A Colony on Mars

by Cliff Roehr

  The mulch was taken over to the farm where Abner could combine it with mineral nitrates and other fertilizers before it was mixing it with Mars dirt to make top soil. Abner would soon need lots of top soil. This daily processing chore was considered to be an undesirable job. There were plenty of volunteers when they learned that they only had to work about a four hour day.

  January 20, 2108: The farm was coming along nicely. A large farm house, lab and barn were being constructed. This would be the only house on Mars with a ful y functional kitchen, two bathrooms and four bedrooms. The reason for the four bedrooms was that both couples had indicated that they were probably on Mars to spend the rest of their lives and both couples intended to start a family. Tim real y liked the farm couples and it got him to thinking about how they were making a commitment to live out their lives on Mars after only being here a few days.

  Tim asked Abner “What was it you said you wanted to show me next time I got over this way” “The Ivy, Tim, The Ivy, look at this stuff.” By then the little green shoots were up almost half an Inch. This stuff is like a weed, it wil grow anywhere even in ordinary cave light, it looks pleasing to the eye, especially against these stark cavern walls and it wil improve our atmosphere, or at least take some of the load off our atmosphere apparatus.” “Sounds good but maybe we better discuss it with the scientists before we start spreading the stuff around.”

  That evening Tim and Carla had a long talk. “How do you feel about Mars now Carla?” I like it so far, it seems more vibrant and alive and it certainly has a low crime rate. The work that I do is the same as I was doing on Earth but the people are nicer to work with and the way The Company bends over backward to provide us anything we ask for is wonderful. The only thing that bothers me is that my biological clock is running and I would like to start a family. We could start one here on Mars but there would be fines and penalties, you know.” “I want a family also Carla, in a little over a year we wil break into Utopia Cavern and even if it takes two more years to seal and pressurize, we are stil looking at living in Utopia when our kids start school.”

  “There we wil have regular streets, with electric cars darting around, we wil have schools and churches and businesses. Bob told me that one of the other prime investors in Mars Colony, Inc. is the family that owns all the biggest store chain on Earth but they want to hold off opening up on Mars until Utopia is ready”.

  “OK Carla, no more contraceptives. This is our home now and I love the place. When our contract is up we can either renew once or stay on Mars and go into business. I already know that The Company and Government are going to sell off most of the real estate in Utopia to developers, businesses and private citizens. If things go as I see them going we wil be in on the ground floor of the nicest city in the solar system. Besides I think I would have a lot more difficulty in adjusting to Earth gravity than I had in adjusting to Mars gravity.”

  CHAPTER – Earth is having problems

  Never in history had the difference between the developed nations and the third world been so pronounced.

  Nuclear proliferation treaties had not been effective. There were, by the year 2100 more than sixty nations on Earth that possessed nuclear weapons. Some had delivery systems and some just relied suicide bombers that carried some sort of nuclear devise in suit cases.

  Around 2050 coal liquefaction had been perfected to the point where 100% clean burning, non polluting liquid fuel could be made from coal. Many countries on Earth that did not have petroleum had enormous coal reserves. There was no longer any demand for petroleum or products made from petroleum.

  Lithium Ion batteries had been perfected and powered all transportation equipment, they could be recharged in under ten minutes. Canada and Australia were the only two remaining food exporting countries. Al the other developed countries had to scramble to keep up with feeding their own burgeoning populations.

  So many people in the third world were dying of malnutrition and starvation every year that the total population of the planet peaked at nine billion and had begun to recede. Many of these third world countries had acquired nuclear weapons.

  With the loss of oil revenue the middle east had become even more of a powder keg. Because of the wealth created during the years when petroleum dominated Earth's fuel needs there remained several thousand people in the middle east who had a net worth in excess of fifty million dol ars. The rest of the people living in the area lived in disparate abject poverty. Death from malnutrition and starvation numbered in the thousands every day. The very rich managed to place the blame for the unfortunate circumstances of the poor onto the developed nations. Jihad was more popular than it had ever been. It was said by one Western Philosopher of those in the middle east who had not died of starvation, “Hatred of the West was the only thing that was keeping them alive.”

  Africa had not fared as badly as you might imagine. Disease and hunger had taken so many that the land was beginning to recover. The Africa of 2107 once again began to resemble the Africa that the White Man had first visited seven hundred years earlier.

  The story in Asia could be summed up in one word, overpopulation. During the twenty first century many Asian nations had pushed their way to the forefront in the areas of science, industry and world trade, only to fail because they were unable to control their growing populations. No matter how industrious they were they just could not feed all their people. This was the situation on the planet Earth in the year 2107. The international situation had become a ticking time bomb.

  CHAPTER – Swap Meet and Currency

  January 21, 2108: Back on Mars work had started on the first of the new tunnels and had progressed smoothly. This first tunnel would run eight hundred feet.

  The new arrivals were extremely qualified people with a good attitude. It was difficult for Tim to find enough work to keep them all busy until they made the first breakthrough. The air lock had been set where the dig had started. The dig had not turned up any new diamonds but they were finding many semiprecious stones that would make great jewelry.

  SWAP MEET

  A lot of people had accumulated things that they no longer needed or used so they decided to hold the first swap meet on Mars. It was really a kind of pitiful beginning to what was to become a Martian tradition. Surplus personal property would always be in short supply even after stores began selling merchandise. There were dozens of vendors and hundreds of buyers but everyone needed change for a $100.00 bil .

  CURRENCY PROBLEMS

  Most people had plenty of cash and no place to spend it. Making change was a problem for those buying or selling anything. Most of the cash was in large bills. There was a real shortage of small bil s. Almost no one missed the coins because nothing on Mars would be sold for odd change for a while yet. At least not until Burger Boy's opened. Bob told Tim that when the next ship arrived he would have three mil ion Dollars in change but that wouldn't be until May. Until then people were just writing out IOU's and signing them. Then that person would pass the IOU along to someone else and sometimes the IOU that someone had written would find its way back to the one that wrote it. Some people kept track of their outstanding IOU's and some didn't. Everybody took IOU's willingly because that was about the only medium of exchange other than large bills. People began to get concerned about all the money they had stashed in their unlocked homes.

  CHAPTER – A bank is organized

  February 5, 2108: Alan Jeffery, and Remar Otton two of the men who had completed their Government contracts and remained on Mars as private citizens decided that they had just figured out the perfect small business to go into. They arranged through Thelma to lease a lot in The Company cavern business district right next to where the Burger Boy's building stood. They went to work building a store front with their own hands. They were able to negotiate for and acquire from the Government a surplus safe and a good supply of rebar reinforcing rods used to reinforce concrete. They paid a couple of men that worked as welders to come over and weld a meta
l frame on all four sides of their store front then they used Mars cement to cover the walls. Outside the walls they stacked the usual cement blocks and when they were finished they bought enough scrap metal to have a front door welded together and hinges made. When they were through they owned the most in-penetrable building in the colony. They then told Thelma and Walter that wanted some kind of charter making their business legal. There was a lot of consternation all around but they finally got their permission from The Company and from the Government. The First Colonial Bank of Mars was open for business. The money poured in, they soon had over two mil ion dol ars on deposit in their safe. They did not pay any interest but rather charged their customers a small fee for the service of safeguarding their money. They were able to acquire some surplus computer equipment from the Government and started printing checks which were really just IOU's in small amounts and sel ing them at the bank.

  “In case you hadn't noticed Alan we don't know diddle squat about running a bank.” “I realize that Remar, but we are both intelligent men and we can learn.” “Here is what I propose, lets advertise and hire an agent/consultant on Earth that does know about banking. We can then have him locate a correspondence course from some banker training school that wil be wil ing to email us al of our study material and send up the most important books on banking on the next supply ship”

  They both approved of that plan and emailed an ad to one of the New York newspapers to run in their Classified section under help wanted. They were flooded with emails which they read aloud to each other then selected the three best qualified and sent them an email requesting a ful resume. They eventually settled on the best qualified candidate and hired him for just a nominal consulting fee. They then found a qualified detective agency and ran a thorough background check on the man. He came out squeaky clean. Then the email started flying back and forth from them and their consultant. Their agent had spoken with one of his old professors at Harvard University school of business who was wil ing to undertake educating them via email. Shortly study plans began to arrive by email. They had a lot of time on their hands so they started knocking out the lessons at a record pace. Within six months they had the books that he had sent up on the supply ship and were both becoming banking experts. They had their agent pick out a good selection of banking business equipment and had that sent up. They began to offer more services at the bank. They arranged a form that their clients could sign directing that all future payments for wages were to be deposited in First Colonial bank. Since they had all the latest banking equipment they had to add on another room to the bank. They found two women on Mars who had once held responsible positions in banks on Earth and persuaded them to come in after working on their regular jobs and handle the paper flow at the bank. They had established a correspondent bank relationship with big name stock and bond brokerage firms and with the largest bank in the United States. Things got a little sticky when they applied to become an FDIC member bank. There were just so many things about First Colonial that did not fit the FDIC mold. It took them almost six months but with the help of two U.S. Senators finally began to print on the bottom of all their forms the magic words “Member FDIC” They could now exchange bank drafts with their New York Correspondent bank and employed a trust officer at their correspondent bank to temporarily handle investments for their bank. They knew that as soon as there was a demand for borrowed money on Mars they would be financing that development through their bank but until then the money would be earning a good return invested on Earth. At that point they began to pay interest on deposits and more money poured in. The workers on Mars liked having their nest eggs on Mars where they could keep an eye on them. By the time Utopia was sealed they hoped that their little bank could justifiably claim that they were holding over one bil ion dollars in deposits.

  The Agent that they had hired in New York had no interest in moving to Mars but he recommended a young man that had excellent credentials. First Colonial hired the man and his wife, bit the bul et and paid the one million dollar fee to have them moved to Mars. When Abe and Lil y Schuman arrived on Mars the bank began to look a little like and operate a lot like a real bank. Lil y was instal ed as the head teller and cashier. Abe was given the title of Manager, Abe also took on the duties of loan officer. Al en and Remar ended up doing pretty much what Abe told them to do.

  With the arrival of the second ship after opening the bank they received two mil ion dollars in ones and fives which they promptly made available for circulation on Mars. They bought the bank drafts that they had sold with small bills. In the meantime when the first ship arrived after opening the bank Burger Boy's had received their three mil ion dol ars in change which they deposited in the bank so now there was more money in circulation than they would need until Utopia opened up. The people on Mars tended to think in terms of all progress and development as “When Utopia Opens”.

  Paul, Tim and Carla thought it was a godsend having the bank here because since Mars wages were not taxable the IRS paid little attention to transfers of cash to and from banks on Earth and First Colonial Bank on Mars. Long before Utopia opened Tim and Carla had over a mil ion dollars on deposit. The bankers were happy because they were the only bank in the system that didn't have to anticipate the arrival of inspectors from the FDIC, although they were a member bank it was just too damned expensive to send an FDIC inspector up to Mars to inspect or audit First Colonial. Neither the FDIC nor the bank wanted sensitive information traveling back and forth by email so they were largely left alone. It also might be noted that the FDIC had little doubt about the solvency of First Colonial Bank.

  CHAPTER – First Breakthrough into Paradise

  February 10, 2108: The dril ers broke through into the first of the new caverns. The Talk Show host on Radio MARS interrupted all the music stations

  “Guess What Folks, We have a breakthrough. Stay tuned to your talk radio station for all the details.”

  There was much fanfare in the community. Special meals were served and there was a general celebration. That one thing was stil lacking but they managed to make a gala day of it anyway. The day of the breakthrough Thelma declared a holiday and gave everyone the rest of the day off, except for the cooks and a few other key people. It really wasn't all that great to have the rest of the day off, it was almost quitting time anyway.

  When cavern was opened the workers were taken aback by it's awesome beauty, unlike the existing caverns it was populated by stalagmites, stalactites and majestic columns. It must have been broad daylight on the surface of the planet because the effect of the sunlight trickling through the fissures was gorgeous.

  Stalactites are formed by the deposition of calcium carbonate and other minerals, which is precipitated from mineralized water solutions. The corresponding formation on the floor underneath a stalactite is known as a stalagmite. Given enough time, these formations can meet, resulting in a formation known as a column.

  Loud noises and voices created echo's that vibrated off the walls. There were several flowing rivers and streams and magnificent little lakes dotted the floor. The cavern was only one mile wide where they were crossing but faded off into the horizon at both sides as far as their most powerful portable lights could penetrate. Subsequent measurements indicated that this new cavern covered 14 square miles at floor level. Tim, standing there awe struck, in his space suit knew that this was to be a national park and first class recreation area. It was as close as you could get on Mars to a forest. Later that day when they were back in the Government cavern Tim described it to Carter, Thelma and Walter. Tim then took the three of them on a guided tour of the cavern. They took along a lighting crew with the best portable lights available in the colony. Thelma remarked, ”This place looks like paradise.“ ”So it was that Paradise Park got it's name.”

  In their exploration of the cavern, up against one wal they came across a small cave. In front of the cave they found the remnants of a fire pit. On further examination of the site they found a dozen
or more petroglyph's depicting a hunt. The hunters all had two arms and two legs. The animal they hunted looked like a cross between a bison and an elephant.

  “This is fantastic, do you realize that we are looking at the first evidence ever found that proves that manlike beings inhabited this planet at some ancient time.

  Walter immediately tried to call someone on his cell phone but there was no service available. They scurried back to the Government cavern and Walter placed his call. The scientist who answered, upon hearing what they had found, cal ed six or seven other scientists and a photographer. Walter told the lighting crew to take a break but remain where they were.

  An hour or so went by before seven people in Mars suits approached from the Government housing area. The entire party returned to the place where they had found the artifacts. The scientists were ecstatic. You could just sense that this was the reason that they had signed on to work on Mars in the first place was the hope of finding something like this. They had the photographer take dozens of pictures from every angle then they took samples of material from the fire pit for carbon age dating. At that point Tim, Carter, Thelma and Walter took their leave. “This place seems to be in good hands so we are going to have dinner, Thelma informed them. The scientists hardly noticed their departure.