December 2029, Rocket City, Bright Country
The Nikola self-driving electric car sped down the highway. Daphne Braun rested her head lightly on Michael's shoulder, but his thoughts had long since drifted beyond the car window.
If he put the plan to use Superluminal waves to "illuminate" Enceladus on hold, he didn't know whether he could still persuade investors, including Prince Harufa, that he really had access to a super-energy source—and convince them to put astronomical sums into his plan.
Daphne absently touched her belly, then brushed her lips against Michael's cheek. The gesture brought him back to the present. He gently laid a large hand on her abdomen, searching for and sensing the tiny, developing fetus.
Daphne could feel how much Martha's interview questions had dampened Michael's spirits. At the same time, she was curious about the other experiment he'd mentioned. As soon as the subject turned to experiments on Saturn Ring, Michael launched into another long explanation.
Enceladus's semimajor axis exceeded 230,000 kilometers. Inside its orbit, Saturn Ring spread out in concentric circles, divided by gaps into several named rings. The B Ring was the brightest, and its rocks and ice were the thickest and most numerous.
The rings had been observed for hundreds of years. It wasn't until the Bright Country Space Administration sent probes to observe the Saturn System up close that astronomers were astonished to discover a vast ring beyond Enceladus's orbit. Though thin and dim, it stretched across an immense area. They named it the E Ring.
Before then, astronomers had believed that the rings of billions of ice chunks and rocks inside Enceladus's orbit had formed from debris left behind when a giant moon of Saturn exploded. Had the outer E Ring formed in the same way?
The E Ring stretched from Enceladus all the way to the orbit of Rhea, and could even be faintly traced as far as Titan. Its disk spanned nearly a million kilometers in radius.
Using the law of universal gravitation to calculate the dynamics of each orbiting band of material in this enormous "disk," astronomers concluded that the E Ring could exist for only between ten thousand and a million years. A million years was no more than the blink of an eye compared with the billions of years the Solar System's disk had lasted.
If the law of universal gravitation was correct, and the E Ring's life really was so short, astronomers had to accept an awkward coincidence: humanity and the E Ring had happened to come into existence at the same point on a timeline spanning billions of years.
Daphne knew the details of Saturn Ring well. She said to Michael:
"Nobody knew the angular velocity of each individual ring in Saturn Ring. According to the law of universal gravitation, the inner rings should move faster and the outer ones slower. If we set markers in different bands and measure their angular velocities, and they turn out to be nearly the same, then the law of universal gravitation will have to be replaced by a new theory of gravity. Is that right?"
"Yes. Actually, we don't even need to wait for the experimental results. You can already tell from photographs of Saturn Ring. It doesn't look at all like a series of gears, moving more slowly on the outside and faster on the inside. It looks more like a tightly connected disk, rotating as one. If that's the case, it could last far longer than tens of thousands of years!"
Michael's phone rang. It was Irene. She said Prince Harufa wanted Michael and Daphne to join him for breakfast at his hotel the next day.
The next morning, Michael and Daphne arrived as promised. Michael's years of business experience told him that Prince Harufa seemed more inclined than before to invest in him.
But Michael wasn't as confident as he'd like to be. The abandoned Ice Lantern project on Enceladus couldn't demonstrate the power of the super-energy source he had at his disposal. What was more, restarting Mars would require an enormous investment—and the worst part was that the wait for a return would be very, very long.
Prince Harufa was straightforward. He got right to the point and asked Michael, "Can you tell me about your plan? How much money will it take?"
"My plan is to transform and restart Mars, making it like Earth and suitable for human life—or, you could say, turning Mars into a backup Earth." Michael briefly laid out his explosive proposal.
Irene's hand pressed involuntarily against the table. The bowls, plates, and silverware on it gave a faint rattle. Prince Harufa set his coffee cup back on its saucer and looked straight at Michael, seemingly encouraging him to elaborate.
Michael turned to Daphne and said unhurriedly, "My dear girlfriend is an expert on Mars. I'll let her explain what it would take to make Mars like Earth."
This was the first time Daphne had heard Michael mention this wild plan. Intrigued, she explained it in detail, as if reciting a list she knew by heart:
"For humans to live freely on the surface of Mars, the planet needs an atmosphere with an appropriate level of oxygen; liquid water to sustain biodiversity, including oceans, lakes, and rivers; and a planetary-scale dipole magnetic field to protect against high-energy particles from the Sun and interstellar space."
After listening to Daphne's explanation, Prince Harufa leaned back in his chair. Michael completely understood the reaction people had when they first heard his crazy plan.
Restarting and transforming Mars—creating an atmosphere, liquid water, and a planetary-scale magnetic field—was beyond human capabilities. "Crazy" didn't begin to describe the idea. It was sheer fantasy.
"I've discovered a way to obtain a super-energy source. I'm going to build an enormous device on Mars to absorb energy and feed it into the planet's core. The cooled metal core will heat up and become molten again, restarting the magnetic field."
"If that really works, the ice beneath the Martian surface will melt and rise to form oceans," Daphne added. "The dry ice at Mars's south pole will sublimate into carbon dioxide and create an atmosphere."
"Yes. The greenhouse effect and liquid water will encourage algae and other plants to flourish. Photosynthesis will produce oxygen, and Mars will eventually become a habitable planet much like Earth," Michael said.
Prince Harufa picked up his coffee cup again and asked, "Well, I imagine this plan will take a great deal of money. It seems that what you need to convince me of isn't just an investment, but a great undertaking. I doubt many people would be willing to invest in it. Do you think I will?"
Michael tensed instantly. He fixed his eyes on the prince, hoping to read his expression.
Prince Harufa's next words landed like a bombshell. He said:
"Even if everything you've planned is feasible, with my limited knowledge of astronomy, I understand that it could take thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years to turn Mars into a backup Earth. Perhaps longer. This isn't an investment at all. No one could live long enough to see a return."
Daphne and Irene seemed even more awkward than Michael.
Strangely, Prince Harufa remained calm. He held out his right hand, palm up, clenched it into a fist, then slowly opened it again. "There's a saying in my homeland: sand turns to gold, and gold eventually turns back to sand. A clenched hand can't hold on to sand, and when it opens, even the sand will slip away."
As everyone looked on in confusion, the prince explained:
"My country is lucky. It's covered in sand, and there's gold buried beneath it. But our ancestors' wisdom taught us that gold is sifted from sand, and one day the gold in our hands will turn back into sand."
Michael looked like he'd just crawled out of an ice cave. His blood surged to his face, and he flushed bright red. He asked Prince Harufa urgently, "Even if the investment is enormous and the return is far beyond our lifetimes, you're still willing to take the risk with me?"
Prince Harufa laughed heartily, reached across the table, and clasped Michael's hand. "Why not? Before my gold turns back into sand, I'll give it to you first. Go prepare a backup Earth for us."
Michael sincerely thanked the prince for his courage and generosity. Suddenly, he remembered news reports about the prince's plan to build a cluster of smart cities. He asked, "I heard you also have an ambitious plan to build smart cities in the desert. If you need anything in the field of Artificial Intelligence, I'll do everything I can to support you."
Michael spoke excitedly, thinking, If I'd known the prince had such vision, why would I have bothered with that 'Ice Lantern' on Enceladus?
Everyone chatted happily and raised their glasses in celebration. Irene remarked with some regret, "Transforming Mars—what a crazy but wonderful plan. It's a shame that even if it succeeds completely, none of us may live to see it."
Michael smiled mysteriously. "We might. I won't just transform Mars's terrain and landscape. I'll also back up human genes and uploaded consciousness on Mars. That will make it a true backup Earth."
A poem pieced together from lines:
Just to seek the wondrous, I ventured to the upper halls. — Huang Youji, Ming
I would borrow a little of your light from my in-laws. — Lou Yao, Song
Beneath the Martian cliffs, rocks tower sheer. — Su Shi, Song
Only your home lies near my native land. — Guo Xiangzheng, Song
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