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| - Suddenly the image feed from the surface of the ship died. After about thirty seconds, the door of the office opened and a short, slim woman entered the office. She said, "Joe, welcome to Mars! I am O. Kresly." She raised her hand in the traditional Martian greeting, just as described in the books I had read. I matched the hand greeting, bringing my hand briefly in contact with hers. Her English was archaic; she was clearly not a native speaker of the language, but I could understand her well enough. I recognized the "O." as the abbreviation for "Observer", probably the most important occupation among the Martians. I said, "Thank you for the welcome, Observer Kresly." She asked, "Do you have any personal belongings?" I replied, "My wallet and cell phone are in another cargo compartment." "Those will be of no use to you here; forget about them. Follow me." I looked outside and saw that the office door now opened to a stark metal chamber. After I stepped into he chamber, Kresly activated a switch and a solid metal plate slid into place across the door of the office. She triggered another wall switch and the chamber began to flood with a slightly purple fluid. We shed our clothing as the fluid washed around our legs. "Just try to relax. This is our mandatory decontamination procedure. Do you swim?" I replied, "Yes, I know how to swim." She was stuffing our clothing into a mesh sack that hung on the wall while instructing me, "Don't try to swim. Just relax. When the fluid reaches your face just keep breathing normally. The fluid will not hurt your lungs." Her head went under first as the room continued to fill. I had read about this and went down on my knees while trying to take a normal breath. My lungs felt heavy and sluggish and I coughed a few times, but otherwise I did fine. Soon the bubble of air at the top of the room was gone and a door in the floor slid open. Kresly grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the hole in the floor. The fluid had very low density, so we easily stepped to the hole and sank down into the chamber below. Kresly went to a cabinet and retrieved a small syringe. She quickly injected a small volume of fluid from the syringe into my arm then returned the syringe to the cabinet. So far my 'welcome' was as described in "Welcome to Mars". Kresly slid open another door and stepped into what looked like a small closet. She waved at me, indicating I should follow. I stepped into the small space with her then the door slid shut behind me. The closet quickly drained of fluid and we coughed the fluid out of our lungs. The wall behind Kresly slid open and we stepped through into a wind tunnel. She led the way up the tunnel into the wind. She reached a switch that stopped the air flow. Kresly pulled open another cabinet and pulled out two robes. We put on the robes and used their thick fabric as towels to dry the last of the decontamination fluid from our skin. I was still coughing some. She asked, "Are you okay? Are you breathing deeply?" I replied, "I think I'm okay." She explained, "Your lungs will quickly absorb the rest of the fluid. Some people are just more sensitive to the irritation of liquid breathing. This room's air is 65% oxygen, so do not fear that you are not getting enough in your lungs" A panel in the ceiling opened and someone called down, "Ready to come up?" A fabric ladder rolled down through the hole from above. Kresly called up, "He's doing quite a bit of coughing. I want to wait until that goes away. Toss me down my computer." A small box-like device fell through the hole and Kresly caught it. She pulled a corner off the box and pressed it to her ear. I could see it was a compact earphone and microphone. She flipped open the box, and a paper-thin display screen popped out. "Okay, Joe, we can start the ingress interview here. If you feel short of breath, don't try to talk. Do you know anyone on Mars? Family, friends?" It seemed possible that someone I had known or I was related to might be on Mars. My Uncle Dominic has mysteriously disappeared back sometime in the 1980's. Still, it seemed unlikely. From what i had read, very few Earthlings ever made the trip to Mars and the entire population of the Mars base had never been more than 20,000. "Not that I know of." "Do you know why you are here?" I had read about this question and how it usually baffled new arrival. I was unusual in that I already had a good understanding of what was going on: I knew something about the aliens, their nanobots, and the importance of the human colony on Mars. I had read a discussion of what constituted sensible answers to this question and believed I knew a good way to reply. I said, "I'm resistant to nanobot control." My answer seemed to satisfy Kresly. "Are you nanobot-free or still infected?" I wondered if I could really know the answer to that question. Maybe I had been tricked into thinking I was free of the nanobots. "As far as I know, I am no longer infected." She flipped the computer and the display was sucked away from view. Kresly put the computer in a pocket of her robe and moved over next to the ladder. Okay, all that checks out. If you are feeling ready we can head up. No dizziness? No pain in your lungs?" My coughing had stopped and I felt fine. I said, "I'm ready." She gestured to the ladder and held it as I climbed. A man grabbed my arm as I emerged into the room above. Kresly came up right behind me. The man handed me a sealed plastic pouch containing my watch and cell phone. Kresly pressed a switch and a wall panel glowed, flashed and cleared to show a map of what the Martians called Central City, the core region of the underground Mars base. I had already become familiar with the major features of the base by reading the books on the ship. Kresly pointed to the part of the map showing the district known as Prosco, the most recently constructed part of the underground city, having been built out during the past six hundred years. "The Varna software team has their headquarters here." There was a flashing dot on the map showing the exact location. "I thought you might might like to meet the team that made the software you have been working with." Unfortunately, the Prosco district is trendy and there are no available homes. Maldi and Vedi are two districts with plenty of vacancies, if you would first like to find a place to live." She pointed to the locations of those two districts on the map. I had been doing a lot of thinking about what I needed to do on Mars. "I do want to visit the software team eventually." I'd not previously heard that the team was called "Varna", but that was just a trivial detail. "I'm not in a hurry to get settled in to a new home. I want to follow up on something I heard on Earth, that the Varna team's software is part of a larger on-going project. I want to track down anyone who knows about that larger project." Kresly said, "You must mean the genetic engineering stage of the project. That's the Vavilov team, their lab is also located in Prosco district, here." Again she marked the exact location on the map. I said, "How do I get there?" Kresly pointed at the far edge of the map, "We are here at the spaceport, at the edge of what's often called 'Old Town', but formally known in English as the Tamia district. As you can see, Prosco district is clear across town. I could give you a nice tour by surface trolley or we could travel quicker by tube." I pulled my watch out of the pouch. "What is the local time?" Kresly said, "Your Earth watch will just be an annoyance for you. We use local Mars time here. It will be best if I contact the Vavilov project and make an appointment for you to visit their lab tomorrow.. We also need to arrange for a Russian translator. My suggestion is that we cross town by trolley. We can stop at the Central Market and get you a new watch and some other essentials. We can end up in Maldi district and probably find you a nice flat. How does that sound?" "That will be fine." I was pleased that Kresly was my guide. I had read that the Martians liked to make new arrivals from Earth merge comfortably into Martian culture, and Kresly seemed like an expert and I was feeling welcome. Kresly switched off the map then pulled it off the wall. It snapped loudly and condensed into a small box that she handed to me. So, I now had a map! Kresly turned and walked into the adjoining room. My reading had warned me that as a new arrival in the Mars base I would be helped, but I would also be totally free to do what I wanted to do. Here was my first bit of freedom! Kresly had walked away without a word, leaving me to decide for myself what to do. I turned, looking for the man who had helped me up from the ladder, but he was gone. I tried to look down through the hole in the floor, but it was now covered by a metal panel. I turned back the other way and went to find Kresly. The other room was a small locker room. Kresly was changing out of the robe into her own clothing. She said, "So, I'm still not clear about just who this 'Janek' is, but the information he sent me about you sure sped up the entrance interview. I've done three others and the were quite painful...trying to make sense of the new arrivals." I suddenly started to realize how large an advance it must be for the nanobots to now have the services of JObot. How had the nanobots worked in coordination with humans before JObot was on Earth? Kresly led the way out into the underground city. Each district was a large chamber with hundreds of buildings in the style of a village on Earth. Tamia district contained a large lake and I could see a dozen or so boats on the water. I knew that there was rock above me, but it looked like sky. Kresly liked to move fast, and she was quickly down the street on the way to the nearest trolley stop. I hurried to catch up. I had read about the Mars "trolley" system. Nobody owned a vehicle, but the main streets had an efficient transportation system of "trolley cars" that moved on magnetic rails. A car was waiting at the spaceport stop, probably the same one that had brought Kresly out to this rarely visited edge of the district. I climbed into the car and sat beside Kresly. She called out, "Central Market" and the car smoothly accelerated off the siding and onto the main line. I had read about the trolley cars having manual controls. Apparently the voice control was a relatively new feature. For much of the past 100,000 years the humans on Mars had pushed technological developments ahead of those on Earth. The nanobots had early on provided the Martians with a stable environment that made human progress possible. But now, the large and increasingly well educated population of Earth meant that many new technologies were first invented on Earth and had to be brought to Mars. Such technology transfer was one of the important functions of the Observers, those Martians who constantly monitored events on Earth. Our car stayed on the high speed outer loop of Tamia and soon we passed into a tunnel that connected to an adjacent district. I asked, "How do you contact Janek?" Kresly replied, "Janek has contacted me three times, in the same way as for our Martian AIs, but let's try something. Where is your map?" I took the map out of my pocket. Kresly showed me how to activate it. The display expanded to a smaller size than previously, a size appropriate for the limited space in the car. Kresly said, "Janek? Do you hear me Janek?" Janek replied at once, "Of course I do, Kresly." An image solidified on the display: a strangely stylized or simulated human face. Its mouth moved to match the voice of Janek. "I've been listening to you and Joe since you came through decontamination." I asked, "Why do you show us a human face, Janek?" Janek explained, "Look closely, Joe. This is a face of my species, the Origin Race. It is similar to a human face because we selectively bred you humans to match our original form." "It seems strange that your world evolved an intelligent species so similar to Earth's primate form." "Well, in this case the selection was two-way. We arrived on Earth with many 'origin races' available in our data banks. We simply turned the Earth mission over to that species from our galactic civilization with the most similarities to primates. But you did not call to discuss events from seven million years ago." Kresly said, "I did not have a good reason to call, I just wanted to see if Joe could contact you with his comscree." Janek told us about his recent growth, "I've established a supply chain for critical hardware, in particular more of the Lockback chip models are entering into mass production. I'm spreading to multiple server arrays and my computational power is now large enough that I can listen to several hundred human conversations all the time. So, Joe, as long as you carry your comscree, I'll be able to listen to you. If you need anything, just ask and I'll be at your service. Understood?" I wanted to ask how I could prevent Janek from hearing me, but I did not want to indicate my intention of working to find out about the weaknesses of the aliens. I replied, "I understand you." Janek said, "I see you are surprised to see me this way. Yes, I can see you when the comscree is open. Isn't this more 'user friendly', as they say on Earth?” “Yes, I am surprised.” “Well, perhaps you had imagined being isolated from me and free to plot with the Martians against me. Don't bother to try. You will soon learn that the Martians are completely loyal to me. In any case, it will be convenient for you, now I can be your translator." Kresly asked, "Do you know Russian? Joe wants to visit the Vavilov project." Janek commented. "Ah, getting right to the heart of the matter, eh, Joe? Yes, Russian is at my command. I'll soon have enough computational capacity to translate every human language." The trolley car announced that we were approaching the Central City and Kresly indicated that our destination was the Central Market. The car switched to an axial spoke line and slowed as me moved into the more densely populated core of the district. Kresly showed me the trick of collapsing the display screen. There were now a large number of other cars and pedestrians on the street. Suddenly our car turned into a side street and halted. We got out of the car, walked a short distance along the street and then entered the Market through an arched gate. We were able to quickly find me a Martian watch, a clip on headset that worked with my comscree, local clothing and a few household items that Kresly considered essential for someone moving into a new home, such as toilet paper. I reflected on the fact that even after "moving up" to Mars some things would remain the same. But some things were different. As I had read, there was no money on Mars. In the Market, people just took what they needed and there was no price on anything and no salesmen. We left the market and found another trolley car. Kresly tried to sell me on finding a home in Maldi district since it was the closest district to Prosco that had vacancies. I could not fault her logic. It seemed likely that I would spend most of my time in Prosco district. She spoke briefly through her headset then told me, "You have an appointment with the head of the Vavilov team first thing in the morning." I asked, "What exactly are they working on?" Kresly did not know. "They genetically engineer viruses. Beyond that, I have no idea. I cannot imagine what viruses have to do with Janek's project on Earth. Supposedly the goal is and has always been to improve communication and coordination between humans and the nanobots." She asked for my map and started showing me the locations of available homes in Maldi. Each one had a video tour that we could access. After looking at three of the homes, I decided they were all more than adequate. I asked, "There are no simple bachelor pads? These all seem to be large homes." Kresly explained, "That is the only thing that has ever been built. It is a policy designed to promote the formation of families. It has always been a struggle to maintain the population of this colony." That surprised me. "Why is that? It seems quite comfortable here. Why doesn't the population explode?" Kresly shrugged. "I guess I'm a good case study. I'm devoted to my work and have never gotten around to forming a family of my own." I was having some trouble adjusting to the low gravity. I suggested, "Maybe humans just are not really adapted to Mars." We got off the trolley near an available house and within half an hour I had inspected it and registered it as my residence. It was fully furnished and even had a supply of toilet paper left by the previous "owner". Like everything else, I did not really own the house, it was just mine to use. Kresly took me to dinner at a cafe in Prosco district. Our table was "outside" and the simulated stars "came out" while we ate. She told me about her work as an Observer. The nanobots on Earth transmitted a steady stream of information from Earth which the Observers processed and then recorded in a complex and comprehensive database, The History of Earth. Kresly was linguistics expert. I asked her, "What do you think will happen now that Janek can do translations? Maybe there will no longer be a need for people like you to monitor Earth's languages." She explained, "There has been a trend in that direction already. Languages on Earth have become much more static due to advances in communications. Already fewer Martians study linguistics with each passing generation. We had the first Janek-style AIs here about fifteen years ago, so it has been clear that improved machine translation was on the way. Of course, it was not clear exactly how soon, but now the time has finally come. Anyhow, I've heard talk that the goal of the nanobots is not to replace humans with AIs, but rather some kind of, well, fusion." "Fusion?" Kresly sat swirling wine in a goblet, "I do not really understand the rumors, but I think of it this way: it should be possible to integrate artificial intelligence system with humans. I'd love to have an AI system that I could use as an aid for translation." Yes, maybe that was the logical next step....start to make humans reliant on AI systems, make humans puppets not only to nanobots but also to AIs like Janek. But how did the Vavilov team and their genetically engineered viruses fit into such a future? We left the cafe and Kresly took me back to my place. She promised to come back in the morning and escort me to my appointment. We said good night and I walked the short distance from the trolley stop to my house. In the simulated night of that underground chamber I could easily pretend that I was on Earth. I wondered what Chloe was doing and if I would ever see her again.
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