A Colony on Mars

by Cliff Roehr

  CHAPTER – New Years 2108

  The workers in the colony had planned a gala celebration for new years eve. It was new years on Earth but who knows what it is on Mars. That didn't matter these folks had always celebrated new years and this would be no exception. When Tim arrived at the colony there was a group of Government employees that had organized a little Country and Western band and were entertaining from time to time when people gathered. They even played on Saturday evenings at the mess hall dining room and many couples and singles went over there to dance.

  Some of the Government employees, like Paul had done had figured out ways to get some booze shipped in. It was against company and Government policy which tended to make it very expensive, but the ones who had been there for a while had their ways. A few folks always had a few drinks on Saturday evening at the mess hall.

  Not to be out done several of the people who had arrived with Tim had also formed musical groups. There was one that played pop music and another what was also country and western. Each of these groups had made at least one appearance at the Saturday night dance and all three bands had their own shows on a different night of the week on MARS-TV.

  All three bands played in the two mess hall dining rooms, rotating from one to the other. Almost everyone celebrated at one place or the other. They enjoyed the music, danced and generally had a good time they even counted down the last ten seconds of 2107 and everyone was kissing everyone else and someone shouted “This is January 1, 2108.”

  ___________ JANUARY 2108 _____________

  Still there was something missing, alcohol. Oh for sure there were a few that did not drink, and would not drink but very few. The Company had not hired anybody that was a recovering alcoholic or had ever had a drunk driving arrest. So many times on Mars the demography of the population raised it's ugly head. The strangest thing about living on this planet was the fact that there was no old people and no children and no babies and no one who did not speak good English. That had never been driven home more than at the new years celebration. Even though there were no alcoholics among the population more than ninety percent of them missed not having a drink on New Years eve. They had their ten second count down to usher in the new year, but some how it didn't seem the same.

  CHAPTER – Cupid at work JANUARY 2108

  So many people that had come to Mars as singles were now couples. Archy had started performing weddings although there was no place on Mars to obtain a marriage license and Archy was not an ordained clergyman. What the hell that is the closest they could get, so after the ceremony they just started living in sin, so what.

  Walter and Thelma took all this into consideration and decided to set up a court house to start issuing marriage licenses. Little did they realize at the time that within the year they would be issuing birth certificate's also. A walled enclosure was erected and a sign hung over the entrance that read Court House. One of the women on Walter's staff that did computer input was assigned to move her desk over to the court house and use the computer to print marriage licenses which Walter signed. As it turned out about half of those that Archy had married didn't even want a marriage license. This was the hot topic on talk radio for over a week.

  That evening Carla said to Tim, “I have been listening to talk radio, quite a lot, lately,” then she remarked to Tim, “How can folks get so excited over the most inane things on that talk radio station?” Tim thought for a moment then responded, “I think that all of us have just so much attention span to use up every day, here in these caverns there is really very little of any importance to spend our attention on. It is not possible for talk radio to not talk about anything, so they just pick the most interesting of all the uninteresting things they have to choose from and discuss that. It's like that movie we saw the other night where the guy was in solitary confinement and had nothing to spend his attention allotment on, then he spotted a roach in the corner of his cel and spent all his time watching the antics of that stupid roach, he would watch it for hours on end, remember”. “Well, no matter, I wil probably keep listening to talk radio, and even calling in on occasion.”

  Back to the matter of alcohol. Since The Company furnished them canned vegetables and since The Company didn't furnish liquor it only made sense to use what growing capacity that they had to produce their own alcohol. Rusty at MARS-TV held a discussion on the news and invited listeners to call in whether they wanted to sacrifice their fresh veggies for booze or not. The call ins were about fifteen to one in favor of booze. So as each veggie crop was harvested the crop was replaced with corn. A couple guys who worked construction were from a part of the country where it was stil common to set up a stil and produce their own liquor. You could even get a permit to do that if it was for your own consumption. Both of these gentlemen claimed to be experts so they were unofficially appointed to head up that project. They scoured the facility in search of copper tubing and the other materials they would need. They came up with everything they needed and constructed the first stil on Mars. There would stil be a lack of casks for aging but that would not be much of a problem. Nobody would want to wait for it to age anyway. The early batches would lacked that nice brown color that one associates with good whiskey but it would serve to make Saturday nights a lot more fun. One Sunday morning early in 2108 Tim and Carla were out for a walk when they came across Archy holding services for a dozen or so faithful. The service was about over so Tim and Carla listened to the conclusion of Archie's sermon. They didn't know much about religion but Archy sure seemed to know what he was talking about. He sounded very professional. When the service ended Archie approached them and asked Tim if he would help build a community church. “Sure Archy but we would have to clear it with Walter and Thelma. The next time he spoke with Thelma he brought the subject of a church up for discussion. “Oh, you know how the Government and The Company are about spending any money for the benefit of any particular religious group so we would have to call it a community chapel and claim that we needed it for weddings and funerals. I am not aware of any funerals coming up but I know of more than a dozen weddings that are being planned.” Tim said, I could request Rusty to ask for volunteers on the nightly news to have those interested volunteer their time next Sunday to help build the Church, er a I mean Community Chapel.” “Not necessary said Thelma, if The Company and the Government approve the Chapel we can build it on company time with company materials and even order a few items like pews sent up from Earth. By the way, Tim do we have a pastor?” “Wel sort of, one of our construction workers is a lay minister. I have heard one of his sermons and he sounds very professional. I don't know what religion he represents but maybe he could be persuaded to conduct his services interdenominational.”

  Thelma got her permission for the chapel all right but the Government representative that she talked to in Washington said Oh, my god, we forgot all about that. With the population that you have now you would be entitled to three chapels and three chaplains. Watch the next ship Thelma you may be getting a priest a minister and a rabbi.” Archy was not too pleased when he heard all this but just shrugged and said maybe the protestant minister wil let me preach one day a week, that would be fine with me.”

  The company had been speaking with Carter and Walter and Thelma and were assured that the colony was prepared to receive a new batch of workers. “We are a lot better prepared now to receive three hundred new workers than we were when you sent the last batch she said. Besides the assigned work is pretty well caught up with now and Carter wants to start sealing the big cavern as soon as possible after breakthrough. Maybe you could send three hundred new workers on each ship until further notice. When we start on the big cavern we will need all the help we can get, it is going to be a big job to seal and pressurize that baby.” A few minutes later another message was received from the Company “It's a good thing that you said that Thelma because on the ship that is due to arrive in January there are three hundred more employees. Most of them will be construction wor
kers but there wil also be some surprises for you.

  CHAPTER - Mars Supply One Docks

  January 15, 2108: The first ship to arrive on Mars since the one that Tim had arrived docked at Mars orbiter. Tim kind of smiled when he saw 35 new faces step off the elevator and start looking at their new home. Of course Walter and Thelma were there to greet them. It wasn't the same as when Tim and Carla's group had arrived. This time the colony was ready for them. Tim and Carter and several other community leaders were conducting the tours. Each couple and single were assigned to a new house that had been constructed for them. The houses had already been furnished with everything they would need from supply except for their phones, and their TV sets, those were stil being unloaded. The hours for serving meals had been doubled and a hot meal would be served to everyone, Including the new arrivals. The kitchen staff was a little short handed and there was a need for the new equipment that was arriving on The Mars Supply One but everything stil went smoothly. Half of the new people were fed lunch at the Government kitchen and half at The Company kitchen. Al of the meals would be handled in this manner until the new equipment had been installed in the Company kitchen. When the new arrivals were shown the house that they had been assigned they were told that they could trade with each other if two of them agreed. The work crews did not have to make three hundred new houses to accommodate the three hundred new people because so many of those who were already there had moved in with each other, there were quite a few vacancies. Fourteen of the Government people that had been on Mars for the term of their contract were returning to Earth but eight who were eligible to return had opted to stay on without a job and become self employed. There had been negotiations, people involved, the Company and the Government. The people who wanted to stay prevailed. The Company and the Government agreed that they could remain as citizens of Mars. They had to reimburse the colony

  $5,000.00 per month for their board, room and medical care but they were free unemployed citizens of Mars. If these people wanted they could receive a credit of one hundred thousand dol ars for not returning to Earth. If they ever decided to return they would be required to pay the prevailing rate for passage. Several others who were eligible to return had extended their contracts for a few more years and remained in their jobs.

  This time around the new arrivals were given up to a week to become acclimated to their new surroundings before starting to work. Oh my, how things had changed since Tim and Carla had arrived. Tim had been given a week off before starting work but that was so he could build a house. Al of the homes, new and existing now had a bathroom with flush toilets and hot and cold running water, electricity and a television receiver. The TV sets for the new arrivals would be issued as soon as they had been unloaded. Al of the houses had cement beds that were raised up off the floor with air mattresses on top. Al had cement chairs and tables with cushions on the chairs to make them comfortable. They all had cement chests with wooden drawers. These weren't the kinds of houses that people from Earth were accustomed to living in but they were functional.

  The Company cavern community now had twice the population of the Government community and eight streets had been named. Al of the houses had addresses. The Company cavern was beginning to look like a small city. What was lacking was a business community with stores and such, but that would come. An area had been left clear in the center of town for stores that would be opened by the private sector. It was interesting to note that once flush toilets had been installed the stench had gone away. The atmosphere control people had even started introducing a hint off fragrance into the air. The material to equip and open the first private business was being unloaded from Mars Supply One. The Company putting in the business was taking a tremendous loss on the project, one that they knew they could never be recovered but that didn't matter, it was the publicity they were after. They had paid Mars Colony, Inc. one and a half bil ion dollars for the franchise rights to do business on a one hundred by one hundred square foot lot of leased space on a 20 year lease. For that amount The Company agreed to send six of their employees on Mars Supply One and another six employees on Mars Supply Two. Mars Colony, Inc. agreed to allow this companies employees all rights and privileges that they would receive had they been Mars Colony, Inc. employees, including the right to eat in the Mess Hal and the right to free medical care.

  On the evening that the ship had arrived with the new employees Tim and Carla were home watching Rusty give the news on MARS-TV-Channel 2. Rusty came on the air and he was really hyped. “Good evening to all of you regular viewers and to you new arrivals also. As you know if you watch this news program on a regular basis I am usually hard pressed to find enough news in the community to fil my half hour slot but not tonight, I have three big stories that just broke today.”

  “First I would like to introduce you to our two new staff members here at MARS-TV, Folks I want you to meet Clark and Mildred Gibson. They are a married couple and will be working with our staff on our internet project. I know the Mars internet doesn't amount to much with fewer than one hundred web pages but hold on to your seats because here is what is coming in the coming month or so, are you ready for this folks, Earth INTERNET. Here is how it will work. There has been a relay antenna instal ed on the orbiter that circles Earth and one installed on the one that circles Mars and one each ship, Mars Supply One and Mars Supply Two, one of which is always en route from Earth to Mars. Now since it could take anywhere from 4 minutes to 42 minutes for radio waves to travel between the two planets, depending on where Mars in in its orbit the delay on getting a command executed on the internet would be prohibitive, this is what we have worked out . Besides these two folks here there wil be two more employees in Seattle. They wil be searching the web and uploading all information websites to Mars on a full time basis. These to people here in the studio with me wil be downloading what they send and putting those web pages on Mars internet. The new software that they are using on the Earth end wil automatically pick updates to any website that they have already sent and send all updates automatically. In addition to that we are making email accounts that you establish here on Mars, Earth active that is if you send an email to someone on Earth right now they should receive it within the hour and you could have your response within two hours or less. We are putting all Mars email addresses for every person and office on Mars on our Earth website and we are offering a free lookup service that you can use to obtain email address for any business, office or person on Earth that has an email address.” Rusty then introduced and briefly interviewed the two new internet operatives.

  “The next item concerns this young gentleman sitting here on my right. Tel our viewers, Bob do you work for Mars Colony, Inc.?” “No I don't Rusty, nor do I work for the United States Government. I just arrived here on the Colony today and I am employed in the private sector.” “Why don't you tell our viewers what brings you to Mars, Bob?” “I am here to supervise the construction of our newest outlet. Al of the equipment necessary to instal our store is being unloaded from Mars Supply One as we speak. Our location should be up and operating shortly after Mars Supply Two arrives in about four months.” “I think our viewers are dying to hear the name of The Company that you work for Bob.”

  “Rather than just come right out and tel them I will give your viewers a hint, We wil be located in the business section of The Company cavern and they wil be able to easily find our location, all they wil have to do is to look for the big red arches.” “Do you mean that Burger Boy's is coming to Mars?” “Oh Rusty, you guessed it and yes I mean that Burger Boy's wil be operating on Mars by the end of May.”

  “We are not through yet folks, I now want you to meet Abner Jacobs who is also a new arrival today and is an employee of the company. Just what kind of work do you do for The Company Abner?” “There is not just me but I brought along my wife Jennifer and another couple Dan and Sue Yang, we are what you might call farmers but we are specialized in grow light indoor farming. Al four of us have
masters degrees in Agriculture from University of Alaska, Fairbanks. We specialize in growing plants indoors.” “We have everything that we need to get started farming a one hundred sixty acre parcel of land on the ship, Including a new product that we designed from samples of Mars soil to best convert this soil to support crops, of course we also brought along adequate grow lights, fertilizers and seeds and farm equipment to get a farm in operation within a few months. From then on all of your vegetables wil be fresh not canned. We wil produce as a byproduct of the vegetables enough food for a sizable heard of goats. The goats will provide milk, other dairy products and meat. Unfortunately Cattle can never be raised on Mars in any quantity, they release too much methane into the atmosphere. Around our crops area we wil be planting a variety of fruit trees which wil benefit from the grow lights on the crops and eventually produce fresh fruit. I think you wil find that our crops are up to ten times as productive as outdoor crops on Earth that grow seasonally. Our crops grow constantly and are extremely productive. We will also be taking over care of your existing animals and wil be augmenting them with a dozen young pigs that we have brought from Earth ” Rusty then introduced the other three farmers and interviewed them al together.