5

Vivification

On their first Sunsol morning after Columbus 5’s arrival the portion of Mars’s population inclined to worship their Creator—26 of 47 adults—gathering in Clarke Dome for an “open air” interfaith devotional program. In spite of the strangeness of the program to everyone, it was exciting to meet in worship together. Five of the six religions on Mars were represented, as was humanism. An expected treat came from the three pairs of canaries that had been flown to Mars on Columbus 5 and had been released into Clarke the sol before; they sang at various times during the service. Afterwards the participants walked to Renfrew Hall for lunch, instantly swelling the great room’s population.

“I was very moved by the Bahá'í reading,” Enrique Delrio said to Ethel. “How did it begin? Be generous in prosperity. . .”

“Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity,” replied Ethel. “It’s one of my favorite passages as well. Something I like to meditate on.”

“It’s very moving; could I have a copy?”

“I’ll email the text to you.”

“It’s one of my favorites as well,” added Will, who overheard the discussion. “The part on trustworthiness sticks in my mind, and looking on a neighbor with a ‘bright and friendly face.’ I try to do that.”

“Some time could you tell me a bit more?” Enrique asked Ethel.

She nodded. “Of course, I would be happy to.”

“I may want that reading at the wedding,” added Radha. “Of course, I’ll have to see what Lal says.”

He smiled. “It would be fine with me, my dear. It has to be a Hindu wedding, but it can have other elements, especially since it has to be for our friends here.”

“Definitely,” agreed Radha. She smiled at him.

Will turned to Silvio Diponte, who had walked over to him. “How was the service?” Silvio asked.

“I think it went well,” replied Will. “Come some time. It looks like we’ll try this every other week.”

“Perhaps I will, some Sunsol. This afternoon we’ll be pulling the rest of the personal cargo out of the shuttles. By suppertime we should have your orders ready for pickup.”

“Including my three rose bushes?”

“I’m referring to the packaged items. You’ll have to get the roses from Lisa. Why did you order three rose bushes?”

“My parents always raised roses, so I used to as well; it’s just part of what home ownership means to me. Now that we’ve been here eight years and the ecology’s well established, I was told that I could indeed fly up some roses, if they were certified free of a long list of microorganisms. These are.”

“Interesting.” Diponte didn’t seem to know what to say about the Commander’s hobby. “I hope by tonight we’ll have everything off the Olympus. Certainly, by Monsol noon. With any luck, we’ll have the Daedalia unloaded by Tuesol noon and the Apollonaris by Thursol evening.”

“Pretty good; forty-four tonnes of stuff unloaded in six sols.”

“A big chunk of that is the second biome; it’ll come off the shuttle and roll over to the storage area prepared for it. The industrial equipment will be pretty routine, also.”

“I’m glad you can serve as quartermaster and coordinate this task. You’re better qualified to coordinate it than anyone else, and you’ll save me a lot of grief.”

“It’s my grief instead! No, that’s fine. I spent part of yestersol afternoon looking through the basement area of Habitat 3. Needless to say, I don’t want the temporary store set up there; it’s off the beaten path, dark, and unattractive. I’d rather take over the entire tunnel connecting Renfrew to the Mars Dome and Habitat 4. The tunnel’s two meters wide; plenty to let people pass through and leave room for continuous shelves. If anything, there’s too much light there; we may want to cover part of the tunnel with shades. We’d have to install more lights so that it can be used at night; it’s pretty dim and cold at night right now.”

“The tunnel’s not rated for that sort of use,” noted Will. “It has no connection to life support, so the air is replaced pretty rarely.”

“I asked Lisa about that. She said they have a portable carbon dioxide scrubber. We don’t have to add oxygen; it’ll drift in through the airlocks. The tunnel has an electrical connection already and it can handle the power load we’re talking about.”

“The tunnel has never had a problem with leaks.” Will considered. “Usually we keep the tunnel filled with pots of vegetables and fruit trees, but we moved them out for the arrival because of all the carts of stuff we’d have to move through it. We can move then into the biome, too; there should be room there.”

“There’s plenty of sunlight there,” agreed DiPonte. “I’m anxious to set up the store.”

“I can understand that. Okay, give the tunnel a try. Oh, on another matter: the Dunbar divorce. You need to talk to them both. It’s getting complicated.”

DiPonte nodded. “I was looking over the case on behalf of the borough on the flight out. I need to be named the borough’s official judge before I do anything. The real work is being done in the Houston courts, but since they live here and the child is here, we have to play a role.”

“I know. Thank God you’re here to get the paperwork right. There’s a town meeting scheduled for next week; we’ll name you the Borough Judge then.”

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Will spent the afternoon helping the crew unload the shuttle of sixteen tonnes of items. DiPonte, inexperienced in a spacesuit, coordinated the inventory area instead. Will stopped by right after supper to get the family’s purchases; each person was entitled to transportation of twenty-five kilograms of items plus two kilograms for every year they stayed on Mars. Hence Will and Ethel got forty-one kilos each; Marshall got thirty-three; Lizzie got thirty-one. Altogether it was a huge amount of stuff, requiring two trips with a cart to get it all. He carefully put it in his and Ethel’s room before the kids came upstairs to go to bed, since a lot of it was presents for their future birthdays. After the kids went to sleep, he and Ethel went into their room to open the packages.

“Here’s your new bathrobe,” Will said, pulling out a beautiful green silk bathrobe.

“Oh, lovely,” replied Ethel. “Thank you. Look at this outfit; won’t Lizzie look cute in it?” She held up a strawberry-covered summer dress and matching top.

Will nodded. “She’ll love the colors, too. What’ll you do with this, now that you’re a Bahá'í?” He held up a bottle of Scotch.

“I’ll give it away. It’ll make a nice birthday present. Here’s a present for you.” Ethel held up a beautiful tie.

“Oh, that is nice; it’s a shame I never wear ties!”

“I know. Marshall wanted to give it to you as a present some time.”

“Then I’ll be sure to be surprised.”

“I think you could wear a tie on various occasions, like television interviews. Talk to Louisa about whether it’d be good for your image.”

“I will.” He began to pull out shirts, pants, underwear, and socks; those were the most important items he’d ordered. He began to put them in the closet. But within a few minutes he and Ethel found that they had run out of space for more clothes. “Now what,” he said.

Ethel looked around the room. “We could put another clothes cabinet over there; there’s room. I’ll look to see whether the supplies have a spare tomorrow. But clearly we need more space. You can’t raise a family in fifty square meters.”

“Yes, this apartment is definitely too small for us.” Will looked around. “It’s been a nice place to live.”

“It has been. It has a lot of good memories. But we’ll have how much more space in the biome? Fifty percent more?”

“At least, and real windows instead of portholes. It’ll be a nice development.”

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On Monsol, the first regular work week began since the arrival of Columbus 5. The Outpost was noticeably crowded; the Great Room was packed at meal times, the habitats were noisy, the work areas cramped. Everywhere there was equipment to unload and set up.

Everyone was busy with work and safety training as well; half the first month was devoted to orientations of various sorts. There was no reason to overtrain the crew on earth if they really needed to train with their Mars colleagues anyway. Hence there were outdoor hikes, trips in the rangers and other vehicles, industrial equipment demonstrations, and safety drills at odd times. There was even a 1 a.m. depressurization drill in Habitat 4, which housed twelve of the new arrivals.

It wasn’t until the second week when there was any time to set up the store. DiPonte labored at nights, sometimes well after midnight, putting together metal and plastic shelves and loading them with perfumes, toothpaste, chocolate, tampons, liquor, and dozens of other consumer goods. There were sections with clothing, housewares, linens, and children’s toys. The prices were absolutely shocking; a simple chocolate bar of admittedly the highest possible quality was $120. But the cheapest possible chocolate would have been $117 anyway; almost all the cost was from transportation. Martian consumers window shopped for a few sols, then began to buy. Diponte had brought $100,000 cash to provide a Martian money supply; he soon had the automatic teller machine set up in the Great Room itself. He accepted four different credit cards for payment.

The opening of the store coincided with Aurorae Borough’s first town meeting since the arrival of Columbus 5. It was held after supper on a Frisol and, except for a few parents putting children to bed, every adult attended. Will rang the Outpost’s bell to mark the convening of the meeting and after a few opening words of welcome, projected the proposed agenda on the screen. Érico, as borough clerk, took minutes as the meeting proceeded, and they were projected onto another screen. When Will offered the floor to those present, he was surprised to see that almost every new arrival raised his or her hand. “Where does this term ‘borough’ come from, anyway?” asked Julia DiPonte.

“Let me keep a list of speakers and call on the names, Julia,” Will replied. “But to give you a quick answer, in old England it was a town with a charter to elect its own government, and in Alaska it’s the name of the very large divisions of the state; rather like counties elsewhere. Our ‘borough’ at the moment is like the English borough, but with the land of the Alaska borough; actually, Aurorae Borough is almost the size of Alaska. It’s also the only part of this planet we’ve explored in great detail. Maybe in the future it will be the equivalent of a state and will have townships within it. We’ll see.” Meanwhile, he jotted down a list of the people who had their hands up. “Maybe we should go around and brainstorm, since I doubt that all of you want to talk about the same matter. Thierry.”

Thierry Colmar was the sole French addition to the crew, and a specialist in driving Prospectors. He rose. “I’m surprised the question of purchasing condominiums isn’t here on the agenda. Some of us are anxious to have that opportunity.”

“That’s for a future meeting,” replied Will. “The legal framework is still being drawn up; there are American, European, Japanese, Canadian, and other laws to look at, and we have to come up with a modification that fits our technological circumstances as well as our cultural situation. Don’t worry, that will be addressed in about two months.”

“How often are these meetings held?” asked Zach, who was sitting next to Thierry.

“Your question is out of order; let’s raise hands, please. But the answer is that we can hold them as often or as rarely as we want or need. Last year the town meeting was convened four times; the year before, twice. Ernesto is next on my list.”

Ernesto Alves, the new Brazilian, stood. He was a very capable man, a horticulturalist, cook’s assistant, and accomplished oil painter at once. “I’d like to see the issue of the work week on the agenda. Fifty hours a week is really a lot, but lately we’ve been working sixty or more. I’d prefer that we stick to fifty, if possible; longer hours limit our ability to socialize and become friends, which is essential if this place is going to become unified and socially strong. Longer hours also limit us artists; we’re too tired to do our art.”

“Let’s just add that topic to the agenda,” replied Will, with some hesitation in his voice. “Tina.”

Tina Hvitmer rose. She was a Dane, a journalist, and a geological technician. “I actually had a similar concern to Ernesto. I need time to do journalism as well as geology, and lately I’ve been doing construction instead of either one! But the issue I wanted to raise was the so-called issue of the month. It may work for everyone else, but it won’t work for my journalism.”

“A point of clarification,” said Will. “There’s no plan to require people to stick to the issue of the month. There never has been. Obviously a professional journalist living here can’t file all her stories about the same topic one month and all of the stories the next month on another topic. So my question is, do you still think we need to discuss this matter in the town meeting?”

“I thank you for the clarification, but I think the matter of media strategy needs to be addressed here.”

“Very well, let’s add it to the agenda. Greg.”

Greg Harris stood. “I think quality of life should be on every agenda.”

Will glanced at the agenda, which was growing in length. “Very well, we’ll add the question of adding it to every agenda to this agenda. Pete.”

Theodoulos stood. “I see election of borough officers is on the agenda for tonight. I think it should be postponed at least a month. The eighteen of us who are new here still barely know everyone else, and vice versa. In another month we’d all be better able to vote for borough officers.”

“Another topic to discuss. Silvio.”

“I’m concerned that this free format is difficult for some of us and wonder whether Robert’s Rules of Order should be adhered to instead.”

“Oh, please, no,” replied John Hunter.

Will glared at him for speaking out of turn. “That’s everyone on my list, and maybe we should start with the last point. Comments about Robert’s Rules of Order?”

“Never liked them,” said Zach.

“Not helpful for non-westerners,” added Qingtian Li, their Chinese geologist.

“Divisive and western,” added Ruhullah.

“Okay, anyone in favor?” asked Will. Silvio raised his hand and everyone giggled.

“Since I don’t even have a second, I withdraw the motion,” said Silvio with a smile, and everyone laughed again.

“That’s that,” said Will. “We’re moving along. Postponing the vote.”

Ken Dunbar raised his hand. “We need a judge rather badly.”

“Why?” asked someone, and after a moment of whispering he said “Oh.”

“Then let me speak,” said Érico, raising a finger first. “I’d rather get the selection of officers over with, so we will have a judge.”

Pete waved his hand and Will nodded. “Let me modify my proposal, then. Let us select a judge tonight; I think that is a fairly straightforward matter, since we only have one person here with the necessary legal training. But let’s postpone the election of the other officers a month, to October.”

Will looked around the room. He could see nods from quite a few of the new arrivals. “I can see this is an important matter for some of you, which seems to be yet another reflection of the sense of citizenship you have already displayed. Shall we move to a vote on the matter?” He paused, and when no one spoke he said “All in favor of selecting a judge tonight and postponing the election of our other officers a month, please raise your hand.”

Many hands went up; Will and Érico immediately started counting. “Thirty in favor, so the resolution passes. I suggest we open the floor to nominations for judge.” He nodded to Pete when Pete raised his hand. “We only have one lawyer here, so I nominate Silvio Diponte.”

“Second,” said Qingtian, who added, “Even if we don’t need Robert’s Rules.”

People laughed at that. “Other nominations?” asked Will. There was a long silence. “Then let us close the floor to nominations and vote. All those in favor of Silvio DiPonte as Borough Judge raise their hands.”

Everyone raised their hands. “Very well, it is unanimous.”

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The Borough meeting marked a shift in priorities to construction of the first biome. Everyone was anxious to get it set up; everyone wanted to move in, which was not possible, so those with seniority would get preference. But even that would set off a rearrangement of space, since their vacated apartments would be available for refurbishment and reoccupation. Hence began the greatest burst of construction Mars had seen.

Almost everyone spent some time on construction, even the geologists and exobiologists, who were going out on longer and longer expeditions around the valley. The ecological crew wanted to be able to set up the plants in the biome, which meant extensive construction first. Alexandra Lescov started work on the outer shell of the buildings first so that the ecology could be set up. The inner buildings, inside the kevlar construction bubbles, would be constructed later. By early September, as automated cargo vehicles 1 and 2 were aerobraking into Mars orbit with their last thirty-six tonnes of supplies—supplies that would have to sit in orbit some time before they were brought down—the steel beams to support the outer walls and roofs of the two buildings were being attached to the steel beams already built into the duricrete floor. The procedure required rupturing the biome’s airtight plastic skin, but before the plastic was cut away a very heavy steel ring was placed around the hole to hold the plastic against the duricrete floor, and additional weight was placed on and around it. As a result, the hole in the bottom of the biome produced a very slow leak; the escaping oxygen-rich air flowed into the airtight envelope around the biome and a powerful pump put it back inside. Once the I-beam was in place, the plastic was sealed airtight around it, the weights and ring were removed, and the procedure repeated at the next attachment point. Each building required fourteen beams—eight supporting the outside and six supporting the inside—each took two sols to secure in place, and two teams were at work. By the middle of September, the beams of the first building were in place.

Work then shifted to the flat roof that would support two meters of soil, water, and plants. A crane was jacked up a pair of I-beams to the roofline and used to lift more beams to the top for welding across the open space. Soon workers riveted the beams in place, then robotic welders welded the horizontal beams to the vertical ones. That task was followed by welding down heavy nickel-steel plates to the beams to form a solid, airtight barrier; robotic welders worked twenty-four point six hours a sol. Alexandra was busy verifying everything, with teams on the Earth checking videos and x-rays of everything.

By early October the 2.5 meter high sides of the first agricultural box were being welded in place as well. Rangers began to pull trailers loaded with sand, silt, and gravel to the airlock, and another ranger inside the biome pulled the trailers inside and dumped them. A team began to set up a pneumatic chute that would be used to blow the thousand tonnes ingredients for the farm up to the roof. Once the first agricultural box was set up, a Satursol morning ceremony was scheduled.

Everyone was lifted to the roof in groups of six by the crane. The welded metal box, about ten meters long and six to nine meters wide, was lined with a heavy plastic membrane to protect the metal from water and rusting; it made the walking strange. Will walked to a side and tried to look over the edge so that he could glance down on the courtyard, but it was too high and he could see over only by carefully jumping up. As more people arrived on the roof they tried a similar tactic; a good jump upward in Martian gravity allowed one to look outside at the escarpment.

Almost everyone in the Outpost came up. Lisa Kok was last, and she carried two large potted plants in her arms. She brought them over to a three by three meter square of dirt that had already been hauled to the roof. Everyone followed her and stood in a circle around the dirt patch.

“On Earth there is a tradition,” said Will. “When a building reaches its highest point, a freshly cut tree is attached to the pinnacle. Here we can modify the tradition and plant a tree on the roof instead.

“We’ve all worked incredibly hard for the last month. On a typical sol, half the Outpost has been laboring in here on these buildings, and all of us have spent some time here. There’s a lot of work left to accomplish; building one has one agricultural box completed out of three; building two still has two vertical beams to erect, and then the horizontal beams and metal sheets have to be added.

“This is an excellent occasion to look back and reflect on our accomplishments. We have clicked quite well as a team, and every sol our friendships deepen. Later this sol we will all celebrate the marriage of our friends Lal and Radha, which will deepen and enrich our lives here. And we have learned how to build these buildings; each specialized construction team has successively been trained and can now continue their work until it is complete on both buildings. So we have those accomplishments to celebrate as well.

“Now I’ll turn the program over to Alexandra Lescov. She put together the idea of the biome and gave it its name, so it is fitting that she would dedicate this biome and give it a name. Alexandra.”

Everyone applauded as Alexandra stepped forward. “The Commander very kindly asked me to decide how we would dedicate this biome. As he noted, in some parts of the world, a dead tree is erected on the top of a building when it reaches its highest point. Since this place is a ‘biome,’ derived from ‘bios,’ meaning ‘life,’ the parallel is to plant a tree, so that’s what we will do. We have two trees here, a date palm and an orange. The first symbolizes the richness of the Garden of Eden; the second, the richness of our modern agriculture. I am calling this act of dedication the ‘vivification’ of the biome.

“As for the name, I thought we should choose a place on Earth with a similar climate to the biome. Eventually we will need biomes representing the full range of terrestrial climates; tropical forest and savanna, desert, Mediterranean, temperate forest and grassland, perhaps even tundra. Each biome will have an ecology appropriate to the climate, and collectively they will allow us to raise a wide variety of plants. Other biomes, as we develop them, will have partially Martian climates and will serve to research the transition to terrestrial life on Mars, if we choose to engineer such a transition.

“This biome will be named Yalta, which is a Russian resort city on the Black Sea coast. It has a lovely climate, with very mild winters and comfortable summers. That represents the climate in this biome quite well. When the sun stands over the equator and shines straight down on us, Yalta will have its summer. When the sun is as far north as it gets—northern summer solstice—Yalta will get ten percent less sunlight. The southern solstice coincides with perihelion and the dust storm season, when the dust cancels out the increase in sunlight and insolation drops to as little as ten percent of average. The solstice periods will be Yalta’s winter. Thus Yalta will go through two terrestrial season cycles per Martian year, each 334 sols in length.

“We have a small shovel here. If everyone will form two lines, we’ll dig the holes for these trees together.”

Everyone formed into two lines and took turns digging holes for the two trees. Then Alexandra put the date palm in its hole and Lisa put the orange in its hole. Then everyone formed the lines again and filled the holes. The trees were planted.

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