Hot Wavelength

Chapter 16 (Orion II): Cycle

August 2029, Africa
Daphne never expected that she and Michael would actually meet Mandy Petkova and renowned journalist Martha in Nairobi, Kenya. Mandy's foundation has a native tribe conservation program based in Kenya.

The four of them were headed to Canyon Province in northwestern Kenya. They agreed to first visit the lake research station funded by Esbey, and then visit an ancient indigenous tribe in the Mandy Foundation's conservation program.

The eastern side of Lake Victoria is dotted with volcanoes, and the eastern branch of the East African Rift Valley, which extends from south to north, is interspersed with freshwater lakes of various sizes, stretching all the way to Ethiopia and Egypt.

The main research projects at the lakeside scientific research base are related to geology, with a focus on the faults of the Great Rift Valley, soil, and sedimentary layers sampled from multiple lake bottoms.

Dr. James, who proposed the Mars Mariner Valley "capsule" survival module, is very interested in the sedimentary layers at the bottom of the East African Rift Valley lake. He hopes to find the commonalities between the two canyons belonging to different planets in the solar system with the scientific expedition team.

After everyone introduced themselves, Michael eagerly asked James:
"Does the sedimentary layer composition analysis report match your predictions?"

“Samples have been taken from the bottoms of five different freshwater lakes, all of which are of the same age and composition. Unfortunately, they are completely different from the Martian soil we know,” Dr. James replied.

Michael reassured him understandingly, "It's okay, let's study the faults formed in different geological periods, focusing on the water content of each layer."

Martha asked curiously, "I thought your research station was for studying flamingos or wildebeest migrations, or lakebed sediments. It's not romantic at all."

Daphne Braun accepted Michael's invitation to come to Africa. She thought that Dr. James's research would focus on the survival problem in the Great Rift Valley, but she didn't expect it to be about the similarity between Martian soil and the sedimentary layers of the Great Rift Valley.

She hesitated for a moment, then said softly to Michael, "If you want to find geological structures similar to Mars, maybe my hypothesis can help you."

Michael immediately thought of Psyche, the planet the Psycho spacecraft would be approaching on the 22nd of this month. According to Daphne's Martian explosion hypothesis, Psyche was formed by the ejection of metallic molten rock from within Mars into space. He blurted out:

"You mean Spirit Star?"

“Oh dear, you’re overthinking it. Psyche is part of the Martian core. Aren’t you going to study soil composition similar to the Canyon of Mariners sediments? If it’s not in the East African Rift Valley, I guess it might be somewhere else on Earth.” Daphne replied with a hint of mystery, then briefly explained her conjecture to Michael, promising to show him the detailed analysis report when she returned to Liang Kingdom.

The Mandy Foundation-funded indigenous tribe is located deep in the forest, 1 kilometer away from the highway. The group followed a gravel road to the ancient African indigenous tribe.

The chief was very hospitable and led them to a thatched hut built in an open area. A huge round wooden table was set up with all sorts of tools, almost like a modern assembly line, including dried and washed fine hemp fibers, dyes of various colors extracted from plants, and a wooden rope-making machine.

The rope-making machine has an ingenious structure. Using wooden levers and gears, it can twist dyed fine hemp fibers into even and dense hemp ropes.

The chief tied a black and red striped hemp rope around Michael's wrist, while the chief's wife tied white hemp ropes around the wrists of the ladies. This "rope tying" is a traditional tribal greeting.

The chief dipped his finger in black dye and applied it to Michael's forehead, then applied white dye to the foreheads of the ladies. Mandy explained that this was the highest form of hospitality for distinguished guests who had traveled from afar, and that there was no need to worry about the dyes, as they were extracted from natural minerals from the bottom of the lake.

Daphne Braun felt the white mud applied to her forehead was as moist and silky as face cream. It was hot and there seemed to be a slight breeze, so the mud on her forehead dried quickly.

For some reason, Daphne felt her heart beating faster, and in a daze, she seemed to see twinkling lights in front of her. She blinked hard and found that she was fine.

Michael was drawn to a stone slab embedded in a pillar. Evenly distributed on the slab were ropes of various colors, each with knots of different sizes and numbers. He asked Mandy, with a keen eye, "..."

Is this the legendary knotted rope record-keeping?

Mandy nodded approvingly and said, "Yes, many African tribes retain the custom of knotting ropes to keep count, record events, and keep track of time."

African tribes use knotted ropes to record the passage of time. When Michael saw the rope, he couldn't help but think of the theory of superluminal waves that Professor Braun had told him and "Nikola Tesla's rope".

The chief’s youngest daughter approached Daphne timidly, holding a colorful knot in her hands. The knot was a pattern, with an oval shaped like a duck egg at the top and two horizontal and one downward-pointing ropes below.

Martha knew the meaning of the symbol. She asked Daphne, "Daphne, this symbol is ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Can you guess what it means?" Daphne looked at the hieroglyphic symbol and thought of the female womb and the hieroglyphic symbols representing women. She said:
"I guess it means life; this must be a symbol for life, right?"

Everyone was amazed by Daphne's understanding, and then marveled at the wisdom of the ancient people. Using knots to record time and represent life!
The little girl gave the colorful knotted rope to Daphne, who then picked up the little girl and put her own necklace around her neck.

Daphne and Michael's next stop on their African trip is the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Daphne's data analysis and conjectures about the three great pyramids of Giza piqued Michael's curiosity, and the two went to the site to see this human wonder up close.

Daphne noticed that the tilt angles of the three Great Pyramids were not the 60 degrees of an equilateral triangle, but rather between 51 and 53 degrees, which is roughly the sum of the axial tilt angles of Venus, Earth, and Mars.

These three pyramids are the tombs of three pharaohs, Khufu, Khufu, and his grandson. She believes that the proportions of the three pyramids correspond to the Earth, Venus, and Mars, respectively.

Daphne pointed to the Pyramid of Menkaure and the three smaller pyramids lined up to its south, saying:

"The Pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three great pyramids. It corresponds to Mars. To its south, these three smaller pyramids stand side by side. What does this structure of one large and three small remind you of?"

Michael was startled and blurted out:

"Their arrangement is very similar to that of Olympus Mons on Mars and the three smaller volcanoes to its southeast. Are you saying that the ancient Egyptians built these pyramids based on Martian volcanoes?"

Daphne said with a smile:
"Your imagination isn't big enough. This geometric shape of one large and three small ones comes from the constellation Orion. My guess is that the ancient Martians built an artificial volcano based on the shape of Orion, while the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids based on Orion."

“Orion?” Michael muttered to himself.

He noticed that the three stars in a row in Orion, the three craters on Mars, and the three small pyramids south of the Pyramid of Menkaure clearly form "111".

Michael suddenly remembered something else, and it seemed as if he suddenly understood the question that had been troubling him. To confirm his conclusion, he asked Daphne:

"A stone slab was unearthed from the Great Pyramid with the number '142857' written on it. What do you think it means?"

Daphne had heard about this before. There were various calculations and conjectures about "142857" on the Internet. They were all about multiplying by 1 to 6. The result only changed the order of the numbers "142857" without producing any other numbers. And 142857 multiplied by 7 equals 999999, which is often used as a "punchline" by short video bloggers to attract attention.

达芙妮认为“142857”这串数字对应的含义是1/7，可能是建造金字塔的工匠师傅留给徒弟们的一个计算标尺，毕竟分母为10以下的分数只有1/7是最不容易记住的。

Of course, there is another possibility: "142857" is a hint. According to the rigorous mathematical definition, "142857" is the repeating block of the decimal number "7".

Michael believed that his girlfriend, besides being intelligent and quick-witted, also possessed a principled and meticulous side. He posed the leading question that pointed to the answer in his mind:
If the repeating block of '7' in decimal is '142857', then in which base does the '111' represented by the three small pyramids stand side by side represent the repeating block of '7'?

Daphne immediately understood, and she excitedly shouted:

"It's binary! '111' is the number '7' in the binary repeating block. The pyramid of three ones suggests that we should use binary in addition to decimal!"

Could it be that the arrangement of craters and pyramids on Mars is a hint or reminder from past humans to us today?

Daphne Braun was convinced she was right because "142857" and "111" had made the implications and reminders very clear.

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
Luo Dai's Ancient Pagoda Remains, Ming Dynasty, Liu Xiao
A mind that holds the stars is an astronomical instrument. —Sang Yue (Ming Dynasty)

Old friends look forward to each other in three things, Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei
Today's interpretation is difficult to say, perhaps seven-tenths correct. — Qiu Kui

(End of this chapter)