The best seat

That view, I tell you I’m the lucky one. I’m the first to experience actually living on the terraformed planet Mars. It was my Great Grandfather who was one of the first to start transforming the red dustbowl into something that could sustain life. He and his buddies made several trips back to Mother Earth for supplies, they even mined asteroids for gold and silver, but more importantly copper and aqua too. Great Grandfather was in charge of gathering water from specially created Earth reserves and then extracting the same precious commodity when it was detected within passing asteroids. It was dangerous work, taking water from Earth as much as mining it from space. If stories be true Great Grandfather was a thrill seeker, even in his fifties. He died on Mars doing what he loved. Sadly he was returned to Earth for burial regardless of my family’s wishes.

Determined to see his father’s vision come true my Grandfather took up the Mars mantle. He was a green thumb whose garden at the Earth homestead was the rival of his entire town, not just his neighborhood. Grandfather used his knowledge of botany and nature to create and then coax to germination a new strain of algae which spread across Great Grandfather’s oxy-ponds turning them green. Slowly but surely the oxygen levels rose and temperatures increased. This enabled Grandfather and others like him to develop more complex flora. My Great Uncle who was more of a tinker joined Grandfather and assisted by designing and building huge warehouses enabling fruit baring trees to thrive in falsified atmospheres. Great Uncle also created mechanical insects that were almost as efficient as bees on Earth in assisting the pollination required for plants to mate and then bear fruit which in turn produced heartier seeds for more plants and trees. A planet that was once red was becoming green and blue, a world where dust filled the air and danger seemed to be everywhere was morphing into a livable habitat. Grandfather was asked twice to return to Earth after he had proven to the Government that his ecosystem could and would continue to develop and grow on its own. He refused to leave though, always eager to challenge himself and see if he could create the impossible and lull it to thrive. Four Special Ops had to extract him from his lab one night. He was able to spend his eighties back on Earth again and it was his stories that inspired my love for all things Martian. His brother was not so lucky, he only made it to seventy-three before he was killed building the first Mars city. A bridge of his own design collapsed while half complete. Great Uncle was one of ten that perished under the titanium and concrete. After his brother’s death my Grandfather did not talk so much about his time away. He just tended his garden and spent a lot of time looking skyward.

My father was a pioneer as well. While my Grandfather was up there his son chose to join him. Like his Grandfather, my Great Grandfather, my father loved the thrill of extraction. Mars needed copious amounts of energy to drive the machines, run the sheds; energy was needed to continue keeping the lines of communication open between the two planets while such developments continued. I am proud to say that it was my father and my mother both who delivered and set up some of the natural power generators which in turn enabled ecosystem and economy to carry on moving forward at a swift and steady rate. In fact my mum and dad were on the same crew, their ship was the Mary-Lou and it ran a trip to and from Mars once every second year for thirty years. It was the only ship to run that many missions and it was the only ship to keep the same crew. Mum asked dad to marry her during one trip while the red planet could be spied on the horizon. Their wedding rings are a mix of Mars titanium and Earth gold.

I got to physically see my parents twice a year, my birthday and Christmas was when I could hug them and those hugs were a better present than all the amazing gifts I received. For the remainder of each year it was a weekly intergalactic conference call once or twice a week. I got to know both of my Grandmothers, Grandma Sue and Misses Helena extremely well. In fact all of my extended family of aunts and uncles and cousins brought me up in their own way and helped to prepare me for my part in the family legacy. I was to be the inaugural Mayor of Mars’ first city, for all the work that went in to changing and preparing that planet for civilization not one member of the constantly evolving workforce were ever considered residents. I was to be the first, groomed to be the face by which middle income families would be enticed to pack up their lives and travel an Earth year through space to a brand new planet. Marketing was to be my gift and I with the support and encouragement of the whole family honed those skills until I lived and breathed that foreign atmosphere. So when it was time to go I knew that there would be five hundred Earthlings following after me in six months more. In another two years there would be two hundred more young engineers, scientists, store clerks, Government officials, pilots, health professionals, educators; an entire society. Poster boy me I was told I would be paid handsomely to coax a hundred thousand people to traverse from Earth to the red dot in the sky with expectations that by the time I saw my final days there would be three more cities established, each with their own Mayor and enough new born Martians that society would be stable.

On the eve of my twenty-first birthday I witnessed my first view of that planet I was so passionate about. Mars was so much my life that I had foregone my initial bi-annual hug knowing that by Christmas I’d not be seeing Mum or Dad either. In fact for that first six months I would have the planet to myself. Of course there would be ship deliveries every once in a while, human interaction so I was not to be starved of company, but that responsibility of making the new planet welcoming and ready for the settlers was what thrilled me.

The greatest thrill of all and one that I will never forget was my first time witnessing the view of the two moons of Mars chased by a distant vision of Earth and her moon, an interstellar game of chase. The overview effect is my ace and I plan to play it every opportunity. So come on and book your trip. I promise there will be no regrets.