A Colony on Mars (25 page)

another officer asked. “Certainly”, Tim responded. “ We have farms, ranches, orchards, wineries and herds of animals to more than sustain over one hundred thousand people now and 80% of our available land space is undeveloped.

“Then why aren't there more people on Mars,” another officer asked. “Because you guys keep hauling them to Arton,” Tim answered. “I never dreamed,” said the officer, “I just thought Mars colony was a few guys extracting oar on a dead planet.”

Before we continue with this discussion I want you people to take a day and tour of Mars, or at least some of it, you can't possibly see it al in a day. That would be like trying to see all of Texas in a day. Most of us live here in New Phoenix. We don't have more cities because there is no need. We all have everything right here. Right next to New Phoenix is Utopia, it is an enormous cavern, larger than all of our other caverns combined. So far we have not developed Utopia but we now have everything we need to open Utopia. We have discovered pressurized and introduced atmosphere to several caverns larger than either of these large caverns that we occupy but they are just sitting vacant at the moment. Tel me, how many people are living on Arton and what are their living conditions? Tim asked” “Their highest ranking officer responded, there are a little over 45,000 humans scattered around the planet. The air is similar to Earths, the size of the planet is similar to Earth. The planet could eventually house five to seven bil ion people. There are large animals that you would think of as dinosaurs, in abundance, there are an estimated two hundred thousand humanoids, that have formed into tribes and dwell in caves much as humans did on Earth ten mil ion years ago. Overall the land mass on the planet is a little larger than earth. There are no continents just islands. No matter where you are on the ocean you can see several islands. Just try and picture it as Earth was ten mil ion years ago.

First see our planet but then as I see it our alternatives are to transport al of us to Arton or to transport all of the people on Arton to Mars or to have Mars continue to provide the things you were getting from Earth for you to transport to Arton and for mankind to inhabit both planets so that a catastrophe like the one that destroyed the Earth Yesterday can never destroy mankind. I suspect that the cargo that you have been transporting to Arton Included a lot of weapons and we have no weapons on Mars, none. We could tool up and turn out weapons but we don't have any now. Also be aware that we wil loose contact with Arton when you exhaust the energy supply in your ships. We do not use nuclear energy on Mars, we rely exclusively on geothermal energy. We have found uranium ore on the planet but we have never mined any because we don't need it and we don't want it. After what happened yesterday, I don't suppose we wil ever want it. My next point is that we stil have the Mars Runner that is capable of travel to Earth. In fact it is on it's way to Mars now loaded with cargo and settlers. It should arrive in Mars orbit around the middle of August. I am sure than in a few years we will want to send inspection teams to Earth to see how hot it is and to see if there are any people left alive anywhere.

“Just from the conversation we have just had I think I already know the plan we are al going to agree on,” said Tim. You should take the two ships that you have already provisioned and continue on to Arton. Tell them what happened on Earth and return to Mars with as many of them as want to return. That way those that remain on Arton given a hundred thousand years or so may come up with what man had on Earth at one time, hopefully it won't end the same way. I suspect that you in this room and your crews will prefer life on Mars, but the ones that went to Arton in the first place are the kind of people that are seeking thril s and high adventure. A lot of them will want to remain, and they should. Once you get back to Mars you wil want to put your ships into a parking orbit around the planet and live your lives out here. That should be left up to each individual. Be sure when you travel to Arton that you have enough extra crewmen to handle your ship on your return. Only you people know how much fuel you have and how many more trips you can make but I suggest that you make none just in case your ability to fly is needed to travel from Mars to Earth and back on several occasions.” That evening all 14,000 guests were put up in the reception center. Al were fed a hearty meal. July 6, 2125: The newly arrived people all 14,000 of them were taken on Guided tours of Mars. They visited the ranch and saw al the animals, they visited the orchards and the farms and the vineyards and the city. They were taken to Paradise and shown the campgrounds and the rivers and lakes teeming with fish, they were shown some of the tamed but unused caverns, one larger than New Phoenix and Utopia combined. They toured the industrial complex and tasted the Martian wine and beer. They were shown the Ski Lodge. They had all been very interested in the tour and most of them realized by the end of the day that Mars was not only a better place to live than Arton, Mars was a better place to live than Earth had been a month ago, before they blew themselves up. After the tours were completed they were returned to the reception center.

July7, 2125: The ship's officers met with Tim around 0900. They concurred with his plan of action. An announcement was issued that anyone on Mars who wanted to spend their lives on Arton should assemble at the Utility Cavern the next morning at 0600 to board one of the space cruisers. That went for the crews of the space ships as wel . Al other crew members were asked to stand by in the tunnel leading to the Utility Cavern so that if there were any crewmen that wanted to remain on Arton there would still be sufficient crew to return the ships to Mars.

July 8, 2125: 0600, there exactly twelve people standing in the Utility Cavern waiting to board a ship to Arton. Al of the crew members from all four ships were in the tunnel. It seems that they all wanted to live their lives out on Mars, not Arton. All four vessels left port that morning. Two headed for Arton with the last load of supplies that would be delivered to the planet for some time to come. The other two headed for Earth and the Moon to rescue survivors.

July 9, 2125: The Mars Unified Counsel of Elected Representatives met to discuss the future of Mars. Particular attention was given to the problem of how to keep the economy of Mars from collapsing, resulting in chaos. After listening to some fifty speakers and hundreds of ideas the following consensus emerged and voted into law. The first Colonial bank had agreed to honor all existing accounts and to continue to credit those accounts with all regular deposits, such as wages. The bank would evaluate al stock and bond portfolios that the Citizens of Mars had on April 2, 2125 in Earth held securities and credit the accounts of those people with the appropriate amounts of cash, just as though they had they had sold their securities on that day. The price of gold on Earth on April 2, had been $2,242.00 per ounce. The Gold in the vaults of the bank amounted to 2,186 metric tons. That gold was the property of Mars Colony, Inc. and would remain the property of Mars, Inc. Everyone had always known that diamonds and other precious stones had kept turning up in small quantities but no one had ever admitted it. It was just a kind of a bonus when someone found a stone. Most of those stones were now in Paul Silverman, safe at the jewelery store, but Paul had bought and paid for them so they were his and would remain so. Paul had readily agreed that all future diamond finds should be the property of Mars, Inc. and should be turned in to the company. Diamonds of course now had little value except that Mars was being put on a Gold and Diamond based economy. The value of Diamonds had arbitrarily been set at $3,000.00 per carrot which the bank agreed to credit to The Company account. Mars Unified Counsel of Elected Representatives authorized the bank to mint and put into circulation iron and nickel coins in the amounts of one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, and one thousand dol ar denominations. These would bear the inscription, pay to bearer on demand the value of this coin in gold. Everyone knew that in actuality, the gold and diamonds had no intrinsic value but just their universal acceptance bestowed on them their value. That public faith was enough to keep the economy running. It was agreed that The Company structure would not change, The Company would henceforth be known as Mars, Inc. Corporation papers were filed at the recording office of the Federal building noting this change and establishing a board of Directors listing Tim Erkin as Chairman and a dozen other company officers as members of the board of directors. They all, Including Tim agreed to a fifty percent pay cut. In fact every employee of The Company was notified of a fifty percent pay cut. Al employment contracts that employees had with The Company were canceled. No one would be laid off, The Company had many jobs to be done in their various enterprises. Including the ranch, the farms, the orchards and the manufacturing plants. The Company also was the owner of record of all the real property on Mars. Tim addressed the Counsel announced that The Company would form a real estate branch to sel off a lot of the property that The Company would identify and list for sale in coming months. Tim said that monopolies were, in his opinion not good for any economy and he wanted to see many of the companies employees strike out on their own and start private corporations and open small business establishment of al sorts.

As more jobs were created and more business and manufacturing started the number of people in the reception center began to dwindle. More homes were being constructed, schools built. Since Arizona had been opened tunneling crews had opened a dozen more smaller caverns that had been sealed and pressurized but were lying unused. One after another people began finding uses for them. Some for raising livestock, some for agriculture, some for industry. They stil had their ace in the hole, Utopia, if more land was ever needed.

Ten years from now I would hope that Mars Inc. could be just another successful corporation on Mars and not necessarily even the largest corporation. Tim was a whole hearted believer in the free enterprise system and in a democratic form of government. Over the next two years there were fifty two smal business opened on Mars. There were twenty six new corporations started. There was even an over the counter stock exchange being operated by Paul and his two employees. Since the disappearance of the Earth, Paul's Jewelery had little demand. Paul transitioned easily into running and controlling the Mars stock exchange. Prices were published daily on MARS-TV and on Mars.com. At first there were some wild fluctuations but eventually they leveled out and were the backbone of the young economy. After five years Mars Inc. was down to 1,800 employees but stil owned and operated much of Mars. Tim had sold the lower half of the Hour Glass to the lessors, Austin, Byron and Glen, who now employed over two hundred people and were Incorporated. The bank was Incorporated on Mars and now had three branches and over one hundred employees. The Counsel had formed all sorts of new bureaucracies and employed over two hundred fifty civil servants. One thing that the counsel had done that nobody cared much for was that they had imposed a flat rate ten percent Income tax, a one percent property tax and a five percent sales tax. Like I said no one liked it much but they all knew that it had to be done. The Government had obligations to meet like everyone else and the money had to come from somewhere. On Mars as it had been on Earth the money would have to come from taxes, permits, licenses fees and fines.

If anything the disappearance of the Earth had strengthened the economy of Mars and had broken the stranglehold that Mars Colony, Inc had on the planet. The Federal Government of the United States had been abolished and the employees terminated. In short order a new corporation of scientists had formed and Incorporated. They had more work than they could handle. Al tunneling had been temporarily stopped until such time as population reassure created a demand for more land, which wouldn't be for many years. Some of the new companies were buying real estate from Mars Inc. that was located in undeveloped caverns. Many of the newly developed caverns were unique and they all had their own personalities. Tim had already decided to develop the largest of them to a long term timber project and had crews leveling the bottom of the cavern and readying the soil. Grow lights had already been installed that would be adequate to grow trees. Tim had also planned to plant wheat on the land and raise goats . There was plenty of water and they had already installed a new large generator and two atmosphere machines before the Earth had col apsed. Tim's plans had not changed with the loss of the earth. Seedlings had been planted and the young trees had thrived. By March of 2125 The trees were already the size of Christmas trees and goats were roaming the range. This was a 54 square mile monster cavern. Eventually, Tim supposed this land would have a higher and better purpose but for now it would make a great goats ranch and forest. Especially since the loss of Earth Mars would have to meet their own demand for timber.

CHAPTER – The rescue mission to Earth

April 5, 2125: The A1immediately established radio communications with the Earth orbiter and the moon base. Various other manned satellites had been checking in with the Earth Orbiter and were told to send everyone there. The orbiter had no Shuttle on station when the bombs started going off so they could not pick up the survivors and have them all waiting in one place. One by one shuttle started showing up at the orbiter. Of the forty seven shuttle on Earth all but nine had managed to grab the nearest sixty people and head out to space. One by one the shuttles were able to discharge their passengers at the orbiter. The first shuttle to arrive at the orbiter went to gather the people working at the other satel ites. By the time the A1contacted the orbiter there were 2,454 survivors waiting for rescue. The A1loaded the passengers from the orbiter and 20 shuttles that they had room for in their cargo hold. They were preparing to enter moon orbit when they were contacted by radio, It was the Arton Four that had just made Earth orbit.

“What is the situation here?” “Better put Captain Sorenson on, please get him and as many of the ships officers as are available, I only want to go through this once.” “Captain Sorenson, this is Captain Davis, I have here with me Captain Al en from the Earth Orbiter I think Captain Al en should begin.”