April 17, 2125: All together there were 13,452 human beings landed on
Mars, this figure Included the 1238 that they knew were on board Mars Runner
which was en route. At that moment Mars had a population of 54,354. Almost
8,000 of these people were still refugees being housed in what was referred to
as the reception center. The officers from the Arton ships said that there were
another 45,000 or so settlers already on the surface of Arton. So the total
population of the human race had been reduced to fewer than100,000.
None of the officers or passengers from the ships had ever been on
Mars. All they knew was that it was a mining colony with an observatory . The
Arton crews knew that on occasion they had gone out of their way on their
return voyages from Arton to load oar and other cargo but they had no idea
what Mars was really like. The cargo they had picked up had been packaged
and put into orbit before they got there. They just approached the orbiting
cargo, brought it on board and departed immediately for Earth. Each group of
new arrivals had at least one member of their group say, “I can't believe my
eyes” when a fleet of open air buses picked them up in the Utility cavern and
whisk them away to New Phoenix.
Keep in mind that these were people who had just lost their whole
families on Earth. Most of the adults on Mars had also lost their families on
Earth but that was then and this was now. Tim and Hal and the new director of
Government operations met with them at the State office building.
Tim introduced himself and said ”I guess we all know what happened on
Earth on April 4, so the question in everyone's mind is where do we go from
here?” The space ship officers did not have a clue. They; did not have a basis
to make a decision on, and they knew it. One of them ask Tim “Mr. Erkin, how
many more people could Mars accommodate, are you overcrowded already.”
Tim responded, “Our present population is approximately 55,000. We could
easily sustain another million people and remain self sufficient. Theoretically
the planet could eventually sustain a population of three hundred million
people, but only if all of the known caverns on the planet were fully developed.
The present size of our developed caverns gives us the approximate land mass
of 3056 square miles, our eventual land mas could be about equal to the size of
the continental United States.“ “Do you have enough food for all those people?”
another officer asked. “Certainly”, Tim responded. “ We have farms, ranches,
orchards, wineries and herds of animals to more than sustain over one hundred
thousand people now and 80% of our available land space is undeveloped.
“Then why aren't there more people on Mars,” another officer asked. “Because
you guys keep hauling them to Arton,” Tim answered. “I never dreamed,” said
the officer, “I just thought Mars colony was a few guys extracting oar on a dead
planet.”
Before we continue with this discussion I want you people to take a day
and tour of Mars, or at least some of it, you can't possibly see it all in a day.
That would be like trying to see all of Texas in a day. Most of us live here in
New Phoenix. We don't have more cities because there is no need. We all
have everything right here. Right next to New Phoenix is Utopia, it is an
enormous cavern, larger than all of our other caverns combined. So far we
have not developed Utopia but we now have everything we need to open
Utopia. We have discovered pressurized and introduced atmosphere to several
caverns larger than either of these large caverns that we occupy but they are
just sitting vacant at the moment. Tell me, how many people are living on Arton
and what are their living conditions? Tim asked” “Their highest ranking officer
responded, there are a little over 45,000 humans scattered around the planet.
The air is similar to Earths, the size of the planet is similar to Earth. The planet
could eventually house five to seven billion people. There are large animals
that you would think of as dinosaurs, in abundance, there are an estimated two
hundred thousand humanoids, that have formed into tribes and dwell in caves
much as humans did on Earth ten million years ago. Overall the land mass on
the planet is a little larger than earth. There are no continents just islands. No
matter where you are on the ocean you can see several islands. Just try and
picture it as Earth was ten million years ago.
First see our planet but then as I see it our alternatives are to transport
all of us to Arton or to transport all of the people on Arton to Mars or to have
Mars continue to provide the things you were getting from Earth for you to
transport to Arton and for mankind to inhabit both planets so that a catastrophe
like the one that destroyed the Earth Yesterday can never destroy mankind. I
suspect that the cargo that you have been transporting to Arton Included a lot of
weapons and we have no weapons on Mars, none. We could tool up and turn
out weapons but we don't have any now. Also be aware that we will loose
contact with Arton when you exhaust the energy supply in your ships. We do
not use nuclear energy on Mars, we rely exclusively on geothermal energy. We
have found uranium ore on the planet but we have never mined any because
we don't need it and we don't want it. After what happened yesterday, I don't
suppose we will ever want it. My next point is that we still have the Mars
Runner that is capable of travel to Earth. In fact it is on it's way to Mars now
loaded with cargo and settlers. It should arrive in Mars orbit around the middle
of August. I am sure than in a few years we will want to send inspection teams
to Earth to see how hot it is and to see if there are any people left alive
anywhere.
“Just from the conversation we have just had I think I already know the
plan we are all going to agree on,” said Tim. You should take the two ships that
you have already provisioned and continue on to Arton. Tell them what
happened on Earth and return to Mars with as many of them as want to return.
That way those that remain on Arton given a hundred thousand years or so may
come up with what man had on Earth at one time, hopefully it won't end the
same way. I suspect that you in this room and your crews will prefer life on
Mars, but the ones that went to Arton in the first place are the kind of people
that are seeking thrills and high adventure. A lot of them will want to remain,
and they should. Once you get back to Mars you will want to put your ships into
a parking orbit around the planet and live your lives out here. That should be
left up to each individual. Be sure when you travel to Arton that you have
enough extra crewmen to handle your ship on your return. Only you people
know how much fuel you have and how many more trips you can make but I
suggest that you make none just in case your ability to fly is needed to travel
from Mars to Earth and back on several occasions.” That evening all 14,000
guests were put up in the reception center. All were fed a hearty meal.
July 6, 2125: The newly arrived people all 14,000 of them were taken on
Guided tours of Mars. They visited the ranch and saw all the animals, they
visited the orchards and the farms and the vineyards and the city. They were
taken to Paradise and shown the campgrounds and the rivers and lakes
teeming with fish, they were shown some of the tamed but unused caverns, one
larger than New Phoenix and Utopia combined. They toured the industrial
complex and tasted the Martian wine and beer. They were shown the Ski
Lodge. They had all been very interested in the tour and most of them realized
by the end of the day that Mars was not only a better place to live than Arton,
Mars was a better place to live than Earth had been a month ago, before they
blew themselves up. After the tours were completed they were returned to the
reception center.
July7, 2125: The ship's officers met with Tim around 0900. They
concurred with his plan of action. An announcement was issued that anyone on
Mars who wanted to spend their lives on Arton should assemble at the Utility
Cavern the next morning at 0600 to board one of the space cruisers. That went
for the crews of the space ships as well. All other crew members were asked to
stand by in the tunnel leading to the Utility Cavern so that if there were any
crewmen that wanted to remain on Arton there would still be sufficient crew to
return the ships to Mars.
July 8, 2125: 0600, there exactly twelve people standing in the Utility
Cavern waiting to board a ship to Arton. All of the crew members from all four
ships were in the tunnel. It seems that they all wanted to live their lives out on
Mars, not Arton. All four vessels left port that morning. Two headed for Arton
with the last load of supplies that would be delivered to the planet for some
time to come. The other two headed for Earth and the Moon to rescue
survivors.
July 9, 2125: The Mars Unified Counsel of Elected Representatives met
to discuss the future of Mars. Particular attention was given to the problem of
how to keep the economy of Mars from collapsing, resulting in chaos. After
listening to some fifty speakers and hundreds of ideas the following consensus
emerged and voted into law. The first Colonial bank had agreed to honor all
existing accounts and to continue to credit those accounts with all regular
deposits, such as wages. The bank would evaluate all stock and bond
portfolios that the Citizens of Mars had on April 2, 2125 in Earth held securities
and credit the accounts of those people with the appropriate amounts of cash,
just as though they had they had sold their securities on that day. The price of
gold on Earth on April 2, had been $2,242.00 per ounce. The Gold in the vaults
of the bank amounted to 2,186 metric tons. That gold was the property of Mars
Colony, Inc. and would remain the property of Mars, Inc. Everyone had always
known that diamonds and other precious stones had kept turning up in small
quantities but no one had ever admitted it. It was just a kind of a bonus when
someone found a stone. Most of those stones were now in Paul Silverman,
safe at the jewelery store, but Paul had bought and paid for them so they were
his and would remain so. Paul had readily agreed that all future diamond finds
should be the property of Mars, Inc. and should be turned in to the company.
Diamonds of course now had little value except that Mars was being put on a
Gold and Diamond based economy. The value of Diamonds had arbitrarily
been set at $3,000.00 per carrot which the bank agreed to credit to The
Company account. Mars Unified Counsel of Elected Representatives
authorized the bank to mint and put into circulation iron and nickel coins in the
amounts of one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, and one thousand dollar
denominations. These would bear the inscription, pay to bearer on demand the
value of this coin in gold. Everyone knew that in actuality, the gold and
diamonds had no intrinsic value but just their universal acceptance bestowed on
them their value. That public faith was enough to keep the economy running.
It was agreed that The Company structure would not change, The
Company would henceforth be known as Mars, Inc. Corporation papers were
filed at the recording office of the Federal building noting this change and
establishing a board of Directors listing Tim Erkin as Chairman and a dozen
other company officers as members of the board of directors. They all,
Including Tim agreed to a fifty percent pay cut. In fact every employee of The
Company was notified of a fifty percent pay cut. All employment contracts that
employees had with The Company were canceled. No one would be laid off,
The Company had many jobs to be done in their various enterprises. Including
the ranch, the farms, the orchards and the manufacturing plants. The Company
also was the owner of record of all the real property on Mars. Tim addressed
the Counsel announced that The Company would form a real estate branch to
sell off a lot of the property that The Company would identify and list for sale in
coming months. Tim said that monopolies were, in his opinion not good for any
economy and he wanted to see many of the companies employees strike out on
their own and start private corporations and open small business establishment
of all sorts.
As more jobs were created and more business and manufacturing
started the number of people in the reception center began to dwindle. More
homes were being constructed, schools built. Since Arizona had been opened
tunneling crews had opened a dozen more smaller caverns that had been
sealed and pressurized but were lying unused. One after another people began
finding uses for them. Some for raising livestock, some for agriculture, some for
industry. They still had their ace in the hole, Utopia, if more land was ever
needed.
Ten years from now I would hope that Mars Inc. could be just another
successful corporation on Mars and not necessarily even the largest
corporation. Tim was a whole hearted believer in the free enterprise system
and in a democratic form of government. Over the next two years there were
fifty two small business opened on Mars. There were twenty six new
corporations started. There was even an over the counter stock exchange
being operated by Paul and his two employees. Since the disappearance of the
Earth, Paul's Jewelery had little demand. Paul transitioned easily into running
and controlling the Mars stock exchange. Prices were published daily on
MARS-TV and on Mars.com. At first there were some wild fluctuations but
eventually they leveled out and were the backbone of the young economy. After
five years Mars Inc. was down to 1,800 employees but still owned and
operated much of Mars. Tim had sold the lower half of the Hour Glass to the
lessors, Austin, Byron and Glen, who now employed over two hundred people
and were Incorporated. The bank was Incorporated on Mars and now had three
branches and over one hundred employees. The Counsel had formed all sorts
of new bureaucracies and employed over two hundred fifty civil servants. One
thing that the counsel had done that nobody cared much for was that they had
imposed a flat rate ten percent Income tax, a one percent property tax and a
five percent sales tax. Like I said no one liked it much but they all knew that it
had to be done. The Government had obligations to meet like everyone else
and the money had to come from somewhere. On Mars as it had been on
Earth the money would have to come from taxes, permits, licenses fees and
fines.
If anything the disappearance of the Earth had strengthened the
economy of Mars and had broken the stranglehold that Mars Colony, Inc had on
the planet. The Federal Government of the United States had been abolished
and the employees terminated. In short order a new corporation of scientists
had formed and Incorporated. They had more work than they could handle. All
tunneling had been temporarily stopped until such time as population reassure
created a demand for more land, which wouldn't be for many years. Some of
the new companies were buying real estate from Mars Inc. that was located in
undeveloped caverns. Many of the newly developed caverns were unique and
they all had their own personalities. Tim had already decided to develop the
largest of them to a long term timber project and had crews leveling the bottom
of the cavern and readying the soil. Grow lights had already been installed that
would be adequate to grow trees. Tim had also planned to plant wheat on the
land and raise goats . There was plenty of water and they had already installed
a new large generator and two atmosphere machines before the Earth had
collapsed. Tim's plans had not changed with the loss of the earth. Seedlings
had been planted and the young trees had thrived. By March of 2125 The trees
were already the size of Christmas trees and goats were roaming the range.
This was a 54 square mile monster cavern. Eventually, Tim supposed this land
would have a higher and better purpose but for now it would make a great goats
ranch and forest. Especially since the loss of Earth Mars would have to meet
their own demand for timber.
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