Chapter two
On the Surface
Surface dwelling inhabitants of Mars are proud decendants of humankind, a
people with a long (if patchy) history. Their lifetimes on Mars are spent in
the pursuit of science, with highly developed intelligent networks creating the
backbone of their society they function in much the same way as their
forebears. Streamlined genetic information was the key to their resilience -
engineered for the gathering and utilisation of information they have a highly
integrated social architecture. Robots, AI Networks and computer nodes are all
awarded the same social standing as has been the case for centuries. Their goal
is still to recreate the Earth on Mars however there have been problems.
In the beginning colonisation of Mars was not to happen until Mars had been
deemed a suitable habitat for Earthlings. A formidable army of terraforming
equipment, factories and robots shuttled silently through the cold of space to
their new home. Earth had planned to equip the planet with the machinery
required then begin the mighty red planet’s transformation. For years the
shuttles flew back and forth until the development of a more suitable system
appeared.
By utilising hundreds of space stations, each with their own closely monitored
orbits a type of chain was created which spanned the enourmous distance to
Earths recreation. Each station followed its own axis and was self aligning,
constant adjustments were carried out by the robots on board using solar
charged ion drives.
The premise was incredibly simple, a shuttle would lift from Earth with its
payload and dock with an orbiting space station. The station would take the
payload and sling it from its orbit on a trajectory that would coincide with
the next space staion who would ‘catch’ the payload. Thus not expending any
fuel and only using the energy imparted by the ‘throwing’ station. Orbits were
matched in real time so that trajectories of the payload and catching station
were matched equally. The catching station would then rotate – aim the payload
at a point that would coincide with the orbit of the next station and fling the
cargo off into the castness of space then rotate back into a catching position.
The beauty of this system is that instead of building enormous craft and
expending incredible amounts of fuel for the journey a shuttle mearly had to
leave Earths atmosphere briefly and impart its goods to the orbiting station.
Once arriving the goods would beging a stop/start slingshot trip to Mars.
Shuttles delivered equipment twice a day to the station. After 11 months Mars
began receiving two payloads a day – greatly increasing transportation capacity
with minimal use of materials of fuel for an operation that was expecting to
continue for centuries.
So the process was believed to have begun, Earthlings waited – developing new
technologies and adapting them to a Martian environment and sending them on,
all the while believing that Mars was becoming more hospitable yearly. Many
dreamt of a time when Earth would have an nearly identical sister and humankind
could begin its exploration of their galaxy. One planet at a time.
Up until this point of history both the surface Martian and his underground
relative are in relative agreeance. What happens next is highly speculative and
based on nothing more than hypothesis.
Todays surface Martian has taken an analytical approach to the problem. And the
problems they are faced with are these – Mars is populated, it has not been
terraformed to anywhere near the exacting standards imparted by their Earth
bound forefathers and there has been no contact with Earth of any kind for as
far back as any record can indicate. They know of the attemped recreation of
Earth however they do not know how they came to be there. Being the analytical
creatures they are they have concluded that there was a catastrophic accident
on Earth, the Earthlings had a small amount of time to send a final payload to
Mars and this payload consisted of their engineered selves in storage form.
Generally, the engineered genetic information of a species is printed on a
template consisting of the chemical building blocks of the item (in thise case,
a person). When the required specimen is required a robot or other automated
system begins the recreation process – generally Earthlings had engineered
species on had for a multitude of different requirements should they arise. It
appears that the Earthlings, faced with extinction slung across the gap between
the two planets a final payload containing the building blocks of a new race,
the template for the Martians.
This was generally accepted as it fulfilled the basic requirements as to why
they were there without recollection of arriving. The surface habitats they
occupied were remnants from the failed terraforming project and contained a
vast amount of information as to what they were doing yet very little
information not related to the Earthlings themselves. A fair amount of history
was gleaned from the robots that had originated on Earth but the robots on Mars
had not been on Earth at any time close to when the extinction event had
occurred.
So, believing that Earth was destroyed or at least uninhabited the Martians
picked up where the Earthlings had failed and began their own terraformation of
the planet – unfortunately for them they had very little information of the
original template to work from so they let the machines carry on unguided in
the hope they would work well enough autonomously to recreate the Earth.
It had been a long time, many generations had passed and their beliefs still
held firm. All the while the enormous machines continued on to create something
they hoped to recognise. Although their beliefs had remained in tact many were
beginning to question the effect of the machines. As the Martians strengths lay
in the collection and interpretation of information they were getting data that
did not tie into their long held beleifs that the machines were there to
fundamentally change the planet into something wholly new.
Their data told them that nothing on the planets surface was changing. And
without knowing what was meant to change or if the terraforming had already
been completed correctly they continued on blindy, collecting information they
had no purpose for.
From time to time there were interactions with the underground people of the
planet – these ranged from amicable to downright hostile with the occassional
attempt to disrail the terraforming process, to what end the surface Martians
could not understand so for the most part did their utmost to stay well away
from their underground relatives.
