Chapter 35 (Resonant Wave 1): The Lottery

65 million years ago, on Earth, in the Neo-Tethys Ocean, Tower Island

Nikola Tesla, faced with the crisis of Jupiter approaching the Sun and Venus’s rotation slowing dramatically, devised the Mars Rupture Plan.

Before Mars ruptured, the consciousness of all Venusian humans would be uploaded to the cloud and preserved within a supercomputer located on Saturn’s eighth moon. Their genes and tissues would also be extracted.

After safely surviving the Mars rupture and once Earth’s atmosphere reached conditions suitable for human existence, Maria’s team would use cloning technology to revive the Venusian humans one by one on Earth.

This entire fantastical, mad scheme was forced by the impending destruction of the solar system’s habitable zone and Venusian humanity—desperation had bred innovation.

Fortunately, to date, the plan’s feasibility had received preliminary confirmation from government agencies and had been submitted to the Alliance Parliament for review.

The verdict arrived: Director Diston of the Venusian Alliance Office and Speaker Kent announced the Parliament’s decision to Tesla and the others via a live broadcast.

Abbott, Tesla, and Maria held their breath, their expressions solemn as they listened. Speaker Kent’s voice rang out boldly:

“After fierce debate, the Parliament has voted to approve your comprehensive plan.”

The Alliance government had decided, after research, that Director Abbott would lead the Mars Rupture Plan, Tesla would serve as Chief Scientist, and Maria as Head of Bioengineering. Director Diston declared the government’s decision in accordance with the Parliament’s legislation.

Abbott glanced at Tesla and Maria, sensing that, like himself, they felt no joy at the plan’s approval. Instead, their expressions grew even more grave—this was the so-called “weight of the world.”

Each of the three spoke in turn, unanimously pledging to do their utmost, overcoming difficulties and completing this formidable task.

The video conference did not end as the three expected; Speaker Kent’s tense face relaxed and he spoke earnestly:

“I know the challenges you face are immense, but we lawmakers and rule-makers are not exempt from them either.”

Maria felt her heartstrings plucked once more. Decades of experience had taught her that the ethical, moral, and legal challenges far outweighed those posed by bioengineering.

Speaker Kent echoed her thoughts: even if consciousness uploading and cloning technology could be achieved smoothly, how to uphold fairness and safeguard constitutional rights during the process sparked intense, heated debate among the lawmakers.

Some suggested that the opinions of the plan’s designers and scientists should be solicited, and that the views of ordinary citizens should also be heard within a certain scope.

Speaker Kent said the next agenda item of the conference was to hear the opinions of the scientific team and citizen representatives on several contentious focal issues—essentially, a small-scale public opinion poll.

Maria was unfazed by the prospect of ordinary citizen representatives; she invited Brahma and Vinu, husband and wife. The survey questions appeared one by one on the screen.

Question 1: Do you agree that citizens under the jurisdiction of the Venusian Alliance, on a voluntary basis, have only one right to upload their consciousness and clone their physical body?

Such a straightforward question—Abbott and Tesla nodded in approval. Maria, upon confirmation, was told that “citizens” included minors with legal status.

Brahma and Vinu, attending such a high-level meeting for the first time, were already nervous. Upon hearing the explanation about “citizens,” Vinu anxiously asked:

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“My daughter Cynthia and her companions are Dr. Maria’s clones. They lack citizenship, but they are alive. Can they be given an equal opportunity?”

Speaker Kent, overwhelmed with recent work, had not considered the clones exiled to Earth. He quickly jotted down the question in his notebook and promised Vinu he would submit it to Parliament for discussion as soon as possible.

Question 2: Due to a shortage of cloning doctors and equipment, and limited Earth resources, the cloning plan would be divided into many batches. Clearly, a fair method for determining batch order is a lottery. Should the lottery assign one number per person, or one number per family?

Everyone had their own preference and lively discussion ensued; there was, of course, no definitive answer.

A personal lottery would increase the chance of a winner in each family, but allocating tickets per family might more easily avoid the ethical dilemma of a son being revived before his father.

Question 3: For a long time, Earth's resources will be limited. If those revived first have children, it would consume resources and reduce the number of lottery slots for subsequent batches. Should those revived first be prohibited from pregnancy and childbirth until the final batch of Venusian humans is revived?

Tesla thought, the questions considered by natural scientists and humanities scholars are worlds apart. To allow pregnancy and childbirth—what a dilemma.

If prohibited, should accidental pregnancies be forcibly terminated? If not, would people rush to be “accidentally” pregnant?

Maria instinctively felt the lawmakers would ultimately choose to prohibit pregnancy and childbirth. What puzzled her was that, while reproduction was not the sole purpose of Venusian human existence, it was clearly the most fundamental human right that no law should strip away.

Heavens, an ominous premonition flashed through Maria’s mind—would some self-proclaimed expert suggest that only males or females be revived first?

Question 4: Each batch’s revival quota depends on Earth’s resource capacity and construction efficiency. Should those with stronger professional capabilities and higher work efficiency needed for Earth’s reconstruction be given priority for revival?

Speaker Kent specifically explained that, regarding this issue, lawmakers had reached rare consensus: Director Abbott would draft a whitelist, granting scientists and key engineers involved in the Mars Rupture Plan automatic priority for the first batch of revival, bypassing the lottery.

Efficiency versus fairness—there is no right or wrong, only choice, Abbott mused.

For him, he could accept whatever lawmakers ultimately decided, unless someone proposed the so-called gene selection theory—that would cross his bottom line.

The questions continued one after another. Maria noticed Brahma and Vinu were preoccupied; whatever the issue, their focus remained on little Cynthia.

The lengthy, somewhat oppressive survey finally concluded, and the video conference ended.

Vinu came over, grasped Maria’s hand, tears streaming unconsciously from her eyes. She choked, unable to speak, but Maria knew what she wished to say.

Nikola Tesla sat in his chair, immersed in the series of questions just discussed. Suddenly, he thought he should connect to the external brain via the lightning sphere to see what answers it might provide.

He stood and approached the special chair, a thought flickering in his mind.

Tesla’s external brain had undergone long-term personalized training, making it uniquely attuned to him.

Out of curiosity, Maria—and even Vinu—had sat in the chair and connected to the external brain via the lightning sphere. The result: it did not noticeably improve their “thinking ability,” but nor did it produce incompatible anomalies.

Whether little Cynthia and her companions, the clones, could be allowed another chance at cloning depended first on whether their consciousness could be successfully extracted and uploaded.

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Are the clones’ brainwaves the same as those of Venusian humans? This was Tesla’s sudden question.

With the consent of Brahma and Vinu, Cynthia sat in the chair. Tesla operated the lightning sphere, simultaneously activating the brainwave recorder.

Cynthia wore a specially designed helmet. Vinu told her, “If you feel any discomfort, raise your right hand.”

The connection began; the lightning sphere’s power steadily increased. The brainwave recorder displayed peaks and troughs—a smooth, winding curve moved rhythmically toward the right side of the screen.

Vinu half-hid behind Brahma, one hand gripping her husband’s jacket tightly, eyes fixed on Cynthia’s relaxed right hand.

For safety, Tesla set the lightning sphere’s output to half his usual usage. When the voltage reached the set value and stabilized, the external brain’s display showed no connection signal.

Strange—what was happening? Both Maria and Vinu had successfully connected to the external brain at the same power setting, so why was there no response from Cynthia?

Suddenly, the brainwave recorder registered several chaotic, noisy waves, fluctuating wildly. The wavelength and frequency differed markedly from the main wave, creating strong interference.

“Resonant waves!” Tesla exclaimed.

At that moment, Cynthia struggled to raise her right hand. Tesla quickly cut the power.

Maria asked Tesla what the appearance of resonant waves meant.

“Different brain structure. Cynthia and her companions likely cannot have their consciousness extracted and uploaded,” Tesla replied, shaking his head in resignation.

“So, even if approved, Cynthia and this batch of clones cannot upload their consciousness?” Vinu collapsed to the floor.

&

Seal poem of collected verses:
To contemplate the clear waves, the path is surely hard. Song Dynasty, Master Shaotan
The origins and currents of change are manifold. Qing Dynasty, Tian Wen
All things have always been of one essence. Song Dynasty, Master Liao Yi
Clearly, one may regard them as chaos. Song Dynasty, Wen Tianxiang

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