Chapter 26 (Overwhelmed by Urgency 2): The Standby Lover

December 2029, Rocket City, Liang Country

The Nikola self-driving electric car sped along the highway. Daphne Braun rested her head gently on Michael’s shoulder, while Michael’s thoughts had already drifted far beyond the car window.

If he suspended the plan to “illuminate” Enceladus with superluminal waves, he wasn’t sure he could still convince the investors, Prince Harufa among them, that he truly possessed super energy—and thus persuade them to commit astronomical sums to his project.

Daphne subconsciously touched her stomach, brushing Michael’s cheek with her lips. The gesture pulled Michael back to reality, and his strong hand tenderly caressed her belly, seeking and sensing the tiny life developing within.

Daphne could feel the disappointment Martha’s interview outline had brought Michael, yet she was equally curious about the other experiment he’d mentioned. The moment Michael began to speak of the Saturn ring experiment, his words flowed ceaselessly.

Enceladus’s semi-major axis spanned more than 230,000 kilometers, and within its inner orbital plane, Saturn’s rings lay in circle after circle, divided by gaps into several rings with different names. Among them, the B ring shone brightest, its rocks and ice the thickest and most abundant.

These rings had been observed for centuries. It wasn’t until Liang’s National Space Agency sent probes for close observation of the Saturn system that astronomers were astonished to discover, outside Enceladus’s orbit, a vast, tenuous, and dim ring—eventually named the E ring.

Previously, astronomers believed that the countless ice and rock fragments forming the rings inside Enceladus’s orbit were the debris of a shattered moon. Was the E ring, lying outside, also the result of a moon’s destruction?

The E ring stretches from Enceladus all the way to the orbit of Tethys, and even faintly as far as Dione, spanning nearly a million kilometers in radius.

Calculating the dynamic rotation of each ring’s material according to the law of universal gravitation, astronomers concluded that the E ring could only exist for ten thousand to a million years. Compared to the solar system’s disk lifespan of several billion years, a million years was but the blink of an eye.

If Newton’s law of universal gravitation is correct, and the E ring’s life so brief, then astronomers must accept the awkward coincidence that humanity’s presence precisely overlaps with this fleeting era in the immense timeline of billions of years.

Daphne, well-versed in Saturn’s rings, said to Michael:

“Before, no one knew the angular velocity of each Saturn ring. According to Newton, inner rings rotate faster than outer ones. By placing markers in different rings and measuring their angular velocities, if the velocities are nearly identical, then the law of universal gravitation would have to yield to a new theory—isn’t that right?”

“Yes. In fact, you don’t have to wait for the experiment. You can see it just by looking at photos of the rings: they don’t look like a set of gears with the outer rings moving slower than the inner ones. Instead, they’re like a tightly connected disk, rotating as a unified whole. In that case, their lifespan would be far more than just ten thousand years!”

Michael’s phone rang. It was Irene. She said Prince Harufa wished to invite Michael and Daphne to breakfast at his hotel the next morning.

The following morning, Michael and Daphne arrived as agreed. Years of business experience told Michael that Prince Harufa seemed more inclined to invest.

But what made Michael less confident was that abandoning the Enceladus “ice lamp” plan meant he couldn’t showcase the might of his super energy. Restarting Mars would require an enormous investment, and worst of all, the return cycle would be agonizingly long.

Prince Harufa was direct. He got straight to the point: “Can you tell me about your plan? How much investment will it need?”

“My plan is to transform and restart Mars, to make it as habitable for humans as Earth—in other words, to turn Mars into Earth’s backup,” Michael stated simply, revealing his explosive vision.

Irene’s hand involuntarily pressed against the table, causing the bowls and silver cutlery to tremble slightly. Prince Harufa set his coffee cup back on its saucer, looked Michael in the eye, and seemed to encourage him to elaborate.

Michael turned to Daphne, speaking unhurriedly: “My dear girlfriend is an expert on Mars. Perhaps she can explain what’s needed to turn Mars into another Earth.”

It was the first time Daphne had heard this mad plan from Michael himself. Interest piqued, she began reciting as if listing cherished knowledge:

“For humans to live freely on Mars’s surface, it would need an atmosphere rich enough in oxygen, liquid water to sustain biodiversity—seas, lakes, rivers—and a planetary dipole magnetic field to shield it from solar and cosmic high-energy particles.”

After Daphne’s introduction, Prince Harufa leaned back into his chair. Michael fully understood the reaction: when people first heard his plan, “madness” didn’t even begin to cover it—it was sheer fantasy.

“I have mastered a way to obtain super energy. I intend to build a massive device on Mars to absorb energy and channel it into the planet’s core. The metal core, now cold, will be heated and turned molten again—restarting the magnetic field.”

“If that’s possible, the ice beneath Mars’s surface will melt, surging out to form oceans,” Daphne added. “The dry ice at the south pole would sublimate into carbon dioxide, creating an atmosphere.”

“Yes,” Michael continued. “The greenhouse effect and liquid water would promote abundant algae and other plants; photosynthesis would generate oxygen, and ultimately, Mars would become a habitable planet much like Earth.”

Prince Harufa picked up his coffee once more and asked, “I imagine this plan needs a fortune, doesn’t it? It seems you’re asking for more than an investment; it’s a great cause. I suspect not many would invest in you. Do you think I would?”

Michael’s nerves tightened instantly. He fixed his gaze on the prince, hoping to read a hint of his intentions.

What the prince said next landed like a bombshell:

“Even if your plan is feasible, with my limited knowledge of astronomy, I know transforming Mars into Earth’s backup would take thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years. This is not an investment—no one could ever live to see the returns.”

If Michael felt awkward, so did Daphne and Irene.

Yet Prince Harufa remained composed. He stretched out his right hand, palm up, clenched it into a fist, then slowly opened it, and said:

“There’s a saying in my homeland: Sand becomes gold, and gold will one day return to sand. A fist cannot grasp sand; open your hand and even the sand slips away.”

While the others puzzled over his words, the prince explained:

“My country is blessed—sand covers the land, and under the sand lies gold. But the wisdom of our ancestors says that gold is sifted from sand, and one day, the gold in our hands will return to sand.”

Michael felt as if he’d emerged from an icy cavern, blood rushing to his face. He asked urgently:

“Even if the investment is immense and the returns unimaginably distant, you’re still willing to take this risk with me?”

Prince Harufa laughed heartily, extended his right hand, and gripped Michael’s firmly.

“Why not? Before my gold turns back to sand, I’ll give it to you first—to prepare a backup for Earth.”

Michael sincerely thanked the prince for his courage and generosity, and suddenly recalled news of the prince’s smart city cluster plans. He said:

“I’ve heard you have an ambitious plan to build smart cities in the desert. If you ever need anything in artificial intelligence, I’ll do everything I can to support you.”

Excitement welled up in Michael’s heart—“If I’d known the prince was so bold, why did I ever bother with the Enceladus ‘ice lamp’?”

The group enjoyed a lively conversation, raising their glasses in celebration. Irene said with a trace of regret, “To transform Mars—such a mad yet beautiful plan. The pity is, even if it succeeds, none of us may live to see it.”

Michael smiled mysteriously. “Perhaps not. I won’t just reshape Mars’s landscape—I’ll also archive human genes and uploaded minds there. That will be Earth’s true backup.”

Epigraph:
Venturing to explore the heights for the sake of wonder,
Borrowing a distant gleam from another’s light.
Beneath Mars’s rocks, stone cliffs rise,
Only your home lies close to mine.