Hot Wavelength

Chapter 11 (The Great Rift Valley 1): The Snows of Kilimanjaro

6500 million years ago, the Victoria wetlands on Earth
Rain at the Earth's equator comes and goes quickly. After the heavy rain, rainbows appear, and the Victoria Wetlands shimmer with golden light, shrouded in a thin mist.

Seated around a table on the outdoor platform were Nikola Tesla, Abbott, and Maria.

After hearing about the crisis facing Venus, Maria spent a sleepless night and asked with great concern:
"You're saying you want to migrate Venusian humans to Mars and Earth, but Venus has six billion people! How do you transport them, and to which specific locations suitable for human habitation?"

Abbott looked up and answered with a serious expression:

"We face numerous difficulties, but in summary, transportation capacity and landing points are indeed the two most important problems."

Abbott glanced at Tesla, sighed softly, and added:

"Let the politicians on Venus decide how many people can be transported, and who to transport first and who to transport later. Our main task is to find and build footholds on Earth and Mars."

Nikola Tesla gazed into the distance, looking at the vast expanse of wetlands and swamps, and said:
"I am not the only intelligent person on Venus. The reason why this large wetland under our feet was chosen as the exile site for Venusians is because it is also the most suitable place on Earth that can be found for Venusian humans to settle down."

He withdrew his gaze, paused for a moment, and continued:
"The main reason is that this wetland can effectively isolate dinosaurs, but it can only support tens of thousands of people, not hundreds of millions of Venusian humans."

“Nikolai, stop keeping me in suspense. Don’t you already have a plan to reshape the Earth’s landscape?” Abbott pressed.

With the help of the high-energy, high-speed connector "Lightning Ball," Nikola Tesla and his external brain achieved a leap in compatibility.

External brains are not omnipotent, but they are superior to human brains in collecting information, processing data, and providing optimal solutions. With the support of external brains, Tesla developed a plan for terraforming the Earth.

The way the external brain "thinks" is very different from that of humans. The feasible solutions it proposes are all based on so-called correct moral norms, such as the idea that Venusian humans have no right to exterminate dinosaur populations.

For dinosaurs, swamps were a food-scarce place, and their massive bodies made them easy to get stuck in. Even pterosaurs, which could fly through the air, rarely ventured into such areas due to the lack of food. Unfortunately, swamps were also unsuitable for the survival of Venusian humans.

The failure of the hypersonic power station built on Venus Tower Island gave Nikola Tesla another inspiration: the excess heat energy of the hypersonic power station would be injected deep into the planet's crust, causing magma to surge, the mantle to rise, and intensifying plate tectonics, resulting in surface uplift and the transformation of plains and wetlands into plateaus and mountains.

Nikola Tesla's external advisors proposed a plan for terraforming Venus that could be considered the best of both worlds. Due to the scarcity of commercial land on Venus, there were numerous precedents for land reclamation from the sea. Venusian land is finite, and most of this limited land is already owned.

According to Venusian law, approved land reclamation activities are subject to the principle of "whoever creates it, uses it," a provision that is clearly both legal and reasonable.

The specific plan for Earth's transformation proposed by the external brain was to turn an ocean into land for Venusian colonists. Large areas of ocean would still exist in other parts of the Earth, so marine life would not become extinct. As for dinosaurs, their original land "rights" would not be affected in any way.

Of course, dinosaurs that trespass into the new settlement of Venusian humans will be driven away or even killed, which will neither exterminate the dinosaurs nor violate the laws and ethics of Venusian humans.

“Nikolai, reclamation is an interesting idea. Which sea area on Earth have you chosen as your target?” Abbott asked as he opened a holographic map of the Earth.

Nikola Tesla pointed to a long, blue band of water symbolizing the ocean, located between the tectonic plates that the Venusians called "Eurasia" and "Indo-Australia." Because there is a large ocean on Venus called the Tethys Ocean, the Venusians called this ocean on Earth the Neo-Tethys Ocean.

"My plan is to build two superluminal power stations on Earth, with the larger one built on a volcanic island in the Neo-Tethys Ocean." Tesla pointed to the small black dot in the Neo-Tethys Ocean and continued, "Decades later, under the pressure of the two tectonic plates, the Earth's crust will rise, the seawater will recede, the ocean will disappear completely, and a large landmass and the highest mountain ranges and peaks on Earth will be formed."

Maria was astonished by this incredible plan and asked curiously:
"You said you're going to build two ultra-light-wave power stations, so where will the other one be built?"

Nikola Tesla smiled mysteriously, like a child, and pointed to the tall space elevator in the distance, saying:
“Build it right here. This space elevator is over 90,000 kilometers high. Extend it by 100,000 kilometers to make it 180,000 kilometers high. Use only a small amount of carbon fiber tubes. This will make the power plant's power output far less than that of the one in the Neo-Tethys Ocean.”

Abbott immediately understood Tesla's intention, but a new question arose, and he said:
"You want to turn this wetland into a plateau, which would be more suitable for the Venusian humans to live in groups, but how will you stop the dinosaurs?" Nikola Tesla smiled, pointing to the bread Maria had baked herself on a plate on the table, and said:
“You’ve never made bread before, have you, Abbott? This kind of bread has a raised center and a smooth surface, but there are two deep slits on either side of the center. I used these two slits to keep out the dinosaurs.”

Mary immediately understood and eagerly said:
"You should do it like I do when I bake bread, by adjusting the temperature, creating a plateau while simultaneously causing its sides to burst open, forming two deep rift valleys."

"The Neo-Tethys Ocean is vast, and the Venusians could make good use of any new landforms that formed there, regardless of their topography, by simply building a high-powered power plant and letting it form naturally. This wetland is different; its underground rock structure is complex, and it borders the habitat of dinosaurs. We must proceed with caution and let the changes happen slowly, like repeatedly changing the temperature to bake bread."

Nikola Tesla was a physicist and a brilliant engineer, but he knew that the origin and propagation of life were inseparable from biology. Fortunately, his girlfriend Maria was a top biologist on Venus. Abbott clearly also realized this, saying:

“Nikola and I are both manual laborers. If we have the ability to use superluminal energy to change the landscape, please ask our great biologist to raise your needs from a life perspective.”

Therefore, Maria proposed the ideal topographical requirements for biological reproduction from the perspective of professional biology.

Venusian humans are omnivores, with their diet consisting mainly of crops, or grains. The terrain suitable for agriculture is alluvial plains, so the first requirement is a long freshwater river. The upper reaches of the freshwater river need to have sufficient rainfall or snow-capped mountains and glaciers.

In Maria's view, the two great rift valleys, east and west, not only blocked the dinosaurs, but also brought a large number of microorganisms from the shallow crust to the surface, making this area a cradle of biodiversity.

Plants on Earth will evolve from being predominantly gymnosperms to being predominantly angiosperms, which will better adapt to the survival and evolution of various mammals.

Abbott and Tesla envisioned the future landscape of this wetland: the marshland would become a magma-deposited plateau, and due to abundant equatorial rainfall, numerous barrier lakes would form, the largest of which could be named "Lake Victoria."

The lake waters from the plateau will accumulate and flow towards the lower-lying northern regions, forming a long river whose estuary is located in the remaining waters to the west of the Neo-Tethys Ocean.

This remaining body of water, located between what the Venusians call the European and African plates, is an ocean within land and could be called the "Mediterranean Sea."

The longest river on Earth could be named after the Nile River on Venus, which dried up due to climate change. The future Lake Victoria, with its abundant and clear water, would become a major branch of the Nile, which could also be called the "White Nile."

Abbott counted on his fingers and asked Tesla, "Snow-capped mountains, this place is located on the equator. In order to form snow-capped mountains and glaciers that never melt all year round, how many meters do you think the snow line needs to reach?"

"It's about 5200 meters. The calculations from the external brain, based on the lightning ball, indicate that intense volcanic activity will eventually form a mountain peak nearly 6000 meters high, which will be the 'roof' of this continent."

"So what do you plan to call this nearly 6000-meter-high peak?"

Two words came to Nikola Tesla's mind: the ancient Venusian Chaga people, one being difficult and impossible, and the other being a long-distance caravan.

After he said the two words, Maria said:
"You want to name this snow-capped mountain on Earth's equator after the Venusians' current predicament?"

Abbott nodded in agreement and praised:
"We Venusians are that arduous, long-distance traveling caravan, which in Chaga is called: Kilimanjaro."

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
The clogs have left no trace where they once came from. — Li Dongyang, Ming Dynasty

The thick cotton layer is divided into frozen valleys and warm. Clear, becoming a vulture.

The snow, untouched by spring and summer, has remained for millennia. (Ming Dynasty, Yang Shen)
The regrets of yesteryear remain to this day. —Du Mu, Tang Dynasty

(End of this chapter)