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Bella has watched a simple, managed Martian ecosystem and a glitteringly colorful first city pour procedurally out from assorted points of origin on her computer with a variety of rand seeds, and picked the prettiest result.
She's standing on that ideal origin spot now - the top of Olympus Mons, under a blue-dyed sky and a breathable layer of atmosphere - holding her laptop which holds this specification under her left arm. All present to witness this moment are Alice, Libby, Lazarus, and Bridget.
She defangs a trio of stars: one for the terrain, one for the wildlife, one for the city of Olympus. To be dramatic, she squares them off her bandolier and holds them high in the air between the fingers of her right hand.
"Welcome to Mars," she says.
Wishwishwish.
Moss ripples out from under her feet and carpets the landscape, giving way to forest further downhill and, further away, to freshwater ocean. Birds, startled by their existence, take off. An instant later they're all standing at the foot of her crystalline tower that sits at the center, watching skyscrapers riddled with magical appliances sprout from the ground, and streets pave themselves with smooth tiles.
Bella defangs more stars and lays down what she's taken to calling Ground Rules with another gesture. Mars is going to be peaceful. Mars is going to be safe. Mars is going to watch its people and report to her.
Mars is going to be the seat of the Empire of the Stars.
(There's a flag, on the spire of her tower. It's sky blue, and there are half a dozen seven-pointed stars spangling it. It ripples in the breeze that's begun to waft in from the sea.)
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self_composed
self_composed
"I have someone working on the calendar." [How goes calendar-ing?] she asks Bridget. "Clocks I can do, how many do you want? What kinds?"
prima-sequentem
"A few as watches, a few for the walls... let's say five each," Harriet says. "If Mars ends up with a thriving tourism industry, Martian watches would be a good thing to sell at the gate."
regularsized
[Pretty good!] says Bridget. [Do you want any input on the names of months and so forth? What year should be year zero?]
self_composed
[Let's say it is currently year one,] Bella says. [The day I did the terraforming and made Olympus can be day one of year one, I'm not sure if that's today or yesterday in Mars time. I have no idea what I want to call months. How do those even work? We have two moons!]
"I'm not in the watch business, but if someone else wants to manufacture and sell them in quantity, I'm all for it," Bella says, producing five each clocks and watches that keep to Martian time. Two of each are digital.
"I'm not in the watch business, but if someone else wants to manufacture and sell them in quantity, I'm all for it," Bella says, producing five each clocks and watches that keep to Martian time. Two of each are digital.
regularsized
[The year's twice as long as Earth, so we get twenty-four twenty-eight-day months, with a little intercalary fudging to keep the equinox lined up. Arbitrary, but conveniently familiar.]
prima-sequentem
"Not in the clock business," says Harriet, looking at the clocks. "Right. Okay, I'll look into it."
self_composed
[So our months have nothing to do with moons? Okay. What season is it in the hemisphere containing Olympus, now?]
"People can, should, and if they act like people on Earth, will find and take opportunities to sell each other stuff," Bella says. "The government of the Empire of the Stars does not need to involve itself on any level in mass-producing watches, although I'm happy to conjure a handful to make things easier on people who work for me."
"People can, should, and if they act like people on Earth, will find and take opportunities to sell each other stuff," Bella says. "The government of the Empire of the Stars does not need to involve itself on any level in mass-producing watches, although I'm happy to conjure a handful to make things easier on people who work for me."
prima-sequentem
"Sure," Harriet says agreeably. "The irony was entertaining, that's all."
regularsized
[Trust me, when it comes to months, the moons of Mars are no help. And it's early spring.]
self_composed
[Early spring. Sounds like a good time to start a year. I'll think about month names and get back to you; let me know if you think of anything.]
"Glad to amuse," chuckles Bella. "Anything else?"
"Glad to amuse," chuckles Bella. "Anything else?"
regularsized
[If we move day one a little, there's a handy equinox to put it on,] says Bridget. [And I've got a list already; how do you feel about zodiac signs?]
prima-sequentem
"No, that's it for now," says Harriet. "Thank you. You're a very helpful empress."
self_composed
"I don't see what else the point would be," Bella tells Harriet, and she smiles and teleports back to her tower office.
[Aren't there only twelve of those? And how much is a little?]
[Aren't there only twelve of those? And how much is a little?]
regularsized
[The creator of the calendar I'm working from named the months after the zodiac signs in Latin and Sanskrit.]
self_composed
[Huh. What are the names? What's the calendar you're working from?]
regularsized
[The Darian calendar. Sagittarius, Dhanus, Capricornus, Makara, Aquarius, Kumbha, Pisces, Mina, Aries, Mesha, Taurus, Rishabha, Gemini, Mithuna, Cancer, Karka, Leo, Simha, Virgo, Kanya, Kibra, Tula, Scorpius, Vrishika,] she rattles off.
self_composed
[Let's tentatively go with that. How much would we have to move the start date to get an equinox for the first of Saggitarius? I would like day one to be a significant event.]
self_composed
[Enh, that's at least during when I was programming the procedure,] Bella says. [Let's do it.]
regularsized
[In that case, you have a calendar. Oh, days of the week - Sol Solis, Sol Lunae, Sol Martis, Sol Mercurii, Sol Jovis, Sol Veneris, and Sol Saturni. Work for you, or would you prefer something less clunky?]
self_composed
[Less clunky. I suppose just going with Monday, Tuesday, etcetera leads to awkward not-matching with Earth... Why were those names chosen, was there a rationale?]
regularsized
[Going back to the Latin names for weekdays and replacing 'Dies' with 'Sol'.]
self_composed
[Did the Romans seriously preface every mention of a day of the week with "Dies"? That's even worse. I'm tempted to do days named after the Latin names of the shapes the folding money folds into. But there's only six of those, and while Anatidae and Cygnus and some of the others sound all right, Struthio camelus doesn't lend itself. Hmm.]
regularsized
[I don't know, I think Struthio is a perfectly good name for a weekday,] Bridget says cheerfully. [The odd one out is tougher. Then again, you could always make a seventh bill. What's the biggest denomination?]
self_composed
[*200. I could do a *500, promote the *200 design so the swan is still the highest denomination, make the *200 bill something else. Put a picture of a beach... It can be a seagull. So then we have Anatidae for the duck, Strigidae for the owl, Trochilidae for the hummingbird, Struthio for the ostrich, Spheniscidae for the penguin, Laridae for the gull, and Cygnus for the swan.]