Dedication, Contents, Prolog
In Worshipful Appreciation of the Better Half of our Species, who show everyday courage in adversity.
A Cautionary Prologue to Air Marineris
You probably assumed that this story would be told by the famous Monica Chapata. After all, it’s too early for a biography. Perhaps you thought I was a ghost writer. I’m not. These are her unedited words. I just stitched them together.
When I suggested to her that people might want to hear it, she wasn’t even slightly interested. She told me that was on my own for that.
It took years build the line, yielding all that video recording. Every second of that work had to be recorded. It’s the law.
Watching and transcribing it has taken a long time. The construction log helped a little. It allowed me to skip the many days of repetitive work. You’re getting only the high points.
All the same, I’ll still burden you just a little. Imagine if you were Imhotep’s construction foreman on the Great Pyramid job. Wouldn’t you want to blow the horn a bit? They will be talking about this line for a long time. It’s all the way down the Valles Marineris, the longest canyon in the Solar System.
I’m no big deal, but I am Monica’s friend and assistant, and I was there with her when most of these events happened. I’m a minion, but a proud one. I was in the middle of things. I hope you agree that koshers me as a narrator.
When I asked her whether she would perhaps say them herself, after I had done the work, she laughed at me:
“You work alongside me every day. Do you think I have time for that? I do things. You’re the specialized talker. You do it if you think it must be done.”
I do think that. It isn’t to glorify her. She doesn’t need that. But doers of great deeds are not always aware of the support they need from others. Unfortunately,it is not enough to do such things. You must also be seen to do them if you want to continue working for others, using their resources. We are going to need our fellow humans. Not for money anymore – they don’t have not enough for themselves these days. Yet, as one species, we will always be tied by blood and bone. Humanity is a common enterprise. We are all needed for that.
Such feats as this have not often been done. You can count them on your fingers. She is an epic builder, well able to hold her own with the great engineers. She led a group of just a few people that opened up a continent-sized stretch to human settlement.She gave us access to the resources of this planet. We need that. Mars is one of only three outposts to harbor what remains of humanity.
Her accomplishments are astounding. Wonder at what she did.
