A Colony on Mars (26 page)

Captain Al en talked for better than an hour describing everything that had happened in the last thirty six hours, then he turned the mike back to Captain Davis. “Here is where we stand now, we have taken 2,454 survivors on board from the shuttles that escaped Earth when the shooting started, from al of the satellite stations and from the Earth Orbiter. We are now going to set an orbit around the Moon and launch enough shuttles to bring their one thousand one hundred sixty people on board. Once they are safe we wil return to Mars. Our cargo hold is ful with twenty shuttles. There are twenty more moored to the Earth Orbiter. I suggest that you continue to search Earth for survivors that have not been contaminated yet. I don't know how long you should do that but you will know when your job is done. You have a heartbreaking task because there are still at least five bil ion people alive on Earth that have received a lethal dose of radiation and there is nothing you can do for them. If you try to rescue them some of your people could become contaminated and the ones you were trying to rescue would be dead in a few days at the most. I suggest that for the first week to ten days that you not respond to calls for help. After that any calls you get could very well be from people that are in sealed environment s that have not been contaminated. In the meantime you could gather what radiation suits you have and load them onto one of your shuttles. I am sending you the radiation suits that we have by shuttle, that should give you forty suits that could be lowered or dropped to any survivors that have not been exposed. If they are in a sealed environment I don't know how they would be able to reach the suits but maybe they wil be able to work it out. Even a ten second exposure would probably be fatal so they might have to even sacrifice one of their own to get the suits. I just don't know. Once your job is done then pick up the remaining twenty shuttles at the Earth Orbiter before returning to Mars.” I don't see how we could improve on that plan, we wil do what ever we can and just play it by ear. See you back on Mars, Arton Four out.”

The Moon Base was another story, They had their own Shuttle but preferred to wait it out on the Moon because they were fully stocked with supplies and could hold out longer there than they could at the orbiter. There was also the logistical problem of transporting 1160 people in one shuttle. The A1received a radio message from Moon Base. “This is Admiral Johnson at Moon Base, what is your status?” “We are presently in Earth Orbit with 2,454 survivors on board from the Earth Orbiter. We are preparing to move to Moon Orbit to pick up the people on Moon Base. We should be there in about four hours.” “That is negative Arton One” We have just been hearing traffic from Barrow, Alaska. Contamination has not yet crossed the Arctic Circle. We know that everything south of there is contaminated. There are approximately eighteen thousand people North of the Arctic Circle who have not been contaminated. We are fine here on Moon Base. Suggest you return your 2454 survivors to Earth Orbiter with enough supplies to hold them over until you see how many you can find in the Arctic Circle. We can accommodate five thousand people total on Moon Base. Where is Arton Two, Arton Three and Arton Four?” “Arton Four is presently in Earth Orbit, A1and Arton Two are in Mars orbit unloading Cargo.” “We will contact Mars and have them dispatch A and Arton Two immediately to Earth whether they have been unloaded or not.”

“Ten Four that, we will get Arton Four on the Horn and dispatch them to Barrow immediately. “This is Captain Barstow of The Earth Orbiter, Admiral. If The A1sets off the 2,454 refugees from on board back on Earth Orbiter we could sustain for approximately ten days without additional supplies.” “This is Captain Davis again Admiral. We broke a cardinal rule when we just made the trip from Mars to Earth. We used warp speed and got here from Mars within two hours. It can be done and now we know just how to do it, maybe not with utmost safety but using warp we could pick up five thousand of those eighteen thousand people in the Arctic, move half of them to Moon Base. Then reload the people from Earth Orbiter and take five thousand people to Mars then return and get the three thousand six hundred that you wil have on Moon Base. Captain Davis sent an officer to the com room immediately to notify the Arton Four to try the north polar region with shuttle as soon as possible. The Arton Four responded that they had already retrieved the shuttles from the Earth Orbiter because they did not have any on board. They would move to a North Polar orbit and launch shuttles within the next two hours. He then put an urgent message in to Mars. “There are apparently eighteen thousand people within the Arctic Circle that have not been contaminated. We need the Arton Two and Arton Three here immediately to take on Refugees.” “Moon Base contacted us a over an hour Arton Two and Arton Three are already en route to the Arctic Circle using Warp speed. They could arrive any time.”

April 6, 2125: “ The A1returned the 2,454 people on board, to the Earth Orbiter Including Captain Barstow. A1then topped off their supplies and headed for Barrow, Alaska.

The Arton Four launched all 20 shuttles to search all enclaves of mankind north of 50 degrees North latitude. Captain Sorenson told the pilots.

“If you see anyone on the ground that needs help then fly south until you find the first clear area, land and take a reading, if the atmosphere is clean stil then go back and pick them up, otherwise just leave them be. I know that sounds cold but if they are already walking dead men we can't help them.” “Shuttle one to Arton Four I am taking a reading at 49 degrees North Latitude, the air is, I repeat, is contaminated.” “Shuttle two to Arton Four, I am taking a reading atfifty fivedegrees North Latitude, the air is, I repeat, is contaminated.” “Shuttle three to Arton Four, I am taking a reading at 62 degrees North Latitude, the air is, I repeat, is contaminated.” “Wel that lets out Anchorage and Fairbanks”

Captain Sorenson said to no one in particular. “Shuttle four to Arton Four I am taking a reading from 66 degrees North Latitude, just inside the Arctic Circle, the air is not, I repeat, is not contaminated.” “Shuttle five to Arton Four, I am taking a reading from Barrow, Alaska, 340 miles North of the Arctic Circle, the air is clean, I repeat, the air is clean. I see people on the ground, there must be three thousand of them, send more shuttles.” “Captain Sorenson sent all nineteen remaining shuttles to Barrow and they began to evacuate refugees. Within four hours they had received five thousand people on board the Arton Four. The Arton One, Arton Two and Arton Three all responded. The Arton Two and Arton Three stil had cargo on board but they could take on refugees. The Captains threw the safety book out the window and accelerated to Warp speed. The A1made Earth Polar orbit in just under three hours. The Arton Two and Arton Three weren't far behind. The A1immediately launched their 15 shuttles. Within six hours they had completed the evacuation of Barrow and some thirty seven Alaska villages. The radio room of the Arton Two picked up an SOS on a Navy frequency. Between the four ships they had rescued eighteen thousand people from the Arctic. They were all safely on board the ships within eight hours of when the rescue of Barrow had began and the air stil tested clean. There were traces of radiation showing up but the atmosphere was stil in the safe zone.

“SOS This is USS Patrick Hudson, does anybody copy. SOS” “Patrick Hudson this is USSS Arton Two, we are in Arctic orbit around Earth. What is your location?” “We are just below the ice cap near the North Pole, at 69 degrees North Latitude, the air is not, I repeat, not contaminated.” over.”

“Patrick Hudson, please proceed south until you find ice thin enough to break through. Then surface but keep the vessel sealed. We wil spot you and pick you up once you have surfaced. How many of you are there?” “There are 92 in our crew, we were under the pole on maneuvers when things went bad.” “Arton Four launched the three Shuttle which headed for the North Pole and made radio contact. We have three Shuttle looking now they wil be near your location an prox one hour. They should be able to spot you but they are on this radio connection now. Shuttle one to Patrick Hudson do you know the approximate coordinates where you wil be able to surface?” “The skipper of the sub gave them a coordinates then said we wil surface in prox one hour, just about the time you arrive.” “This is Shuttle One, we wil get readings before you surface.” “This is Patrick Hudson, we are in place to surface, our exact coordinates is, and he gave the coordinates.” “Copy that, Patrick Hudson, our three Shuttle are approaching now, We are only getting a trace of radiation, You couldn't live in it for years but it wont hurt you to be exposed for a few minutes.”

“Surface, surface surface.” Then the pilots saw the Ice mound and saw the Patrick Hudson. They maneuvered their so as to pull up within 50 feet of the sub. “Get your people out now and make a run for our shuttle. Send your people in three groups and have each group go to a different Shuttle .” “Roger that” The main hatch popped open and the 92 crew members made a beeline for the Shuttle's. Once inside the ships were sealed and took off. Little over an hour later they were docked beside the Arton Four and Air locks were secured.

“The crew of the sub were the happiest people the crew of the Arton Four had ever seen. During debriefing they said they had picked up scattered radio traffic after the destruction but one by one over the next several days the radio chatter had stopped as the people had died of radiation poisoning. “The only people on the planet who could have survived would be people that were in sealed chambers such as we were in the Patrick Hudson. “There may be other submarine crews but I doubt it. Once they surfaced anywhere on Earth anywhere other than where we surfaced they were exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, and were goners in a few days. We know that from the radio contacts that we had. Also most of the ocean is also pol uted with radiation. It was working it's way North but hadn't reached us yet. If you hadn't come along when you did we would have been dead in two weeks, or less. Even the people in the Ant Arctic would have a lethal dose by now.” “My question is what do we do now?” “We are returning to Mars, I think our work here is done.” Two hours later the Arton Four pulled out of orbit and headed for Mars.”

“Boy are we ever glad to see you guys, but now that you have rescued us where can you take us, Arton?” “Hardly, We, and you, I am afraid are going to have to live out our lives in those miserable caves on Mars.” With that remark said the questions began to fly at Captain Sorenson from all the leaders from Barrow, the vil ages and the Patrick Hudson that had met in the dining room for the briefing that Captain Sorenson had requested. “Does the colony on Mars have room for us?” “Wil they share their food with us?” “What will happen when they run out of food and there are no more supply ships coming from earth?” “I would hate the thought of living out my life in a cramped little cave!” “Well I am afraid that is just going to have to be your fate” The answers to your other questions are “yes they wil share their food with us, yes, they have enough room for us. The two Mars Supply ships were retired five years ago but Mars Runner stil makes regular runs to Mars, they haul more people to Mars and Mars exports back to Earth. They also have been hauling luxury items to Mars on their way up. Things Martians have ordered off the internet and paid for. You wil just have to wait and see your new home when you arrive on Mars.”

It was agreed that the four ships should engage Warp Speed only briefly on the return to Mars, in the interest of Safety. The Arton One used warp longer than the other ships because they had to drop their people off on Mars and then return for the people stranded on the Earth Orbiter and Moon Base. April 8, 2125: “A1to Mars comm we are entering Mars orbit with five thousand refugees. We need to transport these people as quickly as possible because there are another three thousand six hundred people stranded on the Earth Orbiter and Moon Base.” By the time that The A1settled into Mars orbit there were seventeen shuttles waiting to off load refugees. Eight hours later The A1was headed back to Earth once again they used Warp Speed briefly. April 9, 2125: The A1made Earth orbit and took on the refugees from the Earth Orbiter. They then established Moon orbit, dispatched their 15 shuttle and took on the refugees from Moon Base. A team of six people remained behind to maintain Moon Base knowing ful wel that it might be a long time before another ship from Mars would return.

April 15, 2125: The A1made Mars orbit. Mars sent up shuttles to offload refugees. By the end of that day the population of Mars stood at just over 80,000 people, almost 22,000 of them were housed in the reception center. The people of Mars that had room in their homes were urged to take refugees from the reception center into their homes. The reception center just could not accommodate 22,000 people.

July 24, 2125: Mars Comm sent and received messages frequently to and from Moon Base, if for no other reason to keep the skeleton crew on Moon Base from feeling detached from humanity. The Inuit Eskimo people from the Arctic blended in well with the population of Mars. Almost all of them spoke English, the few that didn't were mostly elderly and became home makers for their families, which was pretty much the role that they had played in their Arctic villages. Despite the authorities desire that everyone speak only English they were occasionally irritated by occasionally hearing people conversing in the Inuit language.

It amazed everyone how quickly the vibrant young economy of Mars absorbed the newcomers. Within less than a year there was ful employment on Mars. Tim had once again decided not to develop Utopia. The equipment that Mars had recently received for that purpose was put to other uses in the development of more of the small caverns that had been discovered. CHAPTER – Mars Runner returns to Mars

August one 2125: Mars Runner docks at Mars orbiter 1,238 passengers and crew were transferred to the planet by the Mars shuttles where they were provided temporary accommodations in the reception center. The seventeen operating shuttles then made short work of transporting the cargo to the planet. Three people remained on board to maintain the ship and the orbiter. They would be rotated once a month. There stil remained the 15 shuttles on The A1and 20 shuttles on the Arton Four, that no one knew what to do with. It was finally decided to leave five shuttles on each ship and dismantle the remaining 15 shuttles for spare parts.