Hot Wavelength

Chapter 53 (Miscalculation 1): Barite

6500 million years ago, Earth
Thirty years after the explosion of Mars, Troy and his men arrived atop the Victoria Space Elevator in a nuclear-powered spaceship, ready to begin their plan to conquer Earth.

From near-Earth orbit, the oceans are no longer blue, the clouds are no longer white, and the entire Earth is enveloped in brownish-yellow gas and dust, appearing as a chaotic mess.

Toulous, appointed second-in-command by Troy, said, "Are we too early? It seems the poison gas hasn't dissipated yet. Is this really a good situation?"

"Everyone put on your gas masks. As far as I know, Victoria Base has oxygen generators. We can survive. We must seize Earth before the Alliance fleet does," Troy said confidently.

“Our spaceship needs to dock with the space elevator station, but what if the people guarding it won’t open the door for us?” Toulous asked.

“When the space station was designed, the principle of prioritizing spacecraft was established. The safe docking of astronauts returning from space is of paramount importance. To prevent malfunctions inside the cabin, the spacecraft can open the emergency hatch directly from the outside,” Troy replied.

The docking was successful, the hatch opened, and Troy and the others, wearing gas masks, filed in.

Bramar was the only person on the space station. He seemed to be frightened by the sudden intruder. His hands trembled slightly, his face was flushed, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

He retreated step by step to the elevator door leading to the ground, blocking it with his body, and asked in a trembling voice, "What do you want?"

Troy forced a malicious smile and turned to give Toulous a meaningful look. Brama suddenly raised his hand and rushed towards the detonator, but Toulous stepped forward, drew a gleaming dagger from his waist, and forcefully stabbed Brama through the body.

Crimson blood flowed down Brama's clothes onto the floor. Brama endured the excruciating pain and crawled toward the detonator. Torus ruthlessly finished him off, and Brama collapsed helplessly.

“Quick, let’s go down to the ground in the elevator and see if there’s anyone else,” Troy said.

The crowd jostled and squeezed into the cramped elevator cabin, which rumbled downwards and came to a stop on the ground.

The elevator doors slowly opened, and a figure was walking towards them not far away. Torus instinctively gripped his still-dripping dagger, took two steps forward, and rushed towards the approaching figure.

When he saw the person's face clearly, he exclaimed in surprise, "Is it a person or a ghost?"

Torus's hands went awry, and the dagger slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground. Troy, who was following behind, looked closely and instantly felt a chill run down his spine.

The man holding a gun in both hands was Brama, and his face was somewhat pale.

Two soldiers, who hadn't yet exited the elevator, attempted to close the door and return to the spacecraft, where they received priority "care" from Brahma. Two shots rang out, and both men were killed.

Troy helped the limp Toulouse to his feet, and under the cover of the others, they seized the opportunity to escape outside. Brama gave chase, and the group drew their guns and returned fire as they ran.

Troy was a skilled marksman; he raised his hand and fired, striking Brahma in the right arm. Brahma's skin was torn open, revealing the metal skeleton beneath.

Everyone was shocked. Torus exclaimed, "I thought I had seen a ghost, but it turns out this is a robot."

The group stopped firing and focused solely on running forward, carrying oxygen tanks and respirators, until they were breathless. After running for a long time, they finally shook off the robot.

A soldier spotted a large lake ahead and reported to his superior through the walkie-talkie in his helmet: "There's water here! After 30 years, we can finally drink natural water."

Although Toulouse was exhausted from running, he had regained his senses and warned, "The air is poisonous, and be careful, the water is poisonous too."

Troy laughed dismissively and said, "Everyone's wearable device has a reverse osmosis filter, so don't worry about drinking it, there shouldn't be any problem."

Everyone eagerly fetched water, poured it into their respective filters, and after drinking their fill, lay exhausted on the slope by the lake.

In just a moment, one of them clutched his chest in pain, feeling his heart pounding wildly. As if infected, everyone's muscles began to twitch involuntarily. They were poisoned—barium poisoning.

Brahma, hiding behind a boulder, was puzzled by the scene, since his robot didn't need to drink water.

The program told him not to pursue them, but to wait for them to run out of oxygen. It didn't say that they would be poisoned by drinking water!

He examined the bodies of Troy and the others, confirming that all the invaders were dead.

The robot Brama returned to the space elevator, picked up the corpse of another Brama, and entered the spacecraft. After activation, it detached from docking and flew into space.

Suddenly, the alarm sounded, and the dashboard indicated that there was another unidentified spaceship not far away. Brama adjusted its course and gave chase to the "enemy."

It turns out that, aside from not anticipating the attack from more than one spaceship, everything was part of Tesla and Maria's meticulous plan. Their objective was to prevent Troy and his allies from conquering Earth, but also to avoid destroying their nuclear-powered ships to prevent nuclear contamination of the planet.

The real Venusian, Brahma, had already completed the consciousness upload thirty years ago. After his "death," Maria used genetic material extracted from his body to clone "Little Brahma." The problem is that his consciousness can only be transmitted down after Little Brahma reaches adulthood and matures.

Who would take care of and raise little Brahma? So Maria and Tesla worked together to create a living robot named "Brahma" by fusing Brahma's brain tissue with a chip.

Thus, the story unfolds where a living robot "clone" raises a clone "clone," and the clone, once grown up, then maintains and upgrades the robot that has lost its brain. Bramar's two "clones" also join forces to stage a grand drama of protecting Earth and cleverly seizing the spaceship.

Tesla's only oversight was that the lake water had excessive levels of barium ions, which inadvertently poisoned the intruders.

Fifty-two years after the Martian explosion, an advance expedition led by Abbott, Tesla, and Maria, among others, returned to Earth. Observations from near-Earth orbit showed that Earth's appearance had largely recovered, with blue oceans reflecting white clouds.

Maria exclaimed excitedly, "How beautiful! After decades of sedimentation and acid rain, the toxic sulfides in the atmosphere seem to have vanished completely!"

Abbott looked at the oxygen level reading on the oxygen detector and said to Tesla, "The oxygen level is 17%, slightly lower than you estimated. It seems there's no major problem."

"Yes, the impact would cause a sharp drop in atmospheric oxygen levels, which we had anticipated, because the decomposition of organic matter after the death of large animals and almost all surface plants consumes a large amount of oxygen," Tesla replied.

"The impact caused carbon dioxide from the rocks to enter the atmosphere. Once the atmosphere was clean, the greenhouse effect began to take effect, temperatures rose, dead plants started to grow, and oxygen concentration increased through photosynthesis," Abbott imagined happily.

Maria, who also studies botany, added, "More than half of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere comes from algae in the ocean, among which cyanobacteria are the most vigorous, and impact events have little impact on underwater life. Right now, cyanobacteria are replenishing the Earth's oxygen!"

After Abbott and his advance team entered the Victoria base, they immediately began their investigation, analyzing the composition of the air.

The analysis results show that the content of toxic gases and sulfides is slightly higher than the normal value, but within the acceptable range.

Electric intelligent water samplers have obtained samples and underwater video data from oceans and lakes around the world. The analysis results greatly surprised Tesla and Maria.

Maria frowned and asked Tesla, "How come there are mass deaths of shellfish and plankton in the oceans all over the world, and the seabeds of shallow seas are covered with white shells?"

“I analyzed rock samples from the impact crater and found a high content of calcium sulfate, indicating that the MAYA area is rich in calcium sulfate, also known as anhydrite. I hadn’t anticipated this.”

"When calcium sulfate ore is impacted, dust enters the atmosphere. The sulfides are toxic, and the sulfuric acid rain formed after oxidation falls back to the ground and water, killing shellfish in the ocean. As a result, a large number of shellfish in the ocean die from poisoning."

Tesla fell into deep thought and muttered to himself, "That shouldn't be the case. Seawater has a strong purifying ability. Even if sulfuric acid rain falls into the water, it shouldn't cause invertebrates, such as shellfish, to die off en masse."

The water sample was being analyzed in a mass spectrometer, and as soon as the results were output, Tesla was shocked.

The barium ion content in the water exceeded the safety threshold of 12.4 μM, reaching 16.7 μM.

Maria also noticed the test results and asked, "The barium ion concentration is too high. Because this alkaline metal has strong penetrating power, it can disrupt the potassium balance inside and outside the cell wall, leading to poisoning and death in plants and animals. Where did so many barium ions come from?"

When Tesla formulated the Mars Explosion Plan and selected the Maya region as the impact point on Earth, the project team's researchers used scanning equipment to explore the geological structure of the Maya region. They discovered that the region was rich in underground metals such as copper and lead, as well as anhydrite (calcium sulfate) and crystal (silicon dioxide).

When these types of mineral deposits are violently impacted, the sulfur and heavy metals released can be harmful, but after decades of settling, the Earth's ecosystem will slowly recover.

Analysis of samples from around the impact crater made Tesla realize that he had overlooked a very important mineral deposit in the Maya region: barite, whose main component is barium sulfate (BaSO4).

Maria pointed to the summary table of water sample test results and couldn't help but exclaim: "No live blue-green algae were detected in any of the seawater samples! Without algae, the oxygen concentration in the Earth's atmosphere could not possibly rise from 17% to over 20%."

"The decomposition of organic matter in animal and plant remains consumes a large amount of oxygen, and the Earth's oxygen content will not only not recover, but will further decline."

"When I was doing my PhD in Venus, I studied the explosion of life on Earth more than 4 million years ago. The reason was that the oxygen content at that time surged to 35%. Toxic sulfur and barium ions in the ocean reacted with oxygen and began to crystallize, forming a solid. It slowly grew and became barite, which is barium sulfate."

Tesla also knew about the famous explosion of life. More than 4 million years ago, 99% of the toxic sulfur and barium ions in the Earth's oceans were removed from the water and transformed into barite, causing an explosive explosion in the types and numbers of life.

“High concentrations of oxygen in the atmosphere can remove toxic sulfur and barium from water, but the problem we face is that the toxins kill the cyanobacteria. Without cyanobacteria, we cannot produce oxygen to remove the toxins. It’s a vicious cycle!” Maria said in despair.

"I overlooked the barite. The oxygen content is insufficient, so the resurrection plan cannot proceed," Tesla sighed helplessly.

"Huh? What should we do then?" Abbott pressed.

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
How many times have I pondered and grieved? —Song Dynasty, Zhang Yong
The water clock shakes, emptying the sky. (Song Dynasty, Zheng Gangzhong)
If in the shadows one teaches others to be of the same kind, Tang Dynasty, Guo Zhen
When did this transformation occur? (Qing Dynasty, Wang Jizhu)

(End of this chapter)