Free A Colony on Mars by Cliff Roehr Page A

other kitchen workers said, “If they are really grooving then that means they are listening to pop. If they have a serene expression on their face they are listening to the elevator music, If they look sad it's C&W, and if they look as though they are listening to a conversation then they got the talk station on. I make a game of trying to guess. Most often they are listening to talk radio, that's the most popular.”
    Tim arrived at work at 0650 and struck up a conversation with Jack Overmeye. “Did you notice that it is warmer in this cavern than in the Government cavern, Tim?” “Nope, I haven't been in here enough to pay it much attention.” “I spent the night in here last night and had to throw my blanket off, when I got up to go to the bathroom I noticed that it felt chilly in the other cavern, so this morning I went around feeling all the wal s and in the far back and off to your right there is a hot spot that you can't hold your hand of for long. I then checked the floor beneath the hot spot and found that to be even hotter.”
    Just then Carter Fredrick, facilities superintendent joined them and Jack related what he had observed to him.”Show me that spot Jack.” The three men skipped to the back of the cavern and Jack said, “OK, now put your hand right there.” Sure enough Carter didn't leave it there for long. “Now check the floor right here below the hot spot,” Carter put his hand on the floor for an instant then removed quickly and began to check it for damage. “Al right after I get all the crews busy I wil consult the scientists about dril ing right here.” The three of them skipped back to where the other construction workers were gathered. Carter had work assignments based on the crew lists from the ship. “I am assigning you people to the same crews that you had on the ship for now but feel free to change crews if you see another crew doing a job that you have some expertise in. The tools and supplies that you wil need can be picked up in the supply area of the Government cavern. At that point he handed out a list of assignments for each group. “My name is Carter, I have been heading up the one crew that has been working here for over two years. I have assigned one of my people to each crew because they know how to find stuff, they are not the crew foremen but each of them has a lot of good information that he can share. Since each of the crews have been together for the last couple months I imagine that you have a pretty good idea of who you would like to see as your crew chief, so I would like for each crew to informally pick one of your own and give me the name so I can make a note of who to call on if I need to contact your crew. We wil figure out a better system later on.”
    In addition to working on your crew we have a work order board in the Government cavern, it is posted in front of the supply room. You should check the board every morning or evening when you are off duty. If there is a work request posted that you believe that you have the necessary skil s for you should remove the thumb tack and remove the request. Notify your crew chief before starting work for the day that you have the work request then handle that first before catching up with your crew. In that way all requests for repairs or improvements needed by the members of the community will be handled promptly. If there are stil any requests on the board when I come over to hold muster I wil bring them in with me and assign the job to a volunteer. With that the crews al had a little meeting to pick their crew chief. Crew six actually held an election and elected the guy who had been on Mars before they arrived yesterday. Each of the crew chief's came up to Carter and gave him the name of the person selected. Then they all went right to work, assembling the tools and supplies they would need.
    The people on Crew eleven assembled and all eyes turned to Tim. One of the men said “You are the one with the engineering