Muslim Mars

By Christian Hale

It is the year 2054, and both Europe and China have established scientific research colonies on Mars. But Europe is in turmoil and has only just now exited a devastating war. A peace deal has been reached with the Arab and Turkish armies that occupy southern Europe, and among the terms of the agreement is one point that goes beyond Earth: Europe must open its colony on Mars to Muslim immigrants. As hundreds and soon thousands of Muslims arrive at Europe’s Mars science and research colony, a lone community relations officer tries to prevent conflicts between the Muslim settlers and the original terraforming colonists from descending into violence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Hale
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463478882

Christian Hale

Christian Hale has lived and worked overseas for the last decade in various war zones and post-conflict countries. He enjoys traveling to future-conflict zones as well when he's on vacation. Sometimes Christian has a job, but almost never a lucrative or a heroic one. He is waiting for an apocalyptic currency devaluation of the American dollar so that his student loan payments become affordable. Until then, he has been staying in hostels and eating cereal straight from the box for dinner. He has no idea what his post-pandemic plans are.

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Muslim Mars

By Christian Hale

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Copyright 2020 Christian Hale

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

"The vision recurs; the eastern sun has a second rise; history repeats her tale unconsciously, and goes off into a mystic rhyme; ages are prototypes of other ages, and the winding course of time brings us round to the same spot again."

- Andrey N. Mouravieff, October 1840.

Hestia Colony, Mars

Earth year 2054 (Mars calendar year 11)

I will get straight to the point, said the man on the recorded audio transmission from Earth. The details of the peace deal with the Muslims will be announced in about twelve hours. There are some issues still to be clarified, but I have a very short document in front of me outlining the main points.

The Hestia Colony Planning Committee sat silently listening to the President of the European Council and glanced over the words as they were transcribed onto a screen.

I will spend most of my time going over what is relevant to you on Hestia. But first you will hear what we in Europe must give up, so you understand that you are not the only ones who must sacrifice. Then I will outline your burden.

The committee members, twelve meters deep under the Martian soil and rock, suddenly grew nervous.

What does this have to do with us? said a committee member to nobody in particular. They better not be cutting back on supply missions.

We lose most of southern Spain, said the President. As well as southern Italy. Greece is gone, plus every single Balkan state minus Slovenia. Also, Bulgaria and the Black Sea Coast of Romania and virtually every island in the Mediterranean have been lost. In exchange, the Muslims, by which I mean the Turks and the Arabs and every other Muslim ally that is a part of their coalition, will stop their siege of Vienna and withdraw their forces from Austria and Hungary to their newly recognized Balkan domains. The Arab expeditionary force that is camped in the Centre-Val de Loire region will drive south and leave France entirely, as will the Arab forces who made Marseille their base. The Muslims will renounce any further territorial claims on European territory aside from what has been ceded to them. As they withdraw their forces, the American and British volunteers will leave Europe on the same timeline, whether they like it or not.

So, what’s the bad news? asked a voice from the back of the committee room with a sarcastic question that would go unanswered by the one-way transmission.

What is relevant to Mars, continued the President, maybe not to the Chinese colony but definitely to you in Europe’s colony in Hestia, is the return of refugees. Europe has agreed to accommodate and compensate every Muslim refugee who fled Europe…even those that we accuse of treason or terrorism.

There was confused murmuring in the committee room.

As you are well aware, Hestia has been condemned at the United Nations and elsewhere for the composition of the colony’s population. In particular, you are seen by the Muslim world as an atheist European force that seeks to exclude Islam from space exploration and colonization.

We exclude every religion on Mars, as do the Chinese, said one committee member. This is a scientific colony, not a mosque.

And so the Muslims were adamant in the negotiations, stressed the President. Hestia will be opened up to Muslim immigrants, likely to be chosen from amongst the refugees who are returning to Europe. Within five years the colony must be twenty-five percent Muslim. Within a decade the number must be forty-five percent. We have no choice in who is accepted. The Turks and the Arabs will do the selections. Islam is coming to Mars.

The transmission ended and the Hestia colony committee room erupted in confusion and anger.

Chapter One

"When you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into."

- Wendell Berry, 1961

Tharsis Plateau, European Sector Landing Field, Mars

386 days after the conclusion of the peace treaty

Thomas looked out over the Martian horizon as the dust from the lander slowly dissipated in the far distance. He felt his helmet and breathing apparatus weigh heavily whenever he moved slightly. He thought it odd that this was what was on his mind as he walked across the surface of Mars for the first time. Thomas then focused his wandering thoughts on the scenery: bleak and brownish-orange. He was warned ahead of time to not expect any spectacular scenery, certainly not anywhere near the broad, flat landing area. Olympus Mons, more than twice the height of Mount Everest, was out of view over the horizon. And Arsia Mons, home to the Hestia Colony, had such a gentle slope that Thomas did not even notice that he was already standing near the western base of the extinct volcano.

The Hestia Colony workers ignored Thomas and busied themselves with unloading cargo and disassembling the single-use freight lander, not bothering to ask him why he was the only arrival. Thomas concluded that the delivery of cargo coinciding with the arrival of a new person on Mars was, apparently, a mundane affair for long-time colonists.

Hello, Thomas! Behind you, said a voice in Thomas’ earpiece.

Thomas turned around to see a man in a heavy spacesuit wearing a dark reflective visor.

Sorry. I can see your face but you can’t see mine. It seems rude, I realize. This visor is mandatory extra protection from the radiation that is slowly frying your DNA right now.

Oh, that’s no problem at all, replied Thomas. You’re my escort to the colony, right? Erik?

"Yes, that’s me. But there’s no hurry. We can stick around here for a while longer if you want. I’m only joking about the radiation. You would need to spend a couple of weeks outside in that lightweight suit before you do any damage. I assume you read the health and safety section of that Welcome to Mars book during your transit?"

I watched the video series instead while doing my mandatory exercises. It’s a long trip from French Guiana to Hestia. I may have had the misfortune of watching it a few times.

Bad video, I know, admitted Erik.

It wasn’t too bad. It’s just obviously made by…uh, amateurs.

We’re not good at creating art or entertainment here on Mars. The plan was to import the creative people last. Although I’m not sure what a poet would write about this landing field, said Erik as he gestured at the lightweight shipping containers and scattered machinery that sat amidst the dusty tracks of so many vehicles.

Thomas laughed, realizing that he really was about to join a colony of scientists, engineers, and technicians.

So, listen… continued Erik. The drive in the ground transporter is almost two hours long, and the scenery on the road is far better than this landing area. And also, if we go now, we have the vehicle to ourselves. If we leave later, we will share it with some of these guys when their shift ends. And they won’t want to take the slower scenic route that I have in mind.

OK, you’ve convinced me. I’m ready to go.

The four-wheeled ground transporter moved along at a slow speed while its electric motor hummed quietly. Thomas sat in his seat and enjoyed the view as the terrain became rougher and steeper. He had hoped that he would be able to take off his helmet in the transporter, but he immediately glimpsed the stern safety warning: HELMETS MUST REMAIN ON.

That’s for the newcomers, said Erik as he noticed Thomas looking at the warning. For whatever reason, some of them think we have sealed and pressurized vehicles on Mars, as if we have the budget for that sort of thing.

Are you a full-time driver? asked Thomas.

No, I’m a water technician. Specifically, I harvest ice from the glacier. Or rather, from the frozen dirt and gravel we tunnel into. It’s not exactly a beautiful blue-ice glacier, replied Erik as he pointed up the slope of the long-extinct Arsia Mons volcano.

I hope that you didn’t have to spend one of your free days to come pick me up.

Oh, no. Don’t worry about that. I have quite a few days off. We are so efficient with glacier melting that our water technician team has been cut by about eighty percent. The main point of the ice harvesting these days is to make oxygen.

And yet you Hestians seem very strict with water recycling, at least in the officially stated rules, said Thomas. If there is such an abundance of ice-melt water, why is the Hestia Colony recycling waste water and toilet water and, uh…

Drinking it? said Erik with a smile.

Yeah, drinking it. I know that it is perfectly pure, but still...

Well, we don’t think about it anymore here. It just doesn’t cross your mind when you drink a glass of water. That was the plan: to remove any taboo or revulsion from drinking and eating recycled biowaste. But more importantly, we are constantly working to perfect our water recycling and efficiency techniques so that when we eventually build colonies or research stations in drier areas of Mars, we will be ready then to be ultra-water conservationists.

OK, that makes sense.

But it’s just for practice in some ways, said Erik. The colony itself has such low levels of water wastage and loss that we’ve built a few small swimming pools and saunas. Also, showers and baths are now unrestricted for time and volume.

What happened to the people who no longer have their water technician jobs?

A few went to work in the greenhouses and other random jobs. And some went into intensive retraining programs for other engineering specialties, but most have been reassigned as sulfur and aggregate miners to supply the construction crew for the new residential sector.

The new residential area, is it attached to the original colony? asked Thomas.

Yes. It just goes further into the hollow lava tube that our colony straddles. It should be finished in about one Earth year. The cargo shipment you arrived with has all the parts for the airlock that will be installed at the back of the new sector.

But all other construction materials are sourced locally?

Mostly. We use sulfurous concrete. But the manufacture of the sulfur cement we use is a time and energy intensive process. It’s almost all by hand, with the help of small electric mixers. We don’t quite have industrial levels of production capabilities here. So the miners and the construction crew are now the fittest guys in the colony.

Half an hour later Thomas had exhausted all possible questions about Erik’s work. He already knew the basic facts about the Hestia Colony and its operations on the slopes of the Arsia Mons volcano. Watching information videos during the long transit from Earth had given Thomas enough information. He really didn’t need to bother Erik, but he was eager to talk to someone new. The small crew of French astronauts that had delivered the supplies to Mars orbit had been his only company for far too long.

The pause in the conversation gave Erik a chance to turn the interrogation in the other direction.

So, you’re the negotiator? asked Erik as he kept his eyes on the road and his hands on the steering wheel.

Is that what they are calling me?

Well, if you have an exact job title, they haven’t announced it yet, said Erik. "But everybody here knows your job description. It was written in the introduction announcement that we all received. You will be sort of a go-between guy for the Hestia community and the…uh, Muslims. It said new arrivals, but everybody here reads that as Muslims. But to be honest, it’s still not clear. Are you doing community relations, or something more serious?"

Nothing too serious, I hope, replied Thomas. On Earth I did community relations with Muslim residents and refugees for the city government of Hamburg. But the job soon turned into dispute resolution and managing some very bad relations as the war got worse.

Yeah, I read an article about you after I searched your name online. From what I recall, both the local government and the Muslims credited you with keeping the people of Hamburg from kicking out or killing the Muslims like most everywhere else in Germany.

That was the end result of many people’s hard work – on both sides, said Thomas, trying to be modest.

Sure, sure. But you have to understand what that looks like to many people here, said Erik. We don’t have any social scientists in Hestia. But we do understand that you are known for preventing Europeans from killing Muslims. And you have been sent to us, a colony that is over ninety percent European – or even close to ninety-five percent European if you include the Americans, Canadians and Australians. What are we to think? Does Earth think we are going to round up the Muslims and march them out onto the surface without space suits?

It was the sort of very direct conversation that could be expected to occur between a Dane and a German. And Thomas was honest. He admitted that those back on Earth who hired him for the job recruited him especially because he had managed community relations in drastically different circumstances, from a time of peace through to a time when Muslims feared they might be deported or murdered at any moment. Thomas stressed that he was only expecting to use his skillset from the earlier peaceful times.

We have over a year until the first Muslims arrive. What will you be doing between now and then? asked Erik.

Getting to know the community.

All 3000 of us?

2897 of you, yes, replied Thomas with a smile.

2896, actually. We had a suicide just recently. Some teenage girl did a walk-away.

"A walk-away?"

Yeah, she put on a suit and went out for a walk. Everybody here is allowed to go outside when the weather conditions are good. You just need to reserve a space suit and a time slot and off you go...alone if you want. She hiked until she was past the point of no return. And then she removed her helmet. It’s a quick death—the low pressure takes less than a minute to kill you. But horribly painful. It gets you before the asphyxiation does.

Do these suits not have some sort of safety override or safety lock? You can just take the helmet off? said Thomas as he tapped on his helmet.

"Yes. It’s completely manual, as is this transporter. Most things are fully manual around here. Only the colony’s external air locks have any sort of automatic safety override. So for those, you need both a person using their hands to turn the levers and a computer deciding that it is safe to alternately open the outer and inner doors. The computer override prevents the inner and outer locks from being open at the same time. And, of course, we have an auto life-support backup system that will start pumping oxygen into the colony if it gets too low. And a fire suppression system. The usual."

Will they introduce any new safety features on these space suits and helmets because of this girl’s suicide?

I doubt it, shrugged Erik. If someone has decided to kill themselves, then they will find many quick ways to do it on Mars. This girl did.

And, uh, how about the body? I read that Hestians have a variety of choices.

Cremation. And then the family and a few friends were given a ride in a couple of these transporters to a valley nearby where they scattered the ashes.

Did you know her family? asked Thomas.

No. But I do know she was old enough to remember Earth. Not every kid here is happy about the choices that their parents made for them. For a scientist or an engineer this one-way trip is the adventure of a lifetime. It gives them a higher purpose. But for a young girl who remembers her life on Earth? Maybe not so much. So, unsurprisingly, even though the levels of youth depression in Hestia are lower than back in Europe, we are not immune.

Yes, I’ve read over the statistics. And I’ve read many of the Hestia Colony case studies, but anonymously, of course. I don’t see any names.

How much do you have access to? asked Erik.

The same community information that your Planning Committee does, minus the technical information about the colony. So I get to see social indicators of various types, that’s all.

Anything interesting? asked Erik.

I saw one study that said you guys have less sex than the average European. The report could give no conclusive answers, but I do remember a quote from one anonymous respondent who said he felt like an animal in a crowded zoo. It’s a mood-killer, I guess.

Well, they should compare us not to the average European back on Earth, but rather to engineers and scientists back on Earth. We must be having more sex than those people.

Erik laughed out loud with Thomas.

While Erik followed along with the switch in tone and continued to make jokes about the colony, Thomas thought over what was actually the most interesting statistic he had read. And this one was given in confidence and was not to be repeated: a quick survey revealed that thirty-four