September 10, 2124: The President of the United States had been
wondering ever since he was in high school why they had never developed the
Utopia cavern on Mars. He contacted the current Mars Council Chairman by
email and asked about developing the huge cavern. The President of the
council explained by return email that “Yes, Mr. President, we would love to
develop Utopia but there are several reasons that we haven't. One we don't
have the necessary generators to light it; we don't have the atmosphere
equipment to pressurize it; we do not have the population pressure to require it.
The President discussed it with his cabinet and the senate and the house
of representatives. Then he went public and discussed it with the press.
Articles appeared on the internet and on TV. Suddenly there was a new interest
in Mars. Polls were taken and Congress appropriated funds and it was decided
that Utopia should be opened and developed.
September 17, 2124:: When Tim had all the details of the Presidents
plan he called a special meeting of the Council. “As you know, ladies and
gentlemen, for the past several years Mars has received little attention from
Earth. The United States Government has now decided that the time would be
right to open up the Utopia cavern. They are committed to sending us the
necessary equipment to handle that huge cavern along with twelve thousand
new settlers. All four of the Arton ships are coming home from Arton now and
there is no demand on Arton at the present time for more settlers or anything
else from Earth. They will need supplies by next year but for the next few
months the Arton ships will be hauling all their cargo to Mars. I don't believe
that we would need to develop Utopia in order to accommodate the people they
are sending but I wouldn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. All twelve
thousand settlers will be arriving between November of 2124 and March of
2125. We need to prepare to absorb all of them within a five month period.
The first thing we will need is a reception center for temporary housing.
We will need to set up kitchen and dining room facilities to feed that many
people three times a day and we will need adequate rest room facilities. We
should have a well stocked supply room in order to provide them with phones,
radios, air mattresses, blankets and personal necessities. Since we anticipate
that the first 3,000 of them could be arriving within 45 days we will need to start
getting ready for them now. If there are any businesses that have been holding
off expansion because of a shortage of employees this might be a good time for
them to expand.”
Perhaps the Council could take over the project of locating jobs for these
people or create public jobs for them. Mars Colony, Inc. will be able to hire a
lot of them working on the development of Utopia.
The list of necessary hardware was obtained from Mars then assembled
on Earth and loaded onto the Arton ships as they returned from Arton and Mars.
Arton Four was already in Earth orbit so it was loaded first.
October 17, 2124: Arton Two returned from Arton with five passengers
and several thousand Artonian plants and made Earth orbit.
November 5, 2124: Arton Four departed Earth. In addition to the cargo
of geothermal generators and atmosphere equipment they carried construction
equipment, tunneling equipment and tons of miscellaneous items. Three
thousand settlers were taken on board.
November 12, 2124: The Arton Four made Mars orbit. The six shuttles on
Mars began removing the settlers the next day. In New Phoenix they were
housed temporarily in the new reception center. These people had been
transported to Mars at Government expense and had no contractual obligations
to Mars Colony, Inc. as people in the past had when they arrived on Mars. Tim
had a company hiring office set up near the entrance to the reception center
and began signing people up the day after the first settlers arrived. Tim could
not start on the project however until the cavern was sealed and pressurized
and the new equipment was unloaded from the ships. Tim already had existing
crews working on those jobs. The new employees received a $25,000.00
signing bonus when they were signed to three year contracts so they could find
or build a place to live. They continued to dine in the mess hall paid for jointly
by The Company and the Council. The Martians were afraid that these new
comers would not meet the same high standards as those that The Company
had previously hired on Earth and transported up. They were pleasantly
surprised to find that the Government had done a pretty good screening job and
the ones that they had interviewed so far well screened before being selected.
November 27, 2124: Arton Two had been loaded with cargo of heavy
equipment and raw materials for the development of Utopia. Three thousand
more settlers were brought on board on the 26th so the Arton Two left Earth for
Mars the next day.
December 5, 2124: Arton One returned from Arton and made Earth orbit.
The authorities on Mars had notified the President that a bottle neck had formed
in Mars orbit. They simply did not have enough shuttle to unload the
A1immediately. It had taken the shuttles ten days just to transport the
passengers from Arton Four to Mars.
December 6, 2124: The Arton Two made Mars orbit. The Mars shuttles
began transporting passengers to the Utility cavern before starting to unload
cargo from Arton Four. The population of Mars had grown by over six thousand
in the last thirty days. Mars was easily able to cope with this influx of people.
The Company was still hiring all that wanted employment but The Company
deferred to local businesses until they had met their recruitment goals. Once all
the passengers from the Arton Two were in the reception center there were four
thousand seven hundred people housed there.
January 10, 2125: Six additional shuttles were nearing completion or in
testing in the U.S. These were earmarked for Mars and loaded on the A1as
cargo. Once the shuttles were loaded they noticed how much empty space
remained in the hold of the A1the ship was filled with another huge assortment
of other machinery and equipment.
January 12, 2125: Three thousand more settlers were loaded on A1and
it departed the next day.
January 19, 2125: A1made Mars orbit. Five Mars shuttles immediately
began transporting settlers to the Utility Cavern. The sixth shuttle had
developed major mechanical problems and would be out of service for an
indefinite period. It turned out that the necessary part had to be sent from the
U.S. It was then discovered that the six new shuttles were loaded before the
other cargo and must be unloaded last.
February 7, 2125: Mars Runner makes Earth orbit.
February 16, 2125: Arton Three returns from Arton and makes Earth
Orbit. The part necessary to repair the Mars shuttle was immediately loaded on
the Arton Three along with all the other spare shuttle parts that the Government
had on hand. A n order was placed with the shuttle manufacturer for more
spare parts to replace the stock from the Government warehouse that had been
loaded on the Arton Three. An enormous amount of furniture, appliances and
household goods were loaded on the Arton Three as their main cargo as Mars
had complained that these items were now in critical short supply since the
arrival of all the new settlers.
February 23, 2125: Three thousand settlers were loaded onto Arton
Three which departed for Mars the next day.
February 28, 2125: Mars Runner is loaded with nothing but personal
necessities, vitamins and clothing to sustain 13,200 settlers for a long period of
time.
March 2, 2125: Arton Three makes Mars orbit. The four remaining Mars
shuttles begin transporting settlers to the planet. Another of the Mars Shuttles
had gone down for repairs and would be out of service until the new parts were
unloaded from the ship.
March 9, 2125: Mars Runner is loaded with 1,200 settlers and departs
immediately for Mars. Cargo on the Arton Four had still to be unloaded. The
ship had now been in Mars orbit since November 12, 2124 and had yet to be
unloaded.
March 15, 2125: The parts necessary to repair the two shuttle that were
in the shop had been unloaded from the Arton Three, the repairs had been
completed and the two shuttles were back in service.
March 20, 2125: Priority had been given to unloading A1because Mars
needed those six additional shuttles. By April 1, 2125 the cargo had all been
unloaded and transferred to the Utility cavern. Now the crews could commence
getting the new shuttles into commission. Unloading of cargo from the A1was
completed.
April 3, 2125: With all twelve shuttles now in service it was estimated
that it would still take over two months to unload the cargo remaining on the
three Arton ships.
April 4, 2125: The A1which had finished unloading broke Mars orbit and
headed back to Earth. Shuttles had finished the unloading of the Arton Four
and it was preparing to depart the next day.
April 5,2125: Shuttles worked non stop since the disaster to finish
unloading the Arton Four, which left immediately for Earth.
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