MARS: Baroque Revolution Read online

  MARS:

  Baroque Revolution

  Kindle Edition

  Matthew Ellis

  ©2015 Watermelon Mountain

  Albuquerque, NM, USA

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, businesses and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual person, place, thing or event is purely coincidental.

  Mars: Renaissance

  Published by Watermelon Mountain

  ©2015 Matthew Ellis

  Kindle Edition

  Cover Photo Courtesy NASA

  Cover Art by Vicente Alirez

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be disseminated in any way without the express, signed written consent of the author.

  Creative Commons and Fair Use excepted up to 10 percent.

  Also by Matthew Ellis:

  Tornado Mountain

  MARS: Renaissance (book 1 of MARS)

  Among The Stars

  For everyone who bought

  MARS: Renaissance

  I hope you’re enjoying the series.

  We all have look to a higher power,

  But not the same one.

  For some their finest hour,

  The one second to none,

  Comes from their calling.

  No one gets by alone,

  Everyone needs something.

  Something higher sets the tone

  Without it, there’s nothing.

  That would be appalling.

  Where we look makes a difference.

  Some places offer hope.

  What we give its deference

  Will determine how we cope.

  Bad faith is stalling.

  Some look for God,

  Some look for guidance.

  Some give a nod

  To absolute silence.

  Whatever their calling.

  Faith is sometimes misplaced.

  Lost without a trace.

  If you want to find their God,

  Don’t go to church:

  Go to the bank.

  Section IV:

  Preparations

  Chapter One

  Space Again

  The crew of the Renaissance traveled from Earth to Mars again. This crew was different from the previous crew, but Scout was still very much in charge of the operation. He still posted assignments and held a daily briefing, just as he did for the original crew. Every day, after the Martian briefing, Scout held a videoconference with the officers on the ship. He made sure to address the crew’s concerns and ensure the journey went smoothly for the new crew.

  The officers of the second Renaissance crew were more prepared than the original crew. The captain was a young woman named Rebecca Caldera. She was a beautiful, Spanish-speaking woman (although she was also fluent in English) who worked very closely with Scout to ensure the smooth operation of the ship. Her first officer was an older man named Johann Bachman. He was an experienced astronaut and among the elite who previously explored Mars with previous NASA missions. He fell in love with the red planet the first time he was there. He decided to abandon everything he knew to forge a new civilization on the planet he loved.

  The engineer was a Navajo man named Quannah Tsotsie, who was recruited by Notah. He was excited to be starting a new civilization where the people would decide the culture. He was hurt when the Navajo Nation disbanded and sold its soul to the United States for a mere pittance.

  He always thought, “My people could’ve been a great nation, just like they were in the past. They sold themselves for the white man’s money. Now that money is as worthless as the treaties they’ve repeatedly broken.”

  The rest of the crew were people who waited for the terraforming team to finish, but not the support team. They would be the final group to leave for Freedom, Mars’ first human city. There were 200 people on the ship. There were 70 men, 90 women, 10 boys and 30 girls. None of the crew was younger than six years old, and the oldest member, Johann, was 62.

  Rebecca was in her daily briefing with her officers and Scout via videoconference. She was worried that General Rich’s minions might try to follow them.

  Scout told her, “That’s not very likely. His rules don’t allow him to chase anything past the moon. He’s bound by laws.”

  After Scout spoke, his words took four minutes to reach Rebecca.

  Rebecca replied, “That’s never stopped anyone from starting a war in the past.”

  Once Rebecca finished speaking, her words took four minutes to reach Scout. His reply took another four minutes.

  Scout said, “But he has two things in his favor, so he’s in no hurry. First, he knows that after ten years he can try to arrest us for illegally starting a colony. Second, he seems to have information about our every move before we make it.”

  There was another eight-minute delay. Scout worked on other projects while he waited for Rebecca’s reply.

  Rebecca said, “But he doesn’t want to create a public outcry over mishandling our situation. That seems to be our greatest advantage.”

  Another eight-minute delay allowed Rebecca to work on more immediate ship’s business.

  Scout said, “That fact, combined with our ten year head start to build a colony and an army are our greatest advantages. We need to be diligent about building the colony as strong as possible, and as vigilant about dealing with adversity as we can be.”

  There was an eight-minute delay.

  Rebecca felt choked up, and found it uneasy to speak. Scout was always so eloquent to her, and if he were not already married, she would make a play for him. She paused briefly while she composed her thoughts, then she continued her discussion with her leader.

  Rebecca said, “I hope the economic cost of starting a war with us is a significant deterrent to him.”

  Quannah walked into the captain’s ready room. Four minutes later, Scout replied.

  Scout said, “I’m sure it will. Now, how’s your crew getting on?”

  Rebecca replied, “We’re limping along. We took some damage in a battle right before we reached the moon.”

  Quannah said, “But we should have the repairs done in the next couple days. Then we’ll be able to make up time by using the super-fast propulsion.”

  Rebecca said, “Repairs have been going on since we escaped from the battle. We’re only about three days behind schedule.”

  Another eight minutes elapsed.

  Scout asked, “So have you adjusted your course to compensate for the delay? Also, you should hold on to the superfast engines. You might need them later.”

  Quannah replied, “We’re still calculating the course correction. We should be back on course by the time the repairs are complete.”

  There was another eight-minute delay.

  Scout looked worried as he said, “We only have so many bursts of the superfast engines. Only use them if you get into trouble and need to get away fast. I hope you don’t miss the planet altogether and have to turn around when you reach Jupiter.”

  Johann chimed in, “That shouldn’t happen. We have a good crew; we’re just having a slight technical difficulty. It’ll be fixed soon enough.”

  Yet another eight minutes went by.

  Scout said, “I certainly hope so. These live meetings take forever. Let’s try and keep them to a minimum.”

  The video screen went blank as Scout returned to his duties on Mars. Rebecca and her officers turned their attention to the work of the Renaissance.

  Rebecca told Johann, “We need to work on repairs first, but we need to make sure the daily operations of the ship don’t suffer while the repairs are ongoing.”

  Johann replied,
“I’ll keep the repair crews separated from the daily operations personnel. I’ll make sure only the repair crews have access to the repair areas.”

  Quannah said, “That may not always work. Some of the places that need repairs are in areas where daily operations need to take place.”

  Johann said, “For those areas, I’ll give the crews time limits. That way no one’s wasting time and slowing the crews down.”

  Quannah said, “That should keep people on task, and keep them from wasting time.”

  Rebecca said, “I hate wasting time, and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now. Let’s get back to work.”

  The officers got up and left the conference room. Rebecca returned to the bridge and retook command of the ship. Johann went to the galley to begin making work assignments. Quannah returned to engineering to continue his repairs on the ship’s engines and other various instruments.

  Chapter Two

  Hard Work

  Back in Freedom, Scout and the terraforming team continued preparations for the coming group of colonists. The streets were completed, the biodome was fully operational, and several new buildings had sprung up since the final delivery of supplies arrived on the planet.

  The railroads were all complete. There was a north/south line along the median of Central Avenue. This connected to the main line that connected the spaceport to the mines and refinery. There was also an east/west spur in the median of Main Street. This ran from East Road to West Road. There were two engines ready to run on the railroad once the colonists arrived, and the terraforming crew were already utilizing a third engine and three train cars. The team used the train almost exclusively to get from the mines and refinery to the biodome.

  During a meeting, some of the team members were trying to decide how to make using the trains more convenient once the new colonists arrived.

  Jordan recommended, “We should build a parking area at the edge of the residential areas so we can drive to the train stations once they’re built.”

  Kathy said, “The train stations should be completed by the end of this month, so we should move on that plan as quickly as possible.”

  Scout added, “I think we should decide which train stations should have the ‘park and ride’ feature.”

  Jordan said, “Well, it’s obvious to me that all residential areas should have it included. We shouldn’t have to include it at workstations because those are where people are going. We also shouldn’t have to have multi-level garages.”

  Scout asked, “Why do you think we won’t need to build garages?”

  Jordan replied, “Because our population is going to be quite small. We’ll only have a few hundred people.”

  Kathy said, “But it’s going to get bigger. People will have children. In fact, we are encouraging reproduction to build our society.”

  Becky said, “People will also want to come here once we build our society. When people on Earth see what’s going on here, they’ll want to join us.”

  Kathy said, “We didn’t plan for huge immigration, but it could happen. Do we think we can be ready if it does?”

  Jordan said, “I hadn’t considered those issues. Perhaps we should plan for growth.”

  Scout said, “That’s something that always drove me crazy about cities on Earth. They plan for budgets, but not for growth. We have an opportunity here to plan for growth since budgets aren’t a concern here.”

  Jordan said, “Just because we don’t use money doesn’t mean we don’t have to deal with reality. We don’t have unlimited resources.”

  Scout said, “But we do have the resources of the entire planet at our disposal. I hope we’ll use them in a manner that’s sustainable and displays good stewardship. I think we can afford to plan for growth at this stage of our development. We’ll build garage style parking lots at the train stations. I do, however, agree we only need them near the residential areas.”

  Scout programmed Snicker and Skittle to build the parking garages as part of the residential train stations. The stations were located at the corners of East 3rd and Main, West 3rd and Main, Venus and Central, and Phobos and Central. There were also train stations located at the biodome, the refinery, the spaceport, and the government district. More stations would be added as the city got bigger, but the terraforming team figured that the city as it existed could support a population of 5000.

  The next step in building a transit system was a maintenance hub. Scout ordered it built along with the parking garages. It was built adjacent to the station in the government district.

  The biodome was beginning to produce vegetables and dairy products, along with poultry. The livestock were also beginning to reproduce, so the colony would have meat the following year.

  Scout and Jordan toured the biodome between official duties.

  Scout told Jordan, “We’re becoming more self-sufficient by the day. We already have access to wool from the sheep, eggs from the chickens, milk and cheese from the cows, fertilizer from the other animals.”

  Jordan asked, “Do we have fish, fresh vegetables, and honey from the bees?”

  Scout replied, “Of course we do. We’ve been on the ball. Within a year we’ll also have access to rubber from the rubber trees, fresh fruit, red meat, medicines derived from plants, and various oils from both plant and animal sources.”

  Jordan said, “We’re really moving along. If General Rich leaves us alone, in a few years, we’ll have access to wood products, too. We might even have paper and furniture.”

  While it wasn’t yet at full capacity, the biodome would soon outgrow its space. It needed a place to compost waste so the soil could be replenished. It also needed a store to serve the community better. A food processing plant was also discussed for the future.

  Jordan and Scout walked out of the biodome and got into their vehicle. They drove over to the refinery to interview Becky Garcia for a recruiting video.

  The refinery was operating at full capacity, and Becky was a very busy woman. She had molds for many different metal products.

  Jordan asked her, “I know we bug you a lot, but can you tell us what you do again, for the record?”

  She looked around the foundry and said, “Most of what I make are implements of war, a necessary evil. I also make a lot of things required to build a successful society.”

  Becky had no regular help, so she needed to arrange for Snicker or Skittle to assist her when a job was beyond her means.

  She told them, “I work my ass off. It better be worth it. If we lose everything, I’m going to be pissed.”

  Scout said, “We’re all hoping for the same thing. We’ve put too much into this thing to let it slip through our fingers.”

  She said, “I was responsible for building the railroad and all the cars. I also built a complete armada of war vehicles. I built every light pole and street sign in Freedom, and all the traffic control signals.”

  Jordan said, “You’ve been very diligent. When we win our independence, it’ll be people like you that make it possible.”

  She said, “I can hardly wait for the colonists to arrive so I’ll have some help. I feel like I’m wholly responsible for building this colony’s infrastructure.”

  Her concern was justified. She was the only person assigned to the refinery. There were three assigned to the mines, and nearly everyone else was assigned to some biodome function. Everyone who was not assigned to the refinery or mining had multiple tasks assigned to them, but collecting and utilizing the resources of the planet was too important to have any distractions.

  Even with all the tasks assigned to every member of the crew, no one worked as hard as the two robots. Snicker and Skittle didn’t need sleep, so they worked 25 hours a day, every day. The sun recharged their power supplies, so they could continue for all eternity if necessary. They were the workhorses of the new society. They built or helped build every building, road, and rail line as well as the spaceport. They also created the new environment on Mars that allowed the t
erraformers to inhabit the planet at all.

  Scout and Jordan continued their walk through the central structures of the town. They needed to see what still needed to be completed.

  The city was about 40% finished. The library still needed to be built, although the colony had plenty of books. There was only one school, and it only had three rooms. The foundry was making products, but it could only deliver them directly to where they were needed. The colony would need a warehouse soon. There was no jail yet, nor a police station. Even a utopian society will have need of such facilities. There was not a fire station, but there was still much debate about how to incorporate a fire department on Mars. None of the government buildings were started, because the government was just Scout’s house. However, a proper parliament building, city hall and consul’s offices were in the works. Only half the homes required for the first group of colonists were ready. The colonists would arrive in just five weeks, so the crews had a lot of work in front of them.

  Chapter Three

  Pressure

  Back in Eugene, Oregon, General Rich continued preparing for a retrieval mission once the ten-year grace period elapsed. He sat in a conference room with his top operative and the team The Operative chose. The doors were closed and the shades were drawn, because they were breaking the law by discussing the plan.

  General Rich sat at one end of the table and The Operative sat at the other. Rich looked pensive as he weighed his options. The Operative’s term of service was nearly over, and Rich needed his experience to stop the people on Mars. The rest of their team was waiting in the next room.

  General Rich said, “So, I told you that I could make you fabulously wealthy if you succeeded in the mission to stop Scout.”