outside the walls they stacked the usual cement blocks and when they were finished they bought enough scrap metal to have a front door welded together and hinges made. When they were through they owned the most in-penetrable building in the colony. They then told Thelma and Walter that wanted some kind of charter making their business legal. There was a lot of consternation all around but they finally got their permission from The Company and from the Government. The First Colonial Bank of Mars was open for business. The money poured in, they soon had over two mil ion dol ars on deposit in their safe. They did not pay any interest but rather charged their customers a small fee for the service of safeguarding their money. They were able to acquire some surplus computer equipment from the Government and started printing checks which were really just IOU's in small amounts and sel ing them at the bank.