A Colony on Mars (16 page)

Until we breakthrough and tame Utopia we are going to have a lot of surplus labor on our hands so if either of you can think of a project that wil keep people occupied let me know. There were seven hundred or more people showed up this morning for assignments so after putting half of them to work I just told the rest to go over and get the supply yard squared away. That has been my day so far.”

“Paul and Carter just laughed.”Paul said we discussed establishing a legal system with a police department, courts, judges, laws and everything. Then we discussed the mess we have at City Hall and what we need to do to straighten that out. Then we decided we better notify the Government to send up several surveying crews. We also discussed the need to have an elected Government to handle local issues, you know like a city counsel or something. Nothing is firm yet on any of that but we'l keep you posted. After lunch Tim had a chance encounter with the head of the Government Scientists. “I have a question for you George, It's about Ivy, Abner says it wil grow anywhere there is an ordinary lit cavern and it doesn't need special grow lights.” “If it does? Tim, I don't see how it would enrich our atmosphere because without the grow lights it could not photosynthesize.”

“But,” answered Tim,”if it didn't photosynthesize, how could grow?” “Good question, is Abner growing ivy now that is not exposed to grow lights?” “Yes, I have seen them, they were just little half Inch shoots but they were bright green.” “I'l check into it and let you know.”

At 1400 Tim met with the two new computer people at headquarters. He introduced Doris and Serge to the rest of the staff. Tim then assigned Doris to a computer station and showed her how to access the data base manager program and the available data that was now scattered in various places on the drive. “Hopefully I will have enough of a data base put together in the next few days that you can select work crews based on any criteria you like.” “Hal Johnson, my assistant wil be using the data more than I will, he is the one that wil be assigning the crews. I wil be more interested on the projects that we are working on and how they are progressing. That proved to be all the instruction that Doris ever required. After about a week Doris was able to give anyone in management a list of anything they wanted in just a couple minutes. Everything began running more smoothly.

With the size of Paradise cavern plus the Government cavern and the Company cavern Tim found that he was spending most of his time moving from one place to another. Tim thought what I need is a golf cart to get around in, I am going to have to mention that to Carter next time I see him. Tim made a note to ask Carter about Golf carts.

Tim next checked on the of the tunneling crew. “We are making much better progress now that we are not working in those darned Mars Suits” the foreman told Tim. I think we are about three or four days out from breakthrough. The tunneling crews changed dril ing techniques with each change in soil conditions. When they came to solid rock the would blast or use jack hammers, when they were in loose soil they just used old fashioned picks and shovels, when they were in tight packed soil they used power dril s to break it up. They just whatever they needed as conditions changed. If they were in loose soil then they had to reinforce the tunnel sides and top as they went along.

All the loose soil they dug out was scooped up with a front end loader and hauled to the farm or the orchard. The rocky soil and rocks would be used as fil when they went to level the cavern floors.

Tim constantly had a crew making cement blocks on the surface. He found that cement block shortages were holding up other construction so he started using three crews on the surface making cement blocks when the weather permitted. Two more crews were constantly leveling cavern floors and placing cement blocks to make floors and roadways. They would only be putting a roadway across the Paradise cavern and walking trails so as to not ruin the aesthetic quality of the cavern.

As Tim was leaving Paradise cavern he ran into Carter. “What would you think of getting a few golf carts for the managers to get around in?” “I am way ahead of you on that one, Tim, since we have so much distance to cover now I discussed it with Paul a couple weeks ago. He sent out a request for one hundred indoor carts and thirty surface carts with wide wheels that wouldn't sink into Mars sand. When I get their answer I will let you know.”

May 27, 2108: George was in The Company cavern so he decided to stop by the farm and have a look at the Ivy. Abner showed him the small plants that now had leaves and were about three Inches tall. “I don't understand it,“said George, In theory this can't be. “ Abner answered, “That reminds me of the story about the old man that took his grandson to the Zoo, the two of them stood in front of the giraffe cage for several minutes watching the animals, then finally the old man yanked on his grandson's arm and lead him away, Come on, son there ain't no such animal. Just maybe, George there is such an animal.”

“In that case Abner, go ahead and spread your Ivy like Johnny apple seed, The stuff won't create any problems until you try to get rid of it. There are colleges in New England that have been trying to kill the stuff off for two hundred fifty years but about two hundred years ago they found the solution to their problem.”

“What was that?” ask Abner. “Oh they just started calling their little group of col eges 'THE IVY LEAGUE' ”.

May 30, 2108 : That evening of was Walter and Thelma's going away party. It was celebrated much as they had celebrated New years Eve. Thelma and Walter each made a speech then Paul and Carter each made a speech telling them how much they would be missed and Rusty was there with a cameraman to record the event for posterity and for use on the local news the following evening.

CHAPTER – Other Nations want in

June 1, 2008

Meanwhile back on Earth things were happening that could effect the Mars Project. “Mr. President, the Chinese Ambassador.” “Welcome, Mr. Ambassador, let's have a seat on the couch over here and you can tel me to what I owe the honor of your visit. Could I offer you something to drink?” “Oh, cut the crap, Chet, you know why I am here, We want in on the Mars program. We want our own colony with our own people running it.” “So, Ambassador Jing, why are you tel ing me this?” We make no claim on the planet Mars, only to the parts of Mars that we have opened up, and developed.

You are free to develop your own program any way you want so long as you don't violate any of our territorial claims. As you know we claim any cavern that we have pressurized and populated and any cavern, any part of which is within two hundred Earth miles of any cavern we have pressurized and populated.” “We are aware of that Chet but what we are seeking is your help in developing our program. We want you to help us in all fields of development to establish a Chinese presence on the planet that does not violate any of your territorial claims.” “We would be happy to oblige you Jing but we have one stipulation that you must agree to in order to gain our full support.” “What is that Chet?” “That we have the right to approve any people that you want to send to Mars either on our space craft now or your own space craft any time in the future. You know very well that anyone you send must be of good character and be able to pass a fluency test in the English Language and that you acknowledge that the English language is the official language of Mars and that al communications on Mars, to Mars or from Mars be in English. You know how many difficulties that this planet has had because of language differences, we just want to prevent that happening on Mars. If you agree to that then we wil share all that we know about Mars with you, We will train your people for a price, we wil transport your people, for a price and will assist you in any other way that we can in establishing your colony on the planet. We will also allow your people to visit our facilities at any time.” “That is where the rub comes in Chet, we are Chinese and proud of it. Sure I am fluent in English but I doubt that I could pass your fluency examination. The kinds of people that have the skil s for this kind of endeavor certainly could not pass. Also I am not so sure that my Government would go along with English being the official language of Mars.” Then Mr. Ambassador I suggest that you start from scratch and develop your own program on your own terms. I am sorry Jing but I saw you without an appointment because I was given to understand that you had only a couple of quick questions and now I need to see my regularly scheduled guest, the ambassador from Japan.”

President Harford did the same song and dance that he had just done with the Chinese Ambassador. The Japanese Ambassador also left in a huff. The President then buzzed his secretary. Get the press secretary in here right away. “ Flint I have a job for you.. Get a recording of my last to conversations from my secretary, listen to them then make up a position paper expressing those tenants and see to it that all of the nations on Earth that might be in a position to make a similar request get a copy. Also make sure that the Speaker and the Sennett Majority leader each get a copy along with a note that I would like to be able to sign this position into legislation. You can have the legislation drafted for them it wil make the job easier. I am sure that we have the backing of both sides of the Isle on this one so it wil be good for relations. Tel them they can attach it to the next bil they pass unless think it is a bil that I might want to veto.”

Two weeks passed and so did the bill. Then the President received a visit from four different ambassadors at one time. They represented respectively The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“Mr. President I am expressing the sentiments of all four of us and our countries when I say that we very much approve of your position that English only should be spoken on Mars and that any candidate that is sent should be subject to your approval.” “Our four nations have met on this matter and we would like to join the Mars program. Here is what we would like to offer. We are wil ing to reimburse the United States for 40% of everything that you have already spent on the Mars program over the last twelve years. We would like to continue to reimburse the United States 40% of everything that you spend in future years, but we would like to provide candidates for your approval of all future colonists that are sent to Mars by either the United States Government or sent by Mars Colony, Inc. until the population of Mars is 40% from our four countries then we would like for 40% of all future colonists to be chosen by you from candidates that we provide to you. When you breakthrough into Utopia we would like for 40,000 of the first 100,000 people to reside in Utopia to be selected from candidates that we provide to you. Beyond that we would all caverns developed in future years be al ocated as follows, any cavern with a floor space of more than one hundred square miles be jointly populated. And that all smaller caverns be allocated so that Australia gets ten % of them, New Zealand gets ten percent, Canada gets ten percent and that the UK gets ten percent as our own domains. The United States gets sixty percent.”

“That is very interesting but you are aware that I personally do not have the authority to accept or decline your offer. What I suggest is that you gentlemen sit down with our representatives who will be chosen from the administration as well as from the House and the Senate and hammer out a deal that we can all live with. There is one thing that I can tell you right now and it is unofficial. There are certain guidelines that we use to select our candidates, these rules fly in the face of some of our own civil rights legislation but we have been getting away with it so far.

1.We do not take race into account.

2. We select equal numbers of men and women.

3. And here it gets a little sticky, we do not accept any candidate with homosexual tendencies, we feel it would not be accepted by our people who presently reside on Mars.

4.This one is really sticky we have not as yet selected a candidate outside of the following, Christians of any denomination, Jews, Agnostics and Atheists. We just don't want any religious conflicts. So far we have not selected any professed Atheists, but we do have a few Agnostics. None of the people that we have selected have any real strong religious feelings at all. Next, we have been requested by the colony to provide them with Catholic and Protestant Chaplains and at least one Rabbi. These people and their necessary equipment have already been selected and wil depart on the next flight. Beyond that we would accept any chaplain candidates that you care to nominate but those would be sent at your expense.

5.Frankly I don't think congress is going to go for your deal about separate domains. Here is what I think you will end up with. After you reimburse the United States for 40% of what we have spent so far you will be al owed to send 50% of al future candidates until you reach parity then you will be allowed 40%. You must also be aware that we have a small private sector emerging on Mars. These people travel as paid passengers on our ships. We presently charge five hundred thousand dollars dollars for the trip from Earth to Mars and one hundred thousand dollars for a return flight or $550,000.00 for a round trip ticket. We have just launched a new space ship we christened Mars Runner. It is as large as our two other ships combined. Mars Runner belongs entirely to the United States. We have sold our interest in the other two ships Mars Supply One and Mars Supply Two to Mars Colony, Inc. but the United States has retained control of who The Company hauls up to Mars and what cargo they carry. You will have to negotiate for what cargo rights, business rights, property ownership rights you wil be entitled to on Mars. All real estate other than what we call the Government cavern is owned by the company. They wil be free to develop it any way they please. They have agreed that the United States share in the proceeds of any sales or leases of real estate. Only residents of Mars are eligible to own real estate on Mars but corporations in good standing are allowed to lease real estate.

6.So far we have no laws on Mars but the community is working on a criminal and civil code at this time. Mars presently has the status of a U.S. Protectorate. Common laws that apply to all Protectorates apply to Mars. 7.We have no civil or criminal courts on Mars but they are working on that. We have not surveyed any real estate on Mars.