The Song of the Jubilee (The Phantom of the Earth Book 1) (28 page)

The descent was less the issue than the temperature and pressure measurements, which I’d assured Atticus would be ominous. My lab calculated that 2.0 km deep, the ground temperature would be about 65 degrees C, while 4.0 km deep, the temperature increased to nearly 130 degrees C. Tests of natural life indicated the highest temperature for any functional living creature was 122 degrees C, and that required at least 2.2 atmospheres (atm) of pressure to prevent boiling. (The air pressure of a shaft at 4.0 km would be about 1.6 atm.) The highest temperature for a functioning animal (not mere survival) was 80 degrees C for the deep ocean floor Pompeii worm (pressure of 400 atm).

We worked tirelessly to adapt the genetic characteristics of the Pompeii worm to the transhuman genome, while the engineering consortiums designed a closed thermosiphon loop that would reach into the nearby lake (170 meters deep), then back down into the new Livelle at 2,500 meters deep. The difference in temperatures would naturally drive fluid flow without pumps, so no energy would be required, while several loops would provide redundancy. Large-diameter loops would actually be used for transport of people and material to “stations” near the surface in sealed “pigs” similar to those used to inspect pipelines from the inside. The problem, as ever, was that in addition to liquids and gases, the Reassortment Strain could pass through solids: it would contaminate the water inside the piping, killing all the transhumans in Livelle. To avoid this scenario, we pumped liquid ethanol and radiation into the piping at shallower depths.

The descent didn’t go as planned. Construction on the deeper city-state experienced delays, primarily owing to a lack of leadership. Several less severe Reassortment scares put more pressure on Hardington, who’d narrowly won reelection in 167 AR based on the assurance he was best qualified to rule Livelle during its existential crisis. But where his approval had hovered near 50 percent at the time of his reelection, by the following year it had dropped to just 20 percent, the lowest for a chancellor in Livelle’s history.

He imposed Martial Law following another Reassortment scare, ceding control of the city-state to General Palomar, the leader of Livelle Guard. When demonstrators against the Hardington Administration organized in Centaurus Square, Palomar ordered the Guard to arrest anyone who gathered there and on the city’s pathways. Peace returned to Livelle, for a time. The ministry urged the chancellor to address the people. On the 245th day of the year 168 AR, he gave a speech in Centaurus Square before a crowd that turned violent.

Vastar Alalia ordered the strike teams to stand aside as General Palomar and the Livelle Guard were overwhelmed by the crowd. A pulse blast echoed throughout Livelle’s main level, and Chancellor Hardington collapsed in a pool of blood.

Atticus Masimovian, the Information District’s popular minister and heir-apparent to the chancellorship, took Hardington’s place at a podium before the people. He gave his most famous speech, ending it with the words all future Beimenians knew as well as their own names: “Henceforth, there shall be thirty precepts by which thirty territories of a Great Commonwealth of Beimeni shall live.” There began the Age of Masimovian and the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni.

The new chancellor, in a break from his predecessors, ordered the scientists to synthesize the biologically mediated nuclear processes abandoned by Noriel Livelle. He called the theoretical synisms part of these processes, which would produce minerals and metals,
biostars
. To accelerate research into biostars and that into transhuman genome enhancement, Chancellor Masimovian formed a Research & Development Department (RDD) to be led by the Supreme Scientific Board of Beimeni. He worked closely with the board, appointing me to be its chairman and our longtime friend Ahab Janzer to be its vice chairman. At the first board meeting, he mapped out an ambitious expansion plan—including thirty territories spread from the arctic to Central America—even as we still lacked protection from the high heat and pressure of the deep Earth and as Reassortment roamed the bedrock around Livelle. His plan received much pushback.

“The Earth contains species capable of living in extreme conditions,” Masimovian objected. “We need only convert these adaptations to the transhuman genome to ensure our survival at depths never before possible in the history of man.” Similar to his ancestors, Atticus had a way of stirring creativity, ambition, and hard work among his fellow transhumans. I’d never seen my team work so tirelessly on anything in my life. While it would take decades before transhumans discovered methodologies to transform bacteria into biostars (which relied heavily upon manipulation of the zeropoint field), we immediately recycled and transferred enough composite materials from the city-state to build Livelle City (the first capital city of the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni).

We also enhanced our genome such that our bodies could, for a period of time, withstand higher temperatures and pressure within the deep Earth. The Beimenian transhuman exhibited structural advantages as compared to the Livellan transhuman, including, but not limited to: (1) cellular nanostructures for support against physical crushing; (2) additional “aftermarket” macrostructures (i.e., bones); and (3) an alteration of the chemistry of the transhuman body through the use of enzymes engineered to maintain efficacy even when intracellular partial pressure of gases was increased.

We’d still require a system of controlling the extreme heat and pressure in an uncontained commonwealth, but it was a start. We’d need a more creative way to terraform the Beimeni zone of the underground, roughly 2,000 to 2,500 meters deep. Carbyne pipes used to release the pressure of the deep Earth would have theoretical built-in resistance to Reassortment seepage in that gases would rapidly escape through them to the surface. But the chancellor required the pressure-release piping be treated with radiation at shallower depths. Separately, while the lake near Antelope Canyon might’ve provided a means to cool Livelle City, it could not cool an entire commonwealth stretched across an entire continent.

For the coolant, the two sources we coalesced around were the Pacific Ocean to the west (at the 37th parallel) at a distance of 885 km, and an unnamed arctic bay (what was known as Hudson Bay, Before Reassortment) to the north (at the 51st parallel) at a distance of 2,575 km. Each option presented opportunities and challenges, for while the ocean was closer to the city, to build a tunnel and piping through the West was to build it through a highly seismic region of the continent. Meanwhile, the bay was nearly three times as far and would require more resources, including time and sustenance. (Note: by this time in the Earth’s history, the Great Lakes had become the Great Canyons.)

On the recommendation of Chancellor Masimovian (and against my opinion), the board approved a western expansion into a new territory called Angeles. It took three years to complete construction of the downward-sloping coolant piping from Angeles City on the coast to Livelle City deep beneath Antelope Canyon. We built the commonwealth’s first coolant station at the border of the continent in Angeles City, burrowing through the bedrock into the Pacific Ocean. Tests of the salt water at a depth of 2,000 meters suggested it
wasn’t
contaminated by Reassortment. Even so, we treated the salt water entering the piping with liquid ethanol and radiation, then let it flow down to Livelle City at its depth of about 2,500 meters.

With renewed hope and momentum, Chancellor Masimovian pushed for expansion in the West and South. He requested Vastar Alalia to allow his strike teams to participate in the construction and Vastar agreed. The chancellor also modified the existing system of transhuman development, instituting a round of testing (that would later be called the Harpoon Exams), followed by an auction (that would later be called the Harpoon Auction). Formal competition among the houses of development led to exponential advancement in genomic enhancement and transhuman evolution, which, in turn, led to new scientific breakthroughs.

The commonwealth rapidly expanded from Livelle City in Natura Territory to Luxor City (Luxor Territory), Zanclea City (Reanaearo Territory), Wenlock City (Jurinar Territory), Piscator City (Piscator Territory), and Yeuron City (Yeuron Territory) in the South, concurrent with expansion in the West, including Gaia City (Gaia Territory), Silkscape City (Lovereal Territory), and Dunamis City (Dunamis Territory). (The southernmost cities of Port Newland and Huatervian City in Haurachesa Territory would not be formed until 217 AR and 227 AR, respectively, while the collapse of Angeles City in 214 AR halted further construction in the designated Western Inaccessible Region of highly seismic earth. Angeles City was renamed the City of Eternal Darkness, and Angeles Territory was renamed Nyx Territory after the collapse.)

Decades before the collapse of Angeles City, I’d convinced Chancellor Masimovian to create coolant piping that would ensure his expansion plan succeeded—the pipelines to the arctic bay. I worked closely with Vastar Alalia to design primary pipelines from the 55th parallel on the western side of the arctic bay (in what would later be called Area 55) and from the 51st parallel on the southern side (in what would later be called Area 51), down to proposed cities in Underground North, including Boreas City (Boreas Territory), Nurino City (Zereaux Territory), and Arrowhead City (Columbia Territory).

Secondary pipelines (with multiple redundancies) were designed to run from these cities to existing cities in Underground West and South, and proposed cities in Underground North including Xerean City (Xerean Territory), Farino City (Farino Territory), and Kiplorea City (Kiplorea Territory); Underground Central including Beimeni City (Phanes Territory, which became the capital city and territory of the Great Commonwealth in 197 AR), Cineris City (Cineris Territory), Ope City (Ope Territory), Portage City (Portage Territory), Vivo City (Vivo Territory), and Nexirenna City (Nexirenna Territory); and Underground Northeast including Gubertiana City (Gubertiana Territory), Northport (Gallia Territory), Palaestra City (Palaestra Territory), and Volano City (Volano Territory).

From the Northeastern cities, more pipelines would be built to the newly constructed Research & Development Department (RDD) east of Palaestra City, along with proposed cities in Underground East, including Peanowera City (Peanowera Territory), Navita City (Navita Territory), and Alpinia City (Marshlands Territory). Finally we built a smaller coolant station where the man-made Hillenthara River met the Atlantic Ocean; the pipelines from this station would serve cities and villages along the river and provide a redundancy for Gubertiana City in Underground Northeast.

From 168 AR to 227 AR, the RDD scientists, the strike teams, (and beginning around 220 AR, the Janzers), completed the most aggressive engineering project in human history. We’d burrowed through tens of thousands of kilometers of earth and built carbyne piping to release the pressure of the Beimeni zone and to transport cool salt water and freshwater to stations in cities and villages around which civilizations of transhumans would form. In all the cities and villages along the man-made rivers (which served as runoffs for the coolant system), we built carbyne pillars to fortify the structure of the newly formed Beimeni zone of the underground. We also built synbio vats to provide electricity, breathable air, food, and water, with the understanding that the ultimate responsibility for raw material production was in the RDD. (Note: following the synthesis of biostars in the early 200s, the carbyne support pillars were replaced with compressed diamond support pillars at the insistence of Chancellor Masimovian.)

During this time, advances in genomic enhancement would enable me to see the project complete, not as an old man, but transformed into my younger self, owing to breakthroughs in aging research conducted by Turi Seaborne and Eulalie Lachaize (who would later become Turi Thuddan and Eulalie Variscan when their eternal partners formed houses of development). The Seaborne lab constructed
E. fountain
, a synism designed to adapt the genetic characteristics of the
Turritopsis nutricula
(jellyfish; age reversal) to transhuman DNA. Likewise, the Lachaize lab adapted plant DNA to transhuman DNA within
Bacillus subtilis.
These synisms were refined into the athanasia vapors released throughout Fountain Square, giving transhumans of the Great Commonwealth our theoretically infinite lifespan.

Well, it looks like I’m out of time. I hope you found the Beimeni terraforming story as exciting as I did living through it all. I wish you all much success during development and the Harpoon Exams, and afterward in the Great Commonwealth.