Chapter 13 (Orion 1): Counting Once More

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65 million years ago, Saxis Plateau of Mars

Human beings from Venus have been landing on Mars for nearly a century. Seventy percent of Mars’s surface is covered by oceans; its atmosphere contains a high concentration of carbon dioxide, creating a warm and humid climate, though still colder than Venus.

The Venusian bases on Mars are located near the Saxis Plateau, where freshwater resources abound. The main purpose of these bases is scientific research and the breeding of cold-resistant crops.

Having just landed at the Martian base, Nikola Tesla and Abbott encountered their old acquaintance, Colonel Ferman, a high-ranking representative of the Venusian Alliance, who was currently overseeing and coordinating the expansion of the temporary Martian settlements.

“Colonel, when will the Alliance’s transport plan begin? I imagine there must be many difficulties,” Abbott said to Colonel Ferman.

“Yes, the difficulties are numerous. Beyond the lack of transport capacity, the bigger issue is that these Martian bases can accommodate only a few thousand people at most. Expansion is the urgent priority,” replied Colonel Ferman.

Nikola Tesla considered the existing conditions and available resources on Mars. Space and land for survival were not problems.

Mars has ample land area, with topographical conditions superior to Venus—mountains, hills, and deltas formed by rivers, and fertile plains suitable for cultivation.

With sufficient labor and the help of intelligent robots, agriculture and animal husbandry could quickly flourish.

Venusian humanity had long entered the intelligent phase of the information era; emigrating to Mars, even if they could tolerate the drastic changes in life conditions and quality, they could hardly accept a return to the agricultural era.

Tesla and Abbott had already finalized the construction plan for the vascular superluminal wave power station, but it would not be accomplished in a day; moreover, building the station itself would require a vast amount of electricity.

“Electricity is the foundation of civilization. Colonel, I suppose the first step in expansion is to build more power stations?” Tesla asked.

Colonel Ferman confirmed Tesla’s suspicion; indeed, the construction of power stations was the foremost task in the expansion.

Because Mars is further from the Sun, solar energy resources are far inferior to those on Venus or Earth. The electric supply at the Martian base currently relies mainly on a small nuclear power station built decades ago.

Abbott reminded Tesla that, during his period of sleep, a nuclear power station on Venus had suffered a catastrophic explosion, prompting the Venusian Alliance to legislate a complete ban on the construction of nuclear plants on Venus.

“That’s why you’re so interested in my superluminal wave theory, and why you built the first superluminal wave power station on Tower Island,” Tesla asked Abbott.

“Well, let’s not speak of Venus. We’d better discuss the power station problem on Mars first,” Colonel Ferman said, facing the two technological giants with a helpless smile. “The small nuclear plant here was built off Venus, so the risk is isolated. But if a large number of Venusians move here, the nuclear ban will apply to Mars as well.”

“We can’t consider expanding nuclear power. Instead, we could exploit Mars’s abundant hydroelectric resources, build a few dams, and set up hydroelectric stations,” Abbott said, calculating the output as he spoke.

Suddenly inspired, he asked Tesla, “Total installed hydroelectric capacity may still fall far short. Could we build a tower-type superluminal wave power station on Mars’s surface before the vascular station is completed?”

Tesla was taken aback and looked up, “Was the lesson of Venus’s tower-type station not severe enough? You want to build another one on Mars?”

Abbott replied, “The Venusian station had too much power, which caused the crisis. We could build a small, miniature station on Mars.”

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Nikola Tesla understood Abbott’s intention. The principle of the superluminal wave power station was to construct a continuous structure over 180,000 kilometers in length, exceeding a complete wavelength of the superluminal wave—170,360 kilometers. When the structure was exposed to the superluminal wavelength, it absorbed vast amounts of energy, converting heat to electricity, thus becoming a superluminal wave power station.

The output power of the station depended on the diameter of the structure—imagine weaving carbon nanotubes into a rope, the station’s power being determined by the thickness of that rope.

“Nikola, let’s do a careful calculation. If we use a thin rope and build a small superluminal wave station as a transitional step before the vascular station, it should be feasible.”

As Abbott spoke, he opened the Martian holographic map. Blue oceans covered the surface, and the land was lush with forests and rivers, floating clearly before the three.

Nikola Tesla’s gaze fell upon the volcanic cluster of the Saxis Plateau. He pointed to three volcanoes arranged neatly in a straight line.

“We can build the base of the tower-type station atop the central crater. The terrain is flat, no need to clear trees, and the construction conditions are favorable.”

“There’s another advantage—the crater is a channel connecting to Mars’s internal magma. We can better monitor the planet’s internal thermal activity. If we detect no major geological changes here, then the other regions are certainly safe,” Abbott added.

Colonel Ferman looked at the four volcanoes—one large and three small—on Mars’s surface and asked curiously, “These three small volcanoes are almost identical in height and diameter, lined up with nearly equal spacing, forming a triangle with the large volcano at the apex. The formation is so regular—it seems artificial.”

Abbott recalled a hypothesis Tesla had shared over a century ago, back in their student days. He pointed at Tesla and said mysteriously to Colonel Ferman, “Regarding this question, Mr. Tesla once had a wildly imaginative idea.”

As a student, Nikola Tesla was passionate about astronomical observation, spending nights peering through telescopes at Martian terrain, particularly fascinated by its volcanoes.

Mars is covered in volcanoes, but very few are large. The largest are arranged in geometric patterns, hardly believable as natural formations.

After the Venusian people launched a Mars-orbiting probe, more high-definition images were sent back to Venus. One night, Nikola Tesla wielded two pictures and barged into Abbott’s dormitory, exclaiming,

“Look, this is the distribution map of Mars’s one large and three small volcano craters, and this is the map of Orion’s one large and three small stars—their geometric shapes are nearly identical.”

Abbott was a physicist but also well versed in astronomy.

The primary star of Orion is Betelgeuse, over 900 times the mass of the Sun and ranked tenth in brightness among visible stars. Southeast of Betelgeuse are three smaller, dimmer stars—Bellatrix, Mintaka, and Alnilam—aligned from lower left to upper right in a straight line with nearly equal spacing.

“Indeed, the shapes of these two maps are identical, and each forms a perfect geometric pattern. The universe truly works wonders!” Abbott exclaimed.

Nikola Tesla put forth his bold hypothesis: perhaps Orion’s pattern was a cosmic coincidence, but the identical arrangement of Martian volcanic craters—could it be an artificial imitation of Orion?

Colonel Ferman listened to Tesla’s conjecture, baffled, and asked, “The craters are artificially made? That can’t have been done by Venusians. Are you suggesting there was once a human civilization on Mars?”

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“Earth had dinosaurs, Mars has fish—why assume only Venus could nurture intelligent life? Maybe, many years ago, Mars had its own human civilization, but they went extinct,” Tesla replied, his reasoning sound.

“Martians? According to you, these craters were left behind by extinct Martian humans? Why create such symmetrical geometric forms?” Ferman asked.

“I think it’s a kind of signal. Millions or tens of millions of years ago, as Martians faced extinction, they left these symbols to hint at the emergence of new intelligent life in the solar system—like us, the Venusian people.”

On Mars, one large and three small craters correspond to Orion’s four stars. In the early stages of primitive evolution, every tribe of intelligent beings learned to count with pebbles. Three small, neatly aligned stars are easily perceived as ‘111’—a series of consecutive ones, known in mathematics as unary notation, the simplest form for early humans to comprehend.

The same unary sequence has different values depending on the numeral system. Nikola Tesla pondered: if Martian humans truly existed, what were they hinting at with ‘111’ for the Venusians?

Betelgeuse is the tenth brightest star visible to the naked eye; Martians believed that even if Venusian humans were still primitive, they could observe the brightness ranking of stars, thus ‘10’ is a special number—an allusion to the decimal system?

If that idea seemed forced, the coincidental alignment of the craters as ‘111’ was far less likely.

‘111’ is seven in binary, thirteen in ternary—not unique in direction. And what does the triangle mean? A form of construction?

Tesla mused that if he were to leave clues for posterity, he would make them more definitive.

He smiled wryly at the thought, hoping never to be forced to leave such ambiguous hints.

As a keen scientist, his intuition told him ‘111’ was a hint toward the binary ‘7’.

Thus, if Martians truly existed, they were likely suggesting the use of both decimal and binary systems.

&

Poem of stamped collected verses:

The lingering glow yet returns to neighbors. Song Dynasty, Wei Xiang
Quiet days remain, learning to persist. Song Dynasty, Zhang Mi
In which year did the seventy-seven golden men descend? Tang Dynasty, Chen Tao
The dream-like form reappears as three and three. Song Dynasty, Gao Side

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