65 million years ago, on the ancient African continent
The spacecraft carrying Nikola Tesla docked smoothly with the Earth space station, which orbited 36,000 kilometers above the equator in geosynchronous orbit.
On the busy Venus-to-Mars route, it served as a transfer station. The Venusians had nicknamed it "Midway Island."
"Mr. Tesla, go see Maria. We're short on time, so we can only give you six hours." Colonel Feynman gestured over his shoulder. A holographic screen appeared before Tesla as if by magic. Pointing to the time displayed on it, Feynman said:
"Our spacecraft runs on Venus time. You know Earth rotates a little more slowly than Venus, so an Earth day is fifteen minutes longer than a Venus day. Keep an eye on the time and come back promptly."
Abbott opened the case containing the spacesuit and said to Tesla:
"Nikola, hurry up and put it on. Then take the space elevator down."
"The space elevator? You've made a breakthrough in carbon nanotube technology? Have you woven the 'rope' I talked about?" Tesla instinctively glanced upward. "We're 36,000 kilometers above Earth. To balance and tension the elevator cable, you must have extended the structure more than 90,000 kilometers upward, right?"
Abbott gave him a mysterious smile, patted him on the shoulder, and said:
"That's right, more than 90,000 kilometers. I know what you're thinking, buddy. If we extended it to 180,000 kilometers, this device could receive superluminal waves and become an energy source."
Tesla put on the spacesuit and entered the space elevator's sealed cabin. 180,000 kilometers, an energy source—that is, a Superlight Wave Power Station. Since waking up, he smiled knowingly for the first time.
To avoid the sideways centrifugal force caused by Earth's rotation, the space elevator could only be built near the equator. On the African continent, as the Venusians called it, they found a vast stretch of marshland, with the equator running straight across it.
With no tall plants there, dinosaurs rarely ventured into the area. The Venusians named the marsh after the goddess of the hunt in their mythology: the Victoria Wetlands.
The sealed cabin came to a stop on the ground, and its doors opened. Two uniformed attendants stepped inside to help Tesla out of his spacesuit. A woman stood facing him, gazing intently at him.
"Maria, is it really you?" Tesla hurried over and wrapped his arms around the woman he loved.
Maria had been born six years after Tesla, which made her more than a hundred years old by now. Fortunately, Venusian genetic technology had made enormous strides. A Venusian in their hundred-plus years was in their prime, and most looked no older than people in their forties or fifties before the genetic revolution.
Maria was a genetic biologist herself. Standing before Tesla, she looked unchanged, almost exactly as she had in his memories of 86 years ago.
Maria had long hair, a round face, fair skin, and a slightly plump figure. Her bright, lively eyes blinked with the intelligence of a learned woman and the motherly warmth Tesla always said she had.
Whenever the subject came up, Maria would punch Tesla lightly on the shoulder with her little fist, chiding him with a playful pout:
"I'm still a young girl! What do you mean, motherly? Do I look that old?"
After their passionate kiss, Tesla cupped Maria's face and studied her at close range. Prompted by an ominous premonition, he wasn't sure whether he hoped to find even the faintest trace of sadness in her eyes—or hoped not to.
Maria looked delighted and calm. Her clear eyes held no trace of sorrow.
"Maria, how did you end up on Earth? Isn't this where we Venusians are exiled?" Tesla couldn't help asking.
Maria led Tesla to a seat and began telling him her story.
Maria had graduated from Venus Alliance University with a doctorate in bioengineering. She had researched Gene Cloning Technology, leading a team that cloned mice, then sheep, and eventually human organs.
The cloning of human organs and tissues had brought a great leap forward in Venusian medicine, greatly extending the average lifespan of Venusians.
At the same time, some naturalist human-rights groups and religious organizations in Venusian society fiercely opposed Maria's work. Certain journalists fanned the flames, and Maria was branded a "dark" scientist, condemned with the cudgel of morality.
The ban on cloning human organs and tissues was hotly debated in the Venus Alliance Council until the Alliance Supreme Court finally settled the matter. It ruled that the technology did not violate the constitution, but that its use should be limited to cases where human life was at risk.
The Alliance Council subsequently passed the Restriction Act on the Cloning of Human Organs and Tissues.
Maria had a theory of her own. She believed that the self-evolution of Venusians in response to environmental changes was too slow to keep up with the rapid development of the digital Information Age.
More importantly, human interference had so thoroughly disrupted the natural environment that it had thrown the body's own evolutionary rhythm completely out of balance. Deliberate intervention through genetic engineering was therefore essential.
Tesla thought he understood. Looking Maria in the eye, he asked:
"So you defied the restrictions and continued your experiments and medical work cloning human organs and tissues?"
Maria gave him a mysterious smile, the corners of her mouth lifting into an inscrutable expression. Changing the subject, she said:
"You've never been to Earth, have you? Let me show you around."
The Victoria Wetlands stretched as far as the eye could see. The tropical breeze was salty, damp, and sticky. The place Maria meant by "around" was a huge cantilevered platform built of wooden planks.
Tesla walked to the edge of the platform, rested his hands on 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 toward them.
Through the binoculars, Tesla first made out scattered flocks of sheep, with what looked like many young deer among them. Then a human-shaped figure came into view. The person didn't seem to be wearing ordinary clothes, but rather a strange outfit that covered the whole body, like a black wetsuit.
A helmet resembling a gas mask covered the person's head, with a raised section over the nose and mouth. A tube was attached to the back of the helmet; it was clearly a breathing apparatus. Tesla moved the binoculars and spotted several more people dressed the same way. Astonished, he asked:
"Maria, who are they?"
"They're the clones I created. That's why they and I were exiled to Earth," Maria said calmly, though with a hint of awkwardness.
"What? Why are they dressed like that? Do they have congenital physical defects?" Tesla asked.
As Tesla let out occasional sounds of amazement, Maria explained the clones' situation.
Thirty years ago, Maria had used Stem Cells and genetic technology to clone humans directly.
The cloning experiments had been largely successful. The clones' physical characteristics and functions were no different from those of ordinary humans, except that their respiratory systems were underdeveloped and they needed breathing apparatuses during strenuous activity.
Their vocal cords and the neural networks in their brains responsible for language had developed normally. Strangely, though, they couldn't learn to speak. Instead, they seemed to have collectively invented a way to communicate through calls, rather like human singing.
"Nikola, what I just can't figure out is how sensitive these clone friends of mine are to human music. Their conversations are like one concert after another—sometimes even operas."
As she spoke, Maria took a violin out of its case. After tightening and tuning the strings, she added, "Venusian pianos have 88 keys and span 11 octaves. I measured my clone friends' calls, and they span a full seven octaves—far beyond the human range."
Tesla was at a loss for words, but Maria's violin had already begun to play, first as lyrical as poetry, then plaintive and sorrowful.
Tesla felt as if he had heard the two pieces before. A voice within him told him that one expressed the joy of love, the other its sorrow.
As if answering a summons, the clones stopped working and removed their breathing apparatuses. They gathered in groups of three or five on a gentle grassy slope, some standing and others sitting.
Then voices rose one after another: soprano, alto, tenor, and chorus.
Nikola Tesla took Maria's hand, closed his eyes, and surrendered himself to the singing.
Suddenly, he realized that this beautiful series of melodies came from the oratorio Genesis, written more than two hundred years ago by the father of the Venusian symphony.
A poetic collage for the chapter, and Li Bai's "To Wang Lun":
For you, I'll sing again of youthful days, by Jiang Shiquan of the Qing
All are the finest sounds beneath the sky, by Cui Tu of the Sui
Yet I lean on the slow strings and sing the pain of parting, by Yan Jidao of the Song
Half born of sorrow, half of love, by Chao Chongzhi of the Song
Before you continue