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Jason M. Knight
classicbattletech.com System Administrator

Was pondering on the Mars Terraforming Project... and ended up writing a short ficlet. Nobody really seems to be doing much with Mars right now, so I thought I'd have a shot at something. Probably part of the 'stuff happens' phase from 2014 onwards and perhaps how the MTP might eventually lead to a Martian Federation of some sort. Jet and Lenneth are really just talking heads who could be replaced by anyone.

Quote:“Would the delegate from the Town of Port Lowell please come forward and sign,” the announcer requested.

A man in a rather sharp looking business suit stepped out from a line of his contemporaries from each of the primary Martian settlements and factions. He was greeted by applause from the assembled crowd in the room, the same applause that usually greeted golfers as they holed an easy putt.

He sat down at a rather simple desk, and picked up a single electronic pen which had been left waiting. With a few quick strokes, and a thumbprint he signed the document on the electronic tablet.

There was more golf clapping as he stepped down. Most people’s arms where getting tired by now.

“It’s all very.... mundane,” remarked Lenneth, unimpressed.

“Oh?” Jet quirked an eyebrow

“You know what I mean. It feels like we’re standing in a mundane parliament or something,”

“Not really,” The two catgirls standing in bikinis sort of put paid to that. As did a pair of armoured cyborgs watching over things from the back wall. “It’s much too polite and orderly.”

“Would the delegate from Utopia Planetia please come forward and sign,” the holographic announcer requested once more, with the exact same dispassionate intonation as before.

A woman in a Starfleet Uniform. Captain Hancock according the the pre-arranged program.

“But I get what you mean,” Jet finished. “It’s more formal than we’re used to. Mars has changed in the last few years, even since I got here.” She shrugged as if it was to be expected, and couldn’t be helped.

“With all those mundanes coming up....true mundanes who’re here for work, rather than the lifestyle.” said Lenneth with mild scorn. “I just....” she paused, “I just feel like something is ending, like our Wild West is getting a little less wild,”

“Would the delegate from the Castle of Heterodyne please come forward and sign,”

This next signatory chuffed up to the table riding a steam-powered brass and wood wheelchair.

“It’s just a Terraforming council.” said Jet, “Not a government. Y’know the mess they had trying to get the MTP started up again after the war?”

“I’ve read the same program. Since the MTP affects all the people on Mars, all the people on Mars should have a say in it.” she rolled her eyes, “And running it with a direct democracy just wasn’t practical. But with the first link, a chain is forged. And I came up to Fenspace to get away from the chains of politics,”

“Would the delegate from Grunthal please come forward and sign,”

“Yoko looks good with her medals and awards on,” Jet commented.

“Well it helps to intimidate a little,” Lenneth giggled. “I think that’s how she managed to get veto powers for us, at least.”

Jet nodded. “Without that, I wouldn’t have voted to support our signing. And I think we only got it because of our record...... And the 213 order. We punch above our weight.” Pardon the pun.

“That’s part of the problem. Most groups our size are either getting a non-veto councillor, or just getting lumped in as residents of the nearest settlement, which could be some distance away. It’s inherently unfair,”

“Would the delegate from New Adelaide please come forward and sign,”

Another beady-eyed individual wearing a very yellow suit, who spoke with an odd stammer. Jet recognised him and felt a bitter pang of anger.

“Since when has representative democracy ever been truly fair?” Jet snarked, “Besides, it’s just a project council, not a government.”

“A little short sighted are we? It starts with a project council, then an economic development council, then a joint defense agreement....which I’d actually agree with mind but anyway....then factional cooperation so we have more clout in the convention, then finally the slide towards full federalisation as more and more things get divested to the council. And while a council like this’d work for a project.... it’s a real mess for a government.” A pause. “And don’t tell me that’s not what this is going to become.”

Jet sighed. “It might happen. To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that either.”

“Uneasy?”

“A little,”

“Would the delegate from Marsbase Sara please come forward and sign,”

“I know it’ll solve some problems,” she continued “But it’ll introduce new ones. It could work...like the Convention does when nobody erdeside expected it to....or it could turn into an almighty clusterfuck.”

“And if you were to put a bet on it?” questioned Lenneth.

“Well, the cynical part of me says clusterfuck.” Jet admitted, after a moment’s pause. “But I’ve been trying hard to kill that part of me since I got up here. If there’s a hard push for Federal... I’d like it to succeed. The alternative gets....messy”

“Would you like them to push to Federate though? ”Lenneth pushed her point.

“Like I said, I really don’t know.”

“Would the delegate from Mos Eisley please come forward and sign,”

In an Imperial uniform no less.

He sat down and made his signature with the appropriate solemnity.

Lenneth blew out a languid sigh. “Outside of Port Lowell, I doubt many of the people here would want any sort of Union of Mars anyway. If you asked them to do it right now, very few would say yes, would they? Even the mundanes are happy with their town councils... they can ‘talk to their elected representative personally’, and the rep’ goes to the Convention for them, saving them the bother of getting involved in all the weirdness. But.... it’ll happen. It’ll happen step by little step so gently most people won’t realise until it’s done.”

The warsie signatory walked back to the line, accompanied by the same golf-clapping that had followed all of his predecessors.

Jet shrugged once more, “Well the times they are a changin’.”

The hologram inspected the datapad, immediately transmitting copies out onto the wide interwave, before he began to read.

“On behalf of the Peoples of Mars as representatives duly elected and sent from the established settlements and factions of this planet, and in recognising the collective rights of all the Peoples of Mars, we the undersigned do so establish a Council for the Terraforming of Mars, to manage the Mars Terraforming Project for the common good of all who have chosen to make their home on this world.”

There was of course, more applause.... and the strange collective feeling that something mildly important for the future may have just been accomplished.

“And that is that,” said Jet.

“Step one,” added Lenneth.

======================================================

Quote of the day - From Gryphon: 

I don't often do this sort of thing - wholesale copy/paste of something someone else has posted, that is. Unless it's very, very, VERY good, and I both want to pass it on, and think the particular group of people to whom I'm posting it will both appreciate it and might not have seen it. All of which I suppose is a roundabout way of apologizing for not being able to add anything further to this in any creative way. 

Quote:"It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false, tragically false. Look for yourself! This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

"Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: 'I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.'

"I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the pushbutton order and the human act. We have to touch people."

- the late Jacob Bronowski summarizes the ethical meaning and importance of the scientific principle of uncertainty, in 1973's The Ascent of Man

Quote:[table]

New York State Senator Jim Alesi (R-Perinton) is now under fire, facing calls to resign.
Why?
Three years ago, he broke into an under-construction house for no sufficiently explained reason, and broke his leg while trying to climb an unsecured ladder. The owners declined to press charges for trespass.
Now, three years later -- after the criminal statute of limitations has expired, the civil statute of limitations has expired, and his own election to another full term in the NY State Senate is secure -- he is suing the homeowners and construction contractors for not keeping a safe working site.
That he had no right or reason to be in in the first place.
I'm glad I don't live in Perinton.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... olves.html

Okay, people, this is the official thread in which to post those "Gee, I wish the author would pick this back up again" comments.  For reference, here's the old Dead Fic Zombification thread, but please don't resurrect that one.  Feel free, however, to copy favorites over from it to this thread.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Wow.
I just did a search on all posts I made to these forums back when I went by the handle, NeoravenK7 (dear God, it was six years ago!) and found some interesting stuff.
My old multi-crossover project while in it's infancy... I might still revive it someday: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1560
The Macross SEED Project by Vales - I really would like to see this one revived! http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1391
An awesome Ranma/Final Fantasy X-over plotbunny by Evil Midnight Lurker - DUDE! WTH? We all liked this one! http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1548
Last, but not least, another plotbunny of mine to X-over Diane Duane's Young Wizards series with Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1554
So yeah... just thought I'd share a bit of the old niftiness I was involved with/responsible for on the boards a while back.  I'm especially pleased about the first one because I had lost nearly all the original material due to a drive failure.  (I may be able to recover it, though - the failure is strictly on the controller board of the drive.  I know because I was looking at it when I saw the chip turn into a white-hot ember.)

A while ago we had a thread with a list of dead fics, or at least fics that hadn't updated in so long and their authors seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet.
Anyone up for having a stickified thread to list such fics?  Reason being, seeing as a fic is abandoned then it is likely up for adoption, if you know what I mean.  Really, there's one or two fics out there I'd like to take on myself.

I'm having a problem intalling the new 2010 Turbo tax. Turbo  tax had a workaround..tried it and no go. Just thought I'd tell you guys this. I think I'll swap it out for H&R block tomorrow.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

WARNING: Not Safe For Work! But hilarious!

Hail to the King, Baby!