The Mind Creative
"Ten years later, ten years ago," the Head Teacher told us, "you
children were born. Born of parents carefully selected from those
who volunteered for the experiment. And from birth you have
been brought up under carefully controlled and gradually changing
conditions.
"From the time you were born the air you have breathed has been
very gradually thinned and its oxygen content reduced. Your lungs
have compensated by becoming much greater in capacity, which
is why your chests are so much larger than those of your teachers
and attendants; when you are fully mature and are breathing air
like that of Mars, the difference will be even greater.
"Your bodies are growing fur to enable you to stand the increasing
cold. You are comfortable now under conditions which would kill
ordinary people quickly. Since you were four years old your nurses
and teachers have had to wear special protection to survive
conditions that seem normal to you.
"In another ten years, at maturity, you will be completely
acclimated to Mars. Its air will be your air; its food plants your
food. Its extremes of temperature will be easy for you to endure
and its median temperatures pleasant to you. Already, because
of the five years we spent in space under gradually decreased
gravitational pull, the gravity of Mars seems normal to you.
"It will be your planet, to live on and to populate. You are the
children of Earth but you are the first Martians."
Of course we had known a lot of those things already.
The last year was the best. By then the air inside the dome—except
for the pressurized parts where our teachers and attendants
live—was almost like that outside, and we were allowed out for
increasingly long periods. It is good to be in the open.
The last few months they relaxed segregation of the sexes so we
could begin choosing mates, although they told us there is to be
no marriage until after the final day, after our full clearance.
Choosing was not difficult in my case. I had made my choice long
since and I'd felt sure that she felt the same way; I was right.
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