A Colony on Mars (18 page)

Tim then looked up the air quality control supervisor who was one of the Government scientists. “Where do we stand on getting the new atmosphere equipment installed at the Utility cavern?” Tim ask. “So far so good, I was relieved to find that we had everything that we need and it is being moved to the Utility cavern now.” The small new cavern that had just been opened had been dubbed, the Utility cavern because of the generator and atmosphere equipment being installed there. “We should have the new equipment running in a week or so. Then there will be no question that we wil have plenty of atmosphere so we can open the big half of that cavern.” “Crews were already working on the surface sealing the fissures on the big half so it looked like they could open it up within the next week.

July 1, 2108: tunneling was coming along great on the tunnel to the third new cavern. It would be a 580 footer and the crews were already in ten to twelve feet and another crew was already installing the air lock. Every evening the spa in the paradise cavern was packed with people enjoying the hot water. Some were even swimming in the warm river. The park had turned out to be very popular with the population of Mars.

Tim could hardly wait to get Big Lake Cavern opened, and the lake stocked with fish. Tim had no idea how they would manage to build boats or rafts to use on the lake but he was sure someone would come up with something. Tim made a note to himself to find out about getting some electric outboard motors, they could always find some Styrofoam or empty drums or something that would float.

The tunnel enlarging crews had started work on enlarging the tunnel from the Paradise cavern to the Utility cavern.

Tim, Carla, Juan and Lupe once again started playing shuffleboard in the evenings. They had no trouble at all finding an open court. July 4, 2108: Tim and Carla attended the Saturday night dance and found a table. They danced a couple times while they sipped a cup of tea. Then Carla said she would like some air so they stepped out. No one had yet figured out how to hold fireworks on Mars, and they didn't have any anyway so it didn't seem much like the 4th of July.

Tim remembered something that he wanted to get from home so he went around the mess hall to go and retrieve it. He was shocked to see about thirty people sitting around in folding chairs pulled up to folding tables all smoking clay pipes. They could hear the music just fine from there and some of them had laid down their pipes to go and dance. Tim spotted one of the men he new in the crowd and went over and joined him. The man casually acknowledged Tim then passed him his lit clay pipe. There was no doubt at all what the pipe contained. Tim respectfully declined but gave the man a big smile. Nothing had to be said.

On Sunday, after church Tim called Paul and Carter to request a quick meeting. He related to them what he had observed behind the dining room on Saturday evening. “We already know al about it Tim, and we have figured out how to handle it.” “How is that,” Tim ask. “By doing nothing,” Carter responded. If I caught a member of management smoking in public I would ask him not to do that any more, but as long as we don't have a problem during the work week, I see no harm in it. After all pot is now completely legal in twelve states. So far it has not occurred to the Government or The Company to address the issue. We have had a chat with Abner and Darwin over at the farm and they assure me they are giving the stuff away to anyone who comes by and asks for it. Sometimes they say that a person wil slip them some smal amount of money for their trouble but they never ask for anything in return. Since alcohol is not available this pot is the only thing people have to help them relax and have a good time at the Saturday night dance and other such gatherings. If anyone wants to smoke it in their own home we have no objection to that either. Paul and I both agree that everyone would be appreciative if we never brought the issue up. On the other hand if you ever caught anyone smoking on the job you should probably advise them that what they are doing is not al owed and if they persist they could ruin a good thing for everybody.” “That is all I wanted to know, and I have no objection to the non policy,” said Tim. “I wil see to it that Rusty doesn't do a story about it on TV and that everybody gets the word they should not smoke in public when there is a ship in port. I think those should be reasonable restraints, after all we don't want word of this non policy getting back to Earth.” Tim added.

July 10, 2108: The two gentlemen who had volunteered to produce alcohol had harvested their first crop of corn and finished making their first batch of booze. They only produced about twenty gallons and had already consumed quite a bit of that themselves. No one had planted more corn. Abner had corn growing at the farm but it had not been earmarked for making booze. It appeared that our booze project had failed. Tim had the two men take the remaining booze over to the farm where Abner had agreed to store it until next New years Eve when everyone would get one drink as far as it went. July 1, 2108: Two of the Government workers who had remained on Mars as private citizens had been racking their brain to figure out what kind of business they wanted to go into. They finally hit on the idea of starting a winery and brewery. Ironically their names were Austin Viner and Byron Suds. They had ordered the plants and grow lights and other equipment that they needed to produce grapes, hops, barley and yeast and were working at Burger Boy's until their stuff came in in December. It had cost them almost a mil ion dollars but they were sure they had made a good investment.

July 6, 2108: Tim went to see Abner that morning to tell him that there was now plenty of room for his orchards. Tim had staked off 40 acres of land in Big Lake cavern. Tim asked Abner to accompany him to Big Lake. The two of them walked the area reserved for the Orchards. “Great said Abner now all I wil need is topsoil and grow lights to cover 40 acres of land.” Abner had been mixing local nitrates with manure from the farm and Martian soil for some time. He had quite a pile of it. “You see this Tim,” Abner said when they returned to the farm. If I mix this soil with the contents of my compost pile, then plant each tree in a 3X3X3 hole fil ed with this mixture I should have a good start at growing our orchard. I can dig the holes now and fil as many of them as possible with this soil I wil start another soil conversion pile at the Orchard. Once you get the grow lights in I wil be able to start transplanting these little trees.

August 12, 2108: Mars Supply One docked. They had brought only one hundred new construction workers but they had brought two hundred new civil service employees. Mars now had the staff for the public services that they needed. They got 150 new clerical people, one judge, two attorneys, a Public Records Librarian, and even three police officers. One of the clericals was an election specialist and would work in that capacity full time as needed if and when there were to be an election. In the meantime she was assigned to computer input work. One of the new clerical workers was assigned as Tim's secretary. Tim had been taking up too much of Doris time lately with his projects that had nothing to do with her data base work. Tim had accumulated a ton of work for that he had been putting off.

Among the cargo items that arrived were1,000 new grow lights. Tim already knew they would be on this flight because he had told The Company that the trees they had sent would be of no value without them so they had agreed to put them on the next ship out.

The ship had also brought ten thousand board foot of utility grade ply wood in various thicknesses. There were the usual food supplies and among other things, lots of odds and ends they desperately needed. Aside from personnel they got the 125 golf carts they had requested. They came all dismantled and crated but assembling them would not be a problem. Everyone was thril ed that they got two hundred thousand fingerling catfish, cutthroat, bluegill, and crappy. Before the ship arrived screens had been installed on the two warm rivers to keep the young fish from swimming off into uncharted regions of Mars. There was a lady ichthyologist that said she had been sent along to care for the fish. She had enough fish food to keep them growing for three months and knew how to process table scraps into fish food. There was the parts necessary to construct a new large geothermal generator, another unit would arrive in December when Mars Runner made it's first arrival. One great thing that came in was five thousand cubic feet of hardwood. It was in various sizes but wood was something they had plenty of uses for. There was cargo for the farm as well, Abner had ordered and now had received twenty mil ion Earth worms. Super Store even received another hundred pallets of merchandise. Tim laughed, now they wil be able to open for business for another one day stand.

Tim was wrong, this time around it took Super Store into the second day to sell everything that they had.

Ever since Tim had arrived the new arrival's had all had housing waiting for them. The previous crop of new arrivals and this group had rooms in row houses, They had started using common walls between the units instead of building individual houses as they had done at first. They would build another row of rooms that shared a common wall at the rear of the room. The completed units resembled motels. The buildings were then given a number fol owed by a dash and then a letter, as in 354-C. There were 20 units to each building so they would letters up to T.

Because of the irregular work hours the kitchens and dining rooms had started staying open 16 hours per day. They would just transition from breakfast to lunch to dinner and people could eat any time they pleased. The kitchens had started offering more choices of food and serving buffet style rather than just serving everyone that came through the line the same meal. The Government kitchen always offered a different food selection than The Company kitchen. Residents were free to eat in either dining room. For the most part the vegetables were fresh from the garden and both dining halls usually offered a salad bar, and a choice of dressings. More cooks and kitchen help were arriving on each ship so they had plenty of help in the kitchens. In addition to these changes it took standing in line for 20 minutes or more to get a Big Boy and fries.

Paul mostly but Tim and Carter to a degree had dreaded the day that they would have police officers on duty in the community. Now they had a U.S. Marshal and two deputies. Paul summoned them to visit his office. In about ten minutes three young women entered the office. “Are you the police officers?“

Carter asked. “Yeah, not what you expected, huh?” “No, not exactly,” Tim answered. “Just what do you ladies expect to contribute to this community?”

Paul inquired. The older of the three spoke for the three of them. “ Why don't we introduce ourselves, I am Deputy United States Marshal Constance Raul, my two associates here are Marlene Dotson and Pamela Justin, they are also Deputy United States Marshals but I am in charge because my pay grade is higher than theirs and I have been with the Marshal Service longer. You gentlemen are?” I am Paul Silverman, the facility director and this is Carter Fredrick, the Mars Colony, Inc. manager and Tim Erkin, the construction superintendent. The titles may be a little misleading but the three of us pretty much run the facility. “Now as I previously asked, Just what do you ladies expect to contribute to this community?”

“We wil have a lot to do,” Constance replied. “One thing wil to be to find out why you have never had a reportable crime in the twelve years since the colony was established. Another thing is to be the administrative arm of the court system once that is established. Another would be to investigate any crime that does occur, and believe me, it is inevitable that sooner or later as your population grows you wil have some crime. You gentlemen could probably apprehended a suspect but there are occasions when you wouldn't know who to apprehend. I know we are young women but between us we have had over 27 years of training beyond high school, in college and in practicing our professions. Any of us would be qualified to work in a crime lab or work as a crime scene investigator on Earth. If, as you apparently believe, it turns out that we have nothing to do then we could always ask you for permission to take jobs on the young economy that we hear is emerging on Mars. That way we would always stil be available if you needed us to do the job we were sent here to do.” Al three of the men in the room were impressed. “I guess you don't need any advise from us so just go about your business. Carter put in, “We have constructed a court house of sorts, but like you said we have never had a crime, we have never had a civil action filed either. You wil find your offices in the court house along side the one cell jail that we constructed. There is also a bailiffs office, judges chambers and a court room with a jury box and everything. One of our people will be in touch with you to find out if you need anything. The girls left and Tim looked at Carter and Paul and just shrugged. As it turned out, not only were the three U.S. Marshals all female but so was the judge and the two attorney's. One of the attorney's was the prosecutor and one the public defender. The bailiff, however turned out to be a large black man that appeared capable of putting down any courtroom difficulties.

“This is great, “said Paul. “ we now have a whole legal system in place but we have no laws to enforce or to charge anyone of violating.“ They then summoned the judge, Nancy Whalen to the office along with the two attorney's. Paul posed that same question to them. “Oh, but there are laws a plenty. This colony is officially a territory of the United States, and laws have been accumulating on the books that govern U.S. Territories for the last four hundred years, I have over thirty seven books that I brought from the states that are just crammed full of those laws. These two attorney's here each have a copy of al the same books that I have. With email we have access to a lot of other laws that are available from the national law library and from the library of congress.

“Your local assembly, whatever you call it needs to pass what would be cal ed county ordinances on earth. How do you get by without them?” “Simple,”