9
Living Well
It took six weeks for the Tharsis expedition to complete the Tharsis Trail. The three vehicles took over a week to drive off of Olympus Mons, then travel three hundred kilometers eastward on a section of the Virgo Trail back to the Tharsis uplift, then from there, extend the Tharsis Trail two thousand kilometers to Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Patera. In the future the trail would divert to the northwest to Alba Patera, then continue to the northern polar terrains.
The expedition returned to the Outpost because Érico was finally scheduled to take an expedition to the South Pole. He had six weeks before the autumnal equinox in the southern hemisphere; the dust storm season, which had been mild, had just ended.
But the South Pole expedition had to wait until the Living Well Conference was held. The sol after the Tharsis expedition returned, the conference was convened in Renfrew’s Great Room. Even the children were included; they played in the back. The Pisces expedition, which had traveled three quarters of the way around Mars’s southern hemisphere, rose at 3 a.m. local time and gathered in their conestoga to participate.
Once the Pisces people were hooked up and projected onto one screen in the front of the hall, Will rose. “We’ve got ten minutes before our first speaker, so let me review our procedures for you. We’ve got ground support folks joining us in Houston, Seville, and Moscow; the right screen will carry an image from Houston unless there’s a question from one of the other places. Our panel of speakers, who are also in Houston, will be projected onto the middle screen. We can ask questions by email at any time. After all the speakers have spoken, and maybe sometimes between them, the questions from us and from the ground folks will be answered. The mistress of ceremonies, Dr. Louisa Turner, will farm out the questions to speakers. There should be plenty of attachés scattered around the room for you to send your questions to her.
“The panel and questions will last three hours. We’ll break for lunch; in Seville and Moscow, they’ll break for supper. Then each group on Earth will reconvene for sixty minutes to brainstorm about the implications and will send their reports to each other and to us. We’ll brainstorm ninety minutes and send our report to them. Then I wrap up the entire gathering.”
“No video messaging?” asked Jacques, disappointed.
“We can do video messages as easily as email. In Houston they have transcripting software, so Louisa will get a written version of the comments. She’ll be using an outlining software to organize questions together into groups on the same topic.”
“I’d prefer to videotape my question, too,” added Enrique. “It’ll put a human face on the discussion.”
“I agree; but some may prefer the anonymity of email.”
“What about confidentiality?” added Érico. “What part of this conference will be released to the press?”
“There will be six press reps in the audience in Houston. They’ve been chosen for their fairness; if you make a negative comment, you don’t have to worry about it becoming a headline and the positive aspects of the conference becoming footnotes. But anything they hear they can quote anonymously. The presentations by the panelists and the various reports will be carried live on the Commission’s website, as will my comments at the end; the challenge I face is to create the right sound bites. Our ninety minutes of brainstorming this afternoon will be strictly confidential; nothing will leave the room, except in the form of the report Érico will make.”
“What about background?” asked Roger. “My team and I have been out of touch for four months, and I assume that’s true of the Pisces expedition as well.”
Will frowned. “What sort of background?”
“How many are leaving in October, how many are coming on Columbus 5, is the Columbus 5 team unchangeable, how much cargo is Columbus 5 bringing, how much of it could be changed. . . I ask because I have no idea whether it makes sense to ask for, for example, a hair dresser, or for them to import a bunch of golf clubs. Both could be quality of life issues. They aren’t my issues, but they might be someone’s.”
Will nodded. “Now I understand. We’ve got thirty-three adults and four children here right now, with two more children on the way; the Strogers and Lisa Kok and Karol Havlicek are expecting—”
“Really? I didn’t know about Lisa and Karol. Congratulations,” said Roger.
“I was tempted to say Madhu was expecting, but I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” added Will, and everyone laughed. “Four are leaving on Columbus 4: Olaf Norlander, Francisco Almeida, Koyo Takenaka, Sridhar Pradhan.”
‘That’s all?” exclaimed Roger in surprise. “I thought Seiji was leaving, and Eammon, and Irina.”
“You are out of date,” replied Seiji. “Michiko and I are getting married.”
“So are Eammon and I,” added Irina.
Everyone laughed and Roger shrugged. “Congratulations to you all, and welcome to the marriage club.”
Several laughed at that comment. Will glanced at the Dunbars; it was the sort of comment that could make them feel uncomfortable. “That’ll lower us to twenty-nine adults between missions,” he continued. “Columbus 5 is bringing eighteen, but only sixteen are signed up. There is still some wiggle room if we really want someone to do our hair and nails.” Will smiled. “So Mars will have forty-seven adults about a year from now. Columbus 6, by the way, tentatively will involve six ITVs instead of four, and two shuttles. Since the emergency configuration calls for no more than six per ITV, Columbus 6 will be able to transport thirty folks. It’ll probably utilize an inflatable unit called an interplanetary transit annex or ‘annex,’ six meters in diameter and thirty meters long, which will serve to connect two halves of the vehicle together. That way if some sort of emergency happens, it is likely to affect only half the vehicle. The middeck will include a big zero-gravity gymnasium and other public space, which will make the trip much more roomy and pleasant. The middeck will have its own heat shield and ion engine; it will fly by Mars and return to Earth two years later for refurbishment and reuse.
“As for cargo, Columbus 5 will include two automated cargo vehicles able to carry twenty-four tonnes each. The three ITVs and two shuttles will be able to aerobrake forty-five tonnes altogether. So we will receive ninety-three tonnes of supplies. There’s still about ten tonnes of wiggle room in the cargo manifests.”
“So much more; how’s that possible?” asked Roger.
“The transportation system has matured. At the Earth end, cargo can now be put into low earth orbit for one million dollars per tonne. The solar-ion vehicles transport the cargo to Gateway in six months. They require one tonne of fuel for every two tonnes they lift and the argon fuel comes from Mars, saving us a lot of money. We also can use the new bimodel nuclear engines, which can transport cargo to Gateway in four days if necessary, requiring a tonne of hydrogen for every two tonnes of cargo. Gateway has more room to store supplies, so they can be hauled up over a longer period of time. The ITVs have a good track record, so they can aerobrake more mass at this end. Shackleton can make plenty of oxygen for the methane fuel we send to Gateway to push everything to Mars.
“At this end, the shuttles will have to make two trips each to get everything, and those flights will be spread out over the entire eighteen months. We won’t devote six to eight weeks after Columbus 5 arrives to bringing down the cargo and setting everything up; instead, we’ll bring it down gradually, make more science trips to the moons, and haul more cargo up.”
“I thought Columbus 5 will fly here using nuclear engines?” asked Lal.
Will glanced at the video controls; there was a light indicating the transmission from Earth was arriving and was being taped. “This background session is getting longer than planned and our program is now arriving from Houston. Some of the methane we flew to Earth will be traded for hydrogen for the solid core nuclear engines that Columbus 5 will use. Columbus 5 will take six months to arrive and will aerobrake at this end; the two nukes will return to Earth orbit immediately after trans-Mars injection. Anyway, let’s turn now to our panel discussion.” Will turned and nodded to Enrique, who was running the show. The image came on as Will sat.
He was nervous about how Louisa Turner would do. He had had to insist that she be the mistress of ceremonies, and Morgan’s initial hesitation had melted away before her charm and professionalism. He hoped that she did well, and soon saw that he would not be disappointed. She proved a remarkably capable chair of the program and an extremely articulate coordinator of discussion.
Will was also nervous about what the panelists would say, but that quickly dissipated. The Mars audience watched with deep interest. The first speaker, a psychiatrist named Mel Feinstein, spoke about the deep psychic needs of human beings, especially in the adult stage of life; he quoted Freud’s lieben und arbeiten, “to love and to work,” several times as epitomizing adult expression. He was followed by Father John Perry, a Catholic theologian, who talked about love, compassion, sharing, serving others, tenderness, and justice as powerful spiritual needs and spiritual gifts of human beings. Finally, Dr. Laurel Stanwood, a Yale anthropologist and historian, spoke about the quest for justice in societies, the need for common values to build a common society and culture, and the social dimension of human experience.
Throughout the presentations, the Mars audience emailed questions or walked to a video camera in the corner to send a video question. When Turner began the question and answer session, it seemed that she favored questions from Mars; or perhaps the thirty-three of them asked more questions than the others. For almost an hour the discussion continued before Turner cut it short so that everyone could get their food.
The hungry crew headed to the kitchen and pulled out sandwiches and salad, which had been prepared that morning. “So, Will, we’re not supposed to talk about this program for an hour?” asked Roger, shaking his head. “I say, brainstorm while we eat.”
“You don’t want a chance to digest the presentations?”
“No,” replied Roger, and many people nodded. The room fell silent, except for the sound of chewing.
“Okay,” said Will. “Let’s at least not hit Érico with things to write down yet. What did everything think of the presentations?”
“Superb,” replied Madhu.
“Fascinating; very insightful,” added Rosa.
“I suggest we do seminars like this more often,” added Gaston. “If you want to improve our quality of life, miniconferences like this really help. They give all of us something to think about together and apply to our common situation. The conferences help form common culture.”
“So much for a break,” replied Érico. He rose, sandwich in his left hand, and walked to the electronic board on the wall, where he began to jot down summary points from the conversation.
“It gives us a new angle on our colleagues on earth, too,” added Lal. “We get to see them in a different setting and interacting with each other spontaneously. In short, we get to build a common culture with them as well as with us.”
“You know, in general, we need more cultural events here,” said Louise Tremblay, continuing the thread. “The concerts and skits Madhu have organized are really great. I wish they were a regular thing.”
“They take a lot of time,” replied Madhu. “Not only my time, but the time of the performers. Once we settled into our work schedules, they became hard to accommodate. In general, I have felt that more art is essential for this place.”
“I love the Mars garden you laid out below Face Rock, Madhu,” exclaimed Charles. “Whenever I’m outside I try to walk through it. It’s amazing what beauty can be found in, and assembled from, natural Martian materials.”
“Well, thank you to everyone who brought back unusual wind-sculpted objects or unusually colored minerals,” she replied. “I’d like to extend the garden and do more gardens, but child care takes a lot of time, and of course I have my duties.”
“But every time the Outpost gets bigger, we can rearrange duties,” noted Will. “The aesthetic dimension of this place can grow. I think it should grow.”
“That reminds me of something the panel discussion prompted me to think about,” exclaimed Seiji. “Stanwood’s comments about history made me think that we really need to have a historian up here, and maybe a poet. In short, all of us are very good with the technical and scientific sides of the world, but we’re lacking in the humanities. I suppose some of us majored in history, so maybe we just need to cultivate that side of our people more.”
“The perspective actually can contribute to our survival here,” added Ethel. “Because we need all mindsets, all approaches to reality.”
“Of course, the irony is that as the Outpost gets larger, the amount of exploration per person actually may decrease,” replied Roger. “It raises the issue of why we’re here.”
“There are various counter arguments, though,” exclaimed Érico, who lowered his pen for a moment. “One is that Martian society has to mature gradually and that means providing more services to its residents. Another is that a larger pool of people is more efficient and therefore has greater surplus labor to devote to additional priorities. A third is that as it gets cheaper to fly people here, the cost of exploration will continue to drop even if more people are engaged in it.”
“And all of those are true,” added Will. “Columbus 5 will fly eighteen people here for half the cost of flying the first six here. The first six could only devote three staff positions to exploration and science most of the time; we can field twelve out of thirty-three, and twelve more are occupied with science.”
“Speaking of greater services,” said Irina Lesz. “If we want to live well, we should discuss additional services available to us. I’d like a greater range of options for preparing hair, for example. Madhu does a good job of cutting hair, but she can’t do everyone’s hair forever; it’s already taking her an entire Satursol morning every week. If we had someone with professional experience it could be part of that person’s official duties. We might even want to let the person charge for services beyond the basic haircut.”
“We’ll have almost fifty people here,” added Andries. “It seems to me that must be a critical mass for some services.”
“But pay?” asked Érico, lowering his pen. “One of the characteristics of this place that I like is the lack of capitalism.”
“But how long can that last?” said Roger. “Some day when we have a thousand people here, we’ll have stores, all sorts of businesses, some essential work will be contracted out—like food raising—and families will eat at home instead of in the common cafeteria.”
“Why should we do all of that?” replied Érico. “One of the things that makes Martian society special is its collectivist character. We eat together, draw our supplies from a common inventory, and services are provided to all equally for free. We’ve achieved the pure socialism that Earth has only been able to yearn for.”
“Because we’re small,” responded Roger. “It can’t continue.”
“Having everyone eat together, even the families, is special,” agreed Enlai. “One gets to see family life as it occurs.”
“But it has disadvantages; the kids want to eat with their friends instead of their parents,” replied Ethel. “That’s why we now take our food home two nights a week.”
“Look, the principal factor driving our current practices is efficiency,” exclaimed Will, intervening before the issue got hot. “And that will probably be the case in the future as well. When we have several hundred people here, we may have to have several cafeterias. Our cafeterias will be able to provide hot meals to the home; we’re getting a robotic delivery cart able to maneuver itself through airlocks on Columbus 5. Our food services will be able to prepare a lot more frozen food, too, so an apartment will just need a microwave oven and maybe a hotplate to prepare supper. Right now it’s inefficient providing services of that sort because of the scale of our operation. When we have several hundred people we’ll need a store, a professional full-time hair dresser, a professional lawyer, a professional financial advisor—it’s hard getting those services from Earth—a professional chaplain, etc.”
“I think we could use some of those services now,” Lisa. “With fifty people, why shouldn’t we establish a store? Right now if someone wants to have their weekly chocolate bar, they have to plan it as part of their personal mass allocation. Let them buy it instead, and set the price to cover the cost of importing it. The store could also be used to sell used items people don’t want any more and items made here; we have several people with real talent for making furniture, objets d’art, clothing, pottery, woven things, carved wooden objects, etc. Everyone could earn a bit of extra money making things for sale, and all of us would have a wider range of things to buy.”
“I sort of agree,” said Lal. “We could use a market place. It’s one of the most ancient of human practices.” He saw Érico hesitating. “Go on, Érico, write ‘store/market place.’”
Everyone laughed, including Érico, who wrote as Lal suggested. Will in particular was set to thinking about that idea. “That’s doable for Columbus 5,” he agreed.
“If we’re going to buy and sell things, why not condos?” added Roger. “Most of us are couples planning to stay and raise families here. If we could buy our living spaces we’d invest more money into improving them, and part of our salaries would be brought back to Mars in the form of an expenditure here.”
Quite a few people nodded at that idea. “How many would consider buying their living quarters if we set up a system of issuing deeds and providing for resale?” asked Will. He was surprised by the number of hands that went up. “More than half of us.”
“Everyone except Érico,” added Roger. People laughed at that comment as well.
‘That’s doable, too,” said Will. “The thirty-three of us together are paid almost fifteen million dollars per year. Most of us are putting it in investments on Earth. If a third of it came back here temporarily in terms of real estate investments, it’d fund the importation of two tonnes of equipment, which could help cover the cost of improving our housing. Interesting idea.”
“But could we liquidate the investment later?” asked Andries.
“I’m assuming we could,” replied Will. “There are various ways of handling that matter, I’m sure.”
“If we’re going to talk about improving housing, I have ideas,” said Érico. “We need more space per person here. Period. The Outpost has fifteen hundred square meters of pressurized housing and work space, other than the dome or the greenhouses, which is almost fifty square meters per person. That’s a lot better than the fifteen square meters per person we had when Columbus 2 arrived, but it’s still very cramped, especially when one remembers the needs of small children.”
“We’re considering our options,” replied Will, glancing at Alexandra. The two of them had still not talked about their differing approaches to construction.
“We need a lot more pressurized outdoor space,” added Ethel. “We’ll need a real playground with swings pretty soon, and when we have that we’ll need room for the adults to exercise or play games as well.”
“Thank God for the dome, though,” exclaimed Martha. “I don’t know how all of you managed without it for six years. Open space is very important to mental health.”
“I have a delicate matter to raise,” said Yevgeny. “Maybe fifty people represent the critical threshold for it, or maybe we need more like one hundred, but it sounds like one hundred people is maybe only five years away anyway. At some point we need some elements of democratic governance. I am not complaining about Will and his many leadership skills and organizing talents, just noting that every society that has ever prospered has had deliberative mechanisms.”
“Here, here,” said Roger.
“Our town meetings have largely ceased,” agreed Will. “We could hold more of them. But maybe fifty is a threshold and we should think about electing an advisory council of some sort.”
“I’d favor that,” said Yevgeny. “The town meetings would be more effective if there were a council to develop recommendations for it to consider. As our population of children expands, we’ll need to discuss education more, and we’ll have to assume some of the burden of paying for their education. We might even have to tax the residents.”
“Taxes and politics; just what we need,” complained Neal. He shrugged as if to say he understood they were inevitable, however.
There was a lull in the conversation for a moment. “If there’s one change I’d recommend, it’s less work over all,” exclaimed Madhu, changing the subject. “We’re working over fifty hours a week. It makes family life difficult.”
“On the other hand, we don’t have cooking, cleaning, and other house work to do,” pointed out Carmen. “We may gain back as much as we lose. I prefer this arrangement; it liberates women more effectively. Otherwise we work full time and have to assume more than half of the domestic responsibilities.”
“Perhaps I should rephrase my suggestion, then,” replied Madhu. “You’re right, fifty hours isn’t too bad when one considers the lack of housework. But the fifty hours a week would be more manageable if it were ten hours a sol, five sols a week, rather than nine hours a sol, five sols a week, and half of Satursol. Furthermore, I’ve been here six years and would like to transition to other tasks, like the arts. I think we need the arts and are large enough to encourage them more.”
“I think both are possible,” replied Will. “People who can get all their work done in five sols should see whether their schedule can be changed to allow that. I’m flexible about that. And Madhu, let’s talk privately about ways the arts can be fostered more during Columbus 5; maybe even sooner.”
“Okay,” she replied. “Something else I wanted to mention: family life here needs more developing. It does not revolve around house work, cooking, cleaning; sometimes it doesn’t even revolve around the family television. Roger and I have been discovering that we need to plan time when we won’t go to the Great Room and socialize with everyone else. We have to schedule family time, and we have to plan it. I think all of us could use help figuring out the new pattern.”
“Good point,” said Érico, scribbling a phrase on the board.
“But I’m a bit concerned about switching too much time to ‘luxuries’ like art,” exclaimed Yevgeny. “Obviously, if we all worked less, we’d end up with less housing and less green space, because it takes time to create and maintain them.”
“I wouldn’t call it a luxury,” objected Madhu. “I wouldn’t call for all of us to become artists, either.”
“Back to the question of work versus family and socializing,” said Rosa. “We may work more hours, but we don’t have a commute every sol.”
“Speak for yourself!” replied Jacques Deschanel from conestoga 1, located somewhere on the Pisces Trail. Everyone laughed.
“It’s true, though, that between commuting and domestic chores, we gain back as many hours as we would lose on Earth,” replied Will. “The people on expeditions work seventy hours a week, though; that’s more or less the way it is. But they get extra vacation time.”
“It’s a shame we don’t have any place to go on vacation, though,” replied Jacques. “If there’s one thing I’d suggest, it’s a habitat up on the top of the escarpment able to accommodate six, with good television access and a Jacuzzi. We need a place where we can get away from it all and relax.”
“That’s a great idea!” seconded Seiji. “It’d be good for honeymoons, too.”
“I’d prefer that we put any extra human resources we have into preparing for a larger population,” exclaimed Martha. “There are only thirty-seven human beings on this world. If we want to improve the quality of life, we need more colleagues, more friends, more potential mates, more services. We have to grow this place.”
“And that means working more hours, not less,” agreed Roger. “Our priorities for improving the quality of life work against each other.”
‘That’s life,” added Karol. “If living well means working and loving, it means we have to balance the two.”
“I’d make growing this place our top priority, otherwise,” exclaimed Érico, writing a big number “1” in front of the phrase. “Growing this place means more living space, more green space, better social evenings, more people watching your children. But obviously it can’t mean no time for socializing, raising children, or loving.”
“There are little things we can do to improve life that won’t take time from work, though,” said Roger, a twinkle in his eye. “If I had my choice, I’d like to have a dog.”
“A dog?” said Will. Then he laughed and everyone joined in, Roger included.
“No, seriously,” continued Roger. “Once we can import pets, I think we should. They would improve the quality of life.”
“You can always have a rabbit,” offered Gaston, smiling.
“I have another matter to raise,” said Enrique. “I’ve said this before, too. I sometimes think the Outpost has become too couple friendly. Those of us who aren’t married, or at least don’t have a steady relationship, feel a bit isolated sometimes.”
“And sometimes those of us who are in a relationship but aren’t married feel pressure,” added Karol, looking at Lisa, who was pregnant with his child.
“I apologize that those things have happened,” replied Will. “I agree, sometimes we are so focused on building marriages and families here that others may feel some pressure to conform. We have to be very careful about matters of values, since we all come from so many different cultures. But we all share some things in common. Among them are sexuality, the possibility of reproduction, and death. These things are complementary; you have to have a new generation because the old generation dies out. And as we just heard from the panel, human beings are designed psychically, socially, and dare I say spiritually, around these facts. Perhaps we are overreacting or overcompensating, because as we know, space exploration has offered the possibility of death all too often, but until now it has not offered the possibility of sexuality, of marriage, or of family. If we want people to stay on Mars, acquire a feel for this place, and become highly experienced in living and working here, they have to have the possibility of those things.”
“And it has been a battle, as you all know,” added Ethel, while Liz suckled at her right breast.
“As this place becomes bigger, I’m sure there will be more diversity of expression of these matters,” added Carmen. “Of course, this place will not be like the science fiction novels, will it! They’ve postulated group marriage and all sorts of novel marital forms!”
“Some of the folks in the Mars Exploration Society still want to see such things,” added Yevgeny. Several chuckled; they knew about some of the stranger ideas for settling Mars that had circulated.
“Are we running out of ideas?” asked Will. “I see Érico is busy prioritizing the points.”
“I am; we have a story to tell.”
Roger looked at his watch. “Lunchtime is over, we’re supposed to be starting our brainstorming, and I think we’re just about finished!”
“I think so,” agreed Will. “But I do want to offer one more thought about this priority we’ve identified. There’s one thing we all can do that will help grow this place and will not consume a lot of our time.” He paused and everyone turned to him, curious and interested. “We’ve been hesitant to coordinate our media appearances too much because, frankly, the thirty-three of us are pretty independent folks, and we’re hard to discipline. Coordinating our public relations is a bit like herding cats. But folks, if you want to make a concrete and important contribution to growing this place, the best way to do it, slowly and over time, is to coordinate our message better. As you may know, in the last ten or eleven months I’ve been interviewed by the media three or four times as much as in earlier years. Some people have said this is because I’m ambitious. Some have said it’s because I saw an opportunity when the Mars Commission took over and was initially confused about public relations. The latter explanation has some merit; I was upset about the confusion and did act on my own on some occasions. But what people generally don’t know is that Ethel and I personally hired Louisa Turner—the chair of our panel this morning—as public relations advisor. She advised me very skillfully and the Commission accepted my greater role, grudgingly at first. Now whenever I am interviewed, Morgan himself knows about it and has approved the talking points. My involvement in the media is actually highly coordinated. Turner’s lead has been accepted by the Commission, which tweaks the message and reinforces it. We have a monthly theme and the themes are successive, reinforcing each other very deliberately. And if you’ve been following the public opinion surveys, after ten months the strategy is beginning to bear fruit. The international public’s support for Mars exploration is on the rise. Morgan thinks it’s getting easier to raise money for this place.
“I’m telling all of you this because it isn’t a secret any more. Morgan knows about Turner’s role; the fact that he agreed to her serving as mistress of ceremonies is a sort of public recognition of her efforts. As you’ve all seen, she’s very smart. And if all of you are willing to coordinate your interviews with the message of the month, we’ll figure out how you can do it; we can create talking points that tie your expertise to the theme of the month. If we can coordinate what we’re saying about this place better, in a year or so we will educate all of humanity about it.”
Everyone was listening to Will intensely. He paused to look at them. Most nodded. “Good idea,” said Madhu.
“There’s more,” said Will. “Our primary message is Mars, but one way we’re making Mars attractive to the rank and file of humanity is to stress our peaceful, cooperative life here. Whenever Earth has a crisis of some sort we can’t talk about Mars very much because it’s so much lower in priority. But under those circumstances we can talk about how our multicultural, pluralistic society here is relevant to Earth’s future. Over time, all of us here have become internationalists. That’s another message we can coordinate, a message that can help our people—our species—back on the mother world.”
“That’s exciting,” said Lal.
“I’ll be glad to cooperate,” exclaimed Seiji.
“Hey, so will I,” added Roger. “I never thought I’d be an internationalist, but I guess after six years I’ve become one.”
“A Republican internationalist; is that possible?” said Érico, smiling. “Will, should I put this on the Board?”
“Sure. List ‘better coordination of our media presence’; that’s neutral enough. The media knows my message is coordinated; they aren’t dumb. They don’t mind, either, because by and large they’re a bit lazy. If you give them a good story, they’ll use it.”
Érico scribbled on the board. “Okay; anything else?”
“Let’s make a report to earth,” replied Will. “We’ll be first instead of last, and reserve our right to make another report afterward.”
Érico began to organize notes, conferring with Will while the others ate or drank a bit more. Then he taped a fifteen minute report and sent it.
The meetings in Houston, Seville, and Moscow needed another forty-five minutes to prepare their reports. Generally they were more general, although everyone identified growing the Mars facilities as a high priority. The Mars residents commented about the reports in between listening to each one, and within half an hour of the last report they had another report to make as a response. Finally, Will took five minutes and offered a wrap-up of the entire meeting.
Then the conference broke up. “I’m heading to work,” exclaimed Roger. “It’s only 3:30 p.m.; we’ve got three and a half hours before supper. No reason to waste time!”
“Let’s not overdo it,” replied Will.
© 2004 Robert H. Stockman