It was originally thought that the finalisation of the Cloud City Project on Venus in UTC-Year 152 (2202 A.D.), would put the Martians to shame in such a way that they would either buck up their ideas and finish their one hundred year project, or just pack up and go (come) home!
The cloud cities, especially those of Megladome-3 and Skylan Prime are testimony to the true endeavour of our species. For those of you who are unfortunate enough not to have been to Venus yet, let me tell you my dear data grabbers you are in for a spectacular treat.
Of course one could go to the Itchako-chain and visit the cloud cities in virtuality, however for once I would recommend saving your credits and getting out there, as it is something to behold in the real.
The first stunning sight that greets the traveller arriving on the short-hop solar cruiser descending through the upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere, are the beautiful yellow ‘S’ clouds that swirl around the highest parts of the troposphere.
Almost immediately afterwards you will see the huge bobbing grey dirigibles sucking sulphuric acid out from the mesosphere in order to split it into water and oxygen. Once you are within around a kilometre from the huge floating factories, it is possible to see the carbo-plas flexihoses leading down to the cloud cities.
The cities themselves are sparkling clear domes of diamond filament sheets that reflect the wonderful pinks and yellows of the Venusian clouds in a way that can only be described as, romantic. The antimatter drives that keep the cities in relative position, also are used to navigate the two hundred kilometre an hour plus winds.
Left to their own devices the mesospheric winds would carry the cities around the planet in around four Solstan Standard days, however so as to match Earth time, the engines allow for the cities to complete a rotation once every 23.96 hours, thus visitors don’t have to bother with all that silly time conversion that one has to when visiting Mars.
So what is wrong with the Martian colony? This is a question that has been asked a thousand times before. They have everything going for them, and it is not like they have been denied any technological advances from Earth, the re-establishing of Mars’s magnetosphere via the terraform project is testimony to that.
No, I can only come to the conclusion that it is the weird cult that has taken hold of the planet for the last fifty years or so. Apparently this group of citizens finds solace in a life without the use of empLinks and severely reduced Nplant capabilities.
This puts the traveller to Mars in a rather disconcerting situation on arrival, as unlike Earth there are no constant empLink streams or Nplant news updates. Of course upon planet fall one can check the local data sources, however lack of constant streaming means that there is an eerie inner quiet, the kind of which you get whilst within the Empires environment.
Whilst it may be novel to spend some time within a game without use of internal communication technology, this novelty wears off pretty quickly when there is no option to log out!
It would seem that the Martians weird obsession with living a low-tech life, is the only thing truly stopping Mars from being a thriving off-planet community. With the new Jovian conservationist habitat on Europa being ready next year, and the Saturn enclave on Enceladus following shortly after, Mars will seem an even bigger oddity.
One gets the feeling that the Martians, though borne from Earth, seem to view us as pathetic Earthlings, slaves to the very technology that allows them to live on a planet other than Earth! Perhaps this is why there is general animosity to the Mars community and why the planet, despite being the first of the extra-terrestrial colonised planets, Mars is still considered one of the least fashionable places in the solar system to go. From Life On The Qblock by Maze66Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 48 - Viral Madness
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 47 - Frozen Despair
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 46 - Insanity Realm
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 45 - Lives Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 44 - Insanity Spiral
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 43 - Confusion Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 42 - The Lost Tales
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 41 - The Shadow Of Death
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @nekromarinist
Original words by Cryptogee
Image altered by Cg