4

Departures

Will looked at the wall of flames and the column of inky black smoke on the television with a sense of dread. Khalistan’s revolution had swept into its largest petroleum distribution facility; several percent of the Earth’s petroleum production capacity no longer existed. Oil prices already had risen. The green and black flag of the revolutionaries fluttered over a facility of no use to them or anyone else.

Érico, walking by, stuck his head in. “The price of gold is on its way up,” he said. “It’s gained thirty dollars an ounce since trading opened in New York.”

“We’ll make more money from exports than expected; but governments will have less to give next year,” said Will. “This is shaping up to be a major crisis. If the revolutionaries get any farther, the United States may intervene militarily.”

“A lot of good that’ll do; the revolution against the royal family has strong popular support. They’ll just get a guerilla war against them. And you can’t export a fifth of the world’s oil productivity reliably under those circumstances.”

“I agree. You’d think the U.S. would have learned its lesson from its previous interventions in the Middle East. If Khalistan’s output is shut down, they say oil prices will top $150 per barrel and the world economy will contract ten percent.”

“That’s what I heard, too.” Érico shook his head. “By the way, Yuri Severin has accepted to be in charge of the Emergency Management Office. He’ll start to work as soon as he leaves Earth orbit. He’s scheduled to depart October 27, I believe.”

“So he’ll be on the job in two weeks; that’s amazing. What about the Environmental Management Safety Office?”

“No response from either candidate yet. It’s a hard one to fill. I’ll turn up the charm.”

“Good. Ask Tom Brady for advice about contacting Rachel Evans. If I remember her c.v. right, she listed him as a boss.”

“Do you really think Brady will respond, after loosing the huge fight over Chief Minister?”

“Well, you never know. The U.S. has been cold toward us and they said they’d never vote to renew my term as commissioner in 2046, but they have continued their Martian polar research and have proposed relatively small cuts to their part of our budget. They don’t want Houston to lose our headquarters and they don’t want American business to lose our contracts. We have to show persistent friendliness; it should help.”

“Okay, I’ll send him an email. Have we heard anything more from Alexandra about production quotas? We’ve got a crew scheduled to set up oases along the Circumnavigational through western Marineris and across Tharsis early next year and they still don’t have any shelters to set up.”

“I was talking to her yestersol about production bottlenecks. They simply can’t keep up with demand. Everyone wants a set of cylinder domes in the next two years, construction of housing for the arrivals is behind schedule because of the increased numbers, and contracts for three more caravels appear in the offing. I’m sure she’ll want the trip postponed and the crew added to construction duty.”

“No doubt, but the trail construction crew consists of burned out workers from her units who can’t stand making plastic or houses or caravels much longer! They need a change of pace. Trail upgrading is vastly behind schedule because of her situation.”

“I know, and it’s perpetual; we can never have enough construction specialists up here. I doubt the eleventh columbiad will be any different.”

“But we have to resolve this somehow, Will. Early next year we’re establishing a Ministry of Transportation with a permanent minister in charge and a full-time crew whose main purpose will be to grade and widen trails and install oases. It’ll be small and supplemented by other workers, but it has to have steady work.”

“I know, and the chief minister has no control over construction and fabrication, either, which means I’ll have to mediate these problems. Let’s plan to meet with Alexandra briefly in the next week or so to talk about the matter.”

“Okay. I’ll ask Huma to set it up.” Érico nodded and headed out of Will’s office. Will sighed at the thought of more problems to resolve. He turned to his messages, which were constantly arriving.

One puzzled him; the subject was “Your mother gave me your number.” Will activated the videomail. “Hello, Will Elliott,” began a man in his mid thirties, with black hair and a thin mustache. “My name’s Rostam Tehrani and I was visiting your mother in her nursing home the other day. She’s such a sweet lady and was very kind to me about fifteen years ago when I moved to the area; it’s a real joy to see her. Anyway, she told me about the plan of the Spiritual Assembly of Aurorae to build a Bahá'í House of Worship on Mars, so I wanted to find out how I could help. I’m the C.E.O. of Rostam Robotics; it’s a company I founded twelve years ago in the Boston area that produces robotic software for the construction industry. Our code runs more bulldozers and related earth movers than anyone else’s; it’s used on Mars as well. Our product wouldn’t exist if the Mars and Lunar Commissions hadn’t sunk a couple hundred million dollars into automating earth movers, back in the early 20s. So I’m interested in making a contribution to your temple, partly out of gratitude. I have some friends who might help as well. But we don’t know how to make the contribution. Your mother suggested that I call you; she says the big push began a few months ago. Looking forward to hearing from you some time. Bye.”

Will hit reply. “Thank you for calling, Rostam. My mother has become the big promoter of a Mars temple; she wants to see it finished before she dies, and I suspect she’ll make it, even if she is 87, and even if it takes us a decade to build it! I heard from a New York banker last week who also visited mom and heard all about the effort. We’ve been talking about the idea for about a year, but after the Zen monastery dedicated its statue of the ‘Mars Witnessing Buddha’ we were so moved by the beauty and peace of the spot that the Spiritual Assembly resolved to build a temple, and in September the plan was approved by the Universal House of Justice, though it hasn’t been announced to the public yet. All the religious communities here are working on places of worship; we’ll fill an entire dome with them, at this rate. A Catholic church, a Protestant church, a church for the Universal Church of Jesus and the Creator, a Mormon Temple, a Bahá'í temple, and a mosque are all being planned. We’re trying to avoid a competitive atmosphere. The Bahá'í community includes eighteen persons and we’ll be gaining four more in a few months; we’re small, but large enough to do it, and we have some resources. We’ve also had some new believers; we’ve done reasonably well in that respect. So I think we can be confident the plans will move forward.

“As for contributions, send them to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States. They already have an account set up for it and they’ve already received contributions, thanks to mom. You’ll get a tax deduction that way, also. We’ll be announcing more details later. Bye.”

He sent the message, pleased he was able to do something positive while Khalistan burned.

------------------------------

Helmut and Clara’s living room in Aurorae was filled with late afternoon sunlight by the time Sebastian arrived with the pizza. Clara immediately put plates on the table while Helmut grabbed drinks from the fridge—lemonade, coke, and mineral water. Charlie managed to get himself into his chair and began to bang his hands on the table with anticipation. Then they all sat.

“What a relief, to get away from the office,” said Sebastian. “Khalistan will cost Mars some money, but the price of gold will go up and compensate. The ABC doesn’t have gold. I’ve been sending videomails all sol to shore up support. The Europeans and Japanese are wavering.”

“Could that put mission three in jeopardy?” asked Helmut.

Sebastian nodded. “I think so. Mission 2 should be okay; Vesta has solid scientific objectives. Maybe we’ll have to delay the launch. But Mission 3 is headed for the outer belt to sample the chondritic bodies there. I hope we can increase our support from the U.S.; it’s a useful precursor for Jove 1.”

“It’d be nice to get a pair of their nuclear-electric engines, too,” said Clara.

“Yes, but I wouldn’t hold my breath! They’ll cost about two billion dollars each.”

“Wow! I guess they won’t be used on the Earth to Mars run any time soon.”

“No, it looks like old fashioned chemical propulsion will dominate that route for some time. So, did you find a renter?”

“Yes!” replied Clara. “A couple arriving in February, Rachel Evans and Thad Vail. They emailed me earlier. They’re renting for one columbiad.”

“Good; one less hassle for me,” observed Sebastian. He turned to his grandson. “So, do you know what you want for your birthday, yet?”

Charlie nodded. “A train set.”

Sebastian laughed. “We don’t have them here, and you can’t take something like that on board anyway!”

“Why not? I can run the tracks from my room to mom and dad’s room!”

“Charlie, we don’t have train sets here,” Helmut repeated. “But I think Silvio’s has a little used wooden train.”

“Oh, that’s good!” the little boy replied.

“Maybe I’ll get that for your birthday, then,” said Sebastian. “So, we’re celebrating your birthday early; are you excited?”

“Yes!”

“That way his friends can go, as well as grandpa,” noted Clara.

“I’ll miss all of you.”

“Kristoff will be here in a few months,” said Helmut.

“I know, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a shame both of you boys won’t be here at once.”

“It is, but the launch can’t be postponed, and we’ll see him when we return in four years. Maybe by then he’ll be married.”

“That’d be good, but don’t hold your breath.” Sebastian sighed. “I have a grandson who was the first child to see Deimos, and by the time he returns, at age seven, he’ll have seen four more worlds!”

“He didn’t see much of Deimos,” said Helmut. “After realizing the Piazzi didn’t have any windows, because it has to spin to produce gravity, he was very disappointed and kept asking me to take him out even though he has no space suit. The ride in the hopper-van was fun for him and he was glued to the window most of the time.”

“I like Deimos,” said Charlie, smiling. “Daddy gave me a piece, too!”

“We’re starting his rock collection,” said Clara.

“You all did very well up there,” said Sebastian. “The Ceres mission’s already a success. The coring all the way to the center of Deimos will be analyzed for years. Yestersol we received a request from yet another university for samples. I think we’ll be sending almost a tonne of samples back to Earth. They have a very sensitive spectrometer for measuring isotopes to the parts per trillion range. They plan to reconstruct the accretional history and subsequent fragmentation history of Deimos’s parent body in detail. They hope to do similar analyses on samples you bring back.”

“Good,” said Helmut.

“The Piazzi is in good shape for the trip,” exclaimed Clara. “We still have to set up some of the chemistry and geology labs, but we’ll have seven months for that. The hydroponics are set up; we’ll even have our first oranges and strawberries when we launch! The quarters are the least ready, but we’ll finish them up on the cruise as well.”

“I like my room,” said Charlie.

“Well, we’ve finished it,” replied Helmut. “But mom and dad’s room still needs some furniture and wallpaper.”

“We’ve even ordered an extra wallpaper design so we can change the room,” added Clara. “We figure when we leave Ceres we’ll need a new look.”

“The mission will be on its way home by then,” agreed Sebastian. “That’s assuming you can make the plastic paper on Ceres, of course.”

“We’ll be able to make paper,” said Helmut. “We’ve got great equipment, good plans, and fantastic people. The mission will go great.”

“I hope so. There are never guarantees. The risk assessors say there’s a chance of fuel tank leak or explosion, engine irregularities, aerobraking failures, life support explosions. . . there are plenty of things that can go wrong. No ship is unsinkable.”

“Oh, we won’t forget that,” said Helmut.

---------------------------------

Forty thousand kilometers above the moon, at the Gateway staging area, the caravel Intrepid fired its engines briefly and began to fall toward Earth’s companion. Two days later the flying saucer-shaped vehicle, its roof covered by hydrogen and oxygen tanks, flew past the moon, firing its engines briefly as it was just twenty kilometers above the craters and hills of the far side. The Intrepid whipped toward the Earth, falling rapidly toward a point three hundred kilometers above northern Australia. Three days later, on October 10^th—October 9^th at Aurorae—as it skimmed the far reaches of Earth’s upper atmosphere, the Intrepid fired its engines for one last time, accelerating itself by 3 kilometers per second. It was on its way to Mars.

“The burn was nominal,” reported Captain Yuri Severin. “According to GPS positioning, we are within four centimeters per second of our intended velocity.”

“That’s very good,” commented Will, sitting in Mars Control and listening to the data from the Intrepid, a cup of hot tea in his hand. It was 11:50 p.m. in Aurorae and he had wanted to remain alert.

“The engines are good,” replied Rostam, looking at a screen full of data in front of him. “The telemetry we’re receiving here shows that everything went perfectly.”

Will reached down to the console in front of him and tapped an icon. “Congratulations, Yuri, and have a good flight. We’re looking forward to seeing you in one hundred days.” He closed the connection to send the message.

Rostam looked over everything again, especially the red numbers that were drifting from nominal; there were always a few of them. “They’ve started full engine shutdown on schedule. It was a nearly perfect burn.”

“Good.” Will sighed. “And the Courageous went on its way yestersol with 120 on board, Lufthansa’s Bering complex started off three sols ago with 64, and United Space Express’s Orion departs in two sols with 64. The Intrepid is carrying 150. That’s 398 people, including 35 tourists. We have 45 folks heading back to Earth, so Mars grows by 309. I’m not sure where we’ll put them all!”

“And so much diversity!” added Rostam. “We’ll have interesting times ahead, I think.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” agreed Will.

Suddenly his attaché beeped with an incoming videomessage from Earth. Will looked at the screen. “Oh, Tom Brady.”

“The American representative?”

“Exactly. I’d better take this in private.” Will walked back to his office a dozen meters away, closed the door, and pressed play.

“Good sol, Dr. Elliott. I was watching the telemetry streaming back from the Intrepid. It was an excellent burn; incredibly precise. It’s another demonstration of the marvelous technology that went into the caravels.

“So congratulations on another job well done. I should add that I was talking to the President yesterday about the issue of devolution. We were impressed by the mature and professional manner it has proceeded so far. It appears some tasks will remain under the Commission for some years simply because a precipitous transfer isn’t wise. Our people at Johnson Spaceflight Center have felt the collegiality of your personnel across the street and are relieved you have no plans to move Commission headquarters to Paris. The President is fairly sure that most of the cuts the Congress made to the fiscal 2042 budget can be restored in fiscal 2043 if restraint continues to dominate.

“We look forward to working with you. Good bye.”

Will played the message a second time to observe the nuances, then he taped a response. “Good day, Mr. Brady. Thank you for your warm words about the caravel; it has again proved to be very capable. As you know, we indeed plan to devolve authority gradually for various practical reasons, but mostly it boils down to safety; we want the Commission’s Mars Control to retain full audit and backup capability. We are also very pleased with our Houston headquarters—it is even more beautiful and functional now than before the attack—so we have no plans to move to Paris. Mars wants to work closely with the United States, indeed I want to see the U.S. continue to be the major influence up here, because it has more stability and capability than any other country. But obviously we are delighted to have contributions and involvement from as many nations as possible. We look forward to working with you as well.”

----------------------------

Ten sols later, it was time for another departure. The Ceres crew had a grand sending off in the Patio. All of Yalta Biome’s floor space—the grassy yard included—had to be covered by tables and chairs to accommodate the entire population of Aurorae. After the meal, Will Elliott walked to the stage.

“Good evening, everyone,” he began. “We are gathered here to convey our best wishes and warmest thoughts to the crew of the caravel Giovanni Piazzi as they embark on what may be the greatest adventure humanity has yet launched. We are privileged that the voyage of discovery is departing from Mars. It will visit four worlds and extend the human presence to the asteroid belt, which may someday be the home of millions of people. Many regard the asteroid belt as Mars’s territory, where we can send out colonies and make our voyages of exploration. But I am not so sure of that. No one stays dependent on a home world forever. Mars is weakening the ties that bind it to Earth. Will not the same process repeat with the asteroid belt in the upcoming decades and centuries? This is the reason the Asteroid Belt Commission is a separate agency from the Mars Commission. This sol is the inauguration not just of a new territory for human exploration, but the opening of a new frontier for human settlement, one that will see its own declaration of independence in the future.

“The twenty-six brave men, women, and children departing from our midst tomorrow morning are among Mars’s brightest and most capable. We send them forth with the greatest confidence that they will produce results that will go down in history. We will follow their progress closely, will miss them dearly, and will welcome them back joyfully. Upon their return, they will be senior members of our exploration corps and will be embraced by every national astronaut corps. No doubt, many of them will be bound for other worlds; the moons of Jupiter beckon next decade, Saturn the decade after.

“In short, our hopes and aspirations, in large measure, rest on your shoulders. Humanity accompanies you in its dreams. Bon voyage.”

Will sat to warm applause and Sebastian Langlais walked to the stage next. He waited for the crowd to quiet down. “When I arrived here almost two years ago, I thought I was going into retirement to do a few small tasks while enjoying time with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Little did I know that I would be assuming one of the biggest tasks of my life, and would be sending them off to the asteroid belt! Will’s comments about humanity accompanying this crew in their hopes and aspirations rings true for me; my dreams are indeed with them!

“Some have described the solar system as consisting of the sun plus debris. Others view it as nine planets plus debris. The Asteroid Belt Commission, however, views the solar system as composed of thousands of worlds, large and small. We have the privilege of exploring many of those worlds.

“We are not the first. Currently there are probes exploring the asteroid belt from six nations plus Mars. Astrea is being orbited by a craft launched by India; Flora has a Chinese orbiter; Ceres has a rover sent by the Netherlands, two sent by us, and a geochemical mapper from Malaysia. But as all of us know very well, automated exploration must—and inevitably will—be followed by human beings.

“Among these worlds, Ceres is unique. A third the size of Earth’s moon, it is a huge world by a human scale, and because it formed cold it is full of water. Now the time has come for crews to leave footprints in its dust. We know, in broad outline, what they will find there scientifically. It has already been extensively mapped and studied. No doubt its cryovolcanoes and rifts hold many mysteries to discover. It is a world full of resources to assess. What we cannot predict is the impact of Ceres on the crew and on humanity. It is central in the belt and a logical base of operations. It appears to be a beautiful world. It is a world with which some will fall in love.

“Hence we send this crew out with much anticipation. Our parting words to them are simple: come home safely and enrich all of us with wisdom.”

Sebastian walked back to his table amidst applause. As he sat, he put one arm on Charles Vickers, seated to his right, and the other on Helmut, seated to his left. “I meant those words,” he added. “Be careful out there.” He felt his throat tighten.

“We will, don’t worry,” replied Charles.

“We’ll come home safe, dad,” added Helmut. “And we’ll bring you wisdom.”

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