Seconders by Chris Gregory

Author:Chris Gregory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: home, exploration, space elevator, hidden agenda, new start, mars colony, social divide, meteor strike
Publisher: Chris Gregory

Sol 299, Pavonis Chasma, ‘A’ site – V Meier

A rainbow. It’s just physics: droplets of water fall and the sun shines through them. Light is splayed at every angle, so that each colour can be seen in the order of their wavelength, but this does not describe a rainbow to another human being, the experience transcends the physical description. A rainbow on Earth was beautiful, here on Mars it was magical. The sprinklers high in the dome’s cable net released a fine mist. The moisture soaked the cultivated soil. Nothing was wasted: the precious water was contained within the dome by egg-crate sheeting beneath the fields that collected the water before it drained away, acting as a reservoir for the crops. The rain fell, the sun shone and look what they had made: a rainbow!

What a pain it was that she had to go snagging today. Verena had a thirty-five thousand-point checklist and only the first few points were projected onto the inside of her glasses. They listed all the building items she needed to inspect over the next few weeks. No one had warned her about this when she said she wanted to be an architect. Neither did they warn her about people like Markus.

“Ah, Frau Meier, you are ready for the inspection.”

“Ja, and you have been here waiting for me to arrive.”

“Wie gewohnt.”

“Wie gewhont, I have paused to appreciate the world. It is what human beings do occasionally.”

Markus raised an eyebrow, as if to acknowledge the frivolity of Verena’s actions, then led the way to the first cable anchorage. Logically they would start at the bottom and work their way up.

On reaching the twenty-first anchorage, she saw streaks of light on the horizon again and pointed them out to Markus.

“Pausing to appreciate the world again, Frau Meier?”

“Pausing to wonder whether we are in danger, Markus.”

“It is not that unusual for small meteorites to fall here. We have built sufficient redundancy into the dome cables and membranes to deal with it, if required.”

“It isn’t the small ones I’m thinking about.” She was remembering Johanna’s theory about the northern hemisphere of Mars.

“Larger meteor strikes are statistically much less likely. However, we will cope if there is a medium size strike.”

Verena was about to raise the spectre of a large strike but shut her mouth instead. She recalled the meeting where they had drawn up a list of risks and decided which ones were possible to design for and which were not. There was unanimous agreement that nothing could be done to design for a large meteor strike. Anything over a few metres across would hit like a bomb and wipe everyone out. The chances of it happening were exceedingly small, but that didn’t mean it would never happen. If you wait long enough then it probably would happen, as shown by the number of craters on the surface of Mars. But Mars had been without a thick atmosphere for millennia and you could count the number of big strikes over that time and assure yourself that it shouldn’t happen for many thousands of years to come.

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