CHAPTER 11 – PHASE TWO
13:14 (California Time)
Monday, May 16, 2044
Headquarters of the Mars Home Project
Vandenberg Space Center, California
U.S.A.
Robert Lithgow, Chief Manager of the Mars Home Project, warmly shook the hand of Wang Lao Xi, the head of the Chinese Space Agency, when the latter arrived in the main conference room of the headquarters.
‘’Xi, it is a pleasure to see you here. I hope that things are going well now at your own space center?’’
‘’Well, we were scared for a moment that our space center could end up under water after that barrage broke but, fortunately, a second barrage downstream held and stopped the flooding from spreading. We are now effecting some urgent, major work to repair and reinforce the barrage that broke and are also digging a diversion canal that will make any future excess flow detour past our space center.’’
‘’I am happy to hear that, my friend. I must say that we had our own share of water trouble in the United States in the last few months.’’
‘’Yes, I heard about the demise of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway locks, when the rising seas overflowed part of them.’’
‘’Well, enough said about natural disasters! Let’s sit down and talk about some good news concerning our project.’’
Walking Xi to his designated seat, Robert then went to his own seat and sat down before looking at the six other persons sitting around the table.
‘’I believe that you all had ample time to read and view the reports and video recordings sent by our surface team on Mars, so I won’t waste time talking further about them. Instead, we are here to decide our next actions in the project. You all know what the preplanned phases of the project were and I believe that we are now at the point when we could launch Phase Two of the project, meaning the expansion of our initial surface base on Mars and of its crew. Phase Two also meant the sending of the first permanent residents for our Mars base, astronauts that would stay and live there for the next few years on Mars and would help develop true production facilities on the surface, facilities which would start to make our base self-sustaining. Now, this Phase Two was planned to take over four years at a minimum before we could jump to Phase Three, but our initial team on Mars has accomplished miracles, helped with a large dose of good luck I must say. However, their quick progress outstripped the construction of our second interplanetary spaceship, the H.S.S. MIR, which means that we have to think about alternate solutions to send extra equipment and supplies to the surface of Mars. The floor is now yours.’’
The six national heads of space programs looked at each other for a moment as they thought about the problem presented to them by Lithgow. Misha Borisovich, the head of Roskosmos, finally spoke up in a careful tone.
‘’The cargo landers for the H.S.S. MIR are already built and waiting on the ground to be sent to the ship once it is completed in orbit. Why not put them on top of dedicated vertical boosters and launch them directly from the ground? Since they are not inhabited, their carrying boosters would not need to have such luxuries as giant rotating rings and food supplies. Also, by not having a human crew, they would only need conventional rocket engines, rather than nuclear and magneto-plasma engines, and would thus be much more economical and quick to launch, albeit their trip to Mars would take longer.’’
Lithgow, like the others, nodded his head in approbation on hearing the Russian’s proposal.
‘’A nice, practical idea indeed, Misha. I like it!’’
‘’I like it too,’’ said Maria Cardona, of the NASA, ‘’but I believe that, with what we know now about the surface of Mars and the conditions there, that we should start designing new, purpose-built cargo landers that could help enlarge our base by rolling into the underground rotunda that shelters our Mars Base One. I know that our present cargo lander design allows that already, but if we could produce something larger but still able to roll inside the rotunda, then connect it to our present base, then it would open some fantastic new possibilities to us.’’
‘’That also sounds like a nice idea to me.’’ said Wang Lao Xi. ‘’We could design quite quickly a new type of cargo lander with a body section of thirty meters or less but with a length much greater, then launch it from Earth using conventional rocket-ramjet boosters.’’
‘’Decidedly, this meeting is proving quite fruitful already, lady and gentlemen.’’ said Robert while typing notes furiously on his computer. ‘’I am buying all of this but we now have to decide exactly what to send, when and how. Like the old saying goes: the devil is in the details.’’
‘’Tell me about that!’’ replied Michel Dupré, of the European Space Agency, while rolling his eyes.
16:08 (GMT)
Wednesday, September 14, 2044
Command and control section, H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP
In low Mars orbit
Janet Larsson smiled with satisfaction as she read the latest message received from Earth: it announced the launch earlier in the afternoon of the fourth cargo lander carrying Phase Two modules and equipment. Three more cargo landers had been launched during the earlier months and were on their way to Mars, carried by automated transport ships. The first of these Phase Two landers was in fact due to arrive in two months, while the one just launched would take a full seven months to do the trip from Earth, due to the fact that it used only conventional chemical rocket propulsion and because the position of Mars in relation to Earth was not optimal at this time. A lot more cargo landers were due to be launched during the months to come as part of Phase Two of the Mars Project, which had as its main goals to expand the original Mars base and to add to it fuel production and refining facilities that would help refill the shuttles visiting the base, as well as refueling the various minor craft to be used by the base. At the end of Phase Two, Mars Base One was going to be ready to expand its program of surveying the surface of the planet, in order to find other locations which would be adequate to build other bases and to find and inventory the various mineral resources that could be exploited on the planet.
Janet was about to switch to reading the daily routine internal ship reports when her intercom started beeping insistently, its red light denoting an urgent call. Switching that channel on, she saw the face of the ship’s chief medical officer and surgeon, Doctor Alexander Cranston, appear on the screen.
‘’Yes, Doctor Cranston! What is happening?’’
‘’Nothing actually grave or critical, but I thought that you would like to know that Misses Xiulan Sommers has just been admitted at the infirmary: she is showing the first signs of labor.’’
That piece of news made Janet give her full attention to Cranston: this was after all the first instance ever of a birth about to occur in deep space. The media outlets on Earth were going to have a field day with this.
‘’has her pregnancy been normal up to now, Doctor?’’
‘’I have to say that, contrary to what I was fearing, this pregnancy is totally normal up to now and has gone as well as any that I saw on Earth. Thankfully, this ship is fully equipped to deal with obstetric cases.’’
‘’Er, what about baby supplies and baby-related equipment? We did store some baby supplies before leaving Earth, if I remember well, didn’t we?’’
‘’Yes, we did, Commander. We should be okay in that aspect.’’
‘’Well, I will have our good quartermaster, Mister Kurt Müller, do an immediate check of what we are carrying in terms of baby supplies, baby food and baby clothing and various equipment. Hopefully, we will have aboard enough diapers to last at least a year or two. If not, we will be in deep shit.’’
‘’Definitely, Commander!’’ said Cranston while laughing at Janet’s joke. ‘’I will advise you the minute that Misses Sommers will have given birth.’’
‘’Please do, Doctor. Thank you again for keeping me informed.’’
Janet then closed the video link and sighed. Another four women on the ship were already known to be pregnant, while a first female member of the surface team, Gita Sukarno, had missed twice her due periods. Unfortunately, nobody had thought of packing pregnancy kits, or even condoms, as part of the supplies sent down to Mars Base One. That may just come back to bite them in the ass in the months to come.
20:39 (GMT)
Bar-lounge area, Promenade Deck of Ring ‘A’
Janet had just ordered a drink at the bar of the ship’s lounge when her wrist phone started beeping. Hoping that this was the call she had been expecting for a few hours already, she opened the link and spoke in her phone.
‘’Commander Larsson speaking!’’
‘’Commander, this is Doctor Cranston. I am happy to announce to you that Misses Sommers has given birth to a healthy baby boy at 20:32. Both the mother and the baby are doing fine.’’
‘’YES! That is great news! Talking of news, if Earth starts in the days to come to harass you in order to get details on how Misses Sommers and her baby are doing, transfer their calls to me and I will deal with them.’’
‘’That is much appreciated, Commander, as some medical specialists on Earth seemed to treat this pregnancy like some laboratory experiment. Do you intend to come visit the baby and his parents soon?’’
‘’I certainly will! By the way, what is the baby’s name?’’
‘’John, John Sommers.’’
‘’Thank you! You can expect me in the next few minutes.’’
Closing the link, Janet then turned around to face the other crewmembers present in the bar-lounge and shouted out loud.
‘’PEOPLE, I AM HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE TO YOU THAT WE JUST HAD OUR FIRST BABY BORN ABOARD THIS SHIP. JOHN SOMMERS IS HEALTHY AND IS DOING WELL, LIKE HIS MOTHER, XIULAN SOMMERS. LET’S DRINK TO THIS!’’
She immediately got a resounding roar of approval on that from the other customers.
The next birth aboard the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP happened barely two weeks later, on October 2, with Sean and Mary McGregor becoming the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl they named Diane. Then, a mere eight days later, Miki Nakamura was born on October 10. While these births added to the list of worries that Janet Larsson had to deal with, the atmosphere and morale on the ship, which were already high, increased further, with the three babies being pampered wherever their parents brought them. As a direct consequence of the births, Janet had one private interview room on the Promenade Deck of Ring ‘A’ remodeled and refurnished to become the ship’s daycare center, all the while hoping fervently that she was not going to face a population explosion while in orbit around Mars. Her hopes were however dashed when Suzanne Bonnet came to the World on November 28, with little Xu Ling Lee following on January 19 of 2045. With three baby girls and two baby boys now growing up quickly, the new daycare center soon became quite crowded. Thankfully, that problem was partly resolved by various crewmembers volunteering to play nanny at the cabins of the parents when both parents worked.
Then came the birth on Mars of the very cute May Batrang-Sukarno on April 25 of 2045, the same day that Mars Base One received the last scheduled cargo lander of Phase Two of the Mars Project. By then, two other women of the surface team, Denise Wattling and Nadia Gorushkova, were visibly pregnant and proud to be so.
14:16 (GMT)
Sunday, April 30, 2045
Ares Park, Mars Base One
Underground rotunda (‘The Nest’), Melas Chasma
Valles Marineris, Mars
Teerapat Batrang, like his wife Gita Sukarno and the other members of the Mars surface team, looked around with an enchanted smile at the fifty meter-diameter dome of ‘Ares Park’. Little May, all of five days old, however missed the excitement, being asleep in her makeshift baby stroller, built out of a used rations containers and a few metallic parts recuperated from one of the nineteen cargo landers now lining the sides of the giant rotunda which had been named ‘The Nest’ by the astronauts. The dome of Ares Park was like many parts of the base an inflatable structure made of transparent plastic, which had made its installation and erection a cinch. Teerapat then looked and nodded at Frey Thorvalson, Jason Terlecki, Roberto Calderon and Peter Walsingham, who were finishing to distribute and install the few pieces of furniture and potted plants meant to make the new park a relaxation place for the astronauts.
‘’This is really great, guys. Thanks for all the work you have put into this.’’
‘’Hey, I did it partly for selfish purposes, Teerapat.’’ replied Jason Terlecki with a smile. ‘’I myself wanted badly such a large volume place where we could feel more at home.’’
His reply made Gita Sukarno stop and think for a second.
‘’Well, isn’t this our new home now? Me and Teerapat have discussed about that subject and agreed that we will want to stay on this planet at the end of this tour, which is due in barely a month.’’
The four men who had been working on the dome’s facilities all stopped working for a moment then, Gita’s words having touched on a subject that had been discussed with passion during the last few weeks. Jason then spoke up, a dreamy expression on his face, while leaning on the shovel he had been using to distribute Martian dirt around a children’s playground.
‘’You know what? I think that I will also stay here at the end of our official tour. There is so much building and landscaping to do here in order to create a Human colony on Mars. Also, I can’t think of a better professional accomplishment than the building of our colony. Besides, conditions on Earth, despite all the efforts to reverse the effects of this catastrophic global warming crisis, keep getting worse, not better. Gdansk, my home town, is already under water and uninhabitable. No, my life is now here, on Mars.’’
The others present mostly nodded in agreement at those words. Roberto Calderon then looked down at May in her stroller, admiring the Asian baby girl as she slept. May was wearing one of the purpose-made baby outfits that had been sent from Earth on the last cargo lander, along with a whole lineup of spacesuits/portable space shelters of varied sizes designed to accommodate children from the ages of one month to five years. May was now wearing a royal blue, one piece baby coverall decorated with embroidered patches of the Mars Project Mission, including one marking her as a ‘mission specialist in child space studies’.
‘’And what about your cute little May, Gita?’’
‘’We intend to raise her here, at Mars Base One. As the first ‘Martian’ born here, this is her natural home. Me and Teerapat will however make sure that she wears regularly her own fat suit, so that she will be physically able to visit Earth one day. Thankfully, Viktor and Thor did their part in helping to get two future playing companions for May on the way. In a couple of years, this park should be crawling with kids.’’