April 2030, Yucatan Peninsula
Michael's assistant, Dr. James, was tall and thin. Not yet forty, he was not only academically accomplished but also an energetic man of action.
Only a handful of executives and core technical experts at Acebe Space Technology Company had access to Nikola Tesla's Superluminal Wave Theory, and only after signing confidentiality agreements. Dr. James was one of them.
Michael had tasked Dr. James with developing a feasible plan for a superluminal wave power station on Mars.
The engineering challenges were daunting: first, build a 90,000-kilometer-tall space elevator on Tower Island, at Earth's equator, then double its height to create a 180,000-kilometer column of carbon fiber tubes—the so-called superluminal wave power station.
The feasibility plan for a power station on Tower Island had not even been completed before the person in charge of Plan T rejected it.
Later, a plan for a superluminal wave power station on Enceladus, using the vast quantities of ice in Saturn's rings as a natural support structure, was also forced to a halt.
Acebe Company's ultimate goal was to build a superluminal wave power station on Mars, heat its metallic core until it returned to a liquid state, and thereby restart the Martian magnetic field. Mars would become another habitable planet for humans in the Solar System—a "backup" for Earth.
If building a superluminal wave power station on Earth was already fraught with difficulties, building one on Mars seemed downright impossible.
Michael and his team refused to accept any "impossible"! Back when they proposed reusing heavy rockets, aerospace experts had pitied the ignorance and arrogance of those "outsiders" even as they cried, "Absolutely impossible!"
But the difficulties were very real. The 180,000-kilometer-long carbon fiber tubes would be enormous, but Acebe Company could potentially transport them to Mars in multiple trips using its large, reusable rockets.
However, the supports needed to stabilize a superluminal wave power station 180,000 kilometers tall would be hundreds or even thousands of times greater in mass and volume than the carbon fiber tubes. Manufacturing them on Earth and then shipping them to Mars would require an unacceptable amount of lift capacity and time.
The answer from Michael's external brain, VESSEL, was: use local materials.
Those few words had opened Dr. James's eyes. He immediately realized that they could extract material from Martian soil and process it into supports. But a new problem arose: although Martian soil contained metals such as iron, building a metal smelting plant on Mars would be extremely difficult in itself.
Most fatally, even if they smelted iron and made steel, it would be too heavy. Building a structure 180,000 kilometers tall out of it was impractical. The material for the supports needed to be hard enough, but not too dense.
Dr. James found the answer: pottery. They could make pottery on Mars and use it as structural components for the superluminal wave power station.
Pottery required clay. Dr. James had obtained a sample of Martian soil from the Bright Country Space Administration, but due to technical limitations, it had been taken from a depth of only ten centimeters below the Martian surface. The sample contained no suitable clay.
Sending a spacecraft all the way to Mars just to retrieve a deeper soil sample would be both difficult and time-consuming.
Dr. James came up with an alternative. They could find geological formations on Earth whose surface soil was the same as, or similar to, Martian soil. If those formations had suitable clay deep underground, Mars might as well.
Of the several potential locations on Earth, Dr. James selected two with surface soil similar to that of Mars: the sedimentary deposits around the lakes in the Great Rift Valley of northern Kenya, and an ancient Maya village on the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico.
After analyzing the soil, he found that the sedimentary deposits around the Great Rift Valley lakes did not match Martian soil, so he pinned his last hope on the Yucatan Peninsula.
The other day, he made an astonishing discovery and couldn't wait to tell Michael. So Michael Max came to the soil excavation site near a Maya village in Mexico.
Dr. James said excitedly, "Michael, the soil beneath your feet is almost exactly the same in composition as the Martian sample. There's a clay layer beneath it. My only concern is whether matching surface soil means there's clay deeper down on Mars, too."
"I wouldn't say that about just anywhere, but here on the Yucatan Peninsula, I'm certain your theory is right."
Dr. James looked up in surprise. "Why are you so sure it's right on the Yucatan Peninsula?"
"Don't forget, my girlfriend Daphne is an astronomer. She believes Mars exploded 65 million years ago, and that this is where a huge fragment struck Earth," Michael replied.
"Really? I thought it was an asteroid. So a fragment from Mars's explosion caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era."
James exclaimed in wonder. Only then did he understand why Michael was so certain. If the ground beneath their feet was made of fragments from Mars, of course its soil would match Martian soil.
Dr. James opened a wooden box and carefully lifted out a piece of pottery. It was the one Michael had bought at Mandy's charity auction.
He said mysteriously, "Michael, there's another piece of good news. We found that the ancient Maya used a special kind of clay to make pottery. It could be fired at a low temperature, and for the same hardness, it was lighter and more resilient. It's perfect for making supports."
"You mean Maya soft pottery. I've heard of it before." Michael knew that Irene and Mandy were in a nearby village. He continued, "I'll take you somewhere to see how the Maya make soft pottery."
Mandy's foundation had chosen a Maya community in Mexico for its first Indigenous Community Preservation Program, "Fossils of Civilization." The village lay deep in the forest, in a valley cut by a river flowing down from a volcano. Not far away were the ruins of an ancient Maya city-state, with palaces, temples, and pyramids built from huge stones.
Irene and Mandy warmly welcomed Michael and his companions. Mandy said, "Michael, I thought you were only interested in rockets and electric cars. Why are you suddenly so interested in Maya soft pottery?"
Michael smiled without answering. He simply took Dr. James by the arm and followed Mandy to the soft pottery workshop.
Dr. James was surprised to see that the Maya villagers didn't use the usual potter's wheel. Instead, they rolled the kneaded clay into thin ropes and shaped them by hand into pots. A few pieces that looked like molds sat on the workbench nearby.
Mandy understood the doctor's confusion and explained proudly, "The clay here is excellent—fine, sticky, and highly malleable. There's no need for a potter's wheel. The Maya have shaped it by hand since ancient times, or used molds to produce pottery in batches."
Michael and Dr. James exchanged smiles. They both understood that this was more good news: the clay deep beneath the Martian surface must also be highly malleable. On Mars, mass-producing pottery with molds would undoubtedly be an effective way to reduce labor costs.
Michael suddenly remembered something and asked Irene curiously, "It makes sense that Mandy came to this remote village for her foundation's work, but did you come with her for a vacation?"
"Of course not. I'm here for work, too. Don't forget, I'm a molecular biologist specializing in the life sciences. I came here to study an ancient crop."
"A crop? Aren't you one of the world's top diabetes experts? And as far as I know, the Maya's main crop is corn."
"That's right, corn. In Mexico—more precisely, on the plateaus in this valley—there's an ancient variety of wild corn. It can grow up to ten meters tall, and its ears are twice as large as those of ordinary corn, with plump kernels."
"My God, ten meters tall? There's really corn like that?"
Life sciences, diabetes, enzymes for extracting corn starch—Michael seemed to have some idea why Irene had come here.
A freshly fired pot at the corner of the workbench caught Dr. James's attention. He pointed to it and said to Michael, "Look, the pattern on this pot is exactly the same as the one you bought at the auction."
Michael recalled the patterns on the two pots. They were indeed identical. He'd bought the pot to study its composition. He hadn't cared about the pattern or paid much attention to it.
"So you didn't know what this pattern meant? I thought you'd raised your paddle for the pot because you liked the figure on it," Mandy said.
Michael scratched his head, a little embarrassed. He carefully held the pot and turned it around, studying the pattern on its surface. It depicted a person with lush corn leaves and ears growing from his head. Puzzled, he asked:
"Who is this person in the pattern? What does it represent?"
Irene glanced at her daughter Mandy and answered before anyone else could:
"The Corn God, the most revered deity of the ancient Maya."
A collection of poems to round out the chapter:
Though modest in scale, its meaning runs deep. — Chen Yuyi, Song Dynasty
It dispels all the cares I've carried through my life. — Li Mixun, Song Dynasty
Heaven gave me talents that surely have their use. — Liu E, Yuan Dynasty
Neither earth nor gold can match the worth of one so lowly. — Shi Weiyi, Song Dynasty
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