Welcome Aboard Air Marineris

I looked at the screen and imagined two rag dolls at the other end that needed to be animated. Two mismatched rag dolls, him pale pink and her light brown. It was a difficult job to speak into emptiness and summon the enthusiasm that would convince people who were probably invested in another position than mine. I was comforted by the notion that I just had to tell them how I thought. They would agree if they came to understand what I did.

“Dr. Westerhauf and Ms. Khalifa, thanks for seeing me and giving me a chance to explain the comments on the existing budget that I made to Director Nilsson. I have had time to read the budget you were good enough to send me. At the outset, I admit that I would have estimated this project the same way you did if I were working on Earth and had access only to the raw figures. The use of my costs from our Borealis project was a good way to start.

“But you could have had no immediate knowledge of the background to the project, or local conditions, nor of the challenges we faced making this technology work. I hope you will allow me to use that experience for your advantage to revise the costing for the project. I emphasize to you that I am excited to be involved in it.I believe I have the same objective that you do. That is to build a line that is safe, reliable, and durable. The last thing any of us wants is accidents or expensive remediation. At the same time, it is my goal as an engineer to build it at the lowest possible cost that will meet our shared goals. I believe that the final, all-in, cost will be less than you contemplate, and that it will yield collateral advantages that will enhance your investment. I also know, however, that the front-end costs must be vastly larger than have been contemplated.

“When we built the two spur lines that all our figures are based on, we did it on a one-off basis. The several hundred pylons were, essentially, hand built after extended experimentation. That does not really show in our costing, because the development was enveloped into the fabrication costs. The same consideration applies to the airships, even though they were a far smaller constituent of the development costs than the other components. More importantly, the fact that the primary cargo was bulk ore meant that the safety factors were less important. As well, the speeds achieved made little difference because there was no inherent rush for delivery. So, the only factor that will be consistent in the two projects is the principals of physics we use.

“None of those performance requirements will be the same for the Marineris line. The four-thousand-kilometer length means that we will need almost half a million pylons for a two-way line, as well as the requisite number of rails and volumes of setting concrete. For obvious reasons, there must be two separate tracks. And we can’t moderate the speeds to allow us to reduce the number of pylons and save costs, because we need it fast as well as safe. We are carrying passengers along with the freight, and we can only tolerate them being out on the surface for the shortest time possible with shielding that is viable. More speed means more stress, needing higher specs. The vast distance the line must cover still militates a longer journey time than we would prefer even with maximum protective measures. Inevitably there will be more radiation exposure than the passengers experience at home.

“That number of pylons and rails we need cannot be fabricated in the time available without a rolling mill and a stamping plant. That will cost you, but there is an upside to that. The production facility will be available for other uses after we have finished this job and the production costs per unit will be lower. The same thing goes for the polyconcrete we will need. A special job by Mars Organics will never be able to supply the quantities we will need on a regular basis to keep the job going. Their plant has already been converted and it doesn’t pay to convert it back and effect existing production, especially when we will need the output to build Burroughs later.We must also use the expensive personnel we will need to hire to their highest potential. That means available materials, so they don’t stand idle. To get the infrastructure, the investment must be made up front. But it will pay. We will get economies and efficiencies of scale in those factories. Experience tells us that we will find ways to make things cheaper and faster.

“What you are doing will change the face of Mars and go a long way to continuing the development of a planetary economy. That will allow us to contribute our full share to the interplanetary trade you are now fostering. Please give us the tools to continue doing what you want us to.”

And then I stopped. They terminated the transmission. There was no use in repeating myself. I had said it all. If that wasn’t enough, so be it.

Klara, who had been sitting beside me, silent, now spoke.

“Mo, you said it well. I have been in the same position several times, and it’s hard to talk into a screen. We aren’t vid celebrities, and it takes special skill to animate yourself without a visible audience to cue you. The central point of your address was well taken, and I have had to raise it myself. They tend to forget on Earth that we are on a virgin planet without any of the resources they take for granted. We can’t fon someone to get a delivery, someone who already has the wherewithal to produce what we require. I had that problem pinpointed recently with the extra cell we had to order for up top on the production level. The one whose non-existence became critical when Khloe killed Devora there and there was no surveillance.

“They just told me to install another cell, and the man suggesting it, who was with some chamber of commerce on Earth responsible for our comm budget, didn’t believe me when I told him it would take a minimum of a year to receive and install. We needed to order the part from Moon Electronics.Just the shipment time from the Moon was nine months by cargo pod. You don’t power that kind of stuff. Even that was assuming that they had a scarce unit in stock. I ’m sure they forget that every time we talk of procurement. Most of the time it isn’t critical because of the small quantities we need. We often have the expertise to make stuff ourselves. Your scheme of argument was the same that I would have used in your place. Always better to agree with them and steer them in your direction than oppose them.It works for me. I hope it will work for you.”

And then she seemed to run down, and we were both silent. We just waited for a reply, and I steeled myself for a withering response. I had just effectively asked them to double their budget, and they wouldn’t be pleased with that. Especially since it was already such a titanic sum of money. And up front, too. They had probably looked forward to doling out the money over the long life of the project. A double blow, but necessary.

So, Klara and I sat there, drinking tea and coffee, and crunching the little cookies that she had had made in the autochef. Cookies that had been meant to show a spirit of hospitality that might not be reciprocated. There was unlikely to be a collegial spirit between us and the moguls of Earth. We made small talk about the season, then Winter on Mars, with its (slightly) cooler weather and dampened winds, bringing lower air pressure from the deposition of frozen gases at the poles. There was little else to speak of. No small talk about what was going on. Even four years after the death of our Ripper psychiatrist, there was still a dampening of the intramural sports that formed one hub of our small community. At the same time Alex (that was his name) was perpetrating mass murder, he had been actively promoting all varieties of sport, using his celebrity as a prominent athlete. It was a loss, not only because they had still not replaced our psychiatrist, a critical resource in an isolated community like ours. It also impoverished us because it removed a natural focus of our community life. Klara had been trying to start our sport life again. But we needed someone charismatic to lead the effort and we just hadn’t been lucky enough to have another person gifted with that ability. We didn’t have any such person to step forward and inspire people to participate. Even though he was a brutal killer, some of his other contributions had been very positive. That is the way it is with people. Even the worst of us has some blessings to offer.

Eventually, slow as the time seemed to move, thirty minutes had elapsed, and the screen rang again. The functionary, rather than the chairman or accountant we had expected, appeared again. At first, it was a disappointment. Were we to be dismissed without comment? But incredibly, he said merely:

“The Chairman will not require any further presentations. Please submit your budget amendments as soon as possible. He requests that this project be treated as a priority. The first tranche of credits will be sent to you forthwith. We will appoint a suitable expert in your discipline to act as liaison on Earth and to arrange for subsequent financing. Thank you for your comments. Good day.”

The screen went black. Klara reacted before I did, a bit stunned by the brevity and scope of the reply. After half an hour of expectation, it had left me speechless.

“They’ve agreed, Mo. They can’t even think of anything to say. They don’t like being wrong, but you didn’t give them any place to go. Cheer up, we have a huge job ahead of us!”

I couldn’t resist. I reminded her: “Haven’t we always?”

And that’s how it started.

I was a fem, and I had a big job. There were supposed to be no resources to waste.On the old world things were still mostly the same and half the race was discounted. I had learned from many disappointments that there was always that reason I was selected for a certain kind of job. It wasn’t for my pretty face. It wasn’t for my superior talents. It was because no one else would take the jobs I had been offered. Yet, there was no denying that, for whatever reason, things were slightly different here. Maybe the habits of a lifetime needed some change. Not everything, but something.

Bee, my spiritual brother, had reinforced my own skepticism a few days after we had met on the Rockship four years previous. It happened when we were descending to Mars. The operators of the shuttle train, presumably acting as instructed, had shown some very disturbing scenes to the passengers. That had convinced me that my hopes of a new and different world, populated with people liberated by a new aesthetic, were not realistic. People were still substantially the same, even there. I had left nothing behind.It didn’t mean there was no hope of improvement, but it did show that dramatic changes would not happen simply because people were in a new place. Employees remained entities to be manipulated for profit.I was an optimist. You had to be if you were an engineer. But you had to be pragmatic as well.

I couldn’t dismiss the insight even though I had minimized it at first. I had learned that the interests of my superiors did not align with my own many times over. The promise of a new world and the excitement of that job offer had made me gloss over that basic lesson. There were times when alarm bells went off, and you had to be careful to avoid the dangers disregarded by your superiors. Their skins were not at risk. Bee reminded me of that.

At the rim of Arsia Mons, just after we had come in after that breathtaking shuttle ride down, they had displayed that unsettling view of the plain below us. To people raised above ground the way most humans in history had, it would have been impressive, but not unsettling.

That view, though, was deeply disturbing to new settlers reared underground and not prepared for such a panorama, no matter how magnificent it was.Boris had questioned the way we were initiated to those wide Martian spaces, finding in it true markers of the casual, manipulative attitude the owners of it all had towards us, their settlers. I had wanted to pardon it as unintentional insensitivity, but I knew it for what it was. I had seen it many times before.

Later, an offhand comment from Klara had driven the lesson home. She had admitted as much:

“Our people have been raised underground with no outward looking perspective. We need to inoculate them against their agoraphobia. Yes, we exposed them to a vision of Mars’ wide world when they first came, and we wanted it to stick. You may have it backwards, Monica. We don’t have a complete lack of concern for their distress. It was a vaccine to them, necessary to their health and function. They must look at this wide world. We administer the medicine without regret because they need it.”

That upset me, but I said nothing. Maybe she was right, but I did not like that side of Klara’s character. I didn’t consider it tough; I saw it as cruel. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t another way to make people look out. After all, that is one of the reasons for the window wall in the Commons. I had already learned that Klara is determined, but that callous attitude towards others was another thing. It was not a good sign. I wasn’t sure whether it was the kind of ambition I admired, or the unbridled kind I had seen cause so much suffering. I prefer not to think that about my friends. I know you need to accept those you love as they are, but you don’t need to be happy about it all the time.

Bee has that skeptical way about him that resonates with me. He doesn’t accept appearances. He seems always to look behind them, to look the gift horse in the mouth in a way most others are reluctant to do. I know, it’s not a totally positive quality. Few are. Yet, he sometimes found a few rotten teeth. You need to see the world as it is. Ignoring danger is not the way to go. Until Ondine, he was my sole friend in a lonely life.I may not agree with him all the time, but I always listen.

It’s surpassing strange that he is a male, one of a group who have routinely rejected me, hating me for what I am. Yet, my perspective as an outsider was the same as his. I knew, in my heart from the beginning, that they had a reason to find Ondine for me. It wasn’t to make an aging lesbian happy. Why would they care? I know. The knowledge doesn’t make my happiness any the less profound, but I’ve already told you about the old feelings of vulnerability. I don’t like to feel dependent on others because I know I can’t rely on them.

I knew they needed me at least tolerably content. And I was more than that. I certainly wasn’t depressed. They needed that. Unhappy fems don’t produce the way they needed me to. We were making a lot of money for our employers. Money that was desperately needed, considering their proposals. That’s what sparked their interest and brought Dini.

The company had those more ambitious projects for me. World building ones that would put me into the rarefied ranks of the greatest engineers. It was very heady stuff. A trans planet freight line to link our two hub cities at either end of the Valles Marineris. To do that, I needed to span a distance big as a continent. I knew I could do that, but I don’t mind telling you that it scared me more than a little. I could fail. People could die. I couldn’t let that happen.

Klara wasn’t finished with me yet. She went on:

“They are actually impatient to proceed. They want it now. I have dealt with them enough to know that this is unusual. Take advantage of it. Consider your reply. Consult with colleagues. You are going to need their full cooperation. I’ll talk to them and give them an official heads up. I think that the investment angle made a big difference. As business people, they don’t like spending a pile of cash and getting only a one-time return. The marketing angle hit a nerve. They have shareholders, and they now need to go to them for more money. This is a way to rationalize the extra money, to tell the shareholders they are getting more for it. And it doesn’t make them look like horse’s asses forgetting an important item of expenditure. The argument has obvious weaknesses, but profit, or the prospect of it, obscures all. There must be a reason why they are in such a hurry now, but we’re not going to know why for a long time. They must think that we are ready for this. I think that I agree with them. A lot has changed here during the last four years.

“You mentioned Boris, and I think he can be a lot of help to us. If we are to get results on that investment angle for the mills, we need to think about wider markets than Mars. Both Low Earth and the Moon are farther along than we are. And LEO is obviously going to be big. People like living there. They have an outdoor life that is not available anywhere else, especially on Earth. Life down on Earth will not go outside for decades. Millions will go up to LEO. They will be building gigantic cylinders and they will need help with that.They will need food and equipment and manufactured goods. We are above the gravity well, practically in open space, and it will be cheap for us to ship stuff to them. We have a planet with an atmosphere, night and day, and unlimited land for cheap building. We can build massive factories easier than either the Moon or LEO. And we have raw materials easier to hand than either of them has. Last, Starward will be subsidizing our development. We will need to build those factories anyway. We’ll be making machines and products in great quantities. That will give us the jump on everyone else.

“Get Boris to contact his friends on the Moon and make contacts for LEO. He can do it easily. Neither of us can deny that he has the gift of gab. Talk is cheap, but it would be good to get expressions of interest in various products. The more, the better. Put it in as an addendum to your budget when we get them. They may not believe it all, but it will be something for them to think about. If I were a betting fem, I would back it. Someone needs to be the engine of the new economy. Why not us?