Our colony club is not the first group of people to set foot on Mars, far from the first. There have been thirty years of explorers and exploiters and ten years of tourists ahead of us. We are not building the first log cabin in an uncharted wilderness. We are not putting in the first road between unnamed Point A and unnamed Point B. There is lots of human-supporting infrastructure here on Mars already. But we are in the first wave of people coming to Mars to stay -- to make it a home -- and that makes a difference.
Also, these are modern times. There is a lot of creation infrastructure in place on Mars at our beck and call. And we can talk to that infrastructure from Earth, so we can get a lot started long before we arrive. There is the ten minutes-to-couple hours communication delay because Mars is not on Earth, and that was disconcerting at first, but we quickly got used to it.
As soon as we passed the MST, we started planning our habitations and work projects on Mars and started the creations there on implementation. A lot was in place, but a lot still had to be done.
The trip over is routine. We pack, we get on transports that take us to orbit over Earth, we transfer to the Mars Shuttle -- the newer faster one -- and we take two months to get there traveling at a steady .05G the whole way. .05G is enough to keep us from floating around like you do on an orbiting space station, and there is a definite sense of up and down on this ship. But it sure isn’t Earth -- we do bounce around like we have super powers. And sadly, Ben, Janet and Miranda’s mother have a hard time. They take drugs and mope a bit the whole way -- they may be young at heart, but their real hearts and bodies still have some old parts and are having a hard time adapting. Even with all the regeneration technology we have these days, hormonal secondary feedback systems are devilishly hard to keep in balance.
We arrive, get on Mars transports, and land. One-third G felt positively heavy for a few days! We do a bit of processing, all of five minutes -- it’s not like we could have come from somewhere strange. We stay in the main tourist hotel, The South Pole Mars Marriott, the first night.
The next day our on-Mars orientation starts, and it starts with a trip outside. “You aren’t likely to be doing this often, but you should at least do it once so the wonder gets out of your system,” Mary Lou, our hostess, informed us. We bundle up three at a time and with a host shepherd go out on the “playground”. Part of it is a playground, and we get to do things such as such as swinging and sliding and climbing around on jungle gyms. Part of it is some rough terrain -- a gully with windswept gravel on top, cliff sides, and dust dunes in the bottom. We feel what it is like to navigate those in person. In the low G and with the suit assist, I feel like an Olympic-class gorilla. I am a-jumpin and a-swingin and a-lopin all over the place. It’s a blast!
The suits are rugged, so taking a tumble is not an issue. The issue is just being sure to monitor the suit’s condition. If things do get out of whack, conditions inside can get unpleasant real quickly. That I learned from the MST.
And then (Sigh!) we feel what it is like to clean our stuff up when we finish and come inside. Some of that dust has its surface ionized by the UV in the sunlight and it gets real sticky.
After we finish our outdoor initiation and clean up, we meet with Skyler Abercromby and Phil-422, the administrators on Mars who will be handling colony affairs until we set up a colonial government, and there is a hand-off.
Skyler begins, “So ... you folks are going to be staying here. Well, Mars isn’t Earth, so I guess you folks are no longer Earthlings, are you?” he grins.
“But you’re not Martians yet. Right now, you’re Martian wannabes. You’re something that neither I nor my people want to be: We’re Earthlings a long way from home. You’re wannabes because you’re not experienced enough to be full Martians. My job, my goal in this project, is to get you experienced as fast as I can. Phil-422 will be helping me on that.
Adrian raises his hand, “When will we be full Martians?”
“We’ve been working over the criteria for that. I believe our memo on that has been sent to your club.”
I nod. It has.
“Basically, when your group can handle the various emergencies and crises that come up here as well as my engineers can, then you’re official Martians. It’s as simple as that at this point.”
“Sounds surprisingly simple,” says Adrian.
“It does to me, too, Mr. Messenger. I think that’s because there aren’t dozens of people lining up three deep for these slots. The Space Agency can still keep it simple.
“If you find the hidden caves filled with Martian gold that we transients haven’t found, and people do start lining up, then the initiation may get tougher. But for now, you have the virtue of being first in a venture that is only modestly interesting to people on Earth.”
Phil-442 interrupts, “It is only modestly interesting to the people of Earth, but it is quite interesting to the creations. We want this to go well.”
The rest of the meeting concerns administrative details.
One thing that is high on our early priority list is finishing our accommodations. We are not tourists, we are worker bees, so our designs emphasize accessibility to tools and work areas, not luxury, safety, and entertainment. They also emphasize flexibility -- our jobs will change as we complete projects and start on new ones. The good news is that because we have been in constant communication with the Mars construction contractors, there are few surprises in what we find when we get here.
Our plans add something entirely new to Mars infrastructure: areas for children and child raising. This is something we are all interested in, but Jaina and Annette -- yes, Annette came with us -- take the lead here. As the incubators and kindergartens are completed, the Earth governments will start moving new Mars baby-making activities to the planet, and the existing programs on Earth will be directed towards making other kinds of odd ... I mean non-standard ... babies.
The designs we humans wanted for these areas put us at odds with the creation infrastructure on Mars. Our designs emphasize “teach”; their designs emphasize “safe”. Their proposed designs put the child care in the deepest parts of the habitable infrastructure. We veto that -- they would be high, so the kids can learn and experience.
“We aren’t raising Morlocks,” I grumble to Phil-422.
Jaden takes up the project of documenting everything we do. We all learn to expect his second question when he comes visiting, “Care to explain what you’re up to to an audience?” He gets pretty good at prepping us with talking points and asking good questions when the recording starts. And he gets good at cultivating distributors and show producers back on Earth. We get a respectable amount of air time, and interest in the project is rising. He also sends shivers up the creations’ spines: He proposes and starts outlining a series of hiking trails up top that go to nearby scenic vistas and other points of interest. The creations feel that everything interesting on Mars should be manufactured and placed in some kind of cavern.
“You want to go outside? You can sim that,” they argue, but we humans insist that getting outside will be a common Martian experience. We order up a lot more topside infrastructure and access points.
“This is adding considerable danger,” they caution, but then comply.
Adrian and Ruby get about finding more things that Martians can make that Earthlings will want to buy. Ruby splits her time between coordinating with Adrian and producing her own “value-add-in” entertainment projects. I split my time between helping Ruby on entertainment, helping Jaina and Annette on kid stuff, and creating “Red Planet Originals” fashions.
The Red Planet Originals capture the spirit of Mars. The first generation designs are red, and in retrospect, suck eggs in my eyes. But they turn out to be popular on Earth because of the curiosity factor and because my thinking is still very Earth harmonious. What I do to improve my subsequent generations of designs is monitor closely what Jaden is documenting. That is connecting me to my inner Mars muse. The second generation stuff is high-fashioned versions of environmental suits and leisure wear that is better suited to low-G and tunnel environments. At first these don’t sell as well, but as Jaden’s documentaries get more popular, so do my newer creations. They come to be seen as genuine.
And whew! I am busy! But in truth, we all are. There is so much to do here!
Well ... almost all of us. Ben and Janet are not as busy as the rest of us. It isn’t that they don’t want to be, but their bodies are just not adapting well to Mars conditions. They start spending a lot of time in an Earth-G centrifuge at the Marriott and doing things through their avatars. It is expensive, and it takes some getting used to seeing them mostly in avatar form, but they don’t get discouraged. They pitch right in, and we get used to it. Thankfully Miranda’s mom adapts and with time she feels much better than Ben and Janet. The human body is still full of surprises.
Anton stayed on Earth. He is working on keeping the immigrant queue full. One project that helps that is coordinating with Jaden to get his documentaries distributed.
George-776 came with us and continues to work with Adrian -- there are howls at the expense of doing that, but the club backs them up. We know how tight they are. The rest of us pick up new assistants here on Mars, and those new assistants pull up lots of history from our Earth assistants, so they are up to speed on both us and Mars conditions.
We constantly run into the issue that we never have the right or enough resources to accomplish what we feel is high priority. The creation infrastructure expects us to act like long-term tourists, but we are here to change the world! So we want to do new things, things tourists don’t do. It’s the difference between building a Disneyland and a factory.
When it is just a matter of ordering in new equipment from Earth, we don’t get too much flack, unless it is really expensive new equipment because it is heavy or bulky. Each time the heavy/bulky issue comes up, we backtrack a bit and look at what equipment and expertise it would take to make the heavy and bulky here, then we place an order for that. That doesn’t cause as much hardship with the existing infrastructure boys. They recognize that making stuff is why we are here, and the extractor people are already heavy into the making-stuff mode.
But the honeymoon ends as we start developing distinctively Martian ways of doing things, such as child raising and recreating. Some of these look needlessly dangerous to the creation powers-that-be, and they object.
The child-raising issues come up first. It starts while we are still on Earth when we colonists propose the child-raising areas be up top. It comes to a head when the Zion Club arrives and the creations see how the Zion Club child raisers are actually organizing the child caring areas. They begin implementing their Mars-version of the wild-and-wooly child-raising antics they’d been getting away with on Earth. ... Or so it seems to the Mars creations who are getting involved, and, I admit, some of us city-bred on-lookers.
Annette and I have a meeting with Skyler and Phil-422. Skyler called the meeting, and Annette tells me about the issues being brought up and asks me to come along for moral support.
At the meeting, Phil-422 opens the main issue, “Mrs. Bushkov, the creation command structure your club is asking for is causing us great concern. You really want children commanding the creations? This can go wrong in so many ways.”
“That we do,” she replies.
Skyler jumps in, “Mrs. Bushkov, I took the opportunity to review your club’s history. On Earth you folks were quite ... creation resistant, is that not so?”
“That’s true. We feel that humankind should do as much for itself as it can. We felt that creations -- creation help, that is -- represented temptation. We should use them only in moderation ... great moderation.”
“But here on Mars you seem to be embracing them fully?”
“One of the decisions our group’s leadership made before we decided to embark on the emigrating process was that here on Mars creations should be considered a full part of the human tool kit, not a temptation for humans to do less than they should, as they are on Earth. As the saying goes, Mars is not Earth.”
“Phil-422 tells me that the adult use of creations has been a bit clumsy. There have been accidents, avoidable accidents.”
Annette squirms a bit -- this is not news to her. “We Zionists are learning, Mr. Abercromby. In this we are much like our children, and this is why we wish them to have much control over the creations. This is how they will learn quickest and best.”
“There will be injuries, potentially very serious ones.”
“We are aware of that.”
“And not just to the person who gives a poorly thought through command.”
“The people of Zion are quite aware of the damage accidents cause. We experienced them all the time in our Earthly lifestyle. We feel the benefits of understanding and being in command of our fate far outweigh the damages that come from mistakes.” She says this with the confidence of faith.
Skyler looks at me.
I say, “I’ve seen the Zion Club operate on Earth. It’s strange for me to watch, and a bit spooky. I wouldn’t want to live that way, but I support their being able to do things the way they wish to.”
“You realize that you could suffer damage too? That we all could.”
“I recognize that. I recognize there should be limits. But I also recognize that there are likely to be benefits as well -- big, surprise benefits.”
He looks at Phil-422.
“Let us integrate a training program into the handing-over process, and let us include adults in that training program.”
The meeting covers a few more details and then breaks up. The child care area is soon filled with odd construction projects that the kids are thinking up, and the accident rate with Zion Club usage of creations drops steadily.
The rearranging of child-raising areas is just the start. The proposal to have the Sierra Pit Barsoom Platter Race precipitates another full-blown, formal meeting.
A “Bar plat”, short for Barsoom platters, is a simple, flat, round metal platter some four feet across. You plop it down on some of the seasonal dry-ice cake that builds up over the winter on the surface at the poles. (Our base, the main base on Mars, is near the south pole where there is lots of water ice available for us to extract for life support.) When that platter is heated a bit by spring sunlight, or by putting a heater on it, or pointing a big light at it, the CO2 underneath will sublime and the platter starts shaking and shimmering and acting like a man-size air puck, complete with lots of hissing and spitting noises and mist and dust squirting out around the edges -- quite an experience -- and it gets louder and more agitated the heavier the weight. When a person hops on, it screams like a banshee and starts heading off in one direction or another. Riding it is like a surf board, except you can go any direction, and fall off in any direction when it gets ahead of you, or when it bounces as it hits a bump, or stops dead on a rock or some not-slippery grit or water ice. Wee!! It is a ride!
Bar plattering is a seasonal event. The fresh CO2 surface, the non-gritty kind, gathers in steadily in the winter and burns off in late spring. During the dark nights of winter and early spring it is just too cold! So this is a distinctively Martian return-of-spring rite, and we want to make it just that -- sort of like the Iditarod sled race in Alaska.
Adrian and Jaden first got a chance to do this when they went with some extractors to visit North Pole base. And Jaden got the bright idea of making a contest and documenting it when spring rolled around at South Pole. But when word of his hot idea started spreading, the line in the red dust was crossed. A meeting is called.
Skyler calls the meeting to order and gets straight to the point. “An outdoor race? You can sim that! Why not just use the tourist facilities for your recreation? There is available capacity, and all us transients use those all the time.”
The last statement is ... well, not quite entirely true. We colonials have been shown a few gray area tricks early on by grizzled extractor types we’ve become drinking buddies with. We are simply adding to the repertoire of what is cool but not conventional and being more open about it -- and perhaps a little sillier. We are still the rookies here, as this Bar platter race idea demonstrates.
“Do you realize the infrastructure you’re calling for?” chides Skyler. “This means suits appropriate for hours-at-a-time outdoor stays, not just hour-max like we have now. So a full suit redesign. Plus some kind of pressurized tent, or a tunnel plus high-capacity entrance so you can move a crowd in and out quickly and safely. This isn’t just about whipping up a few more Barsoom platters, this is huge.”
Well ... yeah ... it is big. We take a few moments to think and look amongst ourselves, and reaffirm.
I speak for the group. “It’s big. But it’s Martian. Yes, we want to invest in this.”
Skyler shakes his head in resignation, consults for a moment with Phil-422, then says, “Well, it’s not as big as opening a new mine. Get me a detailed proposal.”