Chapter 14 (Orion 2): The Cycle Festival

August 2029, Africa

Daphne could never have imagined that she and Michael would run into Mandy Petkova and the renowned journalist Martha in Nairobi, Kenya. Mandy’s foundation had a program for the protection of indigenous tribes, located right in Kenya.

The four of them shared a common destination: Kenya’s northwestern Rift Valley Province. They agreed to meet first at a lakeside research station sponsored by the Aisbay Company, and then together visit one of the ancient indigenous tribes included in Mandy’s foundation’s protection program.

East of Lake Victoria, volcanoes rose in succession, and along the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which stretches from south to north, scattered freshwater lakes extended all the way to Ethiopia and Egypt.

The research base by the lake focused mainly on geological studies, particularly the faults of the Rift Valley, the soil, and sediment cores sampled from the lakebeds.

Dr. James, who proposed the “capsule” survival pod for Mars’ Valles Marineris, took great interest in the sediment layers at the bottom of East Africa’s rift lakes. He hoped to work with the research team to uncover similarities between the great canyons of two different planets in the solar system.

After brief introductions, Michael couldn’t help but ask Dr. James eagerly, “Do the sediment composition reports match your predictions?”

“We’ve taken samples from the beds of five different freshwater lakes. Their ages and compositions are consistent with each other. Unfortunately, they’re completely different from what we know of Martian soil,” Dr. James replied.

Michael consoled him considerately, “It doesn’t matter—then focus on studying the faults formed in different geological eras. Pay special attention to the water content of each layer.”

Martha asked with curiosity, “I thought your research station was for studying flamingos or the great wildebeest migration. Researching lakebed sediments isn’t romantic at all.”

Daphne Braun had come to Africa at Michael’s invitation. She had assumed Dr. James’s research focused on survival in the Rift Valley, not the similarities between Martian soil and rift sediments.

She hesitated, then said softly to Michael, “If you’re looking for geological structures similar to those on Mars, perhaps my hypothesis could help.”

Michael immediately thought of Psyche, which would soon be approached by the spacecraft Inspiration on the 22nd of this month. According to Daphne’s explosive Mars hypothesis, Psyche was formed from metallic lava ejected from the interior of Mars. He blurted out, “You mean Psyche?”

“Oh, you’re overthinking it! Psyche is part of Mars’s core. But you’re interested in sediment compositions similar to those in Valles Marineris, right? If they’re not here in the East African Rift, I suspect they might be somewhere else on Earth.” Daphne gave a mysterious answer, then briefly explained her conjecture to Michael and promised to show him a detailed analysis when she returned to Liangguo.

The indigenous tribe supported by Mandy’s foundation was deep in the forest, a kilometer from the road. The group followed a dirt and gravel path to this ancient African settlement.

The chief greeted them warmly and led them to a thatched shelter in a clearing. On a massive round wooden table lay all sorts of tools, as if it were a modern assembly line: sun-dried, washed flax fibers, dyes extracted from plants in various colors, and a wooden rope-twisting machine.

The rope-twisting machine was cleverly constructed, using wooden levers and gears to twist the dyed flax fibers into even, tightly-wound cords.

The chief tied a black-and-red hemp cord around Michael’s wrist, while his wife tied white cords around the wrists of the women. “Knotting cords” was a form of greeting in this tribe.

Dipping his finger in black dye, the chief marked Michael’s forehead, and with white dye, he marked the women’s foreheads. Mandy explained that this was the tribe’s highest ritual for distinguished guests from afar and reassured them that all the dyes were extracted from natural minerals at the lakebed.

Daphne Braun found the white lake mud on her forehead as moist and silky as a facial cream. The weather was hot, and there seemed to be a faint breeze; the mud quickly dried on her skin.

Somehow, Daphne felt her heart beating faster. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw pinpricks of light flickering before her eyes. She blinked hard and found herself unchanged.

Michael’s attention was drawn to a stone tablet embedded in a post. Strands of colored cord hung evenly from it, each with knots of varying sizes and numbers. Sensing its significance, he asked Mandy, “Is this the legendary knotted-cord record?”

Mandy nodded approvingly. “Yes, many African tribes still preserve the tradition of knotted cords, used for counting, record-keeping, and marking time.”

The method of knotting cords to record the passage of time reminded Michael of Professor Braun’s lectures on super-waves and “Nikola Tesla’s cord.”

The chief’s youngest daughter, shy and hesitant, approached Daphne, holding a colorful knotted cord that formed a pattern: an egg-shaped oval above, with two horizontal cords and one vertical strand below.

Martha recognized the motif and asked Daphne, “Daphne, this is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. What do you think it means?”

Looking at the symbol, Daphne thought of the female uterus and the pictogram for woman and replied, “I guess it means life—this must be the symbol of life.”

Everyone was surprised by Daphne’s insight, marveling at the wisdom of ancient ancestors—using knots to record time and to symbolize life!

The little girl presented the colorful knotted cord to Daphne. Daphne embraced her and placed her own pendant around the child’s neck.

The next stop for Daphne and Michael was Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza.

Daphne’s data analysis and conjectures about the three pyramids of Giza had piqued Michael’s curiosity. The two of them came to see this wonder of humanity up close.

Daphne noticed that the inclination angles of the three pyramids were not 60 degrees, as in an equilateral triangle, but all fell between 51 and 53 degrees—almost exactly the sum of the axial tilts of Venus, Earth, and Mars.

These three pyramids were the tombs of three generations of Pharaohs in the Khufu line. Daphne believed that the proportions of their volumes corresponded to Earth, Venus, and Mars.

Pointing to the Menkaure Pyramid and the three small pyramids lined up to its south, Daphne said, “The Menkaure Pyramid is the smallest of the three and represents Mars. South of it, these three small pyramids line up in a row. What does this arrangement remind you of?”

Michael was startled and blurted out, “Their arrangement closely resembles Olympus Mons and the three smaller volcanoes to its southeast on Mars! Are you saying the ancient Egyptians modeled these pyramids after Martian volcanoes?”

Daphne chuckled, “You’re not thinking big enough! The one-large, three-small arrangement comes from the constellation Orion. My theory is that ancient Martians built artificial volcano clusters modeled on Orion, and the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids based on Orion as well.”

“Orion?” Michael murmured.

He noticed that the three stars in Orion’s Belt, the three volcanoes on Mars, and the three small pyramids south of Menkaure all formed a clear “111.”

Suddenly, another thought struck Michael, resolving a question that had long troubled him. To confirm his conclusion, he asked Daphne, “A stone tablet unearthed in the Great Pyramid is inscribed with the number sequence ‘142857.’ What do you think it means?”

Daphne had heard of this before. There are various calculations and theories about “142857” online: multiply it by 1 through 6, and the digits merely rotate but never introduce a new digit; multiply it by 7 and you get 999999. It’s a favorite trick among short-video creators.

Daphne believed “142857” signified 1/7—a calculation tool left by the pyramid builders for their apprentices, since only 1/7 among single-digit denominators is hard to memorize.

But perhaps there was another possibility: “142857” serves as a hint. By strict mathematical definition, “142857” is the repeating cycle for the decimal representation of “1/7.”

Michael, trusting in his girlfriend’s intelligence and her rigorous approach, posed a leading question aimed at the answer he had in mind: “If ‘142857’ is the decimal repeating cycle for ‘1/7,’ then the three small pyramids in a row, that ‘111,’ is the repeating cycle for ‘7’ in which number base?”

Daphne immediately understood. Excited, she exclaimed, “Binary! ‘111’ is the repeating cycle for the number ‘7’ in binary. The three pyramids aligned as three ones are telling us that besides decimal, we should also use binary!”

Could it be that the arrangement of volcanoes on Mars and the pyramids is meant as a hint and reminder from ancient humans to us today?

Daphne Braun was confident she was right, for “142857” and “111” were already clear signals and reminders.

Epigraphic poem:

Relics of ancient towers shrouded in clouds — Ming, Liu Su
A chest harboring constellations means astronomy — Ming, Sang Yue
Old friends gaze across three matters — Tang, Wang Wei
Today, it’s even harder to speak of seven parts — Yuan, Qiu Kui