On a Godless Planet:Volume2B Chapter 32
Chapter 32: Block Out[edit]
–The solid blow is proof of your stubbornness.
●
Oh, right. We’re supposed to be working on this camping trip, was Shifu’s first thought.
After playing in the river and just hanging out for a while, she had been planning to take another quick dip in the water and see what Okutama’s rivers were like.
So what happened when they were moved to the terraforming site?
“I never thought I’d be here in my swimsuit.”
“I-it’s kind of awkward, isn’t it?”
“Why am I here too?”
“Kido-senpai’s stubborn refusal to give up is impressive.”
Shifu agreed with Kuwajiri-chan. The boys were wearing their tops since they had been catching fish and making a temporary pond to keep them in.
“Here, Shifu.”
Tooru tossed her his shirt. Senpai-chan’s excited gasp made Shifu feel kind of proud, but…
“I’d rather not show your body off to everyone, so you wear it, Tooru.”
She tossed it back. Most of the girls were in their swimsuits. Only “most” because…
“Hey! I’m only wearing a swimsuit and a hoodie, so I’m super weak right now!”
“Which is for the best. And I used to be a wild man, so this doesn’t bother me.”
It looked like most everyone was okay with it. Shifu was a little worried about Sumeragi-chan since he wasn’t a god. He was only in his swimsuit since he had been playing with the river spirits in the river, but…
“Swimsuit Senpai is blessing us with her presence in a familiar place! It’s so exciting! It’s like a sexy photoshoot!”
No problem there, then.
●
Kido sensed that this was more or less “business as usual” for this group. Which would mean…
…I lose if I let this embarrass me.
She wasn’t quite sure what winning and losing meant in this context, but it was a useful framework for motivating herself.
So she decided to remain calm and do what needed doing.
“Um, what will you be doing about the terraforming? You didn’t achieve any real results last time, correct?”
That led everyone to look her way. She was confused by their somewhat surprised air.
“It has been too long since we heard someone take their job so seriously.”
“Kind of refreshing, really.”
“The adorable kind of refreshing!”
“That’s our, Kido-san!”
This embarrassed her, so she immediately lost.
●
“A-all I am saying is that we should focus on what we are supposed to be doing here.”
I obeyed Kido-senpai’s suggestion.
“Senpai!”
“Eh? What is it?”
I briskly moved in front of Senpai, lowered my head, fell to my knees, lay on my back, and looked up.
“Yessss! Worship is what I’m supposed to do!!”
A bunch of level up Revelation Boards blossomed and scattered, proving my worship was real. This wasn’t just to make me look good.
Anyway, I got back up, took Senpai’s hand, and shook it up and down.
“You’re incredible, Senpai! Normally when I’m gazing upon your swimsuit from below, it’s in the bath, which means my eyes have to be at least as high as the water in the tub, but here I can get all the way down on the ground – or bedrock, I guess! And the recoil from seeing the divine power of your boobs is suppressed by the bedrock below me!”
“There’s recoil?”
“You bet! Of course there is! But not with you, Kuwajiri, or the males, so don’t worry about it! Also, Senpai has the most powerful recoil, which means it comes from the power of my faith!”
“Um, calm down, Sumeragi-kun.”
“Okay, let’s talk about our terraforming task.”
“Wow, that was fast. So, um, Balancer?”
<Very well, We need to discuss water.>
●
<Do you know how water is originally produced on a planet? Ape, answer me.>
“Huh? Didn’t we say last time that steam comes from the lava?”
I gave Balancer a “what are you talking about?” look and Senpai answered me.
“The point of the question is if there any other ways, Sumeragi-kun.”
I thought about that.
…Huh?
I felt like I had been asked something similar before. What was that about? Um…
“I think Kuwajiri said something like that before.”
“Oh? You actually remember?”
Then I was right. Senpai’s delighted smile would be because this meant my memory wasn’t missing, which would mean this was before one of my rollbacks or another.
Yeah, that would explain why I only had a partial memory. But I had to remember.
“What was it again?”
Oh, right. It was probably this.
“Her swimsuit was designed to look like beer foam.”
“No one asked you to remember that part.”
“She’s right, Sumeragi-kun. She was wearing that to match her divine image, so she may not have wanted to wear it.”
“Sorry, Senpai-san, but I try to primarily present myself as a knowledge god!”
So what was it about anyway? I thought about that while the club head performed an elegant dance in a Y-pose. The bald guy looked really pretty with his long limbs, but then I remembered.
“A meteor strike!”
I pointed at the club head, who was slowly taking an A-pose now.
“A meteor strike drops ice on the planet!”
●
Kuwajiri nodded at the idiot’s answer.
…So he really does remember.
Senpai-san had been there too, so maybe the connection to her let the memory survive.
“Yes, that’s it. There are a number of ways for it to happen, but the basic idea is for a hunk of ice, or anything containing water in space, to fall to the planet.”
A hand went up. From the Mesopotamians.
“Can ice from space really provide all the water on the Earth?”
“This ice is probably on a much greater scale than you are imagining.”
Enkidu gave a “?” look and Kuwajiri pointed straight up.
Dark storm clouds floated in the sky there. The heat and gases emitted from the lava were circulating in the air like jet blasts. But…
“It all starts from here. You saw what was in the sky in the Divine World, didn’t you? I mean the moon,” said Kuwajiri. “This is known as the Giant Impact Hypothesis. The hypothesis claims the moon is a large celestial body that impacted the Earth when it was still forming. This is treated as almost certainly correct, but there is another theory saying the Earth was remade when that happened.”
Because…
“The giant impact itself superheated the ancient Earth, returning it to a mass of lava. The core fused with the moon’s, achieving stability as well as its current rotation and axis. Simply put, everything was reset. As for the water…”
“…”
“Hold on. I know you said the it was on a greater scale, but this is ridiculous.”
Enkidu held a hand to her forehead and stepped back. Temanko approached her and played back a diagram of the giant impact on a Revelation Board. Oh, that’s convenient, thought Kuwajiri, but saying so would probably be rude. However…
“It is theorized that, after the giant impact, several asteroids and meteors carrying water fell to the Earth and provided its water.”
“That’s pretty cool, but…got any proof? Proof that the Earth’s water wasn’t Earth’s to begin with and came from somewhere else, I mean.”
“Jupiter.”
Kuwajiri opened a diagram of the Solar System’s orbits on a Revelation Board.
But it was a little different from the previous ones she had shown.
“It’s so small.”
●
She noticed, thought Kuwajiri.
“Correct. In the early stages, the Solar System’s planets grew by drawing in planetesimals with the sun in the center, right? As their mass grew, the planets pulled at each other, altering their orbits. It took hundreds of millions of years to reach their current orbits. As for Jupiter, we mentioned the Jupiter barrier before, didn’t we?”
“Oh, yeah. You did. That stuff about 8000 times as many meteors hitting Earth without Jupiter there.”
At least he remembered. But…
“It was the reverse in the Solar System’s early stages.”
“…”
“The reverse!?”
“Yes. Unlike now, Jupiter drew in the other smaller planets and planetesimals as its orbit expanded. That caused quite a few meteors and planetesimals to hit the Earth. The theory is that the water on those became the Earth’s current water.”
“That said,” said Kuwajiri, looking toward the idiot.
“This water wasn’t the liquid water you’re thinking of. Some of it was ice and some of it was the oxygen and hydrogen that form water fused with minerals.”
<It is a basic but not well known fact that hydrogen reacts to and fuses with most any metal. This does require a lot of pressure, but that was common enough during the formation of the planets. This happens because hydrogen is the lightest element.>
“Similarly, oxygen fuses easily with iron and others. On a superheated planet, the oxygen and hydrogen formed water and the remaining minerals and gases became components of the Earth.”
●
Kuwajiri saw a hand go up with a call of “wait”.
It was Bilgamesh. Something seemed off about him with his hand up, but she quickly figured out why.
…He can’t tuck his shirt in when he’s wearing a swimsuit and life jacket.
Poor thing, she thought in sympathy.
“Did you just think something really rude?”
“Do not make assumptions when I said nothing out loud.”
“Now I know she did.”
Was it that obvious? At any rate, Bilgamesh was speaking.
“Would the water arriving that way really be the exact amount needed to create the current Earth? That seems awfully convenient to me.”
“You’re silly! The result is all that matters! Since we know the current Earth exists, then we know it turned out that way!”
“Why does everything sound less convincing coming from you?”
<And let us not forget that the current Earth’s environment is broken. That is the entire reason we are out here terraforming.>
That was true, but the Earth age humans had caused that, so it didn’t count.
So Kuwajiri opened a test pattern on her Revelation Board. As the Solar System grew, it showed the growing Jupiter drawing in the other smaller planets.
“The highest estimates suggest the Earth had 70 times as much water as the current amount of oceanwater after the giant impact.”
●
“70 times?”
I considered that.
“Would that mean the ocean would be 70 times higher than now?”
“Um, heights are measured from sea level, so wouldn’t the ocean’s height always be 0?”
“Heh.”
“D-dammit! You two better watch out! You will pay for this one! My payback’ll be something you’ll remember the rest of your lives!”
“When he’s this pathetic, it’s almost impressive.”
“The volume of seawater on Earth is 1.35 billion cubic kilometers. The Earth’s surface area is 510.1 million square kilometers. Dividing the volume by the area gives you the height, so 1,350,000,000 / 510,100,000 tells you the depth – or height if you want – of the water if it were dumped onto a perfectly flat Earth. Oh, and it will be in kilometers.”
“Hey, Temanko! Do you really think I can calculate that in my head!? Do you think I’m an idiot!?”
“Temanko…” muttered the underclassman while performing the calculation on her Revelation Board.
“The height would be approximately 2.65 kilometers.”
“And it was 70 times that?”
“You really expect me to believe that? Then where’d all that water go?”
●
“You have a point,” replied Kuwajiri. 70 times really was excessive.
“But even the lowest estimate says 30 times the current amount reached the Earth. Some of it would have turned to steam and flown off into space, but that is still a lot.”
“Um, so what did happen to that water? Do you know, Kido-san?”
They turned toward Kido, who was tilting her head.
“I am also an ocean god, so I could probably absorb about an ocean’s worth.”
●
“Is that a lot or a little by divine standards?”
“There are mythological artifacts that can supposedly dry up the oceans.”
“Mr. Vomit! Can you do that!?”
“Sorry to disappoint you…”
●
Mr. V took considerable damage and everyone’s opinion of Kido went up. But…
“But with 70 times as much, I would still need to come up with a plan first.”
“But with a plan you could do it?”
That kind of ridiculous power was part of what it meant to be a god.
But the present only existed because 70 times as much water was actually possible.
“Anyway, that much water can be retained.”
“It can!? So if I did that, would I never have to worry about getting dehydrated!?”
“Maybe, but it would make you a lot heavier too.”
“Eh!? You mean I’d be fat!?”
“That is one way of putting it. My point is that all that water can be retained within the Earth.”
The method was simple.
“When the asteroids and meteors struck the Earth, it had already been turned to lava by the giant impact. The water circulated through the lava, permeated the core, and was ‘retained’ there.”
“Now,” she began.
“If we count the amount of hydrogen in the atmosphere as 1, then a lava sea can hold 100 and the Earth’s core can hold 2000. The calculations are rough, but a lava sea more than 26m deep could retain enough hydrogen for the Earth’s oceans.”
<This does not account for the Earth being a sphere, but that shouldn’t matter for this discussion.>
A hand went up after Balancer’s remark: Temanko’s.
“But then where did the oxygen go?”
“It bonded with the iron and other elements in the lava, oxidizing it. The gas expelled when lava is ejected is carbon dioxide, but that means that lava contains a lot of oxygen.”
Another hand went up. It belonged to the only person here not in a swimsuit.
“I seem to have been dragged along with you, but I do have a question.”
<It would have been awkward to leave you all alone.>
“So it was just to make things less awkward?”
That seemed like an overly casual way to handle a god, but Mr. V asked his question regardless.
“I can accept the theory that other celestial bodies brought water to Earth. But if so, wouldn’t that mean Earth had very little water to begin with?”
Kuwajiri thought that was a good question.
…If only I could always receive such good questions.
“What are you looking at me for? You better not be thinking anything rude.”
“I am not. My thoughts are nothing out of the ordinary.”
“That doesn’t mean much when you’re my full time enemy!”
Oh, so he does understand. At any rate, she had a good reason to answer that question.
“It is incorrect to conclude Earth had little water. It is more accurate to say the Earth did have water, but it became scarce.”
●
Hm? I tilted my head. I noticed Eshita-san had pulled a bag of Karamucho seemingly out of nowhere and started eating it.
“It had water, but it became scarce?”
“No-yes?”
●
“Kido-san!”
“I understand completely!”
“Hey, you’re getting distracted.”
●
That cheered me up a lot, so I asked Kuwajiri-san what she meant. I drew a circle on a Revelation Board and indicated that was the Earth.
“So the water in here…went away?”
“Yes. I explained this before, but before the giant impact, the Earth went through a cycle of heavy rain caused by a layer of steam followed by lava creation caused by the greenhouse effect triggered by that steam. The Earth was still near the sun at the time, so it was very hot.”
And…
“During this cycle, the atmosphere escaped into space and the light hydrogen was especially prone to being lost. This meant a loss of water. Also, the remaining oxygen formed carbon dioxide, which fused with the metals creating the lava.”
“Um, can I ask something?”
“Go ahead.”
“This hydrogen was on the Earth, right? And you say it escaped into space?”
“Yes. Think about hydrogen’s traits. For example, what happens if you fill a balloon with hydrogen?”
Senpai-san thought about that one for a bit.
Eventually, she raised a hand and mimed something floating in the air.
“Um, it floats like a department store balloon?”
“Correct. This is because hydrogen-”
“Rises!”
That was it.
“The hydrogen is pushed up by the heavier gases until it reaches outer space.”
●
<That was a good explanation. Once humanity discovered and learned to produce hydrogen, they used it as a gas to keep balloons and airships afloat. But hydrogen is flammable and it continued to cause explosive accidents, so starting in the late 80s, it was replaced by helium, an inert gas.>
“Um, isn’t helium that stuff that makes your voice sound funny?”
<It is. Helium exists in large quantities in space, but it is rare to find naturally on Earth. Currently, all the helium found on Earth has been artificially manufactured.>
What did that mean?
“Any gases lighter than the majority of Earth’s atmosphere cannot remain on the planet.”
●
Kuwajiri continued speaking while Senpai-san checked her Revelation Board a few times, looking convinced.
“So while the Earth was formed, the planet’s gravity wasn’t strong enough to hold onto the hydrogen and it escaped. So it is thought that the Earth was drier than its original state when the giant impact occurred.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Time. It doesn’t happen as quickly as a balloon floating up into the sky, but lighter gases will still be pushed away by heavier gases, causing them to rise quite quickly. Of the gases gathered during the planet’s formation, it is thought the hydrogen, helium, and some others would have escaped quite early on, much like a balloon floating away.”
So what happened then?
“And then the moon hit, resetting the Earth?”
“Yes. The Earth had started to harden, but that was completely stopped. Then water arrived, the Earth cooled while retaining that water, and it hardened once more.”
The Shinto group, the Mesopotamians, and the Europeans nodded in understanding.
But then Kuwajiri shattered her Revelation Board.
●
“However, there is also a good chance that is not where the water came from.”
“Eh?”
“Well, you see.” Kuwajiri tilted her head. “The moon’s composition is extremely similar to the Earth’s.”
●
“I see,” said Tenma. She had just been gathering information regarding that on a Revelation Board. She had been looking at it from a less historical perspective, but…
“I have found some contradictory information here. Of course, this is all based on the assumption that any phenomenon can be altered if the calculations are right.”
She came out and said it.
“Research beginning in the 1960s discovered many things from the moonrocks brought back from the moon. More recent examinations show that the basic components of the Earth and the moon are very similar.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“If the giant impact happened, the moon would contain a lot of the Earth’s components thanks to the impact, but it would still have some of its original components left. But since they are mostly the same, the moon could not have come from somewhere else altogether.”
There were a few theories addressing this. But…
<This is cheating a little since the answer wasn’t known in the early 90s, but the theories addressing that mystery lead to a general hypothesis.>
First…
<The first theory says the Earth and the moon were two planets that formed close by during the creation of the Solar System. That explains the similarities and the differences.>
Also…
<It was discovered that the giant impact was a lot larger than initially thought. You could call it a giant giant impact. The measurements suggest the Earth and moon were both destroyed and then they reformed. But…their components mixed together a lot in the process, increasing their similarities.>
And…
<If the Earth and the moon were indeed this similar, then the theory that water arrived after the giant impact creates a bit of a contradiction. Do you know what that is?>
Tenma did. The Norse knowledge god likely did too. Same for the other Norse gods and the monotheistic god.
Iwanaga-hime was thinking about it.
Of the Mesopotamians, Bilgamesh and Enkidu were thinking. So was Mr. V.
Eshtar was pouring the rest of the Karamucho bag into her mouth.
The human did not know. Tenma was certain of that. Because…
<Ape. Why are you sitting there waiting for the answer?>
“Huh!? I’m not waiting! I’ve already given up entirely!”
“Sumeragi-kun? This is your terraforming, so do try to think about it.”
“Okay! I’m thinking!”
Balancer displayed a horribly profound expression, but Tenma lacked the knowledge to accurately describe it.
●
So what is all this about? I thought.
The Earth and the moon were similar? And that somehow contradicted the idea of water reaching Earth after the giant impact?
“If the giant impact hit the Earth’s reset button, does any of the other stuff matter? It got a fresh start, right?”
“Oh!!”
Senpai shouted and raised her hand.
“I know the answer!”
“You do!?”
I turned toward Senpai and saw something there.
“Senpai’s giant impacts…”
“Calm down, Sumeragi-kun! The answer is-”
<If you don’t mind, the ape should think for himself. The rest of you can give him hints, but do not just give him the answer.>
“U-um?”
“Can it be explained using big boobs!?”
Senpai held her head.
But then the girls gathered together, formed a circle, discussed something, and eventually…
“Ready, go!!”
After a high five, Senpai turned toward me. Her giant impacts jiggled, reminding me why life is good. And…
“Sumeragi-kun? I have breasts, right? And right now I am wearing a swimsuit. …You don’t have to stare.”
I slapped my right cheek.
“Sorry! I thought this was going to be a spot-the-difference challenge, so I was trying to memorize everything!”
“Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“I-it’s too soon to give up.”
Not letting the other voices get to her, Senpai smiled and spoke.
“If I change clothes after this…does it change anything about my breasts?”
●
I shouted.
“I know the answer! Senpai changing clothes doesn’t change anything about her breasts!”
<You just repeated her example, idiot.>
“Calm down, Balancer! I’m a big boobs worshiper, so boobs take priority whenever I talk! So this is fine!”
“Sumeragi-kun, can you explain it like a normal person?”
“Okay, sure. You’re saying the Earth’s composition before and after the giant impact didn’t change.”
“Wow, I didn’t think you could do it. That wasn’t painful for you, was it?”
“It was actually. But I can soothe that pain by saying ‘big boobs’ over and over while hopping up and down. Like this: hop, hop, hop!”
“…”
“You’re supposed to react to that, Mr. Vomit!!”
Damn. That guy threw off my tempo. But…
<It sounds like you more or less understand.>
Balancer turned toward Kuwajiri, who nodded once and continued speaking.
“This creates a slight contradiction.”
●
“If the moon and the Earth were similar enough before the moon’s impact, it would mean the Earth’s composition was relatively unchanged by the giant impact.”
So…
“If the Earth could retain so much water after it was remade by the giant impact, then it must have had that ability before as well.”
●
<Of course, the part of the moon’s core taken in during the giant impact would increase the water retention effect. But if the older Earth also had that ability, we need to reconsider the theory that water-containing meteors struck the Earth after the giant impact. After all, the Solar System has a lot of water and it was included when the planets were formed.>
“So how’d it really work?”
<This is cheating, but later research suggests the Earth could already retain sufficient water. Conversely, some questions were raised concerning the idea that the water arrived after the giant impact. It had to have happened over too short a period of time and, even if the Earth could retain so much water, the falling water would have cooled the surface, preventing it from joining the lava.>
<But simply put,> said Balancer. <We are only interested in the terraforming. We can manipulate the time span and other factors, so either option works. You just have to choose whichever one you like.>
●
“Oh,” I said as it finally clicked for me.
“Was Kuwajiri-san so interested in the idea of extracting water from the lava last time because that is a valid answer but it’s not what the Norse group went with?”
“One of our people can use ice and freezing spells, so we used an ice meteor.”
“Since you control rocks, I thought extracting water from lava and rocks was a good choice.”
I see, I thought as Tenma-san held a hand to her forehead.
“But the humans at the time were split between those theories, which caused some trouble, right?”
“It is a pain who people who only know one theory will reflexively reject an alternate one.”
“And they eventually come up with a compromise to avoid dealing with it.”
<Kuwajiri is mostly right. The safest theory is to say the Earth could retain water from the beginning, the giant impact absorbed the moon’s core to strengthen that water retention ability, and water meteors hit the planet both before and after that.>
●
<So what will it be, ape?>
I tilted my head at Balancer’s question.
“What will what be?”
<How will you make the water? Will you send an ice meteor or will you extract water from the lava? We discussed the idea of using the lava before, but you need to make an official decision now.>
Oh, that, I thought. I knew exactly what to choose.
“The Norse group used an ice meteor and the club head used his absurdity, right? But since Senpai uses rocks, shouldn’t we use the lava?”
“…Are you stupid?”
“Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! What’s wrong with you!? You call me stupid all the time and now you have to ask if I am or not!? That means you actually think I’m a genius, doesn’t it!? Glad you noticed!”
“Quite the dichotomy there.”
Senpai waved her hand to gather Kuwajiri’s attention.
“Um, I was thinking lava would be easier since I use rocks. Was that a stupid thing to think?”
“Well, um, hm.”
Kuwajiri spoke to Senpai.
“Senpai-san, let’s put it like this: can you extract water from that sea of lava?”
●
I thought about what she meant by “extracting water”.
“I’m supposed to squeeze water out of the lava?”
<Yes. The goal is to cool the planet’s surface. When you extract water from the lava, it turns to steam and then falls back down as rain, cooling the planet and creating land.>
“You mean that doesn’t happen on its own?”
“Do you have any idea how long it would take for that to happen naturally?”
“I’ll add that this planet’s spirits – those flame dragons – are against us, so we probably can’t count on natural cooling. We’ll have to force it to happen ourselves.”
That was probably true.
“Um, then what happens if I successfully extract water from the lava?”
<Well, if that happens, I will set up an extraction system around your base there – I mean the stone hut – and then I will check to make sure it can actually run. So I would like for you to demonstrate the extraction process that system will use.>
“U-um? A system?”
<Correct. I do not know what scale your water extraction works at, but you can start small. So please demonstrate a safe and stable pattern. Then I can copy that and establish a system around your base that will run constantly. Once I have checked that over and deemed it safe, I will expand the system to cover the entire planet.>
●
“I see. So we use this base to run…would you call them environmental experiments? Anyway, we create a mini environment that can support human life?”
<Correct. That is how the other planets did it.>
I looked to the others.
“Um, how did it go for all of you?”
“Oh? We sent in an ice meteor, but dropping that on our base would’ve been dangerous, so we used hail instead. We created a 5m lava pool to drop that hail in so we could see what happens.”
“IIII am absurd. Need I say morrrre?”
He did not.
As for everyone else…
“The Norse gods just had to send in hail and the absurdity was his usual absurd self. And then there’s us.”
“…”
“Isn’t extracting water from lava way harder than that!?”
<Take it up with that idiot.>
I turned toward Sumeragi-kun. He was looking to the stone hut and calculating something on his fingers before he turned my way with eyes sparkling.
“Senpai! How are we going to build up our base!? It really feels like we’ve started now, huh!?”
Ow, those hopeful eyes hurt. Ow, ow, ow, ow.
Interlude[edit]
“This souuuunds like a loooot of work.”
“F-for me! You don’t have to do anything!”
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