A Colony on Mars (22 page)

May 15, 2112: The council enacted an Income tax bil , then realized they also needed an Internal Revenue Service to collect the tax. Soooooooo on.... May 16, 2112: They created the IRS of Mars. This served as an interesting beginning to a very familiar cycle. They had already realized some Income from DMV fees, but they started considering a duty tax also. As a result of this the first grade classrooms were built, equipped and staffed with local tax revenue. So far so good but they had the second grade looming over their heads.

CHAPTER – Mars gets a Zoo, Tims Investment

August 12, 2116: Tim was at home one evening and little Jimmy who was now in Kindergarten was looking at pictures in an Earth book entitled “A Day At The Zoo” Jimmy kept asking Carla and Tim about the animals that he saw in the book. Tim and Carla did the best they could to explain each one to him but finally Tim said to Carla, “That does it we are going to have a Zoo in New Phoenix.” Six months later the zoo was a reality only The Company intervened to a degree. The Company had a mandate in their contract with the Government that they had signed years before prohibiting them from exporting any animals from Earth that could be considered a threat to mankind. They couldn't send venomous snakes because they might bight someone, they couldn't send bears because they might maul someone, they couldn't send wild cats because they might attack someone, and they couldn't send elephants because, well, they were just too damned heavy to handle. Mars got it's zoo but it mostly contained llamas and alpacas and the like. They got five Panda's, some kangaroos and other harmless Marsupials a large variety of harmless bird species. Actually Panda's and kangaroos could harm people but the company fudged a little on the rules for certain animals.

Parrots abounded on Mars. Most were wild but many people had tamed them for pets. There were more than twenty varieties of parrots. They could be found in all the caverns. The Zoo had opossums and raccoons and badgers and penguins but nothing that man need fear. There were even twelve head of Cattle brought up from Earth and displayed at the zoo. Even though cows produced an enormous amount of methane the atmosphere could handle twelve of them. The herd was never al owed to become larger than that. The surplus animals were slaughtered for meat but the kids never knew that. It was OK with the kids that there were no dangerous animals, they loved going to the zoo. Chimps and monkeys proved to be the most popular with the kids. Ant's and flies didn't really belong in a zoo but the zoo had those also. They, it seems had invited themselves.

March 21,2117: The value of Tims stock in Mars Colony, Inc. had gone up one hundred fold in the nine years he had been buying it. He figured the time was right to get out of the market, draw his Swiss Account down to one hundred dollars, cancel his trust agreement with his bank on Earth and then somehow arrange to have the funds transferred to his account at First Colonial Bank in New Phoenix. He felt he could better handle his investments himself in New Phoenix. Tim worked out a deal to have Paul's family arrange the transfers. Of course Paul's family charged a ten percent handling fee but there were no inquiries from the IRS. When all was said and done Tim ended up with a little over one hundred mil ion dollars divided up between his seven different First Colonial accounts.

March 23, 2117: The first thing that Tim did was to order twenty mil ion dollars worth of products from Earth. These included Redwood, Cedar, Glass, furnishings for hotel rooms, furnishings for a first class bar and restaurant and two mil ion dollars worth of winter sporting goods. Tim also ordered over one thousand warm hooded jackets. The items were all promised for delivery within the next six months. Tim contracted with the private sector to have his sloped floor cavern sealed and pressurized. The temperature inside the cavern was a consistent twenty nine degrees.

Tim once again contracted with a private sector firm to do extensive grading and sculpturing of his hil side. The hil was more than a mile higher at the high side than it was at the low side. After descending for four miles it leveled off making a flat plane extending to the far wall on the low side. Tim purchased an old atmosphere making apparatus that was now being stored in reserve. He had the machine instal ed in his cavern. With the modifications that he already knew could be easily made he had a new control installed on the machine that raised the moisture level of the atmosphere in the cavern enough to generate falling snow when it was set above a setting of seven. He turned it to eight and let it snow. The next ship to arrive on Mars brought the building materials that Tim had ordered. The next brought the equipment and merchandise. Tim had a new three stage automatic opening airlock installed in the tunnel leading to his property. The tunnel had been expanded to allow for one lane of traffic in each direction as well as a moving sidewalk to accommodate pedestrian traffic in and out of the facility. The traffic was channeled into a huge cement block building with a parking lot, benches tables, several fast food restaurants and several other small businesses . One of the small business sold and rented Nordic clothing, another sold all sorts of ski paraphernalia. There was a desk manned by several employees seated at terminals that made reservations and sold entertainment packages that included food and lodging while vacationing in the cavern. The one week beginners package included seven days and six nights with unlimited use of the ski lift, a room and all meals for $6,000.00 beginners were eligible to attend as many beginner classes as they wanted when they bought the beginners package. The entry building was always heated to a comfortable 74 degrees. There was an exit triple sliding doors at the back of the building leading into the cavern. Large signs warned the patrons not to pass through these doors unless they were dressed for cold weather. Once inside the cavern the customer could board a free tram that would whisk them away to the Lodge. Just beyond the lodge there was a one hundred acre skating rink that was always open and always available to the public without charge. Of course the only place on Mars that sold ice skates and winter clothing was Tims store in the entrance building. By the time the project was completed and opened to the public Tim had invested virtually all of the money he had accumulated. The ski lodge proved so successful that Tim started recovering his investment in record time.

CHAPTER – New Phoenix, an American City

September 27, 2117 Tim and Carla Look back on their Mars Experience: Tim sat at a table with Carla and little Jimmy in Downtown New Phoenix. They were at Pablo's Mexican Restaurant, Carla was drinking a glass of Martian Chablis that had been re rated from good to excel ent. There were 427,520 acres in New Phoenix and Tim had his. With a five bedroom ranch house sitting on it, unlike most homes Tims home actual y had a roof and doors and windows just like they had on Earth. Al of the furniture had been selected from the internet and ordered from Earth. Some of it had arrived and some of their furniture was stil en route. In the meantime they were making do with the cheap knock down stuff. Tim's home was equipped just as it would have been on Earth with an up to date al electric kitchen, flush toilets, everything that any home maker on Earth could want Carla had on Mars. “Tomorrow is an anniversary for us Carla, it was ten years ago tomorrow that we first set foot on Mars. Our contract with The Company is up tomorrow. How about it, do you want to return to Earth?” “Carla gave him a quizzical expression and said “What are you nuts, I don't even want to go there for a visit. December 31, 2117, January 1, 2118: Revelers had packed the downtown area to see the new year in. Tim and Carla were having coffee at home and listening to Rusty on MARS-TV. Rusty had described the way things had been at that New Years celebration ten years earlier when they had only two caverns. Rusty then launched into a rundown on the status of things today. What a difference ten years had made.

“The Mars orbiter has been repositioned over the Utility cavern and everything and everyone that arrive from Earth is deposited there. Abner's farm and Graces fish hatchery are all that remain in the old company cavern. The almost dry lake at New Phoenix has been fil ed and populated with over 20 varieties of fresh water fish. The old Government cavern would look like a ghost town except that everything that could be pil aged has been. Abner has been talking about planting more fruit trees there next year once he gets more grow lights. Al the bureaucrats now work out of the new State office building in New Phoenix.”

“The Winery has usurped the entire half of the Hour Glass where their original winery and brewery once stood The facility now covers some nine thousand acres. One thousand acres are now planted in corn. The new distillery started bottling a whiskey made from eighty percent corn two years before. Their new product comes out at 160 proof, eighty percent alcohol. Many of us are feeling the after effects of that product this morning.” (Hour Glass Corp., or as the local people called it 'The Glass' had intended to age the product in wood but were never able to acquire the necessary casks.) The Martian grapes are magnificent, a bottle of good Martian wine wil fetch $500.00 in New York. Most of the output however was consumed on Mars. The brewery even sold their beer in bottles now but there were stil those that swore it was not as good as what they used to get in the gal on jugs.)

“A paved concrete highway runs al the way from Abner's farm through Paradise, which is now a State campground. and the ocean cavern which has become a very popular salt water fishing resort, then through the Hour Glass and on in to New Phoenix. We now have over one hundred paved streets in New Phoenix and room for many more when they became necessary. The population of Mars is now 28,600 and growing because ten percent of the population is under eleven years of age. The downtown area has begun to look like the downtown area of any other small City. Now the workers that were here to see the new year in in 2108 have completed their contracts. They are eligible to return to Earth but few of them want to. Some of the Government people who had finished their ten year contracts and left Mars had returned within the year.” Rusty's ramblings got Tim to thinking of some of the other developments. There were six public bus routes running. There was one route from each quadrant of the city into city center. There was one from the city center out to the industrial area. There was one from Abner's farm through Paradise, Big Lake, the Hour Glass, the Ocean and on into city center. The Ski Lodge sent a bus back and forth to city center but that was not part of the public transportation system.

“Paul was stil on Mars but was no longer the Director of the Government operations he had opened a jewelery store and was making fantastic jewelery with Martian diamonds and gold, for sale on Earth. Tim and Carla had realized two and a half mil ion dollars from his find. There were no other diamonds found on Mars for almost six years and Paul was able to contain the news of those finds and had most of them in his vault at the jewelery store. So as not to ruin the diamond market on Earth. Actual y there weren't that many but there were enough to make Paul a very wealthy and happy man. Paul had two of his nephews brought up to Mars with their wives and children and they worked in the store with Paul. They weren't really his Nephews but he referred to them as his that. It looked as though there would always be a community of ascetic Jews in the diamond business on Mars,” Tim mused.

“In 2111 Carter Fredrick was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2112. Many types of cancer were now treatable and curable, but not the kind Carter had. Tim of course was selected to replace him as manager of Mars Colony, Inc. on Mars.

January 2, 2118: Tim's salary was raised to $65,000.00 per month. Over the last ten years the government's role on Mars had continued to diminish while the companies role had grown. Though Tim wouldn't admit it he was now the most powerful man on Mars. In effect he was the most powerful man in the universe, he ruled an entire planet, and his appointment was for life. The President of the United States had to be elected to a limited term of office. Hal Jonson was now Superintendent of construction.

CHAPTER – The new frontier, ARTON

A new planet was being developed and populated by man in the Alpha Centauri system that was almost identical to Earth in size and atmosphere but it was stil in the age of the dinosaurs. New space craft developed on Earth could accelerate to ten times the speed of light. It didn't take much longer to travel to the new planet Arton than it took to travel to Mars in one of the old ships. It looked like there would never be another Mars ship built and both Mars and Earth were satisfied with that arrangement. Mars had now reached the point of self sufficiency and could survive indefinitely without ever being visited by another space ship. The two Mars Supply ships and the Mars Runner were too slow to be put to use anywhere else so now they were just vehicles used for interplanetary trade between Mars and Earth and for transporting more colonists to Mars.

February 4, 2118: “Tim was curious about Arton and the ships that navigated deep space so he gave George Schultz a call and asked him,

“George, what can you tell me about Arton and the ships that fly people there?”

George said I am headed for the observatory right now so why don't you meet me at the elevator and I will give you the whole rundown. Tim met George a few minutes later. They got boarded the elevator and started their assent. George began, “When man succeeded conquering the the sound barrier it became common jargon to refer to the speed of sound as Mach One. Early Science Fiction Writers, well over one hundred years ago writing about ships that would exceed the speed of light dubbed the speed of light as Warp One and a ship traveling above that speed as traveling at Warp two or Warp five or whatever. That term stuck and today we refer to a ship traveling at eleven times the speed of light as traveling at Warp 11.”

I guess you know, Tim that Arton is an Earth like planet in the Alpha Centauri system. It was discovered about thirty years ago by an observatory orbiting around Earth. It has two suns visible so it has long days and short nights. It has no moon. The Alpha Centauri system is about 4.5 light years from Earth and is the nearest solar system to Earth. When they built the Mars Supply One they discovered that an atomic powered space ship could continue to accelerate indefinitely. They didn't want to put too much strain on the Mars Supply One but while it was in the testing stage they did on one occasion push it just over Warp one. They didn't exactly disprove Einstein's theory of Relativity but they did prove that it did not apply to traveling faster than the speed of light.”