4

Keeping up with the Joneses

The word of the Green Earth Community’s interest in Mars leaked out and the Patio was soon abuzz with discussion about the idea. From the Patio it leaked to the media, who immediately called Forest Rivers, and his face was soon splashed across the screens of two planets. He had previously released press releases about his group’s interest in Mars, and they had received almost no attention; now they became the focus of a media frenzy of sort.

“I don’t particularly like him,” commented Helmut over lunch. “He seems self-righteous and arrogant.”

“He’s a very committed individual,” replied Greg. “I recognize the type. He may be hard to negotiate with; tough minded and unwilling to compromise.”

“In other words, he’s like half the people here,” said Anna. “I’m not sure I’ll be comfortable with these people, but Mars needs people, and I’m not comfortable with the idea that we can sell people land and refuse to let them come use it.”

“That’s the problem,” agreed John. “We have a lot of diversity here already and we have managed reasonably well. This isn’t to say there is no prejudice. A few people have told me they don’t think long hair is a good idea inside a spacesuit.”

“They’ve said that to you?” said Helmut, startled. He looked at John’s black braids.

“Yes, one or two people have said it, but there is no evidence it’s a significant safety issue. It curls up on top of my head pretty well and I pin it so that it’ll stay. But these are the sorts of comments that happen here. I am sure Fatima and Emily get comments about their veils. Will hears comments about his fasting every March. These sorts of things happen in a diverse society.”

“There’s more serious trouble than that; people feel they have experienced prejudice,” said Greg. “Especially the Muslims and the Chinese. The Americans get anti-American comments all the time, too, but that’s at a lower level. Some of the alleged prejudice is oversensitivity, but some is not. We aren’t perfect here where discrimination is concerned.”

“I think women are discriminated against at least as much as Chinese,” exclaimed Clara.

“And all of us are professionals with the same professional training,” added Greg. “That establishes a certain professional culture that gets extended to the Patio and other public places. If we have a group of people with a radically different corporate culture here, there will be clashes and differences that are greater than those between westerners and Muslims or Chinese.”

“So would you ban them?” asked Vanessa, scowling.

“Certainly not! You misunderstand me. I think we have an obligation to welcome landowners who can pay their way here. I’m just saying we’re going to have a lot to learn to make this place work if they come.”

“That’s what worries me,” added Anna.

“Look, the Vatican pays a million new dollars a year to cover my half time services as a Catholic priest,” said Greg. “I’m already a representative of the movement the Green Earth Community epitomizes. Silvio DiPonte now runs his store full time and works for the Borough as a lawyer and judge, not the Commission. Madhu’s ‘retired’ from Commission service, is a full time artist, and works for the Mars Council as Coordinator of Cultural Affairs. If someone wants to come here, it costs about twenty million new dollars or ten million euros to fly here and another million new dollars a year to cover support services like air, food, water, and health costs. We’re better off letting them come.”

“I think and hope that you’re right,” commented Anna.

Just then Will Elliott approached the table. “Good sol,” he said to everyone. Then he turned to Helmut and Clara. “So, you leave for Cassini tomorrow?”

They both nodded. “We’re looking forward to it,” added Clara.

“Good. Take care of yourselves, and of your baby. And good luck with the trip.” Will extended his hand to Clara, then Helmut, and they shook.

“That’s very kind of you, Commissioner,” said Clara. “As you can see, I’m wearing radiation shielding all the time, and I’ll be back here in two months for a medical check. Everything is fine so far.”

“I’m glad. I’ll be praying for all three of you; or maybe I should say all four, since Sebastian’s coming back on Columbus 10. You’re on that expedition too, right John?”

“No, I’m on the North Polar Expedition, and we leave next week.”

“Have a good trip and enjoy the snow.” Will shook his hand as well, then waved and headed out of the biome. They watched him go.

“Politeness, or overprotective concern about a fetus going out to a high-radiation environment?” said Clara. “The doctors have said this is reasonably safe to try, after all.”

“He loves families and marriages,” said Greg. He watched Will open the airlock door to Riviera Biome, then close it behind him.

Will moved through the airlock tunnel between the biomes, then opened the door on the other side, stepping from their commercial biome to their government center biome. In another minute he was back in his office, where Silvio was waiting for him. “The lawyers all agree that we could probably delay the arrival of an unwanted group for years through the courts based on safety issues,” he reported. “But ultimately, safety issues cannot exclude people unless they are mentally unstable or groups unless they have a criminal record. The Mars Commission Treaty calls Mars ‘the common heritage of humanity.’ This has been interpreted to mean that the land and minerals are available to all, and profits from the same must benefit all. The general interpretation of making the profits available to all has been that the profits must be used to subsidize transportation of representatives of minority groups and nations unable to pay their own way. The treaty clearly includes property rights.”

“Of course; I have always assumed that.” Will nodded. “Thanks, Silvio. So how much did this legal advice cost us?”

“A hundred thousand for the preliminary, and they want to make studies in all the major legal systems to draw out the implications.”

“Another million or so?”

“At least.”

Will nodded. “We had better do it. People don’t know what a revolution this promises to be.”

“I heard on the t.v. yestersol that a wealthy Japanese tycoon wants to establish a small Zen monastery here.”

Will nodded. “And the Mormons are indeed talking about sending twenty pioneers, and a Saudi Foundation has responded that it wants to send twenty Wahhabis, and a South African businessman wants to set up a socialist colony here—no numbers suggested—and the Vatican is talking about increasing its commitment to Mars, probably be renegotiating their current arrangement to support more personnel. . . I think the issue for these organizations is how small can the Mars team be to be effective enough to garner publicity on Earth and fire up their base of supporters at home. Meanwhile, both United Spacelines and Lufthansa Space Express have called to say they are interested in commercial passenger service to Mars and would we like to privatize our system. And there have been four serious calls from various companies inquiring about setting up construction outfits on Mars to provide for arrivals and assist in our own construction efforts.”

“Wow, this is a revolution.”

“With implications of competition, lower costs, laissez-faire conditions, lower wages, cheaper consumer goods, longer work hours, labor unrest, political movements, potential instability. . . some good and some bad.”

“We’re going to grow up and become a real nation?”

Will chuckled. “I suppose that’s the way to summarize it!”

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

It was a late Frisol afternoon when Rahula saw Marshall sitting at a table by himself on the Patio doing homework. He came over. “Good sol; what’s new?”

Marshall looked up. “Oh, nothing. It’s my geometry homework.” He scratched his head.

“Geometry? What grade are you in?”

“Seventh.”

“We didn’t learn that until ninth in Houston.”

“We learn it in seventh here. I’m not great in geometry, I’m afraid. I’ll ask Lizzie about it later; she may be only in fifth grade, but she can actually do this stuff! What classes are you taking at Martech, anyway? In a few years I want to take some classes there.”

“You could probably manage, too. I’ve got field geology, geophysics, advanced chemistry, and English literature; the latter I’m doing via the web at Harvard. The lectures are really good, but I have to have my mom run the discussion sessions!”

Marshall grimaced at the thought. “Field geology? Where are you going?”

“We go around here most of the time; the course meets all sol Satursol. We’re going to Gangis next month, though, for three sols. That’ll be really cool.”

“Oh, I wish I could go! I’ve never been past the Dacha!”

“Some day, Marshall. Maybe this summer you can convince your dad to take you along on a trip.”

“I hope so. I just wish there were more kids here who are my age. Sammie and I are good friends, but he’s the only one; and he’s really eleven months younger, which is a pain sometimes.”

“Well, chin up. Every sol we hear about another group that wants to send representatives here in the next few columbiads, and some of them want to include children. So you may not be alone. You know, I was really the first. I rode the Swift shuttle to orbit a few sols before my eighteenth birthday; I was still a minor. And the doctors say I only stopped growing taller a few months ago; they were really worried about the fact that I was growing while in zero gee and in a high radiation environment.”

“Did they make you wear radiation vests?”

Rahula laughed. “All the time, and much thicker than the one you’re wearing! It was about ten centimeters thick. I felt like I had become a fat person. The hat I wore was so tall sometimes I bumped it into the ceiling. But you get used to it.” He tapped the radiation vest he was wearing at the time. “Now I put this on in the morning and forget about it.”

“It’s only four or five centimeters thick; I’ve got eight on right now. So, you think children will be coming here someday?”

Rahula nodded. “I think so. You won’t be alone too much longer, I think. Would you ever like to visit Earth?”

“Everyone always asks me that! I don’t know; maybe. I like Mars and I’ll like it even more if I get to see more of it. I think I’d like to go to Callisto or Titan instead, or maybe Triton.”

Rahula smiled. “Me too. Dad says that’s the future.”

“Of course. Mars is the future. We’ll probably send out the first starship,” said Marshall confidently.

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

Will entered Pittsburgh Dome with a wide-eyed expression that made Alexandra Lescov laugh. “Will, you always look like a kid when you come in here!”

“That’s because I admire the work so much, Alexandra. This isn’t an ordinary B-60 biome. Besides the fact that you used twice as much high-strength plastics, the translucent covering closes it in and makes this huge space into a giant closed room. It’s quite an experience.”

Alexandra looked around at the circular space, forty meters high and sixty meters in diameter, filled with all sorts of equipment around the circular edge, with cranes dangling from the roof. In the middle, the former open space was occupied by the caravel they were slowly building. “Yeah, it is pretty impressive; the most complex piece of construction on Mars yet. But wait until you step inside the caravel; now that’s impressive.”

“I can’t wait.”

Alexandra led Will up a long ramp that took them over a flying saucer-shaped object thirty-four meters in diameter and up to fifteen meters thick. When they reached the vehicle’s central hub they grabbed hardhats, then descended a ramp to a door, which took them sideways into the spacecraft. Will was immediately impressed.

“Wow, you’ve made a lot of progress!” He stopped to feel the fabric walls.

“The plans were finalized very effectively over the last two years. In some ways, what we are building is much simpler than a shuttle that takes off from Earth; this thing basically is a big, rotating bag with a heat shield into which we place walls and three standard life support systems, one for each third of the vehicle and capable of handling the load of either of the others. We’ve eliminated most wiring; every group of sensors has a redundant pair of microwave transmitters powered by microfuel cells. The control room can be located anywhere and can be moved easily. The trickiest part to make is the hub, here.” She banged on the metal collar defining an open ring six meters in diameter.

“I see it fit together well. When will you dismantle it?”

“Just before we fold the vehicle up to fit it in the cargo bay of the Hermes class shuttle. A couple months, yet. Come on, I want to show you around a bit.”

Will nodded and followed Alexandra inside. They walked on a wall; the wall next to them was a future floor; “down” would be toward the saucer’s outer edge once the interior started to spin. They turned and walked along the wall of a future elevator shaft to the outer edge.

“Incredible. This is coming along very fast.”

“We have the outer hulls sewn and glued together, so all we need to do is add the circular floors—five of them—six airtight membranes to divide the interior into six tranches, and some of the basic interior fabric walls. Most of that’s finished. The rest can’t be done here if we want to compact the thing into a shuttle hold and launch it to orbit.”

“But there’s months of work to do at Embarcadero.” They continued around the outer edge of the hull, walking on slightly spongy fabric walls and squeezing through sideways doorways. The ship’s great room—two stories high and expansive—was particularly impressive. “So, we’ll be done in time to send it back to Earth in late 2039?”

She nodded. “Construction’s on schedule. We’re already making the fabrics for caravel number two and we’ve even started fabricating some materials for caravel three. Is there any progress on selection of their names?”

“No, and we should do that.” Will sighed. “On May 15 we start launching a series of ACVs back to the Earth via Venus. It’s a shame we can’t send this vehicle back to Earth, all rolled up, in an ACV and set it up in orbit there. We have so many people who want to come here, it’s unbelievable. Now there’s an African Christian sect with a billionaire follower who wants to send twenty-four people here.”

“What would we do with them? But there’s no way it could be ready for Columbus 10 anyway. The ACVs reach Earth just in time for quick maintenance and they fly back here. This caravel will take our team almost a year to set up and check out.” Alexandra looked around at it. “On the other hand, I know of four construction people who want to go back to Earth—”

“Already? They’ve been here only three months!”

“Most people who decide to return do so in the first few months. One has a mother who has cancer and she’s worried to death about her and feels guilty being so far away. Another has been reconciling with an ex-wife by videomail. A third is disillusioned by the long work hours and lack of male prospects. The fourth is just disgruntled.”

“But you can’t put four people in a barely completed caravel and fly them back to Earth.”

“No, but you could put them in an annex and fly it back as well. We were planning to use two annexes at Embarcadero holding up to sixteen workers, then gradually the workers would move into the caravel as it was set up.”

“Hum. Interesting idea.” Will pondered. “And I bet we could find volunteers willing to fly back to Earth, spend a month or two of vacation there, and fly back.”

“Oh, yes we could.” Alexandra looked at him. “Are we really thinking about this seriously?”

“I don’t know. We have to consider all the angles.”

“Radiation would be a problem, but we could haul ten tonnes of water along for extra shielding.”

“We’d need an ion engine to direct and speed up the trip. We’ll have to check with the experts; I think we could shorten the voyage by a few months. I’d worry about the caravel reaching Earth and being unable to aerobrake because of an accident or design flaw.”

Alexandra thought about that a moment. “It’ll reach Earth during the launch window back to Mars, so we could use terrestrial gravity to send it back here. A rescue team could leave Earth to rendezvous with it, or we could launch a crew from here to intercept it a month before it reached Mars.”

“That’s true.” Will looked at Alexandra with a funny smile on his face. “I think this could work! How many people would have to go back to set the caravel up during the trip to Earth?”

“Well, the final setup could be done by the people flying back to Mars on it; things like wallpaper, painting, and decking. I think a dozen workers would be enough. I’d fly two annexes back to Earth to provide plenty of redundancy. In fact, that’s fewer than we have scheduled for the work right now. On a long flight back to Earth they won’t have anything else to do, and we can’t efficiently use the labor of the people flying here right now.”

“You’ll need that greater efficiency if we end up flying two hundred people here on Columbus 10!”

“Yes, that would be quite a challenge. With the two additional annexes, it might be closer to 230. We could build more housing in existing residential biomes, though; we have the space and could build five-story buildings. And the new B-100s would increase our agricultural areas quickly, if we can accelerate the design work.”

“All this will cost money, but the gold prices have held up pretty well, and if we privatize part of the operation we’ll have access to more capital.” Will nodded. “You know, I think it might be feasible!”

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