Leaving the Ice-Scape

Part 1

Leaving the Ice-Scape
a novel by Peter D. Goodall

Prologue

Jess stood on her tiptoes and peered wistfully through the porthole and out towards the desolate tundra that lay just beyond the door in front of her. She could not open the door, but she could gaze through the "keyhole" at the icy winter-wonderland beyond. That was both the most beautiful and the most exasperating aspect of life under the "Dome." One could see the outside world, one could study the outside world, but one could not personally experience it – except by watching it passively through a window as it passed by, figuratively and literally.

Jess lived in a perfect utopia; it was a climate-controlled haven in the arctic tundra. The brainchild of Dr. Emilio Henry, the Ice-Scape Dome was an experiment in terms of self-contained ecosystems. The experiment was primarily funded by NASA, the arm of the United States government responsible for aeronautic research and space exploration, in an effort to develop and test technologies that could be used to recreate self-sustaining, Earth-like environments on Mars during manned space missions to Earth's nearest neighbor. However, Dr. Henry, who considered himself equal parts entrepreneur and scientist, obtained substantial funding in the form of venture capital from various, mostly anonymous, donors who envisioned various commercial applications for the technologies being developed under the Ice-Scape Dome. Genetic manipulation and engineering of various plant species to make them hardier and more likely to germinate and thrive under less-than-optimal conditions, held great promise for interests vested in the agricultural industry. Real-estate developers in the Middle East and in South-East Asia envisioned the creation of alternate climates close to home for the ultra-wealthy. In theory, a moneyed oil-man in the Saudi desert could recreate a temperate wetland in his backyard complete with plant and animal life. Data storage companies and residential developers were both interested in the improvements Dr. Henry had made to existing climate-control technologies.

Dr. Henry's personal motivation, though, concerned the social and societal benefits to be gleaned during his grandiose study. He envisioned a kind of social Utopia that could be cultivated within his artificial climate-controlled oases. This also interested the head scientists at NASA, who realized that the long-term success of any future manned space missions would require both physical and social self-sufficiency. So, NASA set two goals, each equally valued, defining the operational goals of the Ice-Scape Dome: NASA wanted Dr. Henry to make feasible the creation of self-sustaining ecosystems to supply the physical needs of the men and women who would one day journey to other planets, and NASA tasked Dr. Henry with the job of ensuring social success of these yet-to-be-created miniaturized societies.

These goals were easily stated, and they were worded and re-worded in various ways in legislative budget documents and organizational mission statements. When Dr. Henry thought about what it would take to meet these goals, though, he soon realized it would take a literal act of God. After all, what was it that the god of the Bible had accomplished in six days but the creation of self-sustaining ecosystems and societal constructs that would ultimately foster social progression. Dr. Henry frequently joked with his colleagues and with the graduate students aiding his research that he was performing the work of God, just on a smaller scale. He further joked, and only with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, that those working on the project should consider him to be like God but more demanding.

Dr. Henry made his name and established a reputation within the scientific community by being the first researcher to develop viable self-sustaining greenhouses that could survive on the International Space Station and provide fresh produce for the astronauts living there. His research was well-published and he held many patents that found application in both science and commerce. By genetically developing plant strains that would survive in space, he simultaneously provided hearty species that thrived in urban gardens in the centers of cities like Manilla and Kolkata. He was widely lauded as a pioneer in both the biological and the social sciences. So, he was the natural choice to develop systems, biological and social, that would be indefinitely self-maintaining as NASA prepared for a trip to Mars.