A Colony on Mars

by Cliff Roehr

  May 22, 2108: The next ship arrived, Thelma and Walter announced their retirement on Rusty's nightly news show and announced that Carter Fredrick would be taking Thelma's place and that Paul Silverman would be replacing Walter Potts, as Facility Director .

  That didn't set well with Tim, “I am the new Superintendent of Construction and Paul is the new Facility Director and we are in cahoots on a slightly shady business deal. We wil never speak to Paul of this deal again. We wil just take our money out of the Swiss account in periodic small amounts and forget I ever found those damned rocks, Carla.”

  Tim, Carla Paul and Carter greeted the arrivals to Mars and gave them the tour. On the tour Tim pointed out the entrance to Paradise. He told them that this tunnel leads about eight hundred feet to the most beautiful cavern on Mars. The cavern is so beautiful that we have decided to set it aside for recreational purposes. Had you rather explore Paradise on your own after I show you around or do you want to tour it now?” There was some mumbling among the new arrivals but the consensus seems to have been that they would prefer to explore Paradise on their own. They were more interested, at the moment in seeing where they would be working, eating and sleeping. There was only one real surprise passenger that arrived on the ship. Rusty introduced him as, “Charles Rasmussen, do you prefer Charles or Chuck?” Rusty asked. “I prefer Charley,” Rusty went on to tell the viewers that Charley worked for Super Stores. He was sent as a site locater for a new Super Store. “ I am here to pick out a site for a temporary store and to have an early choice for a prime location in Cavern City when that becomes available. We need the temporary location just to have a place to store all the merchandise that is aboard this ship and that wil be aboard all future ships.”

  Once the store is open I wil stay on as the manager. The only other Super Store employees that came with me on this ship are two retail managers. Additional Company employees wil arrive on future flights. I would also like to tell your viewers that Super Stores is hiring. I know there are not many people on Mars looking for work but anyone who is nearing completion of their commitment and wants to stay on the planet could do a lot worse than to figure Super Stores into their future plans.”

  “Within six to eight weeks we expect to have the temporary store open for business. Before you even ask the answer is yes, Super Store is one of the principals in Mars Colony, Inc. and before you ask the answer is No we do not expect to make a profit from this store for many years, if ever. Just like Burger Boy's we are here for the publicity and the good news for you folks our prices wil not exceed the highest price that we sell a given item for on Earth, plus, of course an additional freight surcharge.”

  “We are aware of the situation on Mars, that you have very few people, you are making lots of money and you have no place to spend it. We are also aware that your household's are lacking almost everything we sel .”

  Rusty interviewed his guest and the two employees of Super Store for a couple minutes then announced

  “We have some more news that we just learned today. The U.S. Government has just christened the new space ship Mars Runner. It is as large as Mars Supply One and Mars Supply Two combined. It wil cut travel time between Earth and Mars by as much as 65%. It will start arriving here from three to five times a year, with the first arrival scheduled for Late December of this year. The two existing Mars Supply Ships have been sold to Mars Colony Inc. and will be strictly commercial vessels from now on. We have just been supplied with two new Shuttle aircraft bringing our fleet to five planes. We will need that size fleet to unload Mars Runner when it gets here in December. The next arrival of a Mars Supply ship wil get in here around the middle of September. So if you need to order anything from Earth do it now if you want it in September, you still have a few days to get a rush order in.”

  The Mars supply ships followed a policy of loading all priority items first then loading the rest of the available space on the ship with wood. On Mars there was always a critical shortage of wood of all kinds. May 23, 2108: Tim visited the farm. The first crops had just been harvested. The grow lights were all hung so that they could be raised or lowered as needed for various crops. The four farmers were busy but Abner took a few minutes to talk to Tim. There is one more thing I need Tim, Abner said, “There is this a construction worker who we have been reluctant to release because he has been of so much help to us, he stil is, he cares for the animals and takes that burden off of us so we can manage the crops. This is the man, Darwin Stead, what are the chances of having Darwin pertinently assigned to the farm?” Tim approved the reassignment on the spot. Then Abner continued, “We wil also need a couple more bedrooms and another bathroom added to the house do Darwin can marry his finance, Helen, and remain near the animals in his care.” “Sure,” Tim added, you can use the people now assigned or Just show up at muster in the morning and I wil assign a crew for the room additions.”

  As soon as Tim left Darwin and Abner went back into the Lab and lit up a smoke, “See what did I tell you Darwin, it was a piece of cake. I knew you were good people the minute you handed me that little box of seeds.”

  May 24, 2108: Tim mentioned to Hal before the morning muster “We wil need to install the new generator in a hot area that has running water nearby. I don't know of any other spots like that in The Company cavern or the Government cavern. We have checked Paradise cavern for hot spots. There are some that might work but their location would detract from the beauty of the cavern and the recreation center. Worse case scenario we could locate the new generator right beside the old one but then we would have the problem of running the lines too far to get electricity where we need it.” Carter made his decision, “ We are only using about thirty percent of the power we are now generating. I want to take a look at the next cavern before doing anything. We stil have the original diesel generator on standby.”

  Tim then told Hal, “The new ship arrival has brought atmosphere alarms and emergency closures that would drop down when mounted in a tunnel if the pressure at one end became lower than at the other end. People could stil get through these emergency closures but once the last person was safely through the seal could be made permanent. A little atmosphere would stil be lost but the closures would give them time to install air locks while the air was stil breathable.” Hal promised that the new safety items would be installed within the week.

  The sensor on the atmosphere making apparatus constantly read the atmosphere from various spots and adjusted the output accordingly. The atmosphere in the caverns was not exactly like that of Earth because it was basically just nitrogen and oxygen which meant that it could be made from water and mineral nitrates. In the caverns it seemed to improve the atmosphere to keep it a little higher in oxygen than on Earth. Earth's atmosphere contains a little CO2 and so does the atmosphere in the caverns because without any CO2 plants would not grow and photosynthesis would not work and without nitrates plants could not grow. Growing plants require nitrates in the soil to enable them to feed nitrogen into the atmosphere. May 25, 2108: Tim held the afternoon muster. As promised the Company had sent three hundred more workers on the Mars Supply Two. This brought the total company workforce to over 900. The new men didn't show up because Hal had given a week to get settled in. There were only about 50 workers that did show up but Tim just didn't have enough jobs lined up to keep them al busy. There were no work orders on the board, Tim had checked. Al the other crews were already working on jobs they had been assigned. There was another thousand fruit tree seedlings that needed to be planted so lacking anything better to say Tim told half of the men to take the seedlings over to the new orchard in the Paradise cavern which would henceforth be referred to as the orchard. “See if Sue or Dan can put you to work. “If Sue and Dan don't have any work for you check with Abner at the farm, if he doesn't need you then you can check in with supply and see if they have anything to keep you busy. The remaining twenty five men he sent to the supply yard to help the supply yard crew. What we need, Tim thought to himself
is an administrative assistant to keep track of all these workers and all the projects and jobs that need to be done.

  Abner called Tim and told him that he could use twenty five or thirty people the next day at the orchard to plant the new trees but they were not ready to do anything with them yet. Abner said that the people had brought the trees over to the orchard. We are rigging some temporary grow lights at the orchard and preparing top soil, we have plenty of help for that. “Send the planters tomorrow morning, Tim.”

  May 29, 2108: Al three hundred of the new workers showed up for the morning muster along with 150 of the regular crews that had finished the projects they had been working on. Once the workers had assembled Tim asked if any of them had tree planting experience. Twenty people held up their hands, wil you people report to the orchard, they have some trees that need to be planted. If anyone here knows of any jobs that need tending to you can go and get to work now. In a day or two we wil have some kind of a table of organization working, it won't always be this disorganized. For today the rest of you can go to the supply yard and help get that organized. If any of you see anything constructive that needs to be done then feel free to do it today. You new arrivals can plan on March 30, being your first regular workday. Hal just stood there behind Tim and didn't say a word.

  “I need two other volunteers this morning, one person that is exceptionally skilled with computers to fil a systems administrator position that we have open, the other is for a person to do data input. The person that we want for data input should have extensive experience at data base management. If you are interested in either of these positions please see me after this muster. Tomorrow things wil be different. After the majority of the workers had all departed Tim told the tree planters to elect a leader then go to the farm manager at the orchard and tell him that you are there to plant trees. Tim felt a little embarrassed that this mornings muster had been so disorganized.

  Once the tree planters left to go to work nine people remained. Tim turned his attention toward them. “I assume you nine are the ones interested in the computer jobs.” They al nodded their heads in assent. “Lets go over to the dining room and get a cup,” Tim said as he turned and headed for the mess hall. Al nine traipsed along behind. Tim walked in, fil ed his cup and seated himself at a long table for ten. He appeared to have his attention focused elsewhere but was surreptitiously keeping an eye on the body language of his five volunteers. One by one the volunteers poured a cup of coffee and took a seat at the table. Tim started “I would like to have you folks decide between yourselves who should have these two positions. I can tell you that we have had the same systems administrator for the last ten years. She finished her contract with the Government and is departing on the Mars Supply Two to return to Earth. She wil have about three days to break in her replacement. The Government abolished her position so the Company authorized me to fill it with a Company employee. *

  “The data base management and data input job is a new position. The person selected should have enough experience to establish a data base of the twelve hundred people that now work for the Government and for the Company. It should be arranged so that if I want twelve plumbers you can print out a list of al plumbers with a thumbnail on each of them so I can just call the ones I want that I think are the best qualified for the job I have in mind. If Carter, the Company Manager wants to know the cubic footage of the new Paradise cavern you can provide him with that information right away. In short I would like al of the information on this facility and the personnel that are employed here at our fingertips. How you handle the selections are up to you. You will just have to talk it out and decide among yourselves who among you could best handle these jobs. I wil be back in an hour or so to see how you are making out. If you make your selections before I get back call me on your cell phone.”

  With that Tim got up and left the room. Before he went out the door he looked back, they were al just sitting there with a dumbfounded look on their faces. They had never heard of a job selection process that worked this way. When he was out the door he called Hilda on her phone. “Hilda, I need a favor, I left nine people sitting near your desk in the back of the dining room. I told them to .... Tim described the situation. “ Would you go sit at your desk for a few minutes and work on some paper work and just listen in on them? If you can spare Carla invite her to your desk also. You two can ostensibly be discussing menu's or something.” “Sure, Tim, I am going to enjoy this, I have never heard of anything like it in my life, I am already eaten up with curiosity to see how it turns out. “

  Finally one of the women in the group said, “Wel I suppose the first order of business is to decide who is here for which job. Why don't those of you interested in becoming system administrator move over to the next table.” With that three men and one woman got up and moved to the next table. Two of them refil ed their coffee cups before sitting down. Of the remaining five people four were women and one was a man. The woman who had instigated the move commenced.

  “My name 'Doris Rimbot,' I have a BA in business management from Carver college, my minor was in computer science. I am married, my husbands name is Ralph, he also works on the construction crew.” She said he was dead set on this job because of the money and he just coerced her into coming along. I don't know anything about construction but I have worked with data base management systems for the last five years. I would very much like to get out of laying cement blocks and digging in the mud.” At that point the man in the group said lots of luck lady, he then got up and left the table. The other four women just sat there. One of them started to say something then thought better of it, got up wished the others luck, and left. None of the other three wanted the job as badly as Doris did and apparently none of them considered themselves as well qualified. “I guess you get the job, Doris,” one of them said. Another said, “I would love to have this job but I am no where near as qualified as you are Doris so I am withdrawing,” “Me too” said the last one. Doris pressed the blue button on her phone and said “CALL Tim Erkin.” she got a busy signal so she poured herself another cup of coffee. The situation was almost the same at the other table. A wimpy little prematurely balding man named “Surge Yugolov” turned out to be so much better qualified than the others at computer technology that the other three capitulated in a matter of minutes. Surge pushed the blue button on his phone but before he could say anything Tim came through the door.

  “Congratulations to you two, Surge and Doris, I am pleased to have you aboard. Please meet me at the Government Headquarters Office1400. I will show you around and introduce you to the rest of the staff. Neither Doris nor Surge ever found out how Tim had gotten their names. It was pretty simple, as soon as Carla knew the names she left Hilda's desk returned to the kitchen and cal ed Tim. She was the one talking to Tim when Doris got here busy signal and invitation to leave voice mail.

  Tim then went to his office, but before he could get in the door Carter and Paul collared him and invited him to lunch at the Government dining room. During lunch Tim briefed them and they briefed him on all the latest developments on the facility.

  Tim brought them up to date on construction, the tunnelers should celebrate another breakthrough some time this week. And we will have a new cavern to tame.

  *I need to group the nine hundred people that we now have into work crews so I have hired a person to set up and manage a data base for us. While I was at it I found the systems administrator that you said you need, Paul. I didn't think you would object to me making the selection since the Government is no longer funding the position. If we ever become critically short of construction workers I can always pull him but until that time comes he is yours. Both of these people wil be at headquarters at 1400 and I wil introduce them around. Maybe you can ask Alice to show Serge the ropes before she departs next week. This new girl, Doris is pretty sharp so hopefully by next week she wil have enough of the data base set up to organize the construction crews.”

  Until we breakthro
ugh and tame Utopia we are going to have a lot of surplus labor on our hands so if either of you can think of a project that wil keep people occupied let me know. There were seven hundred or more people showed up this morning for assignments so after putting half of them to work I just told the rest to go over and get the supply yard squared away. That has been my day so far.”

  “Paul and Carter just laughed.”Paul said we discussed establishing a legal system with a police department, courts, judges, laws and everything. Then we discussed the mess we have at City Hall and what we need to do to straighten that out. Then we decided we better notify the Government to send up several surveying crews. We also discussed the need to have an elected Government to handle local issues, you know like a city counsel or something. Nothing is firm yet on any of that but we'l keep you posted. After lunch Tim had a chance encounter with the head of the Government Scientists. “I have a question for you George, It's about Ivy, Abner says it wil grow anywhere there is an ordinary lit cavern and it doesn't need special grow lights.” “If it does? Tim, I don't see how it would enrich our atmosphere because without the grow lights it could not photosynthesize.”

  “But,” answered Tim,”if it didn't photosynthesize, how could grow?” “Good question, is Abner growing ivy now that is not exposed to grow lights?” “Yes, I have seen them, they were just little half Inch shoots but they were bright green.” “I'l check into it and let you know.”

  At 1400 Tim met with the two new computer people at headquarters. He introduced Doris and Serge to the rest of the staff. Tim then assigned Doris to a computer station and showed her how to access the data base manager program and the available data that was now scattered in various places on the drive. “Hopefully I will have enough of a data base put together in the next few days that you can select work crews based on any criteria you like.” “Hal Johnson, my assistant wil be using the data more than I will, he is the one that wil be assigning the crews. I wil be more interested on the projects that we are working on and how they are progressing. That proved to be all the instruction that Doris ever required. After about a week Doris was able to give anyone in management a list of anything they wanted in just a couple minutes. Everything began running more smoothly.