***** Vol.3 Chap.53 The last puzzle *****

To identify the planet earth, all you needed were the first three carvings: the location of the Milky Way galaxy in the known universe, the location of the Sun in the Milky Way galaxy, and the location of the planet earth in the solar system.

Now, what about the fourth carving? What was the meaning of the fourth carving? He looked and looked again at the fourth carving. It was like the third carving in that it had three concentric rings with many more small circles on each ring.

…great universe…

…countless stars…

…bright sun…

…living creatures…

The fourth carving must relate to living creatures. That meant the known civilization. His immediate reaction was that the fourth carving must therefore identify where the Sphinx was in order for the address to be complete. But he does not know what system was being used in identifying the location on earth with these concentric rings.

He thought of latitudes and longitudes. But the carving showed concentric rings, not a grid. Besides, what would these circles refer to? If each circle referred to a developed civilization, then they should be concentrated near the Mediterranean in one spot, not spread out over the entire space.

If the center of the world was the Egyptian Empire, then the center of the civilization must be Cairo. The Sphinx was not that far from Cairo. He called up the known Egyptian Empire and cities at that time. But there seemed to have no correlation between the location of the circles and the world map for that time.

He was getting hungry, and he gobbled down the remaining rations he had. Bolstered by the success so far, he felt confident that he could solve the last puzzle. After the snack, he took a little nap just to refresh himself. After all, he had slept little the last few days.

After an hour, he woke up from a peaceful nap. He immediately walked over to the fourth carving and studied it carefully. This time, he noticed that in contrast to the first two stone carvings, the small circles here are evenly spaced around the ring. After dwelling on this point for a while, he decided that the last carving could not be a location type identification.

The first three carvings gave ample clues to the location of this planet. To an extraterrestrial, the exact location should not be of that much concern. If so, what did this last carving signify?

This is tough, he said to himself.

Pacing back and forth, he recited the poem to himself repeatedly.

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…great universe…

…countless stars…

…bright sun…

…living creatures…

The last carving must relate to the living creatures on this planet.

…living creatures…

But what aspect of living creatures was it referring to?

…living creatures…

And how do these concentric rings describe the living creatures?

…living creatures…

He thought that he himself was a living creature. He approached the mural and studied the mural. Surrounding the ghostly figure were people, Egyptians. Then he noticed that there were animals in the background. Then he saw that there were trees as well.

The living creatures could represent living things. What was the bond of all the living things? He grabbed his laptop and consulted the encyclopedia again. This time, he called up a lecture on general biology. He was astounded when the introductory paragraph mentioned that all life forms on earth were carbon based.

Of course, He said to himself. To an extraterrestrial being, the life forms on earth were carbon based. Hence, the last circle must somehow show something about carbon. He forgot all about his chemistry. Calling up the periodic table, he learned that there was carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14. The stable configuration was carbon-12. A carbon-12 atom had 6 electrons. The atomic structure of carbon-12 was two electrons on the innermost ring and 4 electrons on the next ring. Hence, two carbon atoms can combine to form a stable molecule.

Armed with this newly found knowledge, He visited the stone slab. He got very excited when he saw that the innermost ring of the fourth carving had only two small circles. Then the next innermost ring had eight circles.

This is it! He congratulated himself.

The last carving must be a sign that life on the planet was carbon based. He was so happy that he danced around the stone slab. He was pecking out an old nursery chime he always sang during happy times when he was young.

To dream the impossible dream! …

To reach the unreachable star.

Frank heard himself singing the lyrics by Joe Darion.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Now what?

He may have understood the fourth carving, but he was no closer to getting the stone slab to move or to open.

Job is not done yet, Frank. Get back to work. He ordered himself.

He was getting hungry, but except for a small bottle of water, his provisions were all gone.

I hope this water will last. He took a sip and then returned to the slab.

He sat down next to the stone slab and looked at all his information. The first carving marks the location of the Milky Way in the universe. Only one circle was needed and he knew which circle.

The second carving marked the location of the solar system within the Milky Way. Again, only one circle was needed, and he knew exactly which circle was the correct one.

The third circle marked the location of the earth, but he did not know which circle. He knew it was not in the innermost circle because there were only two tiny circles on that innermost circle, but there were four tiny circles in the next concentric circle. The earth could be any of those.

The last carving showed carbon-12, meaning he must push four of the tiny circles together to indicate the four electrons of carbon-12 on the second concentric circle. But which four?

A quick calculation shows that he had a few hundred combinations, mostly because he did not know which four circles to push in the last square.

Undaunted, he started pushing the circles from left to right. First square, he knew which circle. Second square, he knew which circle as well. Third square, one of the four circles. Logically, he started from the top one and worked his way down. Now the last square, he had to push four our of eight circles.

Sitting down and strategizing, he arrived at a logical protocol to push the circles.

It took about two hours to cycle through all the combinations. His fingers hurt and he was tired, but the stone slab remained close.

Frustration turned to disappointment.

So close, yet so far.