129: Mela Latifey

ENTRY 129: Mela Latifey

Mars has its seasons. After the equinox, the storms start to pick up energy from the big weather systems at the poles. A dust storm can cover almost the entire planet, so a body wouldn’t see the sun for days or weeks down on the surface. Rusters have learned to keep a weather eye out, one feed on their muse always tuned to the atmospheric models, with real-time data from the satellites whenever they have can. Of course, once a storm hits, satellite signals go down—there’s not much to do but wait it out.

Mela Latifey knows the Martian seasons as well as anyone. She’s a dirt farmer, with her own spread out on the western foothills of Mons Olympus. After a storm’s a good time to go and sift for raw material. Dirt farming’s important for terraforming, and for habitats in general; skilled, technical labor that takes a fair bit of patience and know-how. Right now Mela runs a sixty-day cycle—first she harvests Martian clay, dust, and gravel, usually about three metric tons at a time. Then there’s physical processing, reducing or removing all the big rocks, sifting out the spirolites and other fragments, churning and aerating it to proper mix and consistency. After that’s chemical processing, adding water and carbon, fixing the pH and microelement levels. That still doesn’t give proper dirt, just sterile pre-earth. Mela has to spray it with a colony of bacteria, let them metabolize the elements, die and be metabolized by the next generation—build up all the hydrocarbon compounds and fixed nitrogen that turn Martian dust into something living things can grow on. If it’s headed for habitat hydroponics, Latifey usually gives it another couple of weeks and adds the starter colony of earthworms and beetles, but otherwise she shovels it into the elevator and sends it up the mountain, then goes out and gets another load, provided it isn’t storming out.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
15	15	15	15	10	20	15	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	30	6	60	35	7	67

Morph: Ruster

Skills: Academics: Areology 60, Academics: Biology 55, Academics: Biochemistry 60, Academics: Physics 40, Art: Dust Panting 55, Hardware: Electronics 45, Hardware: Robotics 55, Interests: Biodynamics 45, Interests: Martian Wines 45, Interests: Terroir 55, Language: Native Creole 85, Language: English 60, Language: French 60, Networking: Scientists 45, Perception 65, Profession: Dirt Farmer 80, Research 60, Scounging 45, Spray Weapons 50

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Enhanced Respiration, Medichines, Temperature Tolerance

Traits: Improved Immune System (2)

Using Mela Latifey

Areology, chemistry, biodynamics—these are the building blocks of Latifey’s life. A lot of people talk about terraforming Mars, but Mela actually does it, one load of rock and dust at a time, and she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. As a contact, ally, or enemy, Mela has a tendency to be forthright, candid, and blunt in her speech, which is a good way to cover for any topic she chooses not to talk about. Characters may consult Mela if they’re dealing with any aspect of Martian terraforming, or she might ask them for help if there’s some trouble that she can’t handle on her own. That said, most of her problems involve someone or something interfering with her dirt farming, and she doesn’t have much to pay people off with aside from a little information, a few introductions, and a couple hundred kilos of prime soil—granted, that’s more than enough to get most characters a warm welcome in any habitat with a hydroponics garden.