A Colony on Mars (21 page)

March 5, 2109 : Super Store now had a lot of merchandise to offer the customer and a pretty good selection but they had sold out of fishing gear. It was hard to find a place to stand along the banks of the fish bearing waters of Mars. I guess that since they didn't have many other sports then fishing had to be the sport of choice. Like on Earth some caught fish and some didn't but on Mars you had to deposit them in a bin that was sent to the kitchen. When the bin was ful everyone had reached their limit and the rangers made everyone quit fishing or start throwing them back. If the kitchens had enough fish they would not put the bins out and no one was allowed to fish unless they threw them back. If you were a householder that had elected to be paid for separate rations rather than to eat in the mess hall you were able to keep three fish to cook at home. Everyone on Mars carried an ID card and those on separate rations had that fact clearly stamped on their cards before they were laminated. Because of the growing number of privately owned vehicles they found it necessary to establish a Department of Motor Vehicles and to start issuing license plates and drivers licenses. Every time they turned around a new necessity arose and more jobs on the private and on the public sector arose to fil the need. One interesting development was that many of the new agencies were governed by the council and not by the Federal Government or the company.

Abner complained that fishermen were showing up at the farm by the dozens looking to buy worms. That evening Abner ordered ten mil ion worms to be sent to Mars at his expense. He also ordered ten thousand disposable cups with lids. He would go in the worm business if there was that much demand. CHAPTER - The breakthrough to Utopia

March 7, 2109 : The breakthrough to Utopia was kind of anticlimactic. The cavern was huge, much larger than Arizona. There were 967 square miles at floor level but it was a dead cavern with lots of fissures to fill and the floor would need lots of leveling. The floor level of Arizona where they tunneled from broke through to Utopia 20 feet off the floor. They just sealed the airlock and declared their work done for now. They had reached Utopia and someday some future generation could tame it. They could do the job but they didn't need anything that Utopia had to offer and wouldn't for years to come. They would have their hands full developing what they had already discovered and tamed.

In the next year the space ships would continue to arrive and bring with them more people, more equipment, more businesses. Tim had a hunch that Arizona, Mars would begin to look a lot like down town Phoenix. In the five years since Tim had become company manager The soil in the Arizona cavern had been plowed and brought to life. Grow lights had been installed one hundred feet off the cavern floor over the 160 square mile agricultural area cavern. Ranch experts had been brought in and 20 square miles had been dedicated to raising swine, goats and sheep. Fruit and evergreen trees dotted the land. A new farm manager had been brought in to grow alfalfa, wheat, barley and oats on another ten square miles of the surface. Abner did not want to give up his little farm in the old company cavern so he stil produced eggs, rabbits, poultry, fruit and vegetables there. The growing number of householders who now had kitchens and preferred to prepare their own meals also preferred to obtain their food from Abner. What Abner produced was minuscule to what the new farm manager was raising on the acreage that he had under cultivation in Arizona cavern but Abner's products were considered superior in quality. The new householder's were paid an al owance from The Company for not taking their meals in the mess hall. They used these funds to buy their food at the Supermarket which had become a part of the new Super Store . The money that Abner took in from selling his products had to be strictly accounted for and turned over to the company. The Company did stil own Abner's farm and Abner was still a Company employee. Ten square miles of the surface of Arizona was the industrial district. They now had their own smelter, foundry, machine shop, plastics fabricating plant, a flower mil a commercial bakery and a lumber mil , installed and just waiting for their trees to get large enough to harvest so they could start cutting their own lumber.

Near the cavern entrance a smal city had sprung up. It had been dubbed New Phoenix. Almost everyone on Mars was moving to New Phoenix. There was a whole new generation of engineers and scientists at work digging new tunnels and opening new caverns. Mars itself could now support a population numbering in the mil ions but the three working ships could only transport so many passengers, about 2,400 per year. As new caverns continued to be opened and pressurized there were a few individuals that for one reason or another wanted to live in them. Mostly these were farmers and ranchers. Some planted cotton, some trees, some wheat or other grain crops. The new caverns were being put to good use.

One of the new caverns about four miles out from Arizona had a unique set of features. The cavern covered about sixteen square miles but the floor was certainly not level. It would have been a tremendous engineering feet to even have attempted to level it. The floor of the cavern looked like the side of a mountain on Earth. The cavern had been tunneled into at the low side. It would have been impractical to have allowed for such a steep clime to exit the cavern so the crew just left the air lock in place. They dril ed another tunnel out of the previous cavern into the next cavern off to the right of the sealed cavern. The floor of the new cavern that they reached was relatively flat. They just continued on through that cavern and continued opening new caverns. They figured the steep sided cavern would never serve any worthwhile purpose. On an inspection tour Tim donned his Mars suit and asked to enter the sealed off cavern. After seeing it he couldn't get it out of his mind. He came up with an idea. After talking with the atmosphere control group he was elated. He wrote up a proposal under the name of one of his corporations. He plainly stated in the offer that he was not only the CEO of that company but that he was the only stockholder. Tim offered to purchase the cavern for one mil ion dollars. He was first told that he should submit it through the Company, Mars Colony, Inc. since they owned the abandoned cavern, but when he pointed out that it would be a conflict of interest for him to do that because he was the Company Manager, they agreed to have the Council act on approval of the offer. The offer was accepted but no one could understand why Tim wanted the useless cavern. The purchase was made with a ten percent down payment and payments for 30 years at seven percent interest.

Since there were so many people wanting title to the land they lived on Tim decided to have a couple with Real Estate appraisal experience start appraising the property that people occupied and setting a price for purchasing the real estate. The bank had agreed to make thirty year mortgages with ten percent down at 7% interest. The first applicant was Abner Jacobs, who had recently formed a new closed corporation with the three couples who worked the farm as the only other stockholders. The Company was called Paradise Farms, Inc. They wanted to buy the entire Government cavern and the old company cavern and the orchard. They did not want to buy the installed utilities but agreed to give The Company access to them. The appraisal came in at only eight mil ion dollars and Abner jumped at it. He transferred $800,000 from their corporate bank account to Mars Colony, Inc and all the principals signed the mortgage papers. From then on when you crossed from Paradise to the old area you encountered a new sign that read “Welcome to Paradise Farms.”

Hour Glass, Inc. was the next company that wanted to purchase the land that they leased from the company. Unlike Abner's farm they had been private a enterprise business since Inception, it is just that had leased their land from the company. The appraisers were instructed to appraise the value of the raw land only and not the crops and improvements which had been installed by the tenants. Their appraisal for just the land came back at 26 mil ion dol ars and Hour Glass, Inc. opted to buy it. They could have paid all cash by this time but took the mortgage anyway.

Many of the factory managers of production facilities located in New Phoenix quickly formed new corporations some were closed corporations and some were traded on the over the counter exchange operated by Paul Silverman. They obtained appraisals and in all cases the corporations bought the businesses, land, buildings, machinery and equipment. A couple of them had thought appraisals had come back a little on the high side and had ask for a hearing. The two attorney's would plead the case before a committee designated by the Council and the Committee would render a verdict. They usually split the difference and everybody had thought they had won the case. After attorney fees they had both lost.

@CHAPTER – Mars Runner Returns

May 28, 2109 : Six hundred new immigrants were on board, half of them to open more than fifty new businesses, the other 300 were workers for Mars industries. Cargo contained the machinery and equipment, furniture and fixtures to expand existing industry on Mars, and the for the new businesses. June 18, 2110: A new one hundred bed hospital opened in New Phoenix equipped with al the latest medical equipment from Earth. The staff Included at a minimum, two specialists in every major category of medical arts. There was a new small medical col ege program started a year later with 22 students in the first class. Practicing Dr's served as the instructors. Upon graduation the students were to serve a two year stint as interns and then an apprenticeship with the doctors who were practicing the specialty they had selected. Pediatrics and family medicine were very popular but there were two doctors in New Phoenix practicing family medicine who had specialties in geriatric medicine though there were no geriatric patients at this time.

Abner finally got the Earth worms he had ordered, along with the cups, lids and five hundred pounds of corn meal that would feed them for years. He got permission to raise them on a smal plot of land at the farm. The worms multiplied rapidly. Abner did not start selling them until his stock had doubled then he let everyone know over talk radio that he had worms for sale. Business was brisk. Abner and the other five people on the farm only worked with the worms for sale when they were off duty but they were allowed to keep the money that they earned.

The fish had a chance to mature and multiply. Fishing was now fair to good in more than thirty lakes and streams on Mars. Boats with electric motors trolled the lakes, people partied and cooked on the docks. As predicted the Ivy had spread, climbing up the wal s of all the caverns. Now when one traveled anywhere on Mars they got the impression that they were in a place of lush greenery because growing greenery was what the eye caught no matter what direction one looked. Most of what they were seeing was Ivy but all of the gardens, vineyards and orchards were thriving. September 14, 2110: One of the women who had remained on Mars when her contract was up with the Government approached Abner one evening. Abner I took a job at Burger Boy because I couldn't decide what kind of business I would enjoy working at. I have enough money to go into business for myself and I do a lot of fishing. I think what I would like to do is to open a bait and tackle shop. If I did that would you keep me supplied with worms. The worked out a deal for Sarah to market the worms. Sarah then placed a large order with a sporting goods wholesaler in California. The next thing she did was to have friends of hers and the people working on the farm go to Super Store and buy all the fishing gear they would sel them. Once she had all the new fishing gear on Mars she leased the lot built the building in the square at The Company cavern and hung out her shingle. “Sarah's Bait and Tackle Shop”

Everyone on talk radio could talk of nothing else for a few days. Some of them were not too happy because Sarah had doubled the price that she had paid Super Store for her inventory and raised the price of the worms that she got from Abner. People grumbled a little but they understood. Sarah became the local fishing guru and gave free advise with every item she sold. Within six months she had received her own inventory from California and Super Store had replaced theirs. Sarah's business was a success and Sarah was a very happy camper.

February 3, 2111: Over the years since Tim and Carla had arrived, a few pet lovers had bit the bullet and paid the one hundred thousand dollars fare to have a dog, or a cat and a few cases even a parrot brought to Mars. Tim had finally realized that on Earth having a pet around was a part of growing up, and the kids now growing up on Mars were missing out on this experience. With the arrival of each new ship there was less and less demand to Include only critical items on the cargo manifest. Also there was the fact that Mars was now able to provide ample food for the population and stil have a surplus. Tim had arranged for one couple who had completed their contracts with the Government to open a pet store. He also arranged for them to be able to import up to one hundred pets aboard every ship that arrived from now on to be shipped for $100.00 each, providing the pet store owner agreed to no more than double his money when he resold them on Mars. The pet store owners proved very canny and began to purchase females that were pregnant or in heat. By 2117 there would be thousands of pets of every kind on the planet. So many that New Phoenix had to establish an Animal control agency and a pound, where pets could be adopted. No pet was ever subjected to euphemism on Mars.

April 4, 2112: There almost one hundred children in New Phoenix due to start Kindergarten but so far there were no schools. Not only were there almost one hundred this year but there would be twice that many next year. Tim authorized funds to build and equip a school. Tim provided enough land but only authorized hiring or reassigning enough teachers to handle Kindergarten and preschool programs. Tim warned the council that this facility was hereby donated to them and they should construct the buildings and hire the teachers by next year when they would have first graders to contend with. This lead to the bank putting up the funds and the local Government obligating itself for repayment. The council became disparate and had to figure out some kind of tax scheme to support the schools. They debated all sort of taxes but there just wasn't enough tax base to provide the funds that they required short of imposing an Income tax.