4

Election

The asteroid 2019XA was still a small object on Aster-1’s radar screen when Érico Lopes and Rostam Khan completed the engine firing sequence. The Lifter Stickney’s engine roared alive, expelling carbon dioxide and water vapor at 3.8 kilometers per second in order to neutralize part of the probe’s velocity away from Mars and to realign its path toward the asteroid.

For four minutes the engine fired, then fell silent. “Main engine cutoff,” reported Rostam. “It looks like a perfect burn. We should have doppler shift data from the Trek-3 probe in about twenty minutes to triangulate the acceleration vectors.”

“We can wait,” replied Will. “Rostam, initiate the separation sequence so that we’re ready if the data looks good.” He glanced at a picture of the 1,249 meter object on a computer screen. Aster-1 had already yielded better photographic imagery and some better spectroscopic data than large telescopes near Earth had. It was a small, insignificant object, but interesting in its own way, and it marked an important symbolic step in Mars’s own exploration of the solar system, a step unimaginable even five years earlier.

They waited and chatted. “So, Will, can the Aurorae Golf Club get use of a ranger this weekend?” asked Érico. “We want to do a round of golf, and we’ll probably spend a few hours widening the eighth hole fairway as well.”

Will shrugged. “If a ranger is available, go for it. We have to charge the club, of course, our usual heavy hourly fee. But the dozen members can afford it, or have agreed to afford it, so why not?” They had all coughed up $20,000 to join, and progress on improving the nine holes—which were mostly cleared circular areas in the boulderscape with cups and flags—was slow.

Will’s videophone rang. Since they had time and Rostam was busy with a routine matter, Will activated it. “Will, I need you to talk to Pavel again about the annex specifications,” said Alexandra. “People will be flying in them less than six months, but living in them here for years. We need a better arrangement in the waste recycling systems, since here we can add to the facilities but in orbit they can’t. I’d rather that we fly an intact waste recycling system back to Earth for reuse in space and fly a separate system for Martian use. He thinks it’s a waste of mass—no pun intended—but his approach leaves us with a lot of equipment with the wrong design specifications.”

“I know,” replied Will. “I’ll look over the proposal again and get back to him. The plan is coming along fairly well, don’t you think, in spite of a few setbacks?”

“Oh, sure! This saves tonnes and increases safety. It’s ugly in the biomes, but we can manage that by adding attractive siding in front and light wells in back. We just have to resolve the problems with waste recycling better, that’s all.”

“I’ll call him.”

“Thanks. How was the burn?”

“It seems to have gone perfectly, but we’re waiting for confirmation.”

“Good. I ask because, as you know, Yevgeny wants to go on the mission to Gradivus. Personally, I’d prefer that he stay here; it’s a long way to venture to see a rock.”

“Well, that launch is still months away, as you know. If this goes well and Aster-1 lands successfully, we’ll schedule the launch of Aster-2 to Eureka in July or August. It doesn’t need much fuel or a Lifter. And if that goes well, we’ll start to plan the launch to Gradivus for early November. So you have time to worry.”

“Thanks! Bye.”

He said goodbye and closed the circuit. “It’s going to be very tricky choosing a crew for the flight; everyone wants to go,” said Érico.

“I know. We may have to resort to a preliminary cut, then a lottery to finalize the crew,” said Will. “We have literally dozens of overqualified people.”

“We have dozens who’ve been to Phobos, Deimos, or both,” agreed Érico. “If you count those objects, we have more asteroid experience here than Earth.”

“Exactly.”

They continued the chat until the doppler shift data arrived from Trek-3, which was in the inner asteroid belt. Since it was located in a different part of the solar system, its data, combined with the doppler shift data from four satellites orbiting around Mars, gave a very precise description of the burn. “It’s 0.1 meters per second fast,” reported Rostam. “Within limits.”

“Then commence separation,” replied Will. “Let’s get these puppies moving to their destination.”

Rostam nodded and laid in the separation sequence. Thirty seconds later explosive bolts separated the vehicles. Both fired their reaction control system jets to move apart slowly. Then, an hour later, Aster-1’s two engines came alive. “There she goes!” said Rostam. “Twelve years old or not, these refurbished engines are behaving perfectly!”

“Great,” said Will.

“It’s a good firing,” added Érico.

“Five . . .four. . . . three . . . two. . . . one . . . MECO,” added Rostam, announcing main engine cutoff. The firing had lasted just twenty seconds, but it was long enough to add 723 meters per second to Aster-1’s velocity. “We’re on our way to 2019XA,” he added. “Perfect burn.”

“Then let’s fire up the Stickney’s engine and get the Lifter on its way back here,” said Will. “Congratulations, gentlemen, we’ve done it!”

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Helmut Langlais walked across the yard in the middle of Dawes Outpost carefully, favoring his right leg so as to avoid hurting his left knee further. In the last two weeks, the place had become more boring in that the interior, having been completed, was no longer changing. The forty-meter biome, like all the others on Mars, now had a north building and a south building with a vegetation-filled “yard” in the middle and agriculture-covered roofs above. The fruit trees were skinny, yellow-leaved, and only 150 centimeters high; the grape vines adorning the sides of north building were barely four meters long and scraggly looking. Yet the old-timers considered the erection in six months of a forty-meter bubble of Earth 6,000 kilometers from Aurorae Outpost to be miraculous. Cassini had taken a year to get this far.

Helmut limped into south building and walked straight into the clinic. It smelled new and was rather sparse; the last equipment was scheduled to arrive by robotic truck next week. Anna Racan was waiting to see him. As soon as she began to feel the knee and watched him jump, she could see there was a serious problem. She put him in the magnetic resonance scanner and the resulting picture told all. “Helmut, you have serious damage to the cartilage in the kneecap,” she said. “I’m not a doctor, of course, so we’ll have to email this to Shinji Nagatani and Cornelius Beyer to get their official view. But I can tell you with some confidence that they will recommend an operation.”

“An operation! All I did was fall!”

“Well, you fell four meters, which is a long way to fall, even on Mars. Be thankful your suit held up just fine; last month a man fell on the moon, his helmet seals broke, and he died before they could get him into an airlock—”

“I know, I heard about it. But Anna, can’t this just heal if I’m careful?”

“No, because you have loose pieces of cartilage inside. You can see them. It’s a pretty simple orthoscopic surgical procedure. Shinji’s done it before. They’ll make a couple of cuts in your knee a centimeter or two in length and use tiny instruments. You’ll need two months to heal.”

“Two months! I’ll be out of work two months?”

Anna shrugged. “Pretty much. You can work from a seat most of that time; you could drive Prospectors or run remote-controlled equipment. Don’t worry, Sibireco won’t be hurting. In the last few months you’ve been a demon on the job anyway; I heard your boss say at lunch a few sols ago that you have already done a year of work!”

“I have worked pretty hard.”

“Hard! About eighty hours a week, I think. So I suggest you relax and enjoy the rest. You’ll have to go to the Outpost for the operation, you know.”

Helmut looked even more alarmed. “Anna, I want to be an astronaut. Will this disqualify me?”

“Only if it doesn’t heal! A lot of people have worse sports injuries, I assure you. This is a minor operation. So just relax. The Sunwing D flies back to Aurorae Outpost in a few sols; I know, I’m scheduled to be on it. If Shinji says what I think he’ll say, you’ll be back here by the end of July.”

Helmut shrugged. “Alright, if you say so. I suppose my job is secure, and it won’t be hard for Sibireco to find a substitute.”

“It won’t; they pay twice as much as the Mars Commission.” Anna smiled. “Look, consider the positives. Aurorae’s a great place to visit, with lots of eligible women. It has a lot more interior space and plenty of Prospector work to get done.”

“And I’ll be able to talk to the geologists.”

“Yes, the ones who are around, anyway. The flight here will bring some to Dawes for the Hellas expedition. And since you can’t work, you can talk to them while here.”

“And attend the town meeting here before the election. I’d like to be here for that.”

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All across Mars, the first Sunsol after the northern spring equinox was election sol, which meant that Satursol afternoon the boroughs held town meetings to discuss the future.

Everyone began to gather before 3 p.m. on the patio in Yalta, between the outpost kitchen and the store, near the play area where the kids could keep themselves occupied. Father Greg closed his new beauty salon, which was open only on weekends. At 3 p.m. Will Elliott stood at the lectern in front of the crowd. “Good afternoon, everyone,” he began. “We gather this afternoon to discuss the next annum—Martian year—and our progress here. We have to remember two elections that will occur tomorrow: the Aurorae Borough government, consisting of the Chair, Clerk, Treasurer, and two at-large council members; and five representatives to the Mars Council. Under our current election tradition, we have no official candidates because everyone is eligible to vote and be voted for; everyone except me, that is, because under the Fundamental Law of Mars I am the governor, appointed by the Mars Commission, and therefore cannot serve on any of these other bodies. That’s one reason I am chairing the meeting this sol; you can’t vote for the chair! This meeting exists so that everyone can gather and talk about the issues they see, the solutions that might work, and things we can all do together to make life better here. It is also a chance to look around you and see who might be good choices for the various posts you have to fill by ballot. There is no reason to vote for the same five persons for the Mars Council as for the Borough Council, nor is there a reason to vote for another group of persons entirely; you are free to decide. There is also no reason to reelect automatically persons currently holding the officer positions for the Borough; they are our civil servants and we are free to accept their service or prefer someone else. Above all, the tradition on Mars, so far, is that we have wanted to get away from noisy campaigns where people make all sorts of promises they may or may not keep, and attack other persons directly or by innuendo. Let us keep our process of selecting leaders above the fray of partisanship and the pettiness that can result. Let us strive to create a climate of expectation where the Council members make decisions based on what is best, not based on what will maximize their chance for reelection.

“The Fundamental Law is basically our Constitution. Based on it, and based on our current stage of development, the Mars Council and Governor are responsible for Mars-wide laws, income and sales taxes, the health care system, university level education, law enforcement, courts, and artistic and cultural development. With the Mars Assembly, the body elected by all land owners, the Council and Governor are responsible for property law, land sales outside the boroughs, property taxation if any, and property services. The boroughs are responsible for education through the high school level, law enforcement, and have the authority to sell land and raise property taxes within their jurisdictions. The Mars Commission currently retains the following responsibilities: agriculture and environmental management; transportation; exploration, science, and technological development; exploitation of natural resources; exports; and jurisdiction over everything in Mars space. The Commission currently pays the costs of the Mars Authority and the borough governments, and as a result there are no taxes. If the Authority establishes taxes on corporations, by contract they come out of the profits or fees owed to the Commission.

“As I hope all of you know, the list of possible topics to discuss has been on the outpost’s website for a week and we already have a list of people who have asked to speak. We have chosen six speakers randomly from that list to start our discussion. Everyone is asked to keep their comments to two minutes.

“The meetings at Cassini and Dawes will occur in a few hours and will be broadcast via the Mars This Sol web channel; please consider the issues raised at those outposts as well. Our meeting is being broadcast live all over the planet. Residents of Aurorae, regardless of where they are on Mars, can call in to participate.

“The opening discussion topic is general: what specific improvement would you propose for life here? The first speaker is Lal Shankaraman.”

The videoscreen behind Will came alive with Lal’s image. “Good afternoon everyone,” he said. “I apologize I’m not there; right now we’re located on the northern slope of Elysium Mons and heading to the top! There are eight of us and we’re all Aurorae residents, and we’re all watching even though it’s the wee hours of the morning here.

“I’ve been on Mars a long time, now; I arrived on Columbus 3. To some extent, it’s hard to imagine what we can do to improve things. We have almost unlimited psychological counseling; we are the best studied population of humans there has ever been! We have sixty hours per week of day care for our children and the best physical health care imaginable. But if there is one thing we don’t have: personal time. We’re still working a minimum of fifty hours per week and some of us are working much more, especially the new arrivals. Meanwhile, on Earth the work day is heading toward thirty-five hours per week, even in the U.S. We are the most highly automated population that ever was, also, with the result that we are more productive than workers on Earth. So if I would ask for anything, it is a pledge that we will lower the workweek to forty-five hours in the next two years, and to forty hours over the four years after that. The natural growth of our population and continued automation will not result in a reduction of anything, just slower expansion of our programs. As far as I am concerned, that’s fine.” He said the last two words emphatically and many people seated at the tables on the patio applauded. A few even cheered. Will was surprised by that.

“This is an important issue, and one the Mars Council should probably discuss,” he said. “Madhu Gupta-Anderson.”

Madhu rose from her seat. “Everyone already knows what I want to propose, so maybe I should just sit down and you can consider the plea made,” she said with a chuckle. “The arts shape our identity as a people and profoundly develop a sense of Mars culture. Mars culture is a potent export item, not only in terms of visibility but in terms of keeping the dream alive and bolstering support for us on Earth. I am delighted that the task has been given to the Mars Authority, rather than the boroughs; it elevates its importance. But I would hope that Boroughs will develop cultural offices as well and will invest in the arts and culture also. Our ballet and folk dancing are particularly beautiful; let’s develop these unique art forms. Let’s import experts from Earth to help us. Our stark physical environment and its dusty-pink lighting lends a unique inspiration to the visual arts and to music. Let’s develop that inspiration. Our architecture and lived environment are already exerting an influence on terrestrial spaces; let’s continue to develop them. The physical materials available to us require different techniques for creating sculpture. Many of you enjoyed the ice carvings we set up outside two months ago, especially the shapes that resulted when they degraded. We need more people and resources to continue that effort. So my big plea is very simple: if you want to develop Mars, develop the arts here.” And she sat as many applauded her.

Will nodded. “We need reminders and gentle pressure; thank you Madhu. Prince Abdu’l-Majid.”

The Khalistani prince, who was also a capable engineer, rose. “I’ve been here less than a year,” he began. “But I have already learned more than I ever imagined, and I have been changed by the experience profoundly. I don’t think a society like this has ever existed in human history before. Not only are we the most highly educated society that has ever formed, but we are also the most diverse. In some ways I think we are also the most mature and balanced society as well, notwithstanding the fact that any society made up of human beings is imperfect and prone to errors and extremes.

“Therefore I am surprised that the Mars Commission does so much and we, as a society, still do so little for ourselves. If I had any recommendation for improving this place, it is that the Commission turn over more tasks to the Authority and the boroughs. There is no reason the boroughs shouldn’t control their own agriculture and environmental management. The Commission or the Authority could set standards and the boroughs can strive to reach them. The Commission could also turn over all surface and atmospheric transportation to the Authority; it’s the same people, after all, doing the work. Even the exploration effort could be devolved to the Authority, because we are already using non-Commission personnel to provide far more than half of our terrestrial support. The Commission has already signed contracts with specific university departments and research institutes to provide geological support for specific expeditions. Why shouldn’t our exploration effort be given to Mariner Institute of Technology and all our geologists and other scientists become faculty there? Their exploration would then be done in collaborations they set up. We do a lot of chemical and engineering research here as well, and it would benefit from the existing university model.”

Will nodded, impressed by some of the prince’s ideas. “Thank you. As you know, some of these ideas are in active consultation. Ruhullah Islami.”

“My comments follow up on Abdu’l-Majid’s quite well. As most of you know from my postings on the forums, I’d like to see us expand our exploration efforts in several ways. First, I’d like to see the development of more temporary shelters on the surface, especially at both poles. We need to devote a lot more attention to the Martian polar regions, working toward the establishment of permanent outposts at both. The polar environments are valuable laboratories for developing the techniques for living on the moons of Jupiter. The same for Phobos and Deimos, which are the key to the asteroid belts. So I rather disagree with Abdul-Majid’s suggestion that we follow the university model in exploring Mars; we need an active presence of governmental funding, and the Commission can provide that. We need to develop this place so that there are more bases for local exploration.”

Ruhullah sat to scattered applause. “Thank you,” said Will. “Silvio DiPonte is next.”

Silvio stood. “I want to summarize my ideas for developing businesses here. As you all probably know, they’re on a web page, and I thank those of you who have gone to look at it.

“We are gradually developing some excellent private initiatives here, but they are all what could be called ‘cottage industry’; something one person does in his or her own private residence on the weekend. Perhaps the best developed example is Father Greg’s beauty salon, which is the only place on the planet one can get a decent haircut. The monthly flea market is the place to see the pottery, knitting, and other items this industry generates. But as good as these enterprises are, Mars needs a robust private sector. We need to get to the point where someone can get a contract to manufacture copper cable, or fabricate plastic parts, or build a biome, or supply agricultural products. We have some of the infrastructure in place for that development; people can pay for their services here. But we don’t have the financial infrastructure ready. The bank is not in the position to make a ten million dollar loan to someone to buy used equipment from the Commission, and even if it were, the risk is still too difficult to quantify. So I am calling for a commission to study this problem and make specific recommendations to the Mars Authority and the Mars Commission how we can begin to grow businesses here. The details are on the website.”

Will looked at his list. “Érico Lopes is next.”

The screen came alive again. Érico sat in a room with evening sunlight streaming in a window to the right. “Good sol from Dawes,” he said. “Sorry to miss the meeting, but I was asked to chair Dawes’s first borough meeting later this sol instead. In thinking about what I should say here to open the discussion, inevitably I was drawn back to the insights we gained from the ‘Living Well’ conference we participated in some years back. The time is probably due to run the conference again in a new form. We learned from that conference that the key to happiness lies not in outward changes such as a shorter work week, as important and vital a reform as they are. Rather, the key to happiness lies within each one of us. I suppose it sounds strange hearing a point like that from an agnostic like me, but it is a humanistic observation as well as a religious one. If we want to live together here we have to learn better coping skills, more patience with each other, more abilities to listen to each other, more willingness to search for ways to agree on the essentials and compromise on the lesser details. When we look at Earth, we see vast material prosperity in some regions coupled with crime, fear of one’s neighbor, nasty politics, basic distrust of society, and a lack of a sense of connection with the poorer sectors of the Earth. There aren’t even 150 of us here, but we are on everyone’s television screens weekly if not daily. We exert an influence far beyond our mere numbers. We have a responsibility to serve as an example to others in our lives and in our society.

“Because our society is now a ‘city on a hill,’ an example to humanity. That torch is slowly but surely being passed from America to us. To some extent it seems absurd to think that such a tiny society as ours can don such a huge mantle; but that is our belief. It is no more absurd than when the first Americans felt that the torch had been passed from wealthy and powerful Europe to their own poor and weak country. We must realize that we now are being offered one of the greatest challenges any society can be given: the challenge to lead the rest of humanity by example. I think we’re ready.”

Érico’s comments generated considerable applause, for they resonated with a basic attitude that had been taking shape on Mars over the last two annums. It was a myth that drove Martian settlement almost as much as exploration and gold did.

Will let the applause die down naturally. Hands shot up all over the patio. “I guess I don’t have to remind everyone that Érico was our sixth speaker and the floor is now open. Our six speakers have given us a lot to talk about; I don’t think a panel of experts could have done better. Let’s remember we don’t want to delay supper, which starts in a bit over ninety minutes.”

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