Aries 40 LVII
Well, I had pretty much forgotten about the blog over the last month or so. Sorry, to anyone who was reading this. I've been caught up in recent events that moved me so much that I vidphoned the people I most wanted to tell instead of blogging. Anyway, here is a summary of the two main events that I feel are of most interest. Both issues have to do with native life on this planet.
1. The Cave - First of all, remind me never again to go out in an exploration suit wearing shorts. I'm still having to change my bandage from the wound where the suit rubbed a gash in my thigh. After the long bus ride, we met with Bob Nefral, an astromicrobiologist, who trekked off unknowingly with this party of three very inexperience martian explorers. The walk was actually fairly pleasant for the first half of it where Bob was reporting some of the history of life on Mars to us through the intercom in our cozy, heated helmets. Unfortunately, the helmets were much better padded than the suits. Alright, I'll stop whining about my wound and move on to more interesting things. Anyway, Bob was telling us that metal erosion cannot take place without the aid of nanobacteria. He said that the entire planet was coated with iron rust. Essentially what he was getting to was that Mars is red because of the billions of years that nanobacteria have thrived on the surface. I thought that life only existed in the isolated areas where water was found, but apparently the planet is crawling with life. This leads me to the meat and potatoes of this story. We traveled the half mile down the dark cave until we reached the designated pool that we had come to see. When we arrived, I was surprised to see steam rolling out of it. I'm not much of a scientist, but I had always thought Mars was volcanically inactive. I checked my facts with Bob, and he partially confirmed my thoughts. "It's rare," he said, "but we have found cases of this from time to time where apparently long thin cracks in the crust allow the magma to be pushed up high enough to heat reservoirs of water. The planet still is volcanically active, just not near as much as Earth." Somehow, I had spaced the fact that Nova Manaus was powered by just such a reservoir.
Free and Bob were in heated debate about whether the white slime on the pool looked like calcite produced by the organisms or whether this might be some other unknown substance. They were collecting samples when a loud clang sounded out somewhere near us in the darkness. Our helmet lights spun around the cave like a city under a bombing siege, but we couldn't see anything. Their was a noise of what sounded to me like a castle gate being lifted, like a chain being pulled on a gear. The sound faded quickly off into the distance further down the cave. We all stood perfectly still giving each other blank looks until Marji finally released her fear and sprinted screaming up the tunnel towards the entrance. We all followed in like fashion. Bob had managed to take his one sample along, but their was no argument about going back down to collect more. We were done for the day. In the following weeks, a military/scientific team explored the cave three miles deep to where it was reported that all branches of the cave had dead ended. The official story, which I got to write for the Martian Chronicle, but lacking my personal opinions, stated that the Nova Manaus led investigation team concluded that the event was probably a hoax put on by someone who was hiding in the cave before we arrived and probably left shortly after. It would have been just considered a hoax put on by us if it weren't for the acclaimed reputation of Bob Nefral. I can't even begin with how disappointed I was in the final conclusions drawn. There was no evidence displayed of tracks, so their hoax theory to me was very shaky. Even if someone used a hovercraft there would have been evidence of misplaced sand from take off somewhere around the site. Anyway, we were all quite shaken. Free, of course is now on a mission from God. She is absolutely convinced that this proves her theory of larger organisms living within the planet. She couldn't have experienced anything closer to finding her life's holy grail. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing... I'm still rethinking it all the time, searching for some rational idea of explanation.
2. Disappointment for the Green Party - The Trading Party is backing the Conservatives' long held belief that the planet should not be terraformed. This decision has created riots in the streets and demonstrations outside the city's government buildings. A planetary council vote is taking place in three days to decide if the terraform plan, created by the Green Party led city of Sagan, will be globally implemented. Nova Manaus will vote no. My two best friends here are polarly split. Marji obviously considers it a blow to her party's vision of converting Mars into a human eden and Free has firmly put her convictions into leaving the natural fauna alone. -Laika
posted at 7:10 AM
Pisces 34 LVII
Last night I went out to eat at a really nice restaurant called "The Fear of Panic". Strange name, but the food was excellent. I had a wonderful dish called "Valiant Stew". God, it was good. It's served in a giant mushroom head as the bowl, so you can eat the bowl when your done. It had Tilapia (fish), beans, and corn, all mixed in a thick spicy gravy. It might not sound great, but I loved it. Very filling. Marji, Free, and I have become the three muskateers on the night-life scene. We're starting to do everything together. It's nice to have made friends so quickly. Next week all three of us are taking a trip out to the American biological station north of here where I first landed at on arrival to this planet. Free has booked the time of one of the scientist to take us to a relatively unexplored cave where microbial life was found in a pool of water within a half mile of the entrance. Free can speak of nothing else and she has Marji and I all worked up about it. I can just see sweating my ass off in an exploration suit while walking forever in discomfort. Next I get to stand in a dark, damp cave, staring at a mud puddle while Free and this scientist exchange the mumbo jumbo of their profession for a few hours. Then there's the walk back to the station and a long bus ride home. Sounds like a blast. I suppose I should keep my spirit up in front of Free though.
Marji tells me that her grandfather is good friends with you Grandpa. Do you know John Shannon? I think he still lives in Paris with his wife Jennifer. Marji is a speech writer for Laura Mercy, a leading member of the Green Party. I must say it's hard for me to stay politically centered after hearing all the plans that the Green party has in store for this planet. Not only do they have the future economy based on new technology mapped out, but they're intent on turning this cold rock into another Earth within the next 50 years. Sounds too good to be true, but if they can prove all the science, why would anyone want to stop them? - Laika
posted at 12:22 PM
Pisces 16 LVII
I'm writing from a party at Free's place. There's about 20 people here, all in their little groups discussing whatever. I'm about to venture around, but so far I've been hanging out with Mandy, who I've invited along to get out of the pad for awhile. Hi folks, Mars sucks big zebra dicks! That was Mandy, speaking her drunken mind. Thankyou, Mandy. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that I was offered a job as a journalist for the Martian Chronicles, the main news service in Nova Manaus, as a political columnist on a per article basis. The company is very pro Conservative, but the money offered will help. I can't decide if I'm crossing the line of writing an objective novel, but it might bring me closer to understanding this place though, so ... I think I'm going to take it. Besides, I'm running low on liquor money. The Labor party has just announced that they have a new leader named Mark Faust. He promises to put the Labor party back on track. Bill is ecstatic because he knows this man very well and says that he is a very honest person who knows the ins and outs of life in this city, has been heavily involved in trade, and will be able to persuade the ruling power to give a little breathing room for his party. I'll have to do some research on this guy's past. That's all for now. I'm going to meet tomorrow with Marji Shannon, of the Green party, to discuss what they have in store for the city. She actually called me, because she knew my dad. Gotta use those connections as far as I can take 'em. Until later. - Laika
posted at 7:08 PM
Pisces 11 LVII
I received an e-mail from a friend asking if Nova Manaus was as big as New Orleans. I think maybe I've been a little misleading on my descriptions of this city. To me, it's a wonderful megalopolis. I've heard stories about it all my life. This city is an indenpendent city-state that takes itself and its future very seriously because they have had to and will have to, to survive. The highly organized political system has been set up, from what I've been told, with the same care that the founding fathers of the United States took. In the minds of the Nova Manausians, it is Manifest Destiny that they will become a very powerful nation someday. Just to clear up the population question, New Orleans has about 3,000,000 people. Nova Manaus has about 15,000. The total population of Mars in the current Earth year of 2066 is a little over 200,000, but growing fast.
-Laika
posted at 2:39 AM
Pisces 9 LVII
Starting to get lazy already on the posting. Two big events happened in the past few days. First, the town meeting was interesting if not just plain confusing for me. I did invite Mahesh, who was a joy to have along. Secondly, I saw your land grandpa! We only spent about 20 minutes walking around outside the land crusier, because we were afraid the dust storms might pick up, but from what I saw, well, no offense, but it just looks like everything else I've seen. It's pretty flat and there are signs of past water flow, which is encouraging. Certainly, it will be worth scanning or drilling for water someday. Who knows, maybe we'll find our own hot springs and import some Icelandic engineers like Nova Manaus did to get us started.
Mahesh and I sat quietly through about 4 hours of the so-called town meeting. I thought it would be more of an open discussion kind of thing, but it ended up looking alot like how the United States Congress is run. This company spokesman allocating so much of his time to this representative, etc... It was like the whole day's speeches were all planned and mapped out earlier and they were just acting them out the way they were designed for video record or something. The obvious United States corporate presence was a little disturbing to me, as well. I almost got the feeling like Nova Manaus is just a corporation and this was a stock holders meeting. Maybe it is.
Maintaining the iron mining and steel production was a major topic among worker coalitions and they approached, via Labor party representatives, the majority leaders with a reverence that bordered on monarchistic appearance. Apparently the Trade party, according to Mahesh, which out number the Labor Party about 3 to 2, are slowly draining resources away from the steel industry here and unsurprisingly enough devoting these resources to the trade industry. Mainly trade, storage, and transfer of goods around the astroid belt, Mars, and Earth triangle. These are the two main political parties, but there is still a worthy showing of members from the Green Party, which is ironically made up of fairly wealthy high tech industrialists, and the Conservative Party, which has many strong ties with Earth's international governmental presence. Mahesh, is a strong supporter of the Green party, and believes that this city will someday be extremely wealthy if we focused it's resources on the production of deuterium for fusion reactors. It's all Greek to me at the moment, but I'm starting to form a picture of where this city is going to run into some conflicts in its near future. -Laika
posted at 9:11 AM
Pisces 5 LVII
I went to Free’s place last night. She tells me that she has a glorious view of Mount Olympus. Too bad the dust storms are so bad this year. We got into a long conversation about native Martian life last night. She seems to think that there is alot more life beneath the surface than is otherwise known. I still haven’t been convinced, but she does seem to know her stuff. Her argument is that the complex nature of microbial life on the surface could not exist without a larger ecological structure to support it beneath the surface. This to me, is completely backwards, and a little sci-fi flighty, but she seems pretty bent on proving it. She's here in fact writing her Astrobiological Master's Thesis on the subject. She seems very friendly and willing to show me around the town, so I hope we become good friends.
Tomorrow, I’m going to sit in on a town meeting. I can’t wait. Hopefully, I’ll get a glimpse of what this city is all about. I can't decide whether I should invite Mahesh along with me. The guy has kind of an aggressive personality, but I found his political conversation interesting enough and if I'm going to start writing this book anytime soon, I'll want some brains who know the city in my corner. Just staring at his phone number.... hmmm... -Laika
posted at 6:43 AM
Pisces 3 LVII
I’m at an internet café called Below Me, in the City Centre. I can’t believe how expensive everything is here. That part really nips me the wrong way, but at least it will keep my drinking to a limit, maybe…
I’m at a table with 5 of the nicest, most open people I’ve ever met. It’s amazing how much they are willing to lean over their screens to tell me what they are up to. The drinks keep a comin’ and I keep a puttin’ em down. I don’t think I’ll last long this high on the hog, as my grandpappy used to say. I’m talkin’ like this is some hickville U.S.A., because I consider this backwoods mining country. In fact though, everyone I’ve met seems to be way ahead of the game in technology and up on Earth news and politics and everything. Not to down my dad, but I got a completely different image of what people were like from his stories. He always told me that Mars had no concern for Earth and it’s ways. He told me people were paid well and lived well, but that conversations tended toward the bizarre and uncultured nature. These people would fit into the finest of cliques back in New Orleans. At my table are people of Arab, Irish, Russian, and one I can’t place, descendants. First there is Mahesh, who has hit on me several times, but seems nice enough, and then there is Joseph who is the funniest person at the table and can’t seem to stop being the center of attention. There is a Russian couple who seems very tame and inquisitive of everyone else. They are the newest, besides me, of arrivals. This last character is strange, exotic and extremely interesting to me. Her name is Free. She keeps staring at me as if she knows me and she seems to have made it a responsibility to make me have a good time and be involved with the rest of them. Her accent seems to have a Russian influence, but I keep getting traces of Californian influence and there is a hint of French. All talk, of course, is in English. Joseph seems to have no qualms about visiting porn sites, Mahesh seems to be politically motivated on searching sites, the Russian couple are looking through Martian real estate, and Free seems to be focused on the biology of Martian life.
Out for now, I’m having loads of fun. Wish you could all be here. Until later. -Laika
posted at 6:29 PM
Pisces 1 LVII
Woke up with quite a headache, even though I only had one brandy last night. Maybe my body is just adjusting. Nothing work related to really do today. For those of you who don’t know me, I thought I’d give a little background. My name is Laika and I am an author of two published books about Mars and have been commissioned to write a third. My first one was a fantasy fiction named Crunch and the Martian Caper inspired by a story my grandpa wrote when he was a youngster about a boy and his yellow Labrador. The second was a biography of my father and his life as an iron miner on Mars. This third one is going to be about the people and politics in the city of Nova Manaus and the current struggles of a mining town caught in the crossfire of Earth’s international greed. At least I think that’s what it’s going to be about. I think my publisher would be quite upset if I just ended up vacationing here and writing the Crunch Chronicles.
My grandfather, Benjamin Emerson, bought 100 hectares of Martian land in the Amazonian Basin in 2020 for $2000 from a sale morally backed by the UN to encourage the development of Mars. Nobody took the sale very seriously back then, but he said that even if he never saw the land (and unfortunately he hasn’t and probably never will), it was the right thing to do. He said that humans needed a second home if we had a chance of surviving as a race, and that this sale would provide funding for the technologies necessary to make that happen. The fusion reactor that got me here was a direct result of programs started by funds from the sale.
My father, Sam Emerson, came over to this city in 2040 with his wife, Veronica, to begin a life as a computer programmer, but soon got caught up in the mining industry. My mother is a photographer that has taken many pictures of Martian landscape features as seen in many magazines across Earth and Mars. The city of Nova Manaus is about 200 kilometres east of my grandfather’s land. My parents returned to Earth for retirement in 2056. I covered a great deal of this adventure in my book “The New Wild West”, the title of which I also borrowed from my grandpa from a song he wrote about the Suburban Yuppie flight to the inner city in the 1990’s. (What can I say, I just love my grandpa, heh, heh…)
Tomorrow Bill and Mandy are taking me out to the City Centre to see the shops, clubs, and restaurants. They tell me that the nightlife here is very active and very culturally diverse. I can’t wait. Well, that’s all for now. I might post tomorrow, but I’d like to have something to write about first, so we’ll see. -Laika
posted at 3:44 PM
Aquarius 46 LVII
I arrived in Mars orbit on Aquarius 16 at perihelion or what has become known ironically enough as Earth day here, but I was not able to continue my journey on to the planet until yesterday due to unusually severe dust storms. I decided to spend the funds, which is going to severely lessen my quality of life on Mars for my 6 month stay, to shuttle down to an American biological research station six hundred miles from Nova Manaus and take a bus the rest of the way. I feel like my brain has been in stasis for the last 2 earth months. On the trip over at least they catered us with cool exotic dishes and we played VR games, and watched movies, and the month flew by pretty quick, but life was absolute hell for the month on the MISS. I’ve read about 10 trash novels and have all but exhausted any love I might have ever felt for card games.
When our ship first approached the planet I couldn’t help but cry. It was so beautiful and so different than all the photographs and film footage I’ve seen. My father loved this planet and all the stories he ever told me about this place flooded back in rich waves of excitement and wonder. I finally was face to face with the New World. As we swung fast around in our first loop in high orbit I heard a brief but loud crackle of electricity and I ran to the port viewing bay to see the large cable that was dangling behind the ship expand into a giant empty hoop. All colors of the spectrum shimmered as the solar wind bombarded the magnetic sail. It took us several orbits to slow down enough to dock with the MISS and I returned to the port bay every single time the ship was about to enter the Martian daylight to hear the electric crackle and watch the pretty lights.
The bus ride to Nova Manaus was excruciatingly long and uncomfortable. At first I was fuming mad that nobody bothered to clean the windows of dust so I could see, but the man sitting next to me told me that within the hour we would be in the dust storm anyway and the windows would be useless. This time corridor that I had chosen to make a dash for the city was only a small break in the storm and I was advised to wait, but I just couldn’t take life on the MISS any longer. (Besides there was this freak of a man named Todd that would not leave me alone and this seemed my only chance for a way out. Don’t worry grandpa, he wasn’t dangerous. He was just annoying and not my type.)
Anyway, I finally made it and am now sipping a brandy safe and sound in my room at the Peters'. Mandy and Bill seem like very friendly people. They both have expressed their deepest love for Dad and said that they wished they could have been with you, Mom, in his last days and at the funeral. This place, although a little cramped, reminds me of a beach house for some reason. It might be the lighting scheme that Dad chose, or the Peters' furnishings, or maybe it’s the tiny sparkling granules of what I think is pyrite and iron that seem to be scattered around the house. I’ve even got some in my shoes that I must have picked up when I strolled to the bathroom a moment ago in my socks. Bill was sure to let me know in our first conversation that this was an independent mining town that doesn’t belong to anyone but the workers and has nothing to due with all the political “hoohaw” that the earth media has been up in arms about. I think he is going to be very useful for the book if I can manage to take his opinions with a grain of salt.
All’s quiet on the Martian front for me at the moment and I’m looking forward to a cozy sleep and a relaxing day tomorrow of unpacking and settling in. It looks as though my money problems aren’t going to prevent me from visiting your land, grandpa. Bill tells me that a friend of his can bring me out in his rover for free soon and that he’ll try to even set us up with some fancy explorer suits so I can stroll around for a few hours if I want. I don’t have any recording equipment or I’d post some footage of the trip, but I’ll try to describe things the best I can. I’ve missed you all, but hopefully if I can get into my work then the loneliness will be a little easier to cope with. Goodnight. -Laika
posted at 3:37 PM
Leaving today... will start posting when I get there.
posted at 7:51 AM
May 18, 2066
testing...1...2...3...
posted at 7:38 AM