A Colony on Mars (13 page)

“In case you hadn't noticed Alan we don't know diddle squat about running a bank.” “I realize that Remar, but we are both intelligent men and we can learn.” “Here is what I propose, lets advertise and hire an agent/consultant on Earth that does know about banking. We can then have him locate a correspondence course from some banker training school that wil be wil ing to email us al of our study material and send up the most important books on banking on the next supply ship”

They both approved of that plan and emailed an ad to one of the New York newspapers to run in their Classified section under help wanted. They were flooded with emails which they read aloud to each other then selected the three best qualified and sent them an email requesting a ful resume. They eventually settled on the best qualified candidate and hired him for just a nominal consulting fee. They then found a qualified detective agency and ran a thorough background check on the man. He came out squeaky clean. Then the email started flying back and forth from them and their consultant. Their agent had spoken with one of his old professors at Harvard University school of business who was wil ing to undertake educating them via email. Shortly study plans began to arrive by email. They had a lot of time on their hands so they started knocking out the lessons at a record pace. Within six months they had the books that he had sent up on the supply ship and were both becoming banking experts. They had their agent pick out a good selection of banking business equipment and had that sent up. They began to offer more services at the bank. They arranged a form that their clients could sign directing that all future payments for wages were to be deposited in First Colonial bank. Since they had all the latest banking equipment they had to add on another room to the bank. They found two women on Mars who had once held responsible positions in banks on Earth and persuaded them to come in after working on their regular jobs and handle the paper flow at the bank. They had established a correspondent bank relationship with big name stock and bond brokerage firms and with the largest bank in the United States. Things got a little sticky when they applied to become an FDIC member bank. There were just so many things about First Colonial that did not fit the FDIC mold. It took them almost six months but with the help of two U.S. Senators finally began to print on the bottom of all their forms the magic words “Member FDIC” They could now exchange bank drafts with their New York Correspondent bank and employed a trust officer at their correspondent bank to temporarily handle investments for their bank. They knew that as soon as there was a demand for borrowed money on Mars they would be financing that development through their bank but until then the money would be earning a good return invested on Earth. At that point they began to pay interest on deposits and more money poured in. The workers on Mars liked having their nest eggs on Mars where they could keep an eye on them. By the time Utopia was sealed they hoped that their little bank could justifiably claim that they were holding over one bil ion dollars in deposits.

The Agent that they had hired in New York had no interest in moving to Mars but he recommended a young man that had excellent credentials. First Colonial hired the man and his wife, bit the bul et and paid the one million dollar fee to have them moved to Mars. When Abe and Lil y Schuman arrived on Mars the bank began to look a little like and operate a lot like a real bank. Lil y was instal ed as the head teller and cashier. Abe was given the title of Manager, Abe also took on the duties of loan officer. Al en and Remar ended up doing pretty much what Abe told them to do.

With the arrival of the second ship after opening the bank they received two mil ion dollars in ones and fives which they promptly made available for circulation on Mars. They bought the bank drafts that they had sold with small bills. In the meantime when the first ship arrived after opening the bank Burger Boy's had received their three mil ion dol ars in change which they deposited in the bank so now there was more money in circulation than they would need until Utopia opened up. The people on Mars tended to think in terms of all progress and development as “When Utopia Opens”.

Paul, Tim and Carla thought it was a godsend having the bank here because since Mars wages were not taxable the IRS paid little attention to transfers of cash to and from banks on Earth and First Colonial Bank on Mars. Long before Utopia opened Tim and Carla had over a mil ion dollars on deposit. The bankers were happy because they were the only bank in the system that didn't have to anticipate the arrival of inspectors from the FDIC, although they were a member bank it was just too damned expensive to send an FDIC inspector up to Mars to inspect or audit First Colonial. Neither the FDIC nor the bank wanted sensitive information traveling back and forth by email so they were largely left alone. It also might be noted that the FDIC had little doubt about the solvency of First Colonial Bank.

CHAPTER – First Breakthrough into Paradise

February 10, 2108: The dril ers broke through into the first of the new caverns. The Talk Show host on Radio MARS interrupted all the music stations

“Guess What Folks, We have a breakthrough. Stay tuned to your talk radio station for all the details.”

There was much fanfare in the community. Special meals were served and there was a general celebration. That one thing was stil lacking but they managed to make a gala day of it anyway. The day of the breakthrough Thelma declared a holiday and gave everyone the rest of the day off, except for the cooks and a few other key people. It really wasn't all that great to have the rest of the day off, it was almost quitting time anyway.

When cavern was opened the workers were taken aback by it's awesome beauty, unlike the existing caverns it was populated by stalagmites, stalactites and majestic columns. It must have been broad daylight on the surface of the planet because the effect of the sunlight trickling through the fissures was gorgeous.

Stalactites are formed by the deposition of calcium carbonate and other minerals, which is precipitated from mineralized water solutions. The corresponding formation on the floor underneath a stalactite is known as a stalagmite. Given enough time, these formations can meet, resulting in a formation known as a column.

Loud noises and voices created echo's that vibrated off the walls. There were several flowing rivers and streams and magnificent little lakes dotted the floor. The cavern was only one mile wide where they were crossing but faded off into the horizon at both sides as far as their most powerful portable lights could penetrate. Subsequent measurements indicated that this new cavern covered 14 square miles at floor level. Tim, standing there awe struck, in his space suit knew that this was to be a national park and first class recreation area. It was as close as you could get on Mars to a forest. Later that day when they were back in the Government cavern Tim described it to Carter, Thelma and Walter. Tim then took the three of them on a guided tour of the cavern. They took along a lighting crew with the best portable lights available in the colony. Thelma remarked, ”This place looks like paradise.“ ”So it was that Paradise Park got it's name.”

In their exploration of the cavern, up against one wal they came across a small cave. In front of the cave they found the remnants of a fire pit. On further examination of the site they found a dozen or more petroglyph's depicting a hunt. The hunters all had two arms and two legs. The animal they hunted looked like a cross between a bison and an elephant.

“This is fantastic, do you realize that we are looking at the first evidence ever found that proves that manlike beings inhabited this planet at some ancient time.

Walter immediately tried to call someone on his cell phone but there was no service available. They scurried back to the Government cavern and Walter placed his call. The scientist who answered, upon hearing what they had found, cal ed six or seven other scientists and a photographer. Walter told the lighting crew to take a break but remain where they were.

An hour or so went by before seven people in Mars suits approached from the Government housing area. The entire party returned to the place where they had found the artifacts. The scientists were ecstatic. You could just sense that this was the reason that they had signed on to work on Mars in the first place was the hope of finding something like this. They had the photographer take dozens of pictures from every angle then they took samples of material from the fire pit for carbon age dating. At that point Tim, Carter, Thelma and Walter took their leave. “This place seems to be in good hands so we are going to have dinner, Thelma informed them. The scientists hardly noticed their departure.

After dinner Tim went over to MARS-TV and told Rusty about the find and the cave. Rusty had already heard about the find but hadn't had time to go inspect the site for himself before he had to go on the air with the local news. He invited Tim to stick around and be his guest on the show. Tim was a little uneasy being on camera but he stayed and described what they had found to the entire community. “For the first time the news from here is going to dominate the news on Earth for quite a while.” he told Tim after the show. “I am now going to grab a photographer and get some pictures myself and then get this on the internet. We are going to be famous, Tim.” Rusty sounded so excited that Tim had to smile.

For the two days fol owing the discovery al of the networks on Earth did carry Tim's description of the find. After that they started carrying the opinions of Scientists and Mars management people. After about a week an important political assassination occurred in Germany and the media moved on to greener pastures.

In the months that followed they would seal and pressurize the remaining caverns en route to Utopia . They had already chosen the name of Cavern City as the name of the Capital City to be built in Utopia.

February 16, 2108: The crew started tunneling the next tunnel and it was to be a whopper, 940 feet with an offset to the right. The work was miserable because they were stil working in their Mars suits. No one liked working in those Mars suits. The temperature in the unpressurized cavern was just above freezing but the suits were heated and wel insulated. It was just that they were so clumsy to move around in.

A week went by and the tunnel was in about one hundred feet when one of the workers summoned the crew chief. “Joe here is acting funny, you better get him back to the clinic and have the doc check him over. Two men lead and then carried Joe back through the airlock then got him out of his suit. By this time he was unconscious. They carried him to the clinic and the doctors dropped what they were doing and went to work on him. Dr. Rivera immediately took over the case. “Thanks, Guys we will give him a complete examination and try and work up a diagnosis but in the meantime I suggest that you have your crew chief get everyone out of that cavern and out of their Mars Suits until we know just what we are dealing with here. February 17, 2108: Tim heard about Joe's mysterious ailment on talk radio. The next morning after breakfast Tim stopped by the clinic to see how Joe was getting along and Juan told Tim that he had passed away shortly after being brought in. Juan also said that another member of the community had come down with the same ailment. The good news was that this person was working on the surface in a Mars suit. Joe's autopsy showed that he had died from inhaling Carbon Dioxide. Dr Rivera scanned the new patient for signs of Carbon Dioxide poisoning and bingo he was suffering from the same thing. They then tested the Mars Suits these two men were wearing and they tested OK. “We think you have been inhaling Carbon Dioxide and that is why you are sick” Dr. Rivera told his patient. “No honest Dr. I didn't breathe in and I had my helmet off for less than a minute.” “Why, in God's name did you take it off in the first place Mr Salva?” Because it was closing in on me, I just couldn't resist taking it off for just a few seconds and I didn't breathe in while it was off.”

Mystery solved, he had his helmet off for less than a minute while he held his breath then when he put it back on he had to take a deep breath before the suit had a chance to clean the Carbon Dioxide out of the helmet. Tim put out a memo to al personnel wearing Mars suits in unpressurized atmosphere, that if you became overcome with claustrophobia while wearing your suit, no matter how Inconvenient it was return immediately to the nearest pressurized atmosphere before removing your helmet. He explained that they had recently had one death and one serious il ness from workers doing this. Once Tims memo and the grapevine word of mouth got out then they had no more problems with this mysterious affliction. Talk radio discussed little else that day. February 25, 2108: The eighth day of tunneling. They ran a pressure test and Paradise passed with flying colors. Late on February 26 Paradise had been pressurized and atmosphere was introduced. Tomorrow the men could work without suits. If there was a breach they would have plenty of time to dawn their Mars suits before the atmosphere al escaped. February 26, 2108: The crews assigned to enlarge tunnels went to work on the first tunnel, the one that ran from the government cavern to Paradise. Tunnel enlarging proved to be a more time consuming task than digging the tunnel in the first place. Much of the work had to be done by hand and wherever they found the walls or ceiling of the tunnel was of loose material it had to be concrete reinforced. What worked best was having three crews at a time working on enlarging and stabilizing the tunnels.

When the crews finished enlarging the tunnel it looked very professional. It had a paved highway for a floor that allowed for two lanes of vehicular traffic. Everything that needed reenforcement had been reinforced with concrete and rebar. The surfaces were al smooth and the tunnel was lit with a bank of lights that ran down the top. There was a pedestrian walking path on one side with additional lights spaced four feet apart. The largest power equipment on Mars could easily navigate the tunnel once it had been finished. March 1, 2108: Tim, Carla, Juan and Lupe were becoming fond of Mars sports and looked forward to a game of shuffle board every evening. The four courts in the government cavern were adequate for the three hundred people that were on the planet before Tims group had arrived but it seemed as though recently they were always busy in the evenings. Tim and Juan final y gave up waiting for a court after an hour. Tim checked around and found that the croquet courts the situation was the same.