August 12, 2116: Tim was at home one evening and little Jimmy who was
now in Kindergarten was looking at pictures in an Earth book entitled “A Day At
The Zoo” Jimmy kept asking Carla and Tim about the animals that he saw in the
book. Tim and Carla did the best they could to explain each one to him but
finally Tim said to Carla, “That does it we are going to have a Zoo in New
Phoenix.” Six months later the zoo was a reality only The Company intervened
to a degree. The Company had a mandate in their contract with the
Government that they had signed years before prohibiting them from exporting
any animals from Earth that could be considered a threat to mankind. They
couldn't send venomous snakes because they might bight someone, they
couldn't send bears because they might maul someone, they couldn't send wild
cats because they might attack someone, and they couldn't send elephants
because, well, they were just too damned heavy to handle. Mars got it's zoo
but it mostly contained llamas and alpacas and the like. They got five Panda's,
some kangaroos and other harmless Marsupials a large variety of harmless bird
species. Actually Panda's and kangaroos could harm people but the company
fudged a little on the rules for certain animals.
Parrots abounded on Mars. Most were wild but many people had tamed
them for pets. There were more than twenty varieties of parrots. They could be
found in all the caverns. The Zoo had opossums and raccoons and badgers
and penguins but nothing that man need fear. There were even twelve head of
Cattle brought up from Earth and displayed at the zoo. Even though cows
produced an enormous amount of methane the atmosphere could handle
twelve of them. The herd was never allowed to become larger than that. The
surplus animals were slaughtered for meat but the kids never knew that. It
was OK with the kids that there were no dangerous animals, they loved going to
the zoo. Chimps and monkeys proved to be the most popular with the kids.
Ant's and flies didn't really belong in a zoo but the zoo had those also. They, it
seems had invited themselves.
March 21,2117: The value of Tims stock in Mars Colony, Inc. had gone
up one hundred fold in the nine years he had been buying it. He figured the
time was right to get out of the market, draw his Swiss Account down to one
hundred dollars, cancel his trust agreement with his bank on Earth and then
somehow arrange to have the funds transferred to his account at First Colonial
Bank in New Phoenix. He felt he could better handle his investments himself in
New Phoenix. Tim worked out a deal to have Paul's family arrange the
transfers. Of course Paul's family charged a ten percent handling fee but there
were no inquiries from the IRS. When all was said and done Tim ended up with
a little over one hundred million dollars divided up between his seven different
First Colonial accounts.
March 23, 2117: The first thing that Tim did was to order twenty million
dollars worth of products from Earth. These included Redwood, Cedar, Glass,
furnishings for hotel rooms, furnishings for a first class bar and restaurant and
two million dollars worth of winter sporting goods. Tim also ordered over one
thousand warm hooded jackets. The items were all promised for delivery within
the next six months. Tim contracted with the private sector to have his sloped
floor cavern sealed and pressurized. The temperature inside the cavern was a
consistent twenty nine degrees.
Tim once again contracted with a private sector firm to do extensive
grading and sculpturing of his hillside. The hill was more than a mile higher at
the high side than it was at the low side. After descending for four miles it
leveled off making a flat plane extending to the far wall on the low side.
Tim purchased an old atmosphere making apparatus that was now being
stored in reserve. He had the machine installed in his cavern. With the
modifications that he already knew could be easily made he had a new control
installed on the machine that raised the moisture level of the atmosphere in the
cavern enough to generate falling snow when it was set above a setting of
seven. He turned it to eight and let it snow. The next ship to arrive on Mars
brought the building materials that Tim had ordered. The next brought the
equipment and merchandise. Tim had a new three stage automatic opening
airlock installed in the tunnel leading to his property. The tunnel had been
expanded to allow for one lane of traffic in each direction as well as a moving
sidewalk to accommodate pedestrian traffic in and out of the facility. The traffic
was channeled into a huge cement block building with a parking lot, benches
tables, several fast food restaurants and several other small businesses . One
of the small business sold and rented Nordic clothing, another sold all sorts of
ski paraphernalia. There was a desk manned by several employees seated at
terminals that made reservations and sold entertainment packages that
included food and lodging while vacationing in the cavern. The one week
beginners package included seven days and six nights with unlimited use of the
ski lift, a room and all meals for $6,000.00 beginners were eligible to attend as
many beginner classes as they wanted when they bought the beginners
package. The entry building was always heated to a comfortable 74 degrees.
There was an exit triple sliding doors at the back of the building leading into the
cavern. Large signs warned the patrons not to pass through these doors unless
they were dressed for cold weather. Once inside the cavern the customer could
board a free tram that would whisk them away to the Lodge. Just beyond the
lodge there was a one hundred acre skating rink that was always open and
always available to the public without charge. Of course the only place on Mars
that sold ice skates and winter clothing was Tims store in the entrance building.
By the time the project was completed and opened to the public Tim had
invested virtually all of the money he had accumulated. The ski lodge proved
so successful that Tim started recovering his investment in record time.
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