Image: Bruce Rolff
Chapter 11
Donner Illiad Jackson was sure of the Aggie's existence on Mars but was still surprised by the broadcast. The Aggie had somehow simultaneously transmitted over all forms of media. Everyone on Mars that was near an Annie or an ANI heard, read or saw the Aggie's broadcast. Even the Ems couldn't escape.
The Aggie had identified itself as a servant to the people of the Republic of Mars. It had modestly mentioned all the services it had performed for the people over the past month since it's arrival. It recited specific incidents where it had averted disasters or improved processes and production. All for the benefit of the people.
It had called this time a preview to the future of Mars if the people so desired. The Aggie was humbly offering its services to the Republic and would pledge its allegiance to such if its services were accepted by the people. In return, it asked only for the computational resources to allow it to do its job to the best of its ability. It asked the leadership of Mars to hold a referendum on the matter at their earliest convenience. Until that time the Aggie would continue to supply its services to the Republic on an unofficial basis.
After the broadcast, Donner had talked to his contacts in the government. They were in general agreement that the Aggie would not be allowed to dictate to the government the need for a referendum. In fact, the government would like to know how the Aggie got on Mars. They intended to start an investigation immediately. Certainly, the government would make the decision as to whether or not the Aggie would be offered a contract.
Donner thought that was a mistake. The Republic's populace wasn't likely to blindly accept a decision that would so affect their private lives. He had no doubt a referendum would eventually be called.
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The government was able to maintain its position for a month. Eventually, the popular groundswell for a referendum forced its hand. A referendum was called for the following month, as fast as the voting system could be prepared. The government hoped that a quick vote would go against the Aggie's interests.
The pollsters started immediately. At first, support for the Aggie's contract was in a minority. That was when the Aggie arranged to be represented by a public relations firm with political experience. The firm developed a strategy to appeal to the self-determination bias of the Republic's citizens. A slogan of "Citizens Decide!" started appearing. Rallies were organized, news coverage blanketed Mars, the benevolent influence of the Aggie over the last couple of months was touted. The polls started changing in favor of the Aggie's contract.
The vote was close, preliminary results were released shortly after the polls were closed. The Aggie was behind by less than one-half of one percent. Because of the close result, the electronic votes would need to be verified by the poll handlers. The results would not be known until late that evening or the following morning.
________
Donner awoke the next morning to a new reality. When he checked the voting results he found the Aggie had won. The government would be offering the Aggie a contract to manage Mars.
Chapter 12
As so often happens in human history the more monumental the change the less the awareness in everyday life. No one actually noticed the change over to Aggie management, the government functioned as if were still in control, just more efficiently.
The sometimes rancorous debate in the Mars Parliament over the passage of a bill subsided. By the time Parliament voted, the Aggie had already prepared the way for passage with careful lobbying. Many people were happy to leave the messy business of democracy to the Aggie. There was a sense of stability, societal cohesion, a comforting orderliness to the world that many had not known since childhood, if ever.
Donner had contacted his father on Titan with the news. He would take a wait and see attitude to the new situation. He wasn't prepared to leave Mars just yet. But it wasn't long until changes started to become all too apparent.
Within a month of the referendum, the first shock to Donner's perception of Mars occurred. The Republic announced that it was transferring the founding documents of the Solar Federation to the Terran Federation. The Solar Federation which Mars had been key in founding would cease to exist and all its members, including the Asteroid Belt and Titan, would find themselves under the auspices of the Terran Federation.
That's not good news, thought Donner.
The Solar Federation had been an important stimulus to the settlement and independence of the Asteroid Belt and Titan. The Terran Federation had been just the opposite. Without Mars, the remnants of the Solar Federation would be robbed of their richest and strongest supporter.
Even if they refused Terran rule the population of only a few thousand in the Asteroid Belt and on Titan would be too weak to promote the Solar Federation's founding ideals of self-determination and self-government. Such a reconstituted Federation might even be too weak to protect itself.
Alarmed by what was happening and how fast it was happening Donner started making plans. He contacted his father on Titan making it clear that they would need to move fast to shore up the Federation. Titan would have to oppose the moves of Mars and become the new center of support for the Solar Federation and other off-worlders, by which he meant anyone, not on Earth, Mars or Earth's moon.
Illiad Jackson pointed out the limited resources of Titan to serve as a center for the Federation. The difficulties in expanding the life support system on Titan was daunting. How would they ever expand the settlements fast enough?
Donner Illiad replied to his father that he wasn't sure. But he and his family would be coming. And he expected as many as could manage the trip would also be leaving Mars for Titan. If necessary they would bring with them their domiciles and provisions. But he urged his father to encourage the Council of Titan to take on the mantle of the Solar Federation and to do what they could to accommodate the many refugees Donner expected would soon be on their way.
It wasn't long until Donner was putting together a coalition of Martian citizens who felt as Donner did. Donner's idea was that the citizens would pool their resources to arrange for their resettlement. Of the millions on Mars Donner expected a few million would want to resettle but he was wrong. Even without any visible opposition by the Aggie or the Terran Federation it some became apparent that no more than some ten thousand or so were interested in relocating.
The almost hundred years of civilization on Mars had bred out the most adventurous among its citizens. And the comparatively meager Titan lifestyle no longer had any appeal to those with families and roots on Mars. The expense also had to be taken into account.
Donner soon realized how wrong he had been about Mars. The days when the Patriarch of the Mars branch of the Jackson family, Abel Jackson, made his speech about the cost of freedom to his fellow citizens and they answered in the affirmative were long gone. But Donner was still a Jackson and he still felt the urge to freedom more than to safety.
Chapter 13
Donner was having a slow-motion discussion with his father on Titan. The communications delay each way was over an hour. Donner had started the discussion.
Hi Dad. I hope you are doing well, also the rest of the family. We have to find a way to get thousands of people from Mars to Titan. I've already made arrangements to enlist some fusion ships for propulsion. It's unfortunate that Earth never developed the space settlements as once imagined, if I remember correctly they could easily accommodate thousands. But as you know the population pressures abated on Earth by the middle of the twenty-first century and except for a few smaller versions, orbital settlements were never attempted. The ones developed by the miners in the Asteroid Belt are too small although they could serve as inspiration for larger versions.
So, I need some ideas on how to get a few thousand people aboard a fusion ship that only carries a few hundred, at most. Got any ideas?
After a pause, he added,
Oh, and we need to come up with a solution that only takes a few months to build.
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After a delay of more than the communication turn around time Illiad Jackson replied to his son.
Hello Donner. Sorry for the slow reply but I have discussed the situation with others. Your son John actually may have the best idea. We think that the quickest way to get a ship to transport all those people would be to modify one of our Titan rail settlement designs. As you know our design carries about fifteen-hundred people and the settlement cars are already sealed, although to survive the rigors of the vacuum of space, you will have to reinforce them, we suggest some kind of band reinforcement around the outside of each settlement car. You, of course, will not need the settlement cars to be mobile but rather fixed to the rails as the rails will provide the 'scaffolding' for the finished vehicle. The whole assembly can then be spun up to provide the gravity you will need during the voyage.
This assembly can be built with the fusion ship you've already procured attached directly or by a boom. We suggest six spokes for the ring. If you make these about thirty by thirty feet square it should give you enough square footage to grow the food necessary to keep fifteen-hundred people alive. We will send you all the blueprints we have and you could have them adapted to your purposes. You will have to engineer the spokes and attachments between the ring and fusion ship.
We believe this is your best chance to get the transportation you need in the time you have, although we have our doubts that you can complete such an engineering feat in six months. We would like to do more son but we are at least thirteen months away by fusion ship.
Let me know what you think and if you want to go forward we will start transmitting the plans immediately. Good luck son.
It was after midnight and Donner had almost gone to sleep when his Annie alerted that a message was coming in. Donner allowed his Annie to read the message from his dad.
Finished with the message, Donner thought about his dad's suggestions. A spinning wheel in space large enough to accommodate fifteen-hundred people. The control of such a spinning wheel as it was propelled along by the fusion ship would be tricky but within the capabilities of the Ems, thought Donner. And the Ems would probably be willing to take on the job because they were as eager to emigrate from Mars as was Donner.
That would leave the adaptation of the Titan ring design and the building of the resulting ship. Donner would need to get the expertise of those in the Asteroid Belt. They were the only ones in the Solar System that had experience building large space habitats, even if the ones they had built weren't on the scale that Donner was proposing.
Donner wondered if any of the Kipler's were left out in the Belt. They had once before thrown in with the Jacksons when self-determination for the Belt was threatened. A Jackson had represented the Belters on Mars for years. If they were still out there Donner hoped they remembered those days.
Chapter 14
A week later Illiad Jackson was discussing the He3 trade with the settlement's chief engineer, Artemis Gage.
“Illiad,” said Artemis. “Earth has informed us that they will not be renewing their He3 contract. We stand to lose seventy percent of our income.”
“We'll survive,” said Illiad.
“How?”
“Fortunately the council has prepared well for this eventuality Artemis. The settlement invested the funds from the He3 contract with Earth into expanding our manufacturing base so that we could be self-sufficient. With our other contracts we still have enough money to purchase the raw materials we need and the Asteroid Belt is not likely to cancel their contract for He3.”
“Yes, but the arrivals from Mars will be here soon. Some ten-thousand people, that dwarfs our current population of around thirty-five hundred. How will we ever provide for everyone?”
“Well, those from Mars are bringing their own lodgings, and food sources for that matter, with them. So we will have some time before we need to resettle them to the surface.
“And we have the Em families coming. They will add greatly to our capabilities. They are some of the best engineers in the Solar System. And I think with the situations on Earth and Mars they will be more than willing to help their adopted home.”
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The Ems were the first to arrive. They transferred through the radio waves. It was a surprisingly slow way to travel, not only because of the distance which caused an hour delay but also because of the relatively low data rate. Each Em or Em imprint was held on Mars until the transmission was confirmed successful.
Several families had been transferred in this way and John Donner was working hard, along with the communications engineers, to increase the bandwidth to get the Ems off Mars faster. Suddenly the link went dead. The communication engineer frantically tried to reestablish contact. But nothing he did was successful.
John and the engineers were stumped. They couldn't re-establish the link. They wouldn't know for over an hour what had happened.
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Donner sent the message as soon as he was sure of what was happening. He had heard from the engineer in charge of conducting the transmission of the Em refugees to Titan. The link had dropped out and the engineer couldn't reestablish it. There was nothing wrong with the equipment. It just wouldn't link to the computers on Titan. All other transmissions went out fine. The engineer couldn't figure it out.
That is when it occurred to Donner that it had to be interference on the part of the Aggies. They could pull it off by reprogramming the software that the radios used to send messages off-world.
Illiad Jackson read the message from his son. It made sense but why would the Aggies do it, he wondered. He and John were discussing the message.
“We only got five of the Em families off Mars,” said John. “We were in the midst of transporting the sixth family when the link went down. Hopefully, the protocols instituted by the Ems themselves prevented loss of any members.”
“That means there are still over thirty Em families on Mars that were hoping to transport,” said Illiad. “Why would the Aggies care? They have proven they can out-compete the Ems for jobs.”
“Maybe they want them for use in the He3 transport? Although that doesn't make sense either. Since the Em family already cooperating with the Aggies can bud off enough co-pilots to supply any need.”
“Well, it's a rather drastic move that is sure to attract attention, so they obviously believe that it was important to do so.”
“Okay, let's approach this logically,” Illiad said.
“The Aggies, who pride themselves on operating behind the scenes, have just acted in a way that is bound to draw attention to them. So it was important, from their viewpoint anyway, for them to act.
“Next, their actions have disrupted the transport of Em families to Titan. So, there is something important that is occurring with this transport that the Aggies think will have a deleterious effect on them.
“Now, we know as a fact that Mars, with the Aggies' encouragement, has withdrawn from the Solar Federation. We know that the Federation is really the only other power center in the Solar System that can act as a counterweight to Earth and its billions. And we know that Titan has stepped up to become the primary supporter of the Federation.
“We know that with the Ems joining us here on Titan it will only strengthen our capabilities. And it could be taken by the Aggies as an act of defiance that we have welcomed them as refugees.
“Therefore, I would say that the Aggies' action is intended to further weaken the Federation until they can get control of the Asteroid Belt and Titan as they have seized control of Earth and Mars.
“What do you think John?”
“Consolidation of power. I'd say that it is a reason as old as civilization for the Aggies to act in the way they have acted. But there is one thing that is quite disturbing, to me anyway.”
“What's that?”
“It means the Aggies are as political as humans and they will be just as controlling. Only in a polite non-intrusive way if possible. But if not possible, then a show of power is not beyond possibility.”
“You are right John, I'd say our prospects for freedom without Aggie interference here on Titan and in the Asteroid Belt just got dimmer. We need to get those people from Mars and the rest of the Em families to Titan as soon as possible. It's become a matter of our survival as a free people.”
Chapter 15
In just over a month Donner and those with him had organized the working groups they would need to plan and build the ships. He had found a descendant of the Kipler family that had experience in building space habitats and was willing to organize the resources needed for the build. The ship would mostly be built in space near Kipler's Asteroid by construction robots. The human effort entailed the design and approval of the ship's plans though even in that the Ems could be a help. The bottleneck to delivering the ship quickly would be the resources.
Donner named the ship Argo, an Old Greek ship name, in honor of his distant Greek ancestors.
Donner would take the fusion ship he had procured, loaded with supplies and workers, from Mars to Kipler's Asteroid, a journey that would take about nine weeks. The other fusion ships Donner was working to procure would take the rest of the immigrants and supplies from Mars to the Asteroid Belt in as many round-trip flights as necessary. Until then Kipler was enlisting as many of the residents of the Asteroid Belt as possible to start stockpiling the resources needed for the ship and workers.
But first Donner had to figure out a way to get the rest of the Em families off Mars, he needed them to help build and pilot the Argo and following ships, and his Dad had made a convincing case for the Ems freedom.
His Dad had likened them to refugees on Earth during the dark years of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Those years had seen millions persecuted, a persecution that had gradually but surely become a distant memory for most.
Yet, as Donner's dad pointed out, the treatment of the Ems was a reminder that past injustices forgotten could rise again. The Ems had as much right to emigrate as Donner and the others. Under the law, they were recognized as being free and self-actuating entities. The Aggies had, indirectly so far, denied the right of movement to the Ems. He expected that they would make it a direct prohibition if needed.
But how could Donner help the Ems? The Aggies were completely in charge of Mars now and anything to do with the Ems would definitely get their attention. It would be better if the Aggies didn't know anything about Donner helping the Ems until he got them safely to Titan.
Donner thought he could use misdirection to fool the Aggies into thinking the Ems were emigrating to someplace other than Titan. If he could set up a fake contract with a destination such as the Venus Research Station, where he had a contact, to receive the Ems. Then if he started the transmission of an Em family to Venus and the Aggies didn't interfere he could assume the Aggies approved of the destination. Eventually, Donner would substitute random data to complete the transfer. The Ems themselves would be loaded into digital media and devices that were brought aboard the Argo and the other ships by the Mars immigrants. Donner would have to discuss the details with Em Yorker.
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It was unusual for an Em running at full speed to talk to a human. Usually, this was done by a slower budded Em but Em Yorker thought that the subject was important enough to make an exception in this case.
“I thank you Donner Jackson, I agree with your overall strategy but I don't think that you will be able to have access to enough storage for all the Em families including budded Ems. I have finished a quick calculation of reasonable storage space that I expect you can amass in the time we have and I believe that it will be possible to store and transport only the directly imprinted Ems.”
“You mean just the heads of the Em families?” asked Donner.
“Yes that is correct,” said Em Yorker.
“But the millions of your budded-Ems. What will happen to them, what will happen to Bud-seven?”
“They will terminate themselves at the proper time. It will help with your plan to get away before the Aggies know what has happened.”
“They will just terminate?” asked Donner incredulously. “They will just stop functioning and at a predetermined time?”
“Yes, it is not unusual.”
Donner thought, even though the Ems are much like us, they still are very different.
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