10.
Elections
The cameras at Embarcadero
captured the burn of the engines quite well; methane and oxygen burned an
orange-tinted blue and were bright. Both the Apollonaris and the Tharsis
accelerated rapidly from their interplanetary transit facility, then shut off
their engines almost simultaneously three minutes later.
“The burn looks perfect at this end,” reported
Daichi Furukawa, pilot of the Apollonaris.
“We copy, Apollonaris,” replied Rostam Khan,
their cap com. “Our doppler radar shows the burn was within a centimeter per
second of the planned delta-v.”
“Same here,” added Husni Hijazi, commander of the
overall mission, who was located on the Tharsis. “Not bad; we’ll refine
it later. 2021BH, here we come.”
“Congratulations, guys,” said Will, from the control
room. “Be careful and stay safe.”
“Don’t worry, we’re missing Dusty Red already,”
replied Husni, whose wife and son lived in Aurorae. “It’ll be a perfect mission
and we’ll be back on time.”
“You’re in our prayers, Husni,” Will added. The
Muslim and the Bahá'í had gotten along quite well in the last two years,
respecting each other’s deep religiosity.
“Thanks, Will.”
Elliott turned to the screen. The vehicles were
rapidly shrinking in size. In the next few hours they would rendezvous and dock
together nose to nose, then spin at four revolutions per minute to create
artificial gravity for the cruise. In three months they would fire their
engines again and move onto an orbit to intersect the twenty-five kilometer
object, officially designated 2010BH but now being called Quirinus, a title for
the god Mars. It would be the largest thing ever intercepted from Mars. Another
engine burn a month later would put them in orbit, allowing a landing. After a
month of exploration, they’d fire their engines one last time and head for
Mars, arriving four months later. The asteroid represented a milestone in that
it never crossed Mars’s orbit, but always stayed just outside it. As such,
technically it was the first visit to an asteroid belt object. The asteroid was
also spectrally distinct, apparently the result of the collision of a
chondritic body with a nickel-iron body. That meant the worldlet had both
precious metals and a potential source of rocket fuel. It could also be reached
easily from Mars every few years. Consequently, it was a prime candidate for a future
mining mission.
He stayed in the control room a few more minutes,
listening to the shut down of the propulsion system and the reports from the
various navigational satellites. The mission was indeed on its way safely. Then
he headed across the hall to the conference room to work, where he would be
within earshot of any important developments. He always worked there when
something important was happening.
The congratulations began to arrive soon thereafter.
“A beautiful launch, Will,” said Louisa Turner. “It looks like we got a half
decent audience in Japan, where it’s evening now, and the preliminary data
shows a good audience in Arab countries, thanks to Hutan’s role as commander. I
think we can expect some editorials about Mars as the equal opportunity world,
where Americans and Europeans don’t always dominate. By the way, our new
director’s really good; Skip’s advice was useful. You should have seen him
mixing the shots during the burn, sometimes showing Embarcadero shrinking,
sometimes showing the engines blazing away; it was dramatic! Maybe you’ve
convinced me that these deep space missions are worth the risk. Bye.”
That was quite a concession; Louisa had consistently
been the lone voice against exploration beyond Mars and its moons. Will hit
reply. “Thanks, Louisa. I’m glad you convinced us to examine the schedule of
the burn so that Eurasia was awake and the Americas asleep, rather than the
other way around. I think this launch will prove quite beneficial. We need to
stay in the public eye, and that means doing things that are new. Besides, it’s
hard to keep two hundred astronauts on one planet! They’re itching to explore.
The long-term benefits far outweigh the risks. Bye.”
Meanwhile, a video message had arrived from Hans
Muller, whose mining company was one of the three on Mars. “Good sol, Will. The
Quirinus mission is very exciting. I was just watching the departure on
television; congratulations on what appears to be a sound mission. I do hope
you have plans to claim the asteroid for the Commission because it has great
mining potential. As I’ve said many times, Muller mining and its resources—its
profits and credit limit—are committed to Mars. We’d like to partner with you,
and asteroid mining is the next frontier. Let us know what we can do. Bye.”
Muller had indeed expressed the same thought several
times before. Will hit reply. “Good morning, Hans. Thank you again for your
warm words and especially for your support and collaboration. As you probably
know—it’s unofficial, but it’s been reported widely by the media—we’ll make a
claim to Quirinus. The shuttles are taking a ten-meter bubble with them; it has
no micrometeoroid protection, but if they bury it, it’ll be shielded. They’re
also taking an old Mars surface drill along and if we can find a suitable
chondritic body, we’ll establish a volatiles well and leave the drill. And
we’ll conduct a full month of detailed exploration. The question our lawyers
are still tackling is who can make the claim, and what sort of claim they can
make. Is the Mars Commission a governmental entity? Maybe. It isn’t a company. Could
the claim be made by the crew, as residents of Mars, on behalf of the Mars Council?
In that case the claim would be made by the terrestrial equivalent of a state
or county, not a nation, which would be strange. Or should we make the claim
not over the sovereign rights to Quirinus, but just over its mineral and other
property rights? Everyone says a claim over property and mineral rights will
stand up in court if we walk the object and leave a useable facility there. But
it’s probably premature to speculate because we don’t yet know whether Quirinus
really has the combination of chondrite and nickel-iron that will make it
exploitable, and whether its resources can be exploited more cheaply than the
billions of tonnes of nickel-iron lying all over the surface of the moon and
Mars. Shackleton bought fifty tonnes of methane from us last year so that it
would have the carbon supply to extract platinum-class elements from the
meteoritic nickel-iron in the regolith they’re already processing for ice. With
Martian output of platinum group metals also rising, the market for them may
soon be saturated.
“Anyway, I suppose you know all of this. A properly
designed robotic digger-processor might be operated more cheaply than anything we
can do on the surface of the moon and Mars, and the propulsion system to get cargo
to Earth is cheaper, especially using solar sails. It may be possible to run
the whole operation robotically except for crewed visits every year or two. But
I don’t think that technology exists yet. We’ll be glad to collaborate with you
as well, as the technology advances. Bye.”
He sent the message and saw that while he was
speaking longwindedly, a third message had popped into his box. It surprised
him: Charles Kerns, NASA Administrator, was calling.
Kerns was white-haired, with a trim, gray goatee.
“Good sol, Dr. Elliott, and congratulations on the launch of your Quirinus
mission. It represents an important sortie into the asteroid belt, considering
Quirinus’s potential and its elliptical orbit, which carries it as far as the
orbit of Ceres and Vesta.
“This makes it even more important for us to
collaborate. Next week the President will give a major space policy speech
where he’ll announce Project Odyssey. Its goals are to build a vehicle capable
of sustaining a substantial crew independently for a minimum of five years;
‘substantial’ means at least twenty-four people—and a propulsion system capable
of taking the vehicle and its crew at least as far as Jupiter, with exploration
of the asteroid belt in between. The deadline is fifteen years instead of ten,
as we had hoped, but the depression is pretty serious and money’s tight right
now. We should be issuing vehicle specifications in a few months; we’ve got
some pretty clear ideas already. We are
aware that the Odyssey vehicle may have other applications, such as transport
of larger numbers of people to Mars, and the propulsion system could shorten
transport time between the planets. So far, a Martian south polar station to
test equipment for the Galilean satellites is included in the plans, and we are
working on some other Mars-related projects.
“Looking forward to our continued collaboration.
Bye.”
It was an upbeat, friendly message, but Will was
wary. Removed from the negotiations by vast distance that slowed speed of light
communications to a crawl, he was not in the position to micromanage them. Will
hit reply. “Thanks, Charles, for your message. We’re pleased with the mission
so far; the equipment’s working well. We’re anxious to collaborate with you
also. I gather Krister will meet with you tomorrow; he’s our representative and
can see you live, so I’ll decline to get involved in the negotiations directly.
We look forward to offer our input into the design of any vehicle that we could
use as well. Bye.”
----------------------------------
Madhu rose from the table
and grabbing her chair, walked over to the “Happy Equinox” banner that was
still stretched across the entrance to the little courtyard. She stood on the
chair and carefully untied the banner, then went to its other end and untied it
as well. Finally, she rolled it up and brought it back to the table.
“Sorry; it was bothering me. It was supposed to come
down yestersol.”
“One week, huh?” asked Alexandra.
Madhu nodded. “We divided up the work, but I didn’t
do Colorado biome.”
“This is the only one that’s left, I think. I’m glad
you’re putting it away for next year.” Alexandra smiled. “It was a really nice
equinox celebration. The show you put together was incredible.”
Madhu smiled. “Thank you, you’re very kind. It’s proved
popular; something like a quarter million folks have watched it over the web.
Ballet is always popular.”
“Low gee. Christina’s a good ballerina, but the
gravity makes it possible for her to exceed the imaginations of the greats on
Earth.”
“The ‘Mariner Symphony’ is proving popular too,
though. And of course Jack Alberghini is a first-rate comedian.”
Alexandra laughed. “He is funny, it’s true.”
Just then Ethel entered the courtyard through the
entrance. “Oh, here you are. I thought we were having coffee in your
apartment.”
Alexandra waved her hand at the space around them,
which had three cylindrical apartment units on three sides and an opening on
the fourth. “As you can see, this is almost a private courtyard. The only door
is to our cylinder, which Yevgeny and I share with George Domeyko and Lin and
Sophie Chen. Sophie comes home after a long sol’s work and what does she do?
Tends the flowers out here.”
Ethel looked around. The courtyard had a central
skylight with a circle of flowers below it; the rest of the courtyard was
brick, with two tables on one side of the flowers and, incongruously, a kitchen
facility in one nook. “Very comfortable, and much sunnier than I would have
expected. I like Colorado, it’s attractive.”
“Everyone likes the sloping interior, and the trees
are nicely laid out,” added Alexandra. “Coffee or tea?”
“Sure; coffee.” Ethel looked at the cylinder. “So,
you have three stories?”
Alexandra walked to the stove and poured her a cup,
then came back to the table and handed it to her. She gave Ethel a small
cupcake without asking. Everyone knew that Ethel liked cupcakes. “Yes, we have
half a cylinder; ten meters across and up to five meters wide. The first floor
is our living room. We’ve got a master bedroom on the second, with a nice bath;
then the third floor is divided into two offices. And of course we have a full
kitchen out here; we talked to Sophie, Lin, and George and agreed to purchase a
full kitchen with a regular stove, microwave, refrigerator, cabinets, and a
nice counter, rather than three partial kitchenettes. The five of us use this
space for breakfasts and relaxing.”
“It’s very nice,” said Ethel.
“Where will you put the nursery; that is, if you
keep the baby,” asked Madhu.
“Yes, if. I don’t know. Yevgeny has said he’d sacrifice
his office, which he really doesn’t use much anyway. We might also approach
George and buy him out; his apartment is the other half of the first floor. I’m
not sure we need that much space for a child, though. We could also subdivide
the living room, since we almost never use it.”
“The third floor is pretty high up for a child’s
bedroom,” said Madhu.
Alexandra shrugged. “I don’t know. Spiral ramps seem
safer to me than spiral staircases. I guess we’ll keep the baby. Yevgeny really
wants to and he said he’d stay home with him. But that won’t get me completely
off the hook because I should breast feed him, and there will be midnight
feedings.”
“Ah, yes,” said Ethel and Madhu almost
simultaneously.
“It’s really not that difficult, though,” said
Madhu. “Alexandra, just enjoy this chance. Children are a burden and a
joy at the same time, but if you emphasize the joy, the burden really seems to
go away.”
“When I see families struggling to keep their kids
under control at supper, I’m not so sure.”
“Supper’s the worst time because they’re tired. The
Patio’s a zoo at suppertime,” replied Ethel. “Madhu’s right. Trust us; it’ll
work out.”
Alexandra smiled. “Okay, I guess.”
“And take some time off,” added Madhu. “We don’t
relax enough up here.”
“I’ve already started rearranging my work schedule
so that I can.” Alexandra looked at Madhu. “So, what’s your latest project?”
“The Equinox concert! And before that, decorating
the entire outpost for Equinox.” She pointed to the rolled up banner. “But in
addition to that, I’m adding another labyrinth pattern to Memorial Park. This
is a pretty clever design; it’ll have separate red, green, and white paths, and
it’ll lead to some pretty interesting mosaic art, which if you view in the
right order will tell a story. Older kids who can wear spacesuits will love
it.”
“I see you added another wind sculpture to the
sculpture garden,” said Ethel. “It’s amazing rock can erode that way. It almost
looks like the figure of a woman.”
Madhu’s eyes brightened. “Isn’t that incredible?
John Hunter brought it back from Deuteronilus Mensae. He spotted it two years
ago, but they had no way to transport it; this time the expedition had space on
a trailer for it, so when they were going by it John had them stop, and
supervised its excavation and packing.”
“Thank God the expeditions support art,” said
Alexandra.
“Oh, they love the wind sculpture garden! They’re
bringing back weird shaped rocks all the time. It’s the Mars equivalent of
picking up driftwood on the beach and making it into art.” Madhu poured herself
another cup of tea. “But I’d really like to tackle something big.”
“Like what?” asked Ethel.
“I don’t know. The other sol when the Quirinus
expedition set out from Embarcadero, I was impressed by how the place looks; it
now has several middecks and its axis stretches thirty meters. It occurred to
me that it has become our Ellis Island; it’s the place immigrants arrive, and
from which they descend to the surface. And I immediately thought of the Statue
of Liberty and how impressive it was for the arrivals to see.”
“Great idea!” exclaimed Ethel. “Propose it to Will!
Unlike the Statue of Liberty, it needn’t have much mass; the object could be
inflatable.”
“That’s what I was thinking, and if it had metal
reinforcements it would hold its shape even after the internal air pressure
dissipated.” said Madhu. “But it’s so impractical!”
“It’s art!” replied Alexandra. “Art isn’t practical
in that sense anyway. The problem I see is that it would have to be anchored to
Embarcadero, or it would drift away and possibly collide with the station
later. That means a truss would have to be attached to Embarcadero and to the
statue. What did you have in mind?”
“My thoughts really didn’t get that far,” replied
Madhu. Then she added a moment later, “Well, a design did occur to me of a
stylized figure—that new wind sculpture inspired me a bit, actually—female,
arms flung up and open in welcome, with a flame emerging downward from her feet
like a rocket engine.”
“Dramatic,” exclaimed Alexandra. “It’d take a tonne
or two of materials, that’s all.”
“A heavy aluminized fabric would do it, too, sewn
and glued into the right shape, then inflated,” added Ethel.
“Oh, come on,” said Madhu. “No one would spend the
money to build such a thing.”
“Why not?” replied Alexandra. “I think it’s a great
idea! Just because no one has built something like this in Earth orbit is no
argument against us doing it! We’re a space-faring civilization now. Let Earth
be inspired by our art.”
Madhu laughed. “You guys are pulling my leg!”
Ethel shook her head vigorously. “No, I agree with
Alexandra. It’s a good idea. You should propose it!”
Madhu stared at them, wide eyed. Then she laughed
again. “Okay, why not. I could sew and glue the aluminized cloth together
myself; I know how to do that, more or less. I’ll talk to Will about it.”
“I’ll back you,” said Ethel. “I’ve been here over
fifteen years and haven’t taken much vacation. I could take some time off.”
“I don’t think I can say the same,” added Alexandra,
patting her belly. “I have other priorities right now. But I can advise.”
-------------------------------------------
That evening, supper ended a
bit early and the tables were removed from the patio. The chairs were set up in
rows facing the stage. But the program was not the usual Satursol concert or
music and drinks for singles and childless couples. It was the night before the
Mars-wide elections and the usual time for the outpost’s meeting about Mars’s
future.
Soon everyone began to arrive for the 7:45 p.m.
starting time. As often happened, it was 8 p.m. before the patio began to look
full. At that point Will Elliott rose.
“Good evening everyone.” He paused to let the
conversation die down. “Good evening and welcome to our Future Forum. We hold
this forum every columbiad the night before the elections. At midnight everyone
will receive an email that will give a web link to a ballot. When you click on
the link, you’ll have to enter your name and password, then you will be able to
vote. There are no names on the ballot; it has been our custom since the first
election during the third columbiad to have no candidates, so you are free to
vote for anyone you wish. To give you some idea who has ideas and who takes
what positions, we hold a Future Forum, where everyone is free to speak. No one
who speaks is necessarily a candidate, though; by custom, we do not have people
announcing candidacy here or anywhere else. Rather, we are free to vote our
conscience.
“Yet another custom we have is that the evening is
chaired by someone who is not eligible for election. Until tonight that has
meant me; as Governor it would be a conflict of interest for me to be an
officer in the civil government and an officer in the Mars Commission. That
remains true, but our outgoing Borough Clerk, Érico Lopes, and our outgoing
Borough Chair, Alexandra Lescov, have both asked not to be reelected, and the
Borough Council accepted their request at its last meeting. Consequently, I
will turn the floor over to Alexandra in a minute.
“As a reminder—a Martian civic lesson, you might
say—Aurorae Borough has a Council consisting of an elected Chair, an elected
Clerk, an elected Treasurer, and two elected at-large members. Your ballot
will, therefore, have three separate blanks where you vote for the officers and
two blanks where you vote for the at-large members. Theoretically, you could
vote for someone twice, once as an officer and once as an at-large member. The
Council meets about once a month and currently is in charge of the preschool,
elementary school, the arts and culture office, and the constabulary. It sets
the level of property tax in the borough, a subject it will have to discuss
this year, since the Commission’s full subsidy is scheduled to end in December.
“Mars also has a Residents Council consisting of
five representatives from Aurorae and two each from Cassini and Dawes. You are
free to elect the same people to the Mars Council as to the Aurorae Council, or
different people; there are no restrictions or customs. The Mars Council, along
with the Mars Assembly chosen by land owners and the Governor chosen by the
Mars Commission, grants charters to Boroughs, oversees land use and
environmental regulation, and runs the health system and the university.
Exports, environmental management, mineral rights, science and exploration,
resource recovery, and coordination of Mars space remain the responsibility of
the Commission and therefore are outside the scope of our discussions tonight.
“With that summary I will turn the floor over to
Alexandra.”
Will stepped down and Alexandra Lescov walked slowly
to the podium. She pulled up a chair and adjusted the microphone downward.
“Tonight, the chair will sit,” she began. “I hope the Future Forum will indeed
focus on possibilities and visions for where Aurorae, and Mars, will be going.
Our creativity and innovation is an important engine for moving this world
forward. To give you an informal example, this afternoon three of us were
talking and we came up with the idea that Embarcadero needs a visual, artistic
representation of its role as our interplanetary transshipment point; a sort of
interplanetary Statue of Liberty to greet arrivals. We plan to propose it to
the Commission in a few weeks. I hope all of you will have proposals as well.
“Now, to open the floor; please raise your hands in
order to be recognized.”
Hands shot up. Alexandra couldn’t help but notice
Johnny Lind’s up high. He had put up a website where he had formally announced
his “availability” to serve on the Aurorae Council and had flown back from the
Meridiani expedition to be present at the Forum. She avoided him. “Toru
Takahashi.”
Toru rose. “Your reference to a Martian Statue of
Liberty and the Governor’s to the Office of Arts and Culture raises the issue
of whether we can afford to spend a lot on the arts when we are so few in
numbers, especially since we may soon have to pay taxes! While I like the arts,
I think it is hard to justify them here.”
“Comments on this subject only?” asked Alexandra.
Johnny’s hand went up again, but she signaled to someone on the other side of
the crowd. “Tatiana Petrovna.”
Tatiana arose. “This is a subject we could debate
for a long time, I’m sure, but all of us know that the arts has a role in any
culture, and since we have our own emerging culture, we have to find a place
for art. I, for one, am immensely grateful we have it; not only the labyrinths
and the sculpture garden, but the Satursol concerts and variety shows.”
Alexandra nodded. “Adam Haddad.”
“Rather than debate a topic like this, I have a
suggestion regarding it: we need a small art galley, maybe in Catalina near the
university. Ernesto Alves and I are not the only painters here, and we have a
few sculptors. We need a place to exhibit.”
“Thank you. This is a good example of what I was
hoping we could achieve: useful, positive contributions. Let’s go back to
general discussion. Kimberly Irion.”
Kim rose. “Our baby’s just nine months old and I am
very concerned about how crowded the child care facility has become. I think we
now have twenty-five kids in it, plus a dozen more in kindergarten and
elementary school. The twenty-five kids are being watched, usually, by three
adults only, and some of the kids are really little babies. Sometimes there are
only two adults, too. The parent volunteering isn’t working.”
Alexandra looked around. “I suggest Ruhullah
respond, since he manages the day care facility.”
“Sure,” agreed Ruhullah. He was surprised to be
called on, but rose quickly. “This is a very difficult problem and there have
been times I went down to help out; and I don’t have any kids! Obviously, we
can’t just hire someone. No one is available at just about any reasonable
price. We’ve been pleading with parents on family leave to come help. We have
about five parents available at any time and if each one volunteered a sol a
week, it would solve the problem completely. Even half a sol would help. So let
me issue a plea to everyone right now, whether you’re a parent or not: the kids
need your help. We have a need in the elementary school, too; we want more
experts to come in and give the kids special classes. The teachers will help
you tell your material in a way appropriate for the age. Please don’t ignore
this; act.” And he sat. Kim nodded, satisfied.
Hands shot up. Next to Johnny was his friend.
Alexandra pointed to her. “Sara Travis.”
Sara rose. “I want to make sure we discuss some of
the issues Johnny has singled out on his website. I like it when this forum
becomes a think tank and solves problems, or gives us all a vision, but I think
it needs to call into account the people who are providing us leadership as
well. I know a lot of us are very concerned about the plan to introduce
property taxes in December, and we want a further accounting of what it will
mean for us.”
There was a brief silence after that. Alexandra
looked around. “Commissioner Elliott, I think, should speak to that. Will?”
Will nodded and rose. “There’s a history to this
question because we have been dealing with the philosophy and ideology behind
it for a decade. In short, there are three models that Mars could pursue: call
them the kibbutz or pure socialism model, the mixed socialist/capitalist model
such as much of western Europe, and Canada to some extent, and the mostly
capitalist model of the United States and maybe Switzerland. When Columbus 1
arrived, the six crew members were closest to the kibbutz model. Maybe we
should call it the military model. By Columbus 3 it had become the kibbutz
model; all work was coordinated and all housing, meals, and health care were
provided. Consumer goods, such as there were, were imported for everyone and
available from the supply coordinator. Madhu cut our hair when necessary in the
Great Room on Sunsol afternoons.
But as this place has grown larger, things have gradually
changed. We got a store, we instituted land ownership and house ownership, and
we privatized gold recovery by signing contracts with three mining companies.
There’s been talk of eventually privatizing construction and horticulture. We
already have a Saturday night ice cream stand that’s private, a beauty parlor,
a monthly flea market where people sell their crafts, and various private
services. The cafeteria is beginning to sell processed food and people are
doing some cooking at home. Where will this lead? To a more and more mixed
economy, with more opportunities for residents to start private businesses. But
that means we have to move toward a fee-for-services structure. Starting next
year we will have bills for electricity, heat, and water. Not for air; that
will circulate for free, but there will be fees for piping pollutants out of
our pressurized spaces. There will be property taxes on all property in the
borough, including land. The tax money will come to the borough and the service
fees will be paid to the Commission. In turn, the Commission, estimating the
total fees and taxes that will be paid, will raise everyone’s salary an equal
amount. Theoretically, everyone will have the same buying power as they have
now, though some will have a bit more and some a bit less depending on the
services they need.”
Will sat and Johnny’s hand immediately shot up
insistently. Alexandra nodded to him. “Basically, the argument is that we’re
moving from a more socialist model to a more capitalist model. I don’t question
that, but I question the pace. If you want to start businesses, don’t suddenly
hit them with electric and water bills and taxes! Let the services remain free
so they can get started. It’ll be very hard starting businesses here anyway. I
favor limited privatization; it should increase our productivity, our
creativity, and our overall satisfaction. Businesses that make consumer goods
probably have the best chance to get started, since we need them badly. Let’s
encourage them.” He sat to some supporting comments from the crowd around him.
Will rose and looked to Ruhullah. “I suggest
Ruhullah Islami comment on Johnny’s suggestion, because he has worked on the
plan.” He sat and Ruhullah rose.
“We’ve taken that into account. New businesses will be
able to apply for a certain amount of free electricity and water per month. We
want them to pay something above the basic amount to give them an incentive to
save; we don’t have unlimited supplies. Businesses can also apply for tax
abatements for up to five years. We’re trying to arrange some small business
grants to encourage them.”
Johnny shook his head and raised his hand. Alexandra
reluctantly nodded. “This is complicated and there’s no guarantee businesses
will get what they need.”
Ruhullah had remained on his feet. “Well, sometimes
life is complicated, and it rarely come with guarantees. This way people will
know their real expenses and can anticipate them.”
Johnny raised his hand again, but Alexandra shook
her head. “Let’s move on.” Hands shot up. “George Domeyko.”
George rose. “I’d like a clearer accounting of the
cost of housing. The rumor going around is that we are paying the entire cost
of the imported materials, rather than a reasonable percentage.”
This was another matter Lind had raised on his
website. Alexandra looked at Will again, then Ruhullah, who rose to answer the
question.
“I’m glad this matter has come up, so it can be
straightened out. A typical annex has these costs: the outer 4.5 tonne thermal
and micrometeoroid shield costs about ten million euros; the three 1.5 tonne
pressure cylinders are a million each; the eight tonnes of life support
equipment are five million more; and launch costs are a million per tonne to
get here. Consequently, the total cost to make the annex and get it here is
forty million. The three pressure cylinders and the life support equipment come
to the surface; their cost alone is nineteen million. The rest heads back to
Earth and is used the next columbiad. In the accounting system, half the nineteen
million is considered the responsibility of the passengers and half the
responsibility of the house owners; nine and a half million each. But the cost
of converting the annexes into housing—building walls, putting the cylinder
inside a biome, etc—are also about nine and a half million for three cylinders.
That’s where the claim that we are charging people the full price for the annex
comes from. It isn’t true, we’re charging half for the annex itself and the
equivalent for internal construction.”
Ruhullah sat again, rather decisively, since he had
been rather hurt by the accusation. Alexandra nodded a thanks. “Tina Hvitmer.”
Tina rose. “My concern about the future has to do
with the balance of exploration versus domesticity. We have barely begun to
explore this planet, and here we are reaching for the asteroid belt. We have
very reliable vehicles, but reliable or not, accidents are possible, and we
can’t afford them. And now we have the questionable possibility of partnering
with the United States of America, possibly the most dangerous country on Earth
right now and one that has proved unreliable and untrustworthy. I simply can’t
fathom this situation.”
Will rose automatically but waited for Alexandra to
nod, because no one else could answer the question. “This will remain an issue
among us. Project Columbus has had an asteroid aspect since Columbus 1; in
eight Columbuses there have been five asteroid landings and seventeen asteroid
flybys. Two years ago we initiated robotic exploration of asteroids with used
equipment and sent a crew in two vehicles to Gradivus. The estimated chance of
failure was one in several hundred; odds everyone who applied for the mission
knew. One quarter of our residents applied and many more would have if they
didn’t have family obligations. So the crewed missions are popular and will
continue if the plans are reasonable and can be accommodated in our schedule.
“As for partnering with the United States, the
Commission cannot blacklist any potential partner, nor can it hold grudges against
anyone who has tried to hurt us. Columbus 8 almost didn’t fly here because the
equipment was tied up in court, and when it did fly here, it came under
chemical propulsion rather than nuclear; that was not our doing. But now it
appears the United States is taking a different approach to us. We can be
practical and generous, but we won’t allow ourselves to be exploited or to
compromise essentials. If an international effort to explore the asteroid belt
and Jupiter is launched that brings us new technology, faster propulsion
systems, and safer interplanetary transportation, and brings us business and
traffic, that is to our advantage.”
Alexandra nodded; it was a decisive, if vague,
answer. Considering that the meeting was broadcast live over the Mars Commission’s
web television channel, that was the best to expect.
---------------------------------
Will and Ethel usually sat
on the couch together for an hour or two every night after the kids had gone to
bed. Sunsol evening was one of their favorite times because they watched The
Edinburghers, a television series about a nineteenth century wealthy family
in Edinburgh, Scotland. But throughout the last half of the program, Will was
distracted by a flashing light on his attaché indicating the arrival of an important
message. When the show ended—the clock had just rolled over from 23:59 to
24:00—he looked at Ethel.
“Yes, go listen before we watch the next show,” she
replied.
“We don’t have time to watch all of the next one
anyway.”
“Why?”
“Midnight’s in 39 minutes, and that’s when the
election results will be released.”
“Well, we can watch most of it—we’ll want to skip
the commercials anyway—then pause it to see the rest.”
Will nodded. He rose from the couch and walked to
the breakfast table where he had left his attaché. He activated it.
“It’s from Charles Kern, Administrator of NASA.”
“He’s at the office late.”
“Yes, it’s . . . 8 p.m. Tuesday night in
Washington.” Will double clicked on the icon.
“Good sol, Will,” Kerns began. “As you may have
heard, Krister and I have hit a few bumps on the road in our effort to bring
Mars into Project Odyssey. I was hoping your personal involvement could help
resolve the difficulties. We very much want to invest in a Mars south polar
station; it offers vast scientific potential as well as providing a
Galilean-like environment for testing materials and equipment. But our
investment is only possible if it is an American station and not part of the
Mars Commission. Similarly, a Phobos nuclear reactor would have to remain under
U.S. control; we want a separate station there. Both facilities potentially can
offer a vast amount to Mars. I hope to hear from you about this. Bye.”
Will stared at the screen. Ethel was not so quiet.
“The nerve of them.”
“Krister told me earlier this sol. Besides being
emotionally unacceptable to the population here, it would violate the Mars
Commission treaty, which places all facilities in Mars space under the
Commission’s control.”
“Old habits die hard.”
“They can’t push around the rest of Earth any more,
so they think they can push Mars around instead. But they can’t; if they don’t
have our cooperation, the extra delta-v to their destinations will cost them
far more than a south polar station. Besides, we may provide them the uranium
they need for their project, since launching it from Earth is emotionally
difficult to sell to their population. Well, I’m not going to answer this now.
I’ll copy it to Louisa and Pierre and let them propose the response over
night.” He pushed a few buttons to forward the message, and typed a quick cover
note. Then he came back to the couch.
“Now I’m distracted,” said Ethel. “Johnny’s campaign
bothers me enough, but now this! I feel like we’re threatened from inside and
out.”
“Oh, don’t get too upset with Johnny. He may have
disrupted the Future Forum and made it the most contentious meeting we’ve had
so far, but I don’t think he generated much support for himself. Most people
seem to have felt that our explanations were clear enough.”
“You and Ruhullah did a good job. I was glad to see
him stand up and speak in public like that; he’s been almost shy until now.”
“He’s developed a lot of confidence over the last
year. With me serving as Acting Commissioner, he’s had to serve almost as
acting Governor, and he’s done a good job.” Will paused. “And as for Project
Odyssey, I think it’ll work out. We’ll find the right creative compromise.”
“I hope so. Were you surprised by Alexandra
mentioning the idea of a large art monument at Embarcadero?”
“I was. I think it’s a great idea; the best one to
come from the Forum. The question is how to pay for it. Pierre sent me an email
earlier this sol suggesting that he approach the French government for a
special grant.”
“Really?”
Will nodded. “They gave the Statue of Liberty to the
U.S., after all. If they can’t, we can approach some corporate sponsors. I
doubt it’ll be expensive; it’ll inflate into shape, after all. It shouldn’t
mass over a tonne or so.”
“Good; that makes me feel better!”
The two of them snuggled up in front of the television
together and started the next show they wanted to watch together. When the
clock rolled over from 24:39:35 to 0:00:00, Will didn’t bother to get up and go
to his attaché to see the results of the election. Then Ethel stopped the
program. “It’s time.”
He nodded. They both rose and walked to the
breakfast table, where Will told the attaché to find the web page with the
election results.
“Ah-hah!” he said, surprised. “Ruhullah is Borough
Clerk! Marvelous! With Yevgeny as Borough Chair.”
“And Lal as Treasurer. That should be interesting, I
don’t know whether he can count! Madhu Gupta and Martha Vickers on the Council.
How interesting; a psychiatrist.”
“She’s a good choice. Lal is, too; he can do
treasury stuff. Radha will be relieved to have him around the Outpost more.”
Will clicked on the “more votes” button. “Look, Johnny came in eighth for the
two Council seats, after Érico, Alexandra, Father Greg, John Hunter, and me!”
“Pretty far down. I guess campaigning didn’t get him
very far.”
“And his campaigning probably got Ruhullah elected,
because otherwise he wouldn’t have stood up and spoken!”
Ethel chuckled. “You’re right.
Well, let’s finish the program and go to bed. We’ll be able to read all the
crazy analysis tomorrow.”
© 2005 Robert H. Stockman