Lilith's Necklace
Page 7
they want to abandon enlarging the colony altogether (focusing their efforts entirely on Mars) or if they want to build a research facility that’s purpose would be to build new types of spacecraft and explore the feasibility of colonizing Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Mars is a whole other story. A total of thirty portable subsistence hydropod-farming operations are up and running here, along with two ice harvesting facilities, three solar powered monorail lines(for transporting people and materials) and an excavation project at the Pavonis Mons site where a permanent residency complex is being built.
There is not a lot of meat available to eat on Mars. On special occasions like Christmas and Easter we are given eggs and goat’s milk products (like yogurt and cheese) when (if) they are available to change things up a little.
Specially bred goats and chickens are being raised here with the intent to help supplement all the powered and dried food supplies sent from Earth. Those farms are still in the experimental stages but have been very successful so far.
Two small herds of goats graze in specially outfitted caves on wild mushrooms and Colony scraps. At least two dozen kids were born last year and there’s talk of adding a few ounces of cabrito or chevon meat once a month to our food rations.
Perdue is developing a large fowlery where turkeys and geese are raised for eggs, meat and feathers. They also want to grind dried bones and other waste products to make more feed for other kinds of farm animals being reared on the planet.
Most of the food we eat is produced in cafeteria pods on 3D printers. It’s cheap, efficient (requires a minimal amount of water) and is fortified with all the basic vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy but has no flavor or consistency.
Imagine eating plain rice or corn puffs with no sugar for three meals a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. You get sick of it pretty quickly. There is major incentive to add new things to our diets, especially items with more flavors.
To curb waste, eating outside mess hall areas is shunned but not illegal, especially if you are working though lunch periods, breaks or community service time in sections where food is being grown on-planet in gardens.. No one complains because nearly all those plants are genetically modified. Leaders and researches want to know the long term effects of eating those new plants so when a colonist helps tend those areas and happens to eat some of the food there they are essentially volunteering to be a human guinea pig.
Many Colony units have meadow or forest pods where a few small trees, flowers, ferns, shrubs and grasses are grown. Hens and roosters are often allowed to roam freely in these places. Residents feed them a mixture of seeds and food scraps produced by their communities. Any extra meat or eggs created by those birds are shared amongst the people living in those locations.
Monsanto recently announced that it will be expanding its operations in the Warrego Valles after successfully creating five new plants species (two that are edible) that don’t require much water and thrive in Martian soil.
One of those is a fruit is unofficially called ‘Mars Meat’. I participated one of the trial studies.
It grows on a bush, looks like a kiwi and had a thick skin. When peeled raw the inside has a runny consistency similar to an uncooked egg. After poking some holes in it and cooking on high for three minutes in a microwave oven the inner part congeals to a texture like liverwurst or spam. The food smells like oatmeal but basically has no discernable taste at all, kind of like a plain baked potato. However if you put salt or yogurt on it it’s much more palatable.
Last year BP employees conducted a number of geological surveys (via satellite initially then eventually on the ground) that revealed additional natural gas and a uranium deposit on the planet, making colony expansion in several proposed locations much more feasible.
Scientists are working on new ways to reclaim or create water from elements already found on the planet’s surface. The availability of more water would help speed up the process of creating an artificial atmosphere as well as expanding the variety of plants being grown for food.
Archeologists also uncovered what appear to be abandoned ruins deep underground in seven undisclosed locations. It’s been rumored that they resemble Mesopotamian ruins back on Earth and that there are hieroglyphs that refer to the Sumerian Anunnaki gods.
After studying photos and video of those locations The Council of Ministers commissioned both the National Geographic Society and The Smithsonian Institution to investigate. Three colonists were sent in response and are passengers on the two transport vehicles due to arrive soon. More experts will be sent if they deem it necessary.
All colonists who are healthy, over the age of eighteen, not in school or caring for young children and under the age of sixty-five is expected to work eight hours a day, six days a week.
Soon after arriving on Mars I was assigned to work in the orthopedic and rehabilitation ward at the Sector Three Medical Clinic. My official title is rehabilitation assistant but because I took some continuing education classes in radiology after finishing vocational school I was also given the responsibilities of an x-ray technician since there are not a lot of people here that have been trained to use that equipment.
Charles and How I Became Lilith
I was a home health aide for elderly people back on Earth.
I’d visit the residences of people listed on my daily roster to check in on them and make sure they were okay.
One of the homes I visited was previously owned by an Elder. The woman was a well-regarded regional leader who worked as a store clerk before The Plague. Her younger brother, Charles, lived with her there and inherited the property after she died at the age of eighty-five from cancer.
I used to visit him regularly because of his illnesses.
Charles, was in his late sixties when I first met him. He was nearly bald and walked very slowly with a cane. His arms and legs were almost skeleton-like. A little belly hung over his belt.
He had severe arthritis in both of his knees and could not move around much many days because of the pain. He declined recommendations for replacement surgery because he wanted to go out of this world with everything he came into it with.
His sentiments reminded me of my Granny, which is probably what prompted me to grow closer to him over time more than any of my other clients.
I’d go to his home to make sure he took his medication and help him with his prescribed stretching or exercises. Sometimes he’d ask me to do chores that he couldn’t do that day for himself like laundry and grocery shopping. I didn’t mind because I felt appreciated and enjoyed talking to him.
Looking back I’m not sure if I was supposed to be doing so much for a patient. I was barley eighteen, fresh out of vocational school and very naïve. I simply assumed all was well and I was doing what I was supposed to because my supervisors said nothing and did not seem to notice all the extra time I was spending with the sick man.
Charles said that he liked having me around to talk to. Young people were more interesting to him than most individuals his own age.
He said, “Old men and women dwell too much on the past and their day to day aches and pains. My mind and body remind me every day that I’m elderly and in pain. I’d rather be alone than waste my time listening to the same boring stories and complaints over and over again.”
He also missed his family. I was the same age as his granddaughter who moved away to London with his daughter and son-in-law two years ago.
During one of my visits to him he asked me something out of the blue.
We were in the kitchen. He was drinking a cup of green tea while I was putting his prescribed medications into his daily pill dispenser for the week.
“Lilith?”
Lilith was Charles’ nickname for me. He said it was from something he read a long time ago and it suited me better than Teresa or Terri. The name made me uncomfortable at first
but eventually grew on me.
“Yes Charles?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Ya. Why?”
“Because I have something I want to show you that might get you in more trouble than me.”
I replied, “What would a well behaved gentleman like you possibly have that is that’s so scandalous?”
He smiled and said, “You’d be surprised.”
After agreeing to keep the secret, he brought me into the basement of his home and asked me to open an old chest freezer in the far corner. For a moment I was worried that there might be a dead body inside but it turned out to be something far more complicated.
The whole thing was stuffed to the top with paperback and hardcover fiction books.
I was speechless for a few seconds but eventually spoke, “Ugh, errrr, Charles where did these come from? I’ve never seen so many in one place before, not even in a museum. You could go to jail for a long time if someone caught you with all these. Aren’t you afraid that the Guardians might find this?”
Charles calmly responded with his devilish grin, “I’m pretty sure you won’t snitch on me. Besides I’m an old man. My wife died years ago and my only child lives on another continent. I can’t walk very much anymore. What difference does it make to me if I die in my home or a jail cell.”
He then explained to me that they were his sister’s (the Elder) and how