Libby's promised immigration officer is there already, decorating her office.

"Hallo!" Bella says. "I brought you some brochures. We have a website now, too."

"Thank you!" she says. "You must be the empress. Is there anything I should know about immigration policy that's not covered in the literature? The job offer was short on details."

"I am," says Bella. "I'm trying to be fairly transparent, and what I have so far is all on the site and in the brochure - we can and will accommodate lots of people who need Mars, but we would also like a healthy proportion of particularly talented and ambitious people who will make it an interesting place to live. Lazarus was complaining that there's nothing to do there. I want that fixed, and I don't want to have to do everything myself. For Olympus, everyone has to speak English, but if you get applicants who don't, you can put them on waiting lists for other cities - keep me posted on what languages there's demand for." She drops five language pentagons on her desk. "In case you don't speak anything else yourself, these'll help with that, one language per, deploy as needed. I'll put you on the brainphone network." [Like so.] "Have you got a name, by the way?"

"Harriet," says the immigration officer. "Harriet Yu."

"Pleased to meet you. Any questions?"

"Not currently."

"All right. Do you want to get paid in asters or in dollars?" And, because she does not know this person personally, [Libby, how much am I paying Harriet?]

"As you like. I'm going to give you access to an account full of asters -" this has to be done manually; Harriet hasn't been to Mars - "and you can sell people asters out of it, one-to-one exchange with dollars till further notice. Take whatever form of payment you know how to get into a bank account for this office. No exchange fees unless there are transaction costs to us - credit card merchant fees or whatever. When you've put up your Craigslist ads or whatever and gotten this place more fully staffed let me know if that job's going to someone else. Let me know if you run out of asters."

"Sure," says Harriet. "That all sounds very reasonable."

"I try," says Bella. "Anybody you hire gets their choice of being paid in asters or dollars, too. If they don't visit Mars, then I need to set up aster accounts manually until I hire someone to run the bank." [Libby, I would like someone to run the bank for me.] "Benefits consist of being allowed to go to Mars even if they don't live there and take advantage of the services, which are going to include magic healthcare and already include free meals. If people want other stuff, we can talk." Bella decides she doesn't really want to hire medics; she's just going to install some health-artifacts. Since they will work instantly she doesn't imagine she'll need many.

"Yes, free magic healthcare." [They can work remotely if they like.]

Bella points out the window. "There, that tunnel in the parking lot. It takes you down to the parking structure if you or anyone in your vehicle are not allowed to go to Mars, or if you are not trying to visit Mars. Otherwise, it takes you through to a similar tunnel in Olympus. There are separate lanes and magic safety features to prevent this from doing anyone harm. Speaking of being allowed to visit Mars, I'm authorizing you to issue day passes. For reporters and suchlike. You can be quite free with the day passes. After 24 hours, if the bearer hasn't left, they'll be teleported safely back here. And it won't let them claim apartments or anything. But they can look around. We might do tour buses later." Bella conjures a big stack of red paper squares marked "DAY PASS TO MARS"; the magic door was already designed with this in mind.

"All right," says Harriet. "Are the passes per person?"

"Yep. I don't really care if someone swipes one without asking for themselves, but if someone takes a bunch, tell me. And as with the asters, let me know if you run out."

"Got it."

"Let's see..." Bella taps her foot, thinking. "Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Libby recommended you so I assume you're brilliant and worth paying attention to."

"Do the day passes show time remaining?"

"They do now," says Bella, patting the stack. "Oh, and the 24 hours are Mars hours, so it's a little longer than an Earth day." It occurs to her that she doesn't have any way for hotels to operate on Mars, considering that she doesn't let people claim too much space. She designates four apartment buildings around Olympus to be refitted by would-be hoteliers with the best bids.

"Some clocks that show Mars time would be handy," Harriet muses. "And a calendar, if calendars are available."