"
"I want to learn more about this power system! This is amazing!"
rhapsodized Mark. "If I'm right, this button here will..." He pressed
it. Almost at once a stream of paper began to feed out of a slot to the
right of the terminal and fell down, sheet by sheet, into a gathering
tray. Mark picked up the first sheet.
"It's printing out the diagrams of the thrust system. just like that.
You're right, Joe-this place is great!"
On the northeast edge of the massive area on the surface of Mars called
the Mare Hadriacum, stood a complex of domes and cylinders. Made of
metal and glass, it stood on an open plain about 35 degrees south of
the equator and 85 degrees east of the central meridian. The complex
was one of five atmosphere-generating plants on Mars, and the only one
in the southern hemisphere. In a small crater nearby was the settlement
of New Emmaus, with a population of about 12,500.
The long process of terraforming Mars had begun when a meteor shower
struck the fourth planet in 2009, significantly raising the temperature
of the atmosphere and altering the weather systems. With this jump
start serendipitously provided by meteorites, Earth had hastened the
process of making Mars livable by scattering the surface with spores
and seeds, introducing desert-hardy animals, and establishing the five
atmosphere-generating plants.
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