This is what the planet looks like today, but it appeared somewhat different three hundred years ago. Even if Galileo and Kepler had had modern telescopes, they would not have seen most of the present-day canals or even certain of the inland seas and lakes. In fact, there were no “great canals” at all then, but only a few broad ocean inlets which Earthly astronomers have erroneously taken for canals. The Great Project was started by an engineer named Menni as recently as two hundred and fifty years ago. This wonder of labor and human will was dictated by historical necessity.
The history of Mars is basically very similar to that of Earthly humanity, having followed the same course from the tribal system through feudalism to the reign of capital and through it to the unification of labor. This development, however, proceeded more gently and at a slower pace. The natural environment on Mars is not as rich as ours; on the other hand, the evolution of life there has not demanded the same extravagant sacrifices as on Earth. Every page of our history is so soaked in blood and fire that for a long time the chroniclers and historians were unable to find anything else in it. Naturally, violence, destruction, and killing also played a role on Mars, but these phenomena never became as monstrously grandiose as among us. Martian humanity developed slower than ours, but it never knew the worst forms of our slavery, the destruction of entire civilizations, or the epochs of deep and cruel reaction that we have experienced. Even the countless wars waged during the feudal era, which lasted several thousand years, were relatively free from the senseless and bestial thirst for blood that distinguished our feudal wars. Savage battles there were seldom followed by mass murder or the devastating plunder of the civilian population. The barbarity of the age did not totally eclipse a certain respect for life and labor.
Why was this so? The natural environment of the planet was poor and harsh, and the experience of thousands of generations built up the dim awareness that it is extremely difficult to restore what has once been destroyed. There was also less discord among people: different tribes and nationalities were more closely related and intercourse among them was easier. The land mass was not broken into separate continents by broad seas and oceans, the mountain ranges were not as high or impassable as on Earth. Also, the weaker force of gravity on Mars facilitated physical movement—all bodies on Earth are two and a half times heavier. The various languages arose from a common source and never became completely distinct; and, when commercial relations quickened and distant expeditions became more common during the feudal epoch, these languages once again began to converge. By the end of this period they were more like regional dialects than separate languages. Thus people understood each other better and their unity was more profound.
In about A.D. 1000 according to our calendar, feudalism had already died out in most countries on Mars. During the preceding five to ten centuries a money economy had become established, and commercial capital increasingly asserted itself as the rival of the old landowning class for control of society. A cultural revolution was under way everywhere, although it was still religious in form and manifested itself as a reformation of the ancient feudal faiths. The strong kings and princes, the “gatherers of the land,” took advantage of the situation to undermine the power of their most dangerous rival, the priesthood, and establish the monarchical order. Already by about 1100 the thousands of earlier petty principalities had been replaced by approximately twenty bureaucratic monarchies, and most of the proud feudal princes entered the civil service or became attached to the royal courts.
During the same period, however, manufacturing spread and capitalism continued to expand. It soon began to feel cramped under the tutelage of the police state and embarked upon its struggle for liberation. From about 1200 to 1600 its invisible hand directed a number of political evolutions in various countries.
The end of the fourteenth century witnessed the beginning of the industrial revolution, which was brought about by the introduction of machines, and the course of development was accelerated. By 1560 a democratic order had been established in all but a few backward countries, but something even greater had been accomplished at the same time, namely, the almost complete cultural and political unification of Mars. A common literary language evolved which absorbed most of the earlier regional dialects; and partly through war, partly by means of negotiations, a giant Federal Republic was established which encompassed approximately three quarters of the planet. All that remained to complete the process was to conquer a handful of semifeudal states, and this the federal government succeeded in systematically doing during the subsequent fifty years.
In about 1620 the last independent state was subdued. This was the country designated on our maps as Thaumasia Felix (Happy Land of Wonders), which was ruled by the ancient ducal house of Aldo. Thaumasia is the large southern peninsula of the continent, from which, however, it is separated today by a system of canals and lakes. At that time a coastal strip on the Mare Australe was the only inhabited part of the country. The whole interior, where the huge Solis Lacus (Lake of the Sun) is now located, was an arid desert. The population—a few hundred thousand peasants and fishermen—were known for their stern and simple character, conservatism, and piety. The economy was still for the most part a natural one, and the relations between peasants and feudal lords were thoroughly patriarchal. Thaumasia was a real Vendée,* and in fact that was the role it played in Martian history.
Old Duke Aldo did not survive the defeat, but he left a son and heir named Ormen. When war was declared on Thaumasia, Ormen was conducting negotiations in Centropolis, the main city of the Republic. He was detained there during the entire course of the war. The Republic did not confiscate the estates of the ducal house, and although Ormen had no political power, he retained a considerable portion of the territory of Thaumasia as a landowner. Outwardly he seemed thoroughly resigned to his new position. He spent a few months each year in Centropolis, where he lived the life of a young millionaire and pretended to be completely uninterested in politics. In reality he kept a watchful eye on the balance of social forces and cultivated contacts with dissatisfied elements such as the remnants of the clergy and the aristocracy and various separatists who dreamed of restoring the autonomy of their native regions. The rest of the time he was in Thaumasia, traveling up and down the country on the pretext of hunting or attending to financial business with his tenants.
The soil of discontent was fertile and ready to receive the seeds of his agitation. Working for him were not only the power of the sacred past and the influence of the priests on the ignorant masses; an even more important factor was the painful economic development of the country, which had been invaded by commercial and usurious capital. The taxes set by the central government were not in themselves heavy, but they had to be paid in cash, and money had become a rarity in Thaumasia. Since olden days the peasants had been accustomed to living directly off the products of their labor, supplementing what they could not get themselves through local bartering, for which money was unnecessary. Their obligations to the landowners were also discharged in kind; even ninety percent of the taxes that went to the old ducal government were paid in goods and services.
But now on a set date each year it became necessary to pay the tax collectors sums of money which seemed enormous to the peasants. The only way to get money was to sell something, anything, and thus the vast majority of the population came under the sway of buyers and foreign tradesmen who took ruthless advantage of the situation. They bought for practically nothing, lent money at exorbitant rates of interest, and foisted upon the peasants goods which they often did not need. By means of extortionary contracts they appropriated standing crops and future catches of fish and further increased their profits through systematic fraud, against which the ignorant population was utterly defenseless. Commerce introduced new needs and temptations into the life of the peasants, but money was again necessary to satisfy them, and this only served to intensify the plunder. Economic ruin spread rapidly, and discontent grew accordingly a
mong the Thaumasians.
After twenty years of discreet work, Ormen Aldo and his friends decided that the time was ripe for action. Tens of thousands of energetic people were prepared to rise the moment the signal was given, and huge caches of weapons had gradually been stockpiled in the cellars of castles scattered throughout the country. All that remained was to await a suitable opportunity. In the meanwhile Ormen arranged for the continuation of his dynasty, marrying a daughter of a rich landowner who was a devoted member of the conspiracy. The union had nothing whatever to do with love; twenty years of politics and diplomacy had transformed Ormen into a gloomy and unpleasant figure. A few months later the woman became pregnant, and Ormen sent her to one of his most distant castles to protect her in the event of an uprising. A short while later Ormen received glad tidings: an heir had been born, and the entire Republic had been plunged into a serious industrial crisis. He could not have wished for a more propitious moment, and he immediately raised the ancient banner of the dukes of Aldo.
The ensuing struggle was stubborn but unequal. Ormen displayed great talent as a military leader and gained several brilliant victories. Soon, however, the Republic mobilized a huge army, and the other uprisings Ormen had counted on failed to materialize. The ironic logic of life was such that it was the war that enabled the Republic to recover from its economic crisis, for the enormous purchases and orders the government was forced to make immediately improved the position of several branches of industry. This helped still other branches, and so on. It was all over in the course of a year: Duke Ormen was killed in combat and Thaumasia was subdued once and for all. The idea of feudalism would never be revived again.
The government ordered Aldo’s widow and child to be moved to Centropolis, probably to facilitate surveillance. The capital is located several thousand kilometers from Thaumasia on the shore of an inland sea called Nillacus Lacus (Lake Nile) in the interior of the continent, and is situated at the mouth of the very broad and very long Straits of Inda, which connect the lake with the Margaritifer Sinus (Bay of Pearls) in the Mare Australe. The young woman soon died of homesickness for her distant land. The boy grew up among strangers and received a republican education. He bore his father’s name, Ormen, but he subsequently signed himself “Menni.” This is the democratic form of the name, much as we in Russia call monarchs “Ioann” but give the name “Ivan” to ordinary people.
Menni proved to be a first-rate scholar, physicist, and engineer. He was well enough off financially for although the entire fortune of his father had been confiscated, he received a considerable inheritance from his mother. At the age of twenty he was therefore able to undertake a series of long and daring journeys that in the next five years took him through the vast wastelands of the continent. At that time less than half the area of the planet was inhabited. There was as yet no system of canals, and the whole interior of the continent, about three-fifths of its surface, was devoid of water. It was probably during these trips that he first conceived the idea of the Great Project.
Menni’s first period of activity as an engineer was in Libya. This country, which is located near the equator on the vast Syrtis Major (Gulf of Sands), has an undeservedly bad reputation among our astronomers. Schiaparelli concluded that the large western peninsula of Libya was covered by water for several years. In actual fact this was a mistaken observation. Off the shore of Libya there is a huge, long sandbank, on which the Martians for many years cultivated giant plantations of a certain seaweed whose fibers were used in the manufacture of textiles. Like all other vegetation on the planet, it is red, and this created the illusion that the area was dry land. New technology rendered the plant superfluous in the clothing industry, and thus the illusion disappeared along with it. The Nepenthes Canal now empties into a small gulf to the north of this sandbank; running eastward, a few dozen kilometers from the sea it has given rise to Moeris Lacus (Lake Moeris), which is twice the size of Lake Ladoga in Russia. It continues in a bend somewhat toward the north, and through Lake Triton it merges with an entire network of other canals. Menni dug the first segment of the Nepenthes Canal from the sea to Lake Moeris. Part of the desert was a depression whose bottom was considerably below sea level, and thus the lake was created when the canal was opened.
Due to similar conditions, the Nectar and Ambrosia canals, which Menni constructed through Thaumasia, formed the Solis Lacus, which is about half as large as the Caspian Sea. Only a small part of the present network of canals was completed in Menni’s lifetime, but almost all of it was envisaged in the projects drawn up by him and his successor, an engineer by the name of Netti.
These two men are the chief protagonists of the novel.
Leonid N.
*A royalist and Catholic holdout during the French Revolution.
Prologue
1. Menni
An official conference to discuss the canal through western Libya was convened by the Ministry of Public Works in the winter of 1667 according to our calendar. The hundreds of delegates in attendance included representatives of the largest banking cartels, the relevant industrial trusts and most powerful private enterprises, a great many renowned scientists and prominent engineers, members of Parliament, and government officials. The minister opened the session with a short speech explaining its purpose.
“I assume,” he said, “that all of you are already familiar in a general way with the project proposed by the engineer Menni Aldo in his remarkable book The Future of the Libyan Desert. This project has aroused the interest of society and Parliament, as is evident from your presence here today. On the suggestion of the Central Government, the author himself will present a report describing the technical and financial aspects of the matter in more detail. The government appeals to your great expertise and attaches considerable importance to your opinions and advice. We would hope that the conference as a whole could arrive at a definite conclusion in principle for or against the project. It envisages the peaceful conquest of a new country for the good of mankind, but it will also involve expenses totaling one to two billion.”
He gave the floor to the speaker. With the help of figures and drawings projected by a lantern onto a screen, Menni gave a concise and accurate description of the geographical relief of the region.
“My assistants and I,” he said, “have taken new measurements of the Libyan depression from south to north and from east to west, for the data provided by earlier explorers were too approximate and incomplete. This area of a little more than 600,000 square kilometers is surrounded on all sides by mountains which are high enough to shut out rain clouds. To the south and west this range lies fairly close to the sea, while there are other deserts to the north and east of it. At one time the entire depression was the floor of a sea, but since then the level of the ocean has dropped considerably, so that the sea was cut off from it and dried up. However, as you can see from these cross-section drawings, the central part of the depression today is still from 50 to 200 meters below sea level, in some places as much as 300 meters. This central area of some 50,000 square kilometers would be flooded immediately if it were to be connected with the Mare Australe, and this would in turn radically alter the climate of the country.
“At present this is nothing but an arid desert whose surface stratum of sand has been ground into a fine dust that is injurious to the lungs and eyes. There are no oases there which could serve as resting places for travelers. Of the eight expeditions that have penetrated the desert during the past hundred years, two did not return at all and the others suffered casualties. Our expedition was better equipped than the previous ones, but then we stayed much longer. Only half of us returned, and except for myself we were all seriously ill. Especially troublesome are the nervous disorders which result from the monotony of the environment and the total absence of sound. The desert there is a veritable Kingdom of Silence.
“All this will change if we succeed in creating an inland sea in Libya. The moisture evaporating from the surface of the water under th
e tropical sun will be retained by the mountains surrounding the depression and will return down their slopes as streams and rivers that will provide sufficient if not abundant irrigation. According to our analyses, the soil of the desert is rich in the salts necessary to vegetation, and the water will immediately render it fertile. If agriculture is organized on a scientifically correct basis, the country will be able to feed 20 million persons of our entire present population of 300 million.
“Such colonization, of course, will require decades. But immediately after the inland sea is created we will gain easy access to the northern and eastern mountains of Libya, where the enormous mineral riches of the country are concentrated. Earlier expeditions discovered entire mountains of the best magnetic iron ore and broad veins of coal at the surface in fissures and geological faults. We have brought back with us samples of silver and lead ore, which the experts have assessed as among the richest on Mars, and we have also found mercury and even uranium. In one region we discovered deposits of native platinum, a precious monetary metal. Without the shadow of a doubt, however, we saw only an insignificant fraction of the whole, for we lacked the time and resources to make a more thorough investigation.”
Menni then turned to the question of the canal itself. Choosing its route presented no difficulties, as the only suitable point was where the depression lay closest to the sea and the mountain range narrowed to a width of a few kilometers.
“Here,” said Menni, “the entire length of the canal will not exceed 70 kilometers. We already have navigable canals for shipping which are two or three times as long. In this case, however, the object is to fill and maintain an inland sea. An ordinary canal would simply disappear in the sands of the desert. Our calculations indicate that it must be five times wider and three times deeper than any of these. Part of it—about a third—will have to lie on the bedrock, and, even more importantly, we will have to cut a pass through the mountains. An enormous body of limestone will have to be blasted away, and we will also be forced to remove the substratum of granite which constitutes the root of the mountain range. This will require about 500,000 tons of dynamite. According to our preliminary estimates, we will need a labor force of some 200,000 men for a period of four years, assuming that we use the best and most expensive machinery.”
Red Star Page 20