The First Race

      Fifty years from now, on Mars, a rich developer is building a new dome, “The Greenhouse” or “The House” which some people called it, where the workers had gotten bored with just working. With nothing to do on their breaks, some of the men found old rovers and machinery that they could use to build Pod cars. During their off hours, the men would race these Pods in uncharted caverns and craters. Sure they slept, but some of these guys were so high strung that they could be up for days. Cocaine and other stims, and even herbs, were everywhere in the House, because the only government and law enforcement on Mars was in Mars Dome. The Mars Dome was the first dome where NASA scientists lived and worked. The Greenhouse was founded by a group of rich investors who wanted Mars to be a vacation spot. Mars Dome had developed a hybrid of plants and vines that gave off an abundant amount of oxygen and could grow in Martian soil. The House used these plants so they could live without being closed in with walls everywhere.

      At Mars Dome, they had greenhouses, but they were sponsoring the Greenhouse Project because they were losing money on Mars Research. In this Greenhouse, they were building a stadium, community buildings, apartments, and separate domiciles where the vacationers could stay. The investors thought that Mars would become the new Disneyland, which had since filed for bankruptcy. They didn’t take that as a bad omen, because Mars was the new world.

      The Pod Races started small, but now there were teams of workers who made their own Pods and raced against each other. There were three teams that race right now: the Technicians, Gardeners, and the Freelancers. There was a group from the Mars Dome who wanted to join the races. The Teckies were all for it, but the Gardeners thought it wouldn’t be fair, because the Dome had access to newer technology, not just old, beat up stuff that the Greenhouse’s workers used.

Josh, of the Domers, said, "We will just use the discarded stuff that everyone has access to, and we won’t use any new engines or technology."

Two of the teams were okay with that, but the Gardeners were still saying, “But they would be using better and newer stuff to put their Pods together.”

**********************************************************

Patty started, “Yes there they are. Mars Dome started out as one dome with the landing pad behind it, but now, as you can see, there are three domes with enclosed passageways joining them. There is a back entrance on each of the domes that the shuttle can come up to, to unload passengers or cargo, so that you don’t need to be exposed to the Mars atmosphere until you come to the Greenhouse. Wow, that didn’t come out right. Mars’s atmosphere won’t hurt you. There’s just a lack of oxygen and there’s a lot of dust blowing, so you need these masks that you have around your necks.”

“Mars Dome was started by NASA from the US and other like companies from around Earth. The Dome was first used by a limited group of scientists and other wealthy people who could afford to come to Mars, but now that we have access to Blue Star Power, we can afford to bring more citizens to Mars. So Mars Dome evolved