65 Million Years Ago, Earth, the Victoria Wetland
The rain at Earth’s equator came quickly and left just as quickly. After the downpour, a rainbow appeared, and the Victoria Wetland was flecked with golden light, shrouded in a thin veil of mist.
Seated around a table on the outdoor platform were Nikola Tesla, Abbott, and Maria.
After Maria heard of the crisis facing Venus, she had not slept all night. Filled with worry, she asked,
“You say you want to relocate Venusian humans to Mars and Earth, but Venus has six billion people. How are they to be transported? And to which specific places suitable for human survival?”
Abbott raised his head and answered gravely,
“The difficulties before us are innumerable. Reduced to their essence, transport capacity and footholds are indeed the two most important problems.”
Abbott looked toward Tesla, sighed softly, and added,
“How many people can be transported out, who goes first and who goes later—leave those questions to the politicians on Venus. Our main task is to find and build footholds on Earth and Mars.”
Nikola Tesla gazed into the distance, toward the boundless wetland and marsh, and said,
“Venus has more than one intelligent mind besides me. The reason we chose this vast wetland beneath our feet as the place of exile for Venusians is that, for now, it is also the most suitable foothold for Venusian humans that can be found on Earth.”
He withdrew his gaze, pondered briefly, then continued,
“The main reason is that this wetland can effectively isolate them from dinosaur attacks. But while this place can support the survival of tens of thousands, it cannot sustain a Venusian human population in the hundreds of millions.”
“Nikola, stop keeping us in suspense. Haven’t you already come up with a plan to transform Earth’s terrain?” Abbott pressed.
With the aid of the high-energy, high-speed connector known as the “Lightning Ball,” the compatibility between Nikola Tesla and his external brain had improved by leaps and bounds.
The external brain was not omnipotent, but in collecting information, processing data, and providing optimal options, it far surpassed the human brain. With the support of the external brain, Tesla had formed a plan for transforming Earth.
The external brain’s manner of “thinking” differed greatly from that of humans. The feasible plans it proposed were all built upon what it deemed correct moral norms—for instance, that Venusian humans had no right to exterminate the dinosaur species.
For dinosaurs, marshlands were poor in food, and their massive bodies were prone to sinking into the mire. Even pterosaurs flying through the air rarely visited because of the scarcity of food. Regrettably, marshes were likewise unsuitable for the survival of Venusian humans.
The lesson of failure from the superluminal-wave power station built on Tower Island, Venus, had given Nikola Tesla another inspiration: the surplus heat from a superluminal-wave power station would be injected deep into a planet’s crust, causing magma to surge, the mantle to bulge, plate movement to intensify, and the surface to rise—turning plains and wetlands into plateaus and mountains.
The Earth-transformation plan proposed by Nikola Tesla’s external brain could be considered a perfect compromise. Because commercial land was scarce on Venus, there had been many precedents of reclaiming land from the sea. Land on Venus was limited, and most of that limited land already had owners.
Under Venusian law, approved acts of land reclamation followed the principle of “whoever creates it may use it.” This provision was clearly both legally sound and reasonable.
The specific Earth-transformation plan given by the external brain was to turn a stretch of ocean into land for Venusian immigrants to use. Vast oceans would still exist elsewhere on Earth, so marine life would not go extinct as a result. As for the dinosaurs, their original “right of residence” on land would not be affected in any way.
Of course, any dinosaurs that trespassed into the new habitation area of Venusian humans would be driven off or even killed. That would neither exterminate the dinosaurs nor violate, in any obvious way, Venusian human law and ethics.
“Nikola, reclaiming land from the sea—that’s an interesting idea. Which stretch of ocean on Earth have you chosen as your target?” Abbott asked as he opened Earth’s holographic map.
Nikola Tesla pointed to a long blue band symbolizing ocean, located between the plates Venusians called “Eurasia” and “Indo-Australia.” Because Venus had an ocean called the Tethys Ocean, Venusians referred to this ocean on Earth as the New Tethys Ocean.
“My plan is to build two superluminal-wave power stations on Earth. The more powerful one will be built on a volcanic island in the New Tethys Ocean.” Tesla pointed at the small black dot in the New Tethys Ocean and went on, “Decades later, under the opposing compression of the two major plates, the crust will bulge upward, the seawater will recede, and the ocean will completely vanish, forming vast land and the highest mountain range and peaks on Earth.”
Hearing this inconceivable plan, Maria was astonished. Curious, she asked,
“You said you wanted to build two superluminal-wave power stations. Where will the other one be built?”
Nikola Tesla gave a childishly mysterious smile and pointed to the towering space elevator not far away.
“Right here. This space elevator is more than ninety thousand kilometers tall. Extend it to twice that height, making it one hundred and eighty thousand kilometers tall. By using only a small number of carbon-fiber tubes, the power of this station will be far lower than the one in the New Tethys Ocean.”
Abbott immediately understood Tesla’s intention, but a new question arose in his mind.
“You want to turn this wetland into a plateau. That would indeed be more conducive to group habitation by Venusian humans, but how do you plan to keep out the dinosaurs?”
Nikola Tesla smiled. He pointed to the bread on the plate, baked by Maria herself, and said,
“You’ve never made bread, have you, Abbott? This kind of bread rises in the center and has a smooth surface, but on both sides of the center there are two deep cracks. I’ll use those two rift valleys to block the dinosaurs.”
Maria understood at once and said eagerly,
“You mean to do it the way I bake bread—by adjusting the temperature so that, while creating the plateau, both sides split open and form two deep rift valleys.”
“The New Tethys Ocean covers a vast area. No matter what terrain the new land takes, Venusians will be able to make good use of it. We only need to build a high-power station and let it form naturally. This wetland is different. The underground rock structure is complex, and it borders dinosaur habitats. We must proceed with care and let the change happen slowly, like baking bread by repeatedly adjusting the temperature.”
Nikola Tesla was a physicist and also a genius engineer, but he knew that the birth and propagation of life could not be separated from biology. Fortunately, his girlfriend Maria was one of Venus’s foremost biologists. Abbott had clearly realized this as well and said,
“Nikola and I are both suited to the rough work. If we have the ability to use superluminal-wave energy to change the terrain, then let us ask our great biologist to put forward her requirements from the perspective of life.”
And so Maria, from the perspective of professional biology, proposed the ideal terrain requirements suited to the flourishing of life.
Venusian humans were omnivores, with their food primarily consisting of crops—that is, grain. The terrain most suited to agriculture was alluvial plains, so the first requirement was a long freshwater river. The upper reaches of that freshwater river would need abundant rainfall, or snow-capped mountains and glaciers.
In Maria’s view, the eastern and western rift valleys would not only block the dinosaurs, but also bring large numbers of microorganisms from the shallow crust to the surface, making this region a cradle of biodiversity.
Earth’s plants would evolve from being dominated by gymnosperms to being dominated by angiosperms, which would better suit the survival and evolution of various mammals.
Abbott and Tesla envisioned the future terrain of this wetland. The marshy wetland would become a lava-built plateau. Because rainfall at the equator was plentiful, numerous barrier lakes would form, and the largest freshwater lake could be considered for the name “Lake Victoria.”
The accumulated lakewater on the plateau would flow toward the lower-lying northern region, forming a long river whose mouth would lie in the remaining waters west of the New Tethys Ocean.
This remnant body of water, located between the plates Venusians called Europe and Africa, would be a sea within the land and could be called the “Mediterranean Sea.”
That longest river on Earth could be named after the Nile on Venus, which had run dry due to climate warming. In the future, Lake Victoria would have abundant water and clear quality, forming the main stem of the Nile. This branch of the main stream could also be called the “White Nile.”
Counting on his fingers, Abbott asked Tesla, “Snow-capped mountains. This place lies on the equator. If you want to form glaciers and snow mountains that do not melt year-round, how high do you think the snow line must be?”
“About 5,200 meters. Through the Lightning Ball, the calculation given by the external brain is that intense volcanic activity will ultimately form peaks nearly 6,000 meters high. That will also become the ‘roof’ of this continent.”
“Then what do you plan to call this nearly 6,000-meter peak?”
Two words from the ancient Venusian Chaga people surfaced in Nikola Tesla’s mind. One meant difficult, impossible; the other meant a caravan on a long journey.
After he said the two words aloud, Maria said,
“You want to name this future snow mountain on Earth’s equator after the present plight of Venusians?”
Abbott nodded deeply in agreement and praised,
“We Venusians are that caravan struggling on a long journey. In Chaga, it is called: Kilimanjaro.”
&
Chapter-closing cento poem:
Where clogs once came, no trace remains. Ming, Li Dongyang
Thick wadding parts beside; the frozen valley warms. Qing, Chengjiu
Through spring and summer, ancient snow has never melted. Ming, Yang Shen
Regret left from former years endures to this day. Tang, Du Mu