(Requiem): Arias

65 million years ago, Earth's ancient African continent

The spaceship carrying Nikola Tesla docked smoothly with the Earth space station, which was located in a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above Earth's equator.

On the busy Venus-Mars route, it served as a transfer point, affectionately nicknamed "Midway" by the Venusians.

"Mr. Tesla, please go see Maria. We're on a tight schedule and only have six hours for you," Colonel Feynman said, waving his arm behind him. A holographic projection screen materialized before Tesla like magic. Pointing to the time displayed on the screen, Feynman continued, "We're using Venus time on our ship. You know Earth's rotation speed is a little slower than Venus's. Earth's day is 15 minutes longer than Venus's. Please be mindful of the time and return promptly."

Abbott opened the case containing the spacesuit and said to Tesla, "Nikola, hurry and put this on. Take the space elevator down."

"The space elevator? You've broken through carbon nanotube technology? Woven the 'rope' I talked about?" Tesla subconsciously looked upward. "You're 36,000 kilometers from Earth. To balance and tension the space elevator cable, you must have extended the structure upward to over 90,000 kilometers, right?"

Abbott smiled mysteriously and patted Tesla on the shoulder, saying, "Yes, over 90,000 kilometers, old man. I know what you're thinking. If it were extended to 180,000 kilometers, this device could receive superluminal wave wavelengths and become an energy source."

Tesla donned the spacesuit and entered the space elevator's sealed cabin, thinking, 180,000 kilometers, an energy source, a superluminal wave power station. Since waking up, this was the first time a knowing smile had appeared on his face.

To avoid the centrifugal force caused by Earth's rotation, the space elevator could only be built near Earth's equator. On the continent they named, the Venusians found a large swampy wetland that the Earth's equator cut across.

Because there were no tall plants and few dinosaurs roamed this area, the Venusians named this swamp "Victoria Wetlands" after their mythical goddess of the hunt.

The sealed cabin stopped on the ground, and the door opened. Two uniformed staff members came aboard to help Tesla remove his spacesuit. A woman stood opposite him, gazing intently at him.

"Maria, is it really you?" Tesla quickened his steps, rushed forward, and tightly embraced the woman he loved.

Maria was born six years after Tesla, making her over a hundred years old. Fortunately, Venus's biological gene technology had made leaps and bounds. A Venusian over a hundred years old was considered in their prime, with most looking like they were only in their late forties or early fifties from before the gene revolution.

Maria herself was a genetic biologist. Standing before Tesla, her appearance was unchanged, looking almost exactly as she had 86 years ago in Tesla's memory.

Maria had long hair, a round face, fair skin, and was slightly plump. Her bright, lively eyes blinked, revealing the wisdom of an educated woman and the maternal kindness Tesla often spoke of.

Every time this topic came up, Maria would playfully punch Tesla's shoulder and pout, saying coquettishly, "I'm still a young girl! What maternal kindness? Am I that old?"

After a passionate kiss, Tesla cupped Maria's face and examined her at close range. With an ominous premonition, he didn't know if he hoped or didn't hope to find even a trace of melancholy in Maria's eyes.

Maria's expression was joyful and serene. Her clear eyes showed no trace of sadness.

"Maria, why are you on Earth? Isn't this a place of exile for us Venusians?" Tesla couldn't help but ask.

Maria pulled Tesla down to sit and began to tell him her story.

Maria had graduated from Venus Alliance University with a doctorate in bioengineering and specialized in gene cloning technology research. Her team had progressed from cloning mice to cloning sheep, and eventually to cloning human organs.

The cloning of human organs and tissues had brought about a medical leap for Venus, greatly extending the average lifespan of Venusians.

Concurrently, some naturalistic human rights organizations and religious groups in Venusian society vehemently opposed Maria's work. Some media reporters fanned the flames, and Maria was branded a "dark" scientist by the cudgel of morality.

Debates raged in the Venus Alliance Council over a bill to ban the cloning of human organs and tissues. Ultimately, the highest court of the alliance made a final ruling: the technology for cloning human organs and tissues did not violate the constitution, but its use should be restricted to situations where human life was in danger.

The Alliance Council subsequently passed the Human Organ and Tissue Cloning Restriction Act.

Maria had her own theories. She believed that the self-evolution of Venusian humans adapting to environmental changes was too slow and could not keep pace with the rapidly developing digital information age.

More importantly, she argued that the artificial changes Venusian humans had made to the natural environment had completely disrupted the rhythm of autonomous human evolution, making artificial intervention through genetic engineering technology extremely necessary.

Tesla seemed to understand. He looked directly at Maria and asked, "So, you violated the restriction order and continued to engage in the experimental and medical activities of cloning human organs and tissues?"

Maria smiled mysteriously, the corners of her lips turning up in an enigmatic expression. She changed the subject and said to Tesla, "You haven't been to Earth before, have you? Let me take you outside to see."

The Victoria Wetlands stretched as far as the eye could see. The tropical breeze was warm, humid, and sticky. What Maria called "outside" was a huge elevated platform made of wooden planks.

Tesla walked to the edge of the platform, held the railing, and looked around curiously.

In the distance, a large group of people seemed to be busy with something. Maria handed Tesla a pair of high-powered binoculars and pointed in the direction of the crowd.

Through the binoculars, Tesla first saw herds of sheep, and among them, several fawns. A humanoid figure appeared in the binoculars. The person seemed to be wearing something other than normal clothes, but rather a strange black outfit resembling a wetsuit that covered their entire body.

The person wore a helmet with a protruding mouthpiece resembling a gas mask, and tubes connected to the back of the helmet, clearly indicating a respirator. Tesla moved the binoculars and found several more people in similar attire. Tesla asked in surprise, "Maria, who are they?"

"They are clones I created. It is precisely for this reason that they and I were exiled to Earth," Maria said calmly, with a hint of embarrassment.

"Ah? Then why are they dressed like that? Do they have congenital physiological defects?" Tesla asked.

Amidst Tesla's occasional gasps, Maria explained the situation of the clones.

Thirty years ago, Maria had used stem cells and gene technology to directly clone human bodies.

The cloning experiments were largely successful. The clones' physical characteristics and functions were no different from humans, except that their respiratory systems were not fully developed and required the assistance of respirators during strenuous activity.

The clones' vocal cords and the neural networks in their brains responsible for language function were developed normally. Strangely, they were unable to learn to speak, yet they seemed to have collectively developed a method of communication through chirping, akin to human singing.

"Nikola, what puzzles me endlessly is that these clone friends are extremely sensitive to human music. Their interactions are like concerts, even operas."

As Maria spoke, she took out a violin from its case, tightened the strings, tuned it, and added, "Our Venusian pianos have 88 keys, spanning 11 octaves. I've measured it, and the chirps of my clone friends can span a full 7 octaves, far exceeding humans."

Tesla was momentarily speechless, and Maria's violin music began to play, first poetic and melodious, then sorrowful and plaintive.

Tesla seemed to have heard these two songs before, and a voice in his heart told him that one expressed the joy of love, and the other, its sorrow.

The clones seemed to have received some kind of summons. They stopped their work, removed their respirators, and gathered in groups of three or five on a gentle grassy slope, standing or sitting.

Then, songs rose one after another, with sopranos, altos, tenors, and choruses.

Nikola Tesla, holding Maria's hand, closed his eyes, lost in the singing.

He suddenly realized that these beautiful melodies were from an oratorio composed over 200 years ago by the father of Venusian symphonies:

Genesis.

&

A poem compiled from chapter endings, and Li Bai's "To Wang Lun":

For you, I sing the youthful journey anew, Qing, Jiang Shiquan

All are the foremost sounds in the human world. Sui, Cui Tu

Leaning on the gentle strings, singing of parting emotions, Song, Yan Jidao

Half due to hardship, half due to deep affection. Song, Chao Chongzhi