First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (32 page)

The
President nodded. “It definitely shows that mankind can make a
home in the most wild and inhospitable places. If the vaults are
viable as we have been told then mankind is on its way to establish a
new home on a distant world.”

He
smiled at the cameras. “For the first time in our history,
Mankind is stepping out, stepping to the stars ladies and gentlemen.
I for one am truly humbled by the strength, courage, and dedication
our pioneers are showing. They are true heroes.”

“Heroes
hell, he is still pissed,” Mario grumped. Wanda shushed him.

“This
mean the Hans will help out more now?” Tess asked as she
shifted behind him.

“Don't
bet on it. I bet they will be talking with home for days,”
Mario sighed.

“Burning
up the bandwidth,” Wanda sighed in agreement. “Great. Hi
commander care to join us?” Tess waved to the commander who had
been watching from the doorway. He nodded.

“Press
conference on us?” the commander asked. Wanda looked up and
rolled her eyes, then returned to watching the conference.

...*...*...*...*...

"All
right Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mars base. This is going out
as a Three D recording so those of you at home can view it with the
proper equipment." Mario held up a set of goggles. "You can
view it with a set of these, or if it is broadcast as a video, you
could view it with a cheap pair of paper 3D glasses you can get from
a movie theater," he said and then nodded. He'd just finished
prebreathing and was ready to rock and roll.

"All
right, let's get started shall we?" Tess followed him into the
airlock. He put his helmet on and sealed up. They checked each other.
"Okay, all set, airlock is depressurizing now. Unfortunately we
haven't built the connecting tunnel to the habs yet, we've been
focusing on the vault interior. The vault or warren as some have
called it is made up of three roman style vaults. Check out the Mars
Foundation website for more on that."

Tess
followed him to the first test cell. "This is the first test
cell the commander, Tess, Doctor Li, and I created. It is a simple
three cubic meter vault. As you can see it has a half cylinder
ceiling." Mario used his hands to trace out the arch. "We
took the airlock doors from the crashed MAV to turn this into an
airlock. Come on, let's go inside." He opened the door and they
went in.

Tess
panned the camera around. They'd used the slurry to coat over the
plastic resin as a sort of drywall. It wasn't perfect but it did make
it look a little better.

"As
you can see we've built a sort of mud room here using the components
from the salvaged MAV. We created a bench with bricks, and installed
life support." Mario took off his helmet when the light turned
green. "See? Air." He breathed in and out. "Unfortunately
due to the large volume it is taking time for the salvaged heaters to
heat the vaults." He opened the inner door. His breath
immediately clouded as he stepped through the threshold.

"It
is a bit dark in here, but I think the camera can adjust," he
said. He hit the lights. "It is still a work in progress; we
need to complete the supports for the second floor." Tess panned
up to the darkened arched ceiling above. "Right. The first two
vaults will be two stories, the bottoms will be living quarters, and
tops will be labs or sleeping quarters." Mario waved to the
arched door to the next vault. "In here we have the kitchenette.
The MAV had a tiny microwave and convection oven and some storage for
food and for the samples. We've adapted all of it for this. Hopefully
we can replace or expand on this start down the road..."

He
spent nearly an hour leading the tour before winding it down with a
thank you for watching good night. Tess shut the camera off and
nodded. "Do you think we should have scavenged more lights? It
is sort of dark." the commander asked coming in behind them.

"Yeah,
it is. But Wanda needs them on her dig site, and the rest would have
to be pulled from the habs or from our spare parts... I'm not happy
about that," Mario replied.

The
commander nodded. "Yeah, me too. Okay, let's use this then."
He waved to Tess who nodded and walked out.

"Think
it will help?" Mario asked.

"I
hope so. I doubt it, not everyone is keen on this project." The
commander waved to the ceilings. "Oh don't get me wrong, I love
it. I wish our stay was longer, or that my family was here. We could
really turn this place into a home," he sighed. "But either
way, we're going to catch some flack form it." Mario nodded. The
commander sighed.

"Yeah,
better batten down the hatches and be prepared," Mario nodded
grimly. "Well, they're going to show it to the hill, treaty
partners, and admin before it is released. Hopefully we get some
positive feedback," Mario said and then shrugged. It was after
all, now out of his hands.

...*...*...*...*...

"Ladies
and gentlemen we are about to bring you pictures from the Mars base.
This unauthorized experiment is being conducted by Mario Irons and
some of the crew. As you can see from these screen shots we are
showing you it is a dark, dank dungeon that they expect people to
live in. So cold that their breath can be seen here..."

Mario
grimaced. "Screen shots?" He turned to the commander who
shrugged helplessly.

"First
amendment. They can use what they want and spin it the way their
bosses want," the commander replied, clearly as disgusted as he
was. Mario sighed.

Tess
shook her head. "Is not right. We worked hard on dis." She
waved angrily.

"Well,
Luigi is putting the cad drawings, virtual sim, and raw video up on
our websites, with mirrors to follow. In fact he complained that they
are being swamped with traffic. A bootleg has turned up on Vimeo and
YouTube... He is letting them go. I think he even contacted Hulu to
put it up there as well," Mario replied.

"So
the web will see it for what it really is?" The commander asked.

"Yes,
but I was thinking. We should take that panoramic camera and laser
range finders we used for the Sim project and do some interior shots
of each...." Mario suggested.

Tess
brightened. "DA! IS good! We should have thought of earlier!"

Mario
chuckled “Better late than never,” he said.

...*...*...*...*...

"What
the?" Mario sighed as he checked his e-mail. His cousin Eli had
sent him a link to a video game mod of the vaults. He frowned. "Like
I can surf the net from Mars you ninny." He shook his head.
"Time to give Luigi a ring," he muttered as he set up the
webcam. "Luigi, what's this about a FPS mod of the vault? I
think your Sim got hacked. Check it out for me will you?" He
saved the video file and added it to the daily upload log.

Sometime
later he checked his mail and got a response. "Mario, um... I
hate to break it to you but a kid named Billy and I did it a month
ago," Luigi replied. Luigi looked embarrassed. Mario growled.
"It is a bit of viral marketing, keeping people interested in
Mars," Luigi explained. He shrugged. "It's actually pretty
popular, the kid did good. He's gotten into the college computer
sciences program and has an internship with us. His application for
astronaut training just crossed my desk a day or two ago too. I had
to pass it over to Nick and Zubrin so I won’t be accused of
nepotism or favoritism," he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"The
kid is good though, he's mastered all the Sims when they first came
out. The real ones, not the watered down public versions," Luigi
said and then smiled. Mario nodded. "He's a hands on kid, built
his own PC when he was eight, knows computer languages, and is
absolutely insane when it comes to programming." Luigi chuckled.
"We've set up a copy of the Mars Sim in Second Life. I'll send
you a copy of the mod so you can load it into Halo ODST or Starcraft
two." Luigi grinned. "Later bro."

Asteroid
encounter:

"So
the asteroid will pass us by?" Nick asked Luigi carefully. He
for one didn't want anything else going wrong. He was fairly sure Bob
and Luigi hadn't expected the vehement reaction from the vaults.

Luigi
nodded. "About a million clicks out give or take a few meters."
They watched the display.

"I
heard a rumor that it is going to impact Mars." Benny sat down
on the edge of the desk looking at his boss.

"You
peeked at the course?" Luigi asked, turning to him with a slight
raised eyebrow.

"Hit
Mars?" Julia asked suddenly alarmed.

"Settle
down," Luigi ordered. He waved to Doctor Zubrin. "Looks
like the cats out of the bag boss."

Zubrin
shrugged. "Not much we can do about it now, the plasma jets are
out of fuel. I hope it works." They watched as the asteroid
passed and the plot changed.

"Bring
up the plot and zoom it out," Zubrin ordered. The image changed
to one of the inner solar system. The asteroid's projected path
dotted along an arch to Mars.

"Will
it endanger the crew?" Benny asked, suddenly concerned. So much
for keeping a low profile and not getting anyone else pissed at them.

"No,
well, we don't think so," Luigi replied. He knew he was going to
catch six shades of hell over this. From the family as well as the
hill and public.

"Luigi,
this may not be a very bright thing, you know you’re playing
with fire," Nick cautioned. He was fairly certain his boss had
just cut his own throat.

"Yeah
well, too late now," Luigi replied. He nodded to some of the
techs as they looked up and caught the feed. Some were gasping and
muttering. A few were pointing. One had his cell phone out and was
talking. Luigi scowled.

"Where
will it hit?" Zubrin asked.

"Lower
hemisphere near the south pole," Luigi replied, dragging his
glaring eyes away from the offending tech reluctantly. Luigi pulled
up a map in a side window, and then overlaid the image. "The
crew is over two thousand kilometers away. They will get hit by the
dust storm, but pyroclastic's will probably be minimum," he
explained. He shrugged.

"I
am more worried about a Mars quake. It should ring the planet like a
bell," Zubrin cautioned.

"Yeah.
The geologists are going to have a field day with the data,"
Julia replied and then nodded. "Are you sure they will be okay?"
she asked eyes locked on Luigi.

"Yeah.
Trust me; I wouldn't put my brother or his wife in serious danger if
I could help it. If we get an accidental course change they can get
into the MAV and head for orbit."

Benny
suddenly smiled. "Right, we forgot that," he said. Crew one
was due to depart tomorrow. He nodded thoughtfully and then pursed
his lips. “This is a particularly gory way to illustrate what
happens to a planet when it gets hit by an asteroid you know that
right?” Benny asked.

Luigi
chuckled. “You would think they would have taken heed during
the Shoemaker Levy nine impact, or the other asteroid impact in 2009,
but no. They still accuse us of being chicken little,” Luigi
sighed noisily. “This should wake a few up, we have another
rock due in 2030,” he growled.

"What
about crew two? They should be arriving a few months after the rock
hits." Dr. Zubrin asked. He tapped the map and their course came
up. Crew two had launched without a hitch. Their ERV and MAV along
with the unmanned cargo landers had been sent out ahead of them.

"A
month after it hits. Wait, why would team one still be on the ground?
Aren't they set to leave tomorrow?" Benny asked as Zubrin turned
an accusing glance on Luigi who spread his hands apart.

"That
is up to them. I am not sure who if any will be on the MAV."

Julia's
eyes went round. "Oh my god," she said, suddenly catching
on. She shook her head in wonder. "My god my god."

He
smiled. "Don't worry, as long as they aren't in the vaults they
should be okay. I had Wanda and Doctor Li check; they are nearly a
hundred kilometers from the nearest fault line," Luigi said
soothingly. She nodded.

"Will
it restart the core?" someone behind them asked.

"I
don't know. I hope so." Luigi replied, looking over his shoulder
to the tech. "It would go a long way to terraforming the
planet." He crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the desk
console.

"Well,
when I asked you to help me change the world I actually meant ours...
but this works too,” Zubrin smiled, ducking his head and
walking out.

"You’re
in for it again buddy," Nick slapped Luigi's shoulder. He
chuckled.

"No
way will they buy that this is buried in the paper work like last
time," Nick cautioned.

"Oh
but it is,” Luigi replied. He chuckled as Nick's eyes went
round.

"You’re
shitting me!" He pulled out his Iphone and checked. "Search.
Course," he muttered. He read for a moment then looked up
stunned. "Why you little shit!"

Benny
chuckled. "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on
me?" Benny asked. "You're still going to get your ass
chewed good and proper."

Luigi
sighed. "Yeah, I still have bite marks from the last time."

Julia
snickered. "Sure it wasn't from Betsy last night?" She
giggled as the wunderkind flushed red all the way to his ears and
brow line.

Benny
laughed. "She shoots, she scores!" Nick laughed with them.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"The
asteroid impact will give us several things. First it will generate
massive amounts of heat. This heat would super heat water to steam,
sending it into the atmosphere with the dust to help thicken the
atmosphere." Luigi smiled as Doctor Zubrin nodded.

"Right.
As the dust storms form, they will trap solar radiation, which will
add to the wind currents formed. Dust and debris will also change the
albedo of the surface, making it darker, thus absorbing more solar
radiation. We are hoping the impacts will jump start some
vulcanology, but that is at best a long shot," Luigi smiled.