CHAPTER 16 – RETURN TO MARS
16:10 (GMT)
Tuesday, February 10, 2071
Passenger airlock to planetary shuttle hangar
H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, in low Mars orbit
The young female crewmember manning the passenger airlock of the planetary shuttle hangar, situated atop the forward centerline fuselage section of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, smiled on seeing how a young couple was holding hands while waiting in line: they were obviously very much in love with each other. The young couple’s turn to pass through the control station soon came, with the crewmember asking a question to the woman of the couple while smiling to her.
‘’May I have your name and final destination on Mars, miss?’’
The woman, a beautiful Asian in her twenties with light brown skin and black hair, answered her in a melodious voice.
‘’I am May Batrang-Sukarno and I am heading to Elysium City, under the Olympus Mons.’’
The crewmember found her name in her embarkation list and recorded it as ‘left ship’ on her computer screen.
‘’You may now board the shuttle, Miss Batrang-Sukarno.’’ said the crewmember before looking at the young man next in line. The latter spoke before she could ask him.
‘’My name is Michel Ponichnikov and I am also heading down to Elysium City.’’
‘’Thank you, sir. You may proceed.’’
Michel Ponichnikov, now a 25 year-old young man, grabbed again the handles of the baggage cart supporting his luggage and those of May and pushed it through the opened airlock doors, walking the twenty meters of open hangar space leading to the foot of the embarkation ramp of the planetary shuttle. Going by the seat number written on their embarkation card, he first secured his baggage cart in one of the racks meant for them at the back of the passenger cabin, then went to take his seat next to May. Those seats were actually designed for persons wearing spacesuits, so they proved quite comfortable to the couple. May, turning her head to look at Michel, gave him a loving smile and pressed her gloved right hand into his gloved left hand.
‘’We are about to be back home, with fresh diplomas in our pockets and a job waiting for us on Mars. Are you excited?’’
‘’Of course I am, May! What’s most important, though, is that we will be able to build our future together, on the planet of our birth.’’
‘’And when would you like for us to try to have kids, Michel?’’
‘’Well, let’s see first what the living conditions are truly like in Elysium City before deciding. The place is still being enlarged and the first official occupants of the city have only been living there for three years, when we were still studying on Earth.’’
‘’Hum, you’re right! Still, conditions in Elysium City should be much better than in old Mars Base One.’’
‘’We will see, May. We will see.’’
Fourteen minutes after boarding the shuttle, the access ramp was closed and the pilot announced via PA system the imminent departure of the shuttle from the hangar of the spaceship. Three minutes later, the shuttle floated out of its hangar and took a safe distance from the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP before firing up its main engine to start losing orbital speed, in order to enter the Martian atmosphere. Both Michel and May had already experienced twice reentries into the much thicker Earth’s atmosphere, thus found reentry into Mars’ atmosphere quite mild by comparison as an experience. The couple was able to follow the progress of their flight on the flat display screens fixed to the back of the seats in front of them, with external view cameras providing the images. After decelerating to low subsonic speeds, the shuttle then deployed its giant landing parachute, a directional model, and started a long controlled glide towards Olympus Mons. As they were approaching the gigantic extinct volcano, the voice of the pilot came back on the PA system.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen, we are now approaching our destination, Olympus Mons. We will be landing at the new spaceport built at the summit of Olympus Mons, inside its summit caldera. Once on the ground, our shuttle will roll inside a pressurized hangar and you will then be able to disembark, following which you will take an express elevator down to Elysium city. Those heading to one of the mining complexes under Olympus Mons or to either Mars Base One or Tharsis City will be able to catch a monorail ride at the Elysium City Station. We should be landing in about nine minutes.’’
Michel exchanged an excited grin with May then.
‘’Yes! They finally opened the spaceport on top of Olympus Mons! That should save us a lot of traveling time compared to when we were landing beside Mars Mining Base 01, next to the southern cliffs. The monorail ride from the cliffs to the cavern containing Lake Styx took a good four hours. I’m really anxious to see what Elysium City looks like now.’’
‘’Me too!’’ said May. ‘’The last time I visited the place, some seven years ago, I saw only large excavations and a ring dug along the shores of Lake Styx, with steel beams supporting the ceiling but not much else in place. The only parts then completed were the hydroponic garden complexes and food production complexes, which had been given top priority. It seems that your mother and her work crews achieved a lot during the last few years.’’
Michel nodded slowly once at the mention of his mother, Denise Wattling, who was still the head administrator and manager of the human installations on Mars. Along with his father, Viktor Ponichnikov, and the other first pioneers on Mars, including May’s parents, his mother had dedicated to date over 26 years of her life to exploring and colonizing Mars. She was now 66 years old but still going strong and working as hard as ever. Michel’s solemn wish was that his mother and her companions would end up being honored in history the way they deserved.
A last roar from their landing rocket engines and a smooth bump announced their landing on top of Olympus Mons. However, Michel and May stayed in their seats, knowing that their pilot still needed to make his shuttle roll on the ground to get to the hangar complex dug into the flanks of the central caldera. The shuttle actually rolled a good three kilometers before entering a cavern entrance dug on a wall of the caldera. It then rolled for a further 200 meters along a wide, curved tunnel, before entering one of two large underground hangars at the end of the tunnel. Airtight steel doors then closed behind the shuttle, sealing the hangar and allowing technicians to pressurize it. Once emptied of its payload, refueled and serviced, the shuttle was going to be able to roll back out through another giant airtight door forward of the shuttle, door which gave access to an exit tunnel leading to the open caldera of the summit. With the pilot announcing that they could now disembark, Michel and May got up from their seats and recuperated their luggage cart, on which pretty much all that they possessed was piled up. Going down the rear ramp of the shuttle with the other passengers, the young couple walked across the vast hangar and entered a large door on top of which a lit sign said ‘Arrival Hall’. Inside, they found a reception counter where arriving passengers had to go in order to register their arrival and get indications on where to go next. Michel and May, like the other passengers fresh out of the shuttle, couldn’t help giggle in amusement when they saw that the two persons manning the reception counter wore green costumes making them look like classic Martian aliens out of old comic books.
‘’Well, it’s nice to see that humor still exists on Mars.’’ said a smiling May.
‘’Yeah! My father was always a funny guy. That is one of the reasons why Mom liked him so much.’’
When their turn came at the reception counter, one of the disguised employees extended a six-fingered green hand, while speaking in a voice deformed by a microphone system.
‘’Passports, please!’’
May was first to give her passport to the ‘Martian’, who then looked at it before nodding its head.
‘’Aaah, a fellow Martian! Welcome back on Mars, Miss Batrang-Sukarno. What is your final destination?’’
‘’Elysium City! I have a job and apartment waiting for me there.’’
‘’Excellent! You will be able to take one of the passenger elevators going down to Elysium City level, where the city reception office will direct you to your apartment and will brief you on your settling in procedure. The elevators are to your left. Have a good stay in Elysium City, miss.’’
‘’Thank you, mister.’’
It was then the turn of Michel to face the ‘Martian’, who basically told him the same things as to May. The couple then proceeded together with their luggage cart towards the elevators, finding four large ones and six smaller ones, plus two huge cargo elevators. They took place in one of the large passenger elevators, along with the rest of the people who had arrived with them by shuttle. That elevator was actually able to easily accommodate all 78 people from the shuttle, along with their luggage carts, and had seats with safety belts lining its walls. A young female employee, one not disguised as an alien, greeted them inside the cabin elevator and invited everyone to sit down.
‘’Welcome to Mars, ladies and gentlemen. Please buckle up the safety belts of your seats and lock the wheels of your luggage carts before we start our descent. This elevator will go down a full 23 kilometers to the level of Elysium City and Lake Styx, with the ride taking 27 minutes. If you feel sick during the descent, you can use one of the bags stored under your seats. For those who have sensitive stomachs, I counsel that you take and prepare a bag in advance. We will be departing in half a minute.’’
A sizeable number of the passengers hurried to get a plastic bag on hearing that, opening the bag and keeping it in their hands, in front of them. As for Michel and May, they had experienced a lot rougher riding conditions and held on to their luggage cart. When the elevator started to go down, it was in a progressive way, with full speed attained only after some fifteen seconds of descent. As they went down, viewing screens around the large elevator cabin started displaying images, while a female voice was heard overhead, accompanying the images.
‘’Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. You are now on your way down to Elysium City, the newest and largest human facility on Mars. It was built along the walls of a giant underground cavern that had been the main lava chamber of Olympus Mons millions of years ago. That cavern has a maximum diameter of 5.7 kilometers at the level of Lake Styx and a height of 13.1 kilometers between the lake’s surface and the cavern’s ceiling. Elysium City forms a ring around the circumference of the cavern, with one side opened on the lake side and the ring dug some twenty meters above the level of the waters of Lake Styx. In turn, that ring connects with twelve large caverns dug at right angle from the periphery of the lake, caverns that now house a number of farm complexes and industrial areas. While the side of the ring along the lake’s shore has large, transparent airtight walls that originally kept the city inside a pressurized, breathable atmosphere, the whole of the cavern has by now been hermetically sealed, then filled with air. Residents of Elysium City can stroll without protective suits along the shore, using a promenade set just above water level. However, airlocks are still in place, in the improbable event that some sudden seismic event occurs and splits open the cavern. Lake Styx is made of typical Martian brine and covers a surface of 23.2 square kilometers, while its depth reaches to the bottom of a huge aquifer system, some 17,400 meters down from the surface. Exploration of that aquifer system by drone submarines has shown that it interconnects with other aquifer systems under the surface of Mars, with those aquifers sheltering a variety of Martian aquatic life forms, including fish measuring up to forty centimeters in length. Since the whole cavern is now pressurized and kept at an average temperature of 22 degrees Celsius, the surface of Lake Styx is liquid and residents can navigate around it in small boats, using the numerous floating wharves built along the shoreline. The ring dug around the lake’s shores has a circumference of 18, 850 meters at the center of the main ring boulevard and a width of 280 meters, while the maximum ceiling height of the excavated ring is eighty meters. By now, all the planned facilities inside the ring housing Elysium City have been completed and work on a second ring, situated some 500 meters above the level of Elysium City, has started some ten months ago. That ring will contain more gardens and agricultural facilities, along with forested parks meant to enhance the quality of living in Olympus Mons. While city facilities have been completed, populating Elysium City is still an ongoing process, with the present population standing at 5,793 residents.’’
‘’Wow!’’ exclaimed softly May at the end of the presentation. ‘’They truly did a herculean job here in the last thirteen years. I especially love how they planted trees everywhere to make the place more agreeable to live in.’’
‘’And those trees also help purify the atmosphere of the city and cavern, by absorbing the CO2 in it and transforming it into oxygen. We should enjoy life here.’’
What Michel didn’t say then was that, while some areas of Earth, like Siberia, were still paradisiacal compared to what they had just seen about Elysium City, too many other regions were now over-polluted, parched lands or inundated plains and were nearly inhabitable. There was still hope that the situation could eventually be reversed, with more and more thermonuclear fusion power plants opening up around the World and providing clean power to giant atmosphere scrubbers, but that was bound to take decades before a difference could be seen.
Their elevator cabin finally came to a stop, with a recorded voice sounding as the doors of the cabin opened, revealing a fairly large reception hall.
‘’You are now in Elysium City. Please proceed to the city’s reception center, where you will be allotted an apartment and will get more information on the services available.’’
Getting up from their seats and pushing their luggage cart along, May and Michel walked out of the elevator cabin and went towards a long service counter where sixteen men and women were waiting behind computer work stations. The couple ended up being first to pass at one of the stations, where a young Asian woman gave them a wide smile.
‘’Welcome to Elysium City, lady and gentleman. May I have your passports, please?’’
Taking the two Mars passports presented by the couple, the woman then punched their names in her computer and looked for a moment at her screen before looking back at May and Michel.
‘’Do you wish to share an apartment or to have separate residences?’’
‘’We will share an apartment, miss.’’ answered May, making the city employee punch more commands on her computer. The woman soon gave them two magnetized plastic cards, along with two color pamphlets.
‘’Here are your residence access cards, which also serve as meal cards. You will be living in Apartment 220 of the Rosewood Tower, in the Southern Sector. There is a communal cafeteria on the ground floor of your building, where you will be able to go eat. If you wish so, you can also pick up prepared dishes at that same cafeteria, which also functions as a catering service, to bring it to your apartment and eat there. Your apartment comes fully furnished and equipped, so you won’t need to buy any essential furniture or appliances. These pamphlets will show you where your residential tower is. Robotic taxis are available at the exit from this hall. A group briefing will be given at City Hall tomorrow at ten o’clock, where you will get more information about your jobs and how to adapt to city life here. In the meantime, you are encouraged to wear your fat suits once out of your spacesuits, in order to preserve your stamina and bone structure. Do you have any questions at this time?’’
‘’Uh, yes!’’ said Michel. ‘’When do we get to start working at our new assignments?’’
‘’That information will be passed to you tomorrow morning, at the City Hall briefing, sir. Anything else?’’
‘’No! We will be fine. Thank you, miss!’’
Taking the cards and the pamphlets, the couple then walked to the clearly marked exit door of the hall, passing it and finding themselves in a large, long tunnel brightly illuminated by overhead lamps. Seeing a long line of waiting robotic taxis to their left, Michel pushed their luggage cart that way, followed by May. A robotic voice came out of the taxi’s dash when Michel stopped his cart beside the small electrical vehicle.
‘’Where would you wish to go, please?’’
‘’The Rosewood Tower, Southern Sector.’’ answered Michel while transferring their suitcases and bags from the cart to the taxi. Once his cart was empty, Michel quickly brought it to a nearby cart storage line, then returned to the taxi, where May was already sitting.
‘’You may now depart for Rosewood Tower, Taxi.’’ tersely ordered Michel. The computer controlling the taxi obeyed at once, starting to roll quietly thanks to its electric motors integrated to its four small wheels. Following the tunnel connecting the reception hall with the lakeside ring containing the city, the vehicle accelerated to a top speed of fifty kilometers per hour. It soon slowed down a bit in order to negotiate a roundabout, turning on the main road of the city, aptly named ‘Lakeside Boulevard’. Even though they had watched the video presentation on Elysium City, May and Michel were left speechless at first by the sights offered by the city and Lake Styx as their taxi drove down eastward along the boulevard forming a giant ring around the lake. On their left, a band of ground some eighty meters wide supported a succession of steel and glass buildings with direct view on the lake, while a 180 meter-wide band of ground along the right side of the boulevard was covered by a collection of forests, grass fields and a few sports fields. Lake Styx, visible through huge panes of ceramic glass, was illuminated from above by what had to be an extremely powerful light source that made the opposite rock walls some 5.7 kilometers away across the lake plainly visible in the distance. Michel could see a small motor boat plowing through the waters of the lake at moderate speed, with a handful of people aboard it. As for the buildings lining the left side of the boulevard, they varied in height and architectural style, with the tallest being some fifteen storey-high. Those buildings were also well separated, with young trees, bushes and grass surfaces surrounding each of them. All this would have contrasted greatly with the images of crowded, dystopian-like cities often shown in old science-fiction movies. This was definitely not some concrete jungle with flashy neon signs everywhere and streets clogged by vehicles and people. Vehicle traffic along Lakeside Boulevard was actually light, being limited to taxis, a few buses and occasional trucks, all electric-powered, while some people could be seen walking or jogging along the wide sidewalk running along the left side of the boulevard. There were also a few cyclists visible, pedaling along a right side bicycle trail. The sight of those cyclists made May smile.
‘’Hey, that’s a great idea! Cycling around to work should be eminently practical here and would help me keep fit. I hope that getting bikes will prove easy.’’
‘’It should be! Such a non-polluting, energy-free mode of transportation should be encouraged here. I already like this place. Hopefully, our apartment will be of a decent standard.’’
May nodded her head at that. Both she and Michel understood that life on Mars was made for pioneering spirits who didn’t expect to live in luxury and were ready to work hard to achieve a dream, mainly turning Mars into a second home for Humanity. All advertisings and documentaries about Mars living stressed those facts to prospective immigrants. Some people on Earth recoiled in horror at the descriptions of the communal-like life and social arrangements on Mars, screaming ‘Communism’ and deploring the lack of what they called ‘free enterprise’ and ‘capitalism’ on the Red Planet. In truth, the actual social organization on Mars could be compared to the old notions about a truly communist community, as all resources understandably had to be tightly managed to avoid both wastages and shortages. With many things still having to be imported from Earth at great costs and travel delays, this was no place for uncontrolled economic and infrastructure development, a fact that both May and Michel understood and accepted. If anything, they had been able to see during their university studies on Earth that Martians had in comparison to the average Earth citizen a much stronger sense of community sharing and of social responsibility, on top of being on the whole a lot more frugal in their perceived needs. May, for one, had been truly shocked on seeing the huge gulf evident in Earth cities between the luxurious residences of the small minority of rich people and the crowded and dirty ghettos too often lodging the poor forming the majority of the population. She had been accustomed on Mars in seeing everyone living on the same level of comfort, eating the same food and residing in similar facilities. For her, the true rewards she expected out of her work was a sense of accomplishment and professional pride, not collecting expensive luxury items and accumulating money. Yes, she expected to get a fair salary for her work, once the free benefits enjoyed by all Martians were counted in, but any sum of money she would save would mostly be used to pay for the occasional vacation trip to Earth she would take in the years to come.
Their taxi turned into a side street after some 800 meters, then into the entrance driveway of a twelve-storey building, with brass letters above the main entrance spelling ‘Rosewood Tower’.
‘’Aaah, here we are, May! Let’s unload our bags, then I will go see if I can find a luggage cart inside.’’
Both of them were still taking suitcases off their taxi when a middle-aged man came out of the building, pushing a baggage cart. The man stopped his cart next to them and smiled to the couple while presenting his right hand for a shake.
‘’Hello! I’m Nick Robertson and I am the superintendant and concierge of the building. I gather that you just arrived from Earth?’’
‘’That’s right, Mister Robertson.’’ replied Michel while shaking the man’s hand. ‘’Me and May spent the last six years studying on Earth. However, we were both born on Mars. My name is Michel Ponichnikov and this is my friend, May Batrang-Sukarno. We were given Apartment Number 220.’’
‘’Pleased to meet you both! I will help you bring your luggage to your apartment, then will brief you on the facilities available in this building.’’
‘’You are too kind, Mister Robertson.’’ said May while smiling to the superintendant, who made a dismissive gesture.
‘’Pah! Simple courtesy, miss.’’
Once the suitcases and bags were on the cart, Robertson started pushing it towards the glass doors of the main entrance, speaking to the couple as he went.
‘’The Rosewood Tower is one of the 42 residential buildings presently occupied in Elysium City, but it still has quite a few apartments available for newcomers. Apartment 220 is on the second floor and has two bedrooms, a lounge, a small kitchenette with dining table and a bathroom. While we have a cafeteria on the ground floor, facing the lake, you can take out prepared food in containers from the display counters of the cafeteria and bring them upstairs if you wish to eat with more intimacy. Communal facilities of this tower, all situated on the ground floor, include a Laundromat, a small gymnasium, an external pool, a communal lounge, a small kindergarten with daycare and a sauna and baths establishment.’’
‘’You have a kindergarten?’’ asked May, her interest showing in her voice. ‘’Are there many children living in this tower, Mister Robertson?’’
‘’Some! Out of a total of 237 residents, including you two, this building lodges 49 children, mostly infants and toddlers. Are you expecting, miss?’’
‘’Not yet, but we have plans, me and Michel.’’
‘’And I wish you good luck on that, miss.’’
‘’Uh, we saw a few people cycling around as we came. Is it difficult to find bicycles here?’’
‘’Not at all, miss! In fact, I still have a few bicycles available in my basement storage room. If you wish so, I can make you sign for one later on. Bicycles are in fact quite popular around Elysium City and many young professionals use them instead of taking bus or taxi rides. By the way, do you mind if I ask you what is your professional specialty?’’
‘’I don’t mind at all, Mister Robertson. I just graduated with a diploma in agronomy and will be working at one of the hydroponic farms of the city. As for Michel, he graduated from the M.I.T. in Boston with a degree in thermonuclear fusion engineering and will work at the city’s nuclear power plant.’’
‘’Excellent! You will definitely be most useful additions to our community. I myself don’t have the kind of technical and scientific expertise that you have, but I was always good with my hands and can repair about everything in a building.’’
They kept exchanging small talk while going up to the second floor, until they stopped in front of a door bearing a number.
‘’Here you are, my friends: Apartment 220! I will let you unlock the door with your card, miss.’’
May did so, sliding her magnetized card in the slot of the door’s lock. The door unlocked with an audible ‘click’, allowing May to push it open. Taking a few steps in, she stopped in the middle of a fairly large living room furnished with a sofa, an easy chair, a video and music entertainment unit, a low coffee table and two shelving units. Looking back and to her right, she saw a small dining corner with kitchenette and a table with four chairs. Robertson, stopping his cart in the middle of the living room, then gave a tour of the apartment to the couple. In the main bedroom, he showed them the large bed, whose mattress was not covered with a contour cover or bed sheets.
‘’While there are no bed sheets in place, I have in my linen storage room a choice of various colors and decorating patterns bed sheets. You will be free to choose the pattern and color you prefer among the selection available. I can display that selection on the computer that comes with the apartment. Follow me!’’
The superintendant led them back in the living room, where he showed them