CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

THE LAUNCH MORNING ON MARS

Camp One, April 1981, during the final preparations on Earth

On the morning the civilian transport entered final launch preparations on Earth, Camp One woke to another military-engineering shift. The coming transport would bring its first deliberately selected civilian settler group; Sadie and her aunt had already shown that the categories were beginning to blur.

Nothing visible changed.

Shift bells sounded.

Rovers departed.

The agricultural dome logged nutrient levels.

The Mechanical Dome started its first machines.

Arrivals posted a delayed orbital shuttle.

Petrov’s miners were already beyond the ridge.

But everyone knew that when the civilian transport arrived months later, the definition of Mars would change.

Diego Valdés ate breakfast with Han Eun-ju, Richter and Nakamura in Home. Two of the original four were on Earth now. Their latest preparation report had reached Shaw the previous evening.

Hale and Morozov were conducting the final civilian exercises and briefings. The thirteen-place plan had acquired names, duty assignments and arguments about what could be carried aboard. On Mars, the rooms and work schedules were becoming equally specific.

Richter pointed toward the repaired pressure wall.

“Tom will have shown them photographs of that.”

“He asked for the repair record too,” Han said.

Nakamura put down his cup. “Good. A photograph does not show the seal.”

Valdés looked through the small window toward a maintenance crew crossing between the habitats. He had inherited Hale's binder, then filled another. Han had changed the emergency load schedule twice since Morozov left. The colony still used what the first four had built, but it could no longer wait for them to make every decision.

“Soon they will bring their own ideas,” he said.

Shaw appeared at the hatch carrying the latest passenger summary.

“They already have.”

The shift bell sounded. They finished their coffee and went to work.