Safe House (Impact Point 1)

65 million years ago, Venus

Nikola Tesla's residence and his studio were both on the 33rd floor of the same hotel. His residence was room 3327, and room 3328, connected to it, was his studio.

Dean Abbott was ordered to work with Tesla to form a plan to save Venus from crisis as soon as possible. He moved into the same hotel, and room 3328 became their joint studio.

Tesla's plan was both bold and challenging, requiring consideration of far too many aspects.

As the Dean of the Academy of Sciences, fully in charge of Venus's scientific research activities, Abbott meticulously analyzed the situation, demanding that the entire team prioritize the most critical issues determining the plan's success.

The Mars explosion would instantly eject millions of fragments into space, releasing immense energy. At that moment, how would other planets in the Solar System, including Venus and Earth, be affected? What orbital positions would be considered safe for each planet?

According to Tesla's plan, wasn't it about extracting genes and uploading consciousness? Weren't these questions equally important? Why prioritize the so-called safety of the planets first?

The answer was simple: the Mars explosion was meant to stabilize, or rather, save the structure of the Solar System. If the planets themselves were not safe, how could there be Venusians?

"Nikola, at what orbital position is the impact on the planets minimized during the Mars explosion?" Abbott asked.

"Naturally, it would be as far from Mars as possible, but not on the opposite side, because that would put the planet, Mars, and the Sun in a straight line, triggering a Superluminal wave reaction of planetary repulsion. Therefore, the optimal safe angle is 8 hours apart within the celestial sphere's 24-hour zone, which is 120 degrees of ecliptic longitude," Tesla replied.

Abbott, well-versed in celestial dynamics, further analyzed, "The impact should be significantly different at 120 degrees ahead of Mars's orbit versus 120 degrees behind it."

"Correct. When Mars explodes, the fragments will be ejected outward and backward due to centrifugal force. Clearly, 120 degrees ahead of Mars is safer."

"According to your plan, Earth is our future home and must be protected. It should be at the 120-degree lead position relative to Mars during the explosion, correct?" Abbott asked.

"Yes, during the explosion, Earth must not only lead Mars by 120 degrees in longitude but also be far from the ecliptic plane in latitude. It would be best to choose the winter solstice in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, as it is closer to perihelion than the summer solstice, meaning it is further from Mars," Tesla explained.

"One more issue, Saturn's massive ice clusters act like a lens, and Venus happens to be at the focal point of the Superluminal wave diffraction. If Venus and Saturn are also placed 120 degrees ahead of Mars, the shockwave from the extra energy of the Mars explosion would trigger extremely strong solar activity, disrupting the stability of Earth's orbit," Abbott stated.

Tesla inwardly admired his old friend's professional capabilities and said, "Yes, we need to position Venus and Saturn 120 degrees behind Mars's orbit. The benefit is that after the Sun is disturbed by the extra energy from Mars, it will release powerful flares in the direction of Venus and Saturn's conjunction, making Earth's direction safer."

Tesla connected to the external brain via a Lightning Ball to further verify his and Abbott's calculations. The external brain's results were largely consistent with their thoughts.

It added one point: Mercury should also be at the conjunction position of Venus and Saturn to absorb and block the large amount of energy released by the Sun in the form of flares.

The two opened the holographic celestial sphere map, calculating their respective orbital periods and relative positions. On the day of Earth's winter solstice, Mars would be 120 degrees apart from Earth, and Venus, Mercury, and Saturn would be at the same longitude, 120 degrees away on the other side of Earth. Earth, Mars, and Venus would perfectly divide the celestial sphere's 360 degrees of longitude, forming a standard equilateral triangle.

Their eagerness to calculate the celestial coordinates stemmed from the fact that "placing" the planets in their orbital positions was entirely theoretical. The planets move along their respective orbits, and when they would coincidentally form the ideal positional relationship designed in the plan depended on their synodic periods.

Tesla connected to the external brain again, calling up and calculating the synodic periods of the relevant planets. Taking the winter solstice in Earth's Northern Hemisphere as the determined time point, with Earth's orbital period set at 365 days, the synodic periods of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn with Earth were 117 days, 584 days, 780 days, and 378 days, respectively.

The least common multiple of these five numbers of days is 7,174,440 days, approximately 19,643 Earth years. This was based on a "perfect" alignment of conjunction periods corresponding to one degree per day. If the celestial bodies' positions deviated slightly, they would still be considered in conjunction, for example, differing by plus or minus 1 degree. According to Tesla's calculations, the synodic period was about 5125 years.

"Ah? We can't wait over 5000 years. Let's quickly check when the last time this celestial phenomenon occurred was," Abbott said, rapidly changing the celestial coordinates' corresponding time.

Was it a coincidence? Was it luck? Abbott didn't have time to ponder deeply. He stopped the celestial sphere at a specific time point and shouted, "13 years! God bless the Venusians, this celestial phenomenon we desire will occur in 13 years."

Nikola Tesla had already received this answer from the external brain but hadn't had time to say it. Seeing his old friend's joyous expression, he couldn't hide his own excitement. Without waiting for his friend to ask further, he proactively shared his other ideas, aided by the external brain:

"Although Earth is in the supposedly safe position 120 degrees ahead of Mars's orbit, a small amount of explosion debris will inevitably strike Earth. We must protect the Tower Island power station on Earth, so the impact point should be on the far side of the station."

"We Venusians have only used Earth as a place of exile and haven't defined its prime meridian. If we define Tower Island in the New Tethys Ocean as 90 degrees East longitude, the impact point we choose should be 90 degrees West longitude, right?" Abbott asked.

"Yes, I've only been to Earth's Eastern Hemisphere, including the Victoria Wetlands and Tower Island in the New Tethys Ocean. The far side of Tower Island is this location in the Western Hemisphere," Tesla said, pointing to a bay between two continents in Earth's Western Hemisphere.

"Those two continents are covered in dinosaurs. Not just you, but we Venusians probably haven't been there either, so this place doesn't have a name. Can you give this chosen impact point a name?" Abbott asked.

Tesla couldn't think of a name for a moment. As he connected to the Lightning Ball, the external brain provided an answer: MAYA.

After considering the safety of the planets and the Solar System structure, Dean Abbott began to think about the safety of the gene and consciousness carriers for the Venusians. He asked, "According to the plan, before the Mars explosion, we need to successfully extract the genes of the Venusians and upload their consciousness. The corresponding carriers will need to be guarded by research and engineering personnel, including you and me. Where will we hide then?"

"Yes, when Mars explodes, Jupiter and all the planets within its orbit will be scorched by the flames. We must stay away from this area," Tesla said.

Nikola Tesla's plan was that before the Mars explosion, the vast majority of Venusians would have their genes extracted and their consciousness uploaded. These samples would be properly stored and, along with research and engineering personnel, would travel by spaceship to a moon of the Saturn System to avoid the impact.

The moon Tesla chose was Titan. Its orbital period around Saturn was 79 days, and its semi-major axis was 3.56 million kilometers, far from Saturn's nearly million-kilometer-diameter ice clusters.

When the spaceship landed on Titan, during the Mars explosion, Titan would be perfectly shielded by the massive Saturn and its ice clusters, thus avoiding the impact. Tesla vividly likened Titan to a safe house.

The plan seemed theoretically feasible. Abbott asked with a hint of sadness, "To protect Earth, we've positioned Venus at the focal point of the Mars explosion and solar wind shockwaves. What will it become afterward?"

As a Venusian, Tesla understood Abbott's attachment and reluctance to leave their mother planet, Venus. He didn't immediately give the despairing answer but first described the changes to Mars.

After the Mars explosion, only a thin outer shell of crust would peel off, while the remaining main body would still be a planet and could still be called Mars.

Its orbital and rotational movements would not change significantly. The external brain predicted that Mars's eccentricity would change from around 0.01, similar to Earth's, to 0.09, making its orbit a more elongated ellipse.

Abbott stared into Tesla's eyes, seemingly asking, "What about Venus?"

Tesla spread his hands helplessly and said in a low voice, "Our Venus's rotational axis will reverse, completely decelerating and reversing."

According to Tesla, after the Mars explosion, Venus's rotational period would be over 240 days, meaning its rotation would take longer than its revolution around the Sun.

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Poem compiled from chapter endings:

Jade goblet collides, events have changed, Song, Su Jiong In the human world, a moment determines prosperity and decay. Ming, Huang Jin Before reaching the destination, do not ask, Song, Yang Wanli Flipping over the stars, heaven can be called upon. Ming, Shi Runzhang