you must be accompanied by an authorized employee. If you would like to visit the observatory just flag down someone wearing a blue and white ID card pinned to their jumpsuits. You are welcome to explore anywhere else in the city but it would stil be impolite to enter someone's home unless you were invited in.”
As promised lunch was mostly cold cuts and a bowl of soup. There was a large bowl of pickled mushrooms on the chow line as wel . “Where do the mushrooms come from” Archie ask one of the cooks. “Mushrooms are the only food that we currently produce here on Mars. We have a walled off room at the back of this cavern that receives little light. We had some steer manure and straw brought up from Earth a while back and the mushrooms thrive in it. You wil eat a lot of mushrooms while you are here.
Some of the scientists are raising a test vegetable garden under grow lights but so far without much success, It takes so much electricity to power the grow lights that it is cheaper to bring canned vegetables in from Earth. It would help more than you could imagine if we had plenty of electricity. The kitchen staff could recognize the members of our kitchen staff by their white work clothes. Our kitchen workers were collared immediately and put to work. There were about eight of ours already on the planet the rest were stil on the ship, or en route to the planet in one of the Shuttles. There are three Shuttles but Shuttle three is already moving cargo from the ship to the elevator pad which crossed through a double air lock to ground level where men with electric fork lifts were removing pallets and placing them in a preprepared area of the supply yard. As the fork lift drivers placed the pallets in the holding area they spaced them out so workers could see and get at the contents of each pallet. Tim found the foreman and was put to work unpacking crates. “Lumber here is a precious commodity so we are very careful in dismantling the wooden packing crates and the pallets. Everyone wants wood to construct furniture and construction crews have an insatiable appetite for wood for all sorts of things. We even straighten the nails and save the screws and binding strips for future projects, so take your time and stack the material that they contain so that people seeking that particular item can easily locate it. Sort the lumber and nails and screws and put them into inventory in those racks and bins over there.”
Tim had only unpacked a few things when he noticed it was almost dinner time. He went to the mess hall where they once again had soup and sandwiches. While he was eating, an ordinary house fly lit on the half sandwich lying on his plate. Casually and without giving it a thought he shooed the fly away, then it occurred to him, This is Mars, what are flies doing on Mars. He asked Carla Later and she said “Oh, yeah, we see them all the time in the kitchen, kinda reminds you of home doesn't it?”
After dinner he unpacked a few more crates while Carla was stil working in the kitchen. Then on his way to the kitchen, as he was rounding the building what should he behold but an ant hil and hundreds of the little critters working away, carrying bits of food from the kitchen. Carla said later, “They must have been transported up from Earth with food stuffs and had just made the best of it.”
The group that Included Tim and Carla had returned to the supply building and drawn out a mattress, a blanket a porta-potty, two rolls of toilet paper, some shaving depilatory, some after shave and several other items. The bags with their belongings in them were also now available at supply. When they had their items selected from the shelves they took them to the desk at the rear of the room where the clerk scanned them and bagged them. “How do we pay for these things?” Carla asked “Oh, there is no charge they are all free to employees, even though you don't have your permanent ID cards I can see by the cards that you are
As promised lunch was mostly cold cuts and a bowl of soup. There was a large bowl of pickled mushrooms on the chow line as wel . “Where do the mushrooms come from” Archie ask one of the cooks. “Mushrooms are the only food that we currently produce here on Mars. We have a walled off room at the back of this cavern that receives little light. We had some steer manure and straw brought up from Earth a while back and the mushrooms thrive in it. You wil eat a lot of mushrooms while you are here.
Some of the scientists are raising a test vegetable garden under grow lights but so far without much success, It takes so much electricity to power the grow lights that it is cheaper to bring canned vegetables in from Earth. It would help more than you could imagine if we had plenty of electricity. The kitchen staff could recognize the members of our kitchen staff by their white work clothes. Our kitchen workers were collared immediately and put to work. There were about eight of ours already on the planet the rest were stil on the ship, or en route to the planet in one of the Shuttles. There are three Shuttles but Shuttle three is already moving cargo from the ship to the elevator pad which crossed through a double air lock to ground level where men with electric fork lifts were removing pallets and placing them in a preprepared area of the supply yard. As the fork lift drivers placed the pallets in the holding area they spaced them out so workers could see and get at the contents of each pallet. Tim found the foreman and was put to work unpacking crates. “Lumber here is a precious commodity so we are very careful in dismantling the wooden packing crates and the pallets. Everyone wants wood to construct furniture and construction crews have an insatiable appetite for wood for all sorts of things. We even straighten the nails and save the screws and binding strips for future projects, so take your time and stack the material that they contain so that people seeking that particular item can easily locate it. Sort the lumber and nails and screws and put them into inventory in those racks and bins over there.”
Tim had only unpacked a few things when he noticed it was almost dinner time. He went to the mess hall where they once again had soup and sandwiches. While he was eating, an ordinary house fly lit on the half sandwich lying on his plate. Casually and without giving it a thought he shooed the fly away, then it occurred to him, This is Mars, what are flies doing on Mars. He asked Carla Later and she said “Oh, yeah, we see them all the time in the kitchen, kinda reminds you of home doesn't it?”
After dinner he unpacked a few more crates while Carla was stil working in the kitchen. Then on his way to the kitchen, as he was rounding the building what should he behold but an ant hil and hundreds of the little critters working away, carrying bits of food from the kitchen. Carla said later, “They must have been transported up from Earth with food stuffs and had just made the best of it.”
The group that Included Tim and Carla had returned to the supply building and drawn out a mattress, a blanket a porta-potty, two rolls of toilet paper, some shaving depilatory, some after shave and several other items. The bags with their belongings in them were also now available at supply. When they had their items selected from the shelves they took them to the desk at the rear of the room where the clerk scanned them and bagged them. “How do we pay for these things?” Carla asked “Oh, there is no charge they are all free to employees, even though you don't have your permanent ID cards I can see by the cards that you are
Similar Books
