February 14, 2109 The tunnel crew started work that morning in their
Mars suits with the airlock closed behind them. At 1042 one of the men hit the
wall with his pick and it went right on through. They finished opening up the
hole and only had to step down one foot to be standing in the Little Giant. This
was by far and away the most beautiful site they had ever seen on Mars. “Who
wants to reach Utopia, one of the men said, I think we have found it.” This
cavern was almost 20 miles long and almost 15 miles wide, 20 in places. The
floor of the cavern was covered with scrub brush like you would see in Arizona,
There were majestic cacti growing and in bloom with flowers, some of the plants
resembled giant saguaros some prickly pear and many other nameless
varieties. “With plants here the air must be breathable” “I already took a
reading it might be breathable but it is still very high in CO2. Once this cavern
is sealed our smallest atmosphere apparatus would keep it breathable. If it
weren't for the size of this place I would say just open the airlock and let it
equalize. The five hundred foot high sealing gave off a soft phosphorescent
glow like you would see on Earth just before dark. They could see a small
mountain chain in the distance. They were low but rather than being shaped
like hills they had peaks like real mountains. That night they sent one hundred
guys in Mars suits inside the cavern shining their lights up at the ceiling and had
another hundred guys in Mars suits looking for the light beams to break
through. Most of the cavern was covered by a mountain on the Martian
surface. The guys on the surface only found two small fissures and they filled
them right then and there with balloons dropped down ten feet into the fissure
and then inflated. They marked the locations then went back to the
Government cavern. Tim, Paul and Carter visited the cavern within the hour of
it being opened. “We just have to call this one Arizona,” Tim said. They all
agreed but it didn't matter, the tunneling crew called it that the moment they saw
it. The next morning with the temporary air seals in place from the night before
they started their pressurization test that took almost all day. When it finally
passed and was declared air tight they just opened the air lock and let the
atmosphere in their whole system equalize. The heat also equalized and the
atmosphere machines made short work of the little rise in CO2. The cavern
was first opened to the scientists. The more they looked the more they found,
Including several fire pits and many petroglyph's. People had once lived in this
place before the CO2 finally got them. Several photographers walked around
the walls taking still pictures and video's, the photographers then criss crossed
the entire floor of the cavern and photographed everything, that took five
photographers a week. But now they had it for posterity. Arizona turned out to
be 368 square miles in size not 68 as they had thought. Somehow the photos
they had taken twelveyears earlier on a flyby had failed to accurately catch the
whole cavern
Arizona was the only thing people could talk about. There was a small
creek feeding into a large almost dry lake bed. Samples had been taken of the
water and of the lake bed . That was not a problem, they already had more
water than they could use. All they had to do was to pipe it in.
February 20, 2109: Tunneling starts to reach Utopia two hundred fifty
feet away.
March 5, 2109 Mars Supply One docked and unloaded four hundred
more pallets of merchandise for Super Store. This time they brought 20 pallets
of fishing gear. So many residents had complained to Charlie Rasmussen
about the lack of fishing gear and the presence of fish on Mars that he thought
he would go overboard and over order on fishing gear.
With each ship that docked there were more and more of the
Government employees that were finishing their contracts and were eligible to
return to Earth, fewer and fewer of them did, however. Most stayed on as
independent citizens of Mars. Mars.com had even gone to posting help wanted
ads and people were posting job wanted ads but that was really unnecessary
because you could cover all the business on Mars in a couple hours and they
were all hiring. The pattern of remaining on Mars taking a job then researching
some kind of business you wanted to go into then ordering your business
equipment from Earth then opening for business soon developed. Mars now
had an insurance office which wasn't doing too well a one man attorney firm
that had no clients but they did have a sign on the door to call the attorney if
you wanted to talk to him.
March 5, 2109 : Super Store now had a lot of merchandise to offer the
customer and a pretty good selection but they had sold out of fishing gear. It
was hard to find a place to stand along the banks of the fish bearing waters of
Mars. I guess that since they didn't have many other sports then fishing had to
be the sport of choice. Like on Earth some caught fish and some didn't but on
Mars you had to deposit them in a bin that was sent to the kitchen. When the
bin was full everyone had reached their limit and the rangers made everyone
quit fishing or start throwing them back. If the kitchens had enough fish they
would not put the bins out and no one was allowed to fish unless they threw
them back. If you were a householder that had elected to be paid for separate
rations rather than to eat in the mess hall you were able to keep three fish to
cook at home. Everyone on Mars carried an ID card and those on separate
rations had that fact clearly stamped on their cards before they were laminated.
Because of the growing number of privately owned vehicles they found it
necessary to establish a Department of Motor Vehicles and to start issuing
license plates and drivers licenses. Every time they turned around a new
necessity arose and more jobs on the private and on the public sector arose to
fill the need. One interesting development was that many of the new agencies
were governed by the council and not by the Federal Government or the
company.
Abner complained that fishermen were showing up at the farm by the
dozens looking to buy worms. That evening Abner ordered ten million worms to
be sent to Mars at his expense. He also ordered ten thousand disposable cups
with lids. He would go in the worm business if there was that much demand.
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