A Colony on Mars (27 page)

September 14, 2125: The reception center was closed down. Everyone had found gainful employment and made other housing arrangements. CHAPTER – Immigrants from Arton

May 12, 2126: Arton Four enters Mars orbit with 1,261 passengers and crew who were transferred to the planet. Five crew members remained on board to maintain the ship.

June 14, 2126: Arton Three enters Mars orbit with 1,284 passengers and crew who were transferred to the planet. Again Five crew members remained on board to maintain the ship.

June 14, 2126: The total population of the Human race was estimated to be 136,000 people. With roughly 54,000 of them living on Arton and 82,000 thousand on Mars. It had been resolved to send one of the Arton ships back to Arton, because they had powerful radios on board that could communicate with each other even at a distance of four and a half light years. Once a month Arton Four would send the news from Mars to Arton and once a month the Arton three would send news from Arton to Mars. Arton Four would remain in a parking orbit around Arton and become in fact a orbiter. They would have seven Shuttle They would be manned by volunteers from Mars who would be selected from the general population and agree to live their lives out on Arton. The word went out and barely enough volunteers consented to go. Over the next two months these people were trained to do the jobs that the crew of an Arton ship had performed. The ship was not loaded with any cargo because Arton was already a self sufficient planet. They would have their work cut out for them in learning to produce for themselves all the things that had formerly been shipped to them from Earth but there was no doubt that they would survive and prosper over the coming centuries.

CHAPTER – Earth Recovers

August 21, 2126: Arton Three departed for Arton, not to return to Mars for many years. The four remaining ships in orbit around Mars would remain there until Earth was once again habitable, except that one of them would be dispatched to Earth every ten years to gather data. This always coincided with Mars closest position to Earths orbit.

March 7, 2136: It had been ten years since the destruction on Earth . Mars had prospered and the population had grown to over 125,000 soles. It was time to dispatch Mars Runner to determine the status of Earth. Mars Runner departed amongst much fan fare with only the crew and a couple dozen scientists aboard and a cargo of food and other supplies for Moon Base. Mars Runner carried four Shuttle in their hold.

July 19, 2136: Mars Runner carried seven volunteers who agreed to remain on Moon Base for the next ten years, it just seemed like such a shame to abandon one of mankind's greatest achievements. Upon their arrival Captain Lomax accompanied the volunteers to Moon Base for a look around the facility. Mars Runner had brought along enough supplies to keep the crew in food, water, atmosphere and other necessities of life for another ten years. The seven people who had been on Moon Base for the last ten years were ready to leave. These people had been in radio communication with Mars for their entire stay and had nothing new to report. Actually over the last ten years they had nothing new to report. They stil constantly monitored all radio frequencies but had heard nothing worth investigating for the last nine years and eleven months.

July 22, 2136: Mars Runner secured orbit around Earth and even docked at the long deserted Earth Orbiter. The place seemed no worse for the ware and the crew soon had it back in ful operation. The four Shuttle were unloaded and had also docked at the Earth Orbiter.

July 24, 2136: The Shuttle flew their first sorties close to earth. Mars Runner had been monitoring all radio frequencies since their arrival and had found nothing. The Shuttle had flown low over the United States looking for signs of habitation but had seen nothing encouraging. One of them had landed at what used to be, Edwards Air force base in the California, Mojave Desert. They got out of their craft cloaked in radiation suits and took several readings of the soil and the atmosphere. There was good news, the air was breathable and though there was stil a lot of radiation it was below the lethal level. Anyone living in this environment could live but would be very susceptible to developing cancer and other diseases. I would not recommend long exposure to this part of the planet. They got the same result from checking out various other parts of the planet and the only life form they encountered were some red ants in what used to be Kenya. On a hunch they tried the top of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. It was clean down to the 6,000 foot level. No radiation reading at all. There were plants and trees still growing in abundance. They had seen what might have been a flock of birds from a distance but when they got closer they found only leaves blowing around. They then checked the Ocean at several locations, There was stil some sea life but not much The deeper they took readings the more sea life they found. Before leaving Earth they visited a number of locations on Earth to take additional readings. In Juneau, Alaska, they came across a huge quantity of cut lumber that tested clean because it had been wrapped in plastic when the catastrophe had occurred. They filled the hold of their ship with the lumber. Their trip would not be a total wasted effort. There was always need for wood on Mars.

November 23, 2136: The ship made Mars Orbit with a mixed message. The good news was that Earth was not a dead planet, trees some plants, red ants and some deep see life were adapting. They had found at least one place on Earth that was now completely free of radiation, the top of Mt. McKinley above 6,000 feet and they suspected that all locations above 6,000 feet in elevation were also free of radiation. Those places were still not habitable because winds kept blowing in contaminated air. The atmosphere was no longer instantly lethal. The bad news was that they had found no people at al or any signs of people since the catastrophe.

July 24, 2146: This time A1made the trip to Earth. They rotated the crews at Moon Base and resupplied the facility. Things were looking up. The atmosphere was breathable in most locations although there were still some hot spots. At elevations above three thousand feet they found no contamination of soil or rocks. They stil found no signs of human life. They observed several varieties of insects, life in the Oceans could be found in water as shallow as one hundred feet. In the Amazon basin they cut some choice hardwood and just loaded the logs onto the ship. Wood was stil the most precious commodity on Mars even though they had been harvesting some softwoods grown on Mars for several years. Most of the Mars harvest had been chipped up and used to manufacture press board. The A1carried no surplus food on this trip. Their conclusion was that Earth was beginning to recover.

July 24, 2156: The Arton Two made the trip to Earth, In most respects the planet was as it had been before the catastrophe. They real y had to look to find any signs of the nuclear Holocaust other than abandoned buildings and visible signs of destruction. The air was good to breathe and the only hot spots that they found were at ground zero where the bombs had detonated. There was stil trace contamination in the atmosphere but not near so much as there had been ten years earlier.

November 23, 2166: Tim was 74 years old when Arton Two returned from Earth with more hardwood. Carla had passed on the year before, their four children were in mid life and there grandchildren were either in college or out on their own. Tim had retired from company service in 2158 and now just puttered around the house. Tim had spent the bulk of his personal wealth in assisting the refugees from Earth when they were brought to Mars 40 years earlier.

Tim's oldest grandson, Josh had been on the crew of the Arton Two when it traveled to earth. He visited his grandfather and told him that Earth had passed it's physical. It was once again a safe habitat for humanity. Tim just grunted and went on tending his flower bed. “That means that man can return to Earth, grandpa. “ “Perhaps you should introduce a resolution before the Council Josh, propose the colonization of Earth and see if you can find any volunteers. There are always young people looking for adventure in far away lands, that would be wil ing to sign up. If that happened it would give mankind the advantage of being present on at least three planets and we as a species would stil survive if something happened to any two of them. Arton now has near one mil ion population and Mars has over half a mil ion. I suppose we could find a hundred thousand or so that would be wil ing to establish an Earth colony.

CHAPTER – Reclaiming Earth

April 24, 2167: Mars Runner, loaded to the gills with cargo and passengers, leave Mars Orbit, destination Earth.

July 25, 2167: The A1is loaded with cargo and passengers from Mars and departs for Earth. Five days later The Arton Four departs. August 1,2167: The Arton Two is loaded and departs Mars for Earth. The A1Makes Moon orbit. They rotated the staff at Moon Base and replenish their supplies.

August 5, 2167 : A1and Arton Two make Earth orbit and begin to offload passengers.

August 7, 2167: Mars Runner and the Arton Four make Earth orbit and begin offloading passengers.

It took them nearly a month for the seven Shuttle that they had brought along to offload their cargo of 10,222 humans, six thousand assorted farm animals, one mil ion fresh water fish, 500,000 salt water fish and five mil ion Earth worms to their chosen location. The new colony would be located at a place formerly known as Mission Bay, San Diego, California. The 1822 human beings all worked for the company, Earth Colony, Inc. The Company manager on Earth was Josh Erkin.

Somehow San Diego had been spared a direct hit during the brief war that had ended life on earth. In the intervening 42 years the corpses of all living beings that were on Earth had just disintegrated. At the very worst there were harmless piles of dust that had to be swept up and disposed of. Various metal objects that people had on their person were sometimes found in the little piles of dust.

The ocean water was once again clear of any contamination. One of the first orders of business was to close off a lagoon at Mission Bay and release the salt water fish that they had brought from Mars. There were several pristine little lakes and reservoirs to receive the fresh water fish. A crew of seven people was formed to make fish food and care for the fish. As it turned out life on Earth had not been completely destroyed. Many of the lower life forms in the ocean had adapted or survived in their original form. Bacteria, algae, single cel ed creatures of the ocean had not only survived but had prospered. These creatures were at the bottom end of the food chain. With all the sea creatures that had fed on them gone they had multiplied with gusto. The colony found that they did not have to feed the salt water fish. The colony had their choice of any number of Yachts and commercial vessels that had not fared too badly and could be restored. September 10, 2167 : The nuclear facility at Green Valley that Tom Eddy had left for them was found intact. Technicians from the ships who had been taught to tend the nuclear power plants in the ships were brought in to see if they could get the plant into operation. Tom had even left instructions as to how to reactivate the facility in anticipation of this day. An Ariel reconnaissance of other nuclear power plants in the Western United States had revealed that more than one hundred of them had been shut down properly. a supply of Nuclear fuel that had been waiting for instil ation and had not gone to critical mass. The protective containers were stil intact and the fuel rods they contained were stil in their new condition. Electric Helicopters were plentiful but none of them had usable batteries. New batteries from Mars were instal ed in a few of them. The new batteries did not fit but once the holders had been modified the batteries worked. Some old museum relics of air planes, helicopters, heavy equipment and automobiles that ran on gasoline were found. A refinery in Southern Nevada was found intact which stil had a huge amount of crude oil in tanks. Operation Manuals were also found there and intact. A crew of fifty had the refinery in production within a month and were producing gasoline and diesel fuel. The old choppers, aircraft and heavy equipment from the museum were brought back to operating condition and used to fil the gap until batteries could be manufactured on Earth once more. Near the Southern Nevada refinery stood Hoover Dam, still intact. Lake Mead was full and overflowing over the top of the dam. They sent a crew down that figured out how to open the spil ways and drain off a lot of the water from the lake into the Colorado River. The river flowed all the way to Yuma, Arizona and then spil ed off into Northern Mexico. In the process they had succeeded in restoring the water supply to The farms in the Imperial Valley. That gave them al the room and water they needed for growing crops. Crews harvested some of the fresh water fish that they had seeded around San Diego and restocked Lake Mead. Someday they would send in crews to get the hydro-electric generators functioning once again.

They established giant compost piles which they were able to fertilize and bring the top soil back to life. Most of the plants on Earth had survived so there was plenty of mulch. The bacteria had never completely died out. The colony never lasted long as a colony, they were spreading out all over the west wherever they found the facilities that they needed intact. One thing that was stil in critical short supply was The Lithium Ion Gel batteries that powered the machines of twenty second century man. Once a factory had been found that could be put back into operation, on a limited basis they were able to abandon the refinery and return the gasoline and diesel powered relics to the museum. Once the Nuclear power plant was on line the technicians from the ships started seeking out a production facility that produced the Nuclear rods from Uranium that would be needed, not only to replace those in the power plant when they had become spent but more importantly to replace the nearly spent nuclear rods in the space craft. The facility they sought was soon located and nuclear fuel was being manufactured.

November 18, 2174: Once the ships had received new fuel the three Arton Ships departed from Earth orbit within a week of one another. It was decided that the Arton Four would stop briefly on Mars for supplies then proceed on to Arton. The Arton Four carried enough Nuclear fuel in safe containers to get the Arton Three refueled and back into service. They knew that the Arton Three was low on power when it left for Arton the last time. Everyone knew that it would never be able to return once it was there. Oh perhaps if a nuclear fuel source was eventually developed on Arton new fuel could be manufactured but that wouldn't be a realistic hope for many years. The other two ships were to be put into service moving people from Mars to Earth.