Welcome Aboard Air Marineris

Klara and I met for our gossip session. I had a lot of juicy stuff for her. We sat in the middle of the cafeteria, changing our usual perch. A little late, but we were suddenly sensitive to the possibility of being bugged. Finally, we had something confidential to discuss. Yet, it was still something that would work to Starward’s benefit in the long run. Too bad they didn’t understand that at the time. After all, they were paying for a working line.

“You are the last person I would want to discuss hairstyles with. You are bald, girl.”

“Look who talks. I don’t see a single strand on top of that polished dome of yours.”

It was just foolish bravado, but it made me feel better, and I could see from the smile converging from the corners of her mouth that Klara thought so too. It’s so much more satisfying to laugh at adversity than scorn it. We were in a tight spot, true, but there was a lot of opportunity there. Things can change for the better. It isn’t always worse.

“Ok. Linus didn’t back down this time. It’s too important for him. He’s desperate for input. To shuck his pride and give in to reason time after time was too much for him. That made him accept our resignations even though it put him in an impossible position. It’s crazy for him to imagine he can direct such a project with no local assistance. He will need to send someone up, but that will take weeks, if not months. We will continue to carry the can for him. Maybe he will feel we are offering some room. Who knows? People can change. In the meantime, we know what to do.”

“I agree. We shouldn’t push them too far. I know you couldn’t consent to taking away the center pylon, but you are right in offering to continue the work as laborers. It keeps you in the game. It looks like you will need to do part of the work over, but you will still be doing something useful in the meantime. It’s their money. It is not a strike you are calling, but a call to do the work right. A critical difference that will be important down the line. This dispute is not our choice, but we can’t just accept it. I am not going to be the second director to kill my fellows. Once is enough. Solomon will no doubt approve the budget change on my behalf. So be it. Starward still employs me too. They do have my loyalty, as I define it, but they do not have my soul. This whole imbroglio will probably turn out to be a good thing, if no one gets hurt. It will discredit the authoritarians and give us more local control in the long run.

“Remedial work is tricky work, but you wouldn’t go wrong working out a protocol for inserting the center pylons. I assume from the tenor of your comments that you will need to put in new rails when you do that.”

“For the ones that show stress cracking, I will. That will be all the rails subject to the increased tension. We will need to cut them off, transport them back, and melt them for fabrication again. That will constitute as much as a hundred rails. When I test the line, I will need to keep the working speed up for at least fifteen minutes to prove beyond doubt that the failure isn’t a local anomaly. It’s got to be an unimpeachable result. I will tell you when we are ready. Since it will still be a construction train, we will not need to worry about people. Maybe us girls will be talking about hair color when we do that, or maybe new MakeFace designs.”

“Right you are. You know how that fascinates a girly girl like me. Anything else?”

“Boris is coming back at the end of the week. I haven’t heard much from him except the most innocuous pleasantries. I haven’t even heard whether he has been able to get his family up to LEO. He wanted to see them badly. He will have a lot to say. I can cue him on how to handle his briefing before we all meet to discuss his trip. I’m his sis and will see him first. I will give him hugs and kisses and confidential instructions. I suggest we let him hang it all out. No need to keep much secret. It’s all out anyway. After all, he has no conspiracy to reveal. Since we are all on the up and up, why don’t we act that way? It won’t reduce their natural suspicion, but it certainly won’t increase it. Truth is sometimes believed.”

“So, we need to get to the critical point as soon as possible. We will waste time and money doing pointless work, but it is the only possible way, now. Some way to avoid further conflict and still get something done. I do wish, though, that these men went back to their usual roles of giving pointless orders and leaving us to get the important work done. So far, all the peacock strutting is worse than useless. However that plays, we will need to wait to prove our point. Maybe, though, this affair will end in tilting us slightly in a different direction. One where ego isn’t so important.”

I couldn’t resist that. I had been locking horns with men all my life. There were many who were worth knowing and understood that life and work isn’t always about self. Men who were willing to work with others to accomplish things together. But there were too many who were not willing. Those were the determined ones who often struggled to the top solely to be able to rule others. They were the ones who cared about authority more than others and it showed. Certainly, to me, disqualified by sex from such pursuit for most of my life.

“Copy you on that, Klara. I wish I could say this is an unusual event for me, I can cope. I am just getting tired of using that skill. I love this work. I love making things happen. The price I pay is getting along with people who don’t want to get along with me. I am the one who must dodge around the obstruction, and I can do it again. I will tell you when I can’t.”

“Fair enough, Mo. Let’s do it, then.” Klara’s mind was cleared in the same way mine was. We felt sure we had taken the best path in a minefield. We could do no more.

I went back to work. It was a relief. Just because I face trouble, doesn’t mean I like it. I do like making things. I always have. When my mother and I had enough food to make dishes with more than a few ingredients rather than buying scraps of street food, I liked to make dinners with her. Homemaking wasn’t my thing, but I liked working alongside of her. Work was part of my DNA.

Then I heard from Bee, a text. A very intriguing subject line, but I didn’t have the time to go into the long message then. Better to have a private moment to savor it.

When I got back upstairs, Lou and Chantelle, were at me immediately. I didn’t have time to sit down. They crowded me with questions:

“What happened? What are we going to do? Are we working on the project at all? Are we miners again? What about the fanpage and the videopac?”

They both flooded me with so many questions that I couldn’t make out who asked what. But the essence of what they were asking was simple enough.

“Nothing is going to change for you guys. You are still working for Mars Metals and Mars Mining, same as before. You are still contracted to the Marineris project just like before. We are still making money on your contracts billing the project with a profit margin for Metals, and that will protect us. We are still building the airway, just with a different design.”

“What about my fanpage? Am I still doing that?”

“I don’t see why not. We will be taking the same pictures. You two will still be the enthusiastic, eternally cheerful construction workers you were before. These old guys don’t read fanpages, so they won’t know we are giving ourselves credit and giving people the impression things are unchanged. I do want you to change the text on the title page, though. I don’t want anyone to think I am responsible for what is inevitably going to happen. Too many of my former colleagues will be apt to send me fake sympathy texts expressing non-existent concern when it hits the fan. I’m going to be involved because I am here on site, but I don’t want any confusion about responsibility either for me or you. Make that clear, Chantelle.”

“So, you will be sticking your tootsie out, but you will be out of the way.”

“That’s right. Klara agrees. She can’t do anything about it either. We still need the money and the project. This is the only way we get it. They won’t believe us. We are not esteemed experts like them. The whole gleaming engineering establishment is arrayed against us. We are the upstarts, and our experience is somehow irrelevant. Although we have designed, built, and operated a similar line in the highlands, we haven’t built a mixed-use line in the valley. There’s no arguing with them. Some people can’t learn from precept, Lou. Only bitter experience will teach them. I don’t relish that, but I won’t sacrifice my friends in the process.

“So, we won’t make this disagreement a deal-breaker. We will build this line the way they want it. We know it will fail. It will be our job to make sure that only money is lost. We can live with that. It is not our loss. They must answer to their shareholders, and they will have no answer. Our responses and our experience are on the record, and they cannot expunge them. They are not asking us to do anything we cannot fix later. We will need to replace the rails and add to the pylons, but they have given us the gift of allowing us to use our proven components. Work is what we do. Some extra, unnecessary work will hardly be noticeable. What do you think?”

“I think that when the big boys are fussing and fighting, I stay out of the way. A guy can get hurt. We will just keep our heads down and do the job. I think you fems have the right solution. When you can’t stop them, just try to minimize the damage when they ride over you.”

“Isn’t Boris coming back soon?”

’He’s coming back Friday. I just got a text from him. I haven’t even read it yet. You guys set on me the minute I came in.”

“Sorry, about that. Mo, how we spend the rest of our lives is important to us. Selfish, I know.”

“Okay, okay. Point taken. The ref line in the text is ‘I got my family out..’ That’s incredible right there. If you knew the pains we took to try to arrange that by stealth and secrecy, you will understand why his statement of that in the clear is so surprising to me. Let me sit down and read it and I will tell you all about it. Another decision Klara and I made was that there was no need for any secrecy. I know Linus over there, or one of his minions, is listening to all this, but I don’t care. We have laid it all out. We don’t have any secrets.”

“I’ll be back in a minute. I just need to read.”

Bee’s text was very long. It amounted to a complete report. It was surprising at first to read his account in open text, but it quickly became apparent that great changes were in process. There was no secret in that. The quality that is always in short supply, is understanding of what those changes mean even though it sits in plain sight. I quote him:”

’Dear Sister:

’I have missed you and your unflappable temperament. I look forward to being with you again shortly. I am fine, and I was never in any danger from the risks of the trip or anything else.

’We had such anxiety about this mission of ours. We need not have had any concern. Nobody here registers any conflict. No extra precautions have been taken. I was not watched, and I did not see any others under specific surveillance, except for the usual pervasive peeping. Each actor in this complex scene thinks that everything happening is for the best. That includes all the Starward personnel I met.

’I got my family out so easily that I thought it was a trick or trap of some kind. I was quickly reassured. No one was interested in us. I didn’t need to go under the radar and keep our communications secret. I didn’t need to use friends to contact other friends on the quiet to pass messages. There is no radar. So, I wound up calling my son and my daughter directly and just asking them to come up. Both were considering the move anyway. The UN advertising is so pervasive you can’t ignore it. It is so eager to sell property in the LEO stations that they have no interest in who they sell to. The UN loves it. How else can you custom make land?

’I recommended they go to Elysium. It is beautiful, and it’s just opening up now. I know people living there. It’s perfect for them. They weren’t interested in coming to a space colony with me. Not everyone wants to be a pioneer. LEO is completely Earthlike and it’s one gee. There is nothing to adapt to. There’s lots of money to be made there with all the people coming bereft of everything, and it’s more beautiful than you can imagine. Before the impact, our planet must have been indescribably magnificent. More than you can imagine from even the most gorgeous videopac.

’But let’s not dwell on the tragedy of that loss. I suggested my daughter try one of the real estate agents there, Miriam Altschuler. I think they may get along well together. They are both go-getters. I was going there to meet Mayor Gonsalves to set up some purchases, and the prospect of being there and spending some time with my family was almost too much happiness to bear. For people like me, in delicate condition, there is the option there of low gravity in the slower spin zones toward the axis. It eases the transition for those few who have trouble with full grav.

’It was well worth the trip. Not only to meet the people, but also to make commercial contacts. They make a lot of useful gadgets there that we can use, and they already are starting to eat our food. They have dozens of small manufacturers, all growing to match their markets.

’We were expecting complications with my family’s emigration that never came. It took almost no time for them to make the transition and sell their property to make the fare. The UN does that very efficiently, for a fee, of course. My kids got a good price and came up with a nice little nest egg. There’s schools and even universities for the kids.

’Something very interesting is happening there. I mentioned universities, but I didn’t specify. Here they have started fully fledged research institutions. More of them are being set up on the Moon. You won’t believe it, but I have the same answer from Zainab Musa. I went there, as I told you earlier. Cecilia Payne is totally empty. No-one is there but Dr. Musa. She has one assistant. He is not an astronomer. He is a librarian. He is a very interesting man. I liked him. And I have confirmation from another person from there, now living on Elysium. He is Miriam’s brother-in -law. He was also a friend of our mutual astrophysicist friend Ben Vronko-Lipshitz. You remember he died before I left the Moon. The EarthWatch program he was a part of has been disbanded, and they have been publishing a curious replacement for it. It’s too complicated to explain in a letter, but it’s worth telling when we meet.

’All over Earth, they are also shutting down basic scientific research. The developmental projects are still up. But all over, physicists, chemists, astronomers, mathematicians, and anyone in fundamental research is being laid off. They are being paid their stipends, but the work has been cancelled and the facilities closed or mothballed. My new friend, also a displaced physicist from Payne institute on the Moon, had the idea of hiring the best of them and inviting them to a research institution to be set up there. They got Dr. Musa to join the faculty, and her name is magic for recruiting. It does not seem to bother the UN, or its constituent governments, that they are losing a capability they should conserve. They are, no doubt, lyrical with the savings. They are saving billions of credits. They must be positively intoxicated with the ready cash they are accruing. Most nations spent at least two percent of GNP on science. That is no more. I wonder how much of the savings will go into useful expenditure, and how much of this instant money will disappear into someone’s pocket. The only sciences that are accepted are the life sciences. Why that is, no one knows. Applied sciences haven’t been affected either. Engineering, applied chemistry and all the rest, go on unabated.

’The only thing I am sure of that this move, whatever the reason, is incredibly foolish. We have continued to exist, both on Earth, and in space, on the science and technology we have developed to protect us and facilitate our lives in hostile environments. The ending of our efforts in science and technology will limit our ability to adapt. It will inhibit our long-term development. The only hopeful element in this sad story is the prospect that basic research will be transplanted to space. Could it be that the rulers of Earth have not considered that knowledge, ultimately, is power? It will be many decades until anyone can live technology free in the clean air of Earth. They need it almost as much as we do. I don’t know why they did this, but there must be some reason.

’Mayor Gonsalves has such great hopes for his new University in Elysium. I told you he and my new friend Joshua Altschuler have convinced Zainab Musa to be the Chancellor, and they are sending out hundreds of texts all over Earth. Many of the best scientists, despairing of consideration on Earth, are accepting her invitations to join the faculty. Some of them are teaching remotely at first, so the faculty is more heavily weighted than it seems walking through the corridors of the new school.

’All of this is now being done at the expense of the various Earth governments, still paying full stipends to minimize what trouble might arise from the objections of famous scholars. Surprisingly, many of them seem to prefer working for a space-based institution. At least they feel sure we will want them. It must be traumatic for a class of society so celebrated over the years to be suddenly rejected and their efforts discounted.

‘I look forward to seeing your dear face and discussing all these amazing events with you and Klara in just a few days. I really did enjoy seeing my family and reminiscing. but the yawning gap created by my decade’s absence has sent our lives on different paths. After a few hours, our conversation became a bit strained. If we were to live together again, I am sure that would change, but they do not have an interest in what has become a focus of my life, and my interest in what I see as mundane existence has waned. I am used to doing things I consider significant with driven people like you, and now I need that. I am eager to get back to building your airline. I am looking forward to joining you again.’

There was a lot to explain in that letter. As Bee said, we can be aware that great changes are taking place without understanding their meaning. We do not yet know why the people of Earth have chosen to abandon one of the most potent creative forces in the history of Man. As far back as we can trace, science and its godchild, technology, have been used to improve our lot. To shut it down is to deny a human need to improve our world for ourselves and our children. I can’t see why our society, so needy of all the protection that technology can offer, would intentionally discard it. I want to know much more about this anomaly. I cannot discuss this matter in the open with Bee, because, although he has revealed everything else, he has intentionally avoided discussion of that subject. And, in view of that, and the news of the abandonment of the EarthWatch project without any public announcement, it would be unwise to ask Bee or any of his named acquaintances. I would need to wait. That did not mean that I could not discuss it with Klara. This was not a subject to be discussed in front of Solomon, Klara’s minder. I called her:

“Klara, I’ve had a nice little text from Boris. He had a lovely trip, and it met all our expectations and more. He was able to see his family in Elysium. They decided to take the UN’s generous offer and settle there. I know you will want to meet to get all the latest chatter. He is coming in late Friday. What about Saturday morning? I’ll try to bring Dini. There’s going to be a lot of personal stuff on the agenda, so I’m suggesting a brunch. Too bad Solomon can’t come, but he’s probably off on the weekend. We can do up a memo for him and send it on. I doubt much in it will be news to him anyway. He certainly must know what’s going on in LEO and Earth. That’s some of the news Boris is bringing us, after all.”

She called me back later, replying carefully to the message:

“I’m glad to hear everything went well with Boris. I’d love to share breakfast with the two of you, and Dini, if she can come. We could get Boris up to speed on the Marineris project. It would be good to have his help again on the construction and Mars Metals. I also want to hear about the status of his orders. See you then.”

It was sweet to anticipate Bee’s return, but we all had a lot of work to do before then. It’s not surprising that if you get down to demanding physical work, you can put a lot out of your mind. Even the peripherals attached to a displayscreen in a simulated cabin can become your private world. It is so easy to imagine yourself out there on the surface of Mars. The sounds are amplified so you can hear them even in the low pressure, and the display bounces as you go over small obstructions, so you almost feel the surface in the seat of your pants. Some playful programmer has even put in a routine to make the tools in the tool tray jiggle when the drone bounces, to remind you to be careful. The scene, seen at extreme close range, gives you a clearer picture than you would see if you were really there.

As well, setting pylons and rails was the kind of precision work that absorbs your entire attention. The overlays were very helpful in placing the components. You didn’t need to stop and measure anything. It placed everything for you. You just had to drill the hole in the place shown on the overlay to the calibrated depth specified on the plan. As soon as you had drilled the hole to its proper depth, the overlay for the pylon appeared in green and blue.

When you had manipulated the pylon to the correct orientation, the blue outline disappeared and you used the manipulator to hold it in place while you shot the concrete, snapping the sealing cap on top of the mix to allow it to cure in its own moist atmosphere. Its seal lasted long enough for that, although the weatherstripping wasn’t perfect. We were improving the protocol all the time.

Often the best ideas came from people who came fresh to a job and suggest improvements that experienced people don’t. Chantelle asked why we couldn’t have an extra manipulator to allow one operator to drill the hole and pour the concrete without help. We couldn’t answer her, so we fitted another manipulator on the left for that. Lou was the first one to perfect the moves on that because he is left-handed. Lefties are quicker to adapt to ambidextrous movements than righties, but Chantelle and I soon learned.

That speeded our work considerably, because we could use the extra drone to bring the concrete from the mixer. That wasn’t a complicated job. We had been dedicating one operator to assist, and it wasn’t necessary. All three of us could then spend most of our time on placement. When Bee came back, there would be four. With the need to place the third pylon eliminated, we were able to increase the pace of our placements by a half. Some things remained the same. It was still necessary to weld and grind the rails to one another. That was exacting work too because the tether cables had to run smoothly over the track. Fifteen rails a day increased our track laying to over two and a half kilometers a week. When we had more assistance we would be able to make maximum advantage of it. And I was sure that the new blood would bring other helpful changes which would improve our track laying speed more. Still, though, Marineris would be a multi-year project. Plenty of time to get it right. Everything was recorded, so we wouldn’t forget our lessons.

With all the distraction of our work, and the need to get rails from our little mill, the weekend came soon enough. It presently was Friday night, the Sabbath. An appropriate time for our rabbi to come back to report to us.

“You’d better get moving, Mo. Boris is probably landing now. Are you going to the Junction to meet him?

“I’ve been waiting for him all week, and I got so absorbed I forgot the time. You people had better wrap up too. It’s almost dark, and when the light amplifiers go on, the picture gets grainy anyway. We all need some rest. I, for one, find construction work to be very tiring. You need to be paying maximum attention all the time. It’s too easy to make a mistake that will be more trouble to fix than it was to do in the first place. We have enough of that kind of work in prospect anyway. We don’t need more. And we want no excuses left when we test the system.”

“I can shift to the fanpages. I’ve got some good footage from today. Fill-in stuff I can insert to show us hard at work. It looks good even as an extended sequence. People love watching construction jobs put up piece by piece. We’ve been having success with the fanpage. You can’t even tell from it, unless you look closely at the small print, that we aren’t in control anymore. It’s what they see, not what they could read. We haven’t gotten any complaints from the big boys. They are sublimely ignorant of numbers in the hundreds of thousands. You need many millions to impress them.”

Chantelle, and now Lou, have stuck with me. They are dedicated colleagues. They could easily have thrown me over for their own advantage. Linus would have been glad to have them. Not the first time I have reflected that I am lucky to be working with such people.

“And I can get back to Mars Metals. An autominer doesn’t care if you interrupt its programming to go for coffee.”

“I’m lucky to have you both. But don’t forget. You both should know when to quit. Don’t wear yourselves out in an orgy of short-term work. We’ve got a long haul here. I’m going to wash up and go to meet Boris at the station. We’ve got a luxury homecoming meal at the cafeteria in store. Tomorrow, Dini is coming. I love that. It’s not often that she is able to get off work. Being the only surgeon here isn’t any sinecure.”

Then I hit the washroom. I took a quick shower to revive myself up and took the down elevator. I got there about fifteen minutes early, so I sat on one of the waiting room chairs and watched the displayscreen. They had a tropical forest on. Perhaps the Amazon, or maybe an African or Asian one. I’m not enough of an authority on vegetation to tell. It’s impossible, though, to see all that life and brilliant color without being drawn into it. That’s the way the whole world used to be and will be again – in two hundred years or so. Now, the only way you can see a tiny slice of it is to go to Equatoria, one of the LEO colonies. Triste, but hopeful in a way. If we can avoid losing heart, we will get there. Not you or me, but our descendants, such as they will be.

As I was in my reverie, Bee walked through the sliding doors of the access corridor. I hadn’t seen him for twenty-seven days. The myriad seamless changes that blind us all to the slow march of time had been interrupted, and I saw him with eyes that had lost the focus of the endless present. He was a little older and a little frailer that he was when he left. His eyes, that dark grey green, had lost a bit of their color, although they were still bright. His white stubble was a bit patchier, and the planes of his face, with its high cheekbones, were more starkly faceted than they had been. He had lost some weight, so his body seemed less substantial than it had been just four weeks previous. I couldn’t possibly tell him, but I was afraid. Afraid to lose him so few years after I had found him. And I am sure he must have felt some reticence as well. He seemed slightly embarrassed, ill at ease.

When he saw me, though, a bright smile came to his face, and his arms moved slightly to the side, preparing for a hug. My face answered that smile, because I was happy and relieved that he had found his way back to us. We both had had concerns about that. I was grateful that they had been misplaced. I couldn’t tell him any of my thoughts, and I suppose he felt obliged to keep the same secret. Aging people must be constantly afraid of the day when they must bid their loved ones goodbye. I was growing more mature myself, and such things were occurring to me. They were a reminder to treasure what is valuable in life.

“Welcome back, Bee. I hear you have interesting stories to tell us.”

I walked toward him and spread out my arms in response, to get the physical comfort that touch offers.