Chapter 17

Meanwhile, the Venus probe arrived on schedule. There I conjured a floating city in the atmosphere. Using my power on Earth, out above the Pacific Ocean, spreading out a 1500 km radius, 3 meters thick, I absorbed all the atmospheric carbon. Roughly 10.8 billion kilograms of carbon. I had then forged that carbon into a diamondillium block, to construct with. It was a negligible amount, as the annual carbon output into the atmosphere is 40 billion tons. I’d have to do the same thing 3702 more times to mitigate a single year’s carbon pollution.

At a density of 7.2g a cubic cm, 10.8 billion kg was only 78 cubic meters of material. It really helped me appreciate the density and immensity of the atmosphere. I was disappointed, thinking I could reach out and wipe a single year’s carbon out of the atmosphere. Fortunately Venus with a nearly pure co2 atmosphere made an excellent practice ground.

I forged a hollow sphere with 17 diamondillium blocks, with a 50m interior radius, and a 50.04 meter exterior radius. Filled with an Earth style atmosphere, it floated. I stored it, and conjured 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 16, 9, & 1, joining them together as a four sided pyramidal octahedron. The top one I evacuated to vacuum, the bottom I filled with water, then joined all the others together with doors between them. Then I forged a thin diamondillium wall over the exterior spheres, and evacuated the air between them all.

The resulting city block floated at 55 kilometers over the surface in the thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. It needed one last thing, landing platforms. I stored and conjured four copies, connecting them creating an empty square between them. I created airlocks at the four corners where they connected, and a landing platform in the center space between them for a vtol landing craft.

I left the city otherwise empty, waiting for a future use. All 173.8 odd million cubic meters of livable space, spread out in a 3.5km wide and 400m tall city. The sulfuric acid rain, and dark cloud exterior made me think of a trip to Seattle long ago.

I sent the modified SE2 to the surface, where I had to use my power to continually cool the water due to the heat. I scanned down deep into the planet. Dropping three pearls equidistant along the equator to scan the entire planet at once. Venus had a much larger central metal core than even Earth, its massive core’s magnetic field was also much much stronger with the larger layers of permanent iron bands in the mantle.

Venus has a slow rotation, but it is turned ninety degrees compared to Earth. So suitable gravitationally, but even placing a pearl in the center of the planet, I wouldn’t have the reach or power yet to adjust it’s spin. I had enough strength to slow the spin of Mars so it matched Earth’s, but had held back. Next month, I would have the power to do my first major Mars experiment, conjuring Mercury into its core, if my fellow Martians agreed, they had been very skeptical about the safety of the idea.

Preparing for that, I had modified our Mars base. The heating of the Mars core had increased the magnetic field slightly, but had not made any change yet in radiation reaching the surface. The golfball houses were doing a great job protecting the residents. There were eight of them now.

I conjured eight duplicate golfballs in space, connecting them along spokes connecting from the roof, and going up, instead of the basement. Keeping the same massive water barriers, but turning them from houses to spokes of a space station. By giving the structure a spin, I was able to give them Mars gravity. In the center was a large cylinder with a standard ISS airlock on one end, and a massive solar array on the other. The array, a square kilometer of panels was like a giant tail extending out from the cylinder. With the station orbiting Mars from a distant orbit, circling the planet once every four days, the panels faced the sun continuously, rotating counter to the spinning cylinder and spheres.

I wondered how long it would take Earth based observers to find the new structure. I hadn’t heard about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detecting my Mars base yet, it was well within its capabilities. I knew the next Earth Mars rendezvous was in October, and Hubble would take photos then, as it did everytime the two got close. I had a collection of the photos as background images on my phone. I wondered if I could arrange for my new Mars station to be in the picture.

When I announced Mars station, Amy and Mike immediately volunteered to take up residence there. They couldn’t wait to try out the microG cylinder. I just hope they cleaned up after themselves. Val refused to go, opting instead to stay at Mars base. There was no construction planned in space, so Frederick and David weren’t interested, but Mike did ask for a big antenna, so he could monitor for incoming messages.

I gave him a really big receiver and transmitter. He was so happy, that he brought up something that had been bothering him with the pearls.

“Boss, if you can make pearls that convert everything going into them into energy, could you make pearls just like our universe on the inside?”

“I don’t know, what would be the point?”

“Well,” he said, embarrassed to bring it up, “we know that energy exits out all other pearls that are duplicates, in equal amounts. That’s why we are using only pairs of pearls for communication. But when you send your power thru, it comes out only one pearl at a time, and sometimes you have to try several times to get the right one.

“Why the difference? And would matter do the same thing? If matter only comes out one pearl, then I can start sticking fiber optic fiber thru them, and you can duplicate hundreds of pearls for communication.”

“How many twins are you running right now?” I asked him.

“48,” he said, “why do you ask?”

“I’m running fifteen. I’m wondering why I didn’t think of that?”

“I’m in charge of building this equipment. I think about this stuff all the time,” he said.

I conjured myself into one of his Big T labs. “Give me a moment, I want to check with my power about trying this,” I told him, conjuring a recliner, and leaning all the way back.

I concentrated on my power, and tried to communicate. ‘Can I make a pocket universe that can contain matter?’ I felt a sense of resigned agreement, as if it wondered why I hadn’t done so already. ‘How big on the inside?’

I got an image of my internal power and corridor. Each me had a corridor to that same pocket universe. Then I got an image of a giant bubble. I could sense that it was several light years across. ‘I have a size limit based only on my current energy storage?’ I asked, amazed. I got agreement in return.