by Paul Reaver
“Good,” said John. “That’s a great start. Max, what about you?”
“Well, the cold fusion technology may be something the Martians have not developed yet. If this is the case, it quite possibly will be more efficient than other energy sources that they have. Also, cold fusion would supply a dependable source of energy for the force fields that we would use for the domes. We can’t afford to use any source of energy that can be interrupted; We would lose our habitats if this happened. Of course, we would still need to make sure that the force field generators and the other devices that work with them all have backups in case of equipment failure. In fact, we will need backups for the backups. If we had to go to the secondary backups for any given dome, our automatic nanotechnology repair process should have repaired the primary before the secondary backups could also fail. And that repair process should be completed before we needed the secondary backups. But it’s better to have it and not need it rather than need it and not have it, I always say.”
“That does sound promising,” said John. “Joanne, what are your thoughts?”
“Well, Mars lost its atmosphere, all its surface water, and much more due to the catastrophic CME event because they had no magnetic field for protection. However, as Ben indicated, Mars did have a magnetic field at one time. The Martians apparently do not have the technology to re-create a magnetic field, because I assume that if they did, they would have already done so. Also, if we can’t help them create one, Mars would continue to lose its atmosphere due to solar winds, albeit slowly, regardless of how much we replace the atmosphere. They really need protection against the occurrence of another CME. The only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps the Martians have the technology to create a magnetic field but have not had the time to implement it. However, if they did have the technology, it would be safe to assume that they would have already created the field if for no other reason than to protect their remaining atmosphere.”
“We’ll have to look into that,” said John. “Abigail, what do you think?”
“I was thinking about what Joanne said. Since we have developed a way to ‘bend’ light rays to create invisibility, there should be a way to modify the process so that it would bend the solar radiation so that it would go around the planet and not reach the atmosphere. A series of satellites might be able to accomplish this, placed at strategic places in specific semi-stationary orbits around Mars, to protect the entire planet. Objects in semi-stationary orbits, such as the GPS satellites orbiting Earth, circle the planet twice per day. There are four satellites in each orbit, evenly spaced apart. However, it would be a tremendous job to do this from scratch for Mars. We can only hope that the Martians already possess such technology.”
“Wow, that’s a great idea. We’ll see what the Martians have to say,” said John. “Roberta, any ideas?”
“It seems to me that nanotechnology could play a large role in terraforming Mars,” she said. “Even though we’ve learned a lot about it, there’s a lot more that we don’t know. It’s still almost like magic to most physicists. I know it is to me, she said with a smile.
“You’re right, and we’ll have to look into that as well. We’ll also have to see if the Martians have any technology for that. Ok, Jose, what do you have to say?”
Jose said, “Well, I think it would be handy to be able to transport supplies and people from the Martian site to a dome, or even from dome to dome. Think of how much time that would save. We are already there as far as the distance we can teleport objects and people.”
“That would also enable us to proceed at a much faster pace with the terraforming,” said John. “That’s great! Ok, since we are already here in the ‘mess hall,’ do you guys want to go ahead and eat and share any ideas you might have among yourselves?”
The answer was in the affirmative from the entire team. During and after the meal, they got together in twos and threes, with people migrating from one group to another as the time passed. Slowly, each team member decided to call it a day and retired to her or his bunk. Finally, John was the only person left awake, and his thoughts were whirling through his head. What a discovery! And what great possibilities they had in working with the Martians to help them solve their dilemma! He also had a good feeling about it from a different angle. He expected to gain a lot of technical knowledge from the Martians; technology that would not only improve their space flight astronomically (so to speak) but also technology that would transform Earth into a much more scientifically sophisticated planet. So far, the Martians gave the impression of offering total cooperation. They seemed of a mindset that made them more than willing to exchange technology. Since Earth was going to help Mars, perhaps Mars could help Earth advance scientifically – and maybe in other unforeseen ways. He decided to call it a day as well, although he thought that sleep might be a long time coming with all that he had on his mind.
But first, John had to perform a task that he had been thinking about ever since discovering the Martians – he needed to contact “Uncle Jim” and bring him up to speed. He smiled to himself because he wondered what James’ reaction would be.
He had a “hotline” channel to reach James that was separate from any of the frequencies he used for communicating with his team. No one else had access to it but him. It had been put into place for such a situation as he found himself in now. Fortunately, his team had developed a method for instantaneous radio transmissions between Earth and Mars. It used quantum technology and sent the signals “below” the molecular level. The technology mimicked the “subspace” transmissions that were part of many science fiction movies and tv shows. Without it, the message sent each way would take anywhere from three minutes to twenty-four minutes, depending on the planets’ positions.
John went into the cockpit area and closed the door to gain privacy for the call. The cockpit area was soundproof. Fortunately, James was available when he called. John had not thought about it, but he might have been calling in the middle of the night for James’ time. However, such was not the case; James was there, and he answered almost immediately.
“Hi, James,” said John. “This is your Mars explorer chief calling.” There was a smile in his voice.
“I’ve been waiting to hear from you,” said James. “I knew I would. I just didn’t know when.”
“Well, I have an extra special reason for calling,” said John. “Are you sitting down? This is a bit of a surprise.”
He chuckled to himself because he realized what a massive understatement this was.
“I’m prepared,” said James. “Go ahead. I hope no one is hurt, and nothing negative has occurred.”
“Not at all,” said John, “quite the opposite,” and he launched into the abbreviated version of what had happened with the meeting with the Martians.”
There was complete silence on James’ end when he had finished.
“James?” said John. “Are you there?”
There was yet another pause. Finally, James said, “I am trying to assimilate this revelation. All I can say is ‘Wow!’. If you had told me you’d found some living microbes, I’d have expected that. I never expected that you would discover living Martians.”
“Well, as I said, we were completely floored,” said John. “But no matter how much it surprised us, it turned out to be easier, at least somewhat easier, for us to absorb it because we experienced it firsthand. We were communicating directly with them just as I am talking to you now, except it was face-to-face. I don’t think it has completely sunk in for us yet either, but there’s no denying the truth when it’s right there in front of you. As I explained, we have agreed to help the Martians restore their planet. It will take time, but we have the advantage of having two disparate and unique sets of technologies that, when put together, will hopefully make the effort a destination that is in more or less in a straight line.”
“I agree with your decision to assist the Martians,” James replied. “Besides terraforming the planet together, we have a
lot of technology to share from what you have told me. I support you 100% in this effort. I also agree that we cannot share this information yet with the people of Earth. This was part of the reason that we decided to compartmentalize the knowledge of your mission. We did not know what you might find. With your discovery, there are too many negative reactions that might occur on Earth, one of which would probably be widespread panic. Once you have established a clear path for rebuilding Mars and have made significant progress down that path, we can start thinking about telling the people of Earth. In the meantime, we will release no information. Fortunately, you have the technology available to hide any movements or construction on the planet’s surface; if you didn’t, it’s a foregone conclusion that astronomers, amateur or professional, would discover your work right away. In fact, they would have already found your ship sitting there. Ok, now it’s my turn to absorb this, but it’s wonderful news. My congratulations to you and your team.”
“Thank you,” said John, “but I feel like it was a lucky break, pure and simple. However, I am very much looking forward to starting this project; my entire team is looking forward to it.” He wrapped up the call and went to his bunk.
The next day found the team gathered around the rover, having disembarked at the entrance to the Martian base. They made their way in, went through the decontamination process, and found Kirlin and Jenore waiting for them.
“We have set up a meeting room, and our scientists are waiting for us to join them,” said Kirlin in her melodious voice. “Please follow me.”
She led the way through a door in the side of the stasis room into a hallway. As they walked, John noticed that the doorways were tall to allow ample room for the Martians’ height.
The hallway was an iridescent, quartz-like material. It was somewhat disconcerting because there were no precise edges where the walls met the floor, or the walls met the ceiling. However, after a few minutes, the delineation between what were the walls and what was the floor became clear enough. Navigating the corridor gradually became no problem; they just needed to walk down the middle of the aisle. They had walked perhaps 25 feet when they came to an alcove. Kirlin stopped and, after concentrating for a moment, the entrance slid open. John surmised that she had used her telepathic abilities to open the door.
They entered the room, and John’s team had to do a double-take. It became immediately evident that architecture was fundamental to the Martians, as they even used it when building a conference room. The room was egg-shaped, though the floor was flat, and the conference table had a sweeping, winglike appearance. Both had the same iridescent look as did the hallway. The chairs were much like the overstuffed chairs in some conference rooms on Earth. The main difference was that the chairs conformed themselves automatically to the body shape of the person that was sitting in it. Though somewhat of a strange sensation, it made the chairs extremely comfortable. John noticed that there were controls on the armrests; he decided it would be better if he did not touch them for now. But he was surprised that a Martian conference room would resemble an Earth conference room as much as this one did. For all he knew, the Martians may have constructed this room to be more Earthlike to make their guests comfortable.
John’s team sat down in the chairs indicated by Kirlin, which were on the side opposite the other Martians. John noticed that the Martians were adjusting their chairs to better access the table, but he did not see them touch any controls. He assumed that they controlled the chairs by telepathy.
Kirlin went to the front of the room, or at least, she went to the end of the room that represented the large end of the “egg.” She said, “Please allow me to introduce our scientists. To my immediate left is Gorev. His specialty is astrophysics. To his left is Lyron. Her specialty is medicine. She is a doctor, but she also does a tremendous amount of research in the medical field. It was her discovery that enabled our longevity. Next to her on the left is Ranella, whose specialty is atmosphere and weather. Next to Ranella is Oranda, who developed the stasis system and also works with Lyron in performing medical research. And finally, to her left is Telov, who is our expert in space travel. He develops new engines and propulsion systems and designs new spacecraft. John, would you like to come up and introduce your team?”
“Yes, thank you. May I ask, what did you mean by your remark about longevity?”
“We have discovered a way to extend our lives significantly,” said Kirlin. For example, I am 897 of your years in age. Barring anything unforeseen, such as an accident, I should live at least another thousand years. As I’m sure you know, a Mars year is longer than an Earth year; a Mars year is 1.88 Earth years. So, we live approximately one thousand Mars years. And to answer your unasked question, we have not found a way to apply this process to humans. Even if we did, your world has become already crowded in many places. To extend your lives would only exacerbate that situation. And I am very sorry to have to make this request, but you must keep our ability for longevity a secret. We can ensure this by using our telepathy to remove this knowledge from your minds; in this way, we could be sure that you will not share it with anyone. We hesitate to do this on the highest level; we want to remain open with sharing information, and at any rate, we want to show you that you have our trust. Also, we consider it morally reprehensible to alter someone’s thoughts and memories without their consent. Martians can’t do it to other Martians except for the very young; any Martian would be aware of another Martian attempting to alter their thought processes and memories and block the effort.”
John said, “You won’t have to worry about our sharing this information. We are used to secrecy due to the nature of our work on Earth. How did you manage to live so long and not fill up your planet? With few people dying, because of the long lifespan, it seems the population would become so large that it would cause Mars to become overcrowded.”
“This is one of the aspects of our civilization that we would have to discuss with you; as I indicated before; when we have time, we will explain the workings and complexities of our civilization. In this case, the people of Mars collectively had agreed on a protocol by which having children was extremely limited. We had a plan in place that allowed us to replace ourselves with one child per person. It is somewhat surprising, but like most countries on Earth, we have the equivalent of a husband and wife or some combination of paired couples who mate for life. Unlike Earth, we do not have divorce; the reasons are somewhat complicated. Similarly, the process for having children but maintaining a population of constant size considering our longevity is also complicated. All these things will become clear as you spend time with us. Regardless, due to our child-bearing rules, our population had never increased beyond a limit we had set and would have never increased. The advantage that we have over Earth is that we have a completely unified civilization. We have eliminated war, famine, poverty, violence, crime, among other things. We have all of our population geared toward positive things, and we would like to help Earth achieve similar goals.”
“We invite such assistance beyond my ability to articulate it,” said John. “It is something that we need to implement sooner rather than later.”
John got up and went to the front of the room. One by one, he introduced his team members and their specialties. Whenever he would mention some of the specialties, it appeared that Kirlin’s team was unfamiliar with them.
When John finished his introductions, Kirlin said, “If it seemed as though my team was a bit confused with some of your terminology, there were several things that you mentioned that represent roads our scientists have never traveled. I also would expect that we have technologies that you are not familiar with. Each civilization follows its unique path of discoveries. However, we are hoping that our scientists can work with yours and share technology.”
“Absolutely,” said John. “We would welcome such an opportunity.”
Chapter 27
As it turned out, the Martians had built their base with proper planning and an eye to
the future. To awaken members of the stasis community if necessary, yet carry on a regular day-to-day existence if they needed to remain awake for an extended time, the Martians had constructed conventional eating and sleeping areas as part of the underground building. The Martians brought out of stasis would use these areas. The facilities would not accommodate all of the Martians in stasis, but if needed, they could construct additional living spaces. Jenore, Kirlin, and John discussed what their next steps would be. The consensus was that the people from Earth would move their ship into a hangar located within the Martian complex. The Earth people were going to reside within the Martian living areas. This not only gave them a more comfortable place to live, but it also kept them from having to navigate in and out of the cave entrance. They no longer had to go through decontamination; the Martians had determined that the humans were not carrying any harmful or contagious organisms.
The Martian culture and civilization were roughly 10,000 Earth years old (which included the approximate 1,000 years they had spent in stasis). Their civilization had become contiguous; that is, they experienced no cultures rising and falling on Mars, such as Earth had experienced, for the last 5,000 years. Instead, there had been 5,000 years of steady Martian civilization development. Still, it appeared as though Earth had developed technologies that were independent of Martian knowledge, such as teleportation. Or, at least, the depth of their knowledge was inferior to the depth of Earth’s knowledge in certain areas. Similarly, the Martian technology specialties were, in most cases, far beyond the technology in some of the corresponding fields that Earth had developed. This included all of the specialties of the remaining Martian scientists: astrophysics, medicine, atmosphere and weather, stasis systems, space travel, among others.
Since the last 5,000 years of Mars’ civilization were contiguous, or at least the last 4,000 active years, it allowed them to develop the technologies that they did have to an advanced level.