A Colony on Mars (9 page)

In the early part of the twenty first century in the United States the rule of thumb had been that it took one acre per person to provide food to the country. Around 2025 The United States changed from a net food exporting country to a net food importing country. In response to this development farmers became a lot more efficient at food production. By 2107 the ratio had been reduced to half an acre per person. Thanks largely to the more extensive use of hot houses for growing vegetables. On Earth the growing season for most foods was stil seasonal. On Mars there were no seasons and all food could be grown year around and around the clock. That meant that on Mars the ratio would be about one quarter acre per person. That included the room that the animals required. Tim had in mind that the entire area on the Company cavern behind the lake and stream, which was approximately 320 acres would be the ideal place for the farm. That would provide all the land that they would need to easily feed a population of one thousand people. By the time that the population exceeded one thousand they would have more land because more caverns would be opened. Tim got a list of the fertilizers that would be needed to bring the Martian soil to life and keep it producing for one year. They then worked out just how many grow lights they would need to run a hothouse of that size. The results were staggering but undaunted Tim spent his next day off working out a requisition for the needed material and an estimate of how much was spent by The Company and the Government to provide the community with canned produce that nobody enjoyed eating. In his equation he allowed for six full time gardeners. The conclusion reached is that it would be cheaper to raise their own vegetables on Mars, a lot cheaper.

The next morning before work he gave a copy of his findings to Carter and another copy to Thelma. The report was well received on Mars . Walter and Thelma submitted an edited copy of Tim's report to The Company and the government. Everyone agreed that was what should be done but they knew the schedule and knew it would be about seven months before the requisitioned items would arrive. They would just have to continue eating canned vegetables until then.

October 5, 2107: Message received from Company on Earth. We have planned a farm on Mars all along. Knowing you would have adequate electricity soon we have already shipped your farm supplies, grow lights, equipment and four farmers. They are now en route on Mars Supply Two and should arrive around January 15, 2108.

October 10, 2107: Not completely satisfied with that Tim and Carter gathered up all the grow lights they had and all the other lights that could be converted to grow lights. They then cleaned out the goat pen, the rabbit pens and the chicken pens and were able to set up a two acre test farm in The Company cavern. Some of the people with gardening experience volunteered and two of them were assigned as full time farmers.

CHAPTER – Their first Christmas on Mars

Their first Christmas on Mars was something to behold. Of course they had no trees, even artificial trees other than one artificial tree that had been sent up by the Government two or three years back and was looking kind of dog eared. They didn't have any factory made decorations except for those sent by the Government to decorate that one lonely tree. Everyone fashioned every day items and made their own decorations. One couple who's hobby was wood carving drew out enough wood from supply to carve a nativity scene. Archy organized a choir of carolers. For the week leading up to Christmas they roamed the facility for about an hour every evening singing carols Gift giving was the hardest part but everyone came up with some sort of original idea as to what to give and to who and how to wrap it. A lot of unique ideas went into that part of the holiday. Carla baked Tim a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen and wrapped them in foil. Tim was stuck, he couldn't think of a thing to give Carla, then he remembered the rocks he had picked out of the mud when he was drilling the well. He picked out a middle sized rock that he thought was the prettiest, it was about the size of a Roma tomato. He wrapped it in a blue paper towel and tied a red string around the top. They went to a special Christmas dinner on the evening of the 24th. Carla had arranged to have the evening off. After dinner they returned to their little house and exchanged gifts. Tim was especially pleased with the cookies and felt a little bad that he hadn't gotten something better for Carla than that ugly rock.

When Carla opened her gift her eye's opened wide and her mouth dropped open and she gasp two or three times to get her breath. “Tim, where on Earth did you find this? I didn't find it on Earth Carla I found it on Mars.” “Wel unless I am terribly mistaken this is about a three ounce uncut diamond. It could be worth almost a mil ion dollars on Earth. Then Tim's mouth dropped open and they just sat there for a minute looking into each other's mouths.

“Were there any more of these where you found this one,” Carla stammered.

“Yeah, I have a whole bag of them, altogether maybe five or six pounds. He retrieved the bag from amongst his belongings and emptied the contents onto the table. Carla just sat there and kept saying “Oh, my God.” “Oh, my God.”

over and over. If these are diamonds and I am almost sure that they are do you have any idea of their value? Maybe mil ions and possibly even over a billion dollars, once they are cut and polished, that's bil ion with a B.”

If that is the case Carla they won't be worth anything if their existence becomes common knowledge. Carla said, “wait a minute, I met a man here on Mars, one of the scientists who's father is a jeweler and diamond cutter. My acquaintance, Paul Silverman, said that his father was teaching him the trade but Paul said he wasn't interested and went to MIT where got a PHD in Math instead. Paul, or rather Dr. Silverman is a Government employee. I think we better get him on this anyway and see what he has to say. Tim chuckled and said “ if Silverman means what I think it means he won't have anything to do on Christmas Eve anyway and it is stil early, so I can't resist I am going to give him a call.”

“Hello, this is Paul.” “You don't know me Dr. but you may know my wife Carla, Erkin that works in the kitchen, my name is Tim Erkin I am her husband and I work in construction. The reason that I am cal ing is that I found some unusual rocks the other day and Carla thinks you ought to see them and maybe identify them for us.” “Yes Tim I know who your wife is, lovely girl, you are a very lucky man. Certainly I wil be happy to look at your find and identify the stones for you, please bring them by anytime.” “How about now Dr. are you busy.”

“Well I am watching a movie on TV but I guess I could put that on record when you get here. I live at 850 Broadway and I'll be expecting you and your lovely wife. Tim put the stones back in the bag and they were outside Dr. Silverman's entrance iwithin five minutes. Come on in, folks and show me what you have found that you are so curious about. After shaking hands, Tim reached into his bag and pul ed out a small stone at random and handed it to Dr. Silverman.”

The good doctor's mouth dropped open and all he could say was “Oh, my God.”

“Oh, my God.” over and over. “I had the same reaction Paul but I wasn't sure, you have just confirmed it.” “Could I see the other stones please Tim?” At which point Tim emptied the contents of the bag on Paul's table. Paul took his eyepiece from a desk drawer, sat down and began to examine Tims find piece by piece.

He selected one with a sharp edge then picked a cut gem that he had been working with. Paul explained that making jewelry was his hobby. “ I make up items here and then send them back on the next ship to my family who sell them for me and deposit the money in my account. I don't know whether you knew it or not but it is free to send things back to Earth as the ships are all returning empty anyway.” Paul then took the stone and made a sharp cut into the faceted stone that he had picked up off his workbench. It is seven in hardness he said. He then held the stone up to the light and studied it as far as I can tell this is a perfect stone., he announced. Paul then put it on a scales, this particular stone weighs in at 4.2 oz or roughly 441 carats. Paul then put the whole collection on his scales, the combined weight was 12.5 pounds, or about 21,000 carats. You would loose about half in cutting. If you just cut them into one carat stones you would realize about 10,500 one carat perfect diamonds currently sel ing at $2,700.00. These would retail at about 28.5 mil ion dollars. If I cut and polish and market them for you my family and I would take 75% of the retail value. Understand that my family does not deal in retail. We are wholesalers only. But doing it that way you would stil have over 7.5 mil ion for your share. We are going to do better than that though I am going to sell some of these as two carat stones, some as three carat some even as larger stones. My family frequently deals in very large stones which are worth far more per carat. Your share could easily come out to between 15 and 20 mil ion dollars.

“Come, you two sit over here and lets talk. Would you care for a brandy?, I have it sent up from Earth and I have never offered anyone else a drink of it before because it is too expensive, but this, this is an occasion that deserves a whole bottle of brandy. “Sure Paul, I haven't had a drink in a long time and I think you might be right, this is worth it.”

Once they had their drinks Paul started. “Here is our problem, the way I see it. If we are not very careful we could ruin the diamond market on Earth if word of these stones got out. Diamonds themselves have only their industrial value which would make these stones here worth only a few thousand dol ars. What diamonds do have above and beyond their intrinsic value is their perceived value. If the market collectively perceives that are worth fifty million dollars then we can sell them for twenty five mil ion. If the market were to perceive that they were worthless as jewels then they would have only their industrial value.

I have the equipment here on Mars to cleave them cut them and mount them. I have been on Mars for only two years now and I have eight years left on my contract before I can return to Earth. We must never let anyone know that these stones are from Mars or like I said the Diamond market on Earth could collapse. It is only the law of supply and demand that supports the market. Even the big diamond mines in Africa and elsewhere withhold stones from the market in order to maximize their price. I could cut a one hundred mil ion dollar diamond out of that grapefruit you have there but what would I do with it. No such diamond presently exists and someone would catch on once my Martian background came to light. Here is what I propose. I should cut most of these stones right here into large but imperfect facets. Then mount them in unattractive silver jewelry and send them to my family on Earth. I will instruct them to open new Swiss bank accounts one for you and Carla and one for me. They wil then rework the stones and melt down the settings which they wil send back to me as bulk silver. They are dealers so they wil have little difficulty in marketing the stones, they will keep half the proceeds from the sale of the stones and deposit one half of the other half of the money into each of our accounts. You can trust them they are my family and my family has been making their living in this trade for over two hundred years, they and I are ascetic Jews . Because of the sensitive nature of our family business no one of us have ever cheated another of us not even once in that whole two hundred years. We have had to set our moral values that high because we have had to prosper under hostile governments in order to survive. If there was ever a business where a man's word was his bond, it is this business. Even though I am a PHD in math which has irked my family to no end I stil can't get this stupid business out of my life, I was born and raised in it and even came to Mars to get away from the stigma that goes along with this business and my religious lifestyle but here I sit in my spare time working with these damned stones.”

Tim took Carla by the hand and pul ed her toward the door. “Excuse us a minute Paul we have to talk.” Outside, Tim told Carla, I know about these people, they are very clannish, and what he says about trust is absolutely correct, hell these people even survived and did business during the Holocaust, in Nazi Germany when all the other Jews were sent off to the concentration camps. I say we go for it. I can always get more stones from where I got these so we have almost nothing invested.” “Sure Tim it sounds like a win, win situation, let's go for it.”

In the days that passed they maintained only a nodding relationship with Paul. On one occasion several weeks later he told Carla “Come by the house this evening there is something I want to show you. That evening Tim and Carla went over to see Paul after dark. Once inside Paul poured out the contents of a velvet pouch onto a velvet pad. There were almost 20 cut diamonds. They looked large but irregular. “Look, these are al the product of one of your smaller stones. Since I am being particular when I cleave them but intentionally clumsy when I cut and polish them I am able to turn one of these out at approximately one per day. These are all six to eight carrot perfect diamonds. By the time my relatives on Earth finish with them we should each receive approximately five hundred thousand dollars. I just have time before the next ship to Earth leaves to make some ugly cheap jewelry to mount them in to make them look like dime store stuff to the untrained eye. I wil be sending a shipment like this out on every ship for the next several years. I wil give you your numbered account information as soon as I have it. Aside from that you are just going to have to trust me and my family until you return to Earth. The next evening Tim and Carla were discussing their situation.

“According to what Paul has told us we are going to have more money in Switzerland when we get back than we have in the United States, Carla.” “I am stil a little uneasy about that Tim, that's an awful lot of money and those relatives of Paul's wil have our account number.” Not this next ship but within the year I want to post a letter to our Trustee and have him make periodic withdrawals from our Swiss account and deposit the money in our trust account at the bank. Then I want to order him to begin a regular stock purchase program of acquiring shares in Mars Colony, Inc.” “I can see having him deposit the money in our trust account but why would you want shares in Mars Colony, Inc. They have never turned a profit and they never wil .” I made some inquiries about The Company before we left. It seems that 20 of the 25 richest individuals and corporations on Earth are behind it. They each put up one Bil ion in seed money to get The Company going. So far they have gone through that 20 bil ion and the investors have already kicked in another bil ion each and you are right The Company has yet to make a dime. Here is what I think, The Company has arranged to take title to Most of Mars. I suspect, they already have title to everything that is here except the Government cavern, and they are just using the taxpayers and the Government to help them with development expenses. Carla within a year we are going to be taming a cavern as large as a U.S. State and The Company will own it all. I have also considered the possibility that The Company already knows about the diamonds but they don't want to destroy the diamond market either. It's a fluke for me to have stumbled on to the ones I found, we were drilling with Water pressure because our dril bit wasn't working and the diamonds that I picked up were forced up with the mud. I didn't even know what they were but they fascinated me and I figured they were worth picking up. We used that slag to finish up around the hole and to mount the generator on, I would imagine there is as many diamonds that I did not pick up as there were those that I did pick up. Eventually we will be closing that generator down and then I will have a chance to go through the rest of that mud. In the meantime those diamonds are safe and secure and I wouldn't want to do anything that looked suspicious, we can afford to let them lay there for two or three years. I will go over and poke around near the surface in a couple months like I am checking up on how our installation is holding up. If any are near the surface I of course wil pick them up.