Hot Wavelength

Chapter 59 (Hard Drive 1): The Holy Grail
6500 million years ago, the solar system

Cynthia "died," and her consciousness was unexpectedly transferred to Golden Deer.

Vinu put on an oxygen mask, held Cynthia's cold body, and went to a sunny hillside.

After burying his beloved daughter, Vinu listened to the cries of the fawns, feeling a slight sense of relief, but still unable to shake off his melancholy.

She lost too much; it seemed she couldn't hold onto anything. She couldn't keep that cozy little fishing village, much less keep Venus.

She lost her daughter on Venus, and this was the second time she couldn't keep her daughter on Earth.

Vinu grabbed a handful of sand, then let go, lamenting that she couldn't even hold onto a grain of sand!

She found a stone and carved it into Cynthia's tombstone. Her mother, a former accountant, had a number engraved on the stone:
"0".

The river flows on, its joyful current unchanged.

The fawns were much more lively and had a wider range of movement compared to their clones. Once they lost their clone partners, the cave was no longer their only habitat.

Vinu would occasionally raise her hand to call out to the deer, calling out like an old mother, "Slow down, don't run around." The golden deer would sometimes jump into the river, and sometimes gradually disperse along the riverbank.

Vinu was just an ordinary woman, a wife who loved her husband deeply and a mother who tried her best to protect her children, but she experienced earth-shattering changes and several separations from life and death.

What brought Vinu some comfort was that Cynthia had not completely left this world. Vinu believed that his daughter would continue to reproduce generation after generation in a freer and more romantic way.

It's time to let my daughter leave me with peace of mind. What awaits her may be the sea, the vast and deep sea, the hometown she longs for!
Tesla and Maria completed their advance team's work and prepared to take the unconscious Abbott back to their base on Iapetus. Calculations and verifications showed that Earth's oxygen concentration would not return to normal levels for ten million years.

Like Tesla, Maria was an incredibly resilient person; no amount of hardship or crisis could break her.

Where there is faith, there is hope. Maria believed that Tesla could always find a new way out of seemingly hopeless situations, and that even if he lost everything, he would retain hope.

Among the evacuation group boarding the spaceship was Vinu; Maria didn't want to leave her alone in the cave. After much hesitation, Vinu finally agreed to say goodbye to the fawn and Earth, because Tesla had said that the Brahma robot might also be at the Iapetus base.

The spaceship flew towards Iapetus at high speed but quietly. Maria was in a bad mood, her thoughts were in turmoil, and she couldn't fall asleep.

She noticed that Tesla seemed to be thinking about something, and she asked, "Is there any other way? Do you have a new plan?"

“In a sense, we have perfectly terraformed the Earth. The only thing we lack is time; ten million years is too long. I’m wondering if it’s possible to terraform Venus much faster,” Tesla said.

Maria exclaimed in surprise, "Venus? The meteor shower that exploded on Mars has already caused it to lose its rotation speed, not to mention the thick carbon dioxide that has turned the surface of Venus into a scorching hell."

Nikola Tesla wanted to drag an asteroid, change its orbit, and make it fly close to Venus at high speed, restarting Venus's rotation and gradually returning it to its original rotation speed of 23 hours per revolution.

Carbon dioxide causes overheating of the Earth's surface, but there are solutions. One approach is to create a sunshade for Venus, allowing asteroids to orbit synchronously with Venus between the Sun and Venus.

As the intensity of sunlight hitting Venus decreases, the atmospheric temperature of Venus drops, and carbon dioxide turns into acid rain, which falls back onto the surface of Venus.

Maria couldn't help but interrupt Tesla, saying, "Where are we going to find such a large asteroid? If it were a comet, the ice would melt and the rocks would crumble under the direct sunlight at close range."

“Finding a suitable asteroid is not difficult. During our journey from Iapetus to Earth, the system has automatically scanned the debris belt of the Martian explosion. Among them is a celestial body with a diameter of 250 kilometers. It comes from the Martian core lava and is almost entirely composed of metals such as iron and nickel.”

Maria seemed to see a glimmer of hope and asked, "There's always a way out. Have you calculated how long it will take? Should we connect to the lightning ball to confirm?"

Tesla shook his head and said, "There's no need to connect the lightning ball anymore. A planet needs too many conditions to support life, especially for advanced species like us humans. We're only a little short of terraforming Earth, but the uncertainty of terraforming Venus isn't just limited to the dimension of time."

Maria didn't blame Tesla. Since she was just idling around anyway, it was good to think about the various possibilities.

Even if this path is blocked, groping in the dark is always more likely to get you out of trouble than lying down. You must always hold onto hope!
Transforming Venus is not feasible in the short term; we're back to square one—ten million years is too long. Even with genetic engineering and brain-computer interface technology, the last remaining spark of Venusian humanity, including Tesla and Maria, cannot be sustained through continuous reproduction and replication.

The remaining option is a harsh reality: Abbott, acting as a messenger, delivers the bad news to the 60 billion Venusians: the resurrection plan on Earth cannot proceed for the time being, at least not for the next ten million years.

The only glimmer of hope is that ten million years from now, Earth's oxygen concentration will recover, a mammalian explosion will occur, and if we're lucky, a more advanced life form similar to the Venusian humans might emerge—that is, a new human species on Earth.

Tens of millions of years from now, if they also possess advanced science and technology, perhaps the Venusian humans will have the opportunity to be reborn in some way with their help.

But all of this has one important prerequisite: that there is enough electricity to preserve the genetic material and uploaded consciousness of Venusian humans.

Maria remarked with emotion, "Fortunately, we built the Iapetus base and the hypersonic power station before Mars exploded, when we had the complete industrial chain and construction capabilities."

Tesla nodded in agreement: "You're right. The main purpose of the Victoria Power Station on Earth was to inject heat energy into the Earth's crust and create the Great Rift Valley. Power generation was just a secondary function, so its power output was very small. Fortunately, there is the Iapetus Power Station."

Everything was normal at the Iapetus base, but the staff there had already heard the bad news from Earth.

Vinu met the robot Brama. Maria's bionic technology was truly amazing; apart from being slightly pale, the robot's appearance was almost indistinguishable from a real person. Vinu called out her husband's name, rushed into the robot's arms, and hugged him tightly. The robot Brama was a little taken aback; he politely extended his arms, letting Vinu rub his face against his.

Upon hearing that the robot was going to pilot a spaceship on aerial duty, Vinu insisted on going along. This was because, according to the robot's report, an unidentified spaceship was near the abandoned Europa base, posing a threat to the Iapetus base.

When Mars explodes, the missiles, nuclear weapons, and attack ships on Venus will be rendered useless.

With no survivors, the enemy naturally disappeared as well. Therefore, the entire fleet heading to the Iapetus base consisted of transport ships, without any missiles or other weapons for attack or defense.

The spaceship stolen by Troy, the one that the robot Bramar is currently piloting, is an exception. It is a military spaceship, carrying space missiles.

The spaceship carrying the robots Brama and Vinu suddenly sounded an alarm, and the entire base was enveloped in a piercing buzzing sound. A nuclear-powered spaceship, stolen from Europa by Troy's henchmen, was heading towards Iapetus.

Tesla made a decisive move, directing everyone to move the giant computer storing consciousness and the cryogenic preservation chamber for genetic tissue onto the fleet's ships.

All ships immediately took off, temporarily taking cover in the air far from the base. Tesla dared not gamble; he absolutely could not allow consciousness and genetic tissue to become live targets.

The unidentified spaceship bypassed the robot Brahma's interception and approached the Iapetus base from another direction. Maria, sitting aboard the fleet mothership, shouted, "What is it trying to do? Is it going to ram the Iapetus base and choose mutual destruction?"

“Europa has limited oxygen and food reserves. These selfish people must not be content to die peacefully; they want to destroy everything and take everything with them,” Tesla said.

The robot Brama's spaceship turned around and locked onto the unidentified spaceship that was heading straight for the base. A missile was launched, and the unidentified spaceship exploded in space, with debris scattering onto the surface of Saturn's moon Iapetus.

The 18-kilometer-long power plant structure trailing behind Iapetus swayed violently, and a large component flew off, drifting towards the robot Brahma's spaceship. The robot scrambled to avoid it, but the component still struck the tail of the spaceship.

Vinu was plunged into darkness when the emergency oxygen supply indicator light suddenly came on, and the spacecraft went out of control.

Vinu shook the robot in a panic, shouting, "Brahma, what should I do? Come and hold me tight, I'm scared."

The robot Brama obediently unbuckled her seatbelt and clung to Vinu's body, trying her best to prevent her from hitting the bulkhead. Vinu involuntarily cried out again, "Brahma, I'm so cold! Am I going to die?"

The arms tightly wrapped around Vinu's body gave her a sense of security, but she instantly realized a helpless truth: the one holding her was not her beloved husband, but just an emotionless robot.

In the confined space, Vinu sobbed helplessly, a deep sense of sorrow welling up from the bottom of his heart.

Just then, a gentle and familiar voice rang in her ear:

"My dear, don't be afraid! I'm here. My dear, I'll always be with you."

Vinu's face instantly filled with tears of happiness as she and the robot Brama embraced and kissed deeply.

Tesla and Maria did not give up their efforts to save Vinu. Maria asked anxiously, "Can activating the high-energy lightning ball transmit Vinu's consciousness over a long distance?"

Tesla knew he had exceeded the effective range, but he still held onto a sliver of hope and activated the high-energy lightning ball.

At the same time, the structure of the superluminal power station dragged by Saturn's Iapetus collapsed. As the power station disintegrated, a blue light flashed and intertwined with a high-energy ball of lightning.

Maria shouted with childlike joy, "Look! The consciousness storage host is showing Vinu's encoding and markings. Her consciousness has been successfully uploaded over a long distance!"

Vinu was lifeless inside the spaceship; she had peacefully "died" in her lover's arms. The robot Brama still held her tightly, kissing her, a single tear spilling out, like a sparkling gem floating on Vinu's lips.

Maria, who had just been thrilled about the successful upload of Venus's consciousness, suddenly realized that they were in dire straits once again, as the power plant on Iapetus, which provided a continuous supply of electricity, had been destroyed.

Where can we settle down?

Tesla gently took Maria's hand and comforted her, "There will always be a way. Even if we can't preserve the genetic tissue, at least we can convert the consciousness of 60 billion people into code and engrave it on a hard drive."

Maria didn't want to say anything discouraging, but she couldn't help herself: "Where can we find a hard drive that can hold the consciousness of 60 billion people? And it doesn't need electricity, it doesn't need to be moved, and it can be preserved for tens of millions of years."

Tesla had a flash of inspiration: "I've got it! That metal-rich asteroid is a large enough hard drive. It's made up of a variety of metals, including iron, nickel, aluminum, gold, and platinum. In addition, the heat from the metal melts the sand into silicon crystals, which become its glass coating. These are all natural, high-quality hard drive materials."

"You want to use this asteroid as a super hard drive to carry consciousness?" Maria was amazed by Tesla's imagination.

“Yes, this metallic asteroid will become a vessel, serving as a repository for the beliefs and souls of 60 billion Venusians over tens of millions of years—the so-called Holy Grail,” Tesla said.

"The Holy Grail? A vessel that holds faith and the soul?" Maria murmured thoughtfully.

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
An example of how Heaven and Earth misled an old alliance, by Wang Yi of the Qing Dynasty.

Yet the plants and trees seem to have been reborn. (Qing Dynasty, Zhang Hong)

If all things beyond material possessions are but temporary sojourns, then Han Wei of the Song Dynasty wrote:
The prophecy inscribed behind his back has come true. —Hang Shijun, Qing Dynasty
(End of this chapter)