by Stan Mason
‘For Heaven’s sake, man,’ began Sir Martin Colchester angrily. ‘You were not abducted here... ... ’
His sentence tailed off as Marshall returned through the side door followed by the Prime Minister. Everyone rose as a token of respect but he waved his hand for them to sit down.
‘Ah, good morning, Professor Goring!’ greeted the senior politician. ‘Please accept my apology for the method by which you were brought here. It was unavoidable, I assure you. It’s not the policy of this government to act in such a cavalier manner but security is at the top of our agenda. Please forgive us.’ Goring’s attitude softened and he stared at Sir Martin Colchester with a smirk on his lips at the Prime Minister’s admission. ‘We’d like to have your views of the possibility of future life on Mars for the human race.’ he continued looking closely at the face of the scientist.
Goring stared at him in disbelief for a moment. ‘Life on Mars?’ he repeated slowly. ‘Life on Mars! Well, Percival Lowell, the American astronomer, regarded Mars as a planet that once supported intelligent beings but which we see today in the last stages of its life. He said that the planet’s water supply had gradually disappeared over the years and would continue to diminish until the surface could no longer support any life at all. In his book, “Mars as the Abode of Life”, he stated that the planet will roll a dead world through space and it’s evolutionary career will end.’
‘Do you believe that to be true?’ asked Colonel Petrano.
‘Not necessarily. But it’s never really been a point of serious discussion before. Not for me anyway.’
‘Let me say that we have a project in mind and we’re combining our activities with the United States in an attempt to achieve it,’ the Prime Minister informed him. ‘Would you care to advise our guest of the mission, Colonel Petrano?’
‘I sure can,’ began the American in a slow easy drawl. ‘Putting it in a nutshell, we’re considering building a large colony for human-beings on the planet Mars but we need to know whether we can do anything to make life easier for them in that extreme atmosphere. It’s the first step for man to move away from the Earth. Once we get there, we can also explore space beyond our own galaxy because the gravity is much less for rockets to be launched. What we need to know is whether it’s possible to do that.’
‘Whew! That’s a pretty tall order,’ retorted the professor sharply. ‘You do realise that the atmosphere’s ninety-five per cent carbon dioxide. To start with, how are the people who settle there going to breathe once their oxygen’s used up?’
‘That’s where your expertise comes in,’ went on Petrano smoothly. ‘We’re relying on you to provide all the answers. We want you to construct a programme whereby we change the atmosphere of the red planet.’
‘Change the atmosphere?’ gasped Goring incredulously. ‘Are you out of your mind? Of a whole planet? It’s nigh impossible. You’d be responsible for changing a world in space.’
‘That’s a pretty good way to start,’ cut in Sir Martin Colchester. ‘Begin with the impossible, determine the possible, and then find your way to the probable. Will you help us?’
The professor stared at him as though the man had just emerged from a dust-bin covered with garbage.
‘We don’t expect an instant answer,’ joined in Miss Walker entering the fray. ‘It’s a long-term project after all.’
‘I’ll say it is!’ muttered Goring. ‘Much longer than you’ll ever imagine, my dear. It won’t happen in your lifetime.’
‘We need a plan of campaign with dates and developments,’ suggested Fader of State Security. ‘Needless to say, secrecy is the main objective. No one other than ourselves must know.’
‘A campaign... .dates,’ continued the scientist blowing out his cheeks. ‘You really are serious about this, aren’t you!’
‘Of course you’ll be well paid for your efforts,’ intruded the Prime Minister as though money mattered to the scientist.
‘I hope you fully realise the enormity of the project,’ groaned the professor eventually. ‘It’s huge. Any attempts to deal with it will be very costly... .in terms of trillions.’
‘We expect it to be expensive,’ stated Colonel Petrano. ‘However, the cost will be spread over many years so it won’t seem so heavy. We’re ready to support you financially.’
‘How many people do you expect to colonise the planet?’ asked the scientist, his mind racing with ideas.
‘About a million people or so to start with,’ declared Miss Walker. ‘More after that. Perhaps up to a hundred million.’ ‘A hundred million?’ echoed the Goring in surprise. ‘You’d be creating another world with all the same problems as this one.’
‘That’s just the point, professor,’ explained the Prime Minister. ‘The people will be carefully selected to maintain a crime-free, war-free community consisting of one single nation where everyone will work together. That’s the plan.’
‘A very ambitious one, if I may say,’ riposted the scientist. ‘But why the secrecy? Surely a plan like this is in the public interest. Why not broadcast it to everyone?’
‘We don’t think that’s advisable,’ commented the American candidly. ‘You see, first it’s a matter of budget at a time when all finances are being held under tight rein. Second, there’s the selection of the right ones to go. I mean, who’s going to be the first thousand people selected for emigration?’
‘I wouldn’t have thought they’d be queuing up to go there,’ muttered Goring audibly. ‘Not to start with anyway. I mean, it isn’t going to be pleasant and they’d certainly have to work very hard to survive. But what intrigues me is why you selected me for this appointment. There are many other eminent scientists who would achieve far better results.’
‘I don’t think so,’ remarked the Prime Minister solemnly. ‘We were very careful in our selection. You rose to the top of the list mainly because of your belief that alien life exists on Earth.’
The scientist stared at him coldly. ‘I don’t understand the connection of aliens with the planet Mars.’
‘You’ve put forward theories that aliens are among us,’ explained Fader. ‘If they do exist, it’s imperative they discover nothing about this project. It would not be in their interest for us to colonise Mars.’
‘Why not?’ demanded the scientist quizzically.
‘If they do exist,’ repeated the State Security man, ‘and if they are among us, they have total control in one planet. There’s no certainty they could cope with any such control if we inhabited two planets. We can’t take the risk.’
‘We consider you’re more aware of their presence than anyone else,’ intruded Miss Walker. ‘If they do exist, you’d be far less of a security risk than any other scientist by the fact that you might be able to recognise them and prevent their interference with the project.’
‘You logic baffles me,’ confessed Goring slowly. ‘I don’t see any reason why my beliefs or my knowledge of alien life on Earth has any connection with your Mars project... not unless you know more than I do about alien life.’
‘Will you think about this appointment and your role in this project?’ the Prime Minister asked, ignoring the comment.
Goring moved his head from one side to the other. ‘Well I’ll consider it but my instincts tell me from the start not to get involved. And, as you know, one should always follow their instinct.
‘Well,’ returned the eminent leader, ‘I’d like your views on it, say, tomorrow morning. Is that too soon?’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ returned the scientist smartly. ‘It should take me no longer than that to decide to turn it down.’
‘Right!’ declared the Prime Minister once again ignoring the scientist’s remark. ‘I suggest we all meet here at ten-thirty tomorrow morning.’ Without another word, he left the room.
‘I’ll send in the chauffeur to tak
e you home or wherever you want to go,’ suggested Marshall as all the participants at the brief meeting stood up and started to leave the room. Goring slumped into a chair. Life on Mars... changing the atmosphere of the planet. Now that was a project and a half to handle. He was a totally dedicated scientist who never did anything in half measures. If he were to accept the project, which he didn’t think he would at this moment in time, he would have to come up with something very cogent to the issue. Full details would be required in sketch form. No half measures! But what could he actually tell the committee if he did accept the role? Changing the atmosphere of the planet? It seemed an impossible task! If he found a way of doing it, he would be like God!
The chauffeur took him to the institute where he attended his engagement but his mind was certainly not on the subject matter discussed there. Life on Mars! Why had they selected him for the project? There was Professor Solomon Agus, Sir Hector Bowes, Dr. Roger Simpkins and many others who were far more knowledgeable about the subject matter to advise the British and American governments. The first two had already written papers and books on it. Yet he had been the chosen one. Why? The excuse concerning his belief that aliens existed and had assumed the form of human-beings to control matters on Earth sounded very lame. Was it because the project related to aliens rather than life on Mars? Sometimes government committees were very devious in their means of procedure often hiding the truth from the public for their own reasons. Perhaps this committee was intent on pulling the wool over his eyes and they had chosen him to be some kind of scapegoat for whatever they had in mind!
On his return home, he gave some serious thought to the project and decided to return the next day to the House of Commons to relate his decision to the Prime Minister. As expected, the chauffeur called for him at ten past ten o’clock. He drove him to the Parliamentary building where the five people were sitting in their places in the same room waiting for his reply. They were well aware of the reputation of the scientist. They realised only too well that he was too great a person to give them a simple yes or no decision and their eyes tried to gauge his attitude as he entered the room. Shortly, the Prime Minister arrived and they all sat down to listen to the decision of the professor.
‘I’ve thought a great deal about the project,’ he began, deliberately refusing to declare his position, ‘and in fact I’ve mapped out a set of ideas which might be of some assistance to you in your endeavour. The ideas I shall outline may sound incredible but there is a distinct possibility that such factors may end in a colonisation of the planet Mars without the need for space-suits or breathing apparatus. It may also involve the planet eventually becoming green and filled with oxygen at temperatures suitable for crop growth and adequate living conditions.’ He paused for a moment which allowed the Prime Minister to cut in.
‘That sounds very hopeful,’ he said briefly, believing that the scientist was telling them he would accept the appointment. ‘Please go on.’
‘I thought about the project all night,’ admitted the professor tiredly. ‘All damned night. I couldn’t sleep because of it. I mean, let’s face it, to bring Mars to life again would be nothing short of a miracle. However, having said that, I do have some undeveloped thoughts on the subject. Let’s go through it briefly. In the first place, there would be the pioneer stage. This would last for a period of some fifteen or twenty years. It would involve human-beings landing on the the planet’s surface with a variety of equipment... certainly enough to form a prefabricated colony to shelter up to twenty or thirty astronauts in the first year. Their task would be to analyse the atmosphere in depth as well as dust storms and radiation. They would drill cores into the ground and search for any signs of life. They would also grow experimental crops to determine whether they could start to feed themselves. Naturally, outside the complex, it would be necessary to wear pressurised space-suits to protect them from the atmosphere and also from the sun’s ultraviolet light. The gravity on Mars is in our favour because it’s only one-third of the Earth’s gravity, and one must remember that the soil on Mars consists of about thirteen per cent iron, a favourable situation which I shall outline later on. One of the major problems is water. There are no lakes, rivers or oceans on the planet because all the water is either underground or frozen at the extreme poles. Additionally, one must also remember that the summer is nearly twice as long as that on Earth.’
‘Are you saying that after the first year more astronauts would be sent to Mars?’ asked Linda Walker.
‘Of course,’ replied the professor. ‘Each year, more and more astronauts would land on the planet taking with them additional equipment required to sustain life plus further technology as it develops on Earth which might help them.’
‘So in the first fifteen or twenty years, there could be some two thousand people on the planet living in prefabricated pressurised dwellings,’ drawled Colonel Petrano.
‘Indeed. It depends on how much work is involved and how many astronauts are employed to undertake the research. You must understand that living conditions will be very harsh.’
‘Will that be the basis of the new society?’ asked Fader.
‘I don’t think so,’ answered the professor slowly. ‘Not if you want a hundred million people to inhabit the planet. However, I think you should hear me out first.’ He stroked his goatee beard thoughtfully before continuing. ‘The second stage... .the development stage... will take about fifty years to complete. There will be a fundamental need to warm the planet by raising the mean temperature. To this end, the engineers there will have to build chemical factories which will be powered by small nuclear reactors. Once this has been established, it will be necessary for them to pump out greenhouse gases to cover the plant to form a thick blanket which will act to prevent the escape of heat. As the temperature rises, the atmosphere will become denser but the air will still not be thick enough to shelter the pioneers from the sun’s ultra-violet rays, Ozone, a form of oxygen, protects us on Earth from such rays but there’s hardly any oxygen on Mars as an ozone substitute will have to be found and pumped into the atmosphere to create a kind of umbrella. This will be perfected by quite a few hundred scientists, engineers, and skilled mechanics. They will have to live a Spartan life in air bubbles, taking the occasional walk for exercise in pressurised space-suits.
‘Do you really think all that can happen in the space of fifty years?’ asked Sir Martin Colchester dubiously.
‘I don’t see why not,’ replied the scientist adamantly.
‘Do you thin we can build sufficient chemical factories to do what you say they’ll do?’ asked Perrano anxiously. ‘It seems one hell of a job to make it happen.’
‘I can’t see why not!’ returned Gorin firmly. ‘They would be powered by nuclear reactors which would work efficiently in the Marian atmosphere. A number of such plants is in separate locations would do exactly what I suggest.’
‘Do you think it’ll actually work?’ Linda Walker felt she had to question the theory. ‘Firstly, there’ll be great difficulty in wearing spacesuits which will slow down the work.
Secondly, are you absolutely certain this umbrella you suggest will actually be created by these chemical factories?*
The professor stared at her with incredulity. He knew that she was merely an adviser on space matters but he suddenly realised she knew nothing about science. ‘Quite the contrary,’ he told her. ‘The fact that the Marian atmosphere allows human-beings to run a hundred metres in about five seconds means that the astronauts and engineers will be able to move around much faster. In half the time one might say. On the second point, the answer is affirmative. An umbrella will be fomed to prevent the gases escaping into the atmosphere.’
‘Okay,’ intruded Fader impulsively, ‘we’re up to the seventeenth year of the project. What happens next?
‘The third stage will last for about thirty or forty years,’ Gorin went on. ‘It will occur as t
he planet warms up to a mean temperature. At that time, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and whatever is left of the water, will seep away from the crust. The atmosphere will thicken and white clouds will form in the sky to shift from pink to blue. Furthermore, some vegetation will start to sruvive in warmer latitudes. In time, the population will grow to about a hundred thousand people and by then they should be able to use air-tight face-masks attached to small oxygen tanks which are designed to reuse gases expelled by the lungs instead of spacesuits.’
‘That’s very ambitious,’ retorted Sir Martin Colchester, with an almost bitter tone to his voice. ‘A far too ambitious plan as far as I’m concerned.’
‘You did want me to outline a plan for the colonisation of Mars yesterday, didn’t you? That’s exactly what I’m doing!’
‘Please carry on,’ urge Marshall, ignoring the personality clash between the two men.
‘Very well,’ said the professor. ‘The advanced stage will take about fifteen to twenty years. It will occur when the atmosphere matures and average temperatures rise. The air will then become twice as heavy as that on Earth. But there will be no problem for human-beings. As conditions improve, self-contained bio-spheric cities will be created. Cottage industries and services will proliferate in the environment. There will also be airtight vehicles in action on the surface. The planet should by now be self-sufficient. Immigrants and financial capital will start to pour into it as a location to live and plans to invest. The inhabitants could take advantage of the plentiful raw materials and, as Colonel Perrano mentioned yesterday, with its weaker gravity the planet could become a launching pad for future space expeditions. As Mars booms, it may return huge wealth back to Earth.’
‘You’re saying that we can reach this point in development within, say, a hundred-and-twenty years,’ muttered Perrano with hope building up inside him.. It was an ambitious plan but a sensible one when all was said and done. He really had something to tell his superiors in Washington on his return.
