by Paul Reaver
They built the next dome to encompass 20 square miles, and as part of this construction, they attached it to both the original dome and the second dome. Once the new dome was monitored and deemed habitable, it would be opened to the first two domes, essentially creating one large dome. They awakened an additional 50 Martians to populate the new dome. However, they found that initially the oxygen level was a bit lower than they had expected. To compensate for this, they added additional plants to create supplemental oxygen; they also obtained more oxygen from what they had extracted and stored. This combination solved the problem, and the new dome was populated.
As they waited for the week to pass while they monitored the newly-populated dome, they proceeded with their secondary project. Dropping back to the size of the original dome, they created a new one-square-mile dome using only force fields as the enclosure. Since there was no actual structure, they made the new dome doubly redundant as far as its force field equipment and the power source. If the primary force field generator or power source failed, a backup unit would take over. If the backup units failed prior to the primaries getting repaired, secondary backup units would kick in. However, since an automated nanite repair mechanism was continuously active, any repairs that were needed would occur quickly and automatically. The nanite system would constantly be monitoring the dome and would instantly respond to any component or system failures.
Once the week was up for testing on the most recently populated 20-square-mile conventional dome, and everything got a green light, they prepared to populate the force-field dome. John arranged a meeting between the human and Martian teams to discuss the new dome.
They assembled in a meeting room in one of the buildings in the newest conventional dome.
John said, “I would like to volunteer to be one of the inhabitants in the new force-field dome. I will not ask someone else to do what I am not willing to risk myself. I know that all of you would probably feel the same way and would also like to volunteer. However, I want to express my feelings to all of you that this would be a bad idea. We cannot risk the entire group of front-line scientists. If by some catastrophic event, the new dome would utterly fail and our teams would perish, the impact to the project would be irreversible.”
Obviously the teams were disappointed, but Jenore spoke up.
“While I did, in fact, also want to volunteer, your reasoning is unassailable. We cannot risk even one additional member of our teams. However, you are selling yourself short, as they say. Your contributions to the project have been extensive and numerous. To lose you would impact us greatly. However, your reasoning about volunteering to show faith in the new technology is also sound. The Martians that will be called upon to inhabit the new force-field dome will see that one of its project leaders has complete faith in the infrastructure. This is of utmost importance.”
Ultimately, everyone agreed, and John would be the only team member to live in the new force-field dome.
John said, “Thanks to everyone for their understanding and support. I assure you, there will be plenty of other volunteer opportunities to come.”
Chapter 38
After the meeting, John went to his pod to get his suitcase with the clothes and such that he would need for his week’s stay in the new dome. Then he teleported to the primary teleportation room at the Martian base. The Martian at the console knew where John was going and said, “Please stay on the platform unless you have something else to do first.”
John said, “No, please proceed.”
As he watched the Martian begin to manipulate the controls, the room vanished momentarily, replaced almost instantly by his quarters in the new dome. John marveled at the teleportation process. There was no sensation; the only real feeling he had when being teleported was a slight bit of disorientation at the change in surroundings. This passed very quickly, and so he began looking at his new, temporary, quarters. He had gotten quite used to Martian architecture by now. As had been long apparent, in a way, all of their living structures looked similar in that they looked “organic”; that is, it appeared almost as if the rooms were living structures. This was an illusion, but the fact that all of their living spaces gave him this feeling made them all seem more or less alike somehow. He found that this helped him feel at home more readily. And the Martians did the layout of all their living quarters in a logical fashion. He smiled to himself. What a mixture! Organic with logical!
However, their logical approach made it easy to find what he needed in terms of storage, bathroom facilities, kitchen setup, and the like. He discovered that all he needed to do was to think… logically.
He made himself at home by putting his belongings away and making a cup of Martian tea. He wasn’t always sure what plant comprised his tea, but it was always good. This particular cup contained a liquid that was pink, but it tasted more like coffee than tea. The Martians always supplied their human guests with food and drink that was compatible with human physiology. Of course, they had no idea what the humans would think of the taste. They assumed that any group of humans that were adventurous enough to travel from Earth to Mars would be brave enough to try alien food and drink and pick their favorites. As John drank his tea, he looked out the window to assess his surroundings. This particular living pod was fairly high off the ground. John estimated his altitude to be about 75 feet. As with the other domes, the area of his living quarters was surrounded by dark plants that happened to be flowering with beautiful yellow blooms. He wondered how much that impacted the plants’ ability to absorb and retain heat. He assumed that the Martians had taken this into account.
Once John had finished his tea, he transported down to the ground, and went for a walk on one of the ubiquitous sidewalks that all of the domes had. He was close enough to a wall of the dome to walk up to it. Out of curiosity, he touched it with his hand. It felt hard, like plastic or glass, but it made his hand tingle. He was sure this was not harmful, but he pulled his hand away rather quickly nonetheless.
After a somewhat brief walk, he transported back to his pod to catch up on his messages and to contact Uncle Jim to give him an update.
Chapter 39
As with the other, previous, domes, testing proceeded for one week to ensure the force-field dome was performing as expected. During the week, there were no reports of major problems. John was well satisfied with the dome’s comfort and layout. Since there were no issues, they considered the dome a success. From here on out, all further domes would be force-field domes. John thought it was time for a team meeting. He arranged one for the end of the week. He even arranged it using a conference room located within the force-field dome.
The conference room gradually saw all the participants arrive, and once they did, John did not waste any time in bringing the meeting to order.
“As usual, thank you all for coming,” he said. “And as I’m sure you all know, our force-field dome has been a success, or else you would not be here,” he said with a smile.
“Because this dome was a success, we have confirmed that all future domes will be of the force-field design. They are superior in so many ways. Their size can be modified as needed or desired. This allows us to put more area under an existing dome without having to build new domes. By strategically placing domes all over the planet that are basically expandable without limit, although as we know in reality there are limits, this reduces the number of domes we will need to create. We simply create enough that, once expanded to their fullest possible size, they will cover the entire surface of Mars. Granted, at best this will take hundreds of years because there is approximately 56 million square miles of land on Mars. Oddly enough, although Mars is roughly half the size of Earth, both planets have almost the same amount of land. This is because most of Earth is covered by water, which means it only has approximately 57 million square miles of dry land. I know, it sounds funny to say ‘only’ for that much land. I just give that fact to you as a comparison of Earth with Mars.
“Let me give a brief recap of our over
all plans for the planet. If anyone has anything to add when I’m through, please let us know.
“The terraforming of Mars sometimes seems almost beyond comprehension. The process will become easier and faster as we get better at terraforming, but 56 million square miles is nearly too big to fathom. We need to approach it as doing pieces of it at a time, as in the pieces of a puzzle, coordinated so that all the domes can eventually join to make one to cover the entire planet. Then we get to the fun part. We want to make it so that we can remove the domes and still have the atmosphere. To accomplish this, we will use the gravity controls in the satellites to create an atmospheric “ceiling” by holding the gasses in place, and this ceiling will be comparatively low to begin with. At first, it will not be any higher than the height of the domes. We’ll raise the ceiling as we make more atmospheric gasses available to do so by mining the planet’s crust for the necessary resources; we will need to fill the void that raising the ceiling will create.
“Another aspect of the terraforming process was to see if we could find underground water that would not only supply Mars’ population with potable water but also to create lakes and rivers. Oceans would be nice, but of course large amounts of water would be required for that. The good news is that there have been very large pockets of subterranean water discovered so far, and this is after only looking at a fraction of the planet. If this trend continues, we might find enough water to create an ocean, or possibly even more than one. And the other plus to this process is that the oceans will be freshwater, not saltwater. Since we can control the depth of the oceans, we can reduce the amount of water needed for each ocean by making them relatively shallow. The same is true of lakes canals, and rivers. Regardless, a plus for any body of water is that water retains heat. This is one more positive aspect of oceans and lakes, at least as it applies to Mars.
“Not only have we found water underground, but we can also find all the atmospheric gasses we need underground in the planet’s crust, as I mentioned earlier. We have not used this method too much yet because so far, we have not needed it. To terraform the entire planet, we will need it. As an example, 99% of Earth’s oxygen is actually stored in rocks in the lithosphere, which is the surface, or crust, of the planet. We have also found that to be true on Mars. The oxygen contained in Mars’ lithosphere should be more than enough to supply the entire world. Further, there are also enough of all the other atmospheric gasses in the lithosphere to create an ideal atmosphere on Mars.
“In a way, it’s a good thing it will take hundreds of years to complete the terraforming process. That time will be needed to extract the water and gasses as the terraforming process moves forward. Fortunately, the Martians have the technology to perform the collection of gasses and water. Now that we have completed testing our new force-field dome, we can proceed with the rest of the planet. We will continue to follow the blueprint we have created. Are there any questions so far?”
There were none. They were all scientists, and most were familiar with what John had said. At the very least, they understood the information and the process
John continued, “Jenore, Kirlin, and I have discussed our next step. We’ve touched on this before, but what we want to do now is select the first location for a large force-field dome. We will make it fairly large to begin with, but we’ll build it with the expectation of expanding it to its largest possible size. Kirlin, would you please share our future plans with the teams?”
Kirlin said, “Certainly. First of all, there is a limit to how much we can expand the dome, and it’s the obvious one: power. We can only extend the dome to the largest size for which we have a power source to maintain the force field. That limit still allows us to expand the dome to an impressive size, since we are using fusion power to maintain the dome’s field, and fusion can create a large amount of energy; that is one of its main attractions. We have decided to start big; the first dome will be 1000 square miles, with the anticipation of expanding it to 100,000 square miles. This may seem like an extensive area, but it’s not when you think about our goal: we ultimately need to terraform millions of square miles.
“In anticipation of building this new dome, a team of Martians has constructed a vast underground hydroponic farm to grow the plants needed to populate the dome. This farm is adjacent to our existing underground facility. You may have wondered how we were able to get the plants ready in such a short amount of time for the domes we have already built. The hydroponic farm is the answer. Although initially, with the first dome, we planted the seeds and grew the plants inside the dome, planting mature plants into the domes makes their positive properties immediately available. Not only have the plants been grown for the domes that have been built so far since the first dome, but an extremely large number have also been grown and are available for our first large dome. The farm and the method of deploying the plants are impressive. The Martian team completely automated the farm, and then built an automated system to do the planting in the domes. The primary key to the process is computerized teleportation. When they perform the initial seeding in the farm, automated teleportation puts the seeds right where they need to go in the growing medium throughout the farm. Since the farm is hydroponic, that medium is liquid.
Once the plants have reached the size where the hydroponic team can place them inside the domes, another automated teleportation process puts them exactly where they need to go. They assign the location of the plants using pre-planned patterns. There is a map, if you will, for where each plant will go. Computers created the plan, and computers will deploy the plants. This makes the process very fast and easy, and the only people that are needed are those that program and control the computers. Also, as was done when building the first force-field dome, computerized nanite programs will create the force-field generators and fusion power supply units for the future domes. The nanites then build the structures inside them. With the advent of the force-field domes, we’ll no longer need nanites to construct the domes; they will need to create the force-field generators and the fusion power units to support them instead. Then they will build the interior structures.”
Chapter 40
Once they had completed the week of testing for the 1,000 square mile force-field dome, the teams got together to recap the results.
John said, “I am absolutely satisfied with the performance of the dome. It means a lot that we no longer have to construct the domes out of materials, especially when it comes to the larger ones. All we need is to construct is the force-field generator, its power supply, the living quarters, and supply the plants. And we have computerized all of these tasks. We should be able to start moving forward at a brisk pace. Brisk is relative; we literally have a lot of ground to cover. Since the testing of this new dome is a success, we will begin to expand it to a 100,000 square mile dome. Does anyone have any questions?”
Mark said, “What about bodies of water with this first dome? Are there plans for that?”
“Excellent question,” said Kirlin. “We have, in fact, selected an area within the expanded dome for a lake. The Earth and Martian teams going forward will be searching for water and atmospheric gasses for our domes. Not only will they be searching, but they will also be responsible for making these building blocks available to the domes once the teams find them. We have the tools to accomplish these tasks, but it will be slow going at first. As we perfect the processes and we become more familiar with them, it will go faster. John, Jenore, and I will be working with the teams to get everything started. We are going to relieve our team members of tracking the big picture issues and become team members. Going forward, I will be in charge of the dome construction and maintenance. Kirlin will be in charge of the group that searches for water and makes it available. Jenore will head up the team that finds and utilizes the atmospheric gasses. Thanks to all of you for your efforts so far. I look forward to our future. Any other questions?”
No one spoke up, and the meeting adjourned.
Chapter 41
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A year had passed. John couldn’t believe it, but a year had passed and it seemed like only a month. Everyone had been so busy, practically working non-stop, that time passed very quickly. The 100,000 square mile dome was complete. Their two main problems were now moot points. In their search for water planetwide, they had found more than they had dreamed of underground. The plans now included at least one ocean. The same was true with their search for atmospheric gasses. All they needed and more were in the rocks in the planet’s crust. The struggle to get oxygen from plants had become academic since they had found it in the ground. They had developed a process based on teleportation that could extract the gasses that they needed directly from the rocks. Before perfecting this process, the Martians had their own process, but it had turned out to be more complicated and time-consuming. The two methods were combined to make a new and much more efficient extraction process. It still took time; there had been a lot of space in the dome to fill overall. But it had become as easy as pushing a button. Since they now had the ability to communicate with the computers using brainwaves, it was simply a thought process. And the ability to communicate with the computers using brainwaves also made all their computer projects extremely fast. No more did they have to type for hours to give and receive information using the computers; at the most, a few minutes of interactive thought would accomplish the same goal.
John stood at the edge of the lake in the new 100,000 square-mile dome. The dome was so big there were even breezes created by the slight variances in temperature. And due to the presence of moisture in the air, there were some fluffy white clouds in the sky. This first enormous dome had been a lot of work. They had to learn how to make it, and it turned out to be a matter of hands-on training. As anticipated, though, the more they worked on it, the better they got at it. As the dome became extremely large, they awoke more and more Martians to assist with the work. The hydroponic farm was now ten times its original size. It was no longer being used only to grow the plants for the domes; since more and more Martians were awake as dwelling space became available, they were also using the farm to produce food. The Martians did not eat meat; they were strict vegetarians. So the farm provided all the food they needed.
