This is one in a series of essays about the world of The Steppes of Mars series. This one is about the domed city of Panschin, the setting for “The White Elephant of Panschin.”
There are six domes in Panschin. More are planned, but they are stunningly expensive to build so it will be decades, if not a century, before another one is built.
They were built in numerical order, one through six. The domes all have high walls of stone (at least three meters tall and VERY thick) to help support the weight of the dome. They are interconnected aboveground via networks of glassteel roofed tunnels as well as underground tunnels. Trams and walkways are in the above-ground tunnels (called tubes). Dirty transtubes (subway cars) and much less attractive walkways line the underground tunnels.
The domes and tunnels were constructed because of the incredibly harsh climate so close to the north pole. You cannot live outside year-round this far north (or correspondingly far south either). The northernmost demesnes of the Ennaretee are as far north as you get and still live outdoors year-round. The Northernmost mining demesnes are also basically underground or in domes and tunnels. They farm outside during the short summer, as does Panschin. Northernmost, the city at the north pole is also domed, but nobody ever goes outside without a full snowsuit, bunny boots, masks, etc. Mars doesn’t have enough free water to mediate the temperatures like Olde Earthe does.
Ventilation in the domes and tunnels is always a problem as is temperature control. Most of Panschin is far more comfortable in the winter than in the summer. Domes work very well trapping sunshine, leading directly to the greenhouse effect.
A LOT of Panschin is underground. Living areas extend down from two to six levels depending on where you are. Larger buildings such as apartment complexes are automatically built with deep, deep basements. Thus, a six-story apartment tower (as high a building as most people are willing to use stairs in) will actually be twelve stories in all. The bottom six stories (below ground) are for mechanicals, storage, and servant housing for the tower. Below-grade living areas are often retrofitted in previously emptied mining tunnels. Since this is housing for workers, it isn’t that nice. Most of the people who live aboveground have some money, but not always.
Dome One is the smallest and oldest dome, barely one klick across. It houses the original core of Panschin, the first housing above ground, and the main headquarters of the mining operations. It also holds the seat of government and the courthouse along with the embassy from Barsoom. It is crowded, dense, dirty, and down at heels. The dome (built of glassteel) is fogged over and very yellow. It isn’t very high, no more than 15 meters (fifty feet). Air circulation is poor. Nobody lives here if they can afford better. You might as well live in a tunnel. The ambassador from Barsoom is stuck (since the embassy is located here) and complains constantly. His complaints are ignored by the residents of Panschin (at every level) since he’s from Barsoom and no one cares what those snooty snobs bitch about. Restaurants and lodging to support the workers and visitors, along with small shops for sundries and necessities are also available in Dome One. Police headquarters is located here as are all the bail-bonds men. All the greenery in Dome One is in planters, some of them quite large; say the size of a dining room table that seats six (but no larger.
Ventilation and temperature control are both bad in Dome One and they show no signs of improving.
Dome Two was built huge, specifically to hold all kinds of things and to be much nicer than Dome One. It was planned and developed early on as wealthy housing and the center of cultural activities. The builders of Panschin were still working out how to build housing like they were used to within a dome. The rundown tenements they got in Dome One were not what the city leaders had in mind for their own housing.
Dome Two is quite large (about 2 klicks (just over 1 mile)) across. It has a high, thick wall of stone (maybe an old crater?) to help support the roof. The walls are pierced throughout with passageways for connecting above surface tunnels containing trams and walkways. Below ground are the transtubes and metro stations. Dome Two is still the largest dome in Panschin. Dome Six is the newest and fanciest with the best ventilation but it isn’t as large as Dome Two. It has a high dome, about 50 meters (165 feet).
Dome Two contains (still) most of the cultural facilities for Panschin. The Museum of Martian Art, the Natural History of Mars Museum, the Panschin theater (for live shows), the Opera House, the Panschin Cinema (more downscale than the live theater showing either locally made films, mainstream films from Makkafree or Barsoom), the main branch of the Library of Panschin, Panschin University (PanU), and Panschin Community College (below ground, located under PanU so they can share certain expensive facilities like pools, gymnasiums, and a library). Dome Two also contains the main passenger train station connecting to the passenger lines to outside of Panschin. There is a freight station as well, along with a freight depot in each of the other domes, especially Dome Four.
There are a few small parks along with extensive landscaping between the buildings, including small trees and a huge variety of shrubs, bedding flowers, etc. There are actually birds living within the dome, along with more small critters than you would expect, particularly mice, squirrels and rabbits. Many of the squirrels are not shy; they know they are special and get plenty of handouts from adoring fans. There are insects as well. The parks in Dome Two are public parks and open to everyone.
There are at least two hotels, hanging on when cultural activities come to Panschin, but otherwise often vacant. One of the hotels is located by the main train station.
There are several fine restaurants as well, generally doing their best business when the Opera House or the Theater are open for the season. The Dappled Yak is more of a neighborhood bistro, but they’ll still serve you a fine meal on a linen tablecloth.
Dome Two has a post office, businesses, courthouse, retail, police station, fire department, medical clinic, all the usual things.
Dome Two contains the large, grand homes built to house Panschin’s wealthiest citizens (who have since moved to Dome Six). These are built in a large variety of styles as Panschin residents figured out how to build what they wanted under a dome. The one thing these houses have in common is that each came with a tiny yard (now extremely unusual and not seen anywhere else in Panschin) and these grand houses have now fallen on hard times.
Dome Two has trouble with ventilation and temperature control because of its size. It is most comfortable in the winter. In the summer, it gets hot and stuffy but it isn’t unbearable like Dome One. Dome Two, like all the other domes in Panschin, other than Dome Six, is overrun with terraformers. Everything has to be constantly scraped or swept clean.
Dome Three was built to contain expansion housing and the Panschin School of Business (PSB). Dome Three also contains the Mining and Engineering School of Panschin (MESP). PanU is more of a liberal arts facility now as most of the hard sciences moved over to MESP. It is nowhere near as large as Dome Two, about 1 and 1/2 klicks across, and not nearly as high, but higher than Dome One. The dome builders were still trying to get the optimal size and you cannot build a dome and then tear it down if it doesn’t work out as planned. There is very little green space in Dome Three as that didn’t work out as well as the builders thought it would. The upkeep of having to hand-water everything was difficult. Ventilation in Dome Three is better as the builders got better at it. As with the other domes, Dome Three contains the usual retail, police, fire and rescue, medical clinics, branches of the library, schools, offices, banks, all the stuff that people need. There is some residential as well.
Dome Four was next. It is primarily manufacturing. Dome Four is also about 1 & 1/2 klicks across. It is amazingly smelly in Dome Four despite the better ventilation and being caked with terraformers. All the factories and smelting operations are tucked in here. Nobody lives in Dome Four, not legally and officially at any rate. No one is going to stop you from sleeping there in a hidden corner. There is no living greenery in Dome Four, other than terraformers, as nobody is going to waste those resources here. The terraformers make Dome Four more livable so they don’t get scraped off if it isn’t mission critical to do so. The dome traps all the pollutants underneath it, making the atmosphere extremely toxic.
The tunnels under Dome Four are notorious as being lawless, wild, and extremely dangerous. There is some housing under Dome Four but only people who can’t go anywhere else, live here.
Dome Five is housing for all the people who don’t have to live underground as they can afford not to but they can’t afford Dome Six. It is primarily apartment blocks, some of them large and luxurious and some not so much. As with every other non-factory building in Panschin, the rooftops are used as garden and terrace areas. No weather in a dome! Dome Five is also about 1 & 1/2 klicks across. There is quite a lot of vegetation, the vast majority of it in huge pots, but none bigger than a dining room table. Nobody in Dome Five has a tiny yard like they do in Dome Two. Dome Five has schools, retail, and all the usual services. The most expensive buildings (apartments or hotels) will have an actual, tiny lawn of real grass out front. The grass, like every other plant inside the dome is hand-watered.
Dome Six is the newest, finest, clearest, best ventilated dome in Panschin. It is 1 & 3/4 klicks across, not quite as large as Dome Two, but it is as high. It contains all the wealthiest housing in the domes. As soon as Dome Six was finished, everybody who could, moved out of Dome Two and into Dome Six. There is a lot of greenery and tiny park-like spaces in Dome Six. None of these parks are free. They belong to their paid members.
Dome Six contains the grandest housing in Panschin although non-biased observers notice that the old mansions in Dome Two are still larger, better built, and have those tiny yards. Dome Six has many luxury apartment buildings along with the finest, most expensive shopping and restaurants in Panschin. The Twelve Happiness Luxury Hotel is located here along with several other hotels, none of which are as expensive or exclusive. The most exclusive private school in Panschin is located here.
Dome Six also contains a walled-off tower complex; built, operated, and maintained by the Northern Mining Tier demesnes. The big four demesnes surrounding Panschin (Atto, Davis, Fuziwara, and Maerski) own most of the complex. Every other Northern Mining Tier demesne owns at least a few rooms inside the complex for their own people to use when in Panschin. This keeps the money and social interactions within the Four Hundred. It also ensures less contact with the free citizens of Panschin. Even the servants and security force tend to be imported. Visiting members of the Four Hundred are always (if it is known they’re coming) invited to stay here, further cross-pollinating the Four Hundred. Because of their local power and money, the four demesnes were able to negotiate a very favorable lease, although they had to pony up all the money to pay for the complex themselves to get that lease.
Dome Six is farther north than Dome Two, the farthest north of all the domes, as the builders figured out that farther north is better for a domed city; they handle the winter just fine but cooler summers make for a more bearable dome experience.
Another reason everyone who could moved to Dome Six as soon as possible is the terraformers, or rather, the lack thereof. The Domes of Panschin are built of electrified glassteel, which keeps the terraformers from clinging to them. The domes are, in effect, self-cleaning.
Dome Six was built the same way. Moreover, every building inside Dome Six has the same tiny electrical current running continuously throughout its structure, keeping the terraformers away. That means that Dome Six doesn’t require nearly as much constant scrubbing to keep every surface clear. That also means that Dome Six, just to stay clean of terraformers, uses enough electricity that the entire city of Panschin would otherwise use to provide outdoor lighting and reduce the cost of electricity to the residents by one-half or more. This causes a lot of resentment in the rest of Panschin, both in the other domes and in the tunnel housing. Things such as furniture, rickshaws, bicycles, clothing, anything that isn’t part of the building itself, still have to be scrubbed on a regular basis.
Dome Six, despite its electrification, suffers from just as many fungal diseases as the rest of Panschin.
Living Amid the Domes
Panschin isn’t that large. Each dome is like a self-contained small town (other than Dome Four). All the domes are designed primarily for people on foot, on bicycles, riding in rickshaws, etc. Those methods don’t generate heat and combustion gases, always a problem in a dome, especially in the summer. They also don’t use precious energy that could go to powering the mines and manufacturing and running the transtube system. All the domes have extensive underground areas, filling in the oldest, uppermost, no longer needed tunnels with storage, living facilities, retail, etc. All the domes are connected to each other and to the agricultural tunnels via tramways (above ground) and transtubes (underground). The subway and tramway lines also include walking paths for people on foot, on bicycles, on skateboards, in rickshaws, sedan chairs or even palanquins (if you’re being ostentatious). The biggest connecting tunnels have a lane for vehicles, usually electric. There is one, large connecter between each of the domes, each other, and the main train station.
Panschin is actually a three-dimensional city, with multiple interconnected levels. Maps are a challenge as you need many of them, one for each level. Long-time residents can get lost. Visitors who go outside of the main areas quickly discover they need native guides.
The domes work on the whole, but there are many problems. Ventilation is always difficult. They tend to overheat in the summer, although the winters are fine. All gardening done inside a dome, whether a houseplant or parks or food gardening has to be hand watered if you cannot afford a sprinkler system. There is no rain inside a dome! Water is too expensive for most places to have large grass lawns. The glassteel starts out transparent but becomes yellowed and foggy with age. During the period where the White Elephant takes place, Mars still has direct contact and plenty of it with Olde Earthe so Olde Earthe technology can be ordered to keep the domes operable.
When Olde Earthe collapses, the domes eventually become one more problem that has to be maintained. They are not as high a priority, of course, as maintaining the terraforming equipment but the domes and tunnels of Panschin are still very important as Panschin mines most of the metals used throughout Martian industry.
The Domes of Panschin affect every aspect of the free-city, including its susceptibility to terraformers. They dominate an outsider’s view. Although they get all the press and attention, the domes do NOT include all the housing in the free-city. Never forget that the domes are for wealthier people. Mining families and the poorest folks live in underground tunnels, often ones that have been played-out of easy to get ores. Mining companies, such as Steelio or Qiao & Schopenhour, maintain underground warrens as housing for their workers and families.
Very wealthy people own seasonal villas outside the domes in the open air. Panschin is so close to the north pole that the winters are far too severe to live outside year-round. These grand estates are winterized and only used when it’s warmer. It’s considered a huge privilege to receive an invitation to spend a few days at someone’s villa. Rain parties are common, and the guests all watch the rain from roofed pavilions in amazement.
There are also some outdoor, summer parks; available to the residents of Panschin for a fee. These parks are only open during the summer.