by Paul Reaver
“Excellent!” said Kirlin. “How long do you estimate it will take to complete the satellites and put them into orbit?”
Abigail smiled. “We anticipated such a question,” she said. We estimate it will take about two months.”
“If we awakened more people to help, should I assume that we could achieve our goal more quickly?” asked Kirlin.
“Yes, we will spend the majority of the time with the construction of the satellites,” said Abigail. “The more people we have working on it, the better. Fortunately, we also have the Martian robots, who are excellent assets for this project. The fact that they are sentient makes a huge difference. We could probably cut the time down to one month with additional help. Bear in mind, however, that we need to construct the first two satellites and do the testing we discussed using the two-satellite scenario before we can move forward with the others. We’ll do that with our group before pursuing the acquisition of more support.”
“Of course, we do understand that you will need to create a prototype,” said Kirlin. “John, Jenore, and I were discussing the awakening of additional Martians, and not just specifically to assist with your project. We will need help with all of the projects, and primarily with the dome, once we construct it. Beyond that, when we are terraforming Mars, we will need all the help we can get. We will continue to awaken Martians when it becomes appropriate, such as to populate the domes as we build them and to provide assistance with the work.”
Abigail said, “Ranella, do you have an area where we can meet and start the process of building the prototype?”
“Yes, said Ranella, “we have several laboratories that we use for prototype work. One, in particular, will be most suited to what we need.”
“Great!” said Abigail. “Also, Jose, you are welcome to join us so that you can get an idea of what the scope of the teleportation project will have to be.”
“Try and stop me,” said Jose with a grin.
John said, “I feel like the whole project just took a huge leap since these four are taking the first steps with their satellite work. Now, let’s talk about arranging our other scientific talent sitting here to address the other projects.”
“Agreed,” said Kirlin. “It seems to me that our current groupings should work fine. The roles have changed somewhat as we have progressed to this point. Although the original groups are still intact, we have several people ‘floating’ between different groups. This is appropriate and what we need.
“Since Jenore, John, and I also have solid science backgrounds and experience, we will assist any of the groups as needed. And I anticipate there will probably be at least one project that will present itself along the way as we go along for which we will take responsibility. Ranella, Oranda, and Lyron, would you please move your teams into the appropriate laboratories and begin working on your projects?”
All agreed, and the team members arose, left the room, and headed for their work areas.
Chapter 31
The next few weeks were hectic but organized. The individual groups wasted no time in advancing their projects. John, Kirlin, and Jenore each joined a group both in a supervisory capacity and as a team member and tracked the groups’ progress.
After one month, at John’s direction, everyone met back in the original conference room to report their progress. John said, “Would each group give us an update on where you are in your project completion? Abigail, let’s start with you.”
Abigail said, “Our prototypes are ready. We have picked a spot in Mars’ orbit where we can test them. Jose has his teleportation equipment ready to put them in place. So we are ready to go – just give us the word.”
Jose said, “To make everyone aware, I encountered a wrinkle with the teleportation. As you know, the teleportation process simply moves an object from one place to another. For our satellites, that’s not good enough. They not only have to appear at the exact places we need them to be, they also have to be moving at the speed sufficient to keep them in semi-stationary orbits when they materialize. Although I had transported from Earth to our ship when it was in orbit, I had a location device on the ship that allowed for a computerized transportation so that I would be traveling at the correct speed when I arrived at the ship. When we transport the satellites, we won’t have a location device. I was struggling with this when Kirlin came up with a way to fix it. I won’t go into the details, it’s not necessary, but she found a way to add the proper velocity to the teleportation process. Your idea to add a senior member to each group sure paid off in this case. So yes, we are ready to go.”
“That is great news,” said John. “Gorev, would you bring us up-to-date on your group’s progress, please?”
“Certainly,” he said. “We have completed the process of reproducing nanites on a large scale; we will need a tremendous amount of them for the dome. We are going to build a number of reproduction devices that will be at work simultaneously and at a large capacity so that we can produce a lot of nanites quickly. The next step – programming the nanites – has also been completed. We have the programming technology to instruct the nanites on how to build the dome. They also have to construct everything inside the dome, including the living spaces, among other things. We have achieved both of these goals on a small model, a dome approximately 3 feet in diameter, but the good news is that the processes are incredibly scalable – and something we will need to move forward with quickly. Also, although self-replicating nanites are possible, we are wary of their ability to be self-controlling at this point. However, we are still exploring the process. For right now, although the construction of the dome using the nanites is computer-controlled, we will continue to monitor the process. It has been most helpful to combine both Earth and Martian technology to achieve all of these goals. Each planet’s technology seems to fill in the gaps of the other to a large degree, giving us a ‘completeness’ with the combination of the two. We have also been consulting with Roberta because she has more nanotechnology experience and knowledge than anyone else from Earth. But we are ready to pursue our primary goal – to build transparent domes that will serve as habitats.
“Our secondary goal, which is to populate large areas of the ground in the dome with dark plants to retain heat, is on track. The team members from Earth thought this was going to be a little tricky because Earth plants don’t hold heat when it gets hot. In fact, all Earth plants suffer from too much heat; how much heat is too much depends on the particular plant. However, most plants on Earth also produce heat, although for the most part it’s at a very low level. They do this during photosynthesis, but indirectly. It occurs through a mechanism called nonphotochemical quenching, or NPQ, which is part of the photosynthesis process. They also produce heat during respiration and through a process called thermogenesis. There are even a few fairly unique plants that produce enough heat using thermogenesis to melt the snow around them when it’s cold. However, on Mars, we had already developed various types of ground-cover plants that would capture and then radiate heat in a manner similar to rock mulch or artificial turf, which work very well. Although we could use mulch or artificial turf in the dome, using plants is, for lack of a better phrase, more natural and they can self-propagate. As we all know, they have the added benefit of producing oxygen. Here on Mars, we deployed the heat-producing plants to absorb the heat of the Sun and then radiate it away into the air. The heat does not damage these plants like heat damages the plants on Earth. This would help to maintain a stable ambient temperature. We’d have to study the use of such plants before planting them to ensure that raising the temperature in the area where they were grown would not upset the ecological balance. Through our experience and studies with these plants, we have developed a plan to deploy them in the dome. We’ve created the planting pattern. Our monitoring equipment for them is complete. With these plants, we’ll watch how fast the temperature changes, and how stable the ambient temperature is, including how much the temperature varies between day and night.
“In short, we are ready to go.”
“Excellent news,” said John. “A couple of comments I’d like to make on this subject, and I’m sure I state the obvious here. On Earth, and this will be the same on Mars, you can be in a building near a window when the weather outside is cold, yet if there is sunlight coming through, it will feel warm. Many buildings on Earth have been constructed to take advantage of this by having large windows that face the Sun during parts of the day to reduce the dependence on other methods of heating them. We’ll have the same effect with the Sun’s rays coming through the transparent domes. So the plants are not going to do all of the work with collecting the Sun’s heat; they are simply going to enhance the process.”
“Mark,” John continued, “since your team is working on the isolation of the methane and extraction of the nitrogen gasses, why don’t you give us an update on your progress.”
“Be glad to,” said Mark. “Our work with isolating and deploying methane gas is built upon two technologies. One is the process of extracting various elements from the atmosphere as we have done initially with hydrogen on Earth, a process with which Martian scientists are familiar. We can accomplish the second by using a modified version of Joanne’s antigravity process. This is also a technology of which Martian scientists are aware and have used. However, combining her technology with Martian technology is what will make this work much more efficiently and make it easier to control. We are going to make further use of the satellites that we will deploy to divert the solar winds and CMEs. Not only will they protect Mars from the solar winds, but they will also protect the planet from x-rays and UV radiation.
“As a part of removing the domes, when the time comes, the satellites’ gravity equipment will distribute the various atmospheric gasses evenly in the evolving atmosphere. Since overall, there is not enough oxygen to support life in the entire atmosphere right now, we will depend on the plants to create some of the oxygen we’ll need. However, most of it will be extracted from Mars’ crust as will the other atmospheric gasses. Our atmospheric gas relocators, i.e., the satellites, will create a “depth” for the atmospheric layer that is of sufficient density and depth to support humanoid life. This depth will be shallow at first; we’re estimating 6000 feet, though it will be deep enough to support any life at the surface. But over time, the depth will encompass the entire atmosphere all the way up to the boundary of the original Martian atmosphere. That process will take a long time, hundreds of years, but we don’t need to have our atmospheric depth any deeper right now than what it takes to support life right at and somewhat above the surface level. Having the depth of habitability become greater over time is just a welcome side-effect. Our situation is odd compared to Earth’s. The density of oxygen and the atmosphere in general on Earth is due to the planet’s gravity. The higher up you go, the weaker the gravity becomes, and the less dense the atmosphere is. Since we are using artificial gravity to control the density of the atmosphere, the limits are whatever we make them. But the restrictions have to be logical, reasonable, and capable of supporting life on the planet. We have not arrived at what the completely firm limits will be yet, and at any rate, they will change over time as the atmosphere itself changes. We will be continually monitoring every aspect of these variables, guiding them toward a permanent set of limits. Speaking of variable, we are going to do something unique with our atmospheric gas relocation. Since CO2 and methane hold the planet’s heat, we are going to increase their effectiveness by making a rather dense artificial CO2/methane layer at the top of the atmosphere. Ideally, this will make a big difference in warming the planet, and it should. However, we expect that this process also will take hundreds of years.
“However, and in summary, we also are ready to move forward.”
“That is amazing,” said John. “Great work! Let me touch on another aspect of the project. What is a bit of good fortune that will help with the plants, the Martians stockpiled large amounts of seeds when they realized that their planet was going to meet with catastrophic conditions. We are going to decide which plants we want to deploy first. Obviously, we will locate these first plants in the first dome. With Kirlin’s and Jenore’s help, we are going to use teleportation to plant the seeds. Our knowledge of teleportation has become sufficiently advanced so that we can do this. They also have the knowledge of which plants to use for the dark foliage we need. But they can computerize the teleporter to plant an acre of seeds in less than five minutes! In addition to that, they have plant-growing technology that will take a seed to a full-grown plant in less than a week. Now mind you, we’re not talking about trees here, but we are talking about good-sized broadleaf plants. We think this will give a big time-saving boost to getting the domes to be habitable.
I am glad that all three groups are ready to go. I am sure that all of you have documentation for your project plans. If not, please prepare documents that outline in detail what you want to do. I would like to have the documentation from each group to Kirlin, Jenore, and myself by noon tomorrow. If we can get the documentation by then, we can review it, and then we can all meet back here at 3:00. If we like what we see, and I’m sure we will, it will enable us to give the go-ahead for you to proceed more quickly. I think of this process as doing our due diligence before we begin. Jenore and Kirlin, can we set up a meeting for the three of us here at noon so we can review the project plans?”
Both indicated their assent.
Everyone understood this as indicating the end of the meeting, and the groups dispersed. John went back to his room for some reflection.
Once there, he sat down in a chair that he had come to consider a Martian miracle of engineering. It resembled an expensive recliner, but it did so much more. It wrapped itself around him in a very comfortable way, no matter how he sat or reclined. It exuded relaxing warmth and vibrated automatically in different areas of the chair because it could sense what part of his body needed a specific temperature and massage. He found that he did his best thinking while reclining in this chair.
The first thing that came to mind was how he and a group of people from Earth who were simply trying to develop new technologies ended up on Mars with real, live Martians in an effort to rescue their planet from disaster. It was the last thing he would have ever imagined, yet he found the process very compelling and satisfying. In the next couple of days, he would be part of the beginning of a vast effort that was mind-boggling. Regardless, he had nothing but positive feelings about it. The Martians were a joy to work with. He felt as though their telepathic powers had a soothing effect, and that this was extremely conducive to achieving great results. As he continued to review the path of this adventure in his mind, he drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 32
; The next day, John entered the conference room just a few minutes before noon. He saw that Jenore and Kirlin were already there. The Martians were nothing if not punctual.
“Good afternoon,” said John. “I’m looking forward to reviewing the project plans.”
“As are we,” said Kirlin. “Do you prefer reading the information, or would you rather receive it telepathically?”
The Martians’ technology allowed them to convert any written document to a telepathic one that mimicked one’s thoughts. Most Martian documents were created and disseminated using telepathy. John had practiced absorbing information telepathically when he found out about this Martian capability, and had gotten pretty good at it. It definitely took some getting used to. But his work with the brainwave project back on Earth had helped him to prepare for using telepathy now.
