Chapter 96

After getting out of the buggy, Zeke blinked to the other side of the door.

Zeke checked the pressure in the new tunnel. It was down, but not at surface pressure, which was a hundredth of Earth’s at sea level. The standard air pressure in the domes was eighty percent of Earth’s.

They also used a different air mix to Earth to maintain mass per volume of the air with sufficient oxygen levels by decreasing nitrogen and including a higher percentage of heavier inert noble gases that were readily available.

While the gravity compensators helped in the domes, under stations and in the trains, they didn’t put them in the tunnels. Switching from one gravity to another was disconcerting for many people. Mars was a challenge. It was also one of the reasons they decided on 0.9g rather than 1g for the compensators.

Zeke had a guess as to what the problem was and started loping towards the midway point.

Because they were jointing two existing tunnels, they excavated an area 20m to 100m deep, depending on terrain, and dropped the machines in the middle. When the boring machines reached the cross tunnels, the cutting heads were retracted, and the machine was reversed to the drop point and lifted out.

Plascrete walls were erected to join the tunnels together and seal them. They often had one side open into a breakdown area in the section they had excavated for the borer. A Utilities room (air, power, and water control) and a shaft containing stairs going to the surface were often included.

The stairs opened into a standard 20m wide by 5m high Oznglass domed building on a 2.5m high wall. The surface buildings were filled with solar panels mounted 3m above the base. Underneath them, you had room to park a buggy or two, a maintenance shed, and survival accommodation for up to twenty people.

The surface utility buildings had been used by more than one person in trouble.

Zeke noted the small, panel-sided truck as he approached the door to the stairwell.

He checked the indicator on the wall beside the supposedly airtight door to the stairwell. He wasn’t that surprised to find the pressure on the other side was near equal to surface pressure.

Zeke smiled at the large sign that said, ‘Utilities Access Only. Unauthorised Users will be Prosecuted. Not for Public Access’.

Zeke called for his satchel, pulled out a small bag of crystals and retrieved a small cube. He pressed the crystal to the frame over the doorway. He did his ‘repair and maintain’ spells and included the authorised personnel spell.

Everyone who worked for Central Utilities and who had a right to use the stairs had a code placed in the ID chip in the back of their hand. It restricted who could go where. Zeke’s spell also made sure the chip was in a person’s hand.

Zeke headed into the utility room and cranked up the air generator system. Since it was a new tunnel, and leaks did happen, the system’s tanks were full and ready to go. He guessed it might take a little while to get the tunnel back up to pressure.

He headed back to the stairwell.

Zeke blinked to the other side of the door.

He bounced up the stairs. They spiralled around a central column, 3m in diameter. Since he could jump up six stairs at a time, it didn’t take long. He estimated he had only gone up 22m to get to the top. He was not pleased when he found the door at the top open.

He checked the control panel on the dome side and found it had been tampered with. He placed a smaller crystal inside and onto the underside of the top of the box. He added his ‘repair and maintain’ spells and included the ‘authorised personnel’ spell.

He replaced the cover and then put another crystal over the top of the access door, and repeated the spells. People using this type of dome building in an emergency were supposed to stay in it until help arrived. It wasn’t meant to be used as a public access to the tunnel below. Mostly because it was a privately owned tunnel.

With six hundred thousand people living on Mars, not all were honest. The Council had to monitor all access ways to pressurised areas, and some, like this one, were kept locked. Its close proximity to the spaceport was one good reason.

Zeke walked beside the wall of the maintenance shed to check the airlock to the surface. He glanced up at the solar panels overhead. They were supported on a lattice framework and were gimbaled to follow the sun. Only half of the plates on the gimbals had solar panels attached.

Zeke heard voices and changed direction.

“This is a great haul, Ohmar,” said one male voice excitedly.

“Yeah, that rich bastard, Zeke Walker, can get them replaced easily enough. I heard he was friendly with that fake Queen Wizard. Charlatans or not, these panels from Harmony are worth a mint. We can sell them for twice what he paid for them,” Ohmar gloated.

The other voice chuckled, “It was nice of the boys to leave them boxes until they mounted them. It wasn’t nice of that mangy bastard to open the outer door on us.”