65 million years ago, Earth's Victoria Wetlands
Rain came and went quickly along Earth's equator. After the downpour, a rainbow appeared, and golden light shimmered across the Victoria Wetlands, veiled in a thin mist.
Nikola Tesla, Abbott, and Maria sat around a table on an outdoor platform.
After hearing of the crisis facing Venus, Maria had spent a sleepless night. Filled with worry, she asked:
"You said you wanted to evacuate the Venusians to Mars and Earth, but Venus has six billion people. How will you transport them, and where exactly can they go to survive?"
Abbott raised his head, his expression grave, and replied:
"We face countless difficulties. But boiled down, transport capacity and places for people to settle are indeed the two biggest problems."
Abbott looked at Tesla and let out a soft sigh before adding:
"How many people we can transport, and who goes first—leave those questions to the politicians on Venus. Our main task is to find and build places for them to settle on Earth and Mars."
Nikola Tesla gazed into the distance at the seemingly endless marshland and said:
"I'm not the only clever person on Venus. We chose this vast wetland beneath our feet as a place to exile the Venusians because it's also the most suitable place we've found on Earth for them to live."
He looked away, paused to consider, then continued:
"The main reason is that this wetland can effectively keep dinosaurs at bay. But while it could support tens of thousands of people, it can't sustain a population of hundreds of millions."
"Nikola, stop keeping us in suspense. Don't you already have a plan to reshape Earth's terrain?" Abbott pressed.
With help from 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 wasn't all-powerful, but when it came to gathering information, processing data, and offering the best solutions, it outperformed the human brain. With its help, Tesla had devised a plan to reshape Earth.
The external brain's way of "thinking" differed greatly from a human's. Every feasible plan it proposed was based on supposedly correct ethical principles—for instance, that Venusians had no right to wipe out the dinosaurs.
For dinosaurs, marshes offered little food, and their massive bodies could easily get stuck. Even pterosaurs rarely visited because of the scarcity of food. Unfortunately, marshes were just as unsuitable for the Venusians.
The failure of the Superlight Wave Power Station built on Venus's tower island had given Nikola Tesla another idea: the station's excess heat would flow deep into the planet's crust, causing magma to churn and the mantle to rise. This would intensify tectonic activity and lift the ground, turning plains and wetlands into plateaus and mountains.
The plan for reshaping Earth proposed by Nikola Tesla's external brain seemed to satisfy both sides. Because commercial land was scarce on Venus, there had been many precedents for reclaiming land from the sea. Land on Venus was limited, and most of what little there was already belonged to someone.
Under Venusian law, approved land reclamation projects followed the principle of "whoever creates it gets to use it." The rule was clearly both lawful and reasonable.
The external brain's specific plan for reshaping Earth was to turn an ocean into land for Venusian immigrants. Since vast oceans would remain elsewhere on Earth, marine life wouldn't go extinct. As for the dinosaurs, their existing "right of residence" on land would remain entirely unaffected.
Of course, any dinosaurs that trespassed into the Venusians' new home would be driven away or even killed. That wouldn't wipe out the dinosaurs, and it was plainly in keeping with Venusian law and ethics.
"Nikola, reclaiming land from the sea—that's an interesting idea. Which ocean on Earth have you chosen?" Abbott asked as he opened a holographic map of the planet.
Nikola Tesla pointed to a long blue strip representing the ocean, lying between the tectonic plates the Venusians called "Eurasia" and "Indo-Australia." Since Venus had an ocean called the Tethys Ocean, they called this one on Earth the New Tethys Ocean.
"My plan is to build two Superlight Wave Power Stations on Earth. The more powerful one will go on a volcanic island in the New Tethys Ocean." Tesla pointed to a tiny black dot in the ocean and continued, "In a few decades, the pressure between the two plates will raise the crust. The seawater will recede, and the ocean will disappear completely, leaving behind a vast landmass and the highest mountain range and peaks on Earth."
Maria was astonished by this incredible plan. Curious, she asked:
"You said you'd build two Superlight Wave Power Stations. Where will the other one go?"
Nikola Tesla gave a childishly mischievous smile and pointed at the towering space elevator not far away.
"Right here. This space elevator is over 90,000 kilometers tall. We'll double its height to 180,000 kilometers and use only a small amount of Carbon Fiber Tubes, so this station's output will be far lower than the one in the New Tethys Ocean."
Abbott immediately understood what Tesla had in mind, but a new question occurred to him.
"You want to turn this wetland into a plateau. That would certainly make it more suitable for large groups of Venusians to live in, but how will you keep the dinosaurs out?"
Nikola Tesla smiled. He pointed to the bread Maria had baked herself, sitting on a plate on the table.
"You've never made bread, have you, Abbott? This loaf rises in the middle and has a smooth surface, but there are two deep cracks on either side of the center. I'll use those two rift valleys to keep out the dinosaurs."
Maria understood at once and eagerly chimed in:
"You'll do it the way I make bread. By adjusting the temperature, you'll create the plateau while making both sides crack open, forming two deep Great Rift Valleys."
"The New Tethys Ocean is vast. Whatever the terrain of the new land, the Venusians will be able to make good use of it. We can build a high-output power station and let the land form naturally. This wetland is different. The rock structure underground is complex, and it borders dinosaur habitats. We have to proceed carefully and let the changes happen gradually, like adjusting the temperature repeatedly when baking bread."
Nikola Tesla was a physicist and a brilliant engineer, but he knew that the emergence and propagation of life depended on biology. Fortunately, Maria, his girlfriend, was one of Venus's leading biologists. Abbott had clearly realized this too, and said:
"Nicola and I are both heavy-handed workers. If we can use Superluminal Wave Energy to reshape the terrain, then our great biologist should tell us what she needs from the perspective of life."
So Maria laid out the ideal terrain needed to support life and its propagation, drawing on her expertise in biology.
The Venusians were omnivores, but their diet relied mainly on crops—in other words, grain. The terrain best suited to agriculture was an alluvial plain, so the first requirement was a long freshwater river, with ample rainfall or snow-capped glaciers in its upper reaches.
In Maria's view, the eastern and western Great Rift Valleys would not only keep out the dinosaurs, but also bring a wealth of microorganisms from the shallow crust to the surface, turning the region into a cradle of biodiversity.
Earth's plants would evolve from being dominated by gymnosperms to being dominated by angiosperms, making them better suited to the survival and evolution of all kinds of mammals.
Abbott and Tesla envisioned the wetland's future terrain. The marsh would become a magma-built plateau. With abundant rainfall at the equator, numerous dammed lakes would form, and the largest freshwater lake could be named "Lake Victoria."
The plateau's waters would collect and flow north, where the land was lower, forming a long river that would empty into the remaining waters on the western side of the New Tethys Ocean.
This remnant of the ocean lay between the European and African plates, as the Venusians called them. It would be a sea surrounded by land and could be called the "Mediterranean."
They could name the longest river on Earth after the Nile, which had run dry on Venus due to climate change. In the future, Lake Victoria would hold abundant, clear water and feed the Nile's main channel, which could also be called the "White Nile."
Abbott counted on his fingers and asked Tesla, "A snow-capped mountain? This is at the equator. How high would the snowline need to be for glaciers to last all year?"
"About 5,200 meters. According to the calculations from the external brain, via the Lightning Ball, intense volcanic activity will eventually create peaks nearly 6,000 meters high. They'll also be the 'roof' of this continent."
"What do you plan to call this nearly 6,000-meter peak?"
Two words from the ancient Venusian language of the Chaga people came to Nikola Tesla's mind: one meant "difficult" or "impossible," and the other meant "a traveling party on a long journey."
After he explained the two words, Maria said:
"You want to name this future snow-capped mountain on Earth's equator after the plight of the Venusians today?"
Abbott nodded in wholehearted approval.
"We Venusians are a traveling party struggling across a long journey. In Chaga, that's called Kilimanjaro."
A poem assembled from lines at the end of the chapter:
The place where my footprints once trod has now lost all trace. —Li Dongyang, Ming dynasty
Thick quilts spread around, warming the frozen valley. —Cheng Jiu, Qing dynasty
Spring and summer have yet to melt the ancient snow. —Yang Shen, Ming dynasty
The regrets of years past still remain today. —Du Mu, Tang dynasty
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