Kernel of an idea

Dreams, the quintessential experience of every nightmare that isn’t during waking hours. It is improbable that dreams can be an easy escape from reality when in day to day life there is kidnapping, rape, murder, betrayal, and not to mention the slow drudgery of everyday tasks, jobs—-dreams gone to waste. Of course there are some luckier than others, who just seem to fit into the roughest terrain and seem to know exactly how to maneuver through it with grace and prosperity. When I was first brought into overseeing a highly secretive and high profile mission that required keeping secret the most important dream of humanity since man first looked at the moon, it was not easy to manage. My dreams canvassed more than what normal folks wanted. I never wanted children, a wife, a job. I never wanted a huge house and a yard with the picket fence. I didn’t even want to live on earth.

Here we are, now, meeting The President of the United States, talking about the first semi-permanent habitation of Mars.

It was the largest undertaking I’ve ever seen and it literally felt like the most important and craziest thing anyone’s ever done. More important than defeating the Nazi’s, more important than anything anyone could do on earth. With life on earth there was a limited amount of experiences to be had. Sure, you could travel and scuba dive, climb mountains, explore jungles and go to community college. It’s all about what you want your life to mean. I know that beyond myself, there is something more meaningful than that. All of that. But no matter what I do, where I go, who I meet, it’s never enough. I never feel satisfied.

So, here we are.

Mars. The forth planet from the sun. With terrain similar to earth in some aspects, with frozen ice caps that have up to 70% water, the flat, solid mass of oxidation, the lively reddish muddy hue of Mars sets a new stage of life for humanity. It’s unlike anything anyone’s ever done or will do. The only comparable event was the discovery of the Hydrogen bomb.

To masterfully conquer one another is a timeless dream that only can be realized after the right combination of trust, manipulation, fear, and a good measure of power and control. We trust on our government to keep us safe from foreign fire, and we have laws to keep us safe from the bad guys within the states. We fear our government is fascist and telling us what to think, but we are already manipulated that our country is the freest there is. Why question something that has been indoctrinated in our heads since we first saluted the flag and God Blessed America in school? It’s not enough we live in the “freest country in the world,” we have to prove it and go to other sovereign nations and stick it in their ear just how proud we are. And bomb them and give them weapons, and then conjecture how they want to destroy us on a mind numbingly, never ending fear campaign on all fronts of media. It’s all corrupt, from top to bottom.

There’s nothing better than to have an enemy. That makes you a victim, and with that status, you can sympathize with yourself and fill your mind with hate and anger. That’s propaganda from the media’s hive mind mentality that if we all fear something far away, we won’t see what right in front of our faces. It’s actually a fallacy in logic that I believe these things, as I come from a strong military family. I do love my country and have served in the Air Force, yet, I’m not blind to the wool over my own eyes. I embrace it, actually, wholeheartedly.

Even though Mars will be an outright extension of the United States in many respects, I’m hoping that we do things that will push the boundaries of human limitations and that we will be different. We will have control, yes, but not over others. Over ourselves. We will not pollute because we will recycle and reuse. We will not murder or rape. We will create and infuse our new world with achievements and advancements so grand and so wonderfully new that all will be envious of our masterful works. Science, mathematics, literature, medicine, the arts, all will carry a fresh new perspective, a renaissance, if you will. I have a vision, a vision in red.

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Chapter One

To thrive or survive

Once the kernel of the idea set the framework of the plan, there was nothing to stop its progression from a tiny seed, to a nuclear, over sized GMO hybrid that was immune to any disease or any human need for wanton destruction. An idea of this magnitude was unstoppable, and brilliantly laid out as an excuse to have more territory and have, once it’s to its full, bustling peak, three million citizens live in and expand a new planet. They would have every advantage that most earth denizens had, fresh water, clean air, education, an abundance of food and vegetation. It would take years to build up a proper and sustainable development of land and homes, schools and hospitals, scientific research facilities and communication sites to relay data and findings.

In the years before this idea was viable and actually could be implemented in reality, we had simulations of traveling into outer space in 3D and 4D, ideas of habitation on Mars surfacing in and out of articles of science and speculation, and theories on the planets terrain with the possibility of it carrying rivers or water beds due to the formation of frozen ravines. There was even talks of a militaristic Space Force. Mars had to provide everything that earth could, in theory, for something like this to actually provide long term care for up to one million denizens. In the beginning, at least.

Twelve hundred ships would be carrying plants, animals, lumber, construction supplies and tools, viable germinated seeds, medical supplies, and scientific equipment. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, pediatric and geriatric care providers and obstetricians, veterinarians, and sanitation and health workers all would be first to be placed on what would be a large waiting list for the initial one million residents. 300,000 of these cohabiters would be the best of society's variables, and 700,000 would be mostly a random assortment of United States citizens and other countries that have a smaller stake in the project as a whole. In a broad sense, this is a United States territory with major US funding and backing, and its citizens basically American legally and representatively.

So first, to map out Mars to find the most suitable and reliable platform to start work on making it an actual place plants and animals and people can survive. Which hemisphere is less harsh? Which area has terrain that is manageable?

We all have powerful telescopes(Giant Magellan Telescope and of course, the James Webb) and data analyzing tools that can tell us the temperatures of surfaces and of atmospheres, of scientists who study space weather patterns, and who know of theories and of artistic interpretations based upon NASA and other scientific conclusions.

But, how else to know for sure---unless you are actually there?

That is my job. To make sure it is a reality.

Whether it is a good idea, long term, is not up to me to determine---but, I see this as a huge advantage to the US militarily.

There is something out there, too---in Mars, somewhere hiding. I know it. I have felt it.

I have dreamt it.

My feet will touch the surface of red soon enough, and then I will know for sure.