by Cliff Roehr
With the size of Paradise cavern plus the Government cavern and the Company cavern Tim found that he was spending most of his time moving from one place to another. Tim thought what I need is a golf cart to get around in, I am going to have to mention that to Carter next time I see him. Tim made a note to ask Carter about Golf carts.
Tim next checked on the of the tunneling crew. “We are making much better progress now that we are not working in those darned Mars Suits” the foreman told Tim. I think we are about three or four days out from breakthrough. The tunneling crews changed dril ing techniques with each change in soil conditions. When they came to solid rock the would blast or use jack hammers, when they were in loose soil they just used old fashioned picks and shovels, when they were in tight packed soil they used power dril s to break it up. They just whatever they needed as conditions changed. If they were in loose soil then they had to reinforce the tunnel sides and top as they went along.
All the loose soil they dug out was scooped up with a front end loader and hauled to the farm or the orchard. The rocky soil and rocks would be used as fil when they went to level the cavern floors.
Tim constantly had a crew making cement blocks on the surface. He found that cement block shortages were holding up other construction so he started using three crews on the surface making cement blocks when the weather permitted. Two more crews were constantly leveling cavern floors and placing cement blocks to make floors and roadways. They would only be putting a roadway across the Paradise cavern and walking trails so as to not ruin the aesthetic quality of the cavern.
As Tim was leaving Paradise cavern he ran into Carter. “What would you think of getting a few golf carts for the managers to get around in?” “I am way ahead of you on that one, Tim, since we have so much distance to cover now I discussed it with Paul a couple weeks ago. He sent out a request for one hundred indoor carts and thirty surface carts with wide wheels that wouldn't sink into Mars sand. When I get their answer I will let you know.”
May 27, 2108: George was in The Company cavern so he decided to stop by the farm and have a look at the Ivy. Abner showed him the small plants that now had leaves and were about three Inches tall. “I don't understand it,“said George, In theory this can't be. “ Abner answered, “That reminds me of the story about the old man that took his grandson to the Zoo, the two of them stood in front of the giraffe cage for several minutes watching the animals, then finally the old man yanked on his grandson's arm and lead him away, Come on, son there ain't no such animal. Just maybe, George there is such an animal.”
“In that case Abner, go ahead and spread your Ivy like Johnny apple seed, The stuff won't create any problems until you try to get rid of it. There are colleges in New England that have been trying to kill the stuff off for two hundred fifty years but about two hundred years ago they found the solution to their problem.”
“What was that?” ask Abner. “Oh they just started calling their little group of col eges 'THE IVY LEAGUE' ”.
May 30, 2108 : That evening of was Walter and Thelma's going away party. It was celebrated much as they had celebrated New years Eve. Thelma and Walter each made a speech then Paul and Carter each made a speech telling them how much they would be missed and Rusty was there with a cameraman to record the event for posterity and for use on the local news the following evening.
CHAPTER – Other Nations want in
June 1, 2008
Meanwhile back on Earth things were happening that could effect the Mars Project. “Mr. President, the Chinese Ambassador.” “Welcome, Mr. Ambassador, let's have a seat on the couch over here and you can tel me to what I owe the honor of your visit. Could I offer you something to drink?” “Oh, cut the crap, Chet, you know why I am here, We want in on the Mars program. We want our own colony with our own people running it.” “So, Ambassador Jing, why are you tel ing me this?” We make no claim on the planet Mars, only to the parts of Mars that we have opened up, and developed.
You are free to develop your own program any way you want so long as you don't violate any of our territorial claims. As you know we claim any cavern that we have pressurized and populated and any cavern, any part of which is within two hundred Earth miles of any cavern we have pressurized and populated.” “We are aware of that Chet but what we are seeking is your help in developing our program. We want you to help us in all fields of development to establish a Chinese presence on the planet that does not violate any of your territorial claims.” “We would be happy to oblige you Jing but we have one stipulation that you must agree to in order to gain our full support.” “What is that Chet?” “That we have the right to approve any people that you want to send to Mars either on our space craft now or your own space craft any time in the future. You know very well that anyone you send must be of good character and be able to pass a fluency test in the English Language and that you acknowledge that the English language is the official language of Mars and that al communications on Mars, to Mars or from Mars be in English. You know how many difficulties that this planet has had because of language differences, we just want to prevent that happening on Mars. If you agree to that then we wil share all that we know about Mars with you, We will train your people for a price, we wil transport your people, for a price and will assist you in any other way that we can in establishing your colony on the planet. We will also allow your people to visit our facilities at any time.” “That is where the rub comes in Chet, we are Chinese and proud of it. Sure I am fluent in English but I doubt that I could pass your fluency examination. The kinds of people that have the skil s for this kind of endeavor certainly could not pass. Also I am not so sure that my Government would go along with English being the official language of Mars.” Then Mr. Ambassador I suggest that you start from scratch and develop your own program on your own terms. I am sorry Jing but I saw you without an appointment because I was given to understand that you had only a couple of quick questions and now I need to see my regularly scheduled guest, the ambassador from Japan.”
President Harford did the same song and dance that he had just done with the Chinese Ambassador. The Japanese Ambassador also left in a huff. The President then buzzed his secretary. Get the press secretary in here right away. “ Flint I have a job for you.. Get a recording of my last to conversations from my secretary, listen to them then make up a position paper expressing those tenants and see to it that all of the nations on Earth that might be in a position to make a similar request get a copy. Also make sure that the Speaker and the Sennett Majority leader each get a copy along with a note that I would like to be able to sign this position into legislation. You can have the legislation drafted for them it wil make the job easier. I am sure that we have the backing of both sides of the Isle on this one so it wil be good for relations. Tel them they can attach it to the next bil they pass unless think it is a bil that I might want to veto.”
Two weeks passed and so did the bill. Then the President received a visit from four different ambassadors at one time. They represented respectively The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
“Mr. President I am expressing the sentiments of all four of us and our countries when I say that we very much approve of your position that English only should be spoken on Mars and that any candidate that is sent should be subject to your approval.” “Our four nations have met on this matter and we would like to join the Mars program. Here is what we would like to offer. We are wil ing to reimburse the United States for 40% of everything that you have already spent on the Mars program over the last twelve years. We would like to continue to reimburse the United States 40% of everything that you spend in future years, but we would like to provide candidates for your approval of all future colonists that are sent to Mars by either the United States Government or sent by Mars Colony, Inc. until the population of Mars is 40% from our four countries then we would like for 40% of all future colonists to be chosen by you from candidates that we provide to you. When you breakthrough into Utopia we would lik
e for 40,000 of the first 100,000 people to reside in Utopia to be selected from candidates that we provide to you. Beyond that we would all caverns developed in future years be al ocated as follows, any cavern with a floor space of more than one hundred square miles be jointly populated. And that all smaller caverns be allocated so that Australia gets ten % of them, New Zealand gets ten percent, Canada gets ten percent and that the UK gets ten percent as our own domains. The United States gets sixty percent.”
“That is very interesting but you are aware that I personally do not have the authority to accept or decline your offer. What I suggest is that you gentlemen sit down with our representatives who will be chosen from the administration as well as from the House and the Senate and hammer out a deal that we can all live with. There is one thing that I can tell you right now and it is unofficial. There are certain guidelines that we use to select our candidates, these rules fly in the face of some of our own civil rights legislation but we have been getting away with it so far.
1.We do not take race into account.
2. We select equal numbers of men and women.
3. And here it gets a little sticky, we do not accept any candidate with homosexual tendencies, we feel it would not be accepted by our people who presently reside on Mars.
4.This one is really sticky we have not as yet selected a candidate outside of the following, Christians of any denomination, Jews, Agnostics and Atheists. We just don't want any religious conflicts. So far we have not selected any professed Atheists, but we do have a few Agnostics. None of the people that we have selected have any real strong religious feelings at all. Next, we have been requested by the colony to provide them with Catholic and Protestant Chaplains and at least one Rabbi. These people and their necessary equipment have already been selected and wil depart on the next flight. Beyond that we would accept any chaplain candidates that you care to nominate but those would be sent at your expense.
5.Frankly I don't think congress is going to go for your deal about separate domains. Here is what I think you will end up with. After you reimburse the United States for 40% of what we have spent so far you will be al owed to send 50% of al future candidates until you reach parity then you will be allowed 40%. You must also be aware that we have a small private sector emerging on Mars. These people travel as paid passengers on our ships. We presently charge five hundred thousand dollars dollars for the trip from Earth to Mars and one hundred thousand dollars for a return flight or $550,000.00 for a round trip ticket. We have just launched a new space ship we christened Mars Runner. It is as large as our two other ships combined. Mars Runner belongs entirely to the United States. We have sold our interest in the other two ships Mars Supply One and Mars Supply Two to Mars Colony, Inc. but the United States has retained control of who The Company hauls up to Mars and what cargo they carry. You will have to negotiate for what cargo rights, business rights, property ownership rights you wil be entitled to on Mars. All real estate other than what we call the Government cavern is owned by the company. They wil be free to develop it any way they please. They have agreed that the United States share in the proceeds of any sales or leases of real estate. Only residents of Mars are eligible to own real estate on Mars but corporations in good standing are allowed to lease real estate.
6.So far we have no laws on Mars but the community is working on a criminal and civil code at this time. Mars presently has the status of a U.S. Protectorate. Common laws that apply to all Protectorates apply to Mars. 7.We have no civil or criminal courts on Mars but they are working on that. We have not surveyed any real estate on Mars.
8.We have never had a crime committed on Mars and it is a good thing because we have no police on Mars.
9.So far we have a private ownership bank chartered by two citizens of Mars who were United States Civil Service Employees who finished their employment contracts with the government. They have been in operation for several months and are affiliated with City Bank in the United States. We would not want to see any other banks on Mars until the population exceeds 30,000. 10.Burger Boy's has opened a restaurant outlet on Mars and Super Store should be open within a matter of Days with a temporary store pending the development of Utopia where they have a franchise to open one store for every 40,000 population. Al other business fields are wide open. These things also you need to take into consideration when you are negotiating with our people. Don't be fooled by congress, Mars Colony, Inc. has the hammer and they are the ones that wil ultimately call the shots. You would probably save yourselves a lot of red tape if you negotiated directly with Mars Colony, Inc. and eliminated the middleman. Congress wil probably legislate in favor of any deal you strike on future development, land use, business, etc. Congress will be more interested in some of the social issues we discussed.”
“Mr. President, do you think we could”. “Hold it right there, this is not a negotiation, I just gave you some pointers, save your negotiating for the big shots. Sorry but I have another appointment waiting. I wish you all the best of luck.”
They negotiated for almost a year and ended up with a deal that closely resembled the deal that the President had outlined when they talked to him in his office.
They also acknowledged that there was a distinct possibility that if the Mars colony applied for statehood at some future date, when they were ready the application would probably be favorably received and that if that happened al the residents of Mars would either be admitted as Citizens of the United States or would be granted Green Card, resident worker status. They didn't care much for that clause and it had never occurred to them that what the United States had planned for Mars was the eventual doubling of the size of the Continental United States and adding as many as three hundred mil ion new citizens. Needless to say the UK consortium eventual y lost interest in the deal.
“Why give those blokes our best and brightest, the Prime Minister Said.”
Mars Colony, Inc. did start placing recruitment ads on the internet soliciting applicants from those four countries.
CHAPTER – Big Lake and the Utility Cavern
June 6, 2108 : The Tunnel Crew finally broke through to the second new cavern. It was huge. It was not as spectacular as Paradise but it was larger than all their previous caverns combined. Almost thirty square miles. It was two caverns actually. left as they broke through then a narrow opening, The tunneling crew had only to don their Mars suits for the last four hours before breakthrough. The cavern had one nice feature, the floor was almost flat. They could tell from the light filtering in that it as wel was a beautiful cavern The wal s almost had a glow to them, they kind of glistened when a light was shined on them. A stream, almost a river entered at one side then pooled into a lake that was quite large near the center of the larger part of the cavern, probably about five square miles before turning once again into a stream and flowing out the other side of the cavern. This cavern was slightly higher in elevation at floor level than Paradise had been. Tim and Carter were both on hand for the breakthrough, accompanied by a lighting crew who instal ed temporary lights in both the large and the small part of the cavern.
The large part had a very high ceiling and very few fissures to the surface so they knew they were under a mountain. Had the ceiling been this high on flat land it would only have been a pit. The scientists speculated that this large cavern had been formed by a large meteor striking the surface maybe a bil ion years in the past. Their guess was that the meteor had also formed the lake that was very deep and fil ed with crystal blue water. Most of the scientists from the Government cavern were pouring into the cavern taking soil samples and water samples for testing. It was obvious that this cavern had been formed differently than the others they had come across. Tim and Carter agreed that this would be the most comfortable cavern they had found and this is where they should probably be working out of once they had tamed it. Tim and Carter briefly discussed running an enclosed tunnel through this monster cavern but withheld making any decision until they knew more. They di
dn't notice, since they were wearing Mars suits but the temperature had risen to 75 degrees in the small side and 72 in the large side. The scientists discovered that right away though. “My guess is that you are going to find beautiful hot spots in the small side.” “Yeah, we have enough equipment to tame this cavern. There is water, maybe we should tame it, we wil know more in a couple days after we have had a chance explore the small side. We have been so enthralled with the big side that we have paid little attention to the small side.”
Carter and Paul sent a joint report to Earth telling them what they had found. They were developing quite a list of things they needed to develop these new caverns. It would take several days just to explore the new caverns. The list grew longer and now Included a request for more bureaucrats. The shortage of clerical help is becoming critical. We need more clerks everywhere on the facility and once we get our legal system in place we wil need Judges, and all the other people that are needed to run the court system. We wil need at least one prosecuting attorney and one public defender and a lot more more clerks. In the public records department we have only one part time clerk now, we need a ful time staff. We need at least three police officers, we need a dispatcher, We need everything that we would have to have to hold an election. Maybe on the next ship we could skip the construction workers and send the people we need to convert this work camp into a small city. They did find several hot spots in the newly opened smal side of the new cavern. There was a warm stream running across the cavern. It was obvious that this would be the place to house their utilities so Tim put crews to work installing the new generator, and the atmosphere making equipment. The Government atmosphere control people had activated one of the backup atmosphere control units when they opened Paradise. They would now need to activate the remaining two. There were six more units scheduled for delivery in September. Tim requested that the two remaining back up atmosphere systems be instal ed in the Utility cavern so they could go ahead and pressurize the Big Lake cavern.