Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Saturday, 18 April 2009
A Colony On Mars : Chapter 25
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Saturday, 18 April 2009
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CHAPTER - December 31, 2108: Happy new year 2109
January 7, 2109 : Tunneling starts to reach the long low 6th cavern nine
hundred feet away. This was a new experience for the drillers. So far the
caverns had been close enough to being on the same level but this dig was at a
six percent down grade the whole way. It was difficult to keep loose material
from getting in the way. A front end loader was constantly removing the loose
material. After a while they got the knack of it and started making pretty good
progress. At one hundred feet in they they ran into solid quartz. They
summoned Harold Dixon, the mine manager “what do you recommend we do
about this Harold?” “This is a good thing and a bad thing, I would like to take
some samples for assay and I would like for you to tunnel to get a crawl space
to the other side. Also get the scientists to get you some pictures of what this
looks like, I need to know the size and contents of this formation. Is there
another route you could take to still get to Utopia?” “There is a longer way, yes,
Lets get Tim and Carter and see if they have any idea's.” “A few minutes later
Tim showed up with Hal Johnson, and all the charts of known caverns in the
area. If you went to the side of the hourglass away from the winery and
changed direction and dug off to the right of the hour glass you would only have
a short dig 150 feet to a very large cavern that we can tell little about but we
know that it is almost 68 square miles in size and we really didn't want to have
to pressurize a hole that big at this time. Now, however since we have
additional atmosphere apparatus and have that big generator that we were
thinking of using in Utopia we could use it in that big cavern, assuming there is
water and a hot spot somewhere in there. If not we could lay down an air tight
tunnel which would be twelve miles long and then tunnel another two hundred
fifty feet and we come out in this little arm of Utopia.” Jonson mumbled as he
ran his finger over the chart. Harold said “I would like to see you guys go that
route and leave this quartz to us hard rock guys, there is no way to tell, of
course but I smell gold there.” as he pointed to the quartz barrier. “Why don't
you guys knock off for the rest of the day and I will have new marching orders
for you in the morning. Tim and Hal went back to the Government cavern and
connected with Paul and Carter. Johnson explained the plan change to them
and they agreed. “If Harold wants that quartz lets give it to him and take on the
little giant instead. I always kinda wanted to go that way in the first place. It
was just the challenge that cavern poses to our environmental facilities that sent
us on the route we were taking anyway.
January 20, 2109 The tunnelers started their dig again, this time to the
little giant. They ran in to lots of rocks but still managed to make pretty good
headway. The rocks were all being sent back for the scientists to study and
identify. These guys didn't know much about rocks but generally the harder
they are the more valuable they are, and these were very hard rocks, a hammer
wouldn't break one or cleave it.
Friday, 17 April 2009
A Colony On Mars : Chapter 24
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Friday, 17 April 2009
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CHAPTER – Mars Runner makes it's first docking
December 22, 2108: There was a lot of interesting and long awaited
cargo on Mars Runner. The two items that got the most attention however were
150 twelve foot fiber glass fishing boat kits, They came disassembled with the
boats stacked one inside the other. There were several large crates with
hardwood seats, fixtures and oars. There was even 150 two horsepower
electric trolling motors, which also came partially disassembled. Within just a
few days everything was assembled before Tim ever got around to assigning a
crew to do the work. Soon there were boats available everywhere that fishing
was allowed.
The second item of intense interest to the workers on Mars and their talk
radio show was the arrival of the wine and beer making equipment and plants.
There was also enough grapes hops barley and yeast ready to use for them to
start production as soon as they were set up. They chose the hour glass for
their operation. Byron and Austin had leased eighty acres from The Company
they had already learned what they thought they needed to know to make beer
and wine. In the public interest and because there was so much surplus labor
around, Tim approved them having the use of four crews if they agreed to keep
them busy. The brewery and two houses appeared almost overnight. Within
the week the rest of their eighty acres had been planted in barley, hops, grapes
and sugar cane. They even had volunteers showing up after work and on their
days off to see if they could help. With their initial order they had ordered a
supply of the Mars soil converter plus two tons of fertilizers and ten million Earth
worms. The soil in this vineyard and farm would be very rich indeed. They first
tried making their beer and wine in five gallon containers so as not to ruin too
much of it if things didn't turn out as expected. What they got for their trouble
was drinkable beer and wine but it was none too good. One of the construction
workers that had helped them in setting up their facility tasted both products
and said, “I thought you guys new what you were doing, this is slop,” he said as
he took another big drink. “I suppose you could do better, wise ass.” “Oh hell
yes, I was an apprentice with Barble Beer before I got this Job. I'll make you a
deal' let me make a carboy (five gallon water bottle) of beer and if it is not better
than this I will drink it all. Austin said “No matter who made a carboy of beer
you would drink it all” “True.” said Gene, the construction worker but seriously
maybe I could give you some pointers.” With that he went into the brewery, got
out the equipment and proceeded to show them how to brew a small batch of
beer. Ten days later it was ready to drink. “This may be the best beer I have
ever tasted,” Byron, Suds said “How would like a part time job as brew meister?
Maybe I can do better than that. Gene called Tim on his cell, “Tim where are
you?” Gene ask. “Carla and I are at the spa, who is this Gene?” Yeah it's Gene,
look Byron and Austin and I have a deal for you we will be right there.” They all
three jumped into the cart that Gene had come over in and took off or the spa.
They were there in ten minutes. “OK Tim here is the deal, I would like for you to
give me a permanent assignment in the Hour Glass or doing something that
would benefit The Company enough that you could justify it, have you got
anything like that?” “I don't know of anything off hand Gene but I will keep it in
mind, why the request?” “I'll tell you why Tim, I recently tasted some brew that
these two dodo's made and you almost couldn't drink the stuff, it was terrible.”
“Terrible,” Austin repeated. “Then I made them a carboy full of good beer and
Byron said it was the best beer he had ever tasted. I know how to make beer
and they don't. Since this is the only brewery on Mars don't you think it would
be in the beer drinking publics best interest to have good beer?” “I agree but let
me think, I know we don't have a park ranger in the hour glass yet and there are
valuable natural beauty assets there that need to be protected. We already
have rangers on duty in paradise and The Company cavern to protect the fish,
how would you like to be the ranger at the Hour Glass, Gene?” “Fantastic, I
knew I could count on you Tim.” So it was that Hour glass brewery got a brew
meister and the folks on Mars got some really good beer.
Beer containers were a problem Austin and Byron hadn't thought of
before ordering all their other stuff, but Gene had the answer, I will just put a
large covered vat in the square and the customers can bring their own
containers. The kitchens have hundreds of plastic jugs that stuff they use
comes in and they have just been storing the empties in the back of one of the
caverns in hopes they would be of use some day. Well we can retrieve a
couple thousand of those jugs, wash them and give them to people that don't
have containers when they buy beer from our vat. Three weeks later they had
the vat set up and Byron was selling beer every evening from 1700 to 1900.
Gene turned out to be not a very good ranger but he was a heck of a brewer.
Most people swore that Hour Glass brewery on Mars made the best beer they
had ever tasted. Byron and Austin made so much money that they bought out
Genes contract with The Company and made him a partner. In the meantime
Gene, who was actually a pretty sharp guy had been hitting the Internet- and
boning up on wine making. After several hundred hours of study he thought he
was ready. He got out the ingredients and the equipment and proceed to make
a carboy of wine. It was a burgundy and it was pretty good so after Austin and
Byron approved he started making vats of it. He then tried a Chablis which was
also pretty good and Gene figured considering the competition it was good
enough. Within six months they were also selling table wine in the square, no
one seemed to rave about the wine like they did the beer but they bought it
anyway.
Also among the items that were brought in on Mars Runner were an
assortment of salt water fish and enough mixture to convert ten million gallons
of fresh water to salt water. Helen asked,”What do you need that stuff for, we
have plenty of salt in the caverns, there are big deposits of it. Grace told Helen
“There is a lot more than just salt in this mixture, Helen this is the residue that
results from the dehydration of ocean water. There are hundreds of nutrients in
this mixture that salt water fish require. For the next month Grace and Helen
and three crews were busy setting up the Ocean and introducing the salt water
fish.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
A Colony On Mars : Chapter 23
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Thursday, 16 April 2009
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CHAPTER – The Hour Glass
November 30, 2108: the tunneling crew broke through into their 4th
cavern. This was another large and beautiful cavern similar to Paradise. It was
almost a perfect hour glass in shape and as luck would have it they had broken
through right at the thin part of the hour glass. When the powerful portable
lights were shined in both directions they saw stalagmites, stalactites, and
columns in every direction. It was later established that the hour glass had
about 22 square miles of floor space. There were five lakes averaging ten
acres each in size and all joined by a river that ranged from fifteen feet to 50
feet in width. The water here moved quite slowly. Soundings disclosed that the
lakes were all more than two hundred feet deep and even the river ran over 50
feet deep in places. Best of all the water was warm. There must be magma
somewhere here that is not too far below the surface. They didn't really need
another park but it looked like they had found one. Once details of the Hour
Glass cavern were released they dominated not only the talk radio show but
Rusty spent at least half of his local news half hour discussing the new cavern
and what it could mean for their community.
December 2, 2108: Tunneling starts to reach the fifth cavern, 1100 feet
away.
December 15, 2108: The fissures had all been sealed and pressure
tested and atmosphere introduced. The temperature in the hour glass was 86
degrees. Back in the Government cavern the temperature had been down in
the forties when Tim and Carla first arrived and the caverns had to be heated
for people to be comfortable. With the tunnels open and fans circulating the air
the temperature had equalized at 72 degrees everywhere and nothing had to be
heated.
December 15, 2108: Grace had more water than she new what to do
with. She was trapping fish from the other ponds and introducing them to the
lakes in the Hour Glass. Walkways were laid so as to encircle each of the lakes
and along the rivers. It might be a couple years before the fishing got really
good, and no one was allowed to fish at the Hour Glass lakes for over a year
but the fish that Grace had introduced were thriving. Grace now had a full crew
working for her doing nothing but making fish food, and migrating fish. Talk
radio spent a lot of time talking about fishing.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
A Colony On Mars : Chapter 22
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Wednesday, 15 April 2009
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CHAPTER – Mars Supply Two returns
November 15, 2108: Mars Supply Two docked, Mars was closer to Earth
now and the travel time was a little less. The three hundred passengers that
they carried were mostly construction workers. There was more lumber than
the colony had ever had before. There were four hundred pallets of
merchandise for Super Store and six new employees. The Company who had
been operating the first class restaurant sent sixteen employees and a
manager. There was enough equipment, supplies and frozen food to fully equip
a first class restaurant. There were also five hundred cases of liquor. More was
due to arrive in December when Mars Runner made its first docking at the Mars
orbiter.
November 21,2108: The building for the restaurant had already been
built in the square next to the Bank and waiting when the ship arrived The
building had been plumbed and wired so it took less than a week to install the
equipment. The restaurant opened for business Today. Prices were
established at $200.00 for a first class meal with two drinks Included but two
more optional at $10.00 each. Alcohol was limited to diners. The new
restaurant dominated the talk radio program for several days.
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