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DRAMATISPERSONAE

ORGANIZATIONS

ETO Earth-TrisolarisOrganizationPDC PlanetaryDefenseCouncil

SFJCSolarFleetJointConference

CASTOFCHARACTERS

Chinesenamesarewrittenwithsurnamefirst.

LuoJiAstronomerandsociologistYeWenjieAstrophysicistMike Evans ETOfinancialbackerandkey

leaderWuYueCaptaininthePLANavyZhangBeihaiPoliticalcommissar in the PLANavy; Space ForceofficerChangWeisi GeneralinthePLA;SpaceForcecommanderGeorge Fitzroy USgeneral; coordinator atthe Planetary DefenseCouncil;military liaison

toHubbleIIprojectAlbertRingierHubbleIIastronomerZhangYuanchao Recentlyretired chemical plantworkerinBeijingYang Jinwen Retiredmiddleschool teacher inBeijingMiao Fuquan Shanxicoal boss; neighbor toZhangandYangShi Qiang PDC

security departmentofficer, nicknamed DaShiShi Xiaoming ShiQiang’ssonKent Liaison to thePDCSecretary GeneralSay SecretarygeneraloftheUNFrederickTyler Former USsecretaryofdefenseManuel Rey

DiazFormerpresidentofVenezuelaBill Hines Englishneuroscientist; formerpresidentoftheEUKeikoYamasukiNeuroscientist;Hines’swifeGaranin PDCrotatingchairDing Yi TheoreticalphysicistZhuangYan Graduateof the Central Academy

ofFineArtsBen Jonathan FleetJointConference specialcommissionerDongfangYanxu Captain ofNaturalSelectionMajor Xizi ScienceofficerofQuantum

Prologue

The brown ant had alreadyforgotten its home. To thetwilight Earth and the stars

thatwerejustcomingout,thespan of time may have beennegligible, but, for the ant, itwas eons. In days nowforgotten, itsworld had beenoverturned. Soil had takenflight, leaving a broad anddeepchasm,andthensoilhadcomecrashingdown to fill itback in. At one end of thedisturbed earth stood a loneblack formation. Such thingshappened frequentlythroughout this vast domain,

the soil flying away andreturning,chasmsopeningupand being filled, and rockformations appearing likevisible markers of eachcatastrophic change. Underthe setting sun, the ant andhundreds of its brethren hadcarried off the survivingqueen to establish a newempire. Its return visit wasonly a chance passing whilesearchingforfood.The ant arrived at the foot

of the formation, sensing itsindomitablepresencewith itsfeelers. Noting that thesurface was hard andslippery, yet still climbable,upitwent,withnopurposeinmind but the randomturbulence of its simpleneural network. Turbulencewaseverywhere,withineveryblade of grass, every drop ofdewonaleaf,everycloudinthe sky, and every starbeyond. The turbulence was

purposeless, but in hugequantities of purposelessturbulence, purpose tookshape.The ant sensed vibrations

inthegroundandknewfromhow they intensified thatanother giant presence wasapproachingfromsomewhereon the ground. Paying it nomind, the ant continued itsclimb up the formation. Attherightanglewherethefootof the formation met the

ground, there was a spiderweb. This, the ant knew. Itcarefullydetouredaround thesticky hanging strands,passingbythespiderlyinginwait,itslegsextendedtofeelfor vibrations in the threads.Each knew of the other’spresence but—as it had beenfor eons—there was nocommunication.Thevibrationscrescendoed

and then stopped. The giantbeing had reached the

formation. It was far tallerthan the ant and blotted outmostof thesky.Theantwasnotunfamiliarwithbeingsofthis sort. It knew that theywere alive, that theyfrequently appeared in thisregion, and that theirappearances were closelyrelated to the swiftlydisappearing chasms andmultiplyingformations.The ant continued its

climb, knowing that the

beingswerenotathreat,witha few exceptions. Downbelow,thespiderencounteredone such exceptionwhen thebeing, which had evidentlynoticed its web reachingbetween the formation andtheground,whiskedawaythespiderandwebwiththestemsofabundleofflowersitheldin one limb, causing them toland broken in a pile ofweeds.Thenthebeinggentlyplacedtheflowersinfrontof

theformation.Then another vibration,

weak but intensifying, toldthe ant that a second livingbeing of the same sort wasmovingtowardtheformation.At the same time, the antencountered a long trough, adepression in the surface ofthe formationwith a roughertexture and different color:off-white. It followed thetrough, for its roughnessmade for a far easier climb.

At each end was a short,thinner trough: a horizontalbase from which the maintrough rose, and an uppertrough that extended at anangle. By the time the antclimbed back out onto theslick black surface, it hadgained an overall impressionof the shape of the troughs:“1.”Then the height of the

being in front of formationwas cut in half, so it was

roughly even with theformation. Evidently it haddropped to its knees,revealingapatchofdimblueskywherethestarshadbegunto come out behind it. Thebeing’seyesgazedat the topof the formation, causing theant to hesitate momentarilywhile deciding whether itought to intrude into his lineof sight. Instead, it changeddirectionandstartedcrawlingparallel with the ground,

quickly reaching anothertrough and lingering in itsrough depression as itsavoredthepleasantsensationof the crawl. The color wasreminiscent of the eggs thatsurroundeditsqueen.Withnohesitation, the ant followedthe trough downward, andafter a while, the layoutbecome more complicated, acurve extended beneath acomplete circle. It remindedthe ant of the process of

searching out scentinformation and eventuallystumbling across the wayhome. A pattern wasestablished in its neuralnetwork:“9.”Then the being kneeling

before the formation made asound,aseriesofsoundsthatfar exceeded the ant’scapacitytocomprehend:“It’sa wonder to be alive. If youdon’t understand that, howcan you search for anything

deeper?”The being made a sound

like a gust of wind blowingacrossthegrass—asigh—andthenstoodup.Theantcontinuedtocrawl

parallel to the ground andentered a third trough, onethat was nearly vertical untilit turned, like this: “7.” Theant didn’t like this shape. Asharp, sudden turn usuallymeantdangerorbattle.Thefirstbeing’svoicehad

obscured the vibrations, so itwas only now that the antrealizedthatthesecondbeinghad reached the formation.Shorterandfrailer,thesecondbeing had white hair thatstood out against the darkblue background of the sky,bobbing silver in the wind,connected somehow to theincreasingnumberofstars.Thefirstbeingstoodup to

welcomeher.“Dr.Ye,isit?”“You’re…XiaoLuo?”1

“Luo Ji. I went to highschoolwithYangDong.Whyareyou…here?”“It’saniceplace,andeasy

toget to bybus.Lately, I’vebeen coming here to takewalksfairlyoften.”“Mycondolences,Dr.Ye.”“That’sallinthepast.…”Downontheformation,the

antwantedtoturntowardthesky, but then discoveredanother trough ahead of it,identical to the “9”-shaped

troughithadcrawledthroughbefore the “7.” So itcontinued horizontallythrough the “9,” which itfoundbetterthanboththe“7”andthe“1.”althoughitcouldnot say exactly why. Itsaesthetic sensewas primitiveand single-celled. Theindistinct pleasure it had feltupon crawling through the“9” intensified. A primitive,single-celled state ofhappiness. These two

spiritualmonocells,aestheticsand pleasure had neverevolved. They had been thesameabillionyearsago,andwould be the same a billionyearshence.“Xiao Luo, Dong Dong

often spoke of you. She saidyou’rein…astronomy?”“I used to be. I teach

college sociology now. Atyour school, actually,although you had alreadyretiredwhenIgotthere.”

“Sociology?That’saprettybigleap.”“Yeah.YangDongalways

said my mind wasn’tfocused.”“She wasn’t kidding when

shesaidyou’resmart.”“Just clever. Nothing like

your daughter’s level. I justfelt astronomy was anundrillable chunk of iron.Sociologyisaplankofwood,and there’s bound to besomeplace thin enough to

punch through. It’s easier togetby.”In the hope of reaching

another“9,”theantcontinueditshorizontaladvance,butthenextthingitencounteredwasaperfectlystraighthorizontallike the first trough, exceptlonger than the “1” andturned on its side. And nosmallertroughsattheends.A“–”shape.“You shouldn’t put it like

that. It’s a normal person’s

life. Not everyone can beDongDong.”“I really don’t have that

kindofambition.Idrift.”“I’ve got a suggestion.

Whydon’t you study cosmicsociology?”“Cosmicsociology?”“A name chosen at

random. Suppose a vastnumber of civilizations aredistributed throughout theuniverse, on the order of thenumber of detectable stars.

Lots and lots of them.Thosecivilizations make up thebody of a cosmic society.Cosmicsociologyisthestudyof the nature of thissupersociety.”The ant had not crawled

very much farther along theformation.Ithadhoped,aftercrawling out of the “–”depression, to find apleasurable“9,”butinsteaditencountered a “2,” with acomfortable initial curve but

a sharp turn at the end thatwasasfearsomeasthatofthe“7.” The premonition of anuncertain future. The antcontinuedonward to thenexttrough, a closed shape: “0.”The path seemed like part ofa “9,” but itwas a trap.Lifeneeded smoothness, but italso needed direction. Onecouldnotalwaysbereturningto the point of origin. This,the ant understood.Althoughthere were still two more

troughs up ahead, it had lostinterest. It turned verticallyagain.“But … ours is the only

civilizationweknowof rightnow.”“Which is why no one’s

done it before. Theopportunityislefttoyou.”“Fascinating, Dr. Ye.

Pleasegoon.”“My thinking is that this

can link your two disciplinestogether. The mathematical

structureofcosmicsociologyis far clearer than that ofhumansociology.”“Whydoyousaythat?”Ye Wenjie pointed at the

sky.Twilightstillilluminatedthewest, and they could stillcount thestars thathadcomeout, making it easy torememberhowthefirmamenthad looked a few momentsago: a vast expanse and ablue void, or a face withoutpupils, like a marble statue.

Now, though the stars werefewinnumber,thegianteyeshad pupils. The void wasfilled.Theuniversehadsight.The stars were tiny, justsingle twinkling points ofsilver that hinted at someunease on the part of itscreator. The cosmic sculptorhad felt compelled to dotpupils onto the universe, yethad a tremendous terror ofgrantingitsight.Thisbalanceof fear and desire resulted in

the tininess of the starsagainstthehugenessofspace,adeclarationofcautionaboveall.“See how the stars are

points? The factors of chaosand randomness in thecomplex makeups of everycivilized society in theuniverse get filtered out bythe distance, so thosecivilizations can act asreference points that arerelatively easy to manipulate

mathematically.”“But there’s nothing

concrete to study in yourcosmic sociology, Dr. Ye.Surveys and experimentsaren’treallypossible.”“Thatmeans your ultimate

result will be purelytheoretical. Like Euclideangeometry,you’llsetupafewsimple axioms at first, thenderive an overall theoreticsystemusingthoseaxiomsasafoundation.”

“It’s all fascinating, butwhat would the axioms ofcosmicsociologybe?”“First: Survival is the

primary need of civilization.Second: Civilizationcontinuously grows andexpands, but the total matterin the universe remainsconstant.”The ant had not gone far

before it realized that therewere other troughs above it,many of them, in a

complicated maze structure.The ant was sensitive toshapes and was confident ofbeingabletoworkitout,butthe limited storage capacityof its tiny neural networkmeant it had to forget theshapes it had previouslycrawled through. It did notfeel any regret at forgettingthe “9,” for constantforgetting was part of life.Therewere few things that itneeded to remember forever,

and those were etched by itsgenes into the storage areaknownasinstinct.Having cleared its

memory, the ant entered themaze. After navigating itstwistsandturns,itestablishedanother pattern in its simpleconsciousness: the Chinesecharacter —mu, meaning“grave,” although thecharacter and its meaningwere not known to the ant.Farther up was another

combination of troughs—farsimpler this time, but tocontinue its exploration theanthadnochoicebuttoclearitsmemoryandforgetthemu.Then it entered a wonderfulline-trough, a shape thatreminded it of the abdomenofarecentlydeceasedcricketit had discovered not longago. It quickly made out thenew structure: , zhi, theChinese possessive modifier.Then,asitcontinuedupward,

it encountered two moretroughcombinations,thefirstof which consisted of twodroplet-shaped depressionsand a cricket stomach: thecharacter —dong, meaning“winter.” The top one wassplit into two parts, whichtogetherformedthecharacter—yang, meaning “poplar.”

This was the last shape theantremembered,andtheonlyoneitretainedfromitsentirejourney. The interesting

shapes it previouslyencountered had all beenforgotten.“Those two axioms are

solid enough from asociological perspective …but you rattled them off soquickly, like you’d alreadyworked them out,” Luo Jisaid,alittlesurprised.“I’ve been thinking about

this for most of my life, butI’ve never spoken about itwith anyone before. I don’t

know why, really.… Onemorething:Toderiveabasicpicture of cosmic sociologyfrom these two axioms, youneed two other importantconcepts:chainsofsuspicion,and the technologicalexplosion.”“Interestingterms.Canyou

explainthem?”Ye Wenjie glanced at her

watch. “There’sno time.Butyou’re clever enough tofigure them out. Use those

twoaxiomsasastartingpointfor your discipline, and youmight end up becoming theEuclidofcosmicsociology.”“I’m no Euclid. But I’ll

rememberwhat you said andgive it awhirl. Imightcometoyouforguidance,though.”“I’m afraid therewon’t be

that opportunity.… In thatcase, you might as well justforget I said anything. Eitherway, I’ve fulfilled my duty.Well, Xiao Luo, I’ve got to

go.”“Takecare,Professor.”Ye Wenjie went off

through the twilight to herfinalmeet-up.Theantcontinueditsclimb

andreachedaroundbasinonthe rock face, whose slicksurface bore an extremelycomplicated image. It knewthatitstinyneuralnethadnowaytostoresuchathing,butafter determining the overallshape of the image, its

primitive one-cell aestheticwasassparkedasithadbeenby the sense of the “9.”Andsomehow it seemed torecognizepartoftheimage,apair of eyes. The ant wassensitive to eyes, becausetheir gazemeant danger.Yetit felt no anxiety now, for itknewtheeyeswerelifeless.Ithad already forgotten thatwhen the giant being namedLuo Ji knelt down in silencebefore the formation, he had

been looking at those eyes.The ant climbed out of thebasin and up onto theformation’s peak. It felt nosense of towering above itssurroundings, because it hadnofearoffalling.Ithadbeenblown off of places higherthan thismany timeswithoutany injury. Without the fearof heights, there can be noappreciationforthebeautyofhighplaces.At the foot of the

formation,thespiderthatLuoJi had swept aside with theflowers was beginning toreconstruct itsweb.Itdrewaglistening strand from therock face and swung itselflike a pendulum to theground. Three more swingsand the skeleton of the webwas complete. Ten thousandtimes the web could bedestroyed, and ten thousandtimes the spider wouldrebuild it. There was neither

annoyance nor despair, norany delight, just as it hadbeenforabillionyears.Luo Ji stood in silence for

a while and then departed.When the vibrations in thegroundhaddissipated,theantcrawledadifferentwaydowntheformationtohurrybacktothe nest and report on thelocationofadeadbeetle.Thestars had grown dense in thesky.Whentheantpassedthespiderdownatthefootofthe

formation, they felt eachother’s presence, but did notcommunicate.As that distant world held

itsbreathtolisten,neitherantnor spider was aware thatthey, out of all life onEarth,werethesolewitnessestothebirthoftheaxiomsofcosmiccivilization.

***

Somewhatearlier,inthedead

of night, Mike Evans wasstanding on the bow ofJudgmentDay as the PacificOcean slipped past like aswath of satin beneath theheavens. Evans enjoyedtalkingwiththedistantworldattimeslikethesebecausethetext the sophon displayed onhis retinas stood outwonderfully against thenightseaandsky.

This is our twenty-second real-time

conversation. We have come acrosssome difficulties in ourcommunication.

“Yes, Lord. I’ve learnedthat you can’t actuallyunderstand a significantamount of the referencematerials on humanitywe’vegivenyou.”

Yes.You’ve explained theparts veryclearly, but we are unable tounderstand the whole. Something isdifferent.

“Justonething?”

Yes. But it sometimes seems as ifyour world is missing something,othertimesthatithassomethingextra,andwedon’tknowwhich.

“What is the area ofconfusion?”

We’ve carefully studied yourdocuments and have discovered thatthekey tounderstanding theproblemliesinapairofsynonyms.

“Synonyms?”

There are many synonyms and near-synonyms in your languages. In thefirst languagewe received from you,Chinese, there were words thatexpressed the same meaning, like“cold” and “chill,” “heavy” and“weighty,”“long”and“far.”

“What pair of synonymscreated the obstacle tounderstanding you’ve justmentioned?”

“Think” and “say.” We’ve justlearned, to our surprise, that they arenot,infact,synonyms.

“Theyarenotsynonymsatall.”

In our understanding, they ought tobe. “Think” means using thoughtorgans to conduct mental activity.“Say” means communicating thecontent of thoughts to a counterpart.The latter, in your world, isaccomplished through themodulationof vibrations in the air produced bythevocal cords.Are thesedefinitionscorrect?

“Theyare.Butdoesn’tthisdemonstrate that ‘think’ and‘say’aren’tsynonyms?”

In our understanding, this shows thattheyaresynonyms.

“MayIthinkaboutthisforamoment?”

Very well. We both need to thinkaboutit.

For two minutes, Evansgazedinthoughtatthewavesundulating beneath thestarlight.“My Lord, what are your

organsofcommunication?”

We do not have organs ofcommunication. Our brains candisplay our thoughts to the outsideworld, thereby achievingcommunication.

“Displaythoughts?Howisthatdone?”

The thoughts in our brains emitelectromagnetic waves on allfrequencies, includingwhat is visiblelighttous.Theycanbedisplayedatasignificantdistance.

“Sothatmeansthattoyou,thinkingisspeaking?”

Hencetheyaresynonyms.

“Oh…Thatisnotthecasefor us, but even so, thatshouldn’t present an obstacleto understanding thosedocuments.”

True. In the areas of thought andcommunication, the differencesbetween us are not large. We bothhave brains, and our brains produceintelligence through huge numbers ofneural connections. The onlydifference is thatourbrainwavesarestronger and can be directly receivedby our counterparts, eliminating theneed for communication organs.

That’stheonlydifference.

“No. I suspect a majordifference might be gettinglost. My Lord, let me thinkaboutitagain.”

Verywell.

Evans left the bow andstrolled along thedeck.Overthe gunwale, the Pacific roseand fell silently in the night.He imagined it as a thinkingbrain.

“MyLord,letmetellyouastory. To prepare for it, youneed to understand thefollowing elements: wolf,child, grandmother, and ahouseintheforest.”

These elements are all easy tounderstand,exceptfor“grandmother.”I know that this is a blood relationamong humans, and usually means awoman of advanced age. But heractual kinship status requires moreexplanation.

“Lord, that is not

important. All you need toknow is that she and thechildren have a closerelationship.Sheisoneoftheonly people the childrentrust.”

Understood.

“I’ll make it simple.Grandmother had to go out,sosheleft thechildrenin thehouse,tellingthemtheymustmake sure the door is shut

and not to open it to anyonebut her. On the road,Grandmother met a wolf,whichateher,andthenputonherclothingandassumedherappearance. Then it went tothehouseandcameuptothedoor,andsaidtothechildren,‘I’m your grandmother. I’vecomeback.Openthedoorforme.’ The children lookedthrough thecrack in thedoorand saw what looked liketheir grandmother, and so

theyopenedthedoor,andthewolf came in the house andate them.Do you understandthisstory,myLord?”

Nottheslightestbit.

“Thenmaybe I’ve guessedright.”

Firstofall, thewolfwantedallalongtoenterthehouseandeatthechildren,correct?

“Correct.”

Itengagedincommunicationwiththechildren,correct?

“Correct.”

This is what’s incomprehensible. Inorder to achieve its own aims, itshouldn’t have communicated withthechildren.

“Why?”

Isn’t it obvious? If there wascommunication between them, thechildren would have known that thewolfwantedtocomeinandeatthem,and they wouldn’t have opened thedoor.

Evans stayed silent for awhile. “I understand, myLord.Iunderstand.”

Whatdoyouunderstand?Isn’twhatIsaidobvious?

“Your thoughts arecompletely exposed to theoutside world. You can’thide.”

How can thoughts hide? Your ideasareconfusing.

“Imean,yourthoughtsandmemories are transparent totheoutsideworld,likeabookplacedoutinpublic,orafilmprojectedinaplaza,orafishin a clear fishbowl. Totallyexposed. Readable at aglance. Er, maybe some oftheelementsIjustmentionedare…”

Iunderstandthemall.Butisn’tallthatperfectlynatural?

Evanswassilentagain.“So

that’s it.… My Lord, whenyou communicate face-to-face, everything youcommunicate is true. It’simpossibleforyoutocheatorlie, so you can’t pursuecomplicated strategicthinking.”

Wecancommunicateoversignificantdistances, not just face-to-face. Thewords “cheating” and “lying” areanother two that we have had a hardtimeunderstanding.

“Whatsortofasocietyisit

when thought is completelytransparent? What sort ofculturedoesitproduce?Whatsortofpolitics?Noscheming,nopretending.”

What are “scheming” and“pretending”?

Evanssaidnothing.

Humancommunicationorgansarebutan evolutionary deficiency, anecessary compensation for the factthat your brains can’t emit strongthought waves. This is one of yourbiological weaknesses. Direct display

ofthoughtisasuperior,moreefficientformofcommunication.

“A deficiency? Aweakness?No,myLord,youarewrong.This timeyouaretotallywrong.”

Isthatso?Letmethinkaboutit.It’sashameyoucan’tseemythoughts.

This time the interruptionwas longer. When twentyminutes had passed and nomore text had appeared,

Evans strolled from bow tostern, watching a school offishleapingoutof theocean,tracing an arc on the surfacethat glittered silver under thestarlight. Several years ago,hehad spent some timeon afishing boat in the SouthChina Sea investigating theeffect of overfishing oncoastal life. The fishermencalled this phenomenon “thepassing of dragon soldiers.”To Evans, they looked like

text projected on the eye oftheocean.Thentextappearedbeforehisowneyes.

You are correct. Looking back atthosedocuments,Iunderstandthemalittlebetter.

“My Lord, there’s a longroad to travel before youarriveatatrueunderstandingofhumanmatters.I’malmostafraid that you’ll never beableto.”

Indeed, they are complicated. All IknownowiswhyIdidn’tunderstandthembefore.Youareright.

“MyLord,youneedus.”

Iamafraidofyou.

The conversation stopped.This was the last time thatEvans received a messagefrom Trisolaris. He stood atthe sternwatching the snow-whitebodyofJudgmentDaystretchoffintothehazynight,

liketimeslippingaway.

PARTI

THEWALLFACERS

Year3,CrisisEra

DistanceoftheTrisolaranFleetfromtheSolarSystem:4.21light-years

Itlookssoold.…

This was Wu Yue’s firstthoughtashefacedTang,themassive ship underconstruction in front of him,bathed in the flickering ofelectric arcs. Of course, thisimpression was simply theresult of countlessinconsequential smudges onthemanganesesteelplatesofthe ship’s nearly completedbody, left behind by theadvanced gas-shield weldingused on the hull. He tried

unsuccessfully to imaginehow sturdy and new Tangwould lookwith a fresh coatofgraypaint.Tang’sfourthoffshorefleet

training session had justconcluded. During that two-month session, Tang’scommanders, Wu Yue andZhang Beihai, who wasstandingjustbesideWuYue,had occupied anuncomfortable role.Formations of destroyers,

submarines, and supply shipsweredirectedbybattlegroupcommanders, but Tang wasstillunderconstructioninthedock,sothecarrier’spositionwas either occupied by thetraining ship Zheng He orsimplyleftempty.Duringthesessions,WuYueoftenstaredvacantlyatanemptypatchofsea where the surface of thewater, disturbed bycrisscrossing trails left bypassing ships, undulated

uneasily,muchlikehismood.Wouldtheemptyspoteverbefilled?heaskedhimselfmorethanonce.Looking now at the

unfinishedTang,whathesawwas not just age but thepassage of time itself. Itseemedlikeanancient,giant,discardedfortress,itsmottledbodyastonewall,theshowerof welding sparks fallingfrom the scaffolding likeplantscovering the stones…

like it was less constructionthanarcheology.Afraid of pursuing these

thoughts,WuYue turned hisattention to Zhang Beihainext to him. “Is your fatheranybetter?”heasked.ZhangBeihaigentlyshook

his head. “No. He’s justholdingon.”“Askforleave.”“Ididwhenhefirstwentto

the hospital. Given thesituation, I’ll deal with it

whenthetimecomes.”Then they went silent.

Every social interactionbetweenthetwoofthemwaslike this. Where work wasconcerned they had more tosay,ofcourse,butsomethingalwayslaybetweenthem.“Beihai, work isn’t going

tobelikeitwas.Sincewe’resharing this position now, Ithink we ought tocommunicatemore.”“We’vecommunicatedjust

fineinthepast.Oursuperiorsput us together on Tang, nodoubt thanks to oursuccessfulcooperationaboardChang’an.” Zhang Beihailaughedashesaidthis,butitwasthesortoflaughthatWuYue couldn’t read. ZhangBeihai’s eyes could easilyread deep into the heart ofeveryone aboard the ship, bethey captain or sailor. WuYue was entirely transparentto him. But Wu Yue could

not read what was insideZhang. He was certain thatthe man’s smile came fromwithin him, but had no hopeof understanding him.Successful cooperation doesnot equate to successfulunderstanding. There was noquestion that Zhang Beihaiwasthemostcapablepoliticalcommissar on the ship, andhewasforthrightinhiswork,exploring every last issuewith complete precision. But

his internal world was abottomless gray to Wu Yue,who always felt like ZhangBeihaiwas saying:Just do itthisway. Thisway’s best, ormost correct. But it’s notwhat I really want. It beganas an indistinct feeling thatgrew increasingly obvious.Of course, whatever ZhangBeihai did was always thebest ormost correct, butWuYue had no idea what heactuallywanted.

Wu Yue adhered to onearticle of faith: Command ofa warship was a dangerousposition, so the twocommandersmustunderstandeach other’s minds. Thispresented Wu Yue with aknotty problem. At first, hethought that Zhang Beihaiwas somehow on guard,which offended Wu. In thetough post of captain of adestroyer, was anyone moreforthright and guileless than

he was? What do I haveworthguardingagainst?When Zhang Beihai’s

father had briefly been theirsuperiorofficer,WuYuehadspoken with him about hisdifficulties talking to hiscommissar. “Isn’t it enoughfortheworktobedonewell?Why do you need to knowhow he thinks?” the generalhad said, gently, then added,perhaps involuntarily,“Actually, I don’t know

either.”“Let’s get a closer look,”

Zhang Beihai said, pointingto Tang through the sparks.Then both their phoneschirped at the same time: atext message recalling thembacktotheircar.Thisusuallymeant an emergency, sincesecured communicationsequipmentwasonlyavailablein the vehicle. Wu Yueopened the car door andpickedupthereceiver.Itwas

a call from an advisor atbattlegroupHQ.“Captain Wu, Fleet

Command have issued youand Commissar Zhangemergencyorders.Thetwoofyou are to report to GeneralStaffimmediately.”“General Staff? What

about the fifth fleet trainingexercise? Half the battlegroupisatsea,andtherestofthe ships will join themtomorrow.”

“I’mnotawareofthat.Theorder is simple. Just that onecommand. You can look atthe specifics when you getback.”Thecaptainandcommissar

of the still-unlaunched Tangglanced at each other, thenhadone of the raremomentsthroughout the years wheretheir thoughts aligned:Lookslike that patch of water willremainempty.

***

Fort Greely, Alaska. Severalfallowdeeramblingalongthesnowy plain grew alert,sensingvibrationsintheearthbeneath the snow. Ahead ofthem, a white hemisphereopened. It had been placedthere long ago, a giant egghalf-buried beneath theground, but the deer alwaysfelt it didn’t belong to thisfrozen world. The egg split

open and issued forth thicksmokeandflames, then,witha roar, it hatched a cylinderthat accelerated upward,spurting flames from itsbottom. The surroundingsnowdrifts were thrown bythe fire into the air, wherethey fell again as rain.Whenthe cylinder gained enoughheight, the explosions thathad terrified the deer wereagain replacedbypeace.Thecylindervanishedintothesky

trailing a long white tailbehindit,asifthesnowscapewasagiantballofyarnfromwhich a giant invisible handhadpulledastrandskyward.“Damnit!Justa fewmore

seconds and I’d haveconfirmed a launchinterrupt!” said TargetScreening Officer Raeder ashe tossed aside his mouse.Raeder was thousands ofkilometers away in theNuclear Missile Defense

ControlRoomattheNORADCommand Center, threehundred meters beneathCheyenne Mountain nearColoradoSprings.“Ifigureditwasnothingas

soon as the system warningcame up,” Orbital MonitorJonessaid,shakinghishead.“Then what’s the system

attacking?” asked GeneralFitzroy. Nuclear MissileDefense was just one of theduties of his new position,

and he wasn’t entirelyfamiliar with it yet. Lookingat the monitor-covered wall,the general attempted tolocate the intuitive graphicaldisplays they’d had at theNASA control center: a redlinesnakingacross theworldmap, forming a sine waveatop the map’s planartransformation. Novicesfoundthisinexplicable,butatleast it let you know thatsomething was shooting into

space.But therewas nothingso simple here. The lines onthe screens were acomplicated abstract jumblethatwasmeaningless to him.Nottomentionallthescreenswith swiftly scrollingnumbers that had meaningonly to the NMD dutyofficers.“General, do you

rememberwhentheyreplacedthereflectivefilmon theISSmultipurpose module last

year? They lost the old film.That’swhat thiswas. It ballsup and then unfurls in thesolarwind.”“But … it ought to be

included in the targetscreeningdatabase.”“It is. Here.” Raeder

brought up a page with hismouse. Below piles ofcomplicated text, data, andforms, there was aninconspicuous photograph,probably takenwithanEarth

telescope, of an irregularwhite patch against a blackbackground. The strongreflectionmade it difficult tomakeoutdetails.“Major, since you’ve got

this,whydidn’tyouterminatethelaunchprogram?”“Thesystemoughttohave

searched the target databaseautomatically. Humanreaction times aren’t quickenough.Butdatafromtheoldsystem hasn’t been

reformatted for the new one,soitwasn’tlinkedinwiththerecognition module,” Raedersaid. His tone was a littleaggrieved, as if to say, I’vedemonstrated my proficiencyby managing to pull this upsoquicklyinamanualsearchwhen the NMDsupercomputercouldn’t,butIstillhave toputupwithyourcluelessquestions.“General,theordercameto

switch over to actual

operational state after theNMD moved its interceptheadings into space, butbefore software recalibrationwas completed,” a dutyofficersaid.Fitzroy said nothing. The

chatter of the control roomannoyedhim.Hereinfrontofhim was humanity’s firstplanetarydefensesystem,butit was nothing more than anexisting NMD systemwhoseinterceptshadbeenredirected

from various terrestrialcontinentsandintospace.“I say we should take a

photo foramemento!” Jonessaid. “This has got to beEarth’s first strike at acommonenemy.”“Cameras are prohibited,”

Raedersaidcoldly.“Captain, what are you

talking about?” Fitzroy said,angry all of a sudden. “Thesystem didn’t detect anenemytargetatall. It’snota

firststrike.”After an uncomfortable

silence, someone said, “Theinterceptors carry nuclearwarheads.”“Yeah, one point five

megatons.Sowhat?”“It’s nearly dark outside.

Given the target location,weought to be able to see theflash!”“You can see it on the

monitor.”“It’s more fun from

outside,”Raedersaid.Jones stood up nervously.

“General, I … my shift’sover.”“Mine too, General,”

Raeder said. This was just acourtesy.Fitzroywasahigh-level coordinator with thePlanetary Defense Counciland had no command overNORADandtheNMDs.Fitzroy waved his hand:

“I’m not your commandingofficer.Doasyouplease.But

letme remindallofyou thatin the future, we may bespending a lot of timeworkingtogether.”Raeder and Jones headed

topsideatarun.Afterpassingthrough the multi-tonantiradiation door, they wereouton thepeakofCheyenneMountain. It was dusk andthe sky was clear, but theydidn’t see the flash of anuclearblastinouterspace.“It should be right there,”

Jones said, gesturingskyward.“Maybe we’ve missed it,”

Raeder said. He didn’t lookupward.Then,withan ironicsmile, he said, “Do theyreallybelievethesophonwillunfoldinlowerdimensions?”“Unlikely. It’s intelligent.

Itwon’tgiveusthatchance,”Jonessaid.“NMD’s eyes are pointed

upward. Is there reallynothing to defend against on

Earth? Even if the terroristcountrieshaveall turned intosaints, there’s still the ETO,right?”He snorted. “And thePDC. Those military guysclearly want to chalk up aquick accomplishment.Fitzroy’s one of them. Nowtheycandeclare that thefirststage of the PlanetaryDefense System is complete,even though they’ve donepractically nothing to thehardware. The system’s sole

purpose is to stop her fromunfolding in lowerdimensions near to Earth’sorbit. The technology’s evensimpler than what’s neededfor intercepting guidedmissiles,becauseif thetargetreallydoesappear, it’llcoveran immense area.…Captain,that’swhyI’veaskedyouuphere. Why were you actinglike a child, what with thatfirst-strike photographbusiness? You’ve upset the

general,youknow.Can’tyouseehe’sapettyman?”“But … wasn’t that a

compliment?”“He’soneof thebesthype

artists in the military. He’snot going to announce at thepressconferencethatthiswasa system error. Like the restof them, he’ll say it was asuccessful maneuver. Waitand see. That’s how it’sgonna be.” As he wasspeaking, Raeder sat down

and leaned back on theground, looking up with aface full of yearning at thesky, where the stars hadalreadyemerged.“Youknow,Jones, if the sophon reallydoesunfoldagain,she’llgiveus a chance to destroy her.Wouldn’tthatbesomething!”“What’s the use? The fact

is that they’re streamingtowardtheSolarSystemrightnow.Who knows howmanyofthem.…Hey,whydidyou

say ‘she’ rather than ‘it’ or‘he’?”The expression on

Raeder’supturnedfaceturneddreamy: “Yesterday, aChinese colonel who justarrived at the center told methat in his language, she hasthe name of a Japanesewoman,Tomoko.”2

***

The day before, Zhang

Yuanchaofiledhisretirementpapers and left the chemicalplant where he had workedfor more than four decades.In thewords of his neighborLao Yang,3 today was thestartofhissecondchildhood.LaoYangtoldhimthatsixty,likesixteen,wasthebesttimein life, an age where theburdens of one’s forties andfifties had been laid down,but the slowdownand illnessof the seventies and eighties

hadnotyetarrived.Anagetoenjoylife.ZhangYuanchao’sson and daughter-in-law hadsteady jobs, and althoughhisson had married late, hewouldbeholdingagrandsonbefore long.He and hiswifewouldn’t have been able toafford their current houseexcept that they had beenbought out when their oldplace had been demolished.They had been living in thenewplaceforayearnow.…

When Zhang Yuanchaothought about it, everythingwas completely satisfactory.Hehadtoadmitthatasfarasaffairs of state wereconcerned, Lao Yang wasright. Still, as he looked outfromhiseighth-storywindowat theclearskyover thecity,he felt like there was nosunlight in his heart, muchlessasecondchildhood.Lao Yang, first name

Jinwen,was a retiredmiddle

schoolteacherwhofrequentlyadvisedZhangYuanchaothatif he wanted to enjoy hiswaningyears, heought tobelearning new things. Forexample:“TheInternet.Evenbabies can learn it, so whydon’t you?”He even pointedout that Zhang Yuanchao’sbiggest failing was that hehad absolutely no interest inthe outsideworld: “Your oldlady can at least brush asidehertearswhilesittinginfront

of the TV watching thosetrashy soaps. But you, youdon’t even watch TV. Youshould pay attention tonational and world affairs.That’s part of a full life.”Zhang Yuanchao may havebeenanoldBeijinger,buthedidn’t seem like one. A taxidriver could hold forth withcogent analyses of domesticandworldsituations,butevenifZhangYuanchaoknew thecurrent president’s name, he

certainly didn’t know thepremier’s.Thiswasactuallyapoint of pride for him. Helived the steady-going life ofa commoner, he said, andcouldn’t be bothered to careabout such irrelevant things.They had nothing to dowithhim, and ignoring them ridhim of a significant numberof headaches in life. YangJinwen paid attention toaffairs of state and made apointofwatchingtheevening

newseveryday,arguingwithonlinecommenterstillhewasred in the face over nationaleconomic policy and the tideof international nuclearproliferation, butwhat had itgotten him? The governmenthadn’t increased his pensionby even a cent. He said,“You’re being ridiculous.You think it’s irrelevant?That it’s got nothing to dowithyou?Listen,LaoZhang.Every major national and

international issue, everymajor national policy, andevery UN resolution isconnected to your life,through both direct andindirect channels. You thinktheUSinvasionofVenezuelaisnoneofyourconcern?Isayit’s got more than a penny’sworth of lasting implicationsfor your pension.” At thetime, Zhang had merelylaughed at Lao Yang’swonkishoutburst.Butnowhe

knew that his neighbor wasright.Zhang Yuanchao rang

Yang Jinwen’s doorbell, andYang answered, looking likehehadjustgottenbackhome.He seemed particularlyrelaxed. Zhang Yuanchaolooked at him like a man inthe desert who hasencountered a fellow travelerandwon’tlethimgo.“Iwasjustlookingforyou.

Wheredidyougooffto?”

“Itookatriptothemarket.Isawyouroldladyshoppingforfood.”“Why is our building so

empty? It’s like a …mausoleum.”“It’s not a holiday today.

That’s all.” He laughed.“Yourfirstdayofretirement.Thatfeelingistotallynormal.Atleastyouweren’taleader.They’ve got it worse whenthey retire. You’ll soon getused to it. Come on, let’s

check out the neighborhoodactivity center and see whatwecandoforfun.”“No, no. It’s not because

I’ve retired. It’s because …howshouldIput it?Becauseof the country, or rather, theworldsituation.”Yang Jinwen pointed at

himandlaughed.“Theworldsituation?Inever thought I’dhearthosewordscomeoutofyourmouth.…”“That’s right, I didn’t use

to care about the big issues,butthey’vegottentoohuge.Inever thought anythingcouldgetsobig!”“Lao Zhang, it’s actually

really funny, but I’ve startedto come around to your wayofthinking.Idon’tcareaboutthose irrelevant issuesanymore. Believe it or not, Ihaven’t watched the news intwo weeks. I used to careabout the big issues becausepeoplematter.Wecouldhave

an effect on the outcome ofcurrent events. But no onehas the power to overcomethis. What’s the point oftroublingyourselfaboutit?”“But you can’t simply not

care. Humanity will be goneinfourhundredyears!”“Hmph.You and Iwill be

goneinforty-oddyears.”“What about our

descendants? They’ll bewipedout.”“That doesn’t concern me

as much as it does you. MysoninAmericaismarriedbutdoesn’t want children, so Idon’t really care. But theZhang family will lastanother dozen generations,right?Isn’tthatenough?”Zhang Yuanchao stared at

Yang Jinwen for a fewseconds, then looked at hiswatch. He turned on thetelevision, where the newschannel was airing the day’smajorstories:

TheAPreports thatat6:30P.M.ESTonthetwenty-ninth,theUSNationalMissileDefenseSystemsuccessfully completed the testdestruction of a lower-dimensional unfolded sophon innear-Earthorbit.Thisisthethirdtest of an NMD intercept sincetargets were shifted to outerspace. The latest target was thereflectivefilmdiscardedfromtheInternational Space Station lastOctober. A Planetary DefenseCouncil spokesman said that thewarhead-equipped interceptorsuccessfullydestroyed the three-thousand-square-meter target.This means that well before thesophon’s three-dimensional

unfoldingreachessufficientarea,andbeforeitpresentsareflectivesurface that is a threat tohumantargets on the ground, theNMDsystemwillbeabletodestroyit.…

“What pointlessness. Asophon’s not going tounfold,” Yang said as hereached for the remote inZhang’s hand. “Change thestation. There might be arepeat of the European Cupsemifinals.Ifellasleeponthe

sofalastnight.…”“Watchitathome.”Zhang

Yuanchaogrippedtheremoteand didn’t let him have it.Thenewscontinued:

The physician at 301 MilitaryHospital in charge of thetreatment of academician JiaWeilinconfirmedthatJia’sdeathwas due to a hematologicalmalignancy, also known asleukemia,theproximatecauseofdeath being organ failure andloss of blood in the advancedstage of the disease. Noabnormalities were present. Jia

Weilin, a noted expert insuperconductivity who mademajor contributions in the fieldof room-temperaturesuperconductors, died on thetenth. Stories claiming that Jiadied in a sophon strike are purerumor. In a separate report, aspokesman for the Ministry ofHealth confirmed that severalother deaths supposedly due tosophonstrikeswereinfactduetoordinary illnesses or accidents.The station spoke with notedphysicist Ding Yi about thematter.Reporter: What’s your take onthe emerging panic over thesophons?

Ding Yi: It’s due to a lack ofcommon knowledge aboutphysics. Representatives of thegovernment and the scientificcommunity have explained thison numerous occasions: Asophon is just a microscopicparticle which, despitepossessing a high intelligence,has the potential for only alimitedeffectonthemacroscopicworld due to its microscopicscale. The primary threats theypose to humanity lie in theirerroneous and randominterference to high-energyphysics experiments, and in thequantum entanglement networkthat monitors Earth. In its

microscopic state, a sophoncannotkill,anditcannotengageinanyotheroffensiveattack.Ifasophonwantstoproducealargereffectonthemacroscopicworld,it can only do so in a lower-dimensional unfolded state. Andeven in that situation, its effectsare highly limited, because asophon unfolded in lowerdimensions on a macroscopicscale is very weak. Now thathumanity has established adefense system, sophons cannotdothiswithoutprovidinguswithan excellent opportunity todestroy them. I believe that themainstreammediaought todo abetter job of disseminating this

scientific information to thepublictoriditofapanicthathasnobasisinscience.

Zhang Yuanchao heardsomeone enter the livingroom without knocking,calling “Lao Zhang” and“Master Zhang.” He knewwhoitwasfromthefootstepshe’dheardhammeringupthestaircase just before. MiaoFuquan, another neighbor ontheirfloor,camein.AShanxi

coal boss who ran a fairnumber of mines in thatprovince,MiaoFuquanwasafew years younger thanZhang Yuanchao. He owneda largerhomeinanotherpartof Beijing and used thisapartmentasaplacetokeepamistress from Sichuan whowasaboutthesameageashisdaughter. When he had firstmoved in, the Zhang andYang families had basicallyignored him save for an

argument over the stuff heleftstrewnaboutthehallway,but they eventuallydiscovered that although hewas a little vulgar, he was adecent, friendly man. Oncebuilding management hadsmoothed over a dispute ortwo, harmony was graduallyestablished among the threefamilies. Although MiaoFuquan said he had turnedoverhisbusinessaffairstohisson, hewas still a busyman

and rarely spent any time atthis “home,” so the three-bedroom place was usuallyonlyoccupiedbytheSichuanwoman.“Lao Miao, you haven’t

been around for months.Wherehaveyoustruckitrichthis time?” asked YangJinwen.Miao Fuquan casually

picked up a glass, filled ithalfway from the waterdispenser, and gulped down

thewater.Thenhewipedhismouth and said, “No one’sgetting rich.… There’strouble at themine, and I’vegot to go clean it up. It’spractically war time. Thegovernment really means itthistime.Thelawsonwildcatmining never used to work,but theminesaren’tgoing tobe running for much longernow.”“Baddaysarehere,”Yang

Jinwen said, without taking

his eyes from the game ontelevision.

***

The man had been lying onthebedforseveralhours.Thelight shining through thebasementwindow,theroom’sonly source of illumination,was moonlight now, and thecoolrayscastbrightspotsonthe floor. In the shadows,everything looked like itwas

carved fromgray stone, as iftheentireroomwasatomb.No one ever knew the

man’s true name, buteventually, they called himtheSecondWallbreaker.The Second Wallbreaker

had spent several hourslookingbackonhislife.Afterconfirming that there hadbeennoomissions,hetwistedthe muscles of his numbbody, reached under thepillow, and drew out a gun,

whichheslowlyaimedathistemple. Just then, a sophontextappearedbeforehiseyes.

Don’tdothat.Weneedyou.

“Lord? Every night for ayearIdreamtthatyoucalled,but the dreams went awayrecently.IfiguredI’dstoppeddreaming, but that doesn’tseemtobethecasenow.”

Thisisnotadream.Iaminreal-timecommunicationwithyou.

The Wallbreaker gave achillylaugh.“Good.It’sover,then. There definitely aren’tany dreams on the otherside.”

Yourequireproof?

“Proof that there aren’tdreamsonthatside?”

Proofthatit’sreallyme.

“Fine.TellmesomethingIdon’tknow.”

Yourgoldfisharedead.

“Hah!Thatdoesn’tmatter.I’m about tomeet them in aplace where there’s nodarkness.”

You should really take a look. Thismorning when you were distracted,you flicked away a half-smokedcigaretteanditlandedinthefishbowl.The nicotine that leached into thewaterwasfataltoyourfish.

The Second Wallbreakeropenedhiseyes,putdownhis

gun,androlledoutofbed,hislethargy completely wipedaway.Hegropedforthelightandthenwentovertolookatthe fishbowl on the smalltable. Five dragon eyegoldfish were floating in thewater, their white bellies atthesurface,andintheirmidstwasahalf-smokedcigarette.

I’ll perform an additionalconfirmation.Evansoncegaveyouanencrypted letter, but the encryptionhas changed. He died before he was

able to notify you of the newpassword,andyou’veneverbeenableto read the letter. I’ll tell you thepassword: CAMEL, the brand ofcigaretteyoupoisonedyourfishwith.

The Second Wallbreakerscrambled to retrieve hislaptop,andashewaitedforitto start up, tears streameddown his face. “Lord, myLord, is it really you? Is itreally you?” he choked outthrough his sobs. After thecomputer booted up, he

opened thee-mailattachmentin the Earth-TrisolarisOrganization’s proprietarydedicated reader. He enteredthepassword into thepop-upbox, and when the text wasdisplayed he no longer hadanymindtoreaditcarefully.Throwing himself to hisknees,hecriedout,“Lord! Itreally is you, my Lord!”When he had calmed down,he raised his head and said,his eyes still wet, “We were

nevernotifiedoftheattackonthe gathering the commanderattended,orof theambushatthe Panama Canal. Why didyoucastusaside?”

Wewereafraidofyou.

“Is itbecauseour thoughtsaren’t transparent? Thatdoesn’tmatter,youknow.Allof the skills that you lack—deceit, trickery,disguise, andmisdirection—weuseinyour

service.”

We don’t know if that’s true. Evensupposing it is true, the fear remains.YourBiblementionsananimalcalledthe snake. If a snake crawled up toyou and said it would serve you,wouldyourfearanddisgustcease?

“If it told the truth, then Iwould overcome my disgustandfearandacceptit.”

Thatwouldbedifficult.

“Of course. I know thatyou’ve already been bitten

oncebythesnake.Oncereal-time notification becamepossible and you gavedetailed answers to ourquestions, there was noreasonforyoutotellusquiteabitofthatinformation,suchashowyou received the firstsignal from humanity, andhow the sophons areconstructed. It was hard forus to understand: We werenot communicating viatransparent display of

thoughts,sowhynotbemoreselective in the informationyousent?”

That option did exist, but it doesn’tcover up as much as you imagine itmight. In fact, forms ofcommunication do exist in ourworldthatdon’trequiredisplaysofthought,particularly in the age of technology.But transparent thoughthasbecomeaculturalandsocialcustom.Thismightbehardforyoutounderstand,justlikeit’shardforustounderstandyou.

“Ican’timaginethatdeceitand scheming are totally

absentinyourworld.”

They exist, but they are far simplerthan in yours. For example, in thewarsonourworld,opposingsideswilladopt disguises, but an enemy whobecomessuspiciousaboutthedisguiseand inquires about it directly willusuallyobtainthetruth.

“That’sunbelievable.”

You are equally unbelievable to us.You have a book on your bookshelfcalledAStoryofThreeKingdoms.

“Romance of the ThreeKingdoms4. You won’t

understandthat.”

Iunderstandasmallpart,likehowanordinary personwho has a hard timeunderstanding a mathematicsmonograph can make out some of itthrough enormous mental effort, andbygivingfullplaytotheimagination.

“Indeed,thatbooklaysoutthe highest levels of humanschemesandstrategy.”

Butoursophonscanmakeeverythinginthehumanworldtransparent.

“Except for people’s own

minds.”

Yes.Thesophoncan’treadthoughts.

“YoumustknowabouttheWallfacerProject.”

Morethanyoudo.Itisabouttobeputintoaction.Thisiswhywehavecometoyou.

“Whatdoyou thinkof theproject?”

The same feeling you get when youlookatthesnake.

“ButthesnakeintheBiblehelped humans gainknowledge. The WallfacerProject will set up one orseveral mazes that will seemto you to be particularlytricky and treacherous. Wecan help you find your wayout.”

Thisdifferenceinmentaltransparencygivesus all themore resolve towipeouthumanity.Pleasehelpuswipeouthumanity,and thenwewillwipeyouout.

“My Lord, the way youexpress yourself isproblematic. Clearly, it’sdetermined by how youcommunicate through thedisplay of transparentthoughts, but in our world,evenifyouexpressyourtruethoughts, you must do so inan appropriately euphemisticway. For example, althoughwhat you just said is inaccord with the ideals ofETO, its overly direct

formulationmightrepelsomeof our members and causeunanticipated consequences.Of course, it may be thatyou’ll never be able to learnto express yourselfappropriately.”

It is precisely the expression ofdeformed thoughts that makes theexchange of information in humansociety, particularly in humanliterature, so much like a twistedmaze.AsfarasIamaware,ETOisonthebrinkofcollapse.

“That’s because youabandoned us. Those twostrikes were fatal, and now,the Redemptionists havedisintegrated and only theAdventists have maintainedan organized existence.You’re certainly aware ofthis, but the most fatal blowwas a psychological one.Your abandonment meansthat the devotion of ourmemberstoourLordisbeingtested. To maintain that

devotion, ETO desperatelyneedsourLord’ssupport.”

Wecan’tgiveyoutechnology.

“That won’t be necessary,so long as you go back totransmittinginformationtousthroughthesophons.”

Naturally.ButwhatETOmustdofirstis execute the critical order you justread.WeissuedittoEvansbeforehisdeath, and he ordered you to executeit, but you never solved theencryption.

The Wallbreakerremembered the letterhehadjust decrypted on hiscomputer and read it overcarefully.

Simpleenoughtocarryout,isitnot?

“It’s not too difficult. Butisittrulythatimportant?”

Itusedtobeimportant.Now,becauseof humanity’sWallfacer Project, it isincrediblyimportant.

“Why?”Thetextdidnotshowfora

while.

Evans knew why, but evidently hedidn’t tellanyone.Hewasright.Thisis fortunate. Now, we don’t need totellyouwhy.

The Wallbreaker wasoverjoyed. “My Lord, youhavelearnedhowtoconceal!Thisisprogress!”

Evanstaughtusmuch,butwearestillattheverybeginning,orinhiswords,

only at the level of oneof your five-year-old children. The order he gaveyou contains one of the strategieswecan’tlearn.

“Do you mean thisstipulation: ‘To avoidattention,youmustnotrevealthat it was done by ETO’?This…well, if the target isimportant, then thisrequirementisonlynatural.”

Tousitisacomplicatedplan.

“Fine.Iwill takecareofit

in accordance with Evans’swishes. My Lord, we willproveourdevotiontoyou.”

***

In one remote corner of thevastseaofinformationontheInternet, there was a remotecorner,andinaremotecornerof that remote corner, andthen in a remote corner of aremote corner of a remotecorner of that remote corner

—that is, in the very depthsof themost remote corner ofall—a virtual world camebacktolife.Under the strange, chilly

dawn was no pyramid, UNbuilding, or pendulum, just abroad and hard expanse ofemptiness,likeagiantslaboffrozenmetal.King Wen of Zhou came

over the horizon. Wearingtattered robes, he carried atarnished bronze sword, and

his face was as filthy andwrinkled as the pelt he waswrapped in. But there wasenergy in his eyes, and hispupilsreflectedtherisingsun.“Is anybody here?” he

shouted.“Anyone?”King Wen’s voice was

swallowedupimmediatelybythe wilderness. He shoutedfor a while, and then satwearily on the ground andaccelerated the passage oftime, watching the suns turn

into shooting stars, and theshooting stars turn back intosuns, and the suns of theStable Eras sweep across thesky like clock pendulums,andthedaysandnightsoftheChaotic Eras turn the worldinto a vast stage where thelighting was out of control.Time sped by, but nothingchanged. It remained theeternal, metallic wasteland.The three starsdanced in theheavens, and King Wen

turned into a pillar of ice inthecold.Thenashootingstarturned into a sun, and whenthat fiery giant disc passedoverhead,theiceonhisbodymeltedandhisbodybecameapillar of fire. Just beforeturningentirely to ash, he letout a long sigh, and thenexited.

***

Thirty army, navy, and air

forceofficersfixedtheireyeson the insignia on the deep-red screen, a silver starshooting rays in fourdirections. The rays, in theshape of sharp swords, wereflanked by the Chinesecharacters foreightandone5.It was the insignia of theChineseSpaceForce.General Chang Weisi

motioned for everyone to beseated. Then, placing his capsquarely down upon the

conference table, he said,“The ceremony formallyestablishing the space forcewill be held tomorrowmorning, at which time youwill be issued uniforms andpins. However, comrades, asof thismomentwebelong tothe same branch of themilitary.”They lookedat eachother,

noting that among the thirtypeople there were fifteendressed in navy uniforms,

nine in air force uniforms,and six in army uniforms.When they turned theirattention back to GeneralChang, they had a hard timedisguisingtheirconfusion.Withasmile,ChangWeisi

said, “It’s an odd ratio, isn’tit?Youcan’tusethescaleoftoday’saerospaceprogramtoassess space forces of thefuture.Spaceships,whentheirday comes, will probably beevenbiggerandcarryalarger

crew than today’s aircraftcarriers.Futurespacewarfarewill be based on large-tonnage, high-endurancecombat platforms, andengagements will resemblenaval battles more than aircombat, with a battlefield inthree dimensions instead oftwo. So the military’s spacebranch must be based uponthe navy. I know, we allassumed that the foundationwouldbetheairforce,which

means our naval comradesmightbeillprepared.You’vegot to adapt as quickly aspossible.”“Sir, we had no idea,”

Zhang Beihai said. Wu Yuesat ramrod straight andmotionless beside him, butZhang Beihai acutely sensedthat something in his leveleyeshadbeenextinguished.Chang Weisi nodded. “In

fact,thenavy’snotallthatfarremoved from space. Don’t

they call them ‘space ships’rather than ‘space planes’?That’sbecause spaceand theocean have long been linkedtogetherinthepopularmind.”The mood of the room

relaxed somewhat. Hecontinued,“Comrades,atthismoment, the thirty-one of usareallthatmakesupthisnewbranchofthemilitary.Asforthe future space fleet, basicresearch is being conductedin all scientific disciplines,

withaparticularfocusonthespaceelevator, andon fusionengines for large-scale spaceships.… But this isn’t thework of the space force.Ourduty is to establish atheoretical framework forspacewarfare.It’sadauntingtask, since we have zeroknowledge of this type ofwarfare, but the future spacefleet will be built atop thisfoundation. In itspreliminarystage, then, the space force

will be more like a militaryacademy.Theprimarytaskofthose of us seated here is toorganize that academy, andtheninviteasizeablegroupofscholars and researchers tojoinup.”Chang stood up and

walked over to the insignia,where he addressed theassembled officers withwords they would rememberfor the rest of their lives:“Comrades, the space force

has a tough road ahead of it.Initial predictions see basicresearch taking at least fiftyyears across all disciplines,withat least anotherhundredyears before practical use ofthe technology required forlarge-scale space travelbecomespossible.Then,afterits initial construction, thespace fleet will requireanother century andahalf toachieve its planned scale.That means that full combat

capacity will take the spaceforce three centuries from itsestablishment.Comrades,I’msure you all understandwhatthatmeans.Noneofussittinghere will make it to space,muchlesshavethechancetosee our space fleet, and wemay not even see a crediblemodel of a space warship.The first generation ofofficers and crew won’t bebornuntil twocenturiesfromnow, and two and a half

centuries from that, Earth’sfleet will meet the alieninvaders. Aboard those shipswill be the fifteenthgeneration of ourgrandchildren.”The assembly fell into a

prolonged silence. Ahead ofthem stretched the leadenroad of time, terminatingsomewhereinthemistsofthefuture, where all they couldsee were flickering flamesand luster of blood. The

brevity of a human lifespantormented them as neverbefore,andtheirheartssoaredabovethevaultoftimetojoinwith their descendants andplunge into blood and fire inthe icy cold of space, theeventual meeting place forthesoulsofallsoldiers.

***

Asusual,whenMiaoFuquanreturned, he asked Zhang

Yuanchao and Yang Jinwento have a drink at his place,where the Sichuan womanhad laid out a sumptuousfeast on the table. As theywere drinking, ZhangYuanchao brought up MiaoFuquan’s visit to theConstruction Bank thatmorning to withdraw somemoney.“Haven’t you heard?”

Miao Fuquan said. “Peoplewerebeing trampled todeath

at the banks! There werepeoplethreedeepontheflooratthecounter.”“And yourmoney?” asked

ZhangYuanchao.“Iwasable toget someof

it. The rest was frozen. It’scriminal!”“The hair you shed is

worthmorethantherestofushave altogether,” said ZhangYuanchao.Yang Jinwen said, “The

news said that when the

socialpaniceasesa little, thegovernment will graduallyunfreeze accounts. Perhapsjust a certain percentage atfirst, but the situation willeventuallyreturntonormal.”Zhang Yuanchao said, “I

hope so. The governmentmadeamistakeincallingitastate of war so early on,putting people in a panic.Nowpeopleareonlythinkingof themselves. How manypeopleare thinkingabout the

defenseofEarthfourhundredyearsinthefuture?”“That’s not the biggest

problem,”Yang Jinwen said.“IsaiditbeforeandI’llsayitagain,China’ssavingsrate isanenormouslandmine.AmIright? High savings, lowsocial security. People’s lifesavings are in the bank, andtheneveryonegoesintomasshysteria at the slightest gustofwind.”Zhang Yuanchao asked,

“So this wartime economy,what do you think it’ll belike?”“It’s too sudden. I don’t

thinkanyonehasafullmentalpictureof ityet,and theneweconomic policies are stillbeingdrafted.Butonething’scertain: Tough days areahead.”“Tough days, my ass. It’s

nothing people our agehaven’t seen before. It’ll belikethesixtiesalloveragain,

Iexpect,”saidMiaoFuquan.“I just feel for the kids,”

said Zhang Yuanchao, anddrainedhisglass.Just then a news fanfare

drew their attention to thetelevision. A familiar soundthesedays,themusichadtheabilitytomakeeveryonedropwhattheyweredoingandpayattention. It was the bumperfanfare for a breaking newsannouncement, which werebeing broadcast more often

than ever these days. Thethree old men rememberedhow this sort of news wasfrequently broadcast overradio and television prior tothe1980s,butduringthelongperiod of prosperity andtranquility that cameafterward,itdisappeared.Thebroadcastbegan:

According to this station’scorrespondent at the UNSecretariat, a UN spokespersonat a just-concluded press

conference announced that aspecial session of the GeneralAssembly will be convened inthe near future to discuss theproblem of Escapism. Thespecial session will be co-facilitated by the permanentmembers of the PlanetaryDefense Council and will beaimed at pushing theinternationalcommunitytoreachaconsensusonEscapistattitudesand develop correspondinginternationallaws.

Let’stakeabrieflookbackatthe emergence and developmentofEscapism.

The doctrine of Escapismarose alongside the Trisolar

Crisis. Its primary argumentholds thatgiven the locked stateofhumanity’sadvancedsciences,it does not make any sense toplan for a defense of Earth andthe Solar System in four and ahalf centuries. Considering theextent to which humantechnologycandevelopover thenext four centuries, a morerealistic goal would be toconstruct starships to enable asmall portion of the human raceto flee to outer space, therebyavoiding the total extinction ofhumancivilization.

Escapism has three possibledestinations.Option one: aNewWorld—thatis,searchingamong

the stars for a world wherehumanity can survive. Withoutquestion, this is the ideal, but itrequires extremely highnavigationspeedsandthevoyagewillbelong.Giventhelevelthathuman technology can attainduring the Crisis period, thisoption isunlikely tobe realized.Option two: a StarshipCivilization—that is, humanitywill use their escape ships as apermanent abode, and humancivilization will endure on aneternalvoyage.Thisoptionfacesthe same difficulties as theNewWorld, although it places agreater emphasis on theestablishment of closed

ecosystem technologies. Ageneration ship running a fullyenclosedbiosphereisfarbeyondhumanity’s current technicalcapabilities. Option three:Temporary Refuge. OnceTrisolaris has completedsettlement of the Solar System,there can be active exchangesbetween Trisolaran society andthe humans that have fled toouter space. By pushing for arelaxation of policies towardresidual humans in outer space,they will eventually be able toreturn to the Solar System andcoexist on a smaller scale withthe Trisolarans. AlthoughTemporaryRefuge isconsidered

themost realistic plan, there arestilltoomanyvariables.

Not longafter theemergenceof Escapism, news outletsworldwide reported that theUnited States and Russia, twoleaders in space technology,hadsecretlystartedworkonplansforfleeing into outer space.Althoughthegovernmentsofthetwo countries denied theexistenceofanyplans,anuproarin the international communitysparked a “socializedtechnology” movement. At thethird special session, a host ofdeveloping countries demandedthat the United States, Russia,Japan, China, and the European

Union release their technologyand provide all advancedtechnology, including aerospacetechnology,freeofchargeto theinternational community so thatall nations of humanity wouldhaveanequalopportunitytofacethe Trisolar Crisis. Thesupporters of the socializedtechnology movement broughtupaprecedent:Atthebeginningof the century, several majorEuropean pharmaceuticalcompanies exacted high licensefees from African countries forthe manufacture of state-of-the-art AIDS treatments, promptinghigh-profile litigation. Underpressurefrompublicopinionand

therapidspreadofthediseaseinAfrica,thecompaniesrenouncedtheir patent rights prior to trial.The ultimate crisis that Earth isnow facing means that opentechnology is the unavoidableresponsibility that advancedcountries have to all humanity.The socialized technologymovement found a unanimousresponse from developingcountries and even won thesupportof somemembersof theEU, but all related initiativeswere rejected atmeetings of theUN-PDC. At the fifth specialsession of the UN GeneralAssembly, a proposal by Chinaand Russia of a “limited

socialized technology” plan thatadvocated making technologyopen to all permanent membersofthePDCwasvetoedbytheUSandBritain.TheUSgovernmentsaid that no form of socializedtechnology was realistic, that itwasanaïve idea, and thatunderthe present circumstances USnational security was a priority“second only to planetarydefense.” The failure of thelimited socialized technologyproposal caused a split amongtechnological powers and led tothe bankruptcy of the plan toestablish a United Earth SpaceForce.

The implications of the

frustrated socialized technologymovement are far-reaching, andpeople have been made awarethat even in the face of thedevastating Trisolar Crisis, theunityofthehumanraceisstilladistantdream.

The socialized technologymovement was launched by theEscapists. Only when theinternational community reachesa consensus on Escapismwill itbeabletobridgethegapthathasopened up between developedand developing nations, andbetween thedevelopedcountriesthemselves. This is theenvironment in which the UNspecialsessionissettoopen.

“Oh, that reminds me,”Miao Fuquan said. “Theinformation I told you overthe phone a few days ago isreliable.”“What’sthat?”“Theescapefund.”“Lao Miao, how can you

believethat?Youdon’tseemlike an easy mark,” YangJinwensaiddisapprovingly.“No, no,” Miao Fuquan

said, lowering his voice and

looking back and forthbetween the other two. “Theyoung guy’s name is ShiXiaoming. I checked out hisbackground through variouschannels, and his father ShiQiang works for the PDC’ssecuritydepartment!Heusedto be chief of a municipalantiterrorism squad, and nowhe’sakeypersoninthePDCin charge of combatting theETO. I’vegotanumberherefor his department. You can

checkitoutforyourselves.”The other two looked at

eachother, andYang Jinwenlaughed as he picked up thebottle and poured himselfanotherglass.“Sowhatifit’strue?Whocares if there’sanescape fund? How can Iaffordit?”“That’s right. It’s for you

rich folks,” ZhangYuanchaoslurredout.Yang Jinwen suddenly

grew excited: “And if it’s

really true, then the state’s apack of morons! If anyone’sgoingtoflee,itshouldbethecream of our descendants.Whythehellwouldyougiveit to anyone who can pay?What’sthepointofthat?”Miao Fuquan pointed at

him and laughed. “Fine,Yang. Let’s get to your realpoint. What you really wantis foryourdescendants tobetheonestogo,right?Lookatyoursonanddaughter-in-law:

Ph.D. scientists. Elites. Soyour grandsons and great-grandsonswillmostlikelybeelitestoo.”Heliftedhisglassandnodded.“Butifyouthinkabout it, everyone should beequal, right? There’s noreasonelitesshouldgeta,youknow,freelunch,right?”“Whatdoyoumean?”“Everythinghasacost.It’s

a lawof nature. I’ll spend toensureafuturefortheMiaos.That’salawofnature,too!”

“Why is this somethingthatcanbebought?Thedutyof escaping is to extendhuman civilization. They’llnaturally want the cream ofcivilization. Sending a bunchof rich dudes across thecosmos,”hesnorted.“What’llthatdo?Hmph.”The awkward smile on

MiaoFuquan’sfacevanished,andhepointed a thick fingeratYangJinwen.“I’vealwaysknownyoulookdownonme.

NomatterhowrichIget,I’lljustbeavulgarmoneybagstoyou.Isn’tthatright?”“Who do you think you

are?” asked Yang Jinwen,fueledbythealcohol.Miao Fuquan slapped the

table and stood up. “YangJinwen, I’m not going tostandforyourbile.I’mgonna—”Then Zhang Yuanchao

slammed the table with anoise three times louder,

knocking over two of thecupsandstartlingayelpfromthe Sichuan woman. Hepointedhisfingerattheothertwointurn.“Fine.You’reanelite, and you’ve gotmoney.Thatleavesme.Whatthehelldo I have? I’m just a poorman,soitservesmerightthatmy line will be wiped out?”With obvious effort herestrained himself fromkicking over the table, thenturnedandstormedout.Yang

Jinwenfollowedhim.

***

The Second Wallbreakercarefully put new goldfishintothebowl.LikeEvans,heenjoyed isolation, but heneeded thecompanionshipofbeingsotherthanhumans.Heoften spoke to the goldfishlike he spoke to theTrisolarans, twoformsoflifewhose long-termpresenceon

Earthhewaslookingforwardto.Just then the sophon’s text

appearedonhisretina.

I’verecentlybeenstudyingAStoryofThree Kingdoms, and like you said,deceitandtrickeryareanart,justlikethemarkingsonasnake.

“MyLord, once againyoubringupthesnake.”

Themorebeautifulthemarkingsonasnake,themorefearsomeitlooks.Wedidn’t use to care about humanityescaping, so long as they stopped

existingintheSolarSystem,butnowwe have adjusted our plans and havedecided to prevent humanity fromfleeing. Letting an enemy whosethoughts are totally opaque flee intothecosmosisverydangerous.

“Do you have a specificplaninmind?”

The fleethasmadeadjustments to itsSolar System deployment. It willdetourinfourdirectionsattheKuiperBelt6andencircletheSolarSystem.

“If humanity really flees,your fleet will be too late to

doanythingby the time theydo.”

That is true, so we require yourassistance. The next mission of theETO is to halt or delay humanity’sescapeplans.

The Wallbreaker smiled.“My Lord, you really don’thave to worry about that atall. No large-scale flight ofhumanitywilleverhappen.”

Evengiven thepresent, limitedspacefor technological development,

humanity might be able to buildgenerationships.

“The greatest obstacle toflightisnottechnology.”

Then is it disputes among countries?ThisUN special sessionmay resolvethat problem, and if it can’t, thendeveloped countries are entirelycapable of brushing aside theopposition of developing countriesandforcingaplanthrough.

“The greatest obstacle toflight is not disputes amongcountries,either.”

Thenwhatisit?

“Disputes among people.Thequestionofwhogoesandwhostaysbehind.”

That doesn’t seem like a problem tous.

“Wethoughtsoatfirst,butit turns out to be aninsurmountableobstacle.”

Canyouexplain?

“Youmaybefamiliarwith

human history, but you willprobably find this hard tocomprehend: Who goes andwho remains involves basichuman values, values whichinthepastpromotedprogressin human society, butwhich,in the face of ultimatedisaster, are a trap. Rightnow, the majority ofhumanity has not realizedhow deep this trap is. Lord,pleasebelievemywords.Nohumancanescapethistrap.”

***

“Uncle Zhang, you don’thave to decide now. You’veasked all the necessaryquestions,andit’snotasmallamount of money, after all,”Shi Xiaoming said to ZhangYuanchao, his face a pictureofserenity.“It’s not that. Is the plan

forreal?TheTVsays—”“Don’t youmindwhat the

TVsays.Twoweeksago the

government spokespersonsaid that freezing accountswasimpossible,butnowlookwhat’s happened.… Thinkreasonably. You’re anordinary man, and you’rethinking about thecontinuation of your familyline.Whataboutthepresidentand the premier?Won’t theybe thinking about thecontinuation of the Chinesepeople? And the UN aboutthecontinuationofthehuman

race?ThisUNspecialsessionis actually an internationalcooperative plan that willformally launch the HumanEscape Plan. This is apressingmatter.”LaoZhang slowlynodded.

“Itdoes seem thatwaywhenyou thinkabout it.But I stillfeellikeescapeisalongwayoff. Should I really beworryingaboutit?”“Uncle Zhang, you

misunderstand. Escape can’t

be all that far off. Do youthink the escape ships willonly take off three or fourhundred years from now? Ifthat were true, then theTrisolaran Fleet could catchthemeasily.”“Thenwhenwill the ships

headout?”“You’re about to have a

grandson,right?”“Yes.”“Your grandson will see

thoseshipstakeoff.”

“He’llbeaboardone?”“No,that’simpossible.But

hisgrandsoncouldbe.”“That’s…” Zhang worked

it out. “About seventy oreightyyears.”“It’ll be longer than that.

Thewartimegovernmentwilltighten population controlsandbuilddelaysintothebirthrestrictions, so it’ll be fortyyears to a generation. Theships will take off in aboutonehundredtwentyyears.”

“That’s pretty quick. Cantheybebuiltintime?”“Uncle Zhang, think back

towhat things were like onehundred twenty years ago. ItwasstilltheQingDynasty!IttookoveramonthtogofromHangzhoutoBeijing,andtheemperor had to spend dayscoopedupinasedanchairtoget to his summer retreat.Now it’s less than threedaysfrom Earth to the moon.Technology develops fast,

whichmeansthat thepaceofdevelopmentisalwaysontheincrease. If you add to thatthe fact that thewholeworldis pouring all its energy intospace technology, thenthere’snoquestionatall thatspaceships can be created inabout one hundred twentyyears.”“Isn’t space travel pretty

dangerous?”“That’s true, but won’t

Earthbedangerousthen,too?

Look at how things arechangingnow.Thecountry’smaineconomicforceisbeingusedtoestablishaspacefleet,which is not a commercialgood and will not bring inone cent in profit. People’sliveswillonlygetworse.Addto that the sheer size of ourbase population, and simplyhaving enough to eatbecomesaproblem.Andthentake a look at theinternational situation.

Developing countries don’thavetheabilitytoescape,anddeveloped countries haverefused to socialize theirtechnology. But the poorerand smaller countries won’tgive up. Aren’t theythreatening to pull out of theNon-Proliferation Treaty?And they may take moreextremeactions in thefuture.Who knows—in a hundredand twenty years, before thealien fleet even arrives, the

world might be engulfed inthe flames of war! Whoknowswhat sort of life yourgreat-grandson’s generationwill lead.Besides, theescapeships aren’t what youimagine. Comparing them tothe Shenzhou spaceship andthe ISS is ridiculous. Theships will be big, each ofthem a small city, and acomplete ecosystem to boot.Just like a tiny Earth.Humanity can live on them

forever without any outsidesupplies. And mostimportantly, there will behibernation. We can do thatnow,even.Thepassengersonboardwillspendmostoftheirtime in hibernation, where acentury feels like no morethan a day, until they reachthe new world or they reachan accord with theTrisolarans to return to theSolar System. Then they’llwake up. Isn’t that a much

betterlifethansufferingbackonEarth?”Zhang Yuanchao thought

thisoverinsilence.ShiXiaomingwenton.“Of

course, to be completelyhonestwithyou, space travelis indeed a dangerous thing.No one knows what sort ofhazards theymightencounterin space. I know you’remostly doing this for thecontinuation of your Zhanglineage,butdon’tletitworry

you…”Zhang stared at him as if

he had been pricked. “Howcan you young people saythings like that? Whywouldn’tIworry?”“Let me finish, Uncle

Zhang. I don’t mean it likethat. I justmean that even ifyou don’t plan on sendingyour descendants to flee inspaceships,thisfundisworthbuying,guaranteed.Once it’savailable for the general

public to buy, the price willsoar. There are lots of richpeople, you know, and therearen’tmanyotheravenuesforinvestment, and hoarding isillegal. Besides, the moremoney you have, the moreyou think about preservingyourline,wouldn’tyousay?”“Right.Iknowthat.”“Uncle Zhang, I’m being

totally honest here. Theescape fund is currently in apreliminary phase and has

only a small number ofspecialinternalsalespeople.Itwasn’t easy forme to get inon the quota. At any rate,whenyou’ve thought it over,give me a call, and I’ll helpyoufilloutthepaperwork.”When Shi Xiaoming had

gone,LaoZhangstoodonthebalcony looking out at thesky,whichhungalittlehazilyover thehaloof thecity,andsaid to himself,My children,willyourgrandpareallysend

you someplace where nightlastsforever?

***

When King Wen of Zhounext set foot onto thedesolation of Three Bodyworld,asmallsunwasrising.Althoughitdidnotgivemuchheat,itlitthewastelandquiteclearly. The wasteland wascompletelyempty.“Is there anyone here?

Anyone?”Then his eyes lit up as he

saw someone riding agalloping horse from thehorizon.Recognizinghimatadistance as Newton, he rantoward him, waving wildly.Newton soon reached hisside,reinedinhishorse,and,after dismounting, hurriedlyadjustedhiswig.“What are you shouting

for? Who restarted thisdamnedplace?”

King Wen didn’t answerhis question, but took hishand and said urgently,“Comrade, my comrade,listentome.TheLordhasnotabandoned us. Or, rather, Itsabandonment was for areason,andItwillneedus inthefuture.It…”“I know that,” Newton

said, impatiently brushingasideKingWen’shand.“Thesophons sent me a messagetoo.”

“So that means that theLordsentamessagetolotsofus at the same time.Excellent. The organization’scontact with the Lord won’teverbemonopolizedagain.”“Doestheorganizationstill

exist?” Newton wiped awaysweatwithahandkerchief.“Of course it exists. The

Redemptionists totallycollapsed after the globalstrike,andtheSurvivorssplitoff and developed into an

independent force. Only theAdventists are left in the orgnow.”“The strike purified the

org.Thisisagoodthing.”“Since you’re here, you

must be an Adventist. Butyou seem to be out of theloop.Areyouonyourown?”“My only contact is with

one other comrade, and hedidn’t tell me anything butthis Web address. I barelyescaped the awful global

strikewithmylife.”“Your escape instincts

were ably demonstratedduring the Qin Shi Huangera.”Newtonlookedaround.“Is

itsafe?”“Of course. We’re at the

bottomof amultilevelmaze,andit’spracticallyimpossibleto discover. Anyone whomanaged to storm their wayin here wouldn’t be able totrace user locations. For

security reasons, after thestrike, the org put everybranch into isolation withmutual contact kept to aminimum.Weneedaplacetomeet, and a buffer area fornew members. This is moresecurethantherealworld.”“Have you noticed that

attacksontheorganizationintherealworldhaveslackenedconsiderably?”“They’re clever. They

know the org is the only

means of obtainingintelligence on the Lord, aswell as the only opportunityof getting their hands on thetechnology that the Lordpasses to us, even thoughthere’s only aminute chanceof that happening.That’s thereason they’ll let the orgcontinue to exist to a certainextent, but I think they’llcometoregretit.”“The Lord isn’t so clever.

It doesn’t even comprehend

theabilitytobeclever.”“So It needs us. The

existence of the org isvaluable, and all comradesshould know of this as soonaspossible.”Newtonmountedhishorse.

“Verywell.I’vegottogo.I’llstaylongeronceI’veverifiedthatit’sreallysecurehere.”“Iguaranteetoyouthatit’s

absolutelysafe.”“If that’strue, thenthere’ll

be more comrades gathering

here next time. Good-bye.”Sayingthis,Newtonurgedhishorseoffintothedistance.Bythe time its hoofbeats haddissipated, the small sun hadbecomeashootingstar,andacloak of darkness descendedupontheworld.

***

Luo Ji lay limp on the bed,watching the woman put onclothes after a shower

through eyes still hazy fromsleep. The sun, already highin thesky,shone through thecurtainsandturnedherintoagraceful projected silhouette,likeascenefromablack-and-whitemoviehehadforgottenthe name of. But what heneededtoremembernowwasher name. What was shecalled?Keep calm. First, herlast name: If it was Zhang,then she would be ZhangShan.Orwas itChen?Then,

Chen Jingjing … no, thosewere previous women. Hethought about looking at hisphone, but it was still in hispocket and he had tossed hisclothes on the carpet.Besides,theyhadonlyknowneach other for a little whileand he hadn’t entered hernumber into his phone yet.Theimportantthingnowwasnottohaveitbelikethatonetimehe’daskedoutright—theconsequences had been

disastrous.Soheturnedtothetelevision, which she hadturned on andmuted.On thescreen, seated around a largeround table, theUNSecurityCouncil was in session—wait, it wasn’t the SecurityCouncil anymore, but hecouldn’t remember its newname.Hewasreallyoutofit.“Turn it up,” he said. His

words sounded distantwithoutatermofendearment,but he didn’t care about that

now.“You really seem to be

interested.” She sat combingher hair but didn’t adjust thesound.Luo Ji reached over to the

bedsidetableandpickedupalighter anda cigarette and lititashestretchedhisbarefeetout of his towel andwiggledhisbigtoesinsatisfaction.“Look at you. You call

yourself a scholar?” Shewatchedhiswrigglingtoesin

themirror.“A young scholar,” he

added, “with fewaccomplishments. But that’sbecause I don’t put in theeffort. I’m actually full ofinspiration. Sometimes, whatother people might spend alifetime working on, I canfigure out with a moment’sthought.…Believeitornot,Iwasalmostfamousonce.”“Becauseofthatsubculture

stuff?”

“No, not that. It wasanother thing I was workingon at the same time. Iestablished cosmicsociology.”“What?”“It’s the sociology of

aliens.”She snickered, then tossed

her comb aside and beganputtingonhermakeup.“Don’tyouknowaboutthe

celebrity tendency inacademia? I could’ve been a

star.”“Alien researchers are a

dimeadozenthesedays.”“That’s only after all this

new crap came out,” Luo Jisaidashepointedatthemutetelevision, which was stillshowing the large table andthe people seated round it.The segment was awfullylong. Was it live?“Academics didn’t use tostudy aliens. They siftedthroughpilesofoldpaperand

become celebrities that way.But later the public got tiredof the cultural necrophilia ofthatoldcrew,andthat’swhenI came along.” He stretchedhis bare arms toward theceiling. “Cosmic sociology,aliens,andlotsofalienraces.More of them than there arepeople on Earth, tens ofbillions!TheproducerofthatLecture Room televisionprogramtalkedaboutdoingaserieswithme,butthenitall

actually happened, andthen…” He swept a circlewithafinger,andsighed.She wasn’t listening too

closely to him, reading thesubtitles on the televisioninstead: “‘We reserve alloptions in regard toEscapism…’ What does thatmean?”“Who’stalking?”“ItlookslikeKarnoff.”“He’ssayingthatEscapism

needstobetreatedasharshly

astheETO,andthataguidedmissile needs to be droppedon anyone making a Noah’sArk.”“That’skindofharsh.”“No,” he said forcefully.

“It’s the wisest strategy. Icame up with it long ago.And even if it doesn’t cometo that, noone’sgoing to flyaway,anyway.Youeverreada book by Liang XiaoshengcalledFloatingCity?”“I haven’t. It’s pretty old,

isn’tit?”“Right.IreaditwhenIwas

akid.Shanghai’sabouttofallintotheocean,andagroupofpeople go house to houseseizing life preservers andthen destroying them enmasse,forthesolepurposeofmaking sure that no onewould live if everyonecouldn’t. I remember inparticular therewasone littlegirlwhotookthegrouptothedoor of one house and cried

out,‘Theystillhaveone!’”“You’re just the sort of

asshole that always seessocietyastrash.”“Bullshit.Thefundamental

axiom of economics is thehuman mercenary instinct.Without that assumption, theentire field would collapse.There isn’t any fundamentalaxiom for sociology yet, butit might be even darker thaneconomics. The truth alwayspicks up dust. A small

number of people could flyoffintospace,butifweknewit would come to that, whywould we have bothered inthefirstplace?”“Botheredwithwhat?”“Why would we have had

the Renaissance? Why theMagna Carta? Why theFrench Revolution? Ifhumanity had stayed dividedinto classes, kept in place bythelaw’sironrule,thenwhenthe time came, the oneswho

needed to leavewould leave,andtheoneswhohadtostaybehind would stay. If thistook place in the Ming orQing Dynasties, then I’dleave, of course, and you’dstay behind. But that’s notpossiblenow.”“I wouldn’t mind if you

tookoffrightnow,”shesaid.Which was, in fact, the

truth. They had reached amutual parting of ways. Hehad been able to reach this

pointwithallofhispreviouslovers,neverearlyorlate.Hewas especially pleased withhiscontrolover thepace thistime. He had known her forjust one week, and thebreakup proceeded smoothly,as elegantly as a rocketdiscardingitsbooster.He backtracked to an

earlier topic: “Hey, it wasn’tmy idea to establish cosmicsociology,youknow.Doyouwant to knowwhose it was?

You’re the only one I’mgoing to tell, so don’t getscared.”“Whatever. I can’t believe

most of what you sayanyway, apart from onething.”“Uh…forgetit.Whatone

thing?”“Comeon and get up. I’m

hungry.” She picked up hisclothes from the carpet andthrewthemonthebed.They ate breakfast in the

main restaurant of the hotel.Most of the occupants of thetables around them lookedserious, and at times theycould catch snatches ofconversation. Luo Ji didn’twanttolisten,buthewaslikea candle on a summer night.The words, like insectscrowding around the flame,kept working their way intohis head: Escapism,socialized technology, ETO,transformation to a wartime

economy, equatorial base,charter amendment, PDC,near-Earth primary warningand defensive perimeter,independent integratedmode…“Our age has gotten really

dull, hasn’t it?” Luo Ji said.He stopped cutting his eggandsetdownhisfork.Shenodded.“Iagree.Isaw

agameshowquestiononTVyesterday that was reallymoronic.Hands on buzzers.”

She pointed a fork at Luo Jiinimitationofthehost.“Onehundred and twenty yearsbefore the doomsday, yourthirteenth generation will bealive.Trueorfalse?”Luo Ji picked up his fork

again and shook his head.“It’s not going to be anygeneration of mine.” Hefolded his hands as if inprayer.“Mygrandfamilylinewilldieoutwithme.”She gave a dismissive

snort. “You asked me whichofyourlinesIbelieve.That’sthe one. You’ve said itbefore. That’s the sort ofpersonyouare.”So that’s why she was

leaving him?He didn’t wantto ask about it for fear ofcomplicating the issue, butshe seemed to read histhoughts, and said, “I’m thatsort of person too. It’s reallyannoyingtoseecertainthingsabout yourself in other

people.”“Particularly in a member

of the opposite sex,” Luo Jisaid,nodding.“But if youneed to justify

it, it’s perfectly responsiblebehavior.”“What behavior? Not

havingkids?Ofcourseitis.”LuoJipointedhisforkat thepeople around themdiscussing economictransformation. “You knowwhat sort of lives their

descendants will be living?They’ll be spending theirdays slaving away in theshipyards—the spaceshipyards—and then they’ll lineup at the canteen, belliesrumbling as they hold outtheir lunch pails waiting forthat ladle of porridge… andwhen they’re older, it’ll beUncle Sam Wants … no,EarthWantsYou,andit’sofftofindgloryinthearmy.”“It’ll be better for the

doomsdaygeneration.”“Retiring to face

doomsday. How miserable.And besides, that lastgeneration’s grandparentsmight not get enough to eat.Still, even that future’s notgoing to come to pass. Justlook at how stubborn thepeopleofEarthare.Ibettheyresist till the end, at whichpoint therealmysteryishowthey’lleventuallydie.”They left the hotel after

their meal and emerged intothe warm embrace of themorning sun. The air had asweetness that wasintoxicating.“I’ve got to learn how to

live.IfIcan’tswingthat,it’llbe a damn shame,” Luo Jisaid as he watched thepassingtraffic.“Neither of us is gonna

learn,” she said, her eyessearchingforataxi.“Then…” Luo Ji looked

inquiringly at her. Evidentlythere would be no need torememberhername.“Good-bye.” She nodded

inhisdirection,andthentheyshook hands and shared aquickkiss.“Maybewe’llmeetagain.”

He regretted this as soon ashe said it. Everything hadbeenfineuptillthispoint,sowhyriskcausingtrouble?Buthisconcernwasunnecessary.“I doubt it.” She turned

quicklyasshespoke,sendingthebagonhershoulderflyinginto theair, adetail thatLuoJi repeatedly called to mindafterward in an attempt todetermine whether or not ithad been deliberate. Itwas adistinctive LV bag, and hehadseenhersenditswingingwhile turning around manytimes before. But this timethe bag swung straight at hisface,andwhenhetookastepbackward to dodge it, he

stumbled over the firehydrant behind him and fellflatonhisback.Thatfallsavedhislife.Meanwhile, the following

wastakingplaceonthestreetin front of them: Two carscollided head on, but beforethe noise of the impact hadsubsided, a Polo swerved toavoid the crash and camehurtling toward where thetwo of them were standing.Luo Ji’s fall turned into a

successful dodge. Only thefront bumper of the Polobrushed one of his feet, theone that was still elevated,nudging his body into aninety-degree turn on theground so that he faced thebackendofthecar.Hedidn’thear the heavy thud of theotherimpact,butthenhesawthe woman’s body soar overthe top of the car and fallbehind it on the road like aboneless rag doll. As it

tumbled, the trail of blood itleft behind on the groundseemed like itought tomeansomething.Ashestaredatthebloodysymbol,LuoJifinallyrememberedhername.

***

Zhang Yuanchao’s daughter-in-law was about to givebirth. She had been movedinto the delivery room whiletherestofthefamilygathered

in the waiting room outside,where a television wasplayingavideoofmotherandbabywellness information. Itall gave him a feeling ofwarmthandhumanitythathehad never felt before, alingering coziness of a pastGoldenAge being eroded bythe ever worsening era ofcrisis.Yang Jinwen came in.

Zhang Yuanchao’s firstthought was that he was

taking this opportunity topatch up their relationship,butYangJinwen’sexpressiontoldhimthatwasn’tthecase.Without so much as agreeting, Yang Jinwendraggedhimfromthewaitingroom into the hallway. “Didyoureallybuyintotheescapefund?”heasked.Zhang Yuanchao ignored

himandturnedtogo,asiftosay, That’s none of yourbusiness.

“Look at this,” YangJinwen said, handing him anewspaper. “It’s today’s.”Thetopheadlinestoodoutinblackbeforehiseyes:

SPECIALUNSESSIONPASSESRESOLUTION117,DECLARESESCAPISM

ILLEGAL

Zhang Yuanchao carefullyread through the start of thearticleunderneath:

Byanoverwhelmingmajority, a

special session of the UnitedNations General Assemblypassed a resolution declaringEscapism a violation ofinternational law. In stronglanguage, the resolutioncondemned the division andturmoil that Escapism hascreated within human society,and described Escapism as acrime against humanity in theeyes of international law. Theresolution called on memberstatestoenactlegislationassoonas possible to put a stop toEscapism.

In a statement, the Chinesedelegate reiterated the stance ofthe Chinese government

regardingEscapismandsaidthatitfirmlysupportsUNResolution117. He conveyed the Chinesegovernment’s pledge to takeimmediateactiontoestablishandimprovelegislation,andtoadopteffective measures to stop thespread of Escapism. Heconcluded by saying, “Wemustcherishtheunityandsolidarityofthe international community inthistimeofcrisisandupholdtheprinciple, recognized by theinternationalcommunity, that allhumanity has an equal right tosurvival. The Earth is thecommonhomeofitspeople,andwemustnotabandonher.”

“Why … why are theydoingthis?”hestammered.“Isn’t it obvious? Put a

little thought into it, andyou’llrealizethatescapeintothe cosmos was never goingtowork.Thecriticalquestioniswhogetstoleave,andwhohas to stay. This isn’tordinary inequality. It’s aquestion of survival, and nomatter who gets to leave—elites, the rich, or ordinarypeople—so long as some

people get left behind, itmeans the collapse ofhumanity’s fundamentalvalue system and ethicalbottom line. Human rightsandequalityhavedeeproots.Inequality of survival is theworst sort of inequality, andthe people and countries leftbehindwillnever justsitandwait for death while othershaveawayout.Therewillbeincreasingly extremeconfrontations between the

two sides until there’s worldchaos,and thennoonegoes!The UN resolution is quitewise. How much did youspend,LaoZhang?”Zhang Yuanchao

scrambled for his phone. Hecalled Shi Xiaoming’snumber, but it wasunreachable. His legsthreatenedtogiveout,andheslid down the wall to sit onthe ground. He had spent400,000yuan7.

“Call the police! There’sone thing that that Shi kiddoesn’t know: Lao Miaolooked up his daddy’s workunit. The scammerwon’t getaway.”Zhang Yuanchao just sat

there shaking his head. Hesaid with a sigh, “Sure, wecanfindhim,butthemoney’slong gone. What’ll I say tomyfamily?”There was the sound of

crying, and then a nurse

shouted, “Number nineteen.It’saboy!”ZhangYuanchaobounded off into the waitingroom as everything elsesuddenly becameinsignificant.Inthethirtyminutesthathe

had been waiting, tenthousand new babies hadcome into the world, babieswhosecombinedcriesformeda tremendous chorus.Behindthem was the Golden Age,the good times that began in

the1980sandendedwiththeCrisis. Ahead of them,humanity’s arduous yearswereabouttounfold.

***

All Luo Ji knewwas that hewaslockedinatinybasementroom. The basement wasdeep, and he had felt thedescent of the elevator (oneof those rare old-styleelevators with a manually

operated lever) even as themechanism confirmed hissensations, countingbackwardtonegativeten.Tenlevels below ground! Onceagain he took stock of hissmall room. The twin bed,simple furnishings, and anancient wooden writing deskgave the place the look of aguardroom,notaprisoncell.Clearlynoonehadbeenherefor quite some time, andalthough the bedclotheswere

new, the rest of the furniturewascoveredindustandgaveoffadank,mustysmell.The door opened and a

stocky middle-aged manentered.HenoddedwearilyatLuoJi.“Dr.Luo,I’mheretokeepyoucompany,but sinceyou’vejustcomeoverIdon’texpect you’re climbing thewallsjustyet.”Justcomeover.Thephrase

grated—surely “sent down”would have been more

accurate.LuoJi’sheartsank.His guess had beenconfirmed, it seemed:Although the men who hadbrought him here had beenpolite, it was clear he hadbeenarrested.“Areyouapoliceman?”Themannodded.“Usedto

be. Name’s Shi Qiang.” Hesat down on the bed andpulled out a pack ofcigarettes. The smokewouldn’t have any place to

dissipate in thissealedroom,Luo Ji thought, but he didn’tdare say anything. As ifreading his mind, Shi Qianglooked around and said,“There ought to be aventilation fan.” Then hepulledacordnexttothedoor,andafanstartedhumming.Itwaspretty rare to see a pull-cord switch. Luo Ji alsonoticedanobsoleteredrotaryphone lying in a corner,covered in dust. Shi Qiang

handedhimacigarette,whichheacceptedafteramoment’shesitation.When they had lit their

cigarettes, Shi Qiang said,“It’s early yet. Shall wechat?”“Ask away,” Luo Ji said,

head down as he exhaled acloudofsmoke.“Ask what?” Shi Qiang

said, looking at Luo Ji insurprise.LuoJijumpedupfromthe

bed and tossed the cigaretteaside. “How can you suspectme? You’ve got to know itwas just a traffic accident!The two cars collided, andthen she was hit by the onebehind them as it tried toavoid the crash. It’s plain asday.”He held out his hands,atalossforwords.Shi Qiang raised his head

and looked at him, his tiredeyes suddenly alert, as if aninvisible malice, honed with

practice, were hidden behindthe smile he usually wore.“You said that, not me. Mysuperiors don’t want me tosay anything more, and Idon’t know anything more.To think I was worried wewouldn’t have anything totalkabout.Come,sitdown.”Luo Ji didn’t sit down.He

got in Shi Qiang’s face andcontinued: “I’d only knownher for aweek.Wemet at abarnexttotheuniversity,and

whentheaccidenthappenedIcouldn’t even remember hername. Tell me, what couldthere possibly have beenbetween us to lead yourthoughtsinthatdirection?”“You couldn’t even

remember her name? Nowonderyoudidn’tcareatallwhenshedied.You’reprettymuch the same as anothergeniusIknow.”Hechuckled.“The wonderful life of Dr.Luo, meeting a new woman

every time you turn around.Andwhatwomentheyare!”“Isthatacrime?”“Of course not. I’m just

jealous. I’ve got one rule inmywork:Nevermakemoraljudgments.TheguysI’vegotto deal with, they’re the realdeal. If I go and nag them,‘Look at what you’ve done!Thinkaboutyourparents,andaboutsociety…’andsoon, Imight as well be slappingthemacrosstheface.”

“I’d rather talk about her,Officer Shi. Do you reallybelieveIkilledher?”“Look at you, bringing up

theissueonyourown.Sayingyou may have killed her,even. We’re just having acasual chat. What’s yourhurry? You’re new at this,thatmuchisclear.”LuoJistaredatShiQiang,

andforamomentthehumofthe fan was the only audiblesound. Then he cackled and

pickeduphiscigarette.“Luo,my man,” Shi Qiang said.“Luo, my boy. Destiny’sbrought us together. Youknow, I’ve been involved insixteencasesthatendedinthedeath penalty. I personallyescortednineofthem.”LuoJihandedacigaretteto

ShiQiang. “I’mnotgoing tolet you escort me. So, ifyou’llbesogoodastonotifymylawyer.”“Excellent, my boy,” Shi

Qiang said, clapping Luo Jion the shoulder.“Decisiveness is a trait Iadmire.” Then he drew upclosetohimandsaid,througha cloud of smoke, “You cancome across all sorts ofthings, but what’s happenedtoyouisreally…”Hetrailedoff. “Actually, I’m here tohelp.Youknowhowthejokegoes: On the way to theexecution ground, acondemned criminal

complained that itwas goingto rain, and the executionersaid, ‘What have you got toworryabout?We’re theoneswho’ve got to go backthrough it!’ That’s theattitude you and I ought tohave for what comes next.Well,then.There’sstillsometime before we get going.Might as well get somesleep.”“Getgoing?”Again,LuoJi

staredatShiQiang.

There was a knock at thedoor, and then a keen-eyedyoung man entered anddropped a suitcase on theground. “Captain Shi, it’sbeen moved ahead. We’releavingnow.”

***

Zhang Beihai gently pushedopen the door to his father’shospital room. Half-recliningagainst a pillow on the bed,

his father looked better thanhehad imagined.Thegoldenrays of the setting sun thatshone in through thewindowgavehis facesomecolorandmade him look less like aman at death’s door. ZhangBeihai set his hat on thecoatrackbythedoorandtookaseatbesidehisfather’sbed.He didn’t ask about hiscondition, because the oldsoldier would give him astraightanswer,andhedidn’t

wantastraightanswer.“Dad,I’vejoinedthespace

force.”His father nodded but said

nothing. For father and son,the silence conveyed moreinformation than words.Growing up, his father hadused silence rather thanspeech to educate him, andwords were merely thepunctuation between thesilences. It was his silentfatherwhohadmadehiminto

themanhewastoday.“Just like you thought,

they’re building the spacefleet on a naval foundation.They believe space warfarewill be closest in form andtheorytonavalwarfare.”His father nodded. “Very

good.”“SowhatshouldIdo?”I’ve finally asked it, Dad.

The question I spent asleepless night gathering theresolvetoask.Ihesitatedjust

nowwhenIsawyou,becauseI know it’s the question thatwill disappoint you themost.I remember when I finishedgrad school and joined thefleet as a cadet lieutenant,you toldme, “Beihai, you’vegot a long way to go. I saythatbecauseIcanstilleasilyunderstand you, and beingunderstandable to me meansthat your mind is still toosimple,notsubtleenough.Ontheday I canno longer read

youorfigureyouout,butyoucan easily understand me,that’s when you’ll finallyhave grown up.” And then Igrew up like you said, andyoucouldnolongersoeasilyunderstand your son. I knowyou must have felt at leastsomesorrowatthat.Butyourson is indeed becoming thekind of person you’d hopedfor, someonenotparticularlylikeable, but capable ofsucceedinginthecomplicated

and dangerous realm of thenavy. For me to ask thisquestion surely means thatthe training you’ve given mefor three decades has failedat the crucial juncture. ButDad, tell me anyway. Yourson is not as great as youimagine. Tell me, just thisonce.“Think some more,” his

fathersaid.Fine, Dad. You’ve given

me an answer. They’ve told

me quite a lot, those threewords, more than could besaid in thirty thousand.Believe me, I’m listening tothem with my whole heart,but I still need you to beclearer, because this is fartooimportant.“And after I’ve thought?”

ZhangBeihaiasked,grippingthebedsheetwithbothhands.Hispalmsandforeheadwerelacedwithsweat.Dad, forgive me. If I

disappointed you the lasttime, then let me go further,go back to being a kid oncemore.“Beihai, all I can say is to

thinklongandhardfirst,”hisfatherreplied.Thank you, Dad. You’ve

made it very clear, and Iunderstand.ZhangBeihai let goof the

sheetandgraspedhisfather’sbony hand. “Dad, I’m notgoing to sea anymore. I’ll

come and see you all thetime.”Hisfathersmiledbutshook

hishead:“Thisisn’tanythingserious. Concentrate on yourwork.”They spoke for a while

longer,firstoffamilymatters,and then about theestablishment of the spaceforce, with his fathercontributing lots of ideas ofhisown, includingadviceforZhang Beihai’s future work.

Theyimaginedtheshapeandsize of space battleships,debated the weaponry ofspace warfare, and evenwhether Mahan’s theory ofsea power applied to spacebattles.…But there was little

significance in theirconversation, just father andson taking a verbal strolltogether. The significancewas in the three lines theirheartsexchanged:

“Thinksomemore.”“AndafterI’vethought?”“Beihai, all I can say is to

thinklongandhardfirst.”Zhang Beihai said good-

bye to his father. As he wasleaving the room, he turnedback at the door to look athim,shroudedinshadownowthat the light of the settingsun had departed. His eyespierced the shadows andnoticed one last scrap ofillumination on the wall

opposite. Although it wasabout to fade, this was thetimewhenthesettingsunwasat itsmostbeautiful.Thelastraysofsunlightshone,too,onthe waves that rolledendlessly on the angry oceanand in shafts of light thatpiercedthejumbledcloudsinthe west and cast enormousgolden bands on the water’ssurfacelikepetalsfallenfromheaven. Beyond the petals,dark clouds loomed over a

world black as night as athunderstorm hung betweenheaven and earth like thecurtain of the gods, and onlyperiodic lightning lit thesnowlike spray thrownupbythe waves. In one goldenband,adestroyerstruggledtolift its prow from the trough,and then broke through thewall of the wave with athunderous crash, the spraygreedily absorbing the lightlike a giant roc stretching

enormous glittering wings tothesky.Zhang Beihai put on his

cap, which bore the insigniaof the Chinese Space Force.He said to himself,Dad, wethink alike. This is my goodfortune. I won’t bring youglory,butI’llgiveyourest.

***

“Mr.Luo,pleasechange intothis,” said the young man,

who knelt down to open asuitcase upon entering theroom. Though the manseemedentirelypolite,LuoJicouldn’t shake a certaindiscomfort, like he hadswallowedafly.Butwhenhesawtheclothingthemantookout, he realized that hewouldn’t be wearing aconvict’s uniform: It lookedlikeanordinarybrownjacket.He took it and inspected thethickmaterial.ShiQiangand

theyoungmanputonsimilarjacketsindifferentcolors.“Putiton.It’scomfortable

and it breathes. Not like theold stuff we used to wear,whichwasstickyashell,”ShiQiangsaid.“Bulletproof,” the young

mansaid.Who would want to kill

me? Luo Ji thought as hechangedjackets.The three of them left the

room and followed the

corridor to the elevator. Theceiling was lined withrectangular metal ductworkand they passed severalheavy, sealed doorways. LuoJi noticed a faint slogan onone of the mottled walls.Only part of it was visible,but he knew the wholeslogan: “Dig deep tunnels,keep vast stores of grain,don’tseekhegemony.”8“Civil Air Defense?” he

asked.

“Not the ordinary kind.Defense against the atombomb, but it’s obsolete now.Back in the day, you had tobe someone special to get inhere.”“So we’re at … the

WesternHills?”LuoJiasked,butShiQiangand theyoungmandidnotreply.LuoJihadheard storiesabout the secretcommand center. Theyentered the old-style elevatorand began to ascend

immediately,accompaniedbya tremendous scraping. Theoperator was a People’sArmed Police soldier armedwith a submachine gun. Thisseemed tobehis first timeatthis job,andhehad to fiddlewith thecontrolsabitbeforetheelevatorfinallystoppedatfloor-1.Exitingtheelevator,LuoJi

saw that theywere ina largehall with a low ceiling, likean underground parking

garage.Anumberofdifferentcars were parked here, someof them with engines on,filling the air with noxiousexhaust. People werestanding beside the lines ofcarsorwalkingamong them.With only one light in adistant corner turned on, theplacewasdimandthepeopledark shadows. Only whentheypassedthelamplightdidLuo Ji see that they werefully armed soldiers. Some

were shouting into radios,trying to be heard over theengine noise. Their voicessoundedtense.Shi Qiang led Luo Ji

throughthetwolinesofcars,with the young man closebehind.Thelamplightandredtaillights shining though thegaps in thecarscastanever-changing pattern of color onShi Qiang’s body andreminded Luo Ji of the dimbar where he had met the

woman.ShiQiangledLuoJitoone

car,openedthedoor,andhadhim get in. The car wasroomy, but the edges of itsabnormally tiny windowsrevealed the thickness of thecar’s body. A reinforcedvehiclewithtintedglassinitssmall windows, probably asanantibombmeasure.Thecardoor was ajar, and Luo JicouldhearShiQiangandtheyoungmantalking.

“Captain Shi, they calledjust now to say they’ve beenover the route. All guardpositionshavebeensetup.”“The route is too

complicated. We’ve onlybeen able to do a couple ofquickrunsthroughthewholething. Not enough forcomfort.Andabouttheguardpositions—it’s like I said,you’vegottothinklikethem.If you were on their side,where would you be hiding?

Consultwiththeexpertsfromthe People’s Armed Policeagain. Hey, what’s the planforthehandoff?”“Theydidn’tsay.”ShiQiangraisedhisvoice.

“Morons. They can’t leavesuch an important part up intheair.”“Captain Shi, it looks like

the brass want us to followalongtheentireway.”“I can follow along my

entire life, but since there’s

got to be a handoff oncewe’rethere,thereneedstobea clear demarcation ofresponsibilities. There’s gotto be a line. Anything thathappens before it is on us,andafterwardonthem.”“They didn’t say…” The

young man soundeduncomfortable.“Zheng, I know you’ve

been feeling sorry foryourself since Chang Weisigot promoted. Hell, it’s like

we don’t even exist to hisformer subordinates. But weshould have some self-respect. Who the fuck arethey? Have they been underfire,orhavetheyeverfiredatanyone? That crew used somany high-tech tricks in thelast operation it was like acircus.Theyevenbroughtoutthe airborne early warningsystem. But in the end, whodid they use to find themeetingplace?Us.Thatwon

ussomecred.Zheng,ittookalot of convincing to get thelot of you over here, but Iwonder if thatmight not endupcausingyouharm.”“Captain Shi, don’t say

that.”“It’s a troubled world. Do

you get that? Morality isn’twhat it used to be. Everyonefoists their bad luck off ontootherpeople,soyou’vegottobe on your guard.… I’mgoingonlikethisbecauseI’m

worried about how long I’mgoing to last. I’m afraid thatall of it’s going to land inyourlap.”“CaptainShi,you’vereally

got to think about yourillness.Didn’t the higher-upsschedule you forhibernation?”“I’ve got to get lots of

things taken care of first.Family, work. And do youthink I’m not worried aboutthelotofyouhere?”

“Don’t worry about us.With your condition, youcan’t put it off. Your teethwere bleeding out again thismorning.”“That’s nothing. I’ve got

goodluck.Youshouldknow.Three of the guns I’ve beenshotatwithwereduds.”The cars at one endof the

hall were beginning to pullout. Shi Qiang got in andclosedthedoor,andwhentheneighboring car started to

move, theircar followed.ShiQiang pulled the curtainsclosedoneitherside,andtheopaque divider between theback and front seats totallyobscuredLuoJi’sviewoftheoutside. As they rode, ShiQiang’s radio chirpedendlessly,butLuoJicouldn’tmake out the comments ShiQiang was replying to inclippedsentences.When they had ridden a

shortway,LuoJi said toShi

Qiang, “Things are morecomplicatedthanyousaid.”“That’s right. Everything’s

complicatednow,”ShiQiangsaid perfunctorily, hisattention still focused on theradio. They spoke no morefortherestofthetrip.The ride was smooth and

unbroken, and after about anhourtheycametoastop.WhenShiQianggotoutof

thecar,hemotionedtoLuoJito wait inside, and then

closedthedoor.LuoJihearda rumbling that seemed tocomefromabovethevehicle.After a few minutes, ShiQiang opened the door againand had Luo Ji get out, atwhich point he realized theywere at an airport. Therumbling had turnedthunderous. He looked up tosee two helicopters hoveringoverhead, oriented inopposite directions like theywere monitoring the open

area. In front of him was alarge aircraft that looked likeapassengerplane,exceptthattherewas no insignia on anypart he could see.Anairstairstoodinfrontofthecardoor,and Shi Qiang and Luo Jitook it up to the aircraft.When Luo Ji glanced backout the door after theyentered, the first thing thatcaught his eye were thefighter jets lined up on adistantapron,whichinformed

himthatthiswasn’tacivilianairport.Closer in,he saw thecars from their convoy andthe soldiers that had exitedtheirvehiclesinaringaroundthe plane. The sun wassetting,castingalongshadowdowntherunwayaheadoftheplane, like a giantexclamationpoint.Luo Ji and Shi Qiang

entered thecabin.Threemeninblacksuitswelcomedthemand took them past the

forward cabin, which wastotallyemptybutresembledapassenger plane with fourrows of seats. In the middlecabin, Luo Ji saw a fairlyspacious office, and anothersuite through whose half-open door he glimpsed abedroom. The furnishingswere unremarkable but neatand orderly, and apart fromthe green safety belts on thesofaandchairsyouwouldn’thave known you were on a

plane.LuoJiknewthat therewere very few charter planesofthiskindinthecountry.Twoof the threemenwho

led theminvanished througha door to the rear cabin,leaving behind the youngestone, who said, “You can sitanywhere you like, but youneedtobuckleup,notjustontakeoff and landing butthroughouttheentireflight.Ifyou sleep, then buckle thesleep-belt too.Nothing that’s

not fixed inplacecanbe leftout in theopen.Stay inyourseatorbunkatall times,andif you must move about,please inform the captainfirst. This is an intercombutton. There’s one at everyseat and every bunk. Hold itdown to talk. If there’sanythingyouneed,pleaseuseittocallusatanytime.”LuoJi lookedinconfusion

atShiQiang,whosaid,“Theplane may execute some

specialmaneuvers.”Themannodded.“Correct.

Please let me know if youhave any problems. Call meXiao Zhang. I’ll bring youdinnerwhenwe’reintheair.”AfterXiaoZhangleft,Luo

Ji and Shi Qiang sat on thesofa and fastened theirseatbelts.LuoJilookedabouthim. Apart from the roundwindows and the slightlycurved walls they were setinto, the room seemed so

conventionalandfamiliarthatit felt a little strange to bewearing seatbelts in anordinary office.But soon thenoise and vibration of theengine reminded him hewasaboard a plane taxiing downthe runway, and a fewminuteslatertheenginenoisechangedand the twoof themwere pressed back into thesofa. Then the groundvibrations disappeared andthe office floor took on a

slant. As the plane climbed,the sun, which had alreadydipped below the ground,returnedthroughthewindow,justas thesamesunhadsentthe day’s final rays ofsunlight into the hospitalroom of Zhang Beihai’sfatherjusttenminutesbefore.

***

By the time Luo Ji’s planereached the coast, Wu Yue

and Zhang Beihai were onceagain looking over theunfinished Tang, tenthousand meters below. Thiswastheclosesthewouldevergettothetwosoldiers.As on their previous visit,

Tang’s enormous frame wasshrouded in the dim light ofdusk. The showers of sparkson thehull didn’t seemquiteas plentiful, and the lampsilluminating the ship haddimmed substantially. And

thistime,WuYueandZhangBeihaino longerbelonged tothenavy.“I heard the General

Armaments Department hasdecidedtoterminatetheTangproject,”ZhangBeihaisaid.“What’sthatgottodowith

us?”WuYuesaidcoldly,hiseyes sweeping from Tang tothe last bits of sunset in thewest.“You’ve been in a bad

moodsince joining the space

force.”“You should know the

reason.You can always readmythoughts,sometimesmoreclearly than I can, and thenyouremindmewhatitisI’mreallythinkingabout.”ZhangBeihaiturnedtoWu

Yue. “You’re depressedabout joining what’sinevitably a losing war.You’re jealous of that finalgenerationthatwillbeyoungenough to fight in the space

forceattheendandbeburiedin the cosmos together withtheir fleet. Devoting alifetimeofefforttoahopelessendeavor is hard for you toaccept.”“Doyouhaveanyadvice?”“No. Technofetishism and

technological triumphalismare deeply rooted in yourmind, and I learned longagothatIcan’tchangeyou.Icanonlytrytominimizetheharmthat sort of thinking can

cause. Besides, I don’t thinkit’s impossible for humanitytowinthiswar.”Wu Yue dropped his cold

maskandmetZhangBeihai’sgaze.“Beihai,youusedtobea practical person. Youopposed building Tang, andonmultipleoccasions,on therecord, voiced doubts aboutbuilding a blue-water navy,arguing that it wasincompatible with ournationalstrength.Youbelieve

thatournavalforcesoughttoremain in coastal watersunder the support andprotection of shore-basedfirepower, an idea ridiculedas a turtle-shell strategy bythe young hotheads, butyou’ve persisted in it.… Sowhere do you get yourconfidence inaspacevictoryfrom now? Do you reallybelievethatwoodenboatscansinkanaircraftcarrier?”“After independence, the

newly founded navy usedwooden boats to sinkNationalist destroyers. Andevenearlier,thereweretimeswhen our army used cavalrytodefeattanks.”“You can’t seriously think

those miracles count asordinarymilitarytheory.”“On this battlefield,

terrestrial civilization won’tneedtofollowcommonplace,ordinary military theory.”Zhang Beihai held up a

finger. “One exception issufficient.”Wu Yue shot him a

mocking smile. “I’d like tohear how you’ll achieve thisexception.”“I don’t know anything

about space warfare, ofcourse, but if you want tocompare it to awooden boatversus a carrier, then I thinkit’sjustamatterofhavingthecourage to act and theconfidence in a victory. A

wooden boat could carry asmall squad of divers who’llwait in the carrier’s path.When theenemydrawsnear,they’ll dive in and the boatwill leave. Then when thecarrier comes close, they’llattach a bomb to the bottomof the hull and sink thecarrier.… Of course thiswould be exceedinglydifficult, but it’s notimpossible.”WuYuenodded.“Notbad.

Peoplehavetrieditbefore.Inthe Second World War, theBritishdid thataspartof theefforttosinktheTirpitz,onlythey used a minisub. In the1980s, during the MalvinasWar,a fewArgentinespecialforces soldiers took Italianlimpet mines into Spain andattempted to blow up aBritishwarshipdockedintheharbor at Gibraltar. Youknow what happened tothem.”

“But what we have is notjust a small wooden boat. Aone- or two-thousand-tonnuclear bomb can be madesmall enough for one or twodiverstotakeunderwater,andwhen it’s attached to theunderside of a carrier, itwon’t just sink it, it’ll blowthe whole carrier tosmithereens.”“Sometimes you’ve got a

fantastic imagination,” WuYuesaidwithasmile.

“I’vegotconfidenceinourvictory.” Zhang Beihailooked out at Tang, thedistant shower of weldingsparks reflected in his pupilsliketwosmallflames.WuYue too looked out at

Tang, and a new vision tookholdofhim:Theshipwasnolonger a ruined ancientfortressbutaprehistoriccliffwith a multitude of deepcaves carved into it, and thescattered sparks were

flickering firelight in thosecaves.

***

After takeoff and all throughdinner,LuoJi refrained fromasking Shi Qiang anythingabout where they wereheaded, or what exactly hadhappened, reasoning that ifShi Qiang was going to tellhim anything, he wouldalready have come out with

it. Once, he unbuckled hisseat belt and got up to lookout the cabin window, eventhoughheknewhewouldseenothingthroughthedarkness,but Shi Qiang followed himandpulleddown thewindowshade, saying that there wasnothingtoseeoutthere.“Why don’t we chat for a

while longer, and then go tosleep. What do you say?”asked Shi Qiang as he drewout a cigarette, then quickly

put it back, remembering hewasonaplane.“Sleep? So this is a long

flight?”“Who cares? It’s a plane

with beds. I say we takeadvantageofthem.”“You’re only responsible

for taking me to mydestination,right?”“Whatareyoucomplaining

for?We’ve still got to makethe return trip!” Shi Qianggrinned broadly, as if

immensely pleased withhimself. Cutting humorseemed togivehimpleasure.But then he turned moreserious: “I don’t knowmuchmoreaboutyourtripthanyoudo.Besides, it’s not yet timefor me to tell you anything.Take it easy. There’ll besomeone at the handoff toexplainthingstoyou.”“I’ve been guessing for

hours,but I’veonlycomeupwith one possible

explanation.”“Let me hear it, and let’s

see if it’s the same as whatI’mthinking.”“Thewomanwhodiedwas

an ordinary person, so thatmeans her social or familyconnections had to besomething special.” Luo Jididn’t know anything abouther family, just like hisprevious lovers. He wasn’tinterested, and forgotwhatevertheytoldhim.

“Who? Oh, that lover ofyours? Put her out of yourmind, since you don’t careanyway.Or,ifyouwant,whynot compare her name andface to some famousfigures?”Luo Ji’s mind flipped

through comparisons, butnothingmatched.“Luo, my man, can you

bluff?”ShiQiangasked.Luohad noticed a pattern in howhe addressed him. When he

was joking, he called him“myboy,”butwhenhewasalittlemoreserious,itwas“myman.”“DoIneedtobluffagainst

someone?”“Of course you do.… So

howaboutIteachyouhowtobluff? Of course, I’m not amaster of it either.Myworkis more along the lines ofbreakingscams.Here,I’lltellyou a few tricks for theinterrogation room. You

might find it useful later tofigure out what’s going on.Naturally, these are just themost basic, common ones.It’s hard to explain anythingmorecomplicated.We’llstartwith the gentlest one, whichhappens to be the simplest:TheList.Thatmeansdrawingup a whole list of questionsconnected to the case, andthenasking themonebyoneand recording the subject’sanswers, and then starting

over again from the top andrecording those answers too.Questions can be askedrepeatedly if necessary, andthen you can compare thetranscriptsoftheanswersandfindoutifthesubjectislyingabout something, since theanswers will be differentevery time. The technique issimple, but don’t look downyour nose at it. No one whohasn’t undergone training incounter-interrogation

techniques will be able topass it, so themost effectivewayofdealingwithTheListis simply to remain silent.”Shi Qiang fiddledunconsciously with hiscigaretteashespoke,butthenputitawayagain.“Ask them. It’s a charter

flight, so theyought toallowsmoking,”LuoJisaid.Shi Qiang had grown

excited while speaking andseemedalittleputoutatLuo

Ji’s interruption. It occurredto Luo Ji that he might beserious,orelsehehadanoddsense of humor. Shi Qiangpressed the red intercombutton beside the sofa, andXiaoZhangtoldhimhecoulddowhathe liked.So the twoofthemlitup.“Thenexttechniqueisonly

half-gentle.Youcanreachtheashtray—it’s fixed in place,you’ve just got to pull it up.Right. This technique is

called Black and White. Itrequires the cooperation oflots of people and is a littlemore complicated. First, thebad cops come out, at leasttwo of them on mostoccasions, and they’re reallynasty to you. Some of themverbally and othersphysically, but they’re allmean.There’sastrategytoit:not just to make you afraid,butmoreimportantlytomakeyou feel alone, to make you

feel like the whole worldwants to consume you. Thenthe good cop comes out, justone,andhe’sgotakindface,andhestopsthebadcopsandtells them that you’re ahumanbeing, thatyou’vegotrights, so how can they treatyou that way? The bad copstell him to beat it, that he’saffecting their work. Thegood cop persists, and says,‘You can’t do this!’The badcopssay,‘Ialwaysknewyou

didn’thavethestonesforthiswork. If you can’t handle it,then get lost.’ The good copshields you with his body,and says, ‘I’m going toprotecthis rights,andprotectjustice under the law!’ Thebad cops say, ‘Tomorrowyou’re out of here, just youwait!’ Then they leave in ahuff. So it’s just the two ofyou left, and the good copwipes off your blood andsweat and tellsyounot tobe

afraid, and that you have theright to be silent! Then, asyoucanimagine,hebecomesyourone friend in theworld,so when he draws you out,you aren’t silent anymore.…This technique is mosteffectiveagainstintellectuals,butitdiffersfromTheListinthat it loses its effect whenyou’reawareofit.”He spoke animatedly and

seemed about to take off hisseatbeltandstandup.LuoJi

was seized by dread anddespair and felt as if he hadfallenintoanicepit.Noticinghis discomfort, Shi Qiangstopped.“Well,then,let’snottalkabout interrogation,evenif it might be useful to you.You can’t take it in all atonce.Besides,Iwasgoingtotell you how to trick people,so just remember this: Realshrewdnessmeansnot lettinganyshrewdnessshow.It’snotlike in themovies. The truly

astutedon’tsitintheshadowsall day striking a pose. Theydon’t show off that they’reusing their brains. They lookall carefree and innocent.Some of them are tacky andmawkish, others careless andunserious. What’s critical isnot to let others think you’reapersonofinterest.Letthemlookdownonyouordismissyou and they won’t feelyou’re an obstacle. You’rejust a broom in the corner.

The pinnacle of this is tomake them not notice you atall,as ifyoudon’texistuntilthemoment rightbefore theydieatyourhands.”“Will I everhave theneed

oropportunitytobecomethatsortofperson?”LuoJibrokeintoask.“Like I said, I know no

more about this than you do.But I’ve got a premonitionthatyouneedtobecomesucha person. Luo, my man,

you’ve got to!” Shi Qianggrew excited again andclapped him on the shoulderwith enough force to makehimwince.Then they sat in silence

watchingthecloudsofsmokecurl upward to the ceiling,wheretheyweresuckedawayintoacrack.“Screw it. Let’s hit the

sack,” Shi Qiang said as hegroundouthiscigaretteintheashtray. He shook his head

with a smile. “I’ve beengoing on like an idiot.Whenyou thinkbackon this, don’tlaughatme.”In the bedroom, Luo Ji

tookoffhisbulletproofjacketand wrapped himself in thesafety sleeping bag. ShiQianghelpedhimtighten thestraps holding it to the bed,and then set down a smallvialonthebedsidecabinet.“Sleeping pills. Take them

ifyoucan’tsleep.Iaskedfor

alcohol, but they said thereisn’tany.”ShiQiangremindedLuoJi

that he should notify thecaptain before getting out ofbed,thenturnedtoleave.“OfficerShi,”LuoJicalled

afterhim.At the door, Shi Qiang

half-turned back to look athim.“I’mnotanysortofcop.Thepolicearen’t involved inthis thing.EveryonecallsmeDaShi.”

“Well then, Da Shi, whenwe were talking just now, Inoticed the first thing yousaid. Or, I guess, the firstthingyousaidinreplytome.I said, ‘thewoman,’ andyoudidn’t realize for a momentwhoIwastalkingabout.Thatmeans that she’s not amajorpartofthiscase.”“You’reoneofthecalmest

peopleI’veevermet.”“Thecalmnesscomesfrom

cynicism. There’s not much

in the world that can makemecare.”“Whatever it is, I’venever

seensomeonewhocouldstaycalm in a situation like this.Forget all that stuff I saidbefore. I just like to kidaroundaboutthings.”“You’re just looking for

something to hold myattention so that you cansmoothly complete yourmission.”“If I’ve set your

imagination going, Iapologize.”“What do you think I

shouldthinkaboutnow?”“In my experience, any

thinkingisliabletogoofftherails. You should just go tosleep.”Shi Qiang left. After he

closedthedoor,theroomwasdark except for a small redlamp at the head of the bed.The ever-present backgroundrumble of the engine was

particularlyconspicuous,asifthe infinite night sky on theother side of the wall wasemittingadeephum.Then Luo Ji felt that it

wasn’t an illusion, that thesound really was comingfrom some far-off placeoutside. He unbuckled thesleepingbagandcrawledout,thenpusheduptheshadeoverthe window by the bed.Outside, the moon wasshiningon a seaof clouds, a

vast ocean of silver. Luo Jirealizedthatabovethecloudswere other things shiningwith a silver light, fourramrod-straight lines thatcaught the eye against thebackdrop of the night sky.They were extending at thesame speedas theplane, andtheir trailing ends faded outand blended into the nightlike four silver swords flyingover the clouds. Luo Jilooked back at the tips and

noticed that the silver lineswerebeingdrawnoutbyfourobjects with a metallic glint.Four fighter jets. It wasn’thard to guess that anotherfourwereontheothersideoftheplane.Luo Ji pulled down the

shadeandburrowedbackintothe sleeping bag. He closedhis eyes andwilled hismindto relax. He didn’t want tosleep,buttowakeupfromhisdream.

***

Inthedeadofnight,thespaceforce work meeting was stillin progress. Zhang Beihaipushed aside the notebookanddocumentsthatlayonthedeskinfrontofhimandstoodup,scanningthetiredfacesofthe officers before turningtowardChangWeisi.“Commander, before we

report on our work, I’d firstliketosharesomeofmyown

views. I believe that themilitary leadership has notpaid sufficient attention topoliticalandideologicalworkamong the forces. Forexample, the politicaldepartment is the last of thesixestablisheddepartmentstopresent its report at thismeeting.”Chang Weisi nodded. “I

concur. The politicalcommissars have not yetreported for duty, so it’s

fallen to me to overseepolitical work. Now thatwe’ve finally begun work inall areas, it’sdifficult togiveit enough attention. For thebulk of thework,we’ll haveto relyonyouand theotherswho are in charge ofspecifics.”“Commander, in my

opinion, the present situationis dangerous.” This remarkdrew the attention of severalofficers, and Zhang Beihai

continued.“Pleaseforgivemefor speaking pointedly. Forone thing, we’ve been inmeetingsalldayandwe’realltired, so no onewill listen ifI’mnotblunt.”Afewpeoplelaughed,buttherestwerestillmired in their fatigue. “Moreimportantly, I’m trulyworried. The battle we arefacing has a force disparityunprecedented in the historyof human warfare, so Ibelieve that for the indefinite

future the greatest dangerfacing the space force isdefeatism. Its threat can’t beoverstated. The spread ofdefeatismwillnotonlyresultin an erosion of morale, butmayleadtothetotalcollapseof space-based militarypower.”ChangWeisinoddedagain.

“I agree. Defeatism is ourgreatest enemy at present.The military commission isacutely aware of this. It’s

why political and ideologicalwork in the services will becritical. Once the basic unitsof the space force are inplace, the work will becomemorecomplex.”ZhangBeihai flipped open

his notebook. “The workreport follows,” he said, andbegan to read: “Since theestablishment of the spaceforce, our primary focus inpoliticalandideologicalworkamongthetroopshasbeento

conduct a survey of theoverall ideological status ofofficers and soldiers. Sincethe organization of this newbranch is simple at thepresent time, with fewmembers and fewadministrative levels, thesurvey was conductedthrough informal meetingsand personal interaction, anda corresponding forum wasset up on the intranet. Theresults of the survey are

worrying. Defeatist thinkingis prevalent and spreadingswiftlyamongthetroops.Thementality of a sizeableproportion of our comradesconsists of terror toward theenemy and a lack ofconfidence in the future ofwar.“The source of this

defeatism stems primarilyfrom the worship oftechnology, and theunderestimation or complete

dismissal of the role ofhuman initiative and thehuman spirit in war. It is adevelopmentandextensionoftechno-triumphalism and the‘weapons decide everything’theorythathascroppedupinthe armed forces in recentyears. The trend isparticularly pronouncedamong highly educatedofficers. Defeatism amongthetroopstakesthefollowingforms:

“One. Treating one’s dutyin the space force as anordinaryjob:despiteworkingwith dedication andresponsibility, lackingenthusiasm and sense ofmission and doubting theultimatesignificanceofone’swork.“Two. Passive waiting:

believingthat theoutcomeofthewardependsonscientistsand engineers; believing thatprior to breakthroughs in

basic research and keytechnologies, the space forceis just a pipe dream, andsubsequent confusion aboutthe importance of its presentwork; being satisfied simplywithcompleting tasks relatedto establishing this militarybranch;lackinginnovation.“Three. Harboring

unrealistic fantasies:requesting to use hibernationtechnology to leap fourcenturies into the future and

take part in the DoomsdayBattle directly. A number ofyounger comrades havealready expressed this wish,andonehasevensubmittedaformal application. On thesurface,thisisapositivestateof mind, a desire to throwoneself onto the front lines,but it is essentially justanother form of defeatism.Lackingconfidenceinvictoryanddoubting thesignificanceof our present work, a

soldier’sdignitybecomes theonly pillar sustaining workandlife.“Four.Theopposite of the

above: doubts about thedignity of the soldier, thebelief that the military’straditional moral code is nolonger suitable for thebattlefield, and that fightingto the end has no meaning;the belief that a soldier’sdignityonlyexistswhenthereis someone to see it, and

when a battle ends in defeatandnohumansareleftintheuniverse, then this dignityloses its significance.Although only a minorityhold this notion, theabrogation of the very worthof the space force isexceedinglyharmful.”Here Zhang Beihai looked

out at the assembly and sawthat although his speech hadattractedsomeinterest,itstillhadn’t managed to shake the

fatiguefromthemeetinghall.He was confident that whathe had to say next wouldchangethesituation.“I’ll give you a specific

example of a comrade whoexhibits a typical form ofdefeatism. I am referring toColonel Wu Yue.” ZhangBeihai held out his hand inthe direction of Wu Yue’sseatattheconferencetable.The tiredness of the room

was swept away and the

attendees pricked up theirears. Everyone lookednervously at Zhang Beihaiand then at Wu Yue, whogazed placidly back, thepictureofcalmness.“Wu Yue and I have

worked together in the navyfor quite some time and weknow each other very well.He has a strong technologycomplex, andas a captainheis a technical type,or, if youwant, an engineer. This in

itself isn’t a bad thing, butunfortunately, his militarythinking is over-reliant ontechnology, and while hedoesn’t come out and say it,he subconsciously believesthat technologicaladvancement is the primaryand perhaps sole determinantof combat effectiveness. Hecompletely neglects thehuman role in battle,particularly in his lack ofunderstanding of the unique

advantages formed in ourarmy by difficult historicalconditions. When he learnedof theTrisolarCrisis, he lostall confidence in the future,andoncehe joined the spaceforce, this despair onlybecame more pronounced.ComradeWuYue’s defeatistsentiment is so heavy andingrained that we have nohopeofpullinghimoutofit.We must adopt strongmeasures as soon as possible

to arrest the spread ofdefeatism in the troops, andtherefore I believe thatComrade Wu Yue is nolonger suitable for work inthespaceforce.”AlleyeswereonWuYue,

who was now looking at thespace force emblem on hishat lying on the table. Heremainedcalmasbefore.Throughout the course of

hisspeech,ZhangBeihaihadnot even glanced in Wu

Yue’s direction. Hecontinued: “Commander,Comrade Wu Yue, and therest of you, I ask for yourunderstanding.Isaythisonlyoutofconcernforthepresentideologicalstateofthetroops.Of course, I also hope toengage Wu Yue in face-to-face, frank, and opendiscussion.”Wu Yue raised a hand

requesting permission tospeak, and at a nod from

ChangWeisi,he said, “WhatComrade Zhang Beihai hassaidaboutmymentalstate isaccurate, and I accept hisconclusion:IamnolongerfittoserveintheSpaceForce.Iwill abide by whatever theorganizationarranges.”The atmosphere turned

tense.Severalofficerslookedat the notebook in front ofZhang Beihai, wonderingwho else its contents mightconcern.

One senior colonel in theair force got up and said,“ComradeZhangBeihai, thisis an ordinaryworkmeeting.You ought to go through theproper organizationalchannels instead of bringingup issues like this. Do youthink it’s appropriate to talkaboutthisopenly?”His words were

immediatelyechoedbymanyoftheotherofficers.ZhangBeihaisaid,“Iknow

that my remarks violateorganizationalprinciples,andI am prepared to accept allresponsibility.However, I dobelieve that I must, bywhatever means, bring theseriousness of our currentsituationtoyourattention.”ChangWeisiraisedahand

to prevent any other replies.“First, the sense ofresponsibility and urgencythat Comrade Zhang Beihaihas shown in his work must

be commended. Theexistence of defeatismamongst the troops is a fact,and we must face itrationally. So long as atechnology gap existsbetween our two sides,defeatism will not vanish. Itis not a problem that can besolved through simplemethodsbutwillrequirelongandpainstakingwork,aswellas more interaction anddiscussion. However, I also

agree with the suggestionproposed by the colonel:matters concerning personalideology should be resolvedprimarily throughcommunication andexchange, and if a report isnecessary, it should bemadethroughtheproperchannels.”The officers let out a sigh

of relief. At this meeting, atleast,ZhangBeihaiwouldnotbementioningtheirnames.

***

Imagining the boundlessnight sky above the cloudlayer, Luo Ji struggled tocollect his thoughts.Involuntarily, his minddrifted to thoughts of thewoman: her voice andlaughingfaceappearedinthedimness,andasorrowhehadnever felt before weighedupon his heart. This wasfollowed closely by self-

reproach,adisdainhehadfelton countless prior occasions,but never so intensely. Whywassheonhismindnow?Uptothispoint,hisonlyreactionto her death apart from fearand astonishment had beenself-absolution,andonlynowthat he knew her role in thesituation was negligible didhe spare her any of hisprecioussorrow.Whatsortofapersonwashe?But what could be done?

That’s just the sort ofpersonhewas.In his bed, the minute

oscillationsof theplanegaveLuoJithefeelingofbeingina cradle. He had slept in acradle as a baby, heremembered, and one day inhis parents’ basement he hadseen, covered in dust underan old kid’s bed, the rockersof a cradle. Now when heclosedhiseyesand imaginedthecouplerockinghiscradle,

he asked himself, From thedayyouleftthatcradle,haveyouevercaredaboutanyoneelse besides those twopeople?Haveyouevermadeeven a small, permanent bitof room in your heart foranyoneelse?Yes, he had made room,

once. Five years before, thegolden light of love hadinhabited his heart. But thathad been an unrealexperience.

EverythinghadstartedwithBai Rong, an author ofyoung-adult novels. Shewrote them inher spare timebut had gained enough of afollowing to bring her morein royalties than shemade insalary.Out of all thewomenhehadmet,hehad spent themosttimewithBaiRong,andhadevenreachedthepointofconsidering marrying her.Their relationship was theordinarysort,notparticularly

intense or unforgettable, butthey felt it suited them to berelaxed and happy together.Despite a certain dread ofmarriage,theyfeltgivingitatrywas the responsible thingtodo.At Bai Rong’s behest, he

hadreadallofherwork,andwhile he wouldn’t say heappreciated it, it wasn’t astorturous as the other worksin the genre he had flippedthrough. She had an elegant

style, and a mature luciditythatherpeerslacked.Butthisstyle was not complementedby the novels’ content.Reading them was likelooking at dewdrops on theundergrowth: pure andtransparent, but distinguishedfrom each other only by theway the light reflected andrefracted through them andhow they rolled abouton theleaves, fusing togetherwheretheymetandseparatingwhen

they fell, until theyevaporatedentirelywithinthespace of a fewminutes aftersunrise. Every time he readoneofherbooks,beneaththegracefulstylehewasleftwithone question:What do thesepeople live on if they spendtwenty-four hours a day inlove?“Thatloveyouwriteabout

—doyouthinkitexistsinthereal world?” he asked oneday.

“Ido.”“Something you’ve seen,

or something you’veexperiencedyourself?”She squeezed his neck.

“Either way, I’m telling youthat it exists,” she saidcrypticallyintohisear.Sometimes he would give

hersuggestionsforthenovelsshewasworking on, or evenhelpherrevisethem.“It’s like you’re more

talented than I am,” she said

once. “You’re not revisingplot,butcharacter,and that’sthehardestthingtodo.Everytime, you’re adding thetouches that make thecharacters most vivid. Yourskill at creating literaryfiguresisfirstrate.”“You’vegottobekidding.

My background’s inastronomy.”“Wang Xiaobo9 studied

mathematics,remember.”On her birthday last year,

she had asked him for aspecific present: “Can youwriteanovelforme?”“Awholenovel?”“Well, at least fifty

thousandcharacterslong.”“With you as the

protagonist?”“No. I saw a really

interesting exhibition ofpaintings by male artists ofthe most beautiful womenthey could imagine. Theprotagonist of your novel

shouldbe the same.Youcanleave reality behind andcreateanangelbasedentirelyon your dream of feminineperfection.”Tothisdayhehadnoidea

of the motivation for herrequest. Maybe she didn’tknow herself. Thinking backnow, it seemed her mood atthe time had been a mixtureof craftiness andambivalence.Sohebeganconstructinga

character. He first imaginedher face, and then designedher clothes, and then thoughtof her environment and thepeoplearoundher,andfinallyplaced her in thatenvironment and had hermoveaboutandspeak,lettingher live.But thissoonturnedtedious,andhetoldBaiRongabout the difficulties he hadencountered: “She’s like apuppet on a string. Everyword and action arises from

thedesignbutlacksthesparkoflife.”She said, “Your approach

is wrong. You’re writing anessay rather than creating aliteraryfigure.Whataliterarycharacterdoes in tenminutesmight be a reflection of tenyears’ experience. You can’tbe limited to the plot of anovel—you’vegottoimagineher entire life, and whatactuallygetsputintowordsisjustthetipoftheiceberg.”

Sohefollowedheradvice.He threw out everything hewanted to write and insteadimagined the character’sentire lifeandeverydetailofit.Heimaginedhernursingather mother’s breast, her tinymouth sucking energeticallyand burbling withsatisfaction; chasing a redballoon tumbling down thestreet but making it just onestep before falling to theground, wailing as she

watched the balloon driftaway without realizing thatshe had just taken her firststep;walking in the rain andimpulsively folding up herumbrella to feel theraindrops; her first day atelementary school, sittingalone in a strange classroom,unable to see her parentsthroughthewindowsordoor,and nearly starting to cry,only to realize that her bestfriend fromkindergartenwas

at a nearby desk, and cryingin joy instead; her first nightatcollege, lyingonherdormbunk and watching theshadows of trees thrown bystreetlamps onto the ceiling.…Heimaginedeveryoneofher favorite foods, the colorand style of every item ofclothing in her dresser, thedecorations on her mobilephone,thebookssheread,themusic on her media player,theWebsitesshevisited, the

movies she liked; but neverher makeup, because shedidn’tneedmakeup.…Likeacreator outside of time, hewove the different stages ofher life together andgradually came to discoverthe endless pleasure ofcreation.One day at the library, he

imagined her standing by arow of shelves, reading. Heput her in his favorite outfit,so her petite form would

standoutmorevividly inhismind. Suddenly, she lookedupfromthebookandoverathim,andflashedhimasmile.He was taken aback: Had

he told her to smile? Thesmile had already imprinteditself on his memory like astain on ice, never to bewipedaway.The real turning point

camethefollowingnight.Thesnow and wind picked up,temperaturesplummeted,and

hewatched from thewarmthof his dorm the bluster thatblanketedtheothersoundsofthe city, the buffeting of thesnowflakesonthewidowlikethe patter of sand. A hugecarpet of snow coveredeverythingoutdoors.Thecityseemed to no longer exist,leaving the faculty dormitorystandingonaninfinitesnowyplain. He went back to bed,but before he drifted off tosleep he had a sudden

thought: If she were outsidein this awful weather, shewould be terribly cold. Thenhe reminded himself: Itdoesn’t matter, she won’t beoutside unless you put herthere. But this time hisimagination failed, and shecontinued walking outside inthe blizzard like a blade ofgrassthatcouldblowawayatany moment. She still worethat white coat and that redscarf,whichwasallhecould

make out, vaguely, throughtheswirlingsnow,likea tinyflame fighting against thestorm.It was impossible for him

tosleep.Hesatupinhisbed,then threw on some clothesand sat on the sofa. Hewonderedifheshouldhaveasmokebut, remembering thatshedetestedthesmell,insteadmade a cup of coffee anddrank it slowly. He had towaitforher.Theblizzardand

thecoldnightweighedonhisheart.Thiswas the first timehehadfeltsuchheartacheforsomeone,orsuchyearning.Ashismindwassputtering

to life, she came quietly, hersmall frame wrapped in alayer of cold from theoutdoors,butwithabreathofspring amid the chilliness.The snowflakes in her hairquicklymelted intogleamingdroplets as she unwrappedherscarfandputherhandsto

her mouth to blow on them.Hefoldedherhandsinhis towarm the icy softness, andshe looked at him withexcitement and asked thequestionhewas about to askher:“Areyouokay?”Hecouldonlynoddumbly.

Then,ashehelpedheroutofhercoat,he said,“Comeandget warm.” He rubbed hersoftshouldersandguidedhertothefireplace.“It’s really warm.

Wonderful…”She saton therug in front of the fireplace,laughing happily as shewatchedthefirelight.Damn it! What’s wrong

withme? he said to himself,in the middle of the emptyroom.Wouldn’t itbeenoughtojustcomeupwithanyfiftythousand words, print themon high-grade bond,Photoshop a gorgeous coverand flap, have itprofessionally bound, have it

gift-wrapped,andthengiveittoBaiRongonherbirthday?Why had he fallen so deepintothistrap?Hewasamazedtofindthathehadtearsinhiseyes. And then anotherrealization: A fireplace?When the hell did I get afireplace?Whywould I thinkof a fireplace? But then heunderstood: What he wantedwasn’t a fireplace, but theglow of the fire, for it is infirelightthatawomanismost

beautiful. He recalled howshe had looked just thenagainsttheglowofthefire.…No!Don’t thinkabouther.

It will be a disaster! Go tosleep!Contrary to his

expectations, he did notdreamofhertheentirenight.He slept well, imagining thesingle bed as a small boatfloating on a rosy sea.Whenhe awoke the next morning,he felt reborn, like he was a

candle thathadbeencoveredindustforyearsbeforebeinglit by that tiny flame in lastnight’s snowstorm. Hewalked excitedly down theroad to the classroombuilding, and though the airwas hazy after the snowfall,he felt like he could see athousandmiles.Therewasnosnow on the poplar treeslining the road, their barebranches poking up towardthecoldsky,but tohim they

were more alive than inspringtime.He took the podium, and

just as he had hoped, thereshe was again, seated in thebackof theamphitheater, theonlyone inanemptyrow,ata distance from the otherstudents.Herpurewhitecoatandredscarfwereontheseatbeside her, and she waswearing a beige turtlenecksweater.Shedidnothaveherheaddown, flippingpages in

her textbook like the otherstudents.Instead,shewatchedhim,andflashedhimanothersnowy-sunriseofasmile.Hegrewnervous.Hispulse

increased,andhehadtoleavethrough a side door to standon the balcony and calmhimself in the cold air. Theonlyother timeshehadbeeninasimilarstatewereduringhis two doctoral thesisdefenses.Inhislecturehedidhis utmost to show off, and

his extensive citations andimpassioned language won arare burst of applause fromthe auditorium. She didn’tjoin in, butmerely smiled athimandnodded.Afterclass,hewalkedside

by side with her along thetree-linedavenue thatofferedno shade, listening to thecrunch of her blue boots inthe snow. The two lines ofwinter poplars listened insilence to their heartfelt

conversation.“You lecture quite well,

but I didn’t reallyunderstand.”“You’re not in this major,

areyou?”“No,I’mnot.”“Do you often sit in on

classesinothermajors?”“Only the past few days.

I’ll go into a lecture hall atrandomand sit for awhile. Ijust graduated and will beleaving soon. I suddenly

realized that it’s great here,andI’mafraidoftheoutside.…”Overthenextthreeorfour

days,hespentthemajorityofhistimewithher,althoughtoothers, it lookedas ifhewasspending most of his timealone,strollingonhisown.Itwas quite easy to explain toBai Rong: He was thinkingabout her birthday gift. Andindeed,thiswasnolie.On New Year’s Eve, he

bought a bottle of red wine,which he had never drunkbefore, returned to his dormroom, shut off the light, andlit some candles on the tablenext to the sofa. When allthree candles were burning,shesatdownwordlesslynexttohim.“Oh,look,”sheexclaimed,

pointing at the wine bottlewithchildlikeexcitement.“What?”“Look at it from here,

where the candles shinethrough.Thewineislovely.”Shining through the wine,

the candlelight was a deep,crystalline red, the stuff ofdreams.“Likeadeadsun,”hesaid.“Don’tthinklikethat,”she

said, with a sincerity thatmeltedhisheart. “I think it’slike…theeyesoftwilight.”“Why not the eyes of

dawn?”“Iliketwilightbetter.”

“Why?”“When twilight fades, you

canseethestars.Whendawnfades,allthat’sleftis…”“All that’s left is theharsh

lightofreality.”“Yes,that’sright.”They spoke about

everything, sharing acommonlanguageineventhemost trivial of things, untilthe bottle that had containedtheeyesof twilighthadbeenemptiedintohisstomach.

Helaydrowsilyinbedandwatched the candles stillburningonthetable.Shehadvanished from thecandlelight, but he was notworried. So long as he waswilling,shecouldreappearatanytime.Thentherewasaknockon

thedoor.Heknew theknockcame from reality and hadnothing todowithher,soheignored it. The door openedandBaiRong entered.When

sheturnedonthelight itwaslike switchingon thegrayofreality. She glanced at thetable with the candles, thensat down at the head of hisbed and sighed lightly. “It’sstillokay.”“Whatis?”Heusedahand

toblocktheharshlight.“Youhaven’tgotten to the

point of leaving a glass forher,too.”He covered his eyes but

saidnothing.Shepulledaway

his hands, and then, lookingstraightathim,asked,“She’salive,isn’tshe?”He nodded and sat up.

“Rong, I used to think that acharacter in a novel wascontrolledbyhercreator,thatshe would be whatever theauthorwanted her to be, anddo whatever the authorwanted her to do, like Goddoesforus.”“Wrong!” she said,

standingupandbeginning to

pace the room. “Now yourealizeyouwerewrong.Thisis the difference between anordinary scribe and a literarywriter. The highest level ofliterary creation is when thecharacters in a novel possesslifeinthemindofthewriter.The writer is unable tocontrol them, and might noteven be able to predict thenextactiontheywilltake.Wecan only follow them inwondertoobserveandrecord

the minute details of theirlives like a voyeur. That’showaclassicismade.”“So literature, it turns out,

isapervertedendeavor.”“It was like that for

Shakespeare and Balzac andTolstoy, at least. The classicimages they created wereborn from their mentalwombs. But today’spractitionersofliteraturehavelost that creativity. Theirminds give birth only to

shattered fragments andfreaks, whose brief lives arenothing but cryptic spasmsdevoid of reason. Then theysweep up these fragmentsinto a bag they peddle underthe label ‘postmodern’ or‘deconstructionist’ or‘symbolism’or‘irrational.’”“So you mean that I’ve

become a writer of classicliterature?”“Hardly.Yourmindisonly

gestating an image, and it’s

the easiest one of all. Themindsofthoseclassicauthorsgave birth to hundreds andthousands of figures. Theyformed the picture of an era,and that’s something thatonly a superhuman canaccomplish.Butwhatyou’vedoneisn’teasy.Ididn’tthinkyou’dbeabletodoit.”“Haveyoueverdoneit?”“Just once,” she said

simply, and dropped thesubject. She grabbed his

neck, and said, “Forget it. Idon’t want that birthdaypresent anymore.Comebacktoanormallife,okay?”“Andifallthiscontinues—

whatthen?”She studied him for a few

seconds, then let go of himand shook her head with asmile. “I knew it was toolate.” Picking up her bagfromthebed,sheleft.Then he heard people

outside counting down, four,

three, two, one. From theclassroom building, whichuntil then had beenresoundingwithmusic, camepeals of laughter. On theathletic field people litfireworks. Looking at hiswatch, he saw that the finalsecond of that year had justpassed.“It’s a holiday tomorrow.

Where should we go?” heasked.Helayonthebed,butknew his character had

already appeared beside thenonexistentfireplace.“You’re not taking her?”

she asked in all innocence,pointingtowardthestill-opendoor.“No. Just the two of us.

Wherewouldyouliketogo?”She drank in the dancing

flames in the fireplace andsaid, “It’s not importantwhere we go. I think it’s awonderful feeling just beingonajourney.”

“Thenwe’llsetoutandseewhereweendup?”“Excellent.”The next morning, he

drovehisAccordoff campusand headed west, a directionhe chose purely because itavoided the headaches ofhaving to traverse the entirecity.Hefelt for thefirst timethe wonderful freedom oftraveling with no destinationin mind. As the buildingsoutside slowly thinned out

andfieldsbegantoappear,hecrackedhiswindowtoletthecoldwinter air in.He sensedher long hair catching thewind, and strands of it blewovertoticklehisrighttemple.“Look, mountains.” She

pointedoffinthedistance.“Visibility is good today.

Those are the TaihangMountains.They run parallelto this road, and then bendaroundtoformablockinthewest, where the road goes

into them. I’d say that rightnowwe’re—”“No, no. Don’t say where

weare!Onceweknowwherewe are, then the worldbecomesasnarrowasamap.When we don’t know, theworldfeelsunlimited.”“Okay. Then let’s do our

best to get lost.” He turnedonto an emptier road, andbeforetheyhadgoneveryfar,turnedasecondtime.Onbothsides of them were now

endlessfieldswherethesnowhad not yet meltedcompletely, the snowypatchesandsnow-freegroundroughly equal. No greenanywhere, although thesunlightwasbrilliant.“Aclassicnorthernscene,”

hesaid.“This is the first time I’ve

everfeltthatlandwithouttheslightestbitofgreencouldbebeautiful.”“Thegreenisburiedinthe

fields and is waiting forspringtime.Thewinterwheatwillsproutwhileit’sstillverycold,thenthiswillbeaseaofgreen. Imagine, all thisexpanse…”“Itdoesn’tneedgreen. It’s

beautiful right now. Look,doesn’t the land look like abigmilkcowasleepunderthesun?”“What?” He looked in

surprise, first at her and thenthrough the windows at the

patchysnowoneithersideofthecar.“Oh, there really isaresemblance!So,what’syourfavoriteseason?”“Autumn.”“Whynotspring?”“Spring … has so many

sensations squashed together.It gets tiring. Autumn isbetter.”He stopped the car and

wentoutwithhertotheedgeof the field to look at themagpies, which foraged on

the ground until they gotquite close, at which pointtheyflewofftosometreesinthe distance. Then theywentdown a riverbed that waspracticallydriedup,withonlyathinstreamofwaterflowingdownthecenter.Butitwasanorthern river all the same,and so they picked up smallchillysmoothstonesfromtheriverbedandpitchedthemin,watching the cloudy yellowwater gush out of the holes

they broke in the thin ice.Theypassedasmalltownandspent a while at the marketthere. She knelt down by agoldfish vendor, the fish intheir glass bowls like liquidflames under the sun, andwouldn’t leave. He boughther two and put them, waterandall,inplasticbagsonthebackseat of the car. Theyentered a hamlet, but foundnothing that felt like thecountryside. The houses and

compounds were brand new,cars were parked outside ofmanyofthegates,thecementroads were wide, and peoplewere dressed no differentlythaninthecities—afewgirlswere even stylish. Even thedogs were the same long-haired, short-legged parasitesfound in the cities. Moreinterestingwasthelargestageat the entrance to the village—theymarveledathowsucha small village could have

such an immense stage. Itwas empty, so with someeffort he climbed up and—looking down at his loneaudience member—sang averse from “TonkayaRyabina” about the slenderhawthorn tree.At noon, theyate in another town, wherethefoodwasmoreorlessthesame as in the city, only theportions were about twice aslarge. After lunch, they satdrowsilyinthewarmthofthe

sun on a bench outside thetown hall, and then droveonward with no direction inmind.Before they knew it, the

road had entered themountains, which were plainand ordinary in shape anddevoid of vegetation apartfrom withered grasses andvitexvines in the crevicesofthe gray rocks. Over thecourse of hundreds ofmillions of years, the

mountains,wearyofstanding,had lain down, sunken intoflatness amid time andsunlight, and turned anyonewalking among them just asindolent. “The mountainshere are like old villagersbaskinginthesun,”shesaid,but they hadn’t seen any ofthoseoldmen in thevillagesthey passed through; nonemore at ease than themountains. More than oncetheircarhadbeenstoppedby

a flock of sheep crossing theroad.Besidetheroadthereatlast appeared the kind ofvillages they had imagined,with cave houses andpersimmon and walnut treesandstone-tiledlowbuildings,roofspiledhighwithstrippedcorncob.Eventhedogswerelargerandmorefierce.They started and stopped

as they went through themountains, and before theyknew it the entire afternoon

was spent. The sun wassetting, and the road hadenteredtheshadowslongago.He drove along a dirt roadpittedwithpotholesupontoahighridgewherethesunstillshone, and they decided thatthiswouldbetheterminusoftheir journey: They wouldwatch the sun set and thenheadback.Herlonghairblewin the light evening breeze,seemingly striving to seizeholdofthelastgoldenrays.

They had only just turnedonto the highway when thecarbrokedown.Therearaxlehadbroken,meaningtheyhadtocallforhelp.Awhilelaterhewasabletolearnthenameoftheplacefromthedriverofasmallpassingtruck.Hewascomfortedbythefactthathisphonehada signal.Whenhegave his location to thepersonattherepairstation,hewas informed that the repairtruckwouldtakeatleastfour

orfivehourstogetthere.The mountain air chilled

quickly after sunset. Aftertheir surroundings began togrow dusky, he collectedsome corn stalks from anearby terraced field andstartedafire.“Niceandwarm,”shesaid,

gazingintothefire,ashappyas she had been that firstnightinfrontofthefireplace.Again he was transfixed byher appearance in the

firelight, drowned inemotions he had never feltbefore,asifhewasabonfirehimself and theonlypurposeof his existence was to giveherwarmth.“Are there wolves?” she

asked, looking around at thegrowingdarkness.“No.NorthernChinaisstill

in the interior. It just looksdesolate,but it’sactuallyoneofthemostdenselypopulatedregions. Look at the road. A

car drives past every twominutes,onaverage.”“I was hoping you’d say

there were wolves,” she saidwith a sweet smile, thenlooked off at the cloud ofsparks flying off like starsintothenight.“Okay. There are wolves,

butI’mrighthere.”They said nothing more,

butsatsilentlybeforethefire,occasionally feeding itanotherbunchofstraw.

Later—he didn’t knowhow much later—his phonerang.BaiRong.“Are you with her?” she

askedgently.“No,I’malone,”hesaidas

he looked up. He wasn’tlying. He truly was byhimself, next to a bonfirealong a road in the TaihangMountains. The firelightrevealed stones around him,and overhead was only astarrysky.

“I know you’re alone. Butareyouwithher?”He paused and softly said,

“Yes,” and when he lookedbeside him, there she was,feedingstrawintothefireandsmiling at the flames that lituptheareawheretheysat.“Now do you believe that

the love I write about inmynovelsreallyexists?”“Yes,Ibelieveit.”When he said those four

words, he immediately

realized how great thedistance between the two ofthem really was. They weresilent for a long time, duringwhichradiowavesspuntheirgossamer strands through themountainstosustainthisfinalcontact.“You have one of your

own,don’tyou?”heasked.“Yes.Foralongtime.”“Whereishenow?”He could hear her laugh

softly. “Whereelsewouldhe

be?”He laughed too. “Yes,

whereelse?”“Well.Takeiteasy.Good-

bye.” Bai Rong hung up,snapping the thread thatstretchedacrossthenightskyand leaving thepeople at thetwo ends a little saddened,butnothingmorethanthat.“It’s too cold outdoors.

Let’ssleepinthecar,”hesaidtoher.Shegentlyshookherhead.

“Iwant to bewith you here.You like me by the fire,right?”Itwasmidnightbythetime

the repair truck arrived fromShijiazhuang. The repairmenwere surprised to find himsitting beside a fire. “Sir,you’vegottabefreezing.Theengine’s not busted.Wouldn’t it bewarmer to sitinthecarwiththeheatturnedon?”After thecarwas repaired,

Luo Ji dashed home throughthe night, out of themountains and back onto theplain, reaching Shijiazhuangbydawn.Itwasalreadyteninthe morning by the time hegotbacktoBeijing.Rather than returning to

school, he drove straight tothepsychologist.“You may need a bit of

adjustment, but it’s nothingserious,”thedoctorsaid,afterlistening to his lengthy

narrative.“Nothing serious?” Luo Ji

opened his bloodshot eyeswide. “I’m madly in lovewithafictionalpersonfromanovel of my own creation.I’ve been with her, I’vetraveled with her, and I’veevenbrokenupwithmyreal-lifegirlfriendoverher.Isthatnothingserioustoyou?”The doctor smiled

tolerantly.“Don’t you get it? I’ve

givenmymostprofoundlovetoanillusion!”“Are you under the

impression that the object ofeveryone else’s love actuallyexists?”“Isthatevenaquestion?”“Sure. For the majority of

people,what they love existsonly in the imagination. Theobjectof their love isnot themanorwomanofreality,butwhatheorsheislikeintheirimagination. The person in

realityis justa templateusedforthecreationof thisdreamlover. Eventually, they findout the differences betweentheir dream lover and thetemplate.Iftheycangetusedtothosedifferences,thentheycan be together. If not, theysplitup.It’sassimpleasthat.You differ from themajorityin one respect: You didn’tneedatemplate.”“Sothisisn’tasickness?”“Only in the way your

girlfriendpointedout:You’vegot natural literary talent. Ifyou want to call that asickness,gorightahead.”“Butisn’timaginingtothis

degreealittleexcessive?”“There’snothingexcessive

aboutimagination.Especiallywhereloveisconcerned.”“SowhatshouldIdo?How

canIforgetabouther?”“It’simpossible.Youcan’t

forgether, sodon’tmake theeffort. Thatwill only lead to

side effects, andmaybe evenmental disorders. Let naturetake its course. Once more,for emphasis: Don’t try toforget about her. It won’twork.Butastimepasses,herinfluence on your life willdecrease.Andyou’reactuallyquite lucky. Whether or notshe really exists, you’refortunatetobeinlove.”This was Luo Ji’s most

deeply felt romanticexperience, a love that only

comes around once in aman’slife.Afterthat,hetookto an insouciant lifestyle,going where life took him,just like theday theyhad setout in the Accord. And likethepsychologisthadsaid,herinfluence in his lifedecreased.Whenhewaswitha real woman, she didn’tappear, and eventually sherarelyappearedevenwhenhewas alone. But he knew thatthemost secludedpart ofhis

soulbelongedtoher,andshewould be there for life. Heeven saw clearly the worldshe inhabited, a stillsnowscapewheretheskywasforever graced with silverstarsandacrescentmoon,thesnow falling steadily. In thesilence you could practicallyhear the snowflakes comingto rest on the ground likesmooth white sugar. In herexquisite cabin in the snow,the Eve that Luo Ji had

formed out of one of hismind’s ribs sat before anancient fireplace quietlywatchingthedancingflames.Now that hewas alone on

this ominous plane flight, hewanted to have hercompanionship,toguesswithherwhat lay at the journey’send. But she didn’t appear.Hecouldstillseeherinafar-off region of his soul, sittingsilently before the fireplace,never feeling lonely, because

she knew her world waswithinhim.Luo Ji reached out a hand

to themedicine bottle by thebedwiththethoughtofusinga sleeping pill to forcehimself to sleep, but theinstanthisfingerstouchedthebottle it flew off the cabinetand up to the ceiling, as didtheclothingthathehadflungontothechair.Theyremainedon the ceiling for a coupleseconds.Hefelthimselfleave

thebed,butsincethesleepingbag was attached, he didn’tflyaway,andwhenthebottlelanded, he fell heavily backinto the bed. For a fewseconds his body felt like itwasbeingpresseddownbyaheavyobject,andhecouldn’tmove. The suddenweightlessness andhypergravitation made himdizzy, a condition thatcontinued for less than tenseconds before everything

returnedtonormal.Heheard the soft swishof

footsteps on the carpetoutsidethedoor.Anumberofpeople were in motion, andthenthedooropenedandShiQiang poked his head in.“LuoJi,areyouokay?”When Luo Ji said he was

fine, he closed the doorwithoutcomingin.Outside,adialogue continued in lowvoices.“It looks like a

misunderstanding during theescort change. Nothing toworryabout.”“What did the higher-ups

sayon thecall earlier?”ThatwasShiQiang’svoice.“They said that the escort

formation would require amidair refueling in half anhour, and that we shouldn’tbealarmed.”“The plan doesn’tmention

thisinterruption,doesit?”“Not even close. In the

chaos just now, seven of theescort planes jettisoned theirsecondaryfueltanks.”“Why all the jumpiness?

Forgetit.Youshouldgobackto sleep. Don’t get tooworkedup.”“How are we supposed to

sleepinastatelikethis?”“Leavesomeoneonwatch.

What good are you if you’retired out? They may try tokeep us on high alert all thetime, but Imaintainmy own

opinion of security work:When you’ve thought ofeverything you should, anddoneeverythingyouneed to,then let whatever happenshappen.There’snothingmoreanyone can do, you know?Don’tpsychyourselvesout.”At the mention of “escort

change,”LuoJireachedover,opened the cover to thewindow, and looked outside.Therewasstillaseaofcloudsin the night sky. The moon

was inclining toward thehorizon,andhecouldseethetrailsofthefighterformation,now with an additional sixlines. He inspected the tinyaircraft heading up thosetrails and noticed that theywere a different model thanthefourhe’dseenearlier.The bedroom door opened

andShiQiangpokedhistorsointosay,“Luo,myman,justa small issue. Don’t worry.Nothing else from now on.

Gobacktosleep.”“There’sstilltimetosleep?

How many hours have webeenflying?”“We’ve still got a few

morehours.Gotosleep.”Heclosedthedoorandleft.Luo Ji turned over in the

bed and picked up the pillbottle.Shihadbeenthorough:It contained just one pill.Hetook it, looked at the smallredlightbeneaththewindow,imaginingitwasthelightofa

fireplace, and drifted off tosleep.

***

WhenShiQiangwokeLuoJiup, he had been sleepingdream-free formore than sixhours and was feeling prettygood.“We’re nearly there. Get

upandgetready.”Luo Ji went to the

washroom to wash up, and

whenhereturnedtotheofficefor a simple breakfast, hebecame aware of the plane’sdescent. Ten minutes later,afteraflightoffifteenhours,the charter plane was restingontheground.ShiQianghadLuo Jiwait

in the office and went outhimself. He brought back aman with a European facewho was tall andimmaculately dressed, andwhoseemedlikeahigh-level

official.“IsthisDr.Luo?”theofficialventuredashelookedat him.Noticing ShiQiang’sdifficulty with English, herepeated his question inChinese.“He’s Luo Ji,” answered

Shi Qiang, and then brieflyintroducedthemantoLuoJi.“This isMr.Kent.He’s heretowelcomeyou.”“I am honored,”Kent said

withabow.When they shook hands,

Luo Ji sensed that the manwas incredibly experienced.So much was hidden behindhisdecorum,butthegleaminhis eyes betrayed thepresence of secrets. Luo Jiwas fascinated by the man’sgaze, like a devil and anangel,likeanatombombandan identical-size preciousstone.… In the complexinformation conveyed bythoseeyes,LuoJicouldmakeout just one thing: This

moment was immenselyimportanttotheman’swholelife.Kent turned to Shi Qiang.

“You’ve done very well.Your segment was the mostcleanly done. The others hada bit of trouble on theirwayover.”“We listened to our

superiors. The principle weobservedwastominimizethetotal number of stages,” ShiQiangsaid.

“Absolutely correct. In thepresent circumstances,minimizing the stages makesfor maximum security. Andnow we’ll follow the sameprincipleandheadstraightfortheconferencehall.”“When does the session

start?”“Inonehour.”“We’vecutitthatclose?”“Thestartof thesession is

set by the arrival of the finalcandidate.”

“That’s pretty good. Shallwehandoff,then?”“No. You are still

responsibleforthesecurityofthis one. Like I said before,youarethebest.”ShiQiangwas silent for a

secondortwoashelookedatLuoJi.Thenhenodded.“Aswe’ve been gettingacquainted with the situationover the past few days, ourpeople have run into quite afewobstacles.”

“Iguaranteethatnothingofthesortwillhappenfromnowon. You have the fullcooperation of the localpolice and military. Wellthen,” Kent said, looking atthe two men. “We can setoff.”It was still nighttime, Luo

Ji realized as he steppedthrough the door of theaircraft. Thinking back totheir takeoff time, he had apretty good idea of which

generalareaoftheglobetheywere in. The fog was thick,and the lights shone a dimyellow as events from theirtakeoff seemed to bereplaying before their eyes:the patrol helicopters in theair, only dimly visiblethrough the fog as shadowswithglowinglights;theplanequickly surroundedby a ringof military vehicles andoutward-facing soldiers; andseveral officers with radios

clustered in a groupdiscussing something andoccasionally throwing aglance in thedirectionof theairstair. A buzzing fromsomewhere overhead setLuoJi’s scalp on fire, and eventhe imperturbable Mr. Kentcovered his years. Lookingup, they could see anindistinct light flying lowoverhead: the escortformation,stillcirclingabovethem, its exhaust tracing a

largecircleintheairthatwashazilyvisiblethroughthefog,as if a cosmic giant hadtaggedtheEarthwithchalkatthisveryspot.The four of them boarded

an obviously bulletproofedcarwaiting at the end of theairstair and sped off. Thewindowcurtainsweredrawn,butjudgingfromthelightthatcame in, Luo Ji knew thatthey were smack in themiddle of a convoy. Silence

reignedontheride,aroadtothe ultimate unknown.Although it took only fortyminutes, this part of thejourneyfeltterriblylong.When Kent said they had

arrived, Luo Ji could makeout a shape through thecurtains, backlit by the evenlight from the building to itsrear that cast its silhouetteonto the curtain. He couldnever mistake such adistinctive shape: a giant

revolverwithaknottiedinitsbarrel. Luo Ji knew exactlywhere he was: the UnitedNations building in NewYork.Hewassurroundedassoon

as he got out by peoplewhoseemed like securitypersonnel:theyweretall,andmany of them wore darkglasses despite the night. Hecouldn’t make out hissurroundings,butwaspushedforward by the cluster,

squeezedwithsuchforcethathis feet practically left theground, the scraping offootsteps the only sound thatbroke the silence. Just as thebizarre tension had pushedhim almost to the breakingpoint,themeninfrontofhimgave way. Light flashedbefore his eyes, and then therest of them halted in theirsteps,leavinghim,ShiQiang,andKenttocontinueforward.Theywerewalkinginalarge

quiet hall, empty but for afewblack-clothedguardswhospokequietlyintoahandheldradio each time the three ofthem passed one of them.They crossed a hangingbalcony in the direction of astained-glasspanelwhoseriotof colors and intricate linesdescribedthedistortedshapesof humans and animals.Turning left, they entered asmall room. After the doorclosed, Kent and Shi Qiang

exchangedasmile,andalookofreliefcameoverthem.LuoJiglancedaroundhim

anddiscovered that the roomwas fairly peculiar. Thewallat one end was entirelycovered by an abstractpainting made up of yellow,white, blue, and blackgeometric shapes, whichoverlapped randomly andseemed suspended atop anocean of pure blue. But thestrangest thing was the large

stone in the shape of arectangularprismsittingrightin thecenterof theroomandilluminated by several weaklamps.Acloserlookrevealedthat the stonebore rust lines.Theabstractpaintingand thestone were the onlyfurnishings, and apart fromthemtheroomwasempty.“Dr. Luo, do you need to

change clothes?” Kent askedinEnglish.“What’s he saying?” Shi

Qiang asked, and when LuoJi translated, he shook hishead firmly. “No, just wearthis.”“But this is a formal

occasion,”KentstruggledoutinChinese.“No,” said ShiQiangwith

anothershakeofhishead.“The hall is only open to

national representatives, notthemedia. It shouldbe fairlysecure.”“I said no. If I’ve

understood correctly, I’m inchargeofhissafetynow.”Kent relented. “Very well.

It’snotabigissue.”“You really should give

him a general explanation,”Shi Qiang said, jerking hisheadinLuoJi’sdirection.“I’m not authorized to

explainanything.”“Just say anything,” Shi

Qiangsaidwithalaugh.KentturnedtowardLuoJi,

his dignified face suddenly

tense, and subconsciouslyadjusted his tie. Luo Ji thenrealized that he had beenavoiding looking directly athim.HealsonoticedthatShiQiangseemedlikeadifferentperson. The ever-presentsmirk was gone, replaced bya solemn expression, and helooked at Kent in a rareposture of attention. ThenLuo Ji knew that everythingShi Qiang had said to himbeforewas correct:He really

hadnoideaofthepurposeofthevisit.Kent said, “Dr. Luo, all I

can tell you is this: You areabout to take part in animportant meeting at whichthere will be an importantannouncement. And at thismeeting, you do not need todoanything.”Then theyweresilent.The

room was completely quiet.Luo Ji could clearly hear thebeating of his heart.This, he

realized, was the MeditationRoom.Thecenterpiecewasasix-ton rock made of thepurest raw iron, symbolizingtimelessness and strength. IthadbeenagiftfromSweden.But right now, far fromwanting tomeditate, he triedashardaspossibletothinkofnothing, convinced of whatShihadsaid:Anythinkingisliable to go off the rails. Hecounted the shapes in thepainting.

The door opened, and theheadthatpokedinsignaledtoKent,whothenturnedtoLuoJiandShiQiang:“Timetogoin.NooneknowsDr.Luo,sotherewon’tbeanydisruptionifheandIgointogether.”Shi Qiang nodded, then

wavedahandatLuoJiwithasmile: “I’ll wait for yououtside.”Itwarmedhisheart.RightthenShiQiangwashissolespiritualsupport.ThenhefollowedKentout

of the Meditation Room andinto the United NationsGeneralAssemblyHall.The hall was full and the

people seated in it buzzedwith conversation. He didn’tattract attention at firstwhenKent led him up along theaisle,butheadsbegantoturnonce they got close to thefront. Depositing him in anaisle seat in the fifth row,Kent went on ahead and satdowninthesecondrow.

Luo Ji looked around himat the place he had seencountless timeson television.Based on these glimpses, hehad been wholly unable toappreciate the meaning thebuilding’s architects wantedto express. Straight ahead ofhim,thetallyellowwallinsetwith the UN insignia thatserved as a backdrop for thepodiumwas tilted forward atan acute angle, like a cliffface that was liable to

collapse at any time. Thedome, built to resemble astarry sky, was structurallyseparatefromtheyellowwallanddidnothingtostabilizeit,acting insteadasan immenseweight bearing down fromabove, adding to the wall’sinstability and lending thewhole environment theoverpowering feeling ofbeing ready to tumble downat any moment. Under thepresent circumstances,

however, it seemed as if theeleven architects who haddesigned the building in themid-twentieth century hadwonderfully predictedhumanity’s presentpredicament.Turninghis attentionaway

from the distant wall, heheardtwopeopletalkingnexttohim.Hecouldn’tmakeouttheir nationality, but theywere speaking idiomaticEnglish.

“Do you really believe inthe decisive role of theindividualinhistory?”“Well, I think it’s a

question that can’tbeprovenor disproven, unless werestart time, kill off a fewgreat men, and see howhistory proceeds. Of course,you can’t rule out thepossibility that the course ofhistorywasdeterminedbytherivers carved out anddammed up by those great

figures.”“But there’s another

possibility: Those greatfigures of yoursmight be nomore than swimmers inhistory’s river. They mayhave left their names inhistory because of the worldrecordstheysetandthepraiseand renown they won, butthey had no effect on theriver’s flow.… Ah, withthings the way they are,what’s the point of thinking

aboutallthat?”“The problem is that

throughout the entiredecision-making process, noone thought about issues onthis level. The countries areall tangled up in stuff likecandidate equality andresourcerights.”The hall grew quiet as

SecretaryGeneralSaywalkedto the podium. TheadministrationofthisFilipinopolitician had straddled the

pre-andpostcrisiseras.Ifthevotehadcomejustalittlebitlater, she never would havebeen elected, because arefined Asian lady didn’tprojectthesenseofpowertheworldwas looking for in theface of the Trisolar Crisis.Nowhersmallframeseemedtiny and helpless against theslopingcliffwall.Asshewasascending the podium, Kentstopped her and whisperedsomething in her ear. She

looked down, nodded, andthencontinuedwalking.LuoJiwascertain that the

secretary general had lookedinthedirectionofhisseat.On the rostrum, she

surveyed the assembly, andthen said, “The nineteenthmeeting of the PlanetaryDefense Council has arrivedat the final item on itsagenda: the disclosure of theWallfacer candidates and theannouncement of the start of

theWallfacerProject.“Beforewemoveontothat

agenda item, I believe it isnecessarytotakeabrieflookbackattheWallfacerProject.“AtthestartoftheTrisolar

Crisis, the permanentmembers of the formerSecurity Council heldemergency negotiations andconceived the WallfacerProject.“Thecountriestooknoteof

the following facts:After the

first two sophons appeared,burgeoning evidencedemonstrated that additionalsophons were constantlyreaching the Solar Systemand coming to Earth, aprocess that continues evennow.Therefore, as far as theenemyisconcerned,theEarthis a completely transparentworld.Tothem,everythingisan open book, one they canread at any time. Humanityhasnosecretsatall.

“The internationalcommunity has recentlylaunched a mainstreamdefense program which, inbothoverallstrategicthinkingand the tiniest oftechnological and militarydetails,iscompletelyexposedto the enemy’s eyes. Everymeeting room, every filecabinet, the hard drives andmemoryofeverycomputer—there isnowhere the sophonsdo not see. Every plan,

program,anddeployment,nomatterthesize,willbevisibleto the enemy command fourlight-years away themomentthey takeshapeon theEarth.Human communication inanyformwillresultinleaks.“We should be aware of

this one fact: Strategic andtactical tricksdonotadvanceinproportiontotechnologicalprogress. Precise intelligencehas proven that theTrisolarans communicate

throughdirect,openthoughts,making themhighlydeficientat tricks, camouflage, anddeception, and giving humancivilization a huge advantageover the enemy. This is oneadvantage we can’t afford tolose. The founders of theWallfacerProjectbelievethata number of other strategicplans should proceed inparallel to the mainstreamdefense program, and thatthese plans should be secret,

not transparent to theenemy.A number of proposals wereput forward, but ultimatelyonly theWallfacer Project isfeasible.“One correction to what I

just said: Humanity still hassecrets, in the inner worldthateachofuspossesses.Thesophons can understandhuman language, and theycan read printed texts andinformation on every kind ofcomputer storage media at

ultrahigh speeds, but theycan’t read human thoughts.So long as we do notcommunicatewiththeoutsideworld,everyindividualkeepsthingssecretforeverfromthesophons. This is the basis oftheWallfacerProject.“At its heart, the project

consists of selecting a groupof people to formulate anddirect strategic plans. Theywill develop their plansentirely in their own minds,

with no communication ofany kind with the outsideworld. The true strategy ofthese plans, the necessarysteps for completion, and theultimate aims will remainhidden inside the brain. WeshallcallthemtheWallfacersbecause that ancient Easternname for meditators mirrorsthe unique characteristics oftheirwork.Astheydirecttheexecution of their strategicplans, the thoughts and

behaviors these Wallfacerspresent to the outside worldwill be entirely false, acarefully crafted mélange ofdisguise, misdirection, anddeception.Thesubjectofthismisdirection and deceptionwillbetheentireworld,bothenemyandally,untilahuge,bewilderingmazeofillusionsiserectedtomaketheenemylose its judgment, and todelay as long as possible themomentitworksoutourtrue

strategicintent.“These Wallfacers will be

grantedextensivepowersthatwill enable them tomobilizeand exploit a portion ofEarth’s existing militaryresources. As they carry outtheir strategic plans, theWallfacers need not makeany explanation for theiractions and commands,regardless of howincomprehensible theirbehaviormaybe.Monitoring

and control of the Wallfaceractivitywillbeundertakenbythe UN Planetary DefenseCouncil, the sole institutiongranted the authority to vetoWallfacer commands undertheUNWallfacerAct.“To guarantee the

continuity of the WallfacerProject, the Wallfacers willtakeadvantageofhibernationtechnology to bridge thecenturies to the DoomsdayBattle.Whenandunderwhat

circumstances they willawaken, and for how long,will be decided by theWallfacers themselves. Overthe next four centuries, theUNWallfacer Act will existunder international law on alevelequaltotheUNCharterand will act in concert withthenationallawstoguaranteethe execution of theWallfacers’strategicplans.“The Wallfacers are

undertakingthemostdifficult

mission in human history.They will truly be on theirown,theirsoulsclosedoff tothe world, to the entireuniverse. Their onlycommunication partner andsole spiritual support will bethemselves. Shouldering thisgreat responsibility, theywillpass through the long yearsalone,so letmespeakforallhumanity and offer them ourdeepestrespect.“Now, on behalf of the

United Nations, I willannounce the final fourWallfacer candidates aschosen by the UN PlanetaryDefenseCouncil.”Luo Ji, like the entire

assembly, had been listeningto the secretary general’sspeech with rapt attention,andheheldhisbreathfortheannouncement of the list ofnames.Hewantedtofindoutwhatsortofpersonwouldbetaskedwiththisunimaginable

mission. His own fate wascompletely forgotten for thetime being, because nothingthat could happen to himwouldamounttomorethanaspeckwhenmeasuredagainstthishistoricmoment.“The First Wallfacer:

FrederickTyler.”Whenthesecretarygeneral

utteredhisname,Tylerstoodup from his seat in the firstrow and walked withdeliberate steps up to the

rostrum, where he lookeddownattheassemblywithoutexpression. There was noapplause as everyone sat insilenceandstaredat theFirstWallfacer. Tyler’s tall, thinbody and square-framedglasses were well knownacrosstheworld.Therecentlyretired US secretary ofdefense, he had exerted adeep influence on hiscountry’s national strategy.His ideological focus was

expressedinabooktitledTheTruth of Technology, inwhich he argued that smallcountries are the ultimatebeneficiaries of technology,andthattheunstintingeffortstoward technologicaldevelopment on the part oflarger countries was in factpaving the way for worlddominance by the smallerones. This was becausetechnological progressrendered the population and

resourceadvantagesof largercountries unimportant, butprovidedsmallcountrieswithleverage to move the world.One consequence of nucleartechnology was that itallowed a country of just afewmillion people to pose asubstantial threat to onewithahundredmillion,somethingthat at one time had beenpracticallyimpossible.Oneofhis key points was that theadvantagesofalargecountry

wereonly trulyadvantageousin low-technology eras andwould ultimately beweakened by the swift paceof technological progress,which would meanwhileenhance the strategic weightof small countries. Somemight experience a suddenrise, gaining worlddominance like Spain andPortugaloncedid.Therewasno question that Tyler’sthinking provided a theoretic

foundation for the UnitedStates’ global war on terror.But he was not just astrategist.Hewasalsoamanof action, and on multipleoccasions had won popularacclaim for demonstratingcourage and foresight in theface ofmajor threats.Hence,asfarasboththedepthofhisthinking and his leadershipwereconcerned,TylermadeaworthyWallfacer.“The Second Wallfacer:

ManuelReyDiaz.”When this brown-skinned,

stocky South American witha stubborn look in his eyesascended the rostrum,Luo Jiwas surprised: It was highlyunusual for thisman to evenappear at the UN. But onsecond thought, it stood toreason. He even wonderedwhy it hadn’t alreadyoccurred to him. Rey Diazwas the current president ofVenezuela, which, under his

leadership, had aptlydemonstrated Tyler’s theoryabout the rise of smallcountries.Hecarriedforwardthe Bolivarian Revolutioninstigated by Hugo Chavez:In a contemporary worldruled by capitalism andmarket economics, hepromoted in Venezuela whatChavez called Socialism ofthe Twenty-First Century,founded on lessons drawnfrom the experience of the

international socialistmovements of the previouscentury. Surprisingly, he hadachieved considerablesuccess, boosting thecountry’s power across theboard and—for a time—turningVenezuela intoacityon a hill, a symbol ofequality, justice, andprosperity for theworld.Theother countries in SouthAmerica followed suit, andsocialism briefly caught fire

on the continent. Rey Diazinherited not only Chavez’ssocialist ideology but hisstrong anti-Americanism,which reminded the UnitedStatesthatitsLatinAmericanbackyard could become asecond Soviet Union if leftunchecked. A rareopportunity presented by anaccident and amisunderstanding gave theUnited States the excuse tolaunchafull-scaleinvasionof

Venezuela that sought tooverthrow the Rey Diazgovernment along the Iraqmodel.Butwiththiswar, thepost–Cold War streak ofvictories by major westernpowers over small ThirdWorld countries had finallybroken. When the US Armyentered Venezuela, itdiscoveredthattheuniformedmilitary was nowhere to befound. The entire army hadbeen divided by squad into

guerilla teams concealedamong the people, and theirsole combat objective waskilling the enemy’s vitalforces. Rey Diaz’s basicapproachtowarfarewasbuiltatop a single, clear idea:Modern high-tech weaponsmightbeuseful againstpointtargets, but, for area targets,theirperformanceisnobetterthan conventional weaponsand their cost and limitedquantity make them

essentially nonfactors. Hewas a genius at low-cost,high-techexploits.Attheturnof the century, an Australianengineer had built a cruisemissile for five thousanddollars with the aim ofboosting vigilance againstterrorists, but Rey Diaz’sthousands of guerilla teamswere armed with a total oftwo hundred thousand ofthem,massproduced for justthreethousanddollarsapiece.

Although the missiles weremade out of parts that werecheap and widely availableonthemarket,theywerefullyequipped with a radaraltimeter andGPS and couldhit targets within a five-kilometer radius at anaccuracy of within fivemeters. Their hit rate mayhave been less than 10percent during the war, butthey caused enormousdestruction to the enemy.

Other mass-produced high-tech gadgets, like proximity-fusesniperriflebullets,hadasimilarlybrillianttrackrecordduring the war. During itsshort time in Venezuela, theUS Army suffered casualtiesthatapproachedVietnamWarlevels, and it eventually hadto withdraw. The defeat ofthestrongat thehandsof theweakmade Rey Diaz a heroforthetwenty-firstcentury.“TheThirdWallfacer:Bill

Hines.”A debonair Englishman

ascended the rostrum, apicture of refinement next toTyler’s coldness and ReyDiaz’sstubbornness.Hegavethe assembly a gracefulsalute. He, too, was wellknowntotheworld,althoughhe lacked the aura of theother two men. Hines’s lifewas split into two entirelydistinctstages.Asascientist,he was the only person in

history to be nominated forthe Nobel Prize in twosciences simultaneously forthe same discovery. Duringresearch conducted with theneuroscientist KeikoYamasuki,hediscoveredthatbrain activity for thoughtsandmemoriesoperatedonthequantum level rather than onthe molecular level aspreviously believed. Thisdiscovery pushed brainmechanismsdownwardtothe

microstate of matter,rendering all prior researchnothingmore thansuperficialattemptsthatmerelyskimmedthe surface of neuroscience.This discovery alsodemonstrated that the animalbrain’s capacity to processinformation was severalorders of magnitude higherthan previously imagined,which lent credence to long-heldspeculationthatthebrainhad a holographic structure.

Hines was nominated forNobel Prizes in both Physicsand Physiology or Medicinefor the discovery. Althoughhis work was too radical forhim to win either award,Keiko Yamasuki—who bythis timewas his wife—wonthe prize in Physiology orMedicine that year for herapplication of the theory tothe treatment of amnesia andmentalillness.In the second stage of his

life, he was a politician andservedaspresidentoftheEUfor two years. Hines wasrecognized as a prudent andexperiencedpolitician,buthisterminofficewasnotmarkedby many challenges thattestedhispoliticalskills.Thenature of the EU’s work atthe time, which was largelytransactional coordination,meant that his qualificationstofaceamajorcrisisstackedupratherpoorlycompared to

the other two men. Still, thechoice of Hines evidentlytook into account both hisscientific and politicalcredentials, a perfectcombination that was quiterareindeed.Seatedintheverylastrow

of the hall,KeikoYamasuki,the world authority inneuroscience, gazed lovinglydown at her husband on therostrum.The assembly remained

silent as all waited for theannouncement of the finalWallfacer. The first three,Tyler, Rey Diaz, and Hines,represented balance andcompromise among thepoliticalpowersoftheUnitedStates,Europe,and theThirdWorld, so there wasconsiderable interest in thefinalselection.AshewatchedSay turnback to thepaper inthe folder, world-famousnames flashed through Luo

Ji’smind.ThefinalWallfacerwould be one of them. Helooked ahead four rows andsurveyed the backs of thefirst-row occupants. That’swhere the first threeWallfacers had been beforethey ascended the rostrum,but from behind he couldn’tmake outwhether any of thepeople he had in mind wereseated there. Still, the FourthWallfacerwoulddefinitelybethere.

Sayslowlyraisedherrighthand, and he watched as itpointed to a spot not in thefirstrow.Shewaspointingathim.“The Fourth Wallfacer:

LuoJi.”

***

“It’s my Hubble!” shoutedAlbert Ringier, clapping hispalms together. The tearsbrimming in his eyes

reflected the distant blazingballoffirethatrumbledforafew seconds before passingon. He and the cheeringcrowd of astronomers andphysicists behind him oughtto have been watching thelaunch from a VIP platformcloser in, but a damnNASAofficial said they lackedproper qualifications foraccess, because the objectbeing sent heavenward didnotbelong to them.Then the

officialhadturnedbacktothegroup of uniformed, ramrod-straight generals and,groveling like a dog, had ledthem past the sentry post totheviewingplatform.Ringierand his colleagues wereforced to remain at this far-off spot where, in theprevious century, acountdown clock had beenbuilt across a lake from thelaunchsite.Itwasopentothepublic, buton this latenight,

therewerenootherobserversapartfromscientists.Viewedfromthisdistance,

the blastoff looked like asped-up sunrise. Thefloodlightsdidnotfollowtherocketas it liftedoff, leavingits massive body indistinctexcept for the spurtingflames.Fromitshidingplaceinthedarkofnight,theworldburstforthintoamagnificentlightshow,andgoldenwaveswhippedupontheinkyblack

surface of the lake as if theflames had ignited the wateritself. They watched therocketascend.Whenitpassedthrough the clouds, it turnedhalf the sky the kind of redonly found in dreams beforeitdisappearedintotheFloridasky, the brief dawn onceagain swallowed up by thenight.The Hubble II Space

Telescope was a second-generation model, its

diameter enlarged to 21meters from itspredecessor’s4.27meters,which enhanceditsobservationalcapabilitybya factor of fifty. It used acompound lens technologyconsistingoflenscomponentsmanufactured on the groundand assembled in orbit. Toput thewhole lens intospacerequiredelevenlaunches,andthis was the final one. Theassembly ofHubble II in thevicinity of the International

Space Station was nearingcompletion.Intwomonths,itwouldbeabletoturnitsgazetothedepthsoftheuniverse.“You pack of thieves!

You’ve stolen another thingofbeauty,”Ringiersaidtothetallmanbesidehim,theonlyone in the group unaffectedby the sight before them.George Fitzroy had seen toomany of the launches, andspent the entire processleaning against the

countdown clock smoking acigarette.Hehadbecome themilitary’s representative afterHubble II’s requisition, butsinceheworecivilianclothesmost of the time, Ringierdidn’t know his rank andnevercalledhimsir.Callingathiefbyhisnameworkedjustfine.“Doctor, in wartime the

military has the right torequisition all civilianequipment. Besides, you

people didn’t grind a singlelens component or design asinglescrewoftheHubbleII.You’re just there to enjoy itssuccess,soit’snotyourplaceto complain.” Fitzroyyawned, as if it was tiringwork dealing with this packofnerds.“But without us, it

wouldn’t have any reason toexist! Civilian equipment? Itcan see the edge of theuniverse,butyoushortsighted

types only want to use it tolookattheneareststar!”“LikeI’vesaidbefore, this

is wartime. A war to defendall humanity. Even if you’veforgotten that you’re anAmerican, you at leastremember you’re human,right?”Ringier groaned and

nodded, then shook his headwithasigh.“Butwhatdoyouwant Hubble II to see?You’vegottobeawarethatit

won’t be able to see theTrisolaranplanet.”Fitzroy said with a sigh,

“It’s worse than that. Thepublic thinks that it will beable to see the TrisolaranFleet.”“Great,” Ringier said.

Though his face wasindistinct in the darkness,Fitzroy could sense theschadenfreude in Ringier’sexpression, which madeFitzroy as uncomfortable as

the acrid odor that nowwafted over from the launchplatformandfilledtheair.“Doctor, you ought to

knowtheconsequences.”“Ifthepublichasplacedits

hope in Hubble II, then theyprobably won’t believe theenemyreallyexistsuntiltheyhaveseentheTrisolaranFleetwiththeirowneyes.”“And you find this

acceptable?”“You’veexplainedittothe

public,right?”“Of course we’ve

explainedit!We’veheldfourpress conferences, and I’verepeatedly explained thatalthough Hubble II is ordersof magnitude more powerfulthan the largest telescopescurrentlyavailable,there’snoway it can detect theTrisolaran Fleet. It’s toosmall! Detecting a planet inanother star system from ourSolarSystemislikedetecting

amosquito on a lampon theEast Coast from the WestCoast, but the TrisolaranFleet is only as big as thebacteria on one of thatmosquito’s legs. How muchclearercanIbe?”“That’sprettyclear.”“Butwhatelsecanwedo?

The public will believewhatever it wants. I’ve beenin this job for a while now,andIhaven’tseenanymajorspace project that they

haven’tmisinterpreted.”“I said long ago that the

militaryhaslostallcredibilityas far as space projects areconcerned.”“But they’re willing to

believe you. Don’t they callyou a second Carl Sagan?You’vemadeamintoffthosepopular cosmology books ofyours.Giveusahand.That’swhat the military wants, andnowI’m formallypassingontheirrequest.”

“Is this a privatenegotiationofterms?”“There aren’t any terms!

It’s your duty as anAmerican. As a citizen ofEarth.”“Assign me a bit more

observational time. I don’tneed much. Bump me up totwentypercent,okay?”“You’redoingquitewellat

twelve point five percentrightnow,andnoonecansayif those allotments can be

guaranteed in the future.”Fitzroy waved a hand in thedirection of the launch pad,where the dissipating smokeleft by the rocket smeared adirty patch across the nightsky. Illuminated by thelaunch pad lights, it lookedlike amilk stainon apair ofjeans. The odor had grownmore unpleasant. Therocket’sfirststagewasfueledby liquid oxygen and liquidhydrogen and shouldn’t have

had that odor, so somethingnearby had probably beenburntbythestreamofflamesdiverted by the launch pad.Fitzroysaid,“I’mtellingyou,all of this is definitely goingtogetworse.”

***

Luo Ji felt theweight of theslanted cliff face pressingdown on him, and for amoment he was paralyzed.

The hall was totally silent,untilavoicebehindhimsaidsoftly, “Dr. Luo, if youplease.” He stood up stifflyand walked with mechanicalsteps to the rostrum. On theshort journey, it was like hehad returned to a child’ssense of helplessness andwanted someone to hold hishand andguidehim forward.But no one extended a hand.Heascendedtheplatformandstood next to Hines, then

turned to face the assemblyand the hundreds of pairs ofeyes focused on him, eyesthat represented six billionpeople from more than twohundredcountriesonEarth.Asforwhatwentonduring

therestofthesession,LuoJihadabsolutelynoidea.Allheknewwas that after standingthere for awhile, hewas ledoff toa seat in themiddleofthe first row alongside theother three Wallfacers. In a

haze, he had missed thehistoric moment of theannouncement of the launchoftheWallfacerProject.Some time later,when the

sessionseemedtohaveendedand people, including thethree Wallfacers sitting toLuo Ji’s left, had begun todisperse, a man, perhapsKent, whispered somethinginto his ear before leaving.Then the hall was emptyexcept for the secretary

general, still standing on therostrum, her petite figure infar-off opposition to hisagainsttheslopingcliff.“Dr. Luo, I imagine you

have some questions.” Say’sgentle femininevoiceechoedin theemptyhall likeaspiritdescendingfromtheheavens.“Has there been some

mistake?” Luo Ji said. Hisvoice, sounding similarlyethereal, didn’t feel like hisown.

From the rostrum, Saygave a laugh that clearlymeant, Do you really thinkthat’spossible?“Whyme?”heasked.“You need to find your

ownanswertothat,”shesaid.“I’mjustanordinaryman.”“In the face of this crisis,

we are all ordinary people.But we all have our ownresponsibilities.”“No one solicited my

opinion in advance. I was

totallyinthedarkaboutthis.”Say laughed again.

“Doesn’t your name mean‘logic’inChinese?”“That’sright.”“Then you should be able

toworkoutthatitwouldhavebeen impossible tosolicit theopinions of the peopleundertaking this missionbefore it was handed tothem.”“I refuse,” he said firmly,

without even thinking over

whatSayhadjustsaid.“Youmay.”Theswiftnessofthisreply,

right on the heels of hisrefusal,lefthimatalossforamoment.Afterafewsecondsof silence, he said, “I rejectthe position of Wallfacer, Ireject all the powers grantedit, and I will not undertakeany responsibility you forceuponme.”“Youmay.”The simple, immediate

replytohisstatement,lightasa dragonfly touching on thewater, shut down his brain’sability to think andmade hismindatotalblank.“So am I free to leave?”

wasallhecouldask.“You may, Dr. Luo. You

arefreetodoanything.”Luo Ji turned and walked

out past the rows of emptyseats.Theeasewithwhichhewas able to discard theWallfacer identity and its

responsibilities did not givehim the slightest shred ofcomfortorrelease.Fillinghismind now was an absurdsenseofunreality,asifallofthis was part of somepostmodernplaydevoidofalllogic.He lookedbackat the exit

and saw Say watching himfromtherostrum.Sheseemedsmallandhelplessagainstthecliff, but when she saw himlookingback,shenoddedand

smiledathim.Hecontinuedonward,past

theFoucaultPendulumat theentrance that showed therotationof theEarth,and raninto Shi Qiang, Kent, and agroupofblack-suitedsecuritypersonnel who lookedinquiringly at him. In theireyes he saw a new respectandawe.EvenShiQiangandKent, who had alwaysbehaved naturally towardhim, made no attempt to

mask their expressions. LuoJipassedthroughtheirmidst,saying nothing. He walkedthrough the bare lobby,occupied as on his arrivalonlybyblack-clothedguards.As before, whenever hepassedone, theyspokesoftlyintoaradio.Whenhecametothe exit, ShiQiang andKentstoppedhim.“It may be dangerous

outside. Do you needsecurity?”ShiQiangasked.

“No,Idon’t.Getoutofmyway,”LuoJisaid,keepinghiseyesstraightahead.“Very well. We can only

doasyou tellus,”ShiQiangsaidashemovedaside.Kentdidthesame.LuoJiwentoutthedoor.Thecoolairhithim in the

face. It was still nighttime,buttheoutsidewasclearlylitby the bright lamps. Thedelegates to the specialsession had driven off, and

the few people left in theplaza were tourists or locals.The historicmeeting had notyetmadethenews,sonoonerecognized him, and hispresence did not attract anyattention.And so Luo Ji the

Wallfacer walked as ifsleepwalking through absurdfantasticreality.Inhistrance,he had lost the capacity forrational thought and wasunaware of where he came

from, much less where hewas going. Unwittingly, hewalked onto the lawn andcame to a statue. When hisgaze passed over it, henoticed that it was of a manhammering a sword: Let UsBeatSwordsintoPlowshares.It had been a gift to theUNfrom the former SovietUnion, but to his mind thepowerfulcompositionformedby the hammer, the bulkyman, and the sword being

bentbeneathhim imbued theworkwithhintsofviolence.Andthenthemanwiththe

hammerwassmackingLuoJisavagely in the chest with afierce blow that sent himtumbling to the ground andknocked him out before heeven hit the grass. But theshock passed quickly, andsoon partial consciousnessreturned amid pain anddizziness.He had to shut hiseyes against the blinding

flashlights that were allaroundhim.Thentheringsoflight receded and he couldmake out a circle of facesover him. In the black cloudof haze and agony herecognized Shi Qiang themomentheheardhisvoice:“Do you need security

protection? We can only doasyoutellus!”Luo Ji nodded weakly.

Then everything happened ina flash.He felt himself lifted

onto what seemed like astretcher, and then thestretcher was hoisted up. Hewas surrounded by a tightclutchofpeople,asifhewasin a narrow pit with wallsformedbyhumanbodies.Theonly thing visible out of themouth of the pit was theblack night sky, and it wasonly from the motion of thelegs of the peoplesurroundinghimthathecouldtell he was being carried.

Soon thepit vanished, asdidthe sky above him, replacedbythelitceilingpanelsofanambulance. He tasted bloodin his mouth and thenemptiedhisstomachinaboutof nausea. Someone besidehimcaughthisvomit—bloodandwhathehadeatenontheplane—inaplasticbagwithapracticed hand. After hevomited, someone strappedan oxygen mask to his face.Whenhecouldbreatheeasier

hefeltalittlebetter,althoughhischeststillhurt.Hefelthisclothes getting cut off at thechest, and imagined in apanic that fresh blood wasspurting from a wound, butthat didn’t seem to be right,sincenobandagingseemedtobe taking place. He wascovered in a blanket. Notlong after that, the vehiclestopped. He was carried out,and the night sky and the litceilings of hospital corridors

passed over him, then theceiling of an emergencyroom, and then, movingslowlyoverhead,theglowingred slit of the CT scanner.Faces of doctors and nursesoccasionally popped intoview and caused him painwith their inspections andmanipulation of his chest.Finally, when he could seethe ceiling of the wardoverhead, everything settleddown.

“Onebrokenribandminorinternal bleeding. It’s notserious. You’re not badlyinjured,butyouneedrestdueto the bleeding,” thebespectacled doctor lookingdownathimsaid.This time Luo Ji didn’t

refusesleepingpills,buttookthemwithanurse’shelpandquickly fell asleep. Twoscenes alternated in hisdreams: the rostrum of theUN assembly hall looming

abovehim,andthemanfromLet Us Beat Swords intoPlowshares swinging ahammer into him over andover. Later, he came to thequiet patch of snow deep inhis heart and entered thesimple, exquisite cabin. TheEveofhisowncreationstoodup from the fireplace, herbeautifuleyesbrimmingwithtears.…Thenhewokeupandfelttearsinhisowneyesanda spot of wetness on the

pillow.Theyhaddimmedthelights for him, and since shedidn’t appear while he wasawake,hefellbacktosleepinthe hope of returning to thecabin. But this time he sleptwithoutdreaming.When he woke next, he

knewthathehadbeenasleepfor a long time. He feltrefreshed, and although therewas still intermittent pain inhis chest, he could believenow that his injuries weren’t

serious.When he tried to situp, the blond nurse didn’tstophim,butsimplyadjustedhispillowforhimtoleanon.After a while, Shi Qiangcame in and sat downbyhisbed.“Howareyoufeeling?I’ve

been shot three times whilewearing a bulletproof vest.This shouldn’t be anythingserious,”hesaid.“Da Shi, you saved my

life,”LuoJisaidweakly.

Shi Qiang waved a hand.“This happened because wefell down on the job. Wedidn’t take timely andeffectiveprotectionmeasures.Wehavetodowhatyousay.It’sovernow,though.”“Andtheotherthree?”Shi Qiang knew

immediately who he wasreferring to. “They’re fine.They weren’t as careless asyou,walkingoutalone.”“DoestheETOwanttokill

us?”“Probably. The assailant

hasbeendetained.It’sagoodthing we set up a snake-eyebehindyou.”“Awhat?”“A precise radar system

that can quickly determinethe shooter’s position fromthe path of the bullet. Theassailant’s identity has beenconfirmed. He’s aprofessional guerilla in theETO militia. We never

imagined he would dare toattack in a downtown arealike this. His actions werepracticallysuicidal.”“I’dliketoseehim.”“Who?Theassailant?”LuoJinodded.“Sure.Butthat’snotwithin

the scope of my authority.I’monlyinchargeofsecurityprotection. I’ll put in arequest.” Having said this,ShiQiangturnedandleft.Heseemed more careful and

cautious now, different fromthe lackadaisical image heused to project. Luo wasn’tusedtoit.ShiQiangquicklyreturned

and said, “You may, eitherhere or somewhere else. Thedoctor says walking isn’t anissue.”Luo Ji wanted to tell him

that he’d like to changevenues.Heevenstartedtogetup, but then the thoughtstruck him that a sickly

appearance better suited hispurpose,sohelaybackdownagain.“I’llseehimhere.”“They’re on their way

over, so you’ll have to waitfor a while. Why don’t youhave something to eat? It’sbeen a day since you ate ontheplane.I’llsetitup.”Thenhewentoutagain.The assailant was brought

in right after Luo Ji hadfinished eating. He had ahandsomeEuropeanface,but

his most prominent featurewas his slight smile, a smilethatseemedsoplasteredonitneverwentaway.Hewasnotincuffs,butwhenheentered,two people who looked likeprofessional escorts satdownon chairs, and two othersstood at the doorway. Theywere wearing badges thatidentified them as PDCofficers.Hetriedtolookascloseto

death’s door as possible, but

the assailant saw throughhim. “Doctor, surely it’s notas serious as all that?” Hesmiled as he said this, adifferentsmileappearingoverhis permanent one like anephemeral oil slick floatingonwater.“I’mverysorry.”“You’resorryfor trying to

kill me?” Luo Ji raised hisheadoffthepillowtolookathisattacker.“SorryIdidn’tkillyou,sir.

I thought you wouldn’t be

wearing a vest to a meetinglikethis.Neverimaginedyouwould be so scrupulous withprotecting your life.Otherwise I’d have usedarmor-piercing bullets, orsimply aimed for your head.ThenIwouldhavecompletedmy mission, and you wouldbe freed from yours, thisunnatural mission no normalpersoncanshoulder.”“I’m already free of it. I

submitted my refusal to the

secretary general, rejectingtheWallfacerpositionandallof its rights andresponsibilities, and sheagreed on behalf of the UN.Of course, you didn’t knowthiswhenyouwere trying tokill me. The ETOwasted anassassin.”The smile on the

assailant’sfacegrewbrighter,like a monitor whosebrightness had been turnedup.“You’reafunnyman.”

“What do you mean? I’mtellingyouthehonesttruth.Ifyoudon’tbelieveme—”“I believe you, but you’re

still a funny man,” theassailantsaid,thebrightsmilestill on his face. It was asmile that Luo Ji noted inpassing but that would soonbe imprinted on hisconsciousness as if by liquidmetal,markinghimforlife.He shook his head and,

withasigh,laybackdownon

thebed.Hedidnotspeak.Theassailantsaid,“Doctor,

I don’t think we have muchtime. I presume you did notcallmeherepurelytotellthisinfantilejoke.”“I still don’t understand

whatyoumean.”“If that’s the case, then

your intelligence does notqualifyyoutobeaWallfacer,Dr. Luo Ji. You’re not aslogical as your namesuggests. My life really has

beenwasted,itappears.”Theassailant looked at the twopeople standing on alertbehind him and said,“Gentlemen, I think we canleave.”The two cast an inquiring

glance atLuo Ji,whowaveda hand at them, and then theassailantwasledout.Luo Ji sat up in bed and

thought over the assailant’swords.Hehadtheoddfeelingthat something wasn’t right,

but he didn’t know what itwas. He got out of bed andtook a couple of steps: noimpediments apart from thedull pain in his chest.Whenhe went to the door andlookedout, theguardsarmedwith rifles sitting beside itstood up immediately, andone of them spoke into theradio on his shoulder.Luo Jisaw a bright and cleanhallway that was completelyempty except for two more

armedguardsattheveryend.He shut the door, went overtothewindow,anddrewbackthe curtain. Looking downfrom this height he saw thatguards armed to the teethwere posted all over thehospital entrance, and twogreen military vehicles wereparked out front. Apart fromthe occasional white-clothedhospitalstafferhurryinginorout, he saw no one else.Looking more carefully, he

noticedthatontheroofofthebuilding opposite were twopeople surveying thesurroundings throughbinoculars next to a sniperrifle,andhewasinstinctivelycertain that similar sniperswere on the roof of his ownbuilding.Theguardsweren’tpolice.

Theylookedlikemilitary.HecalledforShiQiang.“Thehospital is stillunder

heavy security, correct?” he

asked.“Yes.”“And if I asked you to

dismiss all of the security,whatwouldhappen?”“We would do as you

asked.ButIadviseyounottodo so. It’s dangerous at themoment.”“What department are you

with?Whatareyouinchargeof?”“I belong to the Planetary

DefenseSecurityDepartment,

and I’m in charge of yoursafety.”“But I’m no longer a

Wallfacer. I’m just anordinary citizen, so even ifmylife is indanger, thedutyought to fall to the ordinarypolice. Why should I stillenjoy this degree ofprotection from planetarydefensesecurity?Andtohavethemdismissed or recalled ifI so desire? Who gave methatpower?”

ShiQiang’s face remainedexpressionless, like a rubbermask. “These are the ordersweweregiven.”“Then…where’sKent?”“Outside.”“Callhimin!”Kent came in shortly after

Shi Qiang left. His mannerhad returned to the graciousdemeanorofaUNofficial.“Dr.Luo, Iwanted towait

to see you until you hadrecovered.”

“What are you doingnow?”“I’m your day-to-day

liaison with the PlanetaryDefenseCouncil.”“But I’m not a Wallfacer

anymore!” Luo Ji shouted.Then he asked, “Has themedia announced theWallfacerProject?”“Totheentireworld.”“And my refusing to be a

Wallfacer?”“It’s in there too, of

course.”“Whatdiditsay?”“Itwasquitesimple.‘After

the conclusion of the UNspecial session, Luo Jideclared his refusal of theWallfacer position andmission.’”“Then what are you still

doinghere?”“I’minchargeofyourday-

to-dayliaisons.”Luo Ji looked at him

blankly. Kent seemed to be

wearing the same rubbermask as Shi. He wasunreadable.“If there’s nothing else,

then I’ll be going.Restwell.Call for me at any time,”Kentsaid,andthenstartedtoleave. Just as he steppedthrough the door, Luo Jicalledforhimtostop.“Iwanttoseethesecretary

general.”“The Planetary Defense

Councilisthespecificagency

inchargeofthedirectionandexecution of the WallfacerProject. The supreme leaderis the PDC’s rotating chair.The UN secretary generalexercisesnodirect leadershipoverthePDC.”Luo Ji thought this over.

“I’d still like to see thesecretary general. I ought tohavethatpower.”“Very well. Wait one

moment.”Kentlefttheroom,but soon returned and said,

“The secretary general iswaiting foryou inheroffice.Shallwebeoff,then?”All along the way to the

secretary general’s office onthe thirty-fourth floor of theSecretariat Building, Luo Jiremained under security sotight he was practically shutup in a movable safe. Theoffice was smaller than hehad imagined, and simplyfurnished, with a fair bit ofspace takenupby aUN flag

standingbehindthedesk.Saycame around the desk towelcomehim.“Dr. Luo, I’d wanted to

visit you in the hospitalyesterday,butyousee…”Shegestured to thepileofpaperson the desk, whose onlypersonal touch was a finelycraftedbamboopencilholder.“Ms. Say, I have come to

reiteratethestatementImadeto you at the close of themeeting,”hesaid.

Say nodded but saidnothing.“Iwanttogohome.IfIam

in danger, please notify theNewYorkPoliceDepartmentandhavethemberesponsiblefor my safety. I am just anordinarycitizen. Idon’tneedPDCprotection.”Say nodded again. “That

certainly can be done, but Iadvise you to accept yourcurrent protection, because itis more specialized and

reliablethantheNYPD.”“Please answer me

honestly. Am I still aWallfacer?”Say returned to her desk.

Standingbeside theUN flag,she smiled slightly atLuo Ji.“What do you think?” Thenshemotioned forhim to takeaseatonthesofa.The slight smile on Say’s

face was familiar. He hadseen the same smile on theface of the young assailant,

andinthefuturehewouldseeit in theeyesandonthefaceof everyone he met. Thesmile would come to becalled “theWallfacer smile,”anditwouldbeasfamousasthesmileoftheMonaLisaorthe grin of the Cheshire cat.Say’ssmilecalmedhimdownat last, the first time he hadbeen truly calm since beforeshehadstoodon the rostrumand announced to the worldthat he was a Wallfacer. He

sat slowly down on the sofa,and by the time he gotsituated, he understoodeverything.Mygod!It took just an instant for

LuoJitocomprehendthetruenature of his status asWallfacer.LikeSayhadsaid,before the mission washanded down, the ones whowould undertake it could nothave been consulted. Andonce the Wallfacer mission

and identity were granted,they could not be refused orabandoned.Thisimpossibilitywas not due to anyindividual’s coercion, butbecause cold logic, asdetermined by the project’svery nature, meant that oncesomeonebecameaWallfacer,an invisibleand impenetrablescreen was immediatelythrownupbetween themandordinary people that madetheir everyaction significant.

AndthatwaswhatthesmilesdirectedatWallfacersmeant:How are we supposed to

knowwhetherornotyouhavealreadystartedwork?Henowunderstoodthatthe

Wallfacers had amission farweirder than any in history,itslogiccoldandtwisted,yetunyielding as the chains thatboundPrometheus. Itwas anunliftable curse impossiblefor the Wallfacers to breakunder their own strength.No

matter how he struggled, thetotality of everything wouldbegreetedwiththeWallfacersmile and imbued with thesignificance of theWallfacerProject:How are we supposed to

knowwhetherornotyouareworking?His heart surged with a

towering fury suchashehadneverbeforeexperienced.Hewanted to shout hysterically,to inquire after Say’smother

and the UN’s mother, toinquire after the mothers ofall of the delegates at thespecial session and on thePDC, to inquire after themothers of the entire humanrace, and finally to inquireafter the nonexistentmothersoftheTrisolarans.Hewantedto jump up and down andsmash things, to sweep asidethe documents, globe, andbamboo pencil holder onSay’s desk, and then tear the

blue flag to shreds.…But inthe end he understoodwherehe was and who he wasfacing, controlled himself,and stood up, only to fallheavily back upon the sofaagain.“Whywas I chosen?”Luo

Ji began, hands covering hisface. “Next to the three ofthem, I have noqualifications. I have notalentandnoexperience.I’veneverseenwar,muchlessled

a country. I’m not asuccessfulscientist.I’mjustauniversity professor whomuddlesthroughbythrowingtogether crappy papers. I’msomeonewholivesfortoday.Idon’twantkidsofmyown,and I could care less aboutthe continuation of humancivilization.… Why was Ipicked?” By the end of thisspeech, he had jumped upfromthesofa.Say’s smile vanished. “To

tell you the truth, Dr. Luo,we’rebaffledbythistoo.Andthat’s the reason you haveaccesstothefewestresourcesout of all of the Wallfacers.Choosing you is the greatestgambleinhistory.”“But there’s got to be a

reasonwhyIwaschosen!”“Yes, but only indirectly.

No one knows the realreason.Like I said,youhavetofindyourownanswer.”“Then what about the

indirectreason?”“I’m sorry. I’m not

authorized to tell you. But Ido believe that you’ll knowwhenthetimeisright.”LuoJisensedthattheyhad

reached the end of theirconversation, so he turned toleave,onlyrealizingwhenhereached the door that hehadn’t said good-bye. Heturned around. Like in theassemblyhall,Saynoddedathim with a smile. Only this

time, he knew the meaningbehindthatsmile.Shesaid,“It’sapleasureto

meet you again. But in thefuture, your work will beconducted within theframework of the PDC, soyouwillreportdirectlytothePDCrotatingchair.”“You don’t have any

confidence in me, do you?”LuoJiasked.“I said that choosing you

wasahugegamble.”

“Thenyou’reright.”“Righttohavegambled?”“No. Right to have no

confidenceinme.”Again with no good-bye,

hewalked straight out of theoffice. Relapsing to the statehehadbeeninjustafterbeingdeclared a Wallfacer, hewalked aimlessly.At the endof thehallway,heenteredanelevator and rode it down tothe hall on the ground floor,then exited the Secretariat

Buildingandcameoncemoreto the United Nations Plaza.He was surrounded bysecurity guards the entireway, and though he pushedthemimpatientlyafewtimes,they stuck to him likemagnets and followed himwherever he went. It wasdaytime now, and Shi QiangandKentwalkeduptohiminthe sunny square and askedhim to either go back insideor enter a vehicle as quickly

aspossible.“I’mnevergoingtoseethe

sun again my entire life, amI?”heaskedShiQiang.“It’s not that. They’ve

cleared the vicinity, so it’srelativelysafehere.Butthereare lots of visitors who allrecognize you. Crowds arehard to handle, and youprobably don’t want thateither.”Luo Ji looked aroundhim.

Atleastfornow,noonepaid

any attention to their smallgroup.Heheaded toward theGeneral Assembly Buildingand entered quickly for asecond time. His goal wasclear and he knew where hehad to go. Past the emptybalcony, he saw the colorfulstained-glass panel. Turningright, he entered theMeditationRoom,closingthedoortokeepShiQiang,Kent,andtheguardsoutside.

***

Whenhesawtheoblongslabofironoreforasecondtime,his first instinct was to dashhimself into it headfirst andput an end to everything.Instead he lay down on thestone’s smooth surface,whose coolness drained offsomeoftheirritationfromhismind.With his body, he feltthe hardness of the ore and,weirdly,thoughtofaproblem

put forth by his high schoolphysicsteacher:Howcanyoumakeamarblebedassoftasa Simmons mattress? Theanswer:Digout adepressionin that marble the exact sizeand shape of a human body.Then when you lie in thatdepression, the pressure willbe evenly distributed and itwouldfeelincrediblysoft.Heclosedhiseyesand imaginedthat the warmth of his bodywas melting the iron ore

beneathhimandformingthatkind of depression.…Gradually, this calmed him.After a time, he opened hiseyes and looked up at thebareceiling.TheMeditation Room had

been designed by DagHammarskjöld, secondsecretary general of the UN,who believed that the UNought to have a place formeditation removed from thehistory-making decisions of

the General Assembly Hall.Luo Ji didn’t know whetherany head of state orambassador to the UN hadactually meditated here, butsurely when Hammarskjölddied in 1961 he neverimaginedthataWallfacerlikehimself would bedaydreaminghere.Luo Ji felt himself getting

snaredonceagaininalogicaltrap, and once again wasconvinced that he could not

extricatehimself.So he turned his attention

tothepowerinhishands.Theleast of all the Wallfacers,Say had said, but he wouldcertainlybeabletomakeuseof a terrifying amount ofresources. Most importantly,he didn’t have to justify hisuse of them to anyone. Infact, an important part of hismandatewas toact in suchaway as to keep othersguessing, and furthermore, to

do as much as possible toengender misunderstandings.Never in human history hadthere been such a thing!Maybetheabsolutemonarchsof old had been able to dowhatever they wished, buteven they ultimately had toaccountfortheiractions.If all I’m left with is this

peculiarpower,whynotmakeuse of it? Luo Ji thought tohimself, and sat up. After ashorttimethinkingitover,he

decided what his next stepwouldbe.Hegotoff thehardbedof

stone, opened the door, andasked to see the chair of thePDC.The incumbent chair, a

Russian namedGaranin,wasa burly, white-bearded oldman. The chair’s office wasonefloorbelowthesecretarygeneral’s.Hewassendingoffafewvisitors,halfoftheminuniform, when Luo Ji

entered.“Oh,Dr. Luo. I heard you

hadsomeminorproblems,soI wasn’t in a hurry to get intouchwithyou.”“What are the other three

Wallfacersdoing?”“They’re busy setting up

general staff departments, atask I’d advise you to get onwith immediately. I’ll sendsomeadvisorstoassistyouintheinitialstages.”“I don’t need a general

staffdepartment.”“Oh?Ifyouthinkitwould

be better that way.… If youdohavetheneed,onecanbesetupatanytime.”“May I have a pen and

paper?”“Ofcourse.”Looking at the paper, Luo

Ji asked, “Mr. Chair, haveyoueverhadadream?”“Whatsort?”“For instance, have you

everdreamtoflivinginsome

perfectplace?”Garanin shook his head

withawrysmile.“Ijustflewin from London yesterday. Iworked the entire trip, andwhen I arrived I slept lessthantwohoursbeforeIhadtorush to work. When today’sregular PDC meetingfinishes, I’ll have to flyovernight to Tokyo.… Mywhole life is rushing around,and I’m at home no morethan three months out of the

year.What’sthepointofthatkindofdreamforme?”“In my dreams, I’ve got

lots of those places. I’vechosen the most beautiful.”Luo Ji picked up the penciland began sketching on thepaper. “This isn’t colored, soyou’vegot to imagine it.Seethese snowcapped mountainshere? They’re steep like theswords of the gods or thetusks of the earth, and theyshine a satiny silver against

the blue sky. Utterlydazzling…”“Ah,” Garanin said,

watching with carefulattention.“That’saverycoldplace.”“Wrong!The land beneath

the snowcaps must not becold. It’s a subtropicalclimate.This is important! Infrontofthemountainsthere’sabroadlake,andthewateriseven bluer than the sky, asblueasyourwife’seyes.…”

“My wife’s eyes areblack.”“Well, the lake water is a

blue so deep it looks black.That’s even better.Surrounding the lake areswaths of forest andgrasslands,butrememberthattherehavetobeboth,notjustone of the two. This is theplace: snow peaks, a lake,forests, and grasslands. Andeverythingisinitsuntouched,primevalstate.Whenyousee

theplace,youwouldimaginethat man had never set footon the Earth. Here, on thegrassbeside the lake, build ahouse. It doesn’t need to belarge, but it should be fullyequipped for modern living.The style can be eitherclassical or modern, but itshouldcomplementitsnaturalsurroundings. And thenecessary facilities—fountains, a swimming pool—shouldbeprovided so that

its master can live thecomfortable life of thearistocracy.”“And who will its master

be?”“Myself.”“Whatareyougoingtodo

there?”“Live out my days in

peace.”Luo Ji waited for Garanin

tosaysomethingrude,butthechair simply nodded gravely,and said, “After an audit by

thecommission,wewillcarrythisoutatonce.”“Youandyourcommission

won’t raise any questionsaboutmymotivation?”Garanin shrugged. “The

commission can question theWallfacers in two areas: useofresourcesexceedingthesetscope, and harm caused tohuman lives. Apart fromthese, all questions are inviolation of the spirit of theWallfacer Project. And truth

betold,Tyler,ReyDiaz,andHines have left medisappointed.Lookingattheirstrategizingoverthepasttwodays, you can tellimmediatelywhattheyareupto with their grand strategicplans. You’re different fromthem. Your behavior isbaffling. That’s what aWallfacershouldbelike.”“Do you really believe the

placeIdescribedexists?”Garanin smiled, winked,

and made an “okay” sign.“The world is big enough tohave a place like that.Besides, to tellyou the truth,I’veseenitbefore.”“That’s wonderful, truly.

AndmakesurethatIcanliveacomfortablearistocrat’slife.This is part of theWallfacerProject.”Garaninnoddedgravely.“Oh, and one other thing.

When you find a suitableplace, never tellmewhere it

is.”No, youcan’t saywhere it

is!Once I knowwhere I am,then the world becomes asnarrow as a map. When Idon’t know, the world feelsunlimited.Garanin nodded again,

seemingly pleased this time.“Dr.Luo,you’vegotanothertrait that satisfies my notionof being a Wallfacer: Yourproject requires the smallestinvestment of the four, at

leastforthetimebeing.”“If that’s the case, then

mine will never have thelargestinvestment.”“Then you’ll be a blessing

to all my successors.Moneyis a real headache.… Thespecific departments incharge of executing thismayconsult with you on somedetails. The house, inparticular,Ithink.”“Oh, the house,” Luo Ji

said. “I forgot one very

importantdetail.”“Goon.”Luo Ji imitated Garanin’s

wink and smile. “It needs afireplace.”

***

After his father’s funeral,Zhang Beihai went withWuYue one more time to thecarrier dry dock, whereconstruction on Tang hadbeen suspended entirely.The

welding sparks had vanishedfromthehull,andtherewereno signs of life anywhere onthe giant ship lying in thenoonday sun. Theoverarching impression itgavewas one of the passageoftime.“It’s dead,” Zhang Beihai

said.“Your father was one of

thewisestgeneralsamongthenavy’s top brass. If he werestillwithus,Imightnothave

gotten so thoroughly stuck,”WuYuesaid.Zhang Beihai said, “Your

defeatism is built on arational basis, or at least it’syour own reasoning, so Idon’t believe there’s anyonewho can truly cheer you up.I’mnotheretoapologize,WuYue. I know you don’t hatemeoverthis.”“I’d like to thank you,

Beihai.Yougotmeout.”“You can return to the

navy. Working there shouldsuityouquitewell.”Wu Yue shook his head

slowly. “I’ve submitted mydischarge application. Whatwould I do if I went back?Construction on newdestroyers and frigates hasstopped,andInolongerhaveany place in the fleet. Sit inanoffice inFleetCommand?Forget it. Besides, I’m not agood soldier at all.A soldierwho’sonlywilling toengage

in a winnable war isunqualifiedtobeone.”“Victory or defeat is not

forustosee.”“But you have faith in

victory, Beihai. I envy you,really, to the point ofjealousy. Faith like yours isthe height of happiness for amilitarymanthesedays.Youtrulyareyourfather’sson.”“So do you have any

plans?”“No. I feel like my life is

over.” Wu Yue pointed atTang in the distance. “Justlike that, over before it evenlaunched.”A low rumble came from

the direction of the shipyard,and Tang slowly started tomove. To vacate the dock, ithadtotaketothewateraheadof schedule and be towed toanother dock for demolition.When Tang’s sharp prowsplit the seawater, ZhangBeihaiandWuYuesenseda

traceof anger in themassivehull. Quickly, it entered thesea, tossing up huge wavesthatcausedtheotherboats inthe port to rock, as if payingtribute. Tang crept slowlyforward in the water, quietlyenjoying the sea’s embrace.Initsbriefandabortedcareer,this giant ship had at leastmettheoceanonce.

***

In the virtual Three Bodyworld, it was the dead ofnight. Apart from scraps ofstarlight,allwasimmersedinan inky blackness, so thateven the horizon wasinvisible, and the empty landand sky blended together inthedark.“Administrator, start up a

Stable Era. Can’t you seewe’re holding a meeting?”shoutedavoice.The administrator’s voice

seemedtocomefromtheskyitself.“Ican’tdothat.Theerais run randomly along thecore model and can’t be setexternally.”Another voice in the

darknesssaid,“Thenincreasethe speed and find somestable daylight. It won’t taketoolong.”The world flashed. Suns

flewacrossthesky,andsoontime returned tonormal.Onestable sun illuminated the

world.“Okay. I don’t know how

long this will last,” theadministratorsaid.The sun shone in the

wilderness on a group ofpeople, some familiar facesamong them: King Wen ofZhou, Newton, VonNeumann, Aristotle, Mozi,Confucius, and Einstein.Sparsely distributed, theyfaced Qin Shi Huang, whostoodonarockwithasword

acrosshisshoulders.“I am not alone,” he said.

“Thisisthecoreleadershipofsevenspeaking.”“You shouldn’t be talking

aboutanewleadershipbeforeit’s been finalized,” someonesaid, and a clamor roseamongtherest.“Enough,” Qin Shi Huang

said, struggling to raise thesword. “Setting aside theleadershipcontroversyforthemoment, we shall turn to

morepressingmatters.Weallknow of the launch of theWallfacerProject,humanity’sattempt to use closed-off,private strategic thinking toresist sophon surveillance.Since the Lord’s transparentmind cannot possibly threadthat labyrinth, humanity hasregaineditsedgethroughthisplan, and the fourWallfacerspose a threat to the Lord. Inaccordance with theresolution of the previous

offline meeting, we mustlaunch the WallbreakerProjectimmediately.”Atthoselastwords,silence

reigned, and no one voicedanyobjections.ThenQin Shi Huang said,

“We will appoint aWallbreaker for eachWallfacer. Like theWallfacers, the Wallbreakerswillbeauthorizedtotapallofthe organization’s resources,but their greatest resource

will be the sophons, whichwill render the Wallfacers’every action utterly exposed.The only secret will be theirthoughts. The Wallbreakers’mission, then, is to analyzethe Wallfacers’ open andclandestine actions, with thehelp of the sophons, anddecipher the true nature oftheirstrategicaimsasearlyaspossible. The leadership willnow appoint theWallbreakers.”

Qin Shi Huang extendedthe sword and, as ifconferring knighthood,touchedittoVonNeumann’sshoulder. “You are the FirstWallbreaker,” he said. “Youare Frederick Tyler’sWallbreaker.”Von Neumann knelt down

andplacedhislefthandtohisright shoulder in a salute. “Iacceptthemission.”QinShiHuangtouchedthe

sword to Mozi’s shoulder.

“You are the SecondWallbreaker.YouareManuelReyDiaz’sWallbreaker.”Mozi did not kneel, but

stood straight and noddedhaughtily. “Iwill be the firsttobreakawall.”The sword touched

Aristotle’sshoulder.“Youarethe Third Wallbreaker. Youare Bill Hines’sWallbreaker.”Aristotle did not kneel

either,butshookhisrobeand

said thoughtfully, “Yes, I’mthe only one who can breakhiswall.”QinShiHuangreturnedthe

sword to his own shoulderandswepthisgazeacrossthecrowd.“Good.WenowhaveWallbreakers. You, like theWallfacers,aretheeliteoftheelite. The Lord be with you!Assisted by hibernation, youwill start the long journey totheendofdaystogetherwiththeWallfacers.”

“I don’t think hibernationis necessary,” Aristotle said.“I can complete theWallbreaker mission beforewe finish our normallifespan.”Mozinoddedinagreement.

“WhenIbreakthewall,IwillfacemyWallfacer in person,andIwillsavorhowhisspiritcollapses in anguish anddespair. Devoting the rest ofmy life to this is well worthit.”

The final Wallbreakerlikewise stated his intent tobreak their Wallfacers inperson. Von Neumann said,“We will unmask the lasttraces of every secret thathumanity harbors from thesophons. This is the finalthingwecandofortheLord,forafterwardtherewillbenoreasonforustoexist.”“What about Luo Ji’s

Wallbreaker?” someoneasked.

The question seemed totouch something in Qin ShiHuang’smind.Heplantedtheswordintothegroundandfelldeep in thought. The sunsuddenly sped up its descentto the Earth, lengthening theshadows until they extendedto the horizon. When it hadset halfway, it abruptlychanged direction and roseandfellafewtimesalongthehorizon, like the gleamingback of a whale cresting out

of the black ocean, pullingthe vast wilderness and thesmall group of people thatmadeupthisstarkworldbackand forth between light anddarkness.“Luo Ji is his own

Wallbreaker.Heneedstofindout what threat he poses tothe Lord,” Qin Shi Huangsaid.“Do we know whether or

not he is a threat?” someoneasked.

“Idon’tknow,buttheLordknows, and Evans knew.EvanstaughttheLordhowtokeep this secret, and he’sdead.Wecan’tknow.”“SoofalltheWallfacers,is

Luo Ji the greatest threat?”someonehesitantlyasked.“We don’t know that

either. Only one thing isclear,” Qin Shi Huang said,looking up at the canopy ofthe sky as it changed frombluetoblack.“Outofthefour

Wallfacers,heistheonlyonein direct contest with theLord.”

Workmeeting,SpaceForcePoliticalDepartment

ChangWeisistayedsilentforalongwhileafteropeningthemeeting, something he hadnever done before.He swepthis eyes across the two rowsof political officers at theconference table, then lookedinto the infinite distance

while gently tapping hispencilonthetabletop,alighttapping that seemed to marktimeforhisthoughts.Atlast,he pulled himself out of hisreverie.“Comrades, by an order

announced yesterday by theCentralMilitaryCommission,I am now serving ascommander of the PoliticalDepartment of the ArmedForces. I accepted theappointment one week ago,

but only now that we areseated together do I feelconflicted. I have suddenlyrealizedthatinfrontofmeisthe most beleaguered groupof people in the space force,and now I am one of yournumber. I didn’t realize thisbefore, and for this Iapologizetoyou.”Heopenedthedocumentinfrontofhim.“This portion of the meetingwill be off the record.Comrades, let us have a

candid exchange of views.LetusbeTrisolaransforonceandopenourthoughtstoeachother. This is crucial for ourfuturework.”Chang Weisi’s gaze

lingered on the face of eachofficer for a second or two,but they remained silent.Then he stood up and pacedalong the table behind therowofseatedofficers.“Ourdutyistobuildinour

forces the faith that we will

be victorious in the futurewar.So,dowehavethatfaithourselves? Please raise yourhands if you do. Remember,wearespeakingourminds.”No one raised a hand.

Nearly everyone was staringatthetable.ButChangWeisinoticed one man’s gaze wasfixed straight ahead: ZhangBeihai.He went on, “Do you

believe that victory ispossible?Bypossible,Imean

not an accidental few tenthsof a percent, but an actual,meaningfulpossibility.”Zhang Beihai raised a

hand.Hiswas the only handraised.“First let me thank all of

youforyourhonesty,”ChangWeisisaid,andthenturnedtoZhang Beihai. “Excellent,Comrade Zhang. Tell us, onwhat do you base yourconfidence?”ZhangBeihaistoodup,but

Chang Weisi motioned forhim tositdown.“This isnota formal meeting,” he said.“It’s just a heart-to-heartchat.”Still standing at attention,

Zhang Beihai said,“Commander, I can’t answeryour question sufficiently injust a few words, becausebuilding faith is a long andcomplicated process. First ofall, I’d like to make note ofthemistaken thinking among

thetroopsatthepresenttime.Weallknowthatprior to theTrisolar Crisis, we had beenadvocating for theexamination of the future ofwar from scientific andrational perspectives, and apowerfulinertiahassustainedthis mentality to the presentday. This is particularly thecase in the present spaceforce, where it has beenexacerbatedbytheinfluxofalarge number of academics

and scientists. If we use thismentality to contemplate aninterstellarwar fourcenturiesin the future, we’ll never beable to establish faith in avictory.”“What Comrade Zhang

Beihai says is peculiar,” acolonel said. “Is steadfastfaith not built upon scienceand reason?No faith is solidthat is not founded onobjectivefact.”“Then let’s take another

look at science and reason.Our own science and reason,remember. The Trisolarans’advanced development tellsusthatourscienceisnomorethan a child collecting shellsonthebeachwhohasn’tevenseen the ocean of truth. Thefacts we see under theguidance of our science andreason may not be the true,objective facts. And sincethat’s the case, we need tolearn how to selectively

ignore them. We should seehow things change as theydevelop, and we shouldn’twrite off the future throughtechnological determinismandmechanicalmaterialism.”“Excellent,” Chang Weisi

said, and nodded at him tocontinue.“Wemustestablishfaithin

victory, a faith that is thefoundation of military dutyand dignity! When theChinesemilitaryoncefaceda

powerful enemy underextremely poor conditions, itestablished a firm faith invictory through a sense ofresponsibility to the peopleand themotherland. Ibelievethat today, a sense ofresponsibility to the humanrace and toEarth civilizationcan encourage the samefaith.”“Buthowarewesupposed

to go about specificideological work?” asked an

officer. “The space force ismadeupofcomplicatedparts,whichmeansthatitsideologyis complex. We’ve got ourworkcutoutforus.”“I think that for the time

being,atleast,weshouldstartwith the mental condition ofthe troops,” Zhang Beihaisaid. “Bigpicture:LastweekI visited troops from the airforceandnavalair force thathave justbeenbroughtunderour branch, and I discovered

that day-to-day training forthese forces is incrediblyslack. Small picture:Problems with militarydiscipline are cropping upwith increasing frequency.There was supposed to be atotal switch to summeruniforms, but lots of peoplein headquarters are stillwearing their winteruniforms. This state of mindmust be changed as quicklyas possible. Look, the space

force is turning into anacademy of sciences. Ofcourse,wecan’tdenythatitspresent mission is that of anacademyofmilitarysciences,butweought tobeconsciousthat we are an army, andwe’re an army in a state ofwar!”The conversation went on

for a while longer, and thenChang Weisi returned to hisseat.“Thankyou. Ihope thatwe will be able to continue

having frank conversations.Now, let’s move on to thecontents of the formalmeeting.” As he spoke, helookedupandonceagainsawZhang Beihai’s steady gaze,which revealed adetermination that warmedhisheartalittle.Zhang Beihai, I know you

have faith.With a father likethat, it would be impossibleforyounotto.Butthingsaredefinitelynotassimpleasyou

say. I don’t know what youbase your faith on, and Idon’t even know what elseyour faith encompasses. Justlike your father. I admiredhim,but Ihave toadmit thatin the end I couldn’t figurehimout.Chang Weisi flipped open

thedocumentinfrontofhim.“Research on space warfaretheory is in full swing atpresent, but one problemhasalready cropped up: The

study of interplanetarywarfare needs to be foundedon a certain level oftechnological development,no doubt about it. But rightnow, basic research has onlyjustbegun, and technologicalbreakthroughs will occur farin the future.Thismeansourresearch has no support.Headquarters has revised theresearch plan in light of thecircumstances, and hasdivided unified research on

the theory of space warfareintothreeparts,tocatertothepossible technological levelsthat the human world mayreachinthefuture.Namely:alow-tech strategy, amid-techstrategy, and a high-techstrategy.“Work is currently in

progresstodefinethesethreelevels of technology, as wellastodefinealargenumberofindex parameters in everymajor scientific discipline,

butthecoreparameterwillbethespeedandrangeofa ten-kiloton-classspaceship.“The Low-Tech Level:

Spacecraft speed achievesfifty times the third cosmicvelocity10, or roughly eighthundred kilometers persecond. Spacecraft are notequipped with life support.Under these conditions, thecraft has a combat radiuslimited to the inner SolarSystem. That is, within

Neptune’sorbit,or thirtyAUfromthesun.“The Mid-Tech Level:

Spacecraft speed achievesthree hundred times the thirdcosmic velocity, or forty-eight hundred kilometers persecond. Spacecraft areequipped with partial lifesupport. Under theseconditions, thecombat radiusof the craft extends beyondtheKuiperBelt,and includesallspacewithinonethousand

AUofthesun.“The High-Tech Level:

Spacecraft speed achievesone thousand times the thirdcosmic velocity, or sixteenthousand kilometers persecond,which is fivepercentof the speed of light.Spacecraft are fully equippedwithlifesupport.Undertheseconditions, thecombat radiusextends to the Oort Cloud11,with preliminary interstellarnavigationcapabilities.

“Defeatism is the greatestthreat to the armed forces inspace, so political andideological workers willshoulder an extremelyimportantresponsibilityinthespace force. Politicaldepartments in the militarywill participate fully in thestudyofspacewarfaretheoryto eradicate the stain ofdefeatism and guarantee thecorrectdirectionofresearch.“Those of you present

today will become membersofaspacewarfaretheorytaskforce.Although therewill besome overlap amongmembers of the threebranches, the researchinstitutions are independent,andwilltentativelybeknownas theInstitute forLow-TechStrategy, the Institute forMid-Tech Strategy, and theInstitute for High-TechStrategy.At today’smeeting,I’d like to hear from each of

you which one you wouldchoose,asareferenceforthePolitical Department’s nextround ofwork appointments.Let’sshareourselections.”Of the thirty-two political

officers at the meeting,twenty-fourselectedlow-techand seven selected mid-tech.Just one officer chose high-tech:ZhangBeihai.“Looks like Comrade

Beihai wants to get intoscience fiction,” someone

said,toscatteredlaughter.“My choice is the only

hope for victory. That’s theonly level of technology thatgiveshumanityanychanceofbuilding an effectivedefensive system for theEarth and Solar System,”ZhangBeihaisaid.“Wehaven’tevenmastered

controlled nuclear fusion.Sending a ten-thousand-tonwarshiptofivepercentofthespeed of light?Ten thousand

times faster than the truck-sizedspacecrafthumanityhastoday? It’s not even sciencefiction.It’sfantasy!”“But don’t we have four

morecenturies?We’vegottokeep potential progress inmind.”“But progress in

fundamental physics isimpossible.”“We haven’t even tapped

one percent of the potentialapplications of existing

theories,” ZhangBeihai said.“My feeling is that thebiggest problem right now isthe technology sector’sapproachtoresearch.They’rewasting too much time andmoney on low-endtechnology.Inpropulsion,forexample, there’snoreasonatall to work on the fissiondrive, but right now they’renot only throwing hugeamountsofR&Datit,they’reevenputtingthesameamount

of effort into studying next-genchemicalpropulsion!Weshouldfocusourresourcesonstudying fusion engines, andmove directly to thedevelopment of media-freefusion engines, leapfroggingmedia-based fusion. Thesame problem exists in otherareas of research. Sealedecosystems, for instance, area necessary technology forinterstellar spacecraft, onethat is not particularly

dependent on fundamentaltheory, but research in thisareaisverylimited.”Chang Weisi said,

“Comrade Zhang Beihai hasposed at least one questionworthy of attention: Themilitary and scientificcommunities are all busystarting their own work, butthere is insufficientcommunication among them.Fortunately, both sides areawareofthesituationandare

organizingajointconference,and the military and thescientific communities haveeach established specialagencies to strengthencommunication between thetwosidesandestablishafullyinteractive relationshipbetween space strategy andscientific research. The nextstep is to dispatch militaryrepresentatives to the variousresearchareasand to involvea large group of scientists in

studying the theory of spacewarfare. Again, we can’t sitand wait for technologicalbreakthroughs. We ought toform our own ideologicalstrategy as soon as possibleand then promote it in everyfield.“Next,I’dliketotalkabout

anotherlayerofrelationships:that between the space forceandtheWallfacers.”“The Wallfacers?”

someone asked in wonder.

“Are they going to interfereinspaceforcework?”“There’sno signof that at

the moment, although Tylerhas proposed paying aninspection visit to themilitary. But we ought torealize that theydohave thatpower, and any interferencethatdoestakeplacemayhaveunanticipated effects. Weneed tobementallypreparedfor it.When such a situationdoes occur, we should

maintain a balance betweenthe Wallfacer Project andmainstreamdefense.”After the meeting, Chang

Weisi sat alone in the emptyconference room smoking acigarette. The smoke waftedinto a beam of sunlightshining through the windowandseemedtocatchfire.Whateverhappens,atleast

it’s begun, he thought tohimself.

***

For the first time,Luo Ji feltthat a dream had come true.HehadimaginedthatGaraninwasonlyboasting—ofcoursehe could find a stunning,untouched place, but it wascertain to be quite differentfrom the place in hisimagination.Butwhenhegotoff thehelicopter, itwas likehe had stepped into a dreamworld: the distant snow

peaks, the lake in front ofhim, the grassy plain andforestbesidethelake,allofitlaid out exactly as he hadsketched it for Garanin. Andhe hadn’t dared permithimself to imagine such animmaculate environment.Everything seemed to havesprung out of a fairy tale.Therewas a slight sweetnessto the freshair, andeven thesun seemed to be cautious,sending the softest and most

exquisitepartofitsglowintothis place. The mostincrediblethingwasthesmallestatebesidethelakeandthevilla at its heart. Kent, whowas traveling with him, saidthe house was built in themid-nineteenthcentury,butitlookedolder,andthepassageof time hadmade it blend inwithitsenvironment.“Don’t be surprised.

Sometimes people dream ofplacesthatreallyexist,”Kent

said.“Does anyone live here?”

LuoJiasked.“Nooneinafive-kilometer

radius.Beyond that there areafewsmallvillages.”Luo Ji guessed that the

place might be in northernEurope,buthedidn’task.Kent led him into the

house.Withhisfirstglanceatthe spacious European-styleliving room, Luo Ji saw afireplace, with fruitwood

stacked neatly next to it thatgaveoffafreshfragrance.“The formermaster of the

house bids youwelcome.Heis proud to have aWallfacerlivinghere.”Kentwentontotell him that the estatecontained more than just thefacilities he had requested:stables with ten horses,becausethebestwaytogettothe mountains was bywalking and riding; a tenniscourt and a golf course; a

winecellar; and,on the lake,a motorboat and a fewsailboats. Beneath its oldexterior, the house had beenfully modernized. Everyroom was equipped with acomputer, broadband, andsatellite television, and therewasadigitalprojectionroomas well. In addition to all ofthis, Luo Ji had noticed ahelipad when he arrived. Itwas clearly not built at thelastminute.

“Theman’sgotmoney.”“Not just money. He

doesn’t want to disclose hisidentity, but you wouldprobably recognize his nameif I told you.He donated theland to the UN, a far largergift than Rockefeller’s. Justso you’re clear, the land andall of the real estate on itbelong to the UN. You onlyhave right of residence. Butyou’re not getting nothing.When theowner left, he said

thathehad takenawayallofhis personal belongings andthatwhatever is left isyours.These paintings alone mustbeworthquiteabit.”KenttookLuoJionatour

of every room in the house.He noticed that the originalownerhadgoodtasteandhadfurnished every room with asenseofeleganttranquility.Aconsiderable portion of thebooks in the librarywereoldLatin editions. The paintings

weremostly in themoderniststyle, but they did not seemout of place in roomswith arich classical atmosphere.One thing in particular thatstruck him was the totalabsence of landscapes, themark of a mature aestheticsensibility:hanginglandscapepaintings in a house situatedin theGardenofEdenwouldbe as pointless as pouring abucket of water into theocean.

Returning to the livingroom,LuoJisatdownonthedeliciously comfortable chairin front of the fireplace. Hestretched out his hand andbrushed against an object,whichhe thenpickedup andinspected. A churchwardenpipe, the kind with a long,thinstem,usedindoorsbytheleisure class. He lookedtowardthewallanditsemptyshelves and imagined whathadbeentakendown.

Then Kent came in andintroduced a few people: thehousekeeper, cook, driver,groom,andboatmaster,allofwhom had been in theprevious owner’s service.When they had gone, Kentintroducedhimtoalieutenantcolonel in civvies, who wasresponsibleforsecurity.Afterhe left, Luo Ji asked KentwhereShiQiangwas.“He’s handed over your

security detail and has

probablyreturnedhome.”“Let him take the place of

that guy just now. I thinkhe’lldoabetterjob.”“I feel the same way, but

he doesn’t speak English. Itwould be hard for him to dohisjob.”“Then bring in Chinese

guards to replace the oneshere.”Kent agreed and left to

makethecall.LuoJialsoleftthe room and walked across

the manicured lawn onto apier leading out into themiddle of the lake. He heldthe railing at the end andgazed at the reflection of thesnowcapsinthelake’smirrorsurface.Surroundedbysweetair and sunshine, he said tohimself, “Compared to lifetoday, what does the worldfour centuries from nowmatter?”Screw the Wallfacer

Project.

***

“How did that bastard getin?” the researcher at theterminalsaidsoftly.“Wallfacers are naturally

free to enter,” his neighboransweredquietly.“It’s pretty dull, isn’t it? I

expect you’re disappointed,Mr. President,” Dr. Allen,director of the Los AlamosNational Laboratory, said toReyDiaz as he led him past

the rows of computerterminals.“I’m no longer president,”

ReyDiazsaidseverely,ashesurveyedhissurroundings.“This is our nuclear

weapons simulation center.LosAlamoshasfourofthesecenters, and LawrenceLivermorehasthree.”Two objects caught Rey

Diaz’s eye as being notentirely dull. They lookednew, with large displays and

consoles with lots of fineknobs. He headed over totake a closer look, but Allenpulled him back. “That’s agamemachine.Theterminalsherearen’tforgaming,sowebrought in two machines forrelaxation.”Rey Diaz noticed another

two not-entirely-dull objects.Transparent and structurallycomplicated,theycontainedabubbling liquid. Again, hestarted over to take a look,

andthistimeAllenshookhisheadwithasmileanddidnotstop him. “That one’s ahumidifier.Theclimateisdryin New Mexico. The otherone’s just a coffee machine.Mike, pour Mr. Rey Diaz acupofcoffee.…No,wait,notfromthat.I’llbrewyouacupof top-shelf roast in myoffice.”TheonlythingleftforRey

Diaz to do was to examinetheblown-upblack-and-white

photographs hanging on thewall. He recognized theskinnymanwearingahatandsmoking a pipe asOppenheimer, then Allendirected his attention back totheblandterminals.“These displays are

obsolete,”ReyDiazsaid.“But behind them is the

most powerful computer intheworld, operating at thirtypetaFLOPS.”An engineer came up to

Allen. “Doctor, theAD4453OGisoperational.”“Excellent.”The engineer lowered his

voice. “We’ve suspended theoutputmodule,” he said, andglancedatReyDiaz.“Run it,” Allen said, then

turned to Rey Diaz: “See,we’ve got nothing to hidefromtheWallfacers.”Then Rey Diaz heard

tearing sounds and saw thepeople at the terminals

ripping paper apart.Assuming that they weredestroying documents, hemuttered, “Don’t you evenhaveashredder?”Butthenhenoticedthattheyweretearingup blank copy paper. Thensomeone shouted, “Over!”and everyone cheered andtossed the shredded paperinto the air, making theclutteredfloorevenmorelikeagarbagedump.“Thisisasimulationcenter

tradition.Whenthefirstatombomb was exploded, Dr.Fermi tossed torn paper intothe air, and according to thedistance the pieces drifted inthe shockwave, hewas ableto accurately compute theyield of the bomb. Now wedo the same thing for everysimulationwerun.”Rey Diaz brushed the

paper from his head andshoulders,andsaid,“Yourunnucleartestseveryday,butto

you it’s as easy as playing avideogame. It’snot like thatfor us. We don’t havesupercomputers.We’vegottodo real tests.… We do thesame things, but the pooralways end up being thenuisance.”“Mr.ReyDiaz,noonehere

isinterestedinpolitics.”ReyDiaz leaned in to take

acloserlookattheterminals,but saw only scrolling dataandshiftingcurves.Whenhe

finally did locate somegraphics, they were soabstract he couldn’t makeanythingout.Whenheleanedtoward another terminal, thephysicist seated in front of itlooked up and said, “Mr.President, if you’re lookingfor a mushroom cloud, it’snotthere.”“I’m not the president,”

Rey Diaz repeated, as heaccepted the coffee Allenhandedhim.

Allensaid,“Thenweoughtto talkaboutwhatwecandoforyou.”“Designanuclearbomb.”“Of course. Los Alamos

may be a multidisciplinaryinstitution, but I suspectedyouwouldn’tbehereforanyother reason. Can you givemeanyspecifics?Whattype?Whatyield?”“The PDC will send you

the completed technicalrequirements before long, so

I’ll just brief you on the keypoints. Large yield, thelargest possible. As large asyou can make it. Twohundred megatons at anabsoluteminimum.”Allen stared at him for a

moment, and then bent hishead in thought. “That willrequiresometime.”“Don’t you have

mathematicalmodels?”“Ofcoursewedo.Wehave

models for everything from

five-hundred-ton shells tolargetwenty-megatonbombs,from neutron bombs to EMPbombs, but the explosiveyield you’re asking for is fartoo large. It’s more than tentimes the world’s largestthermonuclear device. Itwould have to have a totallydifferent trigger and stagingfrom a conventional nuclearweapon, and it might evenrequire an entirely newstructure. We don’t have a

modelthatfits.”They spoke some more

aboutthegeneralplanningofvariousresearchprojects,andwhen it came time to leave,Allen said, “Mr. ReyDiaz, Iknow you have the bestphysicistsonyourstaffatthePDC. I assume they’ve toldyouabout theapplicationsofnuclear weapons to spacewarfare?”“You’re permitted to be

redundant.”

“Very well. In spacewarfare, nuclear bombs maybe low-efficiency weapons,since nuclear explosionsproducenoshockwaveinthevacuum of space and onlynegligible pressure from thelight they generate, so theydon’tproducethemechanicalimpactfoundinexplosionsinthe atmosphere. All theirenergyisreleasedintheformof radiation andelectromagnetic pulses, and,

at least forhumans, radiationand EM shielding onspacecraft is a fairly maturetechnology.”“And if the target is

directlyhit?”“That’s a different thing

altogether. In that case, heatwill be adecisive factor, andthe target may be melted oreven vaporized. But onebomb of a few hundredmillion tonswillprobablybeas big as a building, so I’m

afraid it won’t be easy toscore a direct hit.… In fact,the mechanical impact ofnuclear weapons doesn’tmeasure up to kineticweapons, their radiation isless intense than particlebeam weapons, and theirthermal destruction can’tcompare to gamma-raylasers.”“But those weapons aren’t

combatready.Nuclearbombsarehumanity’smostpowerful

mature weapons. And as forthe performance issues youmention in space combat,wayscanbefoundtoimprovethem. Adding a medium tocreate a shock wave, forexample, like putting ballbearingsinagrenade.”“That’s an intriguing idea.

Your STEM backgroundshowsthrough.”“My studies were in

nuclearenergy,whichiswhyIlikenuclearbombs.I’vegot

agoodfeelingaboutthem.”Allen laughed. “I almost

forgot: It’s ridiculous todiscussissueslikethiswithaWallfacer.”The twomen laughed, but

Rey Diaz quickly grewserious and said, “Dr. Allen,like everyone else, you’retreating the Wallfacerstrategy as somethingmysterious. The mostpowerful combat-readyweaponavailable tomankind

right now is the hydrogenbomb. Focusing on that isonlynatural,isn’tit?Ibelievemy approach is the correctone.”The two men stopped on

the quiet path through thewoodstheyhadbeenwalkingalong.Allensaid,“FermiandOppenheimer walked downthis road countless times.After Hiroshima andNagasaki, most of thearchitects of the first

generation of nuclearweapons spent the rest oftheir lives mired indepression. They would begratified if they knew themission that humanity’snuclear weapons are nowfacing.”“No matter how

frightening they might be,weapons are a good thing.…Justtoletyouknow,thenexttime I come, I hope I won’tseeyouthrowingscrappaper

around. We should make atidy impression on thesophons.”

***

KeikoYamasuki woke up inthemiddleofthenighttofindherself alone, the sheetsbeside her cool. She got up,dressed, and went out thedoor.At first glance she sawher husband’s shadow in thebamboogroveintheyard,as

usual. They had homes inEngland and in Japan, butHines preferred his Japanesehome. He said that themoonlightoftheEastcalmedhisheart.Therewasnomoontonight. The bamboo and hiskimono-clad figure lost theirdimensionality and lookedlike paper cuttings hungbeneaththestars.Hines heard Keiko

Yamasuki’s footsteps but didnot look back. Strangely,

KeikoworethesameshoesinEnglandas in Japan.Even inherhometownsheneverworegeta. But it was only here,never in England, that hecouldhearherfootsteps.“My love, you haven’t

slept properly for days,” shesaid.Her voicewas soft, butthe summer insects stoppedchirping and peace floodedlikewaterovereverything.She heard her husband

sigh. “Keiko, I can’t do it. I

can’t think of anything.Really, I can’t come upwithanythingatall.”“No one can. I say an

ultimate victory plan doesn’texist.” She took two stepsforward but was stillseparated from Hines by afew stalks of bamboo. Thegrove was their place forcontemplation, and theinspiration for most of theirprevious research had itssource here. They rarely

brought intimacy to thissacred place, but alwaysaddressed each othercourteously, as befitted anatmosphere seeminglyimbued with Easternphilosophy.“Bill,youshouldrelax.Doingthebestyoucanisenough.”He turned around, but in

thedarknessof thegrovehisface was indistinct. “How isthat possible? Every step Itake consumes a massive

amountofresources.”“Then why not adopt this

approach?” Keiko’s answercame swiftly. She hadobviously been thinkingaboutthequestion.“Chooseadirection that, even if you’reunsuccessful, will dosomething beneficialwhile itisbeingcarriedout.”“Keiko,that’sexactlywhat

I’ve been thinking about.Here’s what I’ve decided todo: Even if I can’t come up

with a plan, I can help otherpeoplethinkofone.”“What other people? The

otherWallfacers?”“No, they’re not much

better off than I am. I meanourdescendants.Keiko,haveyoueverconsideredthisfact?The outcome of naturalbiological evolution requiresatleasttwentythousandyearstomanifest itself, but humancivilization has just fivethousandyearsofhistory,and

modern technologicalcivilization just twohundred.Thatmeans that the study ofmodern science today isbeing done by the brain ofprimitiveman.”“You want to use

technology to accelerate thebrain’sevolution?”“We’ve been doing brain

research,andweoughttoputmore effort into expanding itto a scale that can tackle aplanetary defense system. If

weworkhardforacenturyortwo, we might be able toincrease human intelligenceand allow the science of thefuture to break out of thesophons’prison.”“Intelligence is a vague

term in our field. What inparticular—”“Imean intelligence in the

broadest sense of the word.Not just the traditionalmeaningoflogicalreasoning,but learning ability,

imagination, and innovationas well. And also the abilitytoaccumulate commonsenseand experience whilepreserving intellectual vigor.And enhancing mentalendurance,sothatabraincanthink continuously withoutfatigue. And we can evenconsider the possibility ofeliminating sleep. And soforth.”“Whatwillittake?Doyou

haveevenaroughidea?”

“No. Not yet. Perhaps thebrain can be connecteddirectlytoacomputer,whichcan use its computing powerto amplify humanintelligence. Or maybe wecanachieveadirect interfacebetween human brains andblend different people’sthoughts. Or inheritmemories. But whateveravenuewe ultimately take toincrease human intelligence,we must first begin from a

fundamentalunderstandingofthemechanismsofthehumanbrain.”“And that’s precisely our

areaofinterest.”“We can continue in the

same career as before. Thedifferencewillbethatwecantaphugeresourcestodoit!”“Love, I’m truly happy.

I’mecstatic!There’sjustonething. As a Wallfacer, don’tyou think this plan is alittle…”

“A little indirect? Maybe.But think about it, Keiko.Humancivilizationultimatelycomes down to humansthemselves. If we start byelevating humans, doesn’tthat make this a far-reachingplan?Besides,whatelsecanIdo?”“Bill,you’rewonderful!”“So think about this for a

moment: If we turnneuroscience and thoughtresearch into a world

engineering project, and caninvest an inconceivablyenormous amount of moneyin it, how longwillwe havetowaitforsuccess?”“About a century,more or

less.”“Let’s be a little more

pessimistic and say twocenturies. Then the highlyintelligent humans will stillhavetwocenturiesleft,andifthey use one century todevelop fundamental science

and another to turn thosetheoriesintotechnology…”“Evenifitfails,we’llhave

donewhatwewantedtodo.”“Keiko, come with me to

the end of days,” Hinesmurmured.“Yes, Bill. We certainly

havethetime.”The insects in the grove

seemed to have grownaccustomed to their presenceand resumed their musicalchirping. When a soft wind

blewthroughthebambooandthe stars in the night skyflashed through the gapsbetween the leaves, itwas asif the insect chorus wasissuingfromthosestars.

***

ItwasdaythreeofthePDC’sfirst Wallfacer ProjectHearing.ReyDiazandHineshad spoken about the firstphase of their respective

projects, which were put topreliminary discussion byrepresentatives of the PDCpermanentmembers.Rey Diaz and Hines had

both submitted their plans atthe previous hearing, butTyler had delayed his firstdisclosure until this session,leaving representativesparticularlyeagerfordetails.Tyler started with a brief

introduction: “I need toestablish an armed force in

space that will supplementEarth’sfleetbutbeundermycommand.”Just one sentence in, the

hands of the other twoWallfacersshotup.“Mr.HinesandIhavebeen

accused of overuse ofresources in our plans,” ReyDiaz broke in. “But this isabsurd. Mr. Tyler wants tohavehisownspaceforce!”“Ididn’tsayitwasaspace

force,” Tyler said calmly.

“Theintentisnottoconstructwarships or large spaceships,but to establish a fleet ofspace fighters. They’ll eachbe roughly the size of aconventional Earth-basedfighterandwillcarryasinglepilot. They’ll be likemosquitoes in space, so I’vedubbed this the ‘mosquitoswarm plan.’ The formationneeds to be at least equal tothe size of the invadingTrisolaran Fleet. A thousand

ships.”“You would attack a

Trisolaran warship with amosquito? That’s not evengoing to raise a welt,” ahearing member saiddismissively.Tyler raised a finger. “Not

ifeachofthosemosquitoesisequipped with a hundred-megaton-class hydrogenbomb. So I’m going to needthe latest superbombtechnology.…Don’t turnme

down immediately, Mr. ReyDiaz. You can’t turn medown, in fact. According tothe principles of theWallfacer Project, thattechnology isn’t yourproprietary property. Onceit’s been developed, I havetherighttorequisitionit.”Rey Diaz glanced up at

him.“Myquestionis,doyouintend to plagiarize myplan?”Tyler smiled sardonically.

“IfaWallfacer’splancanbecopied, is he still aWallfacer?”“Mosquitoes can’t flyvery

far,” said Garanin, the PDCrotating chair. “These toyspace fighters can onlyengage in combat within theorbitofMars,Ibelieve.”“Watch out. His next

request might be for a spacecarrier,” Hines said with achuckle.Tyler answered with

aplomb. “That will beunnecessary. These spacefighters can be networked toturntheentiresquadronintoasingle entity, a mosquitogroup, that acts as a spacecarrierandispropelledbyanexternal engine or by theenginesof a small portionofits member fighters. Atcruisingspeed,thegroupwillpossess the long-range spacenavigation capabilities oflarge spacecraft. Once it

reaches the battlefield, thehuge entity will disassembleandgointobattleasafleetofindependentfighters.”“Yourmosquitogroupwill

take years to reach thedefensive zone at theperimeter of the SolarSystem. A fighter pilot can’tspend sucha long journey ina cockpit that doesn’t evenpermitthemtostandup.Willthere even be room forsupplies in such a small

craft?”someoneasked.“Hibernation,” Tyler said.

“They’ll have to hibernate.My plan relies on therealization of twotechnologies: miniaturizedsuperbombs andminiaturizedhibernationunits.”“Hibernating for a few

years in a metal coffin, thenwaking up, only to launch asuicide attack. Clearly, thejobofamosquitopilotisnotonetobeenvied,”Hinessaid.

Tyler’s enthusiasmdisappeared,andheremainedsilent foramoment.Thenhenodded. “Yes. Finding pilotsis the hardest part of themosquitoswarmplan.”Details of Tyler’s plan

were distributed to themembers of the hearing, butthere was no interest indiscussion. The chairdeclared the hearingadjourned.“Luo Ji still hasn’t

arrived?” asked the annoyedUSrepresentative.“He won’t be coming,”

said Garanin. “He declaredthat his seclusion andnonparticipation in the PDChearingispartofhisplan.”At this, the attendees

whisperedamongthemselves.Some of them seemedannoyed,whileothersflashedcrypticsmiles.“He’sadeadbeat,awaste!”

ReyDiazsaid.

“Then what are you?”Tyler asked rudely, eventhough his mosquito swarmplan relied on Rey Diaz’ssuper hydrogen bombtechnology.Hines said, “I’d rather

express my regard for Dr.Luo. He knows himself andknowshisownabilities,sohedoesn’t want a pointlesswaste of resources.” Heturned graciously to ReyDiaz. “I thinkMr. Rey Diaz

should learn something fromhim.”Everyone could see that

Tyler and Hines were notdefending Luo Ji, but thattheirenmitytowardReyDiazwas far deeper bycomparison.Garanin rapped the gavel

on the table. “First of all,Wallfacer Rey Diaz hasspokenoutoforder.Iremindyou to show respect to theotherWallfacers. Similarly, I

remindWallfacersHines andTylerthatyourwordsarealsoinappropriate for thismeeting.”Hines said, “Mr. Chair,

whatWallfacerReyDiazhasdemonstrated in his plan isnothingbutthecrudenessofasoldier. Following in thefootsteps of Iran and NorthKorea, his country fell underUN sanctions because of itsnuclear weapons program,and this has given him a

twisted complex for thebomb.Thereisessentiallynodifference between Mr.Tyler’s mosquito swarmprogramandReyDiaz’sgianthydrogen bomb plan. Botharedisappointments.Thetwostraightforward plans willhave their strategic intentexposed right from the start.Neitherexhibitsthecanninessthat’s the strategic advantageoftheWallfacerProject.”Tyler shot back, “Mr.

Hines,yourplanislikesomesortofnaïvedaydream.”When the hearing ended,

the Wallfacers went to theMeditation Room, theirfavorite place in UNHeadquarters. It now seemedto them that this roomdesignedforsilencewasbuiltespecially for Wallfacers.Gatheredthere,theywaitedinsilence, each of them feelingthattheywouldneverbeabletoexchangethoughtsuntilthe

final war came. The slab ofiron ore lay silently in theirmidst, as if absorbing andcollecting their thoughts andsilentlybearingwitness.Hines said softly, “Have

you heard about theWallbreakers?”Tyler nodded. “The ETO

just announced it on theirpublicWebsite,andit’sbeenverifiedbytheCIA.”TheWallfacers lapsed into

silence again, each one

conjuring in his mind animage of his ownWallbreaker.Itwasanimagethat would appear countlesstimes in theirnightmares, forthe day a Wallbreakeractually appeared wouldlikely spell the end of thatWallfacer.

***

When Shi Xiaoming saw hisfatherenter,heedged toward

the corner, but Shi Qiangsimply sat down quietly nexttohim.“Don’t be afraid. I won’t

hit you or curse at you thistime. I don’t have theenergy.” He brought out apack of cigarettes, took outtwo, and offered one to hisson. Shi Xiaoming hesitatedbefore accepting it. They litupandsmokedforawhileinsilence.ThenShiQiangsaid,“I’ve got a mission. I’ll be

leavingthecountrysoon.”“Whataboutyourillness?”

Shi Xiaoming looked upthrough the smoke and gavehisfatheraworriedlook.“Let’stalkaboutyoufirst.”ShiXiaoming’s expression

turnedpleading.“Dad,there’sgoing tobeaheavysentenceforthis—”“Any other crime, and I’d

beabletoworkitoutforyou,but that’s not how this isgoing to work. Ming, we’re

both adults. We need to beresponsibleforouractions.”Shi Xiaoming bowed his

head in despair and took asilentdrawonhiscigarette.Shi Qiang said, “I’m half

to blame. I never had anyconcern for you when youwere growing up. I camehome late every night, sotiredI’djusthaveadrinkandthen go to bed. I neverwentto a parents’ meeting atschool, and I never had a

good talk with you aboutanything.… It’s the samething again: We have to beresponsible for our ownactions.”Tears in his eyes, Shi

Xiaoming ground thecigarette back and forthrepeatedlyon theedgeof thebed, like he wasextinguishing the latter halfofhislife.“Prison is like a criminal

training course. Forget about

reform when you go in, justdon’t get mixed up with theother prisoners. And learnhow to protect yourself alittle. Take these—” ShiQiangplacedaplasticbagonthe bed. Inside were twocartons of ordinaryYunYancigarettes. “And if you needanything else, your motherwillsendittoyou.”ShiQiangwenttothedoor,

then turned and said to hisson, “Ming, you may still

meet your dad again. You’llprobablybeolder thanmeatthat point, and then you’llunderstand what’s in myheartrightnow.”Through thesmallwindow

in the door, Shi Xiaomingwatched his father exit thedetention center. From theback,helookedquiteold.

***

In an era where anxiety had

takenholdofeverything,LuoJiwas now theworld’smostlaid-back man. He strolledbeside the lake, took a boatout into the water, had thechef turn the mushrooms hepickedandthefishhecaughtinto tastydelicacies,browsedthrough the library’s richcollection, andwhenhe tiredof that, went outside andgolfed with the guards. Herode on horseback throughthe grassland and on the

forestpathinthedirectionofthe snow peak, but he neverreached the foot of themountain. Oftentimes, hewould sit on a bench on thelakeside and look at themountain’s reflection in thewater, doing and thinkingnothing as an entire daypassedunknowingly.He was alone during this

time, with no connection tothe outside world. Kent wasin themanor, too,buthehad

his own small office andrarely bothered him. Luo Jihad only spoken once to theofficer in charge of security,to ask that the securitydetailnot trail along behind him,andif theyabsolutelyhadto,tomakesurethathecouldnotseethem.He felt like theboat in the

water,floatingquietlywithitssail furled, ignorantofwhereitwasmooredandnotcaringwhere it floated. Now and

then when he thought abouthis former life, he wassurprised to discover that intheshortspaceofafewdays,hecouldno longer recognizeit.Thisstatesatisfiedhim.He was particularly

interested in the wine cellar.He knew that the dust-covered bottles lyinghorizontallyontheracksheldnothing but the best. Hedrank in the living room, hedrank in the library, and

sometimes he drank on theboat;butnevertoomuch,justenough to keep him in thatperfect,half-drunk,half-soberstate,andthenhewouldtakeout that long-stemmed pipeleft by the previous ownerandpuffaway.Even when it rained and

the living room grew chilly,LuoJineverhadthefireplacelit. He knew it wasn’t yettime.Heneverwentonlinehere,

but he sometimes watchedtelevision, skipping over thenews andwatching programsthat had nothing to do withcurrent events or even thepresent day. This sort ofcontent was still possible tofind,althoughitwasgrowingincreasingly rare in the lastebbsoftheGoldenAge.Late one night, he got

carried away by a bottle ofcognac that, from the label,was thirty-five years old.

Wielding the remote, heskippedpasttheseveralnewsstationsonthehigh-definitiontelevision, but one English-language news item caughthis eye. It concerned thesalvageofamid-seventeenth-century wreck, a clipper thathadsailedfromRotterdamtoFaridabad and had sunk offCape Horn. Among theobjects that divers hadretrievedfromthewreckwasa small, sealed cask of fine

wine that experts speculatedwas still drinkable. Not onlythat, but after three centuriesinstorageatthebottomoftheocean, its taste would beunparalleled.Luo Ji recordedmostoftheprogram,andthencalledforKent.“I want that cask. Buy it

forme,”hesaid.Kent went to make a call.

Two hours later he told LuoJi that the price of the caskwas astonishingly high:

Bidding would start at threehundredthousandeuros.“Thatamountisnothingto

theWallfacerProject.Buyit.It’spartoftheplan.”And thus, the Wallfacer

Project produced a secondidiom after the “Wallfacersmile.” Anything that wasclearly absurd butwhich hadtobedoneanywaywascalled“part of theWallfacer plan,”orsimply,“partoftheplan.”Two days later, the cask,

its aged surface covered inshells, was placed in thevilla’s living room. Luo Jitook out a tap with a twistdrill specially made forwooden casks, which hefound in the cellar, andcarefully drilled it into thesidetopouroutthefirstglass.The liquid was a temptingemerald green. He sniffed it,and then put the glass to hislips.“Doctor, is this part of the

plantoo?”Kentaskedsoftly.“That’s right. It’s part of

theplan.”LuoJiwasabouttodrink, but seeing the peoplepresent in the room, he said,“Allofyou,out.”Kent and the rest of them

didnotmove.“Sendingyououtispartof

theplantoo.Out!”Heglaredat them. Kent gently shookhis head and led the othersout.LuoJitookasip.Although

hedidhisutmosttoconvincehimself that the flavor washeavenly, in the end he didnot have the guts to take asecond sip. But that one sipdidn’t let him go unscathed.That night he was sick outbothendsuntilhespatupbilethecolorof thewineandhisbodywassoweakhecouldn’tget out of bed. Later, afterdoctors and experts openedthecasklid,theyfoundthatithada rather largebrass label

ontheinsidewall,aswasthecustom in those days. Overtimetherehadbeensomesortof reaction between thenormally peacefullycoexisting copper and thewine, and some sort ofsubstance had dissolved intothe wine.… When the caskwas carriedoff,Luo Ji couldsee the schadenfreude onKent’sface.Deeplyexhausted,helayin

bedwatchinghisIVdrip,and

an intense loneliness seizedhim.Heknew thathis recentleisure was merely theweightlessness of tumblinginto the abyss of loneliness,and now he had reached thebottom. But he hadanticipated this moment, andhehadbeenprepared.Hewaswaiting for someone, andthenthenextstepof theplanwouldbegin.HewaswaitingforDaShi.

***

Tyler stood holding anumbrella against theKagoshima drizzle. Behindhim, twometers away, stooddefense chief Koichi Inoue,whose umbrella remainedunopened.Thepast twodayshe had maintained the sameseparation from Tyler, bothphysically and mentally.They were at the ChiranPeaceMuseumforKamikaze

Pilots, and in front of themwas a statue of a specialattack unit next to a whiteplane, call sign 502. A lightlayer of rain painted thesurface of the statue and theaircraft and made themdeceptivelylifelike.“Isn’t there any room for

discussion of my proposal?”Tylerasked.“I strongly advise you not

tospeakof this to themedia.Itwill cause trouble.”Koichi

Inoue’swordswereas icyastherain.“Is it still that sensitive,

eventoday?”“What’s sensitive isn’t the

history, but your proposal torestore the kamikaze specialattack units. Why don’t youdoitintheUSorsomeotherplace? Are the Japanesepeople the only ones in theworld who can die out ofduty?”Tyler closed up his

umbrella and drew closer toKoichiInoue,who—althoughhe didn’t recoil—seemed tohaveaforcefieldsurroundinghim that prevented Tylerfrom getting close. “I’venever said that the futurekamikaze forces would bemade up only of Japanesemembers.It’saninternationalforce, but since it originatedinyourgreat country, isn’t itonly natural to revive ithere?”

“In interplanetary war,does this mode of attackreally have any significance?You should realize thatvictories for those specialattackunitswerelimited,andthey didn’t turn the tide ofbattle.”“Commander,sir,thespace

force I have established is afleet of fighters equippedwithsuperhydrogenbombs.”“Why do you need

humans? Can’t computer-

controlled fighters get closeenoughtoattack?”This question seemed to

giveTylertheopportunityhewaswaitingfor,andhegrewexited. “That’s exactly theproblem! Today’s computersare unable to replace humanbrains, and advancements infundamental theorywouldbenecessary for quantum andother next-gen computers.But that’sbeen lockedupbythesophons.Sofourcenturies

from now, computingintelligence will still belimited, and human-controlled weapons will beindispensable.… To tell youthe truth, reviving thekamikaze squads only hasmoral significance now,because it will be tengenerations before any ofthem go to their death. Butestablishing that spirit andfaithmeansstartingnow!”KoichiInoueturnedaround

to face Tyler for the firsttime. His wet hair wasplasteredagainsthisforeheadand the raindropsonhis facelooked like tears. “Thatapproach violates the basicmoral principles of modernsociety: Human lives comefirst, and the state and thegovernmentcan’t requireanyindividual to take up a deathmission. I seem to remembera line Yang Wen-li said inLegend of the Galactic

Heroes:12‘Inthiswarliesthefate of the country, butwhatdoes it matter next toindividual rights andfreedoms?All ofyou just doyourbest.’”Tyler sighed. “You know

what?Youhavethrownawayyourmostpreciousresource.”Then he snapped open hisumbrella and turned andwalked angrily away. Whenhe reached the gate of thememorial,helookedbackand

saw Koichi Inoue stillstandingintherainbeforethestatue.AsTylerwalkedinthesea

breeze,hismindreturnedtoasentence from a suicide notefrom a kamikaze pilot to hismotherthathehadseenintheexhibit:Mom, I’m going to be a

firefly.

***

“It’sworse than I imagined,”AllensaidtoReyDiaz.Theywerestandingnexttoablackobeliskmadeoflavarock,themonument marking groundzero of humankind’s firstatombomb.“Is its structure really that

different?”ReyDiazasked.“Totally different from

today’s nuclear bombs.Constructingitsmathematicalmodel might be more than ahundred times more

complicated than today’sbombs. This is an enormousundertaking.”“WhatdoIneedtodo?”“Cosmo’s on your staff,

right?Gethimtocometomylab.”“WilliamCosmo?”“Yes.”“Buthe’s…he’s…”“An astrophysicist. An

authorityonstars.”“What’shegoingtodo?”“That’s what I’m gonna

tell you. To your mind, anuclear bomb is detonatedand then explodes, but theactual process is more likeburning. The greater theyield, the longer thecombustion. A twenty-megaton nuclear explosion,for example, has a fireballthat can last for over twentyseconds. The superbombwe’re designing is twohundred megatons, and itsfireball will burn for several

minutes. Think about that.Whatwillitlooklike?”“Asmallsun.”“Correct! Its fusion

structureisverylikethatofastar, and it reproduces stellarevolution over a veryabbreviated period. So themathematicalmodelwe needto construct is essentially themodelofastar.”White sands stretched out

in front of them. In themoments just before dawn,

the details of the dark desertcouldn’tbemadeout.Astheygazed at the scenery, theywere involuntarily remindedof the basic setting of ThreeBody.“I’mveryexcited,Mr.Rey

Diaz. Please forgive me forour lackofenthusiasmat thestart. Looking at the projectnow, the significance farexceeds theconstructionofasuperbomb itself. Do youknow what we’re doing?

We’recreatingavirtualstar!”ReyDiazshookhisheadin

disapproval. “What does thathavetodowiththedefenseofEarth?”“Don’t be limited by

planetarydefense.Meandmycolleagues in the lab arescientists, after all. Besides,this thing is not withoutpractical significance. Solong as you input theappropriate parameters, thestarcouldbeamodelforour

sun. Think about it. It’salwaysusefultohavethesunin your computer memory.It’s the biggest presencethat’s close to us in thecosmos, but we could takemore advantage of it. Themodel may have many morediscoverieslyinginwait.”Rey Diaz said, “One

previous use of the sun iswhatbroughthumanitytothebrink, and brought you andmetothisplace.”

“But new discoveriesmight bring humanity back.So today, I’ve invited youheretowatchthesunrise.”The rising sun was now

justpeekingitsheadoverthehorizon.Thedesertinfrontofthem came into focus like adeveloping photograph, andRey Diaz could see that thisplace, once blasted by thefiresofhell,wasnowcoveredinsparseundergrowth.“I am become death, the

destroyer of worlds,” Allenexclaimed.“What?” Rey Diaz

whipped his head around, asifsomeonehadshothimfrombehind.“Oppenheimer said that

when he watched the firstnuclearexplosion.I thinkit’sa quote from the BhagavadGita.”The wheel in the east

expanded rapidly, castinglight across the Earth like a

golden web. The same sunwas there on that morningwhen Ye Wenjie had tunedthe Red Shore antenna, andeven before that, the samesun had shone upon the dustsettling after the first bombblast. Australopithecus amillion years ago and thedinosaurs a hundred millionyears ago had turned theirdull eyes upon this very sun,andevenearlierthanthat,thehazy light thatpenetrated the

surfaceoftheprimevaloceanandwasfeltbythefirstlivingcellwasemittedbythissamesun.Allenwenton,“Andthena

man called Bainbridgefollowed up Oppenheimer’sstatement with somethingcompletely nonpoetic: ‘Nowweareallsonsofbitches.’”“What are you talking

about?” Rey Diaz said.Watching the rising sun, hisbreathingbecameragged.

“I’m thanking you, Mr.ReyDiaz, because fromnowonwe’renotsonsofbitches.”In theeast, thesun rose in

overarching solemnity, as ifdeclaring to the world,“Everythingisasfleetingasashadowbeforeme.”“What’s the matter, Mr.

Rey Diaz?” Allen saw thatRey Diaz had fallen into acrouch, one hand on theground, and was convulsingin dry heaves. His face had

turned pale and was coveredinacoldsweat,andhehadnostrength to move his handfrom the clump of thorns itwaspressingon.“Go,gotothecar,”hesaid

weakly.Heturnedhisheadinthedirectionoppositethesun,and he raised his other handtoblockthesunlight.Hewasunable to get up. Allen triedto assist but couldn’t budgehis stocky body. “Drive thecar over.…” Rey Diaz

wheezed out, while pullinghis hand back to cover hiseyes.WhenAllendroveoverto him, he had fallen to theground.Withdifficulty,Allenhelpedhiminto thebackseat.“Sunglasses. I needsunglasses.…” He half-reclinedintothebackseat,hishands clawing at the air.AllenhandedReyDiazapairofsunglasseshefoundonthedashboard.Afterheput themon his breathing grew

smoother.“I’mallright.Let’sget out of here.Quickly,” hesaidfeebly.“What on earth happened?

What’swrong?”“Itmightbethesun.”“Uh…whendidyoustart

havingthissortofreaction?”“Justnow.”Thepeculiarphobiaforthe

sun that afflicted Rey Diazpushed him to the edge ofmental and physicalbreakdownwhenever he saw

it and kept him confinedindoorsfromthenon.

***

“Was the flight very long?Youlooklikeyoudon’thaveany energy,” was the firstthing Luo Ji said after ShiQiangarrived.“Yeah.You’llnever finda

plane as comfortable as thatonewewere on,” Shi Qiangsaid as he appraised his

surroundings.“Notbad,eh?”“It’s awful,” Shi Qiang

said, shaking his head.“Woodsonthreesides,soit’seasy to hide close to thehouse. And there’s a lake.With the shore this close tothe house, it would bedifficult to defend againstdivers coming from thewoods on the other side.Butthe surrounding grassland ispretty good, and provides

someopenspace.”“Can’t you be any more

romantic?”“I’m here to work, my

boy.”“It’s romantic work I’m

thinking of.” Luo Ji led ShiQiang into the living room.He surveyed it, but did notseemmuch impressed by theluxury and elegance. Luo Jipoured him a drink in acrystal goblet, but ShiQiangturneditdownwithawaveof

hishand.“It’s thirty-year-old aged

brandy.”“Ican’tdrinkrightnow.…

Tellmeofthisromanticworkofyours.”Luo Ji sipped his brandy

and sat down next to him.“DaShi,I’maskingyoutodome a favor. In your old job,did you ever have to lookacrosstheentirecountryforaparticular person, or evenaroundtheworld?”

“Yes.”“Wereyougoodatit?”“At finding people? Of

course.”“Great. Help me find a

person.Awomaninherearlytwenties. This is part of theplan.”“Nationality? Name?

Address?”“None.Thepossibilitythat

sheevenexistsintheworldislow.”Shi Qiang looked at him,

andafter a few seconds said,“Youdreamedher?”Luo Ji nodded.

“Daydreams,too.”Shi Qiang nodded, too,

then said something Luo Jihad not expected him to say.“Okay.”“What?”“Okay, so long as you

knowwhatshelookslike.”“She’s, well, she’s Asian,

solet’ssayChinese.”AsLuoJi spoke,he tookoutapaper

and pencil. “Her face is likethis.Her nose, like this.Andher mouth … geez, I can’tdraw.Andher eyes…damnit, how can I draw her eyes?Do you have one of thosethings, a piece of softwarethatwillletyoupullupafaceand then adjust the eyes andnose and so on according tothe eyewitnesses descriptionto come up with an accuratedepiction of the person thewitnesssaw?”

“Sure. I’ve got one righthereonmylaptop.”“Then get it out and let’s

draw!”ShiQiangstretchedouton

the sofa and situated himselfcomfortably. “Not necessary.You don’t need to draw her.Just keep talking. Put asideher appearance, and first talkaboutwhatsortofpersonsheis.”Something in Luo Ji’s

mind caught fire, and he

stood up and began to pacerestlessly in front of thefireplace.“She…howshouldI put it? She came into thisworld like a lilygrowingoutof a rubbish heap, so … sopureanddelicate,andnothingaround her can contaminateher. But it can all harm her.Yes, everything around hercan hurt her! Your firstreactionwhen you see her istoprotecther.No,tocareforher, to let her know that you

arewillingtopayanypricetoshieldherfromtheharmofacrude and savage reality.She … she’s so … ah, I’vegot a clumsy tongue. I can’tsayanythingclearly.”“It’s always like that,”Shi

Qiang saidwith a laugh.Hislaugh, which had seemedcrude and silly the first timeLuo Ji heard it, felt full ofwisdom now, and it soothedhim. “But you’ve been clearenough.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll go on,then. She … but what am Isaying?NomatterwhatIsay,Ican’texpresswhatshe’slikein my heart.” He grewirritated, and seemed towantto tear out his heart to showtoShiQiang.ShiQiangcalmedhimwith

a wave. “Forget it. Just talkaboutwhathappenswhenthetwo of you are together. Themoredetailedthebetter.”Luo Ji’s eyes widened in

amazement. “How did youknowaboutthetwoofus?”Shi Qiang laughed again.

Then he looked around.“Therewouldn’thappentobeany cigars in this place,wouldthere?”“Yes, there are!” Luo Ji

grabbed an elegant woodenboxfromthemantel,tookoutathickDavidoff,andusedanevenmoreelegantguillotine-style cigar cutter to slice offtheend.Thenhepassed it to

Shi Qiang, and lit it for himwith a cedar strip speciallydesignedforcigars.ShiQiang took a puff and

nodded his head, pleased.“Goon.”LuoJiovercamehisearlier

language barrier and grewgarrulous. He described howshe had come alive for thefirst time in the library, howsheappearedinhisclassroomduring lecture, how the twoof them had met in front of

theimaginaryfireplaceinhisdormitory, the beauty of thefirelightshiningontoherfacethrough the bottle of winelike the eyes of twilight. Herecalled with pleasure theirroad trip, describing everylastdetail: thefieldsafter thesnow, the town and villageunder the blue sky, themountains like old villagersbasking in the sun, and theevening and bonfire at thefootofthemountain.…

After he finished, ShiQiang stubbed out his cigar.“Well, that’s about enough.I’ll guess a few things aboutthe girl, and you see if I’mright.”“Great!”“Education: She’s got at

least a bachelor’s, but lessthanadoctorate.”Luo Ji nodded. “Yes, yes.

She’sknowledgeable,butnottothepointwhereitcalcifiesher. It only makes her more

sensitive to life and to theworld.”“She was probably born

intoahighlyeducatedfamilyand lived a life that wasn’ttoo rich but more affluentthan most families. Growingup she enjoyed her parents’love,butshehadlittlecontactwith the community,particularly the lower rungsofsociety.”“Right, absolutely right!

She never told me about her

family circumstances, oractually anything aboutherself,butIthinkthatoughttobethecase.”“Now, if any of the

following speculations arewrong, let me know. Shelikes to wear—how wouldyou put it—simple, elegantclothing, a little plainer thanotherwomenherage.”LuoJinodded dumbly, over andover. “But there’s alwayssomething white, like a shirt

or a collar, that contrastssharply with the dark colorsoftherestoftheoutfit.”“DaShi, you’re…”Luo Ji

said, admiration in his eyes,as he watched Shi Qiangspeak.Brushing him aside, Shi

Qiang went on, “Finally,she’s not tall, one hundredand sixty centimeters or so,and her body is … well, Iguess you could say slender,as if a gust of wind could

blowheraway,soshedoesn’tseem so short.… I can comeupwithmore,ofcourse.Notfaroff,isit?”LuoJiwasreadytofallon

his knees before Shi Qiang.“Da Shi, I throw myself onthe ground before you.You’re the reincarnation ofSherlockHolmes!”ShiQiang stoodup. “Now

I’ll sketch her on thecomputer.”That night, he brought the

computertoLuoJi.Whenthewoman’s portrait appearedonscreen, Luo Ji stared, notmovingamuscle,likehehadbeen struck by a curse. ShiQianghadevidentlyexpectedthis, and retrieved anothercigarfromthemantel,clippedit with the guillotine, lit it,andbegantosmoke.Whenhehad taken a few puffs, hecamebacktofindLuoJistillstaringatthescreen.“Tellmewhat’soffandI’ll

adjustitforyou.”Withdifficulty,LuoJitore

his gaze from the screen,stood up, and walked to thewindow, where he watchedthemoonlight shining on thedistant snow peak. Hemurmured, dreamlike,“Nothing.”“I thought so,” Shi Qiang

said, and closed thecomputer.Still gazing into the

distance, Luo Ji uttered a

phrasethatothershadusedtoevaluateShiQiang: “DaShi,you’readevil.”ShiQiangsatdownon the

sofa, exhausted. “There’snothingsupernaturalabout it.We’rebothmen.”LuoJi turned tohim.“But

every man’s dream lover isquitedifferent!”“Dream lovers are

basicallythesameformenofacertaintype.”“Still, getting it so close

shouldbeimpossible!”“Remember,youtoldmea

lotofstuff.”Luo Ji walked over to the

computer and opened it upagain. “Send me a copy.”Then, as Shi Qiang workedon copying the image, heasked,“Canyoufindher?”“All I can say now is that

it’s quite likely. But I can’truleoutnotfindingher.”“What?” Luo Ji’s hands

stopped theirmovements and

heturnedtolookatShiQianginastonishment.“With this sort of thing,

how can you guarantee onehundredpercentsuccess?”“No, that’s not what I

mean. The total opposite, infact.Ithoughtyouwouldsaythat it’s practicallyimpossible,butyouwouldn’trule out a random, one-ten-thousandth of a percentchanceoffindingher.Andifyou had said that, I’d have

been satisfied.” He turnedback to the picture on thescreen, andmurmured again,“Can such a person reallyexistintheworld?”Shi Qiang smiled

scornfully. “Dr. Luo, howmanypeoplehaveyouseen?”“Not as many as you, of

course, but I know thatthere’s no perfect person intheworld,muchlessaperfectwoman.”“Likeyousaidearlier, I’m

oftenabletofindaparticularindividual out of tens ofthousands, and I can tell youfrom the experience of mostof my life that there are allkindsofpeopleoutthere.Allkinds, my boy. Perfectpeople, perfect women. Youjusthaven’tmetthem.”“That’s the first time I’ve

heardanyonesaythat.”“It’s because someone

who’s perfect in your mindisn’tnecessarilyperfectinthe

minds of others. This girl ofyour dreams—to me, she’sgot obvious, well,imperfections. So there’s agoodchanceoffindingher.”“But directors can search

for an ideal actor out of tensof thousands of people andnotfindthemintheend.”“Those directors can’t

matchourprofessionalsearchcapabilities. We’re not justlooking at tens of thousands,or even hundreds of

thousands or millions ofpeople. The tools andtechniques we use are moresophisticated than anydirector’s. The computers atthe police analysis center,say, can find a match out ofupwardsofahundredmillionfacesinjusthalfaday.…Theonly catch is that this isbeyond the scope of myduties,soI’llneedtoreporttothe higher authorities first. Ifthey approve and assign the

tasktome,thenofcourseI’lldomybest.”“Tell them that it’s an

important part of theWallfacer Project and mustbetakenseriously.”Shi Qiang chuckled

opaquely and then took hisleave.

***

“What? The PDC needs tofindhim…?”Kentgropedfor

the Chinese term. “A dreamlover? The guy’s beenindulgedtoomuch.I’msorry.I can’t pass along yourrequest.”“Then you are in violation

of the Wallfacer Projectprinciple: No matter howincomprehensible aWallfacer’s order is, it mustbe reported and executed.Any veto belongs to thePDC.”“Butwecan’tusesociety’s

resources to allow a personlikehimto live the lifeofanemperor!Mr.Shi,wehaven’tbeen working together long,but I really respect you.You’re an experienced andinsightfulman,sotellmethetruth.DoyoureallythinkLuoJi is carrying out theWallfacerProject?”ShiQiang shook his head.

“I don’t know.” He raised ahand to stop Kent fromarguing.“However,sir,that’s

just my ignorance, not theopinionofoursuperiors.Thisis the biggest differencebetweenyouandme:I’mjustsomeone who faithfullycarries out orders. You,you’re someone who alwayshastoaskwhy.”“Isthatwrong?”“It’s not about right or

wrong. If everyonehad tobeclear about why before theyexecuted an order, then theworld would have plunged

into chaos long ago. Mr.Kent,youdooutrankme,butwhen you get down to it,we’re both peoplewho carryout orders. We ought tounderstand that some thingsaren’t for people like us tothink over. It’s enough to doourduty.Ifyoucan’tdothat,then I’mafraidyou’ll have aroughtime.”“I’m already having a

rough time! We just wastedgobs of money buying that

sunken wine. I just think…look, does he look like aWallfaceratall?”“What should a Wallfacer

looklike?”Kent was speechless for a

moment.“Even if there were a

templateforaWallfacer,LuoJi is not entirely inconsistentwithit.”“What?” asked Kent, a

little taken aback. “You’renot saying that you see a

certain amount of quality inhim?”“ThatIam.”“Well, damn it, what do

yousee?”Shi Qiang clapped a hand

toKent’sshoulder.“You,forexample. If the Wallfacermantle descended upon you,you would be anopportunistic hedonist justlikehim.”“I’d have broken down

longbeforenow.”

“That’s right.ButLuo Ji’scarefree. Nothing bothershim.Kent,oldfellow,doyouthinkwhathe’sdoingiseasy?Open-mindedness, is whatthisis,andanyonewhowantstodogreatthingsneedstobeopen-minded. Someone likeyou won’t accomplish greatthings.”“Buthe’s so…Imean…

if he’s just carefree like that,how does it relate to theWallfacerProject?”

“I’vebeenexplainingitallthis time and you still don’tget it? I said that I don’tknow.Howdoyouknowthatwhat the guy’s doing rightnow isn’t part of the plan?Once again, this isn’tsomething for you or I tojudge. Taking a step back,even ifwe’recorrect inwhatwe think,”—Shi Qiang drewclosetoKentandloweredhisvoice—“some things requiretime.”

Kent stared at Shi Qiangforalongmoment,andatlastshook his head, unsurewhetherornotheunderstoodthat last sentence. “Fine. I’llmakethereport.Butcanyouletmeseethatdreamloverofhisfirst?”When he saw the woman

onthescreen,Kent’soldfacegrewgentleforaninstant.Herubbed his jaw and said,“Oh … my god. I don’tbelieve for a moment that

anyone like that exists, but Ihopeyoufindhersoon.”

***

“Colonel, do you find it alittleabruptformetoinspectthe political and ideologicalwork of your military in mycapacity?” Tyler said whenhemetZhangBeihai.“No, Mr. Tyler. There’s

precedent for it. Rumsfeldonce visited the Central

Military Commission’s PartySchool when I was studyingthere.” Zhang Beihai lackedthe curiosity, caution, anddistance that Tyler hadobservedintheotherofficers.Heappearedsincere,andthatmadetheconversationeasier.“You’vegotgoodEnglish.

Youmustbefromthenavy.”“That’s right. The US

Space Force drew an evenlarger proportion from thenavythanwedid.”

“Thatvenerableoldbranchof the services would neverhave imagined that itswarships would be sailinginto space.… I’ll be frank.When General Chang Weisiintroduced you as the finestpolitical cadre in the spaceforce,Ithoughtyouwouldbearmy,becausethearmyisthesoulofyourmilitary.”Zhang Beihai clearly did

not agree, but he laughedgraciously.“Thesamesoulis

found throughout thedifferent branches of themilitary. In every country’snascent space force, themilitary culture bears theimprint of its variousbranches.”“I’m quite interested in

yourpolitical and ideologicalwork.IwashopingIcoulddosomein-depthinvestigation.”“Not a problem at all.My

superiors have instructed meto hold nothing back, within

thescopeofmywork.”“Thank you!” Tyler

hesitated before going on.“Mypurposeinthistripistoobtain an answer. I’d like toaskyoufirst.”“Ofcourse.Goahead.”“Colonel, do you believe

that we can restore the spiritofarmiesofthepast?”“What do you mean by

‘past’?”“A wide range of time,

from perhaps ancient Greece

through the Second WorldWar. What’s key is thespiritual commonalities Imentioned: duty and honorabove all, and, in time ofneed, to unhesitatingly laydown one’s life. You mayhave noticed that after theSecondWorldWar,thisspiritvanishedfromthemilitary indemocratic and authoritariancountriesalike.”“The army is drawn from

society,soitwouldmeanthat

the past spirit you speak ofwould need to be restoredthroughoutsociety.”“Our views agree on this

point.”“But, Mr. Tyler, that is

impossible.”“Why? We have four

hundred years. In the past,human society used exactlythatamountoftimetoevolvefrom the era of collectiveheroism to one ofindividualism, so why can’t

we use the same amount oftimetoevolveback?”Zhang Beihai considered

this for amoment, then said,“This is aprofoundquestion,but I think that society hasgrown up and can neverreturntoitschildhood.Inthefourhundredyearsthatledtothe formation of modernsociety,weseenoculturalormental preparation for thissortofcrisis.”“Then from what do you

drawyourconfidence?Asfaras I’m aware, you are acommitted triumphalist. Howwill a space fleet brimmingwith defeatism face apowerfulenemy?”“Didn’t you just say we

have four hundred years? Ifwe can’t go backward, thenwe must move resolutelyforward.”ZhangBeihai’sanswerwas

opaque. Tyler obtainednothingelsefromtheensuing

conversation but a feelingthat theman’s thoughtswentdeeperthanabriefvisitcouldreveal.Tylerpassedasentryashe

left the space forceheadquarters. When theireyes met, the sentry greetedhimwith a shy smile. Itwassomething he hadn’t seen inother countries’ militaries,whosesentriesstared intentlystraightahead.Lookingattheyoungman’sface,Tyleronce

again repeated that line tohimself:Mom, I’m going to be a

firefly.

***

It began to rain that eveningforthefirsttimesinceLuoJihad arrived at the estate, andthe living room was quitecold. He sat beside the unlitfireplace and listened to therain outside, feeling that the

housewaslocatedonalonelyislandinthemiddleofadarkocean.Hewrappedhimselfinthe boundless solitude. WithShiQianggone,hehadbeenrestlessly waiting, and thislonely wait was itself a kindofhappiness.Thenheheardacar pull up to the porch andcaught snatches ofconversation.Thesoft,gentlevoice of a woman saying“Thankyou”and“Good-bye”jolted him like an electric

shock.Two years ago, he had

heardthesamesounddayandnight in his dreams. Theethereal sound, a wisp ofgossamerfloatingthroughtheblue sky, brought a fleetingsunshine to the gloomyevening.Then there was a light

knock at the door. He satstiffly inplaceandonlyaftera long while did he finallyopen his mouth and say,

“Comein.”Thedooropened.Aslenderfigurefloatedinonabreathofrain.Thesolelightinthelivingroomwasafloorlamp with an old-fashionedlampshadethatcastacircleofillumination beside thefireplacebutlittherestoftheroom only dimly. Luo Jicouldn’t make out her face,but noticed that she worewhite trousers and a darkjacket that stood in starkcontrast to her white collar

andmadehimthinkoflilies.“Hello,Mr.Luo,”shesaid.“Hello,” he said, standing

up.“Isitcoldoutside?”“Not in thecar.”Although

hecouldn’tseeherclearly,heknew she was smiling. “Buthere”—shelookedaroundher—“here it’s a little cold.…Er, I’m Zhuang Yan, Mr.Luo.”“Hello,ZhuangYan.Let’s

lightthefireplace.”And soLuo Ji knelt down

and put some of the neatlystacked fruitwood into thefireplace.Hesaid,“Haveyouever seen one before? Here,comehaveaseat.”She came over and sat on

thesofa,still in theshadows.“Oh…onlyinthemovies.”Luo Ji struck amatch and

lit the fire-starter under thewood pile. The flamestretched like it was alive,and the woman graduallytook shape in its soft golden

glow. Luo Ji gripped tightlytothematchwithtwofingersas it burnt down. He neededthe pain to tell him thiswasn’tadream.Itwaslikehehad ignited the sun, whichnowshoneonadreamworld-turned-reality. Outside, thesun could remain foreverhidden by clouds and night,so long as hisworld had herandthefirelightinit.Da Shi, you really are a

devil. Where did you find

her? How the hell were youabletofindher?Luo Ji looked away, back

into the fire, and tears cameunbidden to his eyes. Thismade him a little scared tolook at her, until he realizedtherewasnoreasontohide—she would probably think itwasthesmokethatmadehimcry.Herubbedhistearsawaywithahand.“It’s really warm, and

nice…”shesaidwithasmile

asshewatchedtheflames.Her words and her smile

madeLuoJi’shearttremble.“Why is it like this?” She

lookedupandglancedaroundthedimlivingroomasecondtime.“It’s not the same as you

imagined?”“It’snotthesame.”“It’s not…” He thought

about her name. “It’s not‘dignified’enoughforyou?”She smiled at him. “My

name is the ‘yan’ thatmeanscolor,notdignity.”“Oh, I see. Perhaps you

thinkthereoughttobelotsofmaps,andalargescreen,andclusters of uniformedgenerals, and I’d be herepointing at things with astick?”“That’s it exactly, Mr.

Luo.” Delighted, her smileblossomed like a rose inbloom.LuoJistoodup.“Youmust

be tired from the journey.Havesometea.”Hehesitated.“Orwouldyoucareforsomewine?It’llwardoffthecold.”She nodded. “Okay.” She

accepted the goblet with aquiet “Thank you,” and tookasmallsip.Looking at her innocently

holding the wineglass stirredthemostdelicatepartsofhismind. She drank wheninvited.Shetrustedtheworldandhad nowariness about it

at all. Yes, everything in theworld was lying in wait tohurt her, except here. Sheneeded to be cared for here.Thiswashercastle.Hesatdownandlookedat

her, and then said, as calmlyas he could, “What did theytellyoubeforeyoucame?”“That I’d be coming to

work,ofcourse.”Sheflashedhim that innocent smile thatdashed his heart to pieces.“Mr. Luo, what will I be

workingon?”“Whatdidyoustudy?”“Traditional painting, at

theCentralAcademyofFineArts.”“Ah. Have you

graduated?”“Yes. I justgraduated,and

have been looking for workwhile I prepare for gradschool.”LuoJiconsideredthisfora

while, but he couldn’t comeup with anything for her to

do. “Well, as forwork,we’lltalk about that tomorrow.Youmust be tired. First youmust sleep well.… Do youlikeithere?”“Idon’tknow.Therewasa

lot of fogwhen I came fromthe airport, and then it gotdark, so I couldn’t seeanything.… Mr. Luo, whereisthis?”“Idon’tknoweither.”She nodded and chuckled

to herself, clearly not

believinghim.“Ireallydon’tknowwhere

we are. The land looks likeScandinavia. I could call andask right now.” He reachedforthephonenexttothesofa.“No, don’t, Mr. Luo. It’s

nicenotknowing.”“Why?”“Onceyouknow,theworld

turnsnarrow.”My god, he exclaimed to

himself.All of a sudden, she

exclaimed,“Mr.Luo, lookathowlovelythewineis in thefirelight.”The wine, soaked in the

lightofthefire,shonewithaglisteningcrimsonfoundonlyindreams.“What do you think it

looks like?” he askednervously.“Well, I think it looks like

eyes.”“Theeyesoftwilight,no?”“The eyes of twilight?

That’s a marvelous way toputit,Mr.Luo.”“Dawn or twilight? You

prefertwilight,doyou?”“That’sright.Howdidyou

know? I love painting thetwilight.” Her eyes shonecrystalline in the firelight, asif asking,What’swrongwiththat?Thenextmorning,afterthe

rainhadcleared,LuoJifeltasif God had washed out thisGardenofEdentopreparefor

Zhuang Yan’s arrival. Whenshe saw its true appearanceforthefirsttime,whatLuoJiheardwasnotthesquealsandfussingandexclamationsthatyoung women like herusuallymade.No,inthefaceof such a magnificent vista,she fell into an awed andbreathless state and wasunable to speak even oneword of praise.He could tellthat she was far moresensitive to natural beauty

thanotherwomen.“So you really like to

paint?”heasked.Shestaredspeechlessatthe

distantsnowpeak,anditwassome time before sherecovered her senses. “Oh,yes.ButifI’dgrownuphere,Iprobablywouldn’t.”“Why’sthat?”“I’ve imagined lots of

wonderfulplaces,andwhenIpaint them it’s like I’vebeenthere. But this place has

everything from my dreamsand imagination, so whatwouldapaintingdo?”“That’s true. When the

beauty in your imaginationbecomesreality,it’sreally…”Hetrailedoff,andglancedatZhuang Yan against thesunrise, the angel who hadsteppedoutofhisdream.Thehappinessinhisheartrippledlike the waves on the lakesparklinginthelight.TheUNand the PDCnever imagined

that this would be aconsequenceoftheWallfacerProject. If he died now, hewouldn’tcare.“Mr. Luo, if it rained so

much yesterday, why hasn’tthe snow on that mountainbeen washed away?” sheasked.“The rain fell below the

snowline. That mountain hassnowyear-round.Theclimatehere is very different frombackinChina.”

“Have you been to themountain?”“No. I haven’t been here

very long.” He noticed thatthe girl’s eyes never left themountain. “Do you likesnowcaps?”Shenodded.“Thenlet’sgo.”“Really? When?” she

exclaimedinexcitement.“We can set off now.

There’s a simple roadwaythat runs to the foot of the

mountain, and ifwegonow,wecanbebackbyevening.”“What about work?”

Zhuang Yan tore her eyesfrom the mountain andlookedatLuoJi.“Workcanbesetasidefor

now. You just arrived,” hesaidperfunctorily.“Well…” She tilted her

head, giving his heart a jolt.Thenaïveexpressionwasonehe had seen on her countlesstimes before. “Mr. Luo, I’ve

got to know what it is I’mdoing.”Helookedintothedistance

and thought for a fewseconds, then said withfinality, “I’ll tell you whenwe’vereachedthemountain.”“Great!Thenweshouldbe

off,shouldn’twe?”“Right. It’s easier if we

taketheboattotheothersideof the lake and then drivefromthere.”Theywalked to the endof

thepier.LuoJinotedthatthewind was favorable, so theycould take the sailboat. Thedirection would change atnightsotheywouldbeabletocatch it again coming back.He took her by the hand tohelpher into theboat. Itwasthe first time he had touchedher, and her hands wereexactly like the ones he hadfirst clasped on that winternight in his imagination, sosoft and cool. She was

pleasantly surprised when heraised the white spinnaker.When the boat left the pier,she plunged a hand into thewater.“The lake water is very

cold,”hesaid.“But it’s so clean and

clear!”Like your eyes, he said to

himself. “Why do you likesnowcaps?”“I like traditional

painting.”

“What’sthatgottodowithsnowcaps?”“Mr.Luo,areyouawareof

the difference betweentraditional painting and oilpainting? Oil paintings arebrimmingwithrichcolors.Amaster once said that in oilpainting,white is aspreciousasgold.Butit’sdifferentwithtraditional painting. There’slots and lots of blank space,and blank space forms thepainting’s eyes. The scenery

is just the border for thatblank space. Look at thatsnowy peak. Doesn’t it looklike the blank space in atraditionalpainting?”Thiswas themost shehad

eversaidtohim.Shelecturedthe Wallfacer, pouring outwordsandturninghimintoanignorant schoolboy, withoutanysenseofbeingoutofline.You’reliketheblankspace

in a traditional painting:pure, but to a mature

appreciation, infinitelyappealing, he thought as helookedather.The boat docked at a pier

on the opposite shore,wherean open-top Jeepwas parkednext to the trees. The driverwho had parked it there wasgone.“Is this a military car? I

saw troops around when Iarrived, and had to go pastthree sentry points,” she saidastheygotintothecar.

“Thatdoesn’tmatter.Theywon’t bother us,” he said,startingtheengine.The road passing through

the forest was narrow andrough, but the car drovesmoothly on it. In the forest,where the morning mist hadnot yet lifted, the sunpenetrated the tall pineswithshafts of light, and eventhrough the engine soundthey could hear the calls ofbirds in the trees. A sweet

breeze whipped up ZhuangYan’shairandtosseditabouton Luo Ji’s face, and theitchingmadehimthinkofthewinter road trip two yearsago.Everything about their

surroundings was completelyremote from Mount TaihangandthesnowynorthernChinaplains, but his dreams fromthat trip were so seamlesslyconnected to today’s realitythat he found it hard to

believe that it was actuallyhappeningtohim.He turned to look at

Zhuang Yan and found herlookingbackathim.Shehadbeen for a long time, itseemed.Thelookinhereyeswas one of slight curiositymixed with goodwill andinnocence. Sunbeamsflickered over her face andbody. When she saw Luo Jilooking at her, she did notturnaway.

“Mr. Luo, do you reallyhave the ability to defeat thealiens?”sheasked.He was completely

overcome by her childlikenature.Thequestionwasonethat no one but her wouldever ask a Wallfacer, andtheyhadknowneachothersobriefly.“Zhuang Yan, the core

meaning of the WallfacerProject is to encapsulatehumanity’s real strategy in

the mind of one person, theonlyplaceintheworldthat’ssafe from sophon spying.They had to choose a fewpeople,butthatdoesn’tmeanthose people are supermen.Supermandoesn’texist.”“But why were you

chosen?”That question was even

more abrupt and outrageousthan the previous one, but itsoundednaturalcomingfromZhuangYan’slips,becausein

her transparent heart, everysunbeamwas transmittedandrefracted with crystallineclarity.Luo Ji slowed the car to a

stop. She looked at him insurprise as he stared straightaheadatthepatchesofsunontheroadway.“Wallfacers are the most

untrustworthy people inhistory. The world’s greatestliars.”“That’syourduty.”

He nodded. “But, ZhuangYan,I’mgoingtotellyouthetruth.Pleasebelieveme.”She nodded. “Mr. Luo,

please continue. I believeyou.”He was silent for a long

while, increasing the weightof thewords he then uttered.“I don’t know why I waschosen.” He turned to her.“I’mjustanordinaryman.”Shenoddedagain.“Itmust

beveryhard.”

Those words and ZhuangYan’s look of innocenceagain brought tears to hiseyes. Itwas the first time hehad received such anacknowledgement sincebecoming a Wallfacer. Thegirl’s eyeswerehis paradise,and in thatcleargazehesawnotraceoftheexpressionthateveryone else directed at theWallfacers. Her smile wasparadise for him, too. Itwasn’t the Wallfacer smile,

but a pure, innocent smile,like a sun-drenched dewdropfalling softly into the driestpartofhissoul.“It’ll be hard, but I’d like

to make it easier.… That’sall.Hereendeththetruth.Wenow return to the Wallfacerstate,”hesaid,asherestartedtheengine.They drove on in silence,

until the trees grew sparseand the deep blue skyemergedoverhead.

“Mr. Luo, look at thateagle!”ZhuangYanshouted.“And thatover there looks

like deer!” He pointed, fastenough to distract herattention, because he knewthat the object in the skywasn’taneaglebutacirclingsentry drone. This remindedhim of Shi Qiang. He tookouthisphoneanddialed.ShiQianganswered.“Hey,

brother Luo. So now youremember me, eh? First, tell

me:How’sYanYandoing?”“Fine. Excellent.

Wonderful.Thankyou!”“That’s good. So it turns

out I’ve completed my finalmission.”“Finalmission?Where are

you?”“Back home. I’m getting

readyforhibernation.”“What?”“I’ve got leukemia. I’m

goingtothefuturetocureit.”Luo Ji slammed his foot

down on the brakes andstopped short. Zhuang Yanyelped. He looked at her inconcern, but, seeing thatnothing was wrong, heresumedtalkingtoShiQiang.“Er … when did this

happen?”“I got irradiated on a

previousmissionandthengotilllastyear.”“My god! I didn’t delay

you,didI?”“With this sort of thing,

delay isn’t relevant. Whoknowswhatmedicinewillbelikeinthefuture?”“I’mtrulysorry,DaShi.”“Oh, it doesn’tmatter. It’s

all part of the job. I didn’tbotheryouabout itbecauseIfigured we would be able tomeetagainsometime.ButI’dlike to tell you something incasewecan’t.”“Please.”Afteralengthysilence,Shi

Qiangsaid,“‘Threethingsare

unfilial, and having no issueisthegreatest.’13BrotherLuo,the lineage of the Shi familyfourhundredyearsfromnowisinyourhands.”Thecalldisconnected.Luo

Jilookedupatthesky,wherethe drone had disappeared.The empty blue wash of theskywashisheart.“YouweretalkingtoUncle

Shi?”ZhuangYanasked.“Yes.Didyoumeethim?”“I met him. He’s a nice

man. The day I left heaccidentallybroketheskinonhishandanditwouldn’tstopbleeding.Itwasprettyscary.”“Oh … Did he say

anythingtoyou?”“He said you were doing

the most important thing intheworld,andheaskedmetohelpyou.”Nowtheforesthadentirely

disappeared, leaving onlygrassland between them andthe mountain. In silver and

green, thecompositionof theworld had turned simple andpure, and, to Luo Ji’s mind,more and more like the girlsittingbesidehim.Henoticeda hint of melancholy in hereyes, and he became awarethatshewassighingsoftly.“YanYan,what’swrong?”

heasked.Itwasthefirsttimehehadcalledher that,buthethought, If Da Shi can callherthat,whycan’tI?“It’s such a beautiful

world, but when you thinkabout how someday theremaybenoonehere tosee it,it’squitesad.”“Won’t the aliens be

here?”“I don’t think they

appreciatebeauty.”“Why?”“My dad said that people

who are sensitive to beautyare good by nature, and ifthey’re not good, then theycan’tappreciatebeauty.”

“Yan Yan, their approachto humans is a rationalchoice. It’s the responsiblethingtodoforthesurvivaloftheirspecies,andhasnothingtodowithgoodorevil.”“That’s thefirst I’veheard

of it. Mr. Luo, you’re goingtoseethem,aren’tyou?”“Perhaps.”“If they’re really like you

say, and you defeat them inthe Doomsday Battle, then,well,couldyou…”She tilted

her head to look at him, andhesitated.He was about to say that

the possibility of that waspractically nil, but hecontrolled himself, and said,“CouldIwhat?”“Whydoyouhavetodrive

them out into space to die?Givethemaplotofland,andlet them coexist with us?Wouldn’tthatbewonderful?”Luo Ji dealt silently with

his emotions for a moment,

thenpointeduptotheskyandsaid, “Yan Yan, I’m not theonlyonewhoheardwhatyoujustsaid.”Zhuang Yan looked up

nervously. “Oh, right. Theremust be tons of sophonsaroundus.”“It might have been the

TrisolarHighConsulhimselfwhoheardyou.”“Andyou’realllaughingat

me,aren’tyou?”“No. Yan Yan, do you

knowwhatI’mthinkingrightnow?” He had a strongimpulse to take hold of herslender left hand, which waslying next to the steeringwheel, but he controlledhimself. “I’m thinking thatthe person who mightactually have a chance ofsavingtheworldisyou.”“Me?” She burst out

laughing.“You, except that you’re

not enough. Or, rather, there

aren’t enough people likeyou. If a third of humanitywas like you, then Trisolarismightnegotiatewithusaboutthe possibility of coexistingontheworld.Butnow…”Heletoutalongsigh.Zhuang Yan flashed a

helpless smile. “Mr. Luo, ithasn’t been easy for me.Goingoutintotheworldaftergraduation, I was like a fishswimmingintothesea,wherethe water was muddy and I

couldn’tseeanythingatall.Iwanted to swim to clearerwaters,butallthatswimminggottiring.…”I wish I could help you

swimtothosewaters,hesaidtohimself.The road began to climb

the mountain, and as thealtitude increased, thevegetation grew sparse,exposing the naked blackrock.Foronestretchofroad,theyseemed tobedrivingon

the surface of themoon.Butsoon they crossed thesnowline and weresurrounded by white, and acrisp chill filled the air. Hegrabbed down jackets fromthetravelbaginthebackseat,and they put them on andcontinuedahead.Beforelongtheyreacheda

roadblock,aconspicuoussigninthemiddleoftheroadthatwarned, DANGER: AVALANCHE

SEASON. ROAD AHEAD CLOSED. So

they got out of the car andwalked to the snow at theroadside.The sun had started its

descent, casting shadowsaround them on the snowyslope. The pure snow waspale blue in color, almostweakly fluorescent. Thejagged peaks in the distancewerestill lit andshonesilverin all directions, a light thatseemed to issue from thesnow itself, as if it was this

mountainandnotthesunthathad been illuminating theworldallalong.“Okay, now the painting’s

entirely blank,” he said,sweeping his hands abouthim.Zhang Yan drank in the

whiteworldaroundher.“Mr.Luo, I actually did do apainting like this once. Froma distance, it was a whitesheetofpaper,almostentirelyblank, but closer in you

would see fine reeds in thelower left corner, and in theupper right the traces of adisappearing bird. In theblank center, twoinfinitesimally tiny people.…It’sthepaintingI’mproudestof.”“I can imagine it. It must

bemagnificent.…So,ZhuangYan, now that we’re in thisblank world, are youinterested in learning aboutyourjob?”

She nodded, but lookedanxious.“You know about the

Wallfacer Project, and youknowthatitssuccessreliesonitsincomprehensibility.Atitshighestlevel,nooneonEarthor Trisolaris, apart from theWallfacer himself,understands it. So, ZhuangYan, no matter howinexplicable you find yourwork, it definitely hasmeaning. Don’t try to

understand it. Just do it asbestyoucan.”She nodded nervously.

“Yes,Iunderstand.”Thenshelaughed and shook her head.“Imean,Igetit.”Looking at her amid the

snow, the whiteness lost alldimension, and the worldfadedaroundher, leavingherits only presence. Two yearsbefore, when the literaryimage he had created hadcome to life in his

imagination, he had tastedlove.Now,intheblankspaceofthisgrandnaturalpainting,heunderstoodlove’sultimatemystery.“ZhuangYan,yourworkis

tomakeyourselfhappy.”Hereyeswidened.“You must become the

happiest woman on Earth.This is part of theWallfacerplan.”The light of the peak that

illuminated their world was

reflected in her eyes, andcomplex feelings driftedacross thepurityofhergaze.Thesnowypeakabsorbedallsoundfromtheoutsideworld,andhewaitedpatientlyinthesilence,until finallyshesaid,in a voice that seemed tocome from a great distance,“Then…whatshouldIdo?”Luo Ji grew animated.

“Whatever you want to!Tomorrow, or when we goback tonight, you can go

wherever you want and dowhatever you wish, and livelife as you please. As aWallfacer, I can help yourealizeallofit.”“But I…” She looked at

him helplessly. “Mr. Luo,I…Idon’tneedanything.”“That’s not possible.

Everyone needs something!Aren’t young people alwayschasingaftersomething?”“Have I ever chased after

anything?”She slowly shook

her head. “No, I don’t thinkso.”“Ah,yes.Acarefreeyoung

woman like you might notneed to. But you’ve got tohave a dream, at least. Youlike painting, so have youever thought of having anindividual exhibition at theworld’s largest gallery or artmuseum?”She laughed, as if Luo Ji

had turned into a foolishchild. “Mr. Luo, I paint for

myself. I’ve never thoughtaboutthatstuff.”“Wellthen.Youmusthave

dreamed of love,” he saidwithout hesitation. “You’vegot the means now, so whynotgofindit?”Thesunsetwasdrainingits

light from the snowy peak.ZhuangYan’seyesdarkened,and her expression softened.She said gently, “Mr. Luo,that’s not something you cangoinsearchof.”

“True.”Hecalmedhimselfdown and nodded. “Then,how about this: Don’t thinklong term, just think abouttomorrow. Tomorrow, youknow?Wheredoyouwanttogo tomorrow? What do youwant to do?What will makeyouhappytomorrow?You’reable to come up withsomething,surely.”Shethoughtearnestlyfora

while, and finally said,hesitantly, “If I tell you, can

youreallymakeithappen?”“Ofcourse.Tellme.”“Then, Mr. Luo, can you

takemetotheLouvre?”

***

When Tyler removed theblindfold, his eyes weren’tadjusted to the light and hehad to squint. Despite thebright lights affixed to therock walls of this mountaincave, itwasdarkhere—quite

dark, in fact—because thelight was absorbed by thewalls. He smelled antiseptic,and noticed the cavewas setup like a field hospital, withlots of open aluminum casescontaining neatly packeddrugs, as well as oxygentanks, small UV disinfectantcabinets, mobile shadowlessoperating lamps, and severalportablemedical devices thatlooked like X-ray machinesand defibrillators. It looked

likeithadjustbeenunpackedandcouldbere-boxedatanytime. Tyler saw two assaultrifleshangingonarockwall,buttheirsimilarityincolortothe rock behind made themeasy to miss. A stony-facedmanandwomanwalkedpasthim. They weren’t in whitelab coats, but they weredefinitely a doctor and anurse.The bed, near the cave

entrance,was a seaofwhite:

thecurtainsbehindit,theoldmanunder thebedsheets, theold man’s long beard, thescarf around his head, andevenhisface—allwhite.Thelight in that area was morelike candlelight, obscuringsome of the whiteness andcasting a weak golden sheenacross the remainder, turningthe place into a classical oilpaintingofasaint.Tyler spat inwardly.

“Damn it to hell.How did it

cometothis?”As he walked over to the

bed,hetriedtoovercomethepaininhishipandinnerthighby adopting a stately, steadypace. He stopped at thebedside, before the man thathe and his government haddreamed of finding for somany years.He could hardlybelieve he was real. Helooked at the oldman’s paleface, and it was like themedia always said: This was

the kindliest face in theworld.Man truly was a peculiar

animal.“I’mhonoredtomeetyou,”

Tylersaidwithaslightbow.“As am I,” the old man

saidpolitely.Hedidn’tmove,butwhilehisvoicewasreed-thin, it could render powerinert but never snap, likespider silk. The old mangesturedtotheendofthebed,andTyler sat down gingerly,

notknowingwhetherornotitwas intended as kindness.Therewasnochair, after all.Theoldmansaid,“Youmustbetired.Wasityourfirsttimeonamule?”“Ah,no.IrodeonewhenI

visited the Grand Canyon.”Althoughhislegshadn’thurtsomuchbackthen.“Areyoudoingwell?”Theoldmanslowly shook

hishead.“SurelyyoucanseethatIdon’thavelongtolive.”

A playful light suddenlyentered his deep eyes.“You’reabouttheleastlikelyperson to want me to die ofillness.Iamtrulysorry.”The irony in this last

sentenceprickedTyler,but itwas the truth. One of hisgreatest fears had once beenthat the man would die ofillness or old age. Thesecretary of defense hadprayed on many an occasionthat an American cruise

missile or Special Forcesbullet would drop on theman’sheadbeforehediedofnatural causes, even if ithappenedjustaminutebeforedeath.Naturaldeathwouldbethe man’s greatest triumph,and mark the failure of thewaron terror.Evennow, theman was edging close toglory. There had beenopportunities, of course:Once a Predator drone hadsnapped his picture in the

courtyardof amosque in themountains of northernAfghanistan.Simplycrashingthe drone into him wouldhave made history, not tomention the fact that it hadbeen carrying Hellfiremissiles that day. But theyoung officer on duty lackedthe courage to make aunilateral decision once hemadethepositiveID.Instead,he had reported it up thecommand chain, and when

theycheckedagain the targetwasgone.Tyler,rousedfromhisbed,haderupted inangerandshatteredapreciouspieceof Chinese porcelain he hadathome.Tyler wanted to avoid the

awkward subject, so hebroughtouthisbriefcaseandset it on the bed. “I have asmall gift for you,” he said,openingthecase.Hetookouta set of hardcover books.“This is the latest Arabic

version.”With effort, the old man

reachedoutahandas thinaskindling and plucked out thebottommost volume. “Ah,I’ve only read the firsttrilogy. I had someone buytheothers,butIneverhadthetimetoreadthem,andthenIlost them.…Excellent, thankyou.Ilikethemverymuch.”“There’salegendthatsays

younamedyourorganizationafterthesenovels.”14

The old man set the bookgentlytoonesideandsmiled.“Let it stay a legend. Youhave your wealth andtechnology. Legends are allwehave.”Tyler picked up the book

the old man had set down,and faced him like a pastorholding a Bible. “I’ve cometomakeyouintoSeldon.”The same playful light

returned to the old man’seyes.“Oh?WhatdoIneedto

do?”“Let your organization be

preserved.”“Preserveduntilwhen?”“Until four centuries from

now. Until the DoomsdayBattle.”“And you think that’s

possible?”“Yes, if it continues to

develop. Let its soul andspirit permeate the spaceforce so that yourorganizationwillbepartofit

forever.”“And you value that so

highly because?” Thesarcasm in the old man’svoicegrewstronger.“Because it’s one of the

fewarmedforcesavailabletohumanity that uses lives as aweapon. You know,fundamentalsciencehasbeenfrozen by the sophons, andthis imposes correspondinglimitations on advances incomputer science and

artificial intelligence. In theDoomsday Battle, spacefighterswillstillbepilotedbyhumans, and that requires anarmy who possesses thatspirit. Ball lightning requiresaclose-rangeattack.”“What else have you

brought with you besidesthosebooks?”Tyler stood up excitedly

from the bed. “That dependsonwhatyouneed.Solongasyou can ensure the

preservation of yourorganization, I can give youanything.”The oldmanmotioned for

Tyler to sit down. “Isympathizewithyou.Aftersomany years, you still don’tknow what our needs trulyare.”“Youcantellme.”“Weapons? Money? No,

no.Whatweneedisfarmoreprecious. The organizationdoesn’t exist because of

Seldon’s ambitious goals.Youcan’tgetasane,rationalperson to believe in and diefor that. It exists because itpossesses something,something that’s its air andblood,andwithoutwhich theorganization would witherawayimmediately.”“What’sthat?”“Hatred.”Tylerwassilent.“On the one hand, thanks

to our common enemy, our

hatredoftheWesthasfaded.Ontheother, thehumanracethat the Trisolarans want towipe out includes the hatedWest, so to us, perishingtogether would be a joy. Sowe don’t hate theTrisolarans.” The old manspread his hands. “You see,hatred is a treasure moreprecious than gold ordiamonds, and a weaponkeenerthananyintheworld,but now it’s gone. It’s not

yours to give back. So theorganization, like me, doesnothavelongtolive.”Tylerremainedsilent.“AsforSeldon,I’dsayhis

planisanimpossibleone.”Tylerletoutasighandsat

back downon the bed. “Youmean you’ve read theending?”The old man raised an

eyebrow in surprise. “No, Ihaven’t read it. That’s justwhatIthink.What?Doesthe

SeldonPlanfail in thebook?The author is an exceptionalman, if that’s the case. I’dimagined he wrote a happyending, may Allah protecthim.”“Asimov’s been dead for

manyyears.”“Ah, the wise always die

young. May he find heaven,whicheveroneitis.…”Formost of thewayback,

Tyler was not blindfolded,givinghimtheopportunityto

see the steep, barrenmountains of Afghanistan.The young man who led hismule even trusted himenough to leave his assaultriflehangingfromthesaddle,rightnexttoTyler’shand.“Have you killed anyone

withthatgun?”heasked.The young man didn’t

understand, but an older,unarmed man riding next tothemansweredforhim.“No.There hasn’t been any

fightingforalongtime.”The youngman looked up

questioningly at Tyler. Hehadnobeardonhischildlikeface, and his eyes were asclear as the blue sky ofwesternAsia.Mom, I’m going to be a

firefly.

***

AttheFourthPDCWallfacerHearing, Tyler appeared

fatigued from his longjourney as he submittedrevisions to his mosquitoswarm plan. “I want everyfighter in the mosquito fleetto be equipped with twocontrol systems: a pilot-operated mode and a dronemode. Switching to dronemodewillallowmetocontrolallofthefightersinthefleet.”“You’re very hands-on.”

Hinessnickered.“I’llbeable to instruct the

fleet to form a mosquitogroup and voyage to thebattle zone, then tell it todisassemble and reenterformation. When it engagesthe enemy fleet, I willcommand the weaponsmodule on each fighter toselect its own target andattack automatically. I’dimagine that even with thelockdown on thefundamentals of physics,current AI technology will

develop enough in the nextthree centuries to permitthat.”“Do you mean that you

plan to hibernate until theDoomsday Battle, and thendirectlyengagetheTrisolaranFleet?”“Do I have a choice?You

knowI’vejustbeentoJapan,China, and Afghanistan anddidn’t find what I’m lookingforthere.”“And you paid someone a

visit,” the US representativesaid.“That’s right. I saw him.

But…” Tyler gave a long,dejected sigh. “Nothing. I’llkeep trying to establish aforce of dedicated spacefighters, but if I can’t, thenI’ll have to guide them intothefinalattackmyself.”No one spoke. Where the

Doomsday Battle wasconcerned, people usuallychosetobesilent.

Tyler continued, “I haveanother supplement to themosquito swarmplan. Iwanttoconductmyownstudies,ofcertain bodies in the solarsystem, in areas of mychoosing. These bodiesinclude Europa, Ceres, andseveralcomets.”“How is this related to the

spacefighterfleet?”someoneasked.“Do I need to answer

that?”Tylerasked,lookingat

therotatingchair.No one spoke. Of course

hedidn’thavetoanswer.“Finally, I have a

recommendation. The PDCand every nation on Earthshould scale back theirattacksontheETO.”ReyDiazjumpedoutofhis

chair.“Mr.Tyler,evenifyouclaim that this is part of theplan, I strongly oppose thisoutrageousproposal!”Tylershookhishead.“This

is not part of the plan. It’stotally unconnected to theWallfacerProject.Thereasonformysuggestionisobvious:Ifwepersistinourattacksonthe ETO, in two or threeyearswemaywipeitout,andwe will lose the only directchannel for communicationbetweenEarthandTrisolaris.We’ll have lost the mostimportant source of enemyintelligence. I’m sure youunderstand what the

consequenceswouldbe.”Hines said, “I agree. But

this proposal shouldn’t bemade by a Wallfacer. Thethree of us are a unit in themindsofthepublic,sopleasekeepourreputationinmind.”The hearing ended in

unresolvedarguments,butanagreement was reached forthe PDC to conduct furtherstudyofthethreerevisionstoTyler’splanandputthemtoavoteatthenexthearing.

Tylerremainedseateduntilhe was the last one in theassembly hall. He wasexhausted and drowsy afterhis lengthy travels, andashelooked around the emptyroom, he suddenly realized arisk he had overlooked: Heneeded to find a doctor or apsychologist, and a specialistinsleepmedicine.Hehad to findsomeone to

stop him from talking in hissleep.

***

Luo Ji and Zhuang Yanwalked toward the mainentranceof theLouvreat tenP.M.Kenthadadvisedthemtovisitatnighttofacilitatemoreconvenientsecurity.The first thing they saw

was the glass pyramid,shielded from the nighttimedin ofParis by theU-shapedpalacebuilding, and standingquietly under the watery

moonlight as if itweremadeofsilver.“Mr.Luo,don’tyougetthe

feeling that it flew in fromouter space?” Zhuang Yanasked, pointing to thepyramid.“Everyone has that

feeling,”LuoJisaid.“Atfirst it feelsa littleout

of place, but the more youlook at it, themore it seemsto be an integral part of theplace.”

The meeting of two vastlydifferent worlds, Luo Jithought,butdidnotsay.Thenthewholepyramidlit

up, turning from moonlitsilver to a brilliant gold. Atthe same time the fountainscame on in the surroundingpools,sendingtallcolumnsofwater and light skyward.ZhuangYanglancedatLuoJiin alarm, unsettled by theLouvre’s awakening at theirarrival. Accompanied by

watersounds,theymadetheirway down the pyramid intothe Hall Napoléon, and thenintothepalace.Their first destination was

the largest exhibition hall. Itwastwohundredmeterslongand softly lit, and theirfootsteps echoed down theemptiness. Luo Ji quicklyrealized that it was only hisfootstepsechoing,forZhuangYanwalkedlightlyoncatlikesteps, like a child in a fairy

talewhoentersamagiccastleand is afraid ofwakingwhatslumbersthere.Heslowedhispace—not for the artwork,which didn’t interest him atall, but to let the distancebetweenthemgrowandallowhim to appreciate her amongthisworldofart,gazinguponthe beauty of this Easternwoman along with the full-figured Greek gods, angels,andtheBlessedVirgininthesurrounding classical oil

paintings. Like the glasspyramidinthecourtyard,shesoon blended into theenvironmentandbecamepartof the sacred realm of art.Withouther,thisplacewouldbe missing something. In areverieoradreamoravision,helettimepassbyquietly.After a time, Zhuang Yan

finally remembered Luo Ji’spresence and flashed a smilebackathim.Hisheartquakedatwhatfelttohimlikeabolt

of light sent to the mortalrealm from a painting ofMountOlympus.“I’ve heard that with a

trainedeye,itwouldtakeyouawholeyeartoseeallofthepieceshere,”hesaid.“I know,” was her simple

reply,buthereyessaid,WhatshouldIdo?Thensheturnedherattention to thepaintings.In all this time she had seenonlyfiveofthem.“It doesn’t matter, Yan

Yan. Ican lookat themwithyou every night for a year.”Thewordsslippedout.She turned to look at him,

visiblyexcited.“Really?”“Really.”“Well … Mr. Luo, have

youeverbeenherebefore?”“No. But I went to the

Centre Pompidou when IcametoParisthreeyearsago.At first I thought you wouldbe more interested in goingthere.”

She shook her head. “Idon’tlikemodernart.”“Then, all this—” He

glanced around at the gods,angels, and Blessed Virgin.“You don’t think it’s tooold?”“I don’t like it too old. I

just like the paintings of theRenaissance.”“Thoseareprettyold,too.”“But theydon’t feelold to

me. Those painters were thefirst to discover human

beauty,andtheypaintedGodasapleasingperson.Lookingattheseworks,youcansensetheirjoyinpainting,thesamejoyIfeltwhenIfirstsawthelakeandthesnowpeak.”“That’s good, but the

humanistic spirit pioneeredby the Renaissance mastershas become a stumblingblock.”“Youmean,intheTrisolar

Crisis?”“Yes.Youmust have seen

what’sbeenhappeninglately.Fourcenturies fromnow, thepost-disaster world mightreturn to the Middle Ages,with humanity once againsubjected to extremerepression.”“And art will enter a long

winter’snight,right?”Looking at her innocent

eyes, he smiled wryly tohimself. Silly kid, you talkabout art, but if humanitydoes manage to survive,

regressing to a primitivesociety would be a smallprice to pay. But he said,“Whenthattimecomes,theremaybeasecondRenaissance,and you could rediscoverforgottenbeautyandpaintit.”She smiled a smile tinged

with sadness, clearlyunderstanding the meaningbehind Luo Ji’s consolingwords. “I’m just thinking:After doomsday, what willhappentothesepaintingsand

artworks?”“You’re worried about

that?” he asked. When shementioned doomsday, hisheart ached, but if his lastattemptatcomforthadfailed,he was confident that hewould succeed this time. Sohe took her hand and said,“Come on, let’s go to theAsianArtexhibit.”Before the pyramid lobby

was built, the Louvre was agiant maze. Getting to any

particular gallery meant alongandwindingdetour.Butnow you could go directlyfrom the Hall Napoléonbeneath the pyramid to anypoint in the museum. Luo Jiand Zhuang Yan returned tothe entrance hall, followedthe signs leading to the ArtsofAfrica,Asia,Oceania,andtheAmericas, andwound upin an entirely differentworldfromthegalleriesofclassicalEuropeanpaintings.

Luo Ji pointed out thesculptures, paintings, and olddocuments from Asia andAfrica,andsaid,“Theseweretaken by an advancedcivilization from a backwardone. Some were looted,others were stolen ordefrauded, but look at themnow: They’re all wellpreserved. Even during theSecond World War, theseobjects were transferred to asafe place.” They stood

before a Dunhuang muralsealedinaglasscase.“Thinkabout howmuch turmoil andwarthatlandofourshasseensince the time Abbot Wanggave these to theFrenchman.15 If the muralswere left there, can you becertaintheywouldhavebeenthiswellpreserved?”“But will the Trisolarans

preserve humanity’s culturalheritage? They have noregardforusatall.”

“Because they said we’rebugs?Butthat’snotwhatthatmeans. Yan Yan, do youknow what the greatestexpression of regard for araceorcivilizationis?”“No,what?”“Annihilation. That’s the

highest respect a civilizationcanreceive.Theywouldonlyfeel threatened by acivilization they trulyrespect.”They passed silently

through the twenty-fourgalleries housing Asian art,walking through the distantpast while imagining agloomy future. Withoutrealizing it, they reached theEgyptianAntiquitiesgallery.“Do you know who I’m

thinking of here?” Luo Jistood beside a glass casecontaining the golden maskofamummifiedpharaohandtried out a lighter topic ofconversation. “Sophie

Marceau.”“Because of Belphegor,

PhantomoftheLouvre,right?SophieMarceau is gorgeous.She’sgotEasternlooks,too.”For some reason, right or

wrong, Luo Ji sensed tracesofjealousyandoffenseinhervoice.“Yan Yan, she’s not as

beautiful as you. That’s thetruth.”Healsowantedtosay,Onemightbeabletofindherbeautyamong theseworksof

art, but yours eclipses them,but he didn’t want to comeoffassarcastic.Thehintofashy smile flitted across herface like a cloud, the firsttimehehadseenthissmileherememberedfromhisdreams.“Let’s go back to the oil

paintings,”shesaidsoftly.They returned to the Hall

Napoléon, but forgot whichentrance to use. The mostvisible signs pointed to thethreejewelsofthepalace:the

Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo,andWingedVictory.“Let’sseetheMonaLisa,”

hesuggested.As they headed in that

direction, she said, “Ourteacher said that after hevisited the Louvre, he was alittledisgustedwiththeMonaLisaandVenusdeMilo.”“Whywasthat?”“Because touristscomefor

thosetwoobjectsbuthavenointerest in less famous but

equallygreatworksofart.”“I’m one of the great

uncultured.”They arrived at the

mysterious smile, which wasbehind a thick wall ofprotective glass and muchsmaller than Luo Ji hadimagined. Even Zhuang Yandidn’t seem particularlyexcited.“Seeingherremindsmeof

allofyou,”shesaid,pointingatthefigureinthepainting.

“Allofus?”“The Wallfacers, of

course.”“What’sshegottodowith

theWallfacers?”“Well, I wonder—and this

is just speculation, so don’tlaugh—Iwonderwhetherwecould find a form ofcommunication that onlyhumanscancomprehend,butwhichthesophonsneverwill.That way, humanity can befreeofsophonmonitoring.”

Luo Ji looked at her forseveral seconds, and thenstared at the Mona Lisa. “Igetwhatyoumean.HersmileissomethingthatthesophonsandtheTrisolaranswillneverunderstand.”“That’s right. Human

expressions, and people’seyes in particular, are subtleand complex. A gaze or asmile can transmit so muchinformation! And onlyhumans can understand that

information. Only humanshavethatsensitivity.”“True. One of the biggest

problems in artificialintelligence is identifyingfacial and eye expressions.Some experts even say thatcomputersmayneverbeabletoreadtheeyes.”“So is it possible to create

alanguageofexpressionsandthen speakwith the face andtheeyes?”Luo Ji thought this over

seriously,thenshookhisheadwith a smile. He pointed atthe Mona Lisa. “We can’teven read her expression.When I stare at her, themeaningofhersmilechangesevery second and neverrepeatsitself.”Zhuang Yan jumped up

and down excitedly, like achild. “But that means thatfacial expressions really canconvey complexinformation!”

“And if the information is:‘The spacecraft have leftEarth, destination Jupiter’?How would you convey thatusingfacialexpressions?”“When primitive man

began to speak, surely itwasonly to convey simplemeanings. It may even havebeen less complex thanbirdcalls.Languagegraduallygrew in complexity afterthat.”“Well,let’strytoconveya

simple meaning throughfacialexpressions.”“Okay!” She nodded her

head excitedly. “Here, let’seach thinkof amessage, andthenexchangethem.”Luo Ji paused for a

moment. “I’ve thought ofmine.”Zhuang Yan thought for a

much longer time, and thennodded.“Thenlet’sbegin.”They stared at each other,

but held that pose for less

thanhalfaminutebeforetheyburst out laughing atpracticallythesameinstant.“My message was,

‘TonightI’dliketoinviteyouto have supper on theChamps-Élysées,’”hesaid.She doubled over with

laughter.“Minewas,‘You…needtoshave!’”“These are grave matters

concerning the fate ofhumanity, so we ought toremain serious,” Luo Ji said,

holdinginhislaughter.“This time, no laughing

allowed!”shesaid,asseriousasachildredefiningtherulesofagame.They stood back to back,

each thinking of a message,and then turned around andlocked eyes once again. LuoJi felt the urge to laugh andstrove to suppress it, but thetask soon became mucheasier, for Zhuang Yan’scleareyeshadbeguntopluck

athisheartstringsagain.And so it was that the

Wallfacer and the youngwoman stood, gazes locked,infrontofthesmileofMonaLisaintheLouvreinthedeadofnight.The dam in Luo Ji’s soul

had sprung a tiny leak, andthis trickle eroded it,expanding the tiny fissureinto a turbulent stream. Hegrew afraid and strove topatch the crack in the dam,

butwasunableto.Acollapsewasinevitable.Then he felt like he was

standing on a towering clifftop, and the girl’s eyes werethe vast abyss beneath,coveredinapurewhiteseaofclouds. But the sun shonedown from all directions andturned the clouds into abrillianceofcolorthatsurgedendlessly. He felt himselfsliding downward, a veryslow slide, but one he could

not arrest under his ownpower. In a panic, he shookhislimbstotrytofindaplaceto hold on. But beneath hisbody was nothing but slickice. His slide accelerated,until, finally, with a burst ofvertigo, he began to fall intothe abyss. In an instant, thejoy of falling reached theupperlimitofpain.The Mona Lisa was

deforming. The walls weredeforming,meltinglikeiceas

the Louvre collapsed, itsstones turning to red-hotmagmaastheyfell.Whenthemagma passed over theirbodies, it felt cool as a clearspring. They fell with theLouvre, passing through amelted Europe toward thecenteroftheEarth,andwhenthey reached it, the worldaround them exploded in ashower of gorgeous cosmicfireworks. Then the sparksextinguished, and in the

twinkling of an eye, spacebecame crystal clear. Thestarswovecrystalbeamsintoagiantsilverblanket,andtheplanets vibrated, emittingbeautifulmusic.Thestarfieldgrew dense like a surgingtide. The universe contractedand collapsed, until at lasteverythingwasannihilated inthecreativelightoflove.

***

“We need to observeTrisolaris right now!”General Fitzroy said to Dr.Ringier. They were in thecontrolroomoftheHubbleIISpaceTelescope,aweekafteritsassemblywascompleted.“General, I’m afraid that’s

notpossible.”“Ihavethefeelingthat the

observationsinprogressrightnowareactuallyprivateworkthat you astronomers aredoingontheside.”

“I’d have done my ownwork if it were possible, butHubbleIIisstillinthetestingphase.”“You’re working for the

military. Carrying out ordersisallyouneedtodo.”“No one here is military

apart from you. We’refollowing NASA’s testingplan.”The general’s tone

softened. “Doctor, can’t youjust use Trisolaris as a test

target?”“Test targets have been

carefully selected accordingto distance and brightnessclasses, and the test plan hasbeen formulated to bemaximally economical, sothat the telescope completesall tests after just onerotation. In order to observeTrisolaris now, we wouldneed to rotate through anangleofnearlythirtydegreesand back, and spinning this

bad boy uses up propellant.We’re saving the militarymoney,General.”“Let’s have a look at how

you’re saving it, then. I justfoundthisonyourcomputer,”Fitzroy said as he brought ahand out from behind hisback.Heheldaprintoutofaphotograph,anoverheadshotof a group of people lookingupward excitedly.Theywererecognizably the crew fromthis very control room,

Ringier in their midst, alongwith three women in sexyposes who might have beenthegirlfriendsofsome in thegroup. The location of thephoto was evidently the roofof the control roombuilding,andthephotowasveryclear,asifithadbeenshotfromtenor twenty meters above.Where it differed from anordinary photograph was inthe complicated numbersoverlaid atop it. “Doctor,

you’re standing on thehighest point of the building.It doesn’t have a rocker armlike a movie set, does it?You’re telling me thatrotating Hubble II thirtydegrees costs money. Well,how much does it cost torotate it three hundred sixtydegrees? Besides, that ten-million-dollar investmentwasn’t made so you couldsnap photos of you and yourgirlfriends from space.

ShouldIaddthatsumtoyourbill?”“General, your order must

of course be carried out,”Ringier said hastily, and theengineers immediately wenttowork.Coordinate data was

quickly called up from thetarget database. In space, theenormous cylinder, overtwenty meters in diameterand more than a hundredmeterslong,slowlystartedto

turn, panning across thestarfield displayed on thescreeninthecontrolroom.“Thisiswhatthetelescope

sees?”askedthegeneral.“No, this is just the image

returned by the positioningsystem.Thetelescopereturnsstill photos that need to beprocessed before they’reviewable.”Five minutes later, the

panning stopped.Thecontrolsystem reported that

positioning had beenachieved, and after anotherfive minutes, Ringier said,“Good.Nowreturntothetestposition.”In surprise, Fitzroy asked,

“What?Isitdone?”“Yes.Now the images are

beingprocessed.”“Can’t you take a few

more?”“General, we’ve captured

two hundred ten images atmultiple focal lengths.” At

that moment the firstobservation image finishedprocessing, and Ringierpointed to the screen. “Look,General. There’s the enemyworld you want to see sobadly.”Fitzroy saw nothing but a

groupofthreehalosagainstadark background. They werediffuse, like streetlightsthrough fog. These were thethree stars that would decidethefateoftwocivilizations.

“Sowereallycan’tseetheplanet.”Fitzroycouldn’thidehisdisappointment.“Of coursewe can’t.Even

when the hundred-meterHubble III is finished, we’llonly be able to observeTrisolaris at a very few setpositions, and we’ll only beable tomake it out as a dot,withnodetailatall.”“Butthere’ssomethingelse

here, Doctor. What do youthink this is?” asked one of

the engineers, pointing to aspotclosetothethreehalos.Fitzroy leaned in but saw

nothing. It was so faint thatonlyanexpertcouldcatchit.“It’s got a diameter larger

thanastar,”anengineersaid.After enlarging the area

several times, the thingcoveredtheentirescreen.“It’s a brush!” shouted the

generalinalarm.The layman always comes

upwithbetternamesthanthe

expert, which is why whenexpertsnamethingsthey,too,work from an outsider’sperspective.Andthus“brush”became the figure’s name,because the general’sdescription was accurate: Itwasacosmicbrush.Or,tobemoreprecise,asetofcosmicbristles without a handle. Ofcourse, you could also see itashairstandingonend.“Itmustbeascratchinthe

coating! I mentioned in the

feasibility study that a paste-up lens would causeproblems,” Ringier said,shakinghishead.“Allthecoatingshavebeen

through stringent testing. Ascratch of this sort wouldn’thappen. And it’s notgenerated by any other lensflaw, either. We’ve alreadyreturned tensof thousandsoftest images, and it’s nevercome up before,” said anexpert from Zeiss, the lens’s

manufacturer.Ahushfelloverthecontrol

room. They all gathered tostare up at the image on thescreenuntilitgotsocrowdedthat some of them called upthe imageonother terminals.Fitzroy sensed the change inthe room’s atmosphere:People who had grown lazyfrom the fatigue of lengthytests were anxious now, likethey had been hit by a cursethat rooted everything in

place but their eyes, whichgreweverbrighter.“God!” exclaimed several

peopleatthesametime.The frozen formation

abruptly turned into excitedactivity. The snatches ofdialogue Fitzroy picked upwere a bit too technical forhim.“Any dust around the

target’sposition?Checkit—”“Noneed.Icompletedthat

item. Observing the

absorptionof thebackgroundstellar radial movement,there’s an absorption peak attwo hundred millimeters. Itmay be a carbonmicroparticle, F-classdensity.”“Any opinions on the

effectofhigh-speedimpact?”“The wake diffuses along

the impact axis, but thediffusion scope … Do wehaveamodelofthat?”“Yes. One moment.…

Hereitis.Impactspeed?”“A hundred times third

cosmicvelocity.”“Isitalreadythathigh?”“That’s a conservative

figure.…Fortheimpactcrosssection, use … Right, that’sright.That’sjustaboutit.Justaroughestimate.”With the experts busy,

RingierstoodnexttoFitzroy.“General, can you try yourbest to count the bristles inthebrush?”

The general nodded, andthenbentoveraterminalandbegancounting.The computer needed four

or five minutes to completeevery calculation, but therewereanumberoferrors,soitwas half an hour before theresultswereready.“The wake diffuses the

dust to amaximum diameterof two hundred fortythousandkilometers,ortwicethe size of Jupiter,” the

astronomer running themathematicalmodelsaid.“That makes sense,”

Ringier said. He raised hisarms and looked up at theceiling, as if looking throughit to the heavens. “And thatconfirms it.” There was atrembletohisvoice,andthen,as if to himself, he said, “Soit’s been confirmed. Nothingwrongwiththat.”Silence fell over the

control room again, heavy

and oppressive this time.Fitzroy wanted to ask aquestion, but at the sight ofthe solemn, bowed heads, hecouldn’t open his mouth.Afterawhile,heheardgentlesobs and saw a young mantryingtohidehistears.“Knock it off, Harris.

You’re not the only skeptichere. It’shard foreveryone,”someonesaid.The young man, Harris,

liftedhis tearyeyesandsaid,

“I know skepticism is just away to comfortmyself, but Iwanted to liveoutmy life incomfort. God, now I’m notevenluckyenoughforthat.”Silencereturned.At last Ringier

remembered Fitzroy.“General,letmeexplain.Thethree stars are surrounded byinterstellardust.Previously,anumber of bodies moving athigh speed crossed that dust,and their high-speed impact

with the dust left behind awake.Thewakecontinuedtoexpand and has now reacheda diameter twice that of theplanetJupiter.Thereareonlysubtle differences betweenthewakeandthesurroundingdust,sotheyareundetectableat close range. Only here,four light-years away, aretheyobservable.”“I’ve counted the bristles.

There are about a thousand,”GeneralFitzroysaid.

“Of course. That numberconfirms our intelligencereports. General, we’relooking at the TrisolaranFleet.”

***

Hubble II’s discovery, thefinal confirmation of thereality of the Trisolaraninvasion, extinguished thelast of humanity’s fantasies.The descent of a new round

of despair, panic, andconfusionushered thehumanrace into life under theTrisolarCrisis.Thenthehardtimes began. With a rockychange of direction, thevehicle of time veered offalonganewtrack.The only constant in a

world of tremendous changeis the swift passage of time.Fiveyearspassedlikeablur.

PARTII

THESPELL

Year8,CrisisEra

DistanceoftheTrisolaranFleetfromtheSolarSystem:4.20light-years

Tyler had been jumpy lately.

Despite the setbacks, themosquito swarm planeventually won PDCapproval.Developmentofthespace fighters began, butprogress was slow due to alack of advancedtechnologies. Humanitycontinued to improve on thetechnology of its stone ageaxes and clubs, inventingchemically propelled rockets.Tyler’s supplemental project,the study of Europa, Ceres,

and various comets,was oddenough that some peoplesuspected that he had comeup with it purely to add asenseofmysterytotheoverlydirect main plan. However,sinceitcouldbeincorporatedinto the mainstream defenseprogram, he was allowed tostartworkingonthataswell.So Tyler had to wait. He

went home and, for the firsttime in his five years as aWallfacer, led the life of a

normalperson.The Wallfacers were

subject to increasing scrutinyfrom the community.Whether they had asked fortheroleornot,theyhadbeenset up in the eyes of themasses as messiah figures.Accordingly,aWallfacercultsprang up. No matter howmany explanations the UNand PDC issued, legends oftheir supernatural abilitiescirculated widely and grew

increasingly fanciful. Inscience fiction movies, theywere shown as superheroes,and,intheeyesofmany,theywere the sole hope forhumanity. This gave theWallfacers an enormousamount of popular andpolitical capital thatguaranteed things would gosmoothly when they tappedhugeamountsofresources.Luo Ji was the exception.

He remained in seclusion,

never showing his face. Noone knew where he was orwhathewasdoing.One day, Tyler had a

visitor. Like the otherWallfacers, his home wasunder heavy guard, and allvisitors had to pass stringentbackgroundchecks.Butwhenhe first saw thevisitor in thelivingroom,heknewthattheman would pass througheasily,becauseitwasobviousat a glance that he posed no

threat to anyone.On this hotdayheworeawrinkledsuit,asimilarly wrinkled tie, and,more annoyingly, the sort ofbowler hat no one woreanymore. He evidentlywanted to present a moreformal appearance for hisvisit, since he had probablynever attended a formaloccasion before. Pale andemaciated, he lookedmalnourished.Hisglassessatheavily on his skinny, pale

face, his neck hardly seemedable to support theweightofhis head, and his suit lookedpracticallyempty,asifitwashanging on a rack. As apolitician, Tyler saw at aglance that he belonged toone of those mean socialclasses whose poverty wasmore spiritual than material,likeGogol’spettybureaucratswho, despite their lowlysocial station, still worryabout preserving that status

and spend their whole livesengaged in uncreative,exhausting random tasks thatthey carry out exactingly. Ineverything they do, they fearmaking mistakes; witheveryonetheymeet,theyfearcausingdispleasure; and theydare not take the slightestglance through the glassceiling to a higher plane ofsociety. Tyler detested thosepeople. They were utterlydispensable, and when he

thoughtabouthowtheymadeup the majority of the worldthathewantedtosave, it leftabadtasteinhismouth.The man walked gingerly

throughthelivingroomdoor,but did not dare venturefurther. He seemed afraid ofmarking the carpet with thedirty soles of his shoes. Hetookoffhishatandlookedatthe master of the housethrough his thick glasses ashe bowed repeatedly. Tyler

madeuphismindtosendhimoff as soon as he spoke hisfirst sentence, for even ifwhat themanhad tosaywasimportant to him, to Tyler itwasmeaningless.In a frail voice, the pitiful

manutteredhisfirstsentence.It struck Tyler like a bolt oflightning and so dazed himthat he practically sat downon the ground. Every wordwaslikeathunderclap.“Wallfacer Frederick

Tyler, I am yourWallbreaker.”

***

“Who would have thoughtwe’d one day be facing abattle map like this,” ChangWeisiexclaimedashelookedat a one-to-one-trillion-scalechart of the Solar Systemdisplayed on amonitor largeenoughtobeamoviescreen.It was almost entirely dark,

except for the tiny spot ofyellow in the center thatwasthe sun. The chart radiusreached the middle of theKuiper Belt. When it wasdisplayed in its entirety, itwaslikelookingdownontheSolarSystemfromadistanceoffiftyAUabovetheeclipticplane. The chart accuratelymarked the orbits of planetsand satellites, as well as theconditions of knownasteroids,anditcoulddisplay

a precise sectional layout ofthe Solar System for anypoint in thenextmillennium.Nowthatpositionalmarkingsfor celestial bodies had beenturned off, the chart displaywas bright enough that youcouldmakeoutJupiterifyoulookedcloselyenough.Itwasjust an indistinct, tiny brightspot, but from this distancetheothersevenmajorplanetswereinvisible.“Yes,we are facingmajor

changes,”ZhangBeihai said.The military had justcompletedameetingtoassessits first space map, and nowonly the two of themremained in thespaciouswarroom.“Commander, I wonder if

you noticed the eyes of ourcomradeswhentheysawthismap,”hesaid.“Of course I noticed. It’s

understandable. They wouldhaveimaginedaspacemapto

be like what you find inpopular science books. Acouple of colored billiardballs rotating around afireball. It’s only whenthey’refacedwithonedrawntoanaccurate scale that theycome to an appreciation ofthe vastness of the SolarSystem.And,whetherthey’reairforceornavy,thefurthesttheir air and water craft cango doesn’t even amount toonepixelonthebigscreen.”

“It seems that looking atthe battlefield of the futuredid not inspire a stitch ofconfidence or passion forbattleinourcomrades.”“And now we’re back to

defeatism.”“Commander, Idon’twant

to talk about the reality ofdefeatism today. That’s asubject for a formalmeeting.WhatI’dliketodiscussis…well…” He faltered, andsmiled, a rare thing for

someonewhowasusually sooutspoken.Chang Weisi turned away

from the map and smiledback at him. “Seems you’vegot something highlyunorthodoxtosay.”“Yes. Or something

unprecedented, at least. I’mmakingarecommendation.”“Proceed. Get right down

to the topic. Of course, youdon’tneedencouragementforthat.”

“Yes, Commander. Overthe past five years, littleprogress has been made inbasic planetary defense andspace travel research. Thepreliminary technology inthose two programs—controlled nuclear fusion andthespaceelevator—arestillatsquare one, with no hope insight, and there are all kindsof problems with higher-thrust chemical rockets. Ifthings continue in this vein,

thenIfearaspacefleet,evenat the low-tech level, willremain science fictionforever.”“You chose high-tech,

Comrade Beihai. You oughttobewell awareof the rulesofscientificresearch.”“Of course I’m aware of

them. Research is a processof leaping forward, andqualitative change is onlyproduced by long-termquantitative accumulation.

Breakthroughs in theory andtechnology are mostlyachieved in concentratedbursts.… Still, Commander,howmanypeopleunderstandthe problem like I do? It’svery likely that in ten ortwentyorfiftyyears,orevenacentury,westillwon’thaveany major breakthroughs inany scientific or technicalfield, and at that point, howfar will defeatist thinkinghave developed? What

spiritualandmentalstatewillhave taken hold in the spaceforce? Commander, am Ireallytakingthistoofar?”“Beihai, what I most

admire about you is that youalwayskeep the long term inmindasyouwork.It’sararething among political cadresin this military. Please goon.”“Well, I can only speak

from the scope of my ownwork. Working under the

aboveassumptions,whatsortof difficulties and pressureswill be faced by our futurecomradesengagedinpoliticaland ideological work in thespaceforce?”“A grimmer question is,

how many ideologicallyqualified political cadreswillbe left in the forces?” addedChang Weisi. “To containdefeatism, we first need tohave a firm faith in victoryourselves. But this is certain

to be more difficult in yourhypotheticalfuture.”“That’s where my worry

lies, Commander. When thattimecomes,politicalwork inthespaceforcewon’tbeuptothetask.”“Yourrecommendation?”“Sendreinforcements!”Chang Weisi looked at

Zhang Beihai for a fewseconds, then turned back tothebigscreen.Hemovedthecursor and enlarged the sun

until their epaulets reflectedthesunlight.“Commander,whatImean

is…”He raised a hand. “I know

what you mean.” Then hepulled back until the entiremapwas displayed, plungingthe war room back intogloom, and then brought thesun forward again … andagain and again as hethought, until at last he said,“Has it ever occurred to you

that if political andideologicalworkinthespaceforce is a complex anddifficulttaskrightnow,itwillconsiderably weaken today’swork to hibernate the mostoutstanding political officersandsendthemtothefuture?”“I realize that,

Commander.I’mjustvoicinga personal suggestion. Big-picturethinkingis,ofcourse,uptomysuperiors.”ChangWeisi stoodup and

turned on the lights,illuminating the war room.“No,ComradeBeihai, this isa job for you now. Dropeverything else. Startingtomorrow, youwill focus onthe Space Force PoliticalDepartment, do someresearch into the otherbranches, and draft apreliminary report for theCentralMilitaryCommissionassoonaspossible.”

***

The sun was setting behindthe mountains when Tylerarrived. Exiting the car, hefacedavisionofparadise:thesoftest light of the dayshining on the snow peaks,the lake, and the forest, andLuo Ji and his familyenjoying the otherworldlyevening in the grass on thelakeshore. What first caughthis eye was the mother, so

young-looking, like an oldersister to the one-year-oldchild.Fromadistance itwashard tomake her out, but ashe drew closer, his attentionshifted to the child. If hehadn’t seen it with his owneyes, he wouldn’t havebelieved that such anadorable little being actuallyexisted. Like a stem cell ofbeauty,theembryonicstateofall that is beautiful. Motherand childwere drawing on a

large sheet ofwhite paper asLuo Ji stood off to one sidewatching with interest as hehad in the Louvre, gazingfrom a distance at hisbeloved, now a mother.Movingcloserstill,Tylersawinhiseyesaninfinitebliss,ahappiness that seemed topermeate everything betweenmountain and lake in thisGardenofEden.…Having just arrived from

the grim outsideworldmade

thescenebeforehiseyesfeelunreal. He had been marriedtwicebutwasnowsingle,andthe joysof familyhadmeantlittletohiminhispursuitofaman’s glory. Now, for thefirst timeever,hefelthehadlivedanemptylife.Luo Ji, captivated by his

wife and child, only noticedTyler when he had gottenquite close. Due to thepsychologicalbarrierserectedby their common situation,

there had been no personalcontact between Wallfacersup to this point. But havingspoken with him on thephone, Luo Ji showed nosurpriseatTyler’sarrival,andmethimwithpolitewarmth.“Madam,pleaseexcusethe

interruption,”Tyler saidwitha slight bow toZhuangYan,who had come overwith thechild.“Welcome, Mr. Tyler.We

seldomhaveguests,soweare

pleasedthatyoucouldcome.”HerEnglishwasstrained,buthervoice retainedachildlikesoftnessandshestillhadthatcoolspringofasmile,whichstrokedhiswearysoullikeanangel’s hands. “This is ourdaughter,XiaXia.”Hewantedtohugthechild,

but was afraid of losingcontrol of his feelings, so hesimplysaid,“Seeingyoutwoangelsisworththetrip.”“We’ll let you talk. I’ll go

andpreparedinner,” she saidasshesmiledatthetwomen.“No,that’snotnecessary.I

justwant tohaveabriefchatwithDr.Luo.Iwon’ttakeuptoomuchtime.”Zhuang Yan warmly

insisted that he stay fordinner, then left with thechild.Luo Ji motioned for Tyler

to sit on awhite chair in thegrass.Whenhesatdown,hiswhole body went limp, as if

his tendons had beenremoved. He was a travelerwho had at last reached hisdestination after a longvoyage. “Doctor, it seemslike you’ve been lost to theworldforthepasttwoyears,”Tylersaid.“Yes.” Luo Ji remained

standing. He swept a handabout him. “This is myeverything.”“You are truly a smart

man, and at least from one

perspective, a moreresponsiblemanthanme.”“What do you mean by

that?” Luo Ji asked, with apuzzledsmile.“At least you haven’t

wasted resources.… So shedoesn’t watch TV either? Imean,yourangel.”“Her? I don’t know. She’s

always with Xia Xia thesedays, so I don’t think shewatchesmuch.”“Then you really don’t

know what’s happened outthereoverthepastfewdays?”“What happened? You

don’t look well. Are youtired?What can I get you todrink?”“Anything,” Tyler said,

watching the lastgoldenraysof thesettingsunon the lakedazedly. “Four days ago,myWallbreakerappeared.”LuoJistoppedpouringthe

wine, and after a moment’ssilence,said,“Sosoon?”

Tyler nodded heavily.“That’s the first thing I saidtohim,too.”

***

“So soon?” Tyler said to theWallbreaker.Hetriedtokeephisvoicecalmbutitendedupsoundingfeeble.“I’d liked to have come

sooner, but I thought I’dcollect more comprehensiveevidence, so I’m late. I am

sorry,” theWallbreaker said.He stoodbehindTyler like aservant and spoke slowly,withaservant’shumility.Hisfinalsentenceevencontaineda meticulousness andthoughtfulness, theunderstanding that anexecutioner shows to hisvictim.Then a suffocating silence

took hold. At last Tylerscrewed up the courage tolookat theWallbreaker,who

then asked respectfully, “Sir,shallIgoon?”Tyler nodded but averted

hisgaze.Hesatdownon thesofaanddidhisbest to calmdown.“Thank you, sir.” The

Wallbreakerbowedagain,hishat still in hand. “First, I’llbriefly describe the planyou’ve shown to the outsideworld:Usingafleetofnimblespace fighters carryinghundred-megaton-class

superbombs, your fighterswill assist Earth’s fleet byexecuting a suicide strike onthe Trisolaris Fleet. PerhapsI’veoversimplified,butthat’sbasicallyit,right?”“There’s no point in

discussing this with you,”Tyler said. He had beenconsidering whether toterminate the conversation.Themoment theWallbreakerrevealed himself, Tyler’sintuition as a politician and

strategist informed him thattheothermanwasthevictor,but at thispointhewouldbelucky if his mind had notbeenlaidentirelybare.“Ifthat’sthecase,sir,then

Idon’thavetogoon,andyoucanarrestme.Butyousurelymust know that regardless ofwhat happens, your truestrategy, and all of theevidence used to prove myhypothesis, will make thenews across the world

tomorrow, or maybe eventonight.Atthecostoftherestofmy life I standbeforeyoutoday, and I hope that youwillvaluemysacrifice.”“Youmaycontinue,”Tyler

saidwithawaveofhishand.“Thankyou,sir.Iamtruly

honored,andIwillnotuseuptoo much time.” TheWallbreaker bowed again. Ahumblerespectsorarelyseenamong modern peopleseemed to be in his blood,

able tomanifest at any time,like a noose graduallytightening around Tyler’sneck. “Then, sir, was myrenditionofyourstrategyjustnowcorrect?”“Itwas.”“It was not,” the

Wallbreaker said. “Sir,pardon my saying it, but itwasnotcorrect.”“Why?”“Given humanity’s

technologicalcapabilities,the

most powerful weapons weare likely to possess in thefuture are super hydrogenbombs. In a space-battleenvironment,thebombsmustbedetonatedindirectcontactwiththeirtargettobecapableof destroying enemy ships.Spacefightersarenimbleandcan be deployed in largenumbers, so sending thefighter fleet in for swarmlikesuicidestrikesisundoubtedlythe best option.Your plan is

eminently reasonable. All ofyourbehavior,includingtripstoJapan,China,andeventhemountains of Afghanistan insearch of space kamikazepilots with a spirit of self-sacrifice,andyourplantoputthemosquitofleetunderyourdirectcontroloncethatsearchfailed, was also entirelyreasonable.”“What’swrongwith that?”

Tylerasked,sittinguponthesofa.

“Nothing’s wrong withthat. But that’s just thestrategy you presented to theoutside.” The Wallbreakerbent down, drew near toTyler’s ear, and continuedspeaking in a soft voice.“Yourtruestrategyhadsmallalterations. For quite a longtime,youhadmestumped.Itwas agonizing for me, and Inearlygaveup.”Tylerrealizedthathehada

death grip on a sofa handle,

andtriedtorelax.“Butthenyougavemethe

key to unlock the wholepuzzle.Itwassuchagoodfitthat for a moment I doubtedmy good fortune. You knowwhat I’m referring to: Yourstudyofseveralbodiesinthesolar system, Europa, Ceres,andthecomets.Whatdotheyhave in common? Water.Theyallpossesswater,andinlarge quantities! On theirown, Europa andCeres have

morewater than in all of theoceansonEarth.…“Rabies sufferers fear the

waterandcangointospasmsat the mere mention of theword. I imagine you havesimilarfeelingsrightnow.”The Wallbreaker drew

close to Tyler and spokedirectly into his ear. Hisbreath was not the least bitwarm, but felt like a ghostlywindflavoredwiththegrave.“Water,” he whispered, as if

talking in his sleep.“Water…”Tyler remained silent, his

facelikeastatue’s.“Is there any need for me

tocontinue?”theWallbreakerasked,standingup.“No,” Tyler said in a low

voice.“But I’ll continue

anyway,” the Wallbreakersaid, almost gleefully. “I’llleave historians with acomplete record, even if

history won’t endure formuch longer. And anexplanation for the Lord aswell,ofcourse.Noteveryonehas the keen intellect of thetwo of us, able to grasp thewhole from the merest part.Particularly the Lord, whomay not even understand acomplete explanation.” Heraised up a hand, as ifacknowledge the Trisolaranlisteners, and laughed.“Forgiveme.”

Tyler’s features slackened,andthenhisbonesseemedtomelt. He slumped into thesofa.Hewasfinished,andhisspirit no longer inhabited hisbody.“Now then. Setting aside

thewater, let’s talkabout themosquito swarm. Its firstattack target will not be theTrisolaran invaders, butEarth’sownspaceforce.Thishypothesis is abitof a reachbased on the barest of signs,

but I maintain that it iscorrect.Youwentaround theworld seeking to establish akamikazeforceforhumanity,but your efforts failed. Youanticipatedthis,butfromthisfailure you were able toobtaintwothingsyoudesired.One was total despair inhumanity—this, you haveachieved fully. The secondI’lldiscussinamoment.”Thebladefell.“After traveling the world

you became utterlydisillusioned with modernhumanity’s dedication. Youalso became convinced thatEarth’s space force did notstand a chance of defeatingTrisolaris via standardcombat. You thereforehatchedastrategyevenmoreextreme. In my opinion, thisis a very faint hope, and animmense risk. Nevertheless,the principles of theWallfacer Project dictate that

inthiswar,thesafestbetistotakearisk.”“Of course, this was only

the beginning. Your betrayalofhumanitywouldbea longprocess, butyouhad timeonyour side. In the followingmonths and years, you wereprepared to engineer eventsthat would add to the wallyouerectedbetweenyourselfand the human race. Yourdespairwouldgraduallygrowand your sorrow intensify,

and you would leave thehuman world further andfurther behind, growingcloser and closer to theETOand Trisolaris. In fact, youtook your first steps on thisroad when you urged mercyfor the ETO at the PDChearing not long ago. Thatwasn’t just forshow, though.You truly need them toendure.Youneedmembersofthe ETO to pilot your spacefighters in the Doomsday

Battle. It is a matter of timeand patience, but you wouldsucceed, because the ETOalsoneedsyou.Itneedsyourassistance, and the resourcesyou possess. It wouldn’t bedifficult to turn over themosquitofleettotheETO,solong as it was kept a secretfrom the outside world. Andif it were discovered, youcould claim that it was allpartoftheplan.”Tyler did not seem to be

listening to the Wallbreaker.He sat on his sofa with hiseyes half-closed, lookingfatigued,as ifhehadalreadygiven up and was beginningtorelax.“Very well. Let’s talk

about the water now. In theDoomsday Battle, the ETO-controlled mosquito fleetwould likely launch a sneakattack on Earth’s fleet andthen flee to the Lord’s fleet.Because they had just

demonstrated their disloyaltyto earth, Trisolaris might bewilling to let them join thefleet, but theLordwouldnotbe so fast to accept theturncoat army.A sufficientlymeaningful gift would berequired to win them over.What would the Lord needthat the Solar Systempossesses? Water. On theirfour-century voyage,most ofthe water in the TrisolaranFleet would be used up. As

they approached the SolarSystem, dehydratedTrisolarans on board wouldneed to be rehydrated. Sincethewaterusedfor thiswouldbecome part of their bodies,clean water would certainlybepreferredtothestalewaterthat had been recycledinnumerable times on theship. The mosquito fleetwould offer the Lord aniceberg formed out of hugequantities of water obtained

from Europa, Ceres, and thecomets.I’mnotcertainofthespecifics—Iexpectyoudon’tknow right now either—butlet’ssay tensof thousandsoftons.“This giant chunk of ice

would be propelled by themosquito group. Themosquito fleet would likelydrawveryclosetotheLord’sfleetwhenpresentingthegift,at which point the secondconsequenceof the failureof

your attempt to build akamikaze forcewouldbeputtouse.That failurepromptedyour very logical request forindependent control of theentire mosquito fleet. WhenEarth’s fleet draws close tothe Lord’s fleet, you wouldtake over control of thefighters from the ETO pilotsand switch them to dronemode,orderingthefighterstostrike their chosen targets.The superbombs would be

detonated at point-blankrange, annihilating all of theLord’sships.The Wallbreaker

straightened up and, leavingTyler’s side, approached thefloor-to-ceiling windows thatoverlooked the garden. Thehellish wind he had blowninto Tyler’s ear dissipated,but not before the chill hadpenetratedhisbody.“An outstanding plan.

That’s not a lie. But certain

oversights are inexplicable.Why were you so eager topursue the study of water-bearingheavenlybodies?Thetechnology to extract andtransport water in quantitydoesnotexist rightnow,andengineering-side R&D couldtake years or even decades.Even if you felt you had tostartrightaway,whynottossin a few targets that don’tcontainwater—themoons ofMars,forinstance?Ifyouhad

doneso,althoughitwouldn’thave prevented me fromeventually exposing yourplan, it would have vastlyincreased the difficulty.Howcould a great strategist suchas yourself overlook suchsimple tricks? On the otherhand, I do recognize thepressureyouareunder.”The Wallbreaker placed a

gentle hand on Tyler’sshoulder, and Tyler felt aflash of tenderness, as of an

executionerforhisvictim.Hewasevenalittlemoved.“Don’t beat yourself up.

Youdidwellenough,really.Ihope history remembersyou.” The Wallbreakerremoved his land, a flush ofrestored energy on hisformerlywanandsicklyface.He stretched out his arms.“Well, Mr. Tyler, I’m done.Callyourpeople.”Tyler, his eyes still shut,

said without energy, “You

mayleave.”When the Wallbreaker

opened the door, Tylercroaked out a final question:“If what you say is true, sowhat?”The Wallbreaker turned

back toward him. “Sonothing.Mr.Tyler,regardlessofwhetherornotI’vebrokenyour plan, the Lord does notcare.”

***

Luo Ji was renderedspeechless for a long whileafterhearingTyler’saccount.When an ordinary person

spokewithoneof them,theywould always be thinking,He’s a Wallfacer, his wordscan’t be trusted, and thosesuggestions would present abarrier to communication.But when two Wallfacersspoke with each other, thesuggestions that existed inboth minds cross-multiplied

those communicationbarriers.Suchanexchange,infact, renderedanythingeithersidesaidmeaningless,sothatcommunication itself lost allsignificance. This was whythere had been no privateinteraction betweenWallfacers.“How do you evaluate the

Wallbreaker’sanalysis?”LuoJi asked to break the silence,even though he knew therewasnopointtothequestion.

“He guessed right,” Tylersaid.Luo Ji wanted to say

something, but what? Whatcould be said? They werebothWallfacers.“That was my true

strategy,” Tyler went on. Heevidently had a strong desireto speak and didn’t carewhether or not his listenerbelievedhim.“Ofcourse,it’sstillinthepreliminarystages.Thetechnologyaloneisquite

difficult, although I expecteda gradual resolution to all ofthe theoretic and technicalissuesoverthecourseoffourcenturies. But judging fromthe enemy’s attitude towardthe plan, it wouldn’t makeany difference. They don’tcare, and that’s the height ofcontempt.”“And that was…?” Luo Ji

felt like a machine formeaninglessdialogue.“The day after the

Wallbreaker’s visit, acomplete analysis of mystrategy was posted online.The material ran into themillions ofwords,most of itobtained through sophonmonitoring, and it caused asensation. The day beforeyesterday, the PDC called ahearingontheissue,atwhichit resolved the following:‘Wallfacer Plans may notcontainanything thatposesathreat to human life.’ If my

planactuallyexisted, then itsexecution would be a crimeagainst humanity. It must bestopped, and its Wallfacerpunishedby law.Noticehowthey invoke crimes againsthumanity,atermthat’sbeingthrown around more thanever these days? But theresolution concluded bysaying, ‘According to thebasic principles of theWallfacer Project, theevidence available to the

outside world may just be apart of the Wallfacer’sstrategy of deception andcannot be used to prove thatthe Wallfacer has actuallydeveloped and is executingthis plan.’ So I won’t becharged.”“I’dthoughtasmuch,”Luo

Jisaid.“But at the hearing, I

declared that theWallbreaker’s analysis wascorrect, and that my strategy

was indeed the mosquitoswarm. I asked tobe tried inaccordancewith national andinternationallaw.”“I can imagine their

reaction.”“The PDC’s rotating chair

and all the permanentmember representativeslooked at me with thatWallfacersmileontheirface,and the chair declared themeeting adjourned. Thosebastards!”

“Iknowthefeeling.”“Ihadatotalbreakdown.I

fled out of the hall and intothe square outside, shouting,‘I am Wallfacer FrederickTyler! My Wallbreakerexposedmystrategy!Hewasright! I’mgoing toattack theEarth fleetwith themosquitoswarm! I’m anti-human! I’ma devil! Punish me and killme!’”“That was a meaningless

act,Mr.Tyler.”

“What I hate the most isthe expression people havewhen they look at me. Acrowd of people surroundedme in the square, their eyesrevealing the fantasies ofchildren, thereverenceof themiddle-aged,andtheconcernof the elderly. All of theireyes said, ‘Look, he’s aWallfacer. He’s at work, buthe’stheonlyoneintheworldwho knowswhat he’s doing.See what a great job he’s

doing? He’s pretending sowell. How will the enemyknow what his real strategyis? That great, great, greatstrategy that only he knowsand thatwillbe the salvationoftheworld…’Completeanduttercrap!Thoseidiots!”At last Luo Ji decided to

remain silent, and merelysmiledwordlesslyatTyler.As Tyler stared at him, a

thin smile wavered on hispale faceand thendeveloped

into full-blown hystericallaughter.“Ha!You’resmilingtheWallfacer smile!A smilefrom one Wallfacer toanother! You think I’m atwork.YoubelieveI’mactingthe part, and you think I’llsave the world!” He cackledagain.“Howdidweendupinsuchahilarioussituation?”“This is a vicious cycle

we’ll never be free of, Mr.Tyler,” Luo Ji said, andsighedsoftly.

Tyler’s laughter stoppedabruptly.“Neverbefree?No,Dr. Luo, there’s a way out.Therereallyisaway,andI’mheretodaytotellittoyou.”“You need a break. Rest

here for a few days,” Luo Jisaid.Tyler nodded slowly.

“Yeah,Ineedabreak.We’retheonlyoneswhounderstandeach other’s pain, Doctor.That’s why I’ve come.” Helookedup.Thesunhadseta

whileago,andtheGardenofEden had grown indistinct inthetwilight.“Thisisparadise.CanIgoforawalkalonebythelake?”“Youmaydowhateveryou

like here. Take it easy, andI’ll call you to dinner in awhile.”Tyler walked down to the

lake, leaving Luo Ji to sitdown, sunken in heavythoughts.For five years, he had

bathed in an ocean ofhappiness. The birth of hisXia Xia in particular hadmade him forget everythingabout the outsideworld. Thelove of his wife and childblended together andintoxicated his soul, and, inthis gentle home isolatedfromtherestoftheworld,hehad fallen deeper and deeperinto an illusion: Perhaps theoutside world really wassomethingakin toaquantum

state,anddidnotexistunlessheobservedit.Butitwasastatethatcould

nolongerendurenowthattheabominableoutsideworldhadburstintohisGardenofEdento confuse and frighten him.HisthoughtsshiftedtoTyler,whose last words stillresounded inhis ears.Was itreallypossible forWallfacersto break free of the viciouscycle, to shatter the ironshacklesoflogic…?

Hejerkedtohissensesandran toward the lake. Hewanted to shout, but wasafraidofscaringZhuangYanandXiaXia,sohejustranasfast as he could through thequiet twilight, the swish ofhis feet against the grass onthe hillside the only sound.But into this rhythm a softcrackinserteditself.The sound of a gunshot

fromthelake.Luo Ji returned home late

that evening after the childwas sound asleep. ZhuangYan asked softly, “Did Mr.Tylerleave?”“Yes. He’s gone,” he said

wearily.“Heseemedworseoffthan

you.”“Yes. That’s because he

didn’t take an easy path.…Yan, have you watched TVrecently?”“No. I…”Shepaused,and

Luo Ji knew what she was

thinking. With the outsideworld growing more seriousby the day, and the gapwidening between life hereand life outside, thedifference made her uneasy.“Is our life really part of theWallfacer plan?” she asked,lookingathimwiththatsameinnocentface.“Of course. What is there

todoubt?”“Butcanwetrulybehappy

when all humanity is

unhappy?”“My love, your

responsibility when all ofhumanity is unhappy is tomake yourself happy. WithXiaXia,yourhappinessgainsa point, and the Wallfacerplan gains a point toward itssuccess.”ZhuangYanstaredsilently

athim.Thelanguageoffacialexpressions she hadenvisioned in front of theMona Lisa five years ago

seemedtohavebeenpartiallyrealizedbetweenherandLuoJi.More andmore, he couldread her mind through hereyes, and what he read nowwas,HowcanIbelievethat?Luo Ji pondered this for a

long time, and finally said,“Yan, everything has anending. The sun and theuniversewill die one day, sowhyshouldhumanitybelievethat it ought to be immortal?Listen,thisworldisparanoid.

Fighting a hopeless war is afool’s errand, so look at theTrisolar Crisis from adifferent perspective andleave your cares behind.Notjust the ones involving thecrisis, but everything elsefrombeforethat.Usethetimethat’s left to enjoy life. Fourhundred years! Or, if werefuse the Doomsday Battle,then nearly five hundred.That’s a fair amountof time.Humanity used the same

period to go from theRenaissance to theinformation age, and in thesame space could create acarefree, comfortable life.Five idyllic centurieswithoutneeding to worry about thedistant future,where the soleresponsibility is toenjoy life.Howwonderful.…”He realized that he had

spoken unwisely. Claimingthat thehappinessofher andthechildwerepartoftheplan

added another layer ofprotection to her life bymaking her happiness into aresponsibility. This was theonly way to ensure that shemaintained a balanced mindinthefaceofthecruelworld.He could never resist hereternallyinnocenteyes,sohedidn’t dare look at her whenshequestionedhim.Butnow,because of the Tyler factor,he had involuntarily told thetruth.

“When you say that, areyou being aWallfacer?” sheasked.“Yes, of course I am,” he

said,tofixthesituation.But her eyes said, You

really did seem to believethat!

UNPlanetaryDefenseCouncil,WallfacerProjectHearing#89

Atthestartofthehearing,therotating chair spoke tostrongly urge that Luo Ji be

required to attend the nexthearing, arguing that refusaltoparticipatewasnotpart ofthe Wallfacer plan becausethe PDC’s supervisoryauthority over theWallfacerstrumped theWallfacers’ ownstrategic plans. The proposalwas unanimously adopted byall permanent memberrepresentatives, and with theemergence of the firstWallbreaker and the suicideof Wallfacer Tyler in mind,

the other two Wallfacersattending the meeting heardthe unspoken implications ofthechairman’swords.Hines spoke first. His

neuroscience-based plan wasstill in its infancy, but hedescribed the equipment hewasenvisioningasabasisforfurther research. He called itthe Resolving Imager. Basedoncomputedtomographyandnuclear magnetic resonance,itoperatedbyscanning inall

cross sections of the brain atonce, which required crosssectional accuracy on thescaleof the internal structureof brain cells and neurons.Thiswouldbring thenumberof simultaneous CT scans toseveral million, to besynthesizedbycomputer intoa digital model of the brain.Other technical requirementswere even greater: The scanneeded to be conducted at arateoftwenty-fourframesper

second toproduceadynamicsynthetic model that couldcapture all brain activity at aneuron-level resolution,making it possible toprecisely observe thoughtactivity in the brain, or evenreplay all neural activitythroughout the thinkingprocess.Then Rey Diaz described

theprogressofhisplan.Afterfive years of research, thedigital star model for super-

high-yield nuclear weaponshad been completed andwasnow being thoroughlydebugged.Next, the PDC scientific

advisory panel presented areport on its feasibility studyofthetwoWallfacers’plans.Theadvisorypanelfeltthat

althoughtherewereintheoryno obstacles to Hines’sResolving Imager, thetechnical difficulties farexceeded current conditions,

andmodernCTscanningwasabout as far from RItechnology as black-and-white filmwas frommodernhigh-definitioncameras.Dataprocessing presented thebiggesttechnicalhurdletotheRI device, because scanningand modeling an object thesize of the humanbrainwithneuron-level precisionrequired power that wasunavailable to moderncomputers.

TheobstacletoReyDiaz’sstellar bomb was the same:presentcomputingpowerwasinsufficient. After inspectingthe calculations required bythe completed portion of themodel, the panel’s expertgroup felt that the mostpowerful of today’scomputerswould take twentyyearstomodelahundredthofa second of the fusionprocess. Since the modelwould need to be run

repeatedly in the course ofresearch,practicalapplicationwasanimpossibility.Thepanel’schiefcomputer

scientist said, “Right now,computer technology basedon traditional integratedcircuits and Von Neumannarchitecture is nearing thelimit of its technologicaldevelopment.Moore’s law isgoing to collapse.Of course,we can still squeeze out thelast few drops of lemonade

from these traditionalelectronic and technologicallemons. In our opinion, evengiventhepresentdecelerationin supercomputer progress,thecomputingpowerrequiredby the two plans is stillachievable. It just requirestime. Optimistically, twentytothirtyyears.Thosegoals,ifthey are reached, willrepresent the peak of humancomputing technology, andany further progress will be

difficult. With frontierphysics under sophonlockdown, the next-gen andquantum computers that weonce dreamed of are nowveryunlikelytoberealized.”“We’ve reached the wall

thatthesophonshaveerectedacross our scientific road,”thechairsaid.“Then there’s nothing that

wecando for twentyyears,”Hinessaid.“Twenty years is themost

optimistic estimate. As ascientist, you ought to knowwhat cutting-edge research islike.”“Then theonly thing todo

is hibernate and wait thearrival of capablecomputers,”ReyDiazsaid.“I’ve decided to hibernate,

too,”Hinessaid.“If that’s the case, then I

will ask the two of you togreetmysuccessor in twentyyears,” the chair said with a

smile.The mood of the hearing

relaxed. Now that the twoWallfacers had decided toenter hibernation, thehearing’s participants sighedwithrelief.Theemergenceofthe firstWallbreaker and hisWallfacer’s suicide had dealta heavy blow to the entireproject. Tyler’s suicide inparticular had been a foolishact. If he had lived, peoplewould still be indoubt about

whether themosquito swarmhad really been his plan.Hisdeath was tantamount to afinal confirmation of theexistenceof the terribleplan.He had vaulted out of theviciouscycleatthecostofhislife, prompting increasingmurmurs of criticism of theWallfacer Project among theinternational community.Public opinion demandedfurther restrictions onWallfacerpower,butthevery

nature of the WallfacerProject meant that too manyrestrictions would make itdifficultfortheWallfacerstoconduct their strategicdeceptions, rendering theentire project meaningless.The Wallfacer Projectpossessed a leadershipstructure that human societyhadneverbefore seen, and itrequired time to adjust andadapt to it. It was clear thatthe hibernation of the two

Wallfacers would provide abuffer period for that to takeplace.Afewdays later, ina top-

secret underground structure,Rey Diaz and Hines enteredhibernation.

***

Luo Ji found himself in anominousdream.Hedreamthewas walking the halls of theLouvre. It was a dream he

hadneverhadbefore,becausethe past five years of blisshad given him no cause todream of previous joys. Inthisdream,hewasalonewiththe loneliness that had beenabsent for five years. Hisevery footstep reverberatedthrough the palace halls, andsomething seemed to leavehimwitheveryreverberation,untilat lasthedarednot takeanother step. In front of himwas theMona Lisa. She no

longer smiled, but looked onhim with compassion in hereyes. When his footstepsstopped, the sound of theoutdoor fountains trickled inandgraduallygrewlouder,atwhichpointheawoketofindthat the sound was comingfrom the real world. It wasraining.Luo Ji reachedout tohold

his beloved’s hand, anddiscoveredthathisdreamhadbecomeareality.

ZhuangYanwasgone.He rolled out of bed and

entered the nursery, where alampwas softlyglowing,butXiaXiawasn’t there.On thelittlebed,tidilymadeup,wasone of Zhuang Yan’spaintings, a favorite of bothof theirs. It was practicallyblank, and from a distance itlooked like a sheet of paper.Closer in, you could see finereedsinthelowerleft,andintheupperrightthetracesofa

vanishinggoose.Intheblankcenter were twoinfinitesimally tiny people.But now, a graceful line oftexthadbeenaddedtoit:My love,we’rewaiting for

youatdoomsday.It was bound to happen

sooneror later.Could suchadreamlifelastforever?Itwasbound to happen, so don’tworry. You’re mentallyprepared for it, Luo Ji toldhimself, but a wave of

dizziness came over him.Ashepickedupthepaintingandwent toward the living room,his legs quavered and he feltasifhewasfloating.The living room was

empty, but the embers in thefireplace glowed a hazy redthat made everything looklike melting ice. The raincontinued outside. It was tothe same sound of rain thatshe had walked out of hisdreams five years ago, and

now she had returned tothem, taking their child withher.Hepickedup thephone to

call Kent, but then he heardsoft footsteps outside. Awoman’s footsteps, but notZhuang Yan’s. Even so, hetossed the phone down andwentoutside.Luo Ji immediately

recognized the slender figurestanding on the porch in therain, even though he could

onlyseeasilhouette.“Hello,Dr.Luo,”Secretary

GeneralSaysaid.“Hello … Where are my

wifeandchild?”“They’rewaitingforyouat

doomsday,” she said,repeating the words in thepainting.“Why?”“This is a PDC resolution,

to let you work and fulfillyour Wallfacerresponsibilities.Noharmwill

come to them, and childrenare better suited tohibernationthanadults.”“You’ve kidnapped them!

That’scriminal!”“We did not kidnap

anyone.”LuoJi’sheartquakedatthe

implications of Say’sstatement, and he pushedthem out of his mind ratherthan face that reality. “I saidthat having them here waspartoftheplan!”

“But after a thoroughinvestigation, the PDCdecidedthatitwasnotpartoftheplan,andsotookstepstopromptyoutogettowork.”“Even if it’s not

kidnapping, you took awaymychildwithoutmyconsent,and that’s against the law.”Whenherealizedwhohewasincluding in “you,” his heartquaked again and he leanedback feebly against the pillarbehindhim.

“True,but it iswellwithinacceptability. Do not forget,Dr. Luo, that this and all oftheresourcesyouhavetappeddo not fall under existinglegal frameworks, so theUN’s actions in the presenttimeofcrisiscanbe justifiedunderthelaw.”“Are you still working on

behalfoftheUN?”“Yes.”“Youwerereelected?”“Yes.”

He wanted to change thesubject to avoid facing thecoldfacts,buthefailed.WhatwillIdowithout them?Whatwill I do without them? hisheart asked over and over.Finally it slipped out of hismouth as he slid down thepillar to the ground. It feltlike everything wascollapsing around him,turning to magma from thetop down, except that thistime themagmawasburning

andpooledinsidehisheart.“They’re still here, Dr.

Luo.They’rewaitingforyousafe and sound in the future.You’ve always been a soberperson,andyoumustbecomeevenmore sober now. If notfor all humanity, then foryour family.” Say lookeddown at the ground, whereLuo Ji sat beside the columnonthebrinkofabreakdown.Then a gust of wind blew

rain onto the porch. Its

refreshing chill and Say’swords managed to cool thefireraginginLuoJi’shearttoanextent.“This was your plan from

thebeginning,wasn’tit?”“Yes, but this step was

takenonlywhentherewasnootherchoice.”“So shewas…When she

came, was she really awoman who did traditionalpainting?”“Yes.”

“From the CentralAcademyofFineArts?”“Yes.”“Thenwasshe…”“Everything you saw was

the real her. Everything youknew about her was true.Everythingthatmadeherher:Her past life, her family, herpersonality,andhermind.”“Youmean she reallywas

thatkindofwoman?”“Yes. Do you really think

she could have faked it for

five years? That’s how shereally was. Innocent andgentle, like an angel. Shedidn’t fake anything,including her love for you,whichwasveryreal.”“Thenhowcouldshecarry

out such a cruel deception?Toneverletanythingslipforfiveyears?”“How do you know she

never let anything slip? Hersoul was shrouded inmelancholy from the first

time you saw her on thatrainy night five years ago.She didn’t hide it. Thatmelancholy stayed with herfor five years like an ever-present background musicthat never stopped thewholetime, and that’s why youdidn’tnotice.”Nowheunderstood.When

he first saw her, what had itbeen that had touched thesoftest place in his heart?That made him feel like the

entireworldwasan injury toher? That made him willingtoprotectherwithhislife?Itwas that gentle sadnessconcealed within her clear,innocent eyes—a sadnessthat, like the light in thefireplace, shone gentlythrough her beauty. It wasindeed an imperceptiblebackground music that hadquietly permeated hissubconscious and pulled himstepbystepintotheabyssof

love.“I can’t find them, can I?”

heasked.“That’s right. Like I said,

thisisaPDCresolution.”“Then I’llgowith them to

doomsday.”“Youmay.”Luo Ji had imagined he

wouldbeturneddown,but—justaswhenhehadgivenuphis Wallfacer status—therewas practically no spacebetween his statement and

Say’s reply. He knew thatthingsweren’taseasyasthat.He asked, “Is there aproblem?”“No. This time it really is

fine. You know, since thebirthoftheWallfacerProjecttherehasalwaysbeendissentwithin the internationalcommunity.Outof theirowninterests,mostcountrieshavesupported some of theWallfacers while opposingothers, so there was always

going tobea side thatwantstoberidofyou.Nowthatthefirst Wallbreaker is out andTyler has failed, forcesopposed to the project havegrown more powerful andhavedrivenitssupporterstoastalemate.Ifatthispointyouproposed going directly todoomsday, it would be acompromise plan acceptableto both sides. But, Dr. Luo,are you truly willing to dothat while humanity is

fightingforsurvival?”“You politicians sound off

abouthumanityatthedropofa hat, but I can’t seehumanity. I can only seeindividuals. I’m just oneindividual, an ordinaryperson,andIcan’ttakeontheresponsibilityofsavingallofhumanity. I just want to livemyownlife.”“Very well. But Zhuang

Yan and Xia Xia are two ofthose individuals. Don’t you

want to fulfill yourresponsibility to them? Evenifshehurtyou,Icanseeyoustillloveher.Andthere’sthechild, too. From themomentHubble II finally confirmedthe Trisolaran invasion, onething has been certain:Humanity will fight to theend.When your beloved andyour child awaken in fourcenturies, doomsday and theflames of war will be uponthem, but by that time you’ll

have lost your Wallfacerstatus and will be powerlessto protect them. They willonlybeabletoshareahellishexistencewithyouwhileyouawaitthefinalannihilationofthe world. Is that what youwant? Is that the life youwant to give your wife andchild?”LuoJisaidnothing.“If you won’t think of

anything else, then justimagine that Doomsday

Battle four centuries fromnow, and the look in theireyes when they see you!What sort of a person willthey see? A man whoabandoned the woman heloves most, together with allof humanity? A manunwilling to save all of theworld’schildren?Amanwhowouldn’t even save his ownchild? Are you, as a man,capable ofwithstanding theirgaze?”

Luo Ji bent his head insilence. The sound of thenighttimerainfallingongrassand lake was like myriadentreaties from another timeandspace.“Doyoureallybelievethat

Icanchangeallofthat?”LuoJiasked,raisinghishead.“Why not try? Of all the

Wallfacers,youmayhavethegreatesthopeofsuccess.I’vecometodaytotellyouthat.”“Goon,then.Why?”

“Because out of all ofhumanity, you are the onlyperson that Trisolaris wantsdead.”Leaning against the pillar,

LuoJistaredatSay,butsawnothing. He struggled toremember.Say went on. “That car

crash was meant for you. Itjust accidentally hit yourgirlfriend.”“But that really was an

accident. That car changed

direction because two othercarscollided.”“They had been planning

thatforalongtime.”“ButIwasjustanordinary

person back then, with nospecial protection. Itwould’ve been simple to killme.Whygotosuchlengths?”“Tomake themurder look

like an accident, so as not toattract any attention. Theyalmostsucceeded.Therewerefifty-onetrafficaccidentsthat

killed five people in the citythat day. But a scout hiddenwithin the ETO provided anintelligencereportconfirmingthattheETOhadorchestratedtheattemptonyourlife.Andwhat’s most frightening isthis: The order came fromTrisolaris itself, conveyed toEvans through the sophons.To this date, that is the onlyassassination they’ve everordered.”“Me? Trisolaris wants to

kill me? For what reason?”Again, Luo Ji felt displacedfromhimself.“I don’t know. No one

knows,now.Evansmayhaveknown,buthe’sdead.Hewasevidently the onewho addedthe requirement to theassassinationorder that itnotattract attention. That onlyreinforcesyourimportance.”“Importance?” Luo Ji

shook his head with a wrysmile. “Look at me. Do I

reallylooklikesomeonewithsuperpowers?”“You don’t have

superpowers, so don’t letyour thoughts go in thatdirection. It’ll only lead youastray,” Say said, gesturingemphatically. “You had nospecial powers in your priorresearch,betheysupernaturalabilities or extraordinarytechnical skills within theknown laws of nature.Or, atleast,nonethatwehavebeen

able to discover. That Evansrequiredthattheassassinationnot attract attentiondemonstrates this point aswell, because it proves thatyour ability can be acquiredbyothers.”“Whydidn’tyoutellme?”“We were afraid of

influencingwhateveritisyouhave. Too many unknowns.We felt it best to let thingsride.”“I’d once had a notion to

work on cosmic sociology,because…” Then a smallvoice deep within him said,You’reaWallfacer!Thiswasthe first time he had heardthat voice. He also heardanother nonexistent sound:thebuzzingofthesophonsastheyflewabouthim.Heeventhought he saw a fewblurry,firefly-likepointsoflight.Soforthefirsttime,heactedlikea Wallfacer and swallowedhis words, saying only, “Is

thatrelevant?”Say shook her head.

“Probably not. As far as weareaware,that’sjustthetopicof a research application thatnever actually went forward,much less obtained anyresults. Besides, even if youhad done the research, wewouldn’texpectyou tocomeup with results any morevaluable than any otherresearcher.”“Andwhyisthat?”

“Dr. Luo, we’re speakingfranklyhere.AsIunderstandit, you’re a failure of ascholar. You performresearchnotoutof any thirstfor exploration, nor out of asense of duty and mission,butsimplyasawaytomakealiving.”“Isn’t that the way things

arethesedays?”“There’s nothing wrong

with that, of course, but youexhibitallkindsofbehaviors

unbecoming a serious anddedicated scholar. Yourresearch is utilitarian, yourtechniques opportunistic, youseek out sensationalism, andyou have a history ofembezzling funding.Character-wise, you’recynicalandirresponsible,andyouharboramockingattitudetoward a scholar’s vocation.…We’reactuallywellawareofthefactthatyoudon’tcareabout the fate of the human

race.”“And that’s why you

would stoop to suchdespicable means to coerceme. You’ve despised me allalong,haven’tyou?”“Under normal

circumstances,amanlikeyouwould never be tasked withsuch an important duty, butthere is this one overridingdetail: Trisolaris is afraid ofyou. Be your ownWallbreaker.Findoutwhy.”

When Say finished, shesteppedofftheporch,gotintothe waiting car, anddisappeared into the rainymist.Standing there, Luo Ji lost

his sense of time. Gradually,therainstoppedandthewindpicked up, blowing the nightsky free of clouds, revealingthe snow peaks, and lettingthe bright round moon bathetheworldinsilverylight.Before going back inside,

Luo Ji took one last look atthe silver Garden of Eden,and his heart said to ZhuangYan and Xia Xia, My love,waitformeatdoomsday.

***

Standing in thegiant shadowcast by the space planeHighFrontierandlookingupatitsmassive body, Zhang Beihaiwasinvoluntarilyremindedofthe carrier Tang, now long

dismantled, and evenwondered if the hull ofHighFrontier could contain a fewsteel plates fromTang. Overthecourseofmorethanthirtyreentries, the burning heathad left scorchmarks on thebody of the space plane, andit really did look the wayTang hadwhen it was underconstruction. The body hadthesamesenseofage,butthetwo cylindrical boosterrockets beneath the wings

werenew,makingitresemblerepairstoancientarchitecturein Europe: The newness ofthe patches stood in starkcontrasttothecoloringoftheoriginal building, remindingvisitors that those parts weremodern additions. But if theboosterswereremoved,HighFrontier would look like abigoldtransportplane.Thespaceplanewasavery

new thing, one of the fewbreakthroughs in aerospace

technology over the last fiveyears, and quite possibly thelast generation of chemicallypropelled spacecraft. Theconcept had been proposedthe previous century as areplacement for the spaceshuttle that could take offfrom a runway like anordinary plane and flyconventionally to the toplayer of the atmosphere, atwhich point the rocketswould be turned on for

spaceflightanditwouldenterorbit.High Frontier was thefourth such space plane inoperation, and many morewere under construction.They would, in the nearfuture, take on the task ofbuildingthespaceelevator.“I once imagined that we

wouldnevergetthechancetogo to space in our lifetime,”Zhang Beihai said to ChangWeisi, who had come to seehimoff.Heandtwentyother

space force officers, all ofthem members of the threestrategic institutes, wouldtakeHighFrontiertotheISS.“Are there naval officers

who’ve never been to sea?”ChangWeisisaid,smiling.“Of course there are. Lots

of them. Some people in thenavysoughtexactly that.ButI’mnotthatsortofperson.”“Beihai, be aware of one

thing: The active-dutyastronauts are still air force

personnel,soyouarethefirstrepresentatives of the spaceforcetogointospace.”“It’s a shame there’s no

specificmission.”“Experienceisthemission.

A space strategist ought tohave a consciousness ofspace. This wasn’t feasiblebefore the space plane, sincesending up one person costtensofmillions,butit’smuchcheapernow.We’lltrytoputmore strategists into space

soon, since we’re the spaceforce, after all. Right nowwe’re more like a college ofbullshit, and that just won’tdo.”Thentheboardingcallwas

issued,andtheofficersbeganclimbing the airstair to theplane. They wore uniformsbut not space suits, andlooked no different than iftheywere taking standardairtravel. It was a sign ofprogress, demonstrating that

going to space was a littlemorenormalthanithadbeen.From the uniforms, ZhangBeihainoticedthattherewerepeople from otherdepartments boarding theplaneaswell.“Ah, Beihai, there’s

another important thing,”Chang Weisi said as Beihaiwas about to pick up hiscarry-on. “The CMC hasstudied the report wesubmittedonsendingpolitical

cadres to the future asreinforcements, and thebrassfeel that conditions are stillpremature.”Zhang Beihai squinted, as

if warding against a glare,though they were still in thespace plane’s shadow.“Commander, my feeling isthat we ought to keep theentire four-century period inmindwhenmakingplans,andto be clear about what’surgent and what’s important.

…ButpleasebeassuredthatIwon’tsaythatinanyformalsetting.Iknowverywellthatour superiors are consideringthebiggerpicture.”“The higher-ups have

affirmed your long-termthinking and commend youfor it. The document stressesone point: The plan to sendreinforcements to the futurehasnotbeendenied.Researchand planning will continue,butpresentconditionsarestill

premature for execution. Ifeel—andthisisofcoursemypersonal opinion—that weneed additional qualifiedpolitical cadres in our ranksto lessen the current workpressures before we canconsiderit.”“Commander, surely you

are awareofwhat ‘qualified’means in the context of theSpace Force PoliticalDepartment, and what thebasic requirements are.

Qualified people arebecomingincreasinglyrare.”“But we’ve got to look

forward. If there arebreakthroughs in the twokeytechnologiesofphaseone,thespace elevator and controlledfusion—and there’s hope ofthis in our lifetimes—thenthingswillbebetter.…Okaythen.Offwithyou.”Zhang Beihai saluted him

and then stepped onto thestairs. His first feeling upon

entering thecabinwas that itwasn’tmuch different than acivilian airliner, except theseatswerewider,havingbeendesigned to accommodatespace suits. During the firstflightsof the spaceplane, allpassengershadtowearspacesuits as a precaution, butthere was no need for thatnow.Hehadawindowseat,and

the seat immediately next tohis was also occupied. A

civilian, judging from hisclothing. Zhang Beihainodded to him in greetingbeforeturninghisattentiontofastening the seat’scomplicatedsafetybelt.There was no countdown.

High Frontier started its airengines and began taxiing.Becauseofitsweight,itspentlonger on the ground duringtakeoff than an ordinaryplane, but at last it liftedponderously off the ground

and embarked on its voyageintospace.“This is the thirty-eighth

flightofthespaceplaneHighFrontier. The aviation phasehas started and will lastapproximately thirtyminutes.Please do not unfasten yoursafety belts,” said a voiceovertheintercom.As he watched the ground

recede through the cabinwindow, Zhang Beihai’sthoughts turned to the past.

During training to become acarrier captain, he hadcompleted naval aviationpilot training and had passedthe level three fighter pilotexam.OnhisfirstsolotriphehadwatchedEarthrecedelikethis and suddenly discoveredthat he loved the sky evenmore deeply than the ocean.Now,his longingwasfor thespacebeyondthesky.He was a man destined to

flyhighandflyfar.

“Not much different fromcivilaviation,youthink?”He turned to see the

speaker sitting in the nextseat, and recognized him atlast. “Youmust be Dr. DingYi.I’vebeenwantingtomeetyou.”“Butit’sgoingtogetrough

in just a little bit,” the mansaid,ignoringZhangBeihai’ssalutation.Hewent on, “Thefirsttime,Ididn’ttakeoffmyglasses after the aviation

phase, and they crushed mynose with the weight of abrick.ThesecondtimeItookthem off, but then they flewoffaftergravitywentaway.Itwasn’t easy for the guy tofind them for me in the airfilterintheplane’stail.”“I thoughtyouwentupon

the space shuttle the firsttime.OnTV,thatdidn’tlooklike a very nice trip,” ZhangBeihaisaidwithagrin.“Oh, I’m talking about

taking the space plane. Ifwecount the shuttle, then this ismy fourth time. On theshuttle, they took away myglassesbeforetakeoff.”“Whyareyougoingto the

stationthistime?You’vejustbeen put in charge of acontrolledfusionproject.Thethirdbranch,isn’tit?”Fourbrancheshadbeenset

up for the controlled fusionproject, each pursuing adifferent direction of

research.Restrained by the safety

belt,DingYi liftedahandtopoint at Zhang Beihai. “Youstudy controlled fusion andyou can’t go to space? Yousoundthesameasthoseguys.The ultimate goal of ourresearchisspaceshipengines,and the real power held bythe aerospace industry todayremains to a large degree inthe hands of the people whousedtomakechemicalrocket

engines. They’re saying nowthat we’re just supposed todevoteourselvestocontrolledfusionontheground,andthatwe basically have no say inthe general plan of the spacefleet.”“Dr. Ding, your views are

identical to mine.” ZhangBeihai loosened his safetybelt and leaned over. “For aspacefleet,spacetravel isanentirely different conceptfromchemicalrocketry.Even

thespaceelevatorisdifferentfrom today’s aerospacetechniques.Butrightnowtheaerospaceindustryofthepaststill holds too much power.Its people are ideologicallyossified and legalistic, and ifthingscontinue, therewillbeallkindsoftrouble.”“There’s nothing to be

done. At least they’vemanagedtocomeupwiththisin the course of five years.”Hepointedaroundhim.“And

thisgives them the capital tosqueezeoutoutsiders.”The cabin intercom started

up.“Pleasetakecare:Weareapproaching an altitude oftwenty thousandmeters.Dueto the thin atmosphere wewill now be flying through,there may be sharp drops inaltitude that will producemomentary weightlessness.Please do not panic. Again,please keep your safety beltsfastened.”

DingYisaid,“Butourtripto the station this time isunrelated to the controlledfusionproject. It’s to recoverthose cosmic ray catchers.That’ssomeexpensivestuff.”“The space-based high-

energy physics researchproject has been stopped?”asked Zhang Beihai,retighteninghissafetybelt.“It’s stopped. Knowing

that there’s no need towasteeffortinthefuturecountsasa

kindofsuccess.”“Thesophonswon.”“That’s right.Sohumanity

only has a few reserves oftheory remaining: classicalphysics, quantummechanics,and a still-embryonic stringtheory. How far theirapplicationscanbepushed isuptofate.”HighFrontiercontinuedto

climb, its aviation enginesrumblingunderthestrainasifit were struggling up a tall

mountain, but there were nosudden drops. The spaceplane was now approachingthirty thousand meters, thelimit of aviation. Lookingout, Zhang Beihai saw thattheblueoftheskywasfadingasitgotdark,eventhoughthesun became even moredazzling.“Ourcurrent flight altitude

isthirty-onethousandmeters.The aviation phase iscomplete and the spaceflight

phase is about to begin.Please adjust your seatsaccording to the illustrationonscreen to minimize thediscomfort ofhypergravitation.”ThenZhangBeihaifeltthe

plane rise gently, as if it haddiscardedaburden.“Aircraft engine assembly

separated. Aerospace engineignitioncountdown:ten,nine,eight…”“For them, this is the real

launch.Enjoy,”DingYisaid,andclosedhiseyes.When the countdown

reached zero, there was ahugeroar,asiftheentireskyoutside was shouting, andthenhypergravitycamelikeagiant, slowly tightening fist.With effort, Zhang Beihaitwisted his head to look outthe window. He was unableto see the flames spurtingfrom the engine, but a wideswathoftherarifiedairofthe

sky outside was painted red,as if High Frontier wasfloatingthroughasunset.Five minutes later, the

boosters detached, and afteranother five minutes ofacceleration, themainenginecut off. High Frontier hadenteredorbit.The giant hand of

hypergravity suddenly let goand Zhang Beihai’s bodybouncedbackfromthedepthsof his seat. Although the

restraint of his safety beltkepthimfromfloatingaway,tohissensesheandtheHighFrontierwerenolongerpartsof the same whole. Thegravity thathadoncebondedthem togetherwas gone, andhe and the plane were nowflying in parallel pathsthrough space. Out thewindow were the brighteststars he had ever seen in hislife. Later, when the spaceplaneadjusteditsattitude,the

sun streamed in through thewindows and myriad pointsof light danced in its beams:dust particles that hadweightlessly taken to the air.As the plane graduallyrotated, he saw the Earth.Fromthisloworbitalpositionhe couldn’t see the entiresphere, only the arc of thehorizon, but he could clearlymake out the shapes of thecontinents.Then the starfield, that

long-awaited sight, finallycame into view, and he saidin his heart,Dad, I’ve takenthefirststep.

***

For five years, GeneralFitzroy had felt like aWallfacer in the actual senseof the word, in that the wallhe faced was the big screenwith the image of the starsbetweenEarthandTrisolaris.

Atfirstglanceitwasentirelyblack,butcloserinspectionofthe screen revealed points ofstarlight. He had grown sowell acquainted with thosestars that when he hadattempted to sketch theirpositiononapieceofpaperata dull meeting the previousday and compared it to theactual photo afterward, hewas basically correct. Thethree stars ofTrisolaris lyinginconspicuously at the center

lookedlikeasinglestarinthestandardview,buteverytimehe magnified them he foundthat their positions hadchanged.Thischaoticcosmicdance so fascinated him thathe forgot what he waslooking for in the first place.The brush that had beenobserved five years ago hadgraduallyfadedaway,andnosecond brush had appeared.The Trisolaran Fleet left avisible wake only when it

passed through interstellardust clouds. Earth’sastronomers had verifiedthrough observations of theabsorption of backgroundstarlight that during thefleet’s four-century-longvoyage through space, itwould pass through five ofthem. People dubbed these“snowpatches”after thewaythat passersby left tracks onsnowyground.If the Trisolaran Fleet had

maintained a constantaccelerationoverthepastfiveyears, it would pass thesecondsnowpatchtoday.Fitzroy arrived at the

Hubble II Space TelescopeControlCenter early.Ringierlaughed when he saw him.“General,whydoyouremindme of a child who wantsanother present so soon afterChristmas?”“Didn’t you say that they

would cross the snow patch

today?”“That’s right, but the

Trisolaran Fleet has onlytraveled 0.22 light-years, soit’sstillfourlight-yearsaway.Light reflected from itspassage through the snowwon’treachEarthforanotherfouryears.”“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot

about that,”Fitzroysaidwithan embarrassed shake of hishead. “I reallywanted to seethem again. This time, we’ll

beabletomeasuretheirspeedandaccelerationatthetimeofpassage, and that’s veryimportant.”“I’m sorry. We’re outside

thelightcone.”“What’sthat?”“It’s what physicists call

the cone shape that lightdescribesasitemanatesalongthe time axis. It’s impossibleforpeopleoutsidetheconetocomprehend events takingplace inside the cone. Think

about it: Information aboutwho-knows-how-many majorevents in the universe isflyingtowardusrightnowatthespeedoflight.Someofithas been traveling forhundredsofmillionsofyears,but we’re still outside thelightconesofthoseevents.”“Fate lies within the light

cone.”Ringier considered this,

thengavehimanappreciativenod. “General, that’s an

excellent analogy! Butsophons outside the lightcone can see events on theinside.”“So the sophons have

changed fate,” Fitzroy saidwithfeeling,and turnedbackto an image-processingterminal. Five years before,the young engineer Harrishadstartedtocryat thesightof the brush, and afterwardhad suffered fromdepressionso severe that he became

practically useless at his jobandwasletgo.Nooneknewwherehehadendedup.Fortunately, there weren’t

manypeoplelikehim.

***

Temperatures were coolingrapidlythesedays,andithadstarted to snow, causing thegreen to gradually disappearfrom the surrounding areaand a thin layer of ice to

freeze on the surface of thelake. Nature lost its brightcoloring, like a colorphotograph turnedblack-and-white. Warm weather herehad always been short-lived,but to Luo Ji, the Garden ofEden felt like it had lost itsaurasincethedepartureofhiswifeandchild.Winter was a season for

thinking.When Luo Ji began to

think, he was surprised to

find that his thoughts werealready in progress. Heremembered back to middleschoolanda lessona teacherhad taught him for languagearts exams:First, take a lookat the final essay question,then start the exam from thetop, so that as you work onthe exam, your subconsciouswill be thinking over theessay question, like abackground process in acomputer.Nowheknew that

from themoment he becameaWallfacer, his thinkinghadstarted up and had neverstopped. The entire processwassubconsciousandhehadneverbeenawareofit.He quickly retraced the

stepshisthoughtshadalreadycompleted.He was now certain that

everything about his currentsituation stemmed from hischance encounter with YeWenjie nine years ago.

Afterward, he had neverspoken of the meeting withanyone for fear of causingunnecessary trouble forhimself, but with YeWenjiegone, the meeting was asecretknownonlytohimandTrisolaris.Inthosedays,onlytwo sophons had reachedEarth,buthecouldbecertainthatonthatevening,theyhadbeen there by Yang Dong’sgrave, listeningtotheireveryword. And the fluctuation in

their quantum formation thatinstantlycrossedthespaceoffour light-years meant thatTrisolaris had also beenlistening.But what had Ye Wenjie

said?SecretaryGeneral Say had

beenwrong about one thing.LuoJi’snever-begunresearchinto cosmic sociology wasquite likely the immediatereasonwhyTrisolariswantedto kill him. Of course, Say

didn’t know that the projecthad been Ye Wenjie’ssuggestion, and although ithadjustseemedtoLuoJilikean excellent opportunity tomake scholarshipentertaining, he had beenlooking for just such anopportunity. Prior to theTrisolar Crisis, the study ofalien civilization was indeeda sensational project thatwould have garnered easymediaattention.

The aborted researchproject wasn’t important inand of itself. What matteredwas the instruction that YeWenjie had given him, sothat’s where Luo Ji’s mindwasstuck.Over and over again he

recalledherwords:Supposeavast number of civilizationsaredistributedthroughouttheuniverse, on the order of thenumber of detectable stars.Lots and lots of them. The

mathematical structure ofcosmic sociology is farclearer than that of humansociology.The factors of chaos and

randomness in the complexmakeups of every civilizedsociety in the universe getfiltered out by the immensedistance, so thosecivilizations can act asreference points that arerelatively easy to manipulatemathematically.

First: Survival is theprimary need of civilization.Second: Civilizationcontinuously grows andexpands, but the totalmatterin the universe remainsconstant.Onemore thing:Toderive

a basic picture of cosmicsociology from these twoaxioms, you need two otherimportantconcepts:chainsofsuspicion and thetechnological explosion. I’m

afraid there won’t be thatopportunity.… Well, youmight as well just forget Isaid anything. Either way,I’vefulfilledmyduty.He had returned countless

times to these words,analyzingeachsentencefromeveryangleandchewingoverevery word. The componentwordshadbeenstrung intoasetofprayerbeads,andlikeapious monk he stroked themtimeandagain; andunstrung

them, scattered them, andrestrung them in differentorders until a layer of eachhadbeenwornaway.Try as he might, he

couldn’textractthecluefromthose words, the clue thatmade him the only personthat Trisolaris wanted todestroy.During his lengthy

contemplation he strolledaimlessly. He walked alongthe desolate lakeside,walked

through the wind as it grewever colder, oftentimescompleting a circuit of thelakeunawares.Twiceheevenwalked to the foot of thesnow peak, where the patchof exposed rock that lookedlike a moonscape wasblanketed with snow,becoming one with thesnowcap ahead of him.Onlythen did his mood leave thetrack of his thoughts, ZhangYan’s eyes appearing before

his own in the boundlessblank white of the naturalpainting. But he was nowable to keep his mood incheck and continue turninghimself into a thinkingmachine.A month went by without

him knowing it, and thenwintercameinfullforce.Buthestillconductedhislengthythought process outside,sharpening his mind on thecold.

By this time, most of theprayer beads had been wornfaint, except for twenty-oneof them. These ones seemedonlytogetnewerthemorehepolished them, and nowemittedafaintlight:Survival is the primary

needofcivilization.Civilization continuously

grows and expands, but thetotal matter in the universeremainsconstant.He fixated on these two

sentences, the axioms YeWenjie had proposed forcosmiccivilization.Althoughhedidnotknowtheirultimatesecret, his long meditationtold him that the answer laywithinthem.But it was too simple a

clue.What could he and thehuman race gain from twoself-evidentrules?Don’t dismiss simplicity.

Simple means solid. Theentire mansion of

mathematicswaserectedonafoundation of this kind ofirreducibly simple, yetlogicallyrock-solid,axiom.With this in mind, he

looked around him. All thatsurrounded himwas huddledup against the icy cold ofwinter,butmostoftheworldstillteemedwithlife.Itwasalivingworldbrimmingwithacomplexprofusionofoceans,land, and sky as vast as thefoggy sea, but all of it ran

according to a rule evensimpler than the axioms ofcosmic civilization: survivalofthefittest.Luo Ji now saw his

problem: Where Darwin hadtaken the boundless livingworldandmadearuletosumit up, Luo Ji had to use therules he knew to uncover apictureofcosmiccivilization.It was the opposite road toDarwin’s,butamoredifficultone.

Sohebegansleepinginthedaytimeandthinkingatnight.Whenever the perils of hismentalroadwayterrifiedhim,he foundcomfort in the starsoverhead. Like Ye Wenjiehadsaid, thedistancehid thecomplex structure of eachstar, making them just acollection of points in spacewith a clear mathematicalconfiguration. It was athinker’s paradise, hisparadise.ToLuoJi,atleast,it

felt like theworld in frontofhimwasfarclearerandmoreconcisethanDarwin’s.But this simpleworldheld

a perplexing riddle: Theentire galaxy was a vastempty desert, but a highlyintelligent civilization hadappeared on the star nearestto us. In this mystery, histhoughtsfoundanentrypoint.Gradually, the two

concepts YeWenjie had leftunexplainedcame into focus:

chains of suspicion and thetechnologyexplosion.The weather that day was

colder than usual, and fromLuoJi’svantagepointonthelakeshore,thecoldseemedtomake the stars into an evenpurersilverlatticeagainsttheblack sky, solemnlydisplayingforhimtheirclearmathematical configuration.All of a sudden, he foundhimself in a state that wasentirely new. In his

perception, the entireuniverse froze, all motionstopped,andeverythingfromstarsdowntoatomsenteredastate of rest, with the starsjust countless cold,dimensionless pointsreflectingthecoldlightofanoutside world.… Everythingwas at rest, waiting for hisfinalawakening.The distant bark of a dog

brought him back to reality.Probably a service canine

belonging to the securityforces.Luo Ji was beside himself

withexcitement.Althoughhehadn’t actually glimpsed thatfinal mystery, he had clearlyfeltitspresencejustnow.He collected his thoughts

andtriedtoreenterthatstate,butwasunsuccessful.Thoughthe stars remained the same,the world around himinterfered with his thinking.Allwasshroudedindarkness,

but he could make out thedistant snowcap, the lakesideforest and grassland, and thehouse behind him, andthroughthehouse’shalf-opendoor he could see the darkglow of the fire.… Next tothesimpleclarityofthestars,everything in the vicinityrepresenteda complexity andchaosthatmathematicswouldbeforeverunabletograsp,soheattempted to remove themfromhisperception.

He walked out onto thefrozen lake—cautiously, atfirst, butwhen he found thatthe icy surface seemed solid,he walked and slid aheadmore quickly, until hereached a point where hecouldnolongermakeoutthelakeshore through the nightaround him. Now he wassurrounded on all sides bysmooth ice. This distancedhim somewhat from earthlycomplexityandchaos,andby

imagining that the icy planeextended infinitely in everydirection, he obtained asimple, flat world; a cold,planarmentalplatform.Caresvanished, and soon hisperceptionreenteredthatstateof rest, where the stars werewaitingforhim.…Then, with a crunch, the

ice beneath Luo Ji’s feetbroke and his body plungedstraightintothewater.At the precise instant the

icy water covered Luo Ji’shead, he saw the stillness ofthestarsshatter.Thestarfieldcurled up into a vortex andscattered into turbulent,chaotic waves of silver. Thebiting cold, like crystallightning,shotintothefogofhis consciousness,illuminating everything. Hecontinued to sink. Theturbulent stars overheadshrankintoafuzzyhaloatthebreak in the ice above his

head, leaving nothing butcold and inky blacknesssurrounding him, as if hewasn’tsinkingintoicewater,but had jumped into theblacknessofspace.In the dead, lonely, cold

blackness,hesawthetruthoftheuniverse.He surfaced quickly. His

head surged out of thewaterand he spat out a mouthful.Hetriedcrawlingontotheiceat the edge of the hole but

couldonlybringhisbodyuphalfway before the icecollapsed again. He crawledand collapsed, forging a paththrough the ice, but progresswas slow and his staminabegan to give out from thecold.Hedidn’tknowwhetherthe security team wouldnotice anything unusual onthelakebeforehedrownedorfroze to death. Stripping offhis soaked down jacket tolessen the burden on his

movement, he had the ideathatifhespreadoutthejacketon the ice, itmightdistributethepressureandallowhimtocrawlonto it.Hedid so, andthen,withjustenoughenergyleft for one last attempt, heused every last ounce ofstrength to crawl onto thedownjacketattheedgeoftheice. This time the ice didn’tcollapse,andatlasthisentirebody was lying on top of it.He crept carefully ahead,

daring to stand up only afterputting a fair distancebetween him and the hole.Then he saw flashlightswaving on the shore andheardshouts.He stood on the ice, his

teethchatteringinthecold,acoldthatseemedtocomenotfrom the lake water or icywind, but from a directtransmission from outerspace. He kept his headdown,knowingthatfromthis

momenton,thestarswerenotlike they once were. Hedidn’t dare look up. As ReyDiaz feared the sun, Luo Jihadacquireda severephobiaof the stars. He bowed hishead, and through chatteringteeth,saidtohimself:“Wallfacer Luo Ji, I am

yourWallbreaker.”

***

“Your hair’s turned white

overtheyears,”LuoJisaidtoKent.“For many years to come,

at least, it’s not going to getany whiter,” Kent said,laughing. In Luo Ji’spresence,hehadalwaysworna courteous, studied face.ThiswasthefirsttimeLuoJihad seen him with such asincere smile. Inhis eyes, hesaw the words that remainedunspoken: You’ve finallybeguntowork.

“I need someplace safer,”hesaid.“Not a problem, Dr. Luo.

Anyparticularrequests?”“Nothingapartfromsafety.

Itmustbeabsolutelysecure.”“Doctor,anabsolutelysafe

place does not exist, but wecancomeveryclose.I’llhaveto warn you, though, theseplaces are alwaysunderground. And as forcomfort…”“Disregard comfort.

However,it’dbebestifit’sinChina.”“Not a problem. I’ll take

careofitimmediately.”When Kent was about to

leave, Luo Ji stopped him.Pointing out the window atthe Garden of Eden, whichwas now completelyblanketed in snow, he said,“Canyoutellmethenameofthisplace?I’mgoing tomissit.”

***

LuoJitraveledmorethantenhours under tight securitybefore reaching hisdestination. When he exitedthecar,heknewimmediatelywherehewas:Itwashere,inthe broad, squat hall thatlooked like an undergroundparking garage, that he hadembarked on his fantasticnew life five years before.Now, after five years of

dreams alternating withnightmares, he had returnedtothestartingpoint.Greeting him was a man

named Zhang Xiang, thesameyoungmanwho—alongwith Shi Qiang—had senthim off five years ago, andwho now was in charge ofsecurity. He had agedconsiderablyinfiveyearsandnow looked like a middle-agedman.The elevator was still

operatedbyanarmedsoldier—nottheonefrombackthen,ofcourse,butLuoJistillfeltacertainwarmthinhisheart.The old-style elevator hadbeen swapped for one thatwas completely automatedand did not require anoperator, so the soldiermerely pressed the “-10”button and the elevatorstarteditsdescent.The underground structure

had clearly undergone a

recent renovation: Theventilation ducts in thehallwayshadbeenhidden,thewalls coated with moisture-prooftile,andalltracesofthecivil air defense slogans haddisappeared.Luo Ji’s living quarters

tookupthewholeofthetenthbasement floor.While itwasno match in comfort for thehousehehad just left, itwasequippedwithcomprehensivecommunications and

computer equipment, alongwithaconferenceroomsetupwith a remote videoconferencing system, givingthe place the feel of acommandcenter.The administrator made a

particular point of showingLuoJia setof light switchesin the room, each of whichbore a small picture of thesun.The administrator calledthem “sun lamps” and saidthey needed to be turned on

fornofewerthanfivehoursaday. Originally intended aslabor-safety products formine workers, they couldsimulate sunlight, includingUV rays, as supplementarydaylight for people spendinglongperiodsunderground.Thenextday,asLuoJihad

requested, the astronomerAlbert Ringier visited thetenthbasement.When he saw him, Luo Ji

said, “You were the first to

observe the flightpathof theTrisolaranFleet?”Ringier looked a little

unhappy to hear this. “I’verepeatedly issued statementstoreporters,buttheyinsistonforcing this honor on myhead.ItshouldbecreditedtoGeneral Fitzroy. He was theone who demanded thatHubble II observe Trisolarisduring testing. Otherwise wemight have missed thechance,sincethewakeinthe

interstellar dust would havefaded.”“What I’d like to talk to

you about isn’t connected tothat. Ididabitofastronomyonce, but not inmuchdepth,and I’m no longer familiarwith the subject. My firstquestion is this: If, in theuniverse, there exists anotherobserver apart fromTrisolaris, has Earth’sposition been revealed tothem?”

“No.”“You’resureofthat?”“Yes.”“But Earth has exchanged

communication withTrisolaris.”“That low-frequency

communication would revealonly the general direction ofEarth and Trisolaris in theMilky Way Galaxy, and thedistance between the twoworlds. That is, if there’s athird-party recipient, the

communication would makeit possible for them to knowof the existence of twocivilized worlds 4.22 light-yearsapart in theOrionArmof the Milky Way, but theywouldstillbe ignorantof theprecise position of those twoworlds. In fact, determiningeach other’s position throughthiskindofexchange isonlyfeasible for stars in closeproximity, like the sun andthe stars of Trisolaris. For a

slightly more distant third-partyobserver,however,evenif we communicate directlywith them, we wouldn’t beabletodetermineeachother’sposition.”“Whyisthat?”“Marking thepositionofa

star for another observer intheuniverseishardlyaseasyaspeople imagine.Here’s ananalogy: You’re taking aplane through the SaharaDesert and a grain of sand

below you shouts ‘Here Iam!’Youhear the shout, butcanyoufixalocationforthatgrainofsandfromtheplane?Therearenearlytwohundredbillion stars in the MilkyWay. It’s practically a desertofstars.”Luo Ji nodded in apparent

relief.“Iunderstand.Sothat’sit,then.”“What is?” Ringier asked

inconfusion.Luo Ji didn’t answer, but

asked instead, “Using ourpresentleveloftechnology,isthere a way to indicate theposition of a star in theuniverse?”“Yes, by using directed

very high frequencyelectromagneticwaves, equaltoorhigherinfrequencythanvisible light, and thenharnessing stellar power totransmit information. Insimpleterms,you’dmakethestar flash, like a cosmic

lighthouse.”“This far exceeds our

present technicalcapabilities.”“Oh, I’m sorry. I

overlooked yourprecondition. At our presenttechnical capabilities, itwould be fairly difficult toshow a star’s position to thefar reaches of the universe.There’s still a way, butinterpreting the positionalinformation requires a level

oftechnologyfarbeyondthatof humanity, and even, Ibelieve, beyond that ofTrisolaris.”“Tell me about that

approach.”“Thekeyinformationisthe

relative position of stars. Ifyouspecifyaregionofspacein the Milky Way thatcontains a sufficient numberof stars—perhaps a fewdozen would be sufficient—their relative arrangement in

three-dimensional spacewould be totally unique, likeafingerprint.”“I’mstartingtounderstand.

We send out a messagecontainingthepositionofthestar we wish to point out,relative to the surroundingstars, and the recipientcompares the data to its starmap to determine the star’slocation.”“Right. But things aren’t

that simple. The recipient

must possess a three-dimensional model of theentire galaxy that preciselyindicates the relativepositionof every one of a hundredbillion stars. Then, afterreceiving our message, theywouldhavetosearchthroughthat enormous database tofind an area of space thatmatches the pattern ofpositionswesentout.”“No, it’s not simple at all.

It’slikerecordingtherelative

position of every grain ofsandinthedesert.”“Evenharderthanthat.The

MilkyWay,unlikethedesert,is inmotion, and the relativepositions of its stars areconstantly changing. Thelater the position informationis received, the greater theerror caused by thesechanges. This means thedatabase has to be able topredict the changes inposition of each of those

hundred billion stars. Intheory,it’snotaproblem,buttoactuallydoit…God…”“Woulditbehardforusto

send that positionalinformation?”“No, because we would

only need to have a positionpattern for a limited numberof stars. And now that I’vehad time to think about it,given the average stellardensity of the outer arm ofthegalaxy, a positionpattern

withnomorethanthirtystarsshouldbe sufficient.That’sasmall amount ofinformation.”“Good.NowI’llaskathird

question: Outside the SolarSystem, there are other starswith planets. You’vediscovered several hundred,right?”“More than a thousand to

date.”“And the closest to the

sun?”

“244J2E1, sixteen light-yearsfromthesun.”“As I remember it, the

serial numbers are set likethis: the prefix digitsrepresent the order ofdiscovery;thelettersJ,E,andX stand for Jupiter-typeplanets, Earth-type planets,and other planets,respectively; and the digitsfollowing the letter indicatethe number of that type ofplanetinthesystem.”

“That’sright.244J2E1isastarwiththreeplanets,twoofthem Jupiter-type and oneEarth-type.”Luo Ji thought for a

moment,thenshookhishead.“That’stooclose.Howaboutalittlefarther,like…aroundfiftylight-years?”“187J3X1, 49.5 light-years

fromthesun.”“That one’s fine. Can you

drawupapositionpatternforthatstar?”

“OfcourseIcan.”“How long would it take?

Wouldyouneedhelp?”“Icandoithereifthere’sa

computerwithInternet.Forapattern of, say, thirty stars, Icangiveittoyoutonight.”“What time is it now? It’s

notnighttimealready?”“I’d say it’s probably

morning,Dr.Luo.”Ringier went to the

computer room next door,andLuoJicalledinKentand

Zhang Xiang. He firstexplained to Kent that hewanted the PDC to hold thenext Wallfacer hearing assoonaspossible.Kent said, “There are lots

of PDCmeetings these days.Once you’ve submitted theapplication, you’ll probablyonly have to wait a fewdays.”“ThenI’llhavetowait.But

I’d really like it as soon aspossible. Also, I have a

request: toattend thehearinghereviavideo rather thangototheUN.”Kentlookedreluctant.“Dr.

Luo, don’t you think that’s alittle inappropriate? For sucha high-level internationalmeeting… It’s aquestionofrespectfortheparticipants.”“It’s part of the plan. All

thosebizarre requests Imadein thepastwere fulfilled,butthisone’sovertheline?”“You know…” Kent

faltered.“Iknow that aWallfacer’s

status isn’t like it once was,butIinsistonthis.”Whenhecontinued, it was in a softervoice, even though he knewthat the sophons hanging inthe vicinity could still hear.“There are two possibilitiesnow: One, if everything islike it used to be, Iwouldn’tmind going to the UN. Butthere’s another possibility: Imay be in a very dangerous

situation,andIcan’ttakethatrisk.”Then he said to Zhang

Xiang, “That’s why I’vebrought you here. We maybecome a target for aconcentratedenemyattack,sosecurity must bestrengthened.”“Don’t worry, Dr. Luo.

We’re located two hundredmeters below ground. Thearea above us is underlockdown, an antimissile

system has been deployed,and a state-of-the-artsubterranean warning systemhas been installed to detectthe digging of a tunnel fromany direction. I guarantee toyou that our security isfoolproof.”When the two men left,

Luo Ji tookawalkdown thehallway, his thoughts turninginvoluntarilytotheGardenofEden(heknewitsnamenow,but still called it that in his

heart) and its lake and snowpeak. He knew that it wasquite likely he would spendthe rest of his lifeunderground.He looked around at the

sunlamps in the hallwayceiling.Thelighttheyemittedwasnothinglikethesun.

***

Two meteors moved slowlyacross the starfield. All was

dark on the ground, and thedistant horizon blended intoone with the night sky. Aburst of whispers soundedthroughthedark,althoughthespeakers remainedunseen,asifthevoicesthemselveswereinvisible creatures floating inthedarkness.Withaclink,asmallflame

appeared in the darkness, itsdim light revealing threefaces: Qin Shi Huang,Aristotle,andVonNeumann.

The flame came from alighter in Aristotle’s hand.When a few torches wereextended, he lit one, whichthen passed fire among theotherstoformashakylightinthewilderness and illuminateagroupofpeopledrawnfromevery era. Their whisperscontinued.QinShiHuangleaptupon

a stone and brandished hissword, and the crowd fellsilent.

“The Lord has issued anew command: DestroyWallfacerLuoJi,”hesaid.“Wetoohavereceivedthis

command.This is the secondassassination order that theLord has issued for Luo Ji,”Mozisaid.“But it will be difficult to

killhimnow,”someonesaid.“Difficult? It’s

impossible!”“IfEvanshadn’taddedthat

condition to the first

assassinationorder,hewouldhave been dead five yearsago.”“Perhaps Evans was right

to do so. After all, we don’tknowhisreasons.LuoJiwasluckytoescapeasecondtimeintheUNPlaza.”QinShiHuangstoppedthe

debate with a wave of hissword.“Shallwe talk insteadaboutwhattodo?”“There’s nothing we can

do. Who can even get

anywhere near a bunker twohundred meters deep, muchless get inside? It’s guardedtootightly.”“Shallweconsidernuclear

weapons?”“The place is an antinuke

bunker from the Cold War,damnit.”“The only viable option is

sending someone to infiltratesecurity.”“Can that be done?We’ve

had years. Has there ever

been a successfulinfiltration?”“Infiltrate his kitchen!”

Thispromptedsomelaughter.“Cut the crap. The Lord

ought totellus thetruth,andmaybewe can comeupwithabetteroption.”Qin Shi Huang answered

thelastspeaker:“Ialsomadethatrequest,buttheLordsaidthe truth was the mostimportant secret in theuniverse and could not be

revealed. The Lord spoke ofit with Evans under theimpression that humanityalready knew but laterlearnedotherwise.”“Then ask the Lord to

transfertechnology!”Many other voices echoed

this. Qin Shi Huang said,“This was another request Imade. To my surprise, theLord uncharacteristically didnotrejectitentirely.”Acommotion tookholdof

the crowd, but Qin ShiHuang’s next words quietedtheexcitement:“ButoncetheLord learned the location ofthe target, the request wasswiftlyrejected.Itsaidthatasfar as the target’s locationwas concerned, anytechnology It could transfertouswouldbeineffective.”“Is he really that

important?” Von Neumannasked, unable to conceal anoteof jealousy inhisvoice.

As the first successfulWallbreaker, he had risenrapidlyintheorganization.“The Lord is afraid of

him.”Einstein said, “I have

thought this over for a longtime, and I believe that theLord’sfearofLuoJihasonlyonepossiblereason:Heisthemouthpiece of certainpower.”Qin Shi Huang shut down

further discussion of the

subject: “Don’t get into that.Instead, let’s thinkofhow tofulfilltheLord’scommand.”“Itcan’tbedone.”“Itreallycan’tbedone.It’s

a mission that can’t becompleted.”QinShiHuangclangedhis

swordontherockbeneathhisfeet.“Thismissioniscrucial.TheLordmayreallybeunderthreat. Besides, if wecomplete it, the organizationwillbegreatlyelevatedinthe

Lord’s eyes! Gathered hereare the elite of every spherethroughouttheworld,sohowcan we fail to think ofsomething? Go back andthink it over, and send yourplans here to me throughother channels.We’ve got togetonthis!”The torches burned out in

succession and darknessswallowed everything. Butthewhisperingwenton.

***

The PDC Wallfacer ProjectHearing did not convene fortwo weeks. After Tyler’sfailureand thehibernationoftheother twoWallfacers, thePDC’s main priority andattention had turned tomainstreamdefense.Luo Ji and Kent awaited

thestartofthemeetinginthevideoconference room. Theconference video connection

had been made, and the bigscreen displayed the PDCauditorium, where thecircular table familiar fromthe Security Council dayswas still completely empty.Luo Ji had arrived early assomething of an apology fornotattendinginperson.While they waited, he

chatted with Kent and askedhim how he was managing.KentsaidthathehadlivedinChinaforthreeyearswhenhe

wasyounger,sohewasquiteaccustomed to it and wasdoing well. At any rate, hedidn’t have to spend all dayunderground likeLuo Ji, andhisrustyChinesehadrecentlyregaineditsfluency.“You sound like you have

acold,”LuoJisaid.“I’ve just caught the bed

flu,”hereplied.“Bird flu?” Luo Ji said in

alarm.“No. Bed flu. That’s what

the media’s calling it. Itstarted going around in anearby city a week ago. It’sinfectious, but symptoms arelight.There’snofever, justarunnynose,andsomepatientsget a sore throat. There’s noneed for medication, and itgoesawayonitsowninthreedays or so after a little bedrest.”“The flu is usually more

seriousthanthat.”“Not this time. A lot of

soldiers and staff here havealready been infected.Haven’tyounoticedthattheyreplaced the caretaker? Shecaught the bed flu too, butwasafraidofgivingittoyou.Butasyourliaison,Ican’tbereplacedforthetimebeing.”Onscreen the national

delegates had begun to enterthe auditorium. They satdown and started talking inlow voices, as if they hadn’tnoticed Luo Ji’s presence.

The incumbent rotating chairof the PDC opened themeeting, saying, “WallfacerLuoJi,theWallfacerActwasamended at the specialsession of the UN GeneralAssemblythatjustadjourned.You’veseenit?”“Yes,”heanswered.“Then you must have

noticed that the Actstrengthens the examinationsand restrictions onWallfacerresource allocation. I hope

that theplanyouwill submitto the hearing today willcomply with the Act’srequirements.”“Mr. Chair,” Luo Ji said,

“the other three Wallfacershave allocated an enormousamount of resources to theexecution of their ownstrategic plans. To limit myplan’sresourcesinthiswayisunfair.”“Resource allocation

privilegesdependontheplan

itself,andyoumustbeawarethat theotherthreeWallfacerplans arenot in conflictwithmainstream defense. In otherwords, the research andengineering they areconducting would have beencarried out even without theWallfacerProject.Ihopethatyour strategic plan is also ofthisnature.”“I’m sorry to say that my

plan is not of this nature. Ithas absolutely nothing to do

withmainstreamdefense.”“Then I’m sorry, too.

Under the new Act, theresources you can allocate tothisplanareverylimited.”“Evenundertheoldplan,I

couldn’t allocate all thatmuch. However, this isn’t aproblem, Mr. Chair. Mystrategic plan consumespractically no resources atall.”“Just like your previous

plans?”

The chair’s remarkprompted snickers fromseveralparticipants.“Evenlessthaninthepast.

Like I said, it consumespractically no resources atall,”hesaidsimply.“Then let’s have a look,”

thechairsaid,nodding.“The specifics of the plan

will be introduced by Dr.Albert Ringier, although Ipresume you all received thecorresponding file. To sum

up, using the radio wavemagnification capabilities ofthe sun, a message will besent into the cosmoscontaining three simpleimages,alongwithadditionalinformation to demonstratethat these images have beensent by an intelligence asopposed to occurringnaturally. The images areincludedinthefile.”Thesoundofrustlingpaper

filled the auditorium as the

attendees located the threesheets.The imageswerealsodisplayedonthescreen.Theywere quite simple. Eachconsisted of black dots,seemingly scattered atrandom, but they all noticedthat each image containedone conspicuously larger dotthat was marked with anarrow.“Whatisit?”askedtheUS

representative, who, like therest of the attendees, was

inspecting the imagescarefully.“Wallfacer Luo Ji,

according to the basicprinciples of the WallfacerProject, you do not need toanswer that question,” thechairsaid.“It’saspell,”hesaid.The rustling and

murmuring in the auditoriumstopped abruptly. Everyonelooked up in the samedirection, so thatLuo Ji now

knew the location of thescreendisplayinghisfeed.“What?” asked the chair,

withnarrowedeyes.“He said it’s a spell,”

someoneseatedatthecirculartablesaidloudly.“Aspellagainstwhom?”Luo Ji answered, “Against

the planets of star 187J3X1.Ofcourse, itcouldalsoworkdirectly against the staritself.”“Whateffectwillithave?”

“That’s unknown rightnow.Butonethingiscertain:Theeffectofthespellwillbecatastrophic.”“Er,isthereachancethese

planetshavelife?”“I consulted repeatedly

with the astronomicalcommunity on that point.From present observationaldata, the answer is no,” LuoJi said, narrowing his eyeslike thechairhad.Heprayedsilently,Maytheyberight.

“Afterthespellissentout,how long will it take towork?”“The star is around fifty

light-years from the sun, sothe spell will be complete infiftyyearsat theearliest.Butwe won’t be able to observeits effects for one hundredyears.Thisis just theearliestestimate,however.Theactualtimeittakesmightstretchoutmuchfarther.”After amoment of silence

in the auditorium, the USrepresentativewasthefirsttomove,tossingthethreesheetsand their printed black dotsontothetable.“Excellent.Wefinallyhaveagod.”“Agodhidinginacellar,”

added theUK representative,topealsoflaughter.“More like a sorcerer,”

sniffed the representative ofJapan,which had never beenadmitted to the SecurityCouncil, but had been

accepted immediately oncethePDCwasestablished.“Dr. Luo, you have

succeeded in making yourplan weird and baffling, atleast,” said Garanin, theRussian representative whohadheldtherotatingchaironseveral occasions duringLuoJi’sfiveyearsasaWallfacer.Thechairbangedthegavel,

silencing the commotion inthe auditorium. “WallfacerLuo Ji, I have a question for

you.Giventhatthisisaspell,whydon’tyoudirectitattheenemy’sworld?”Luo Ji said, “This is a

proof of concept. Its actualimplementation will wait fortheDoomsdayBattle.”“Can’t Trisolaris be used

asthetesttarget?”LuoJishookhisheadwith

finality. “Absolutely not. It’stoo close. It’s close enoughthat the effects of the spellmight reachus.That’swhy I

rejected any planetary starsystem within fifty light-years.”“One final question: Over

the next hundred or moreyears, what do you plan ondoing?”“You’ll be free of me.

Hibernation. Wake me whenthe effects of the spell on187J3X1aredetected.”

***

As he was preparing forhibernation, Luo Ji camedown with the bed flu. Hisinitial symptoms were nodifferent from everyone else,justarunnynoseandaslightthroat inflammation, andneither he nor anyone elsepaiditanyattention.Buttwodays later his conditionworsenedandhebegantorunafever.Thedoctorfoundthisabnormal and took a bloodsample back to the city for

analysis.Luo Ji spent thenight in a

fevered torpor, hauntedendlessly by restless dreamsinwhichthestarsinthenightsky swirled and danced likegrainsofsandontheskinofadrum.Hewas even aware ofthe gravitational interactionbetweenthesestars:Itwasn’tthree-body motion, but the200-billion-body motion ofallof the stars in thegalaxy!Then the swirling stars

clustered into an enormousvortex,andinthatmadspiralthe vortex transformed againinto a giant serpent formedfrom the congealed silver ofevery star,which drilled intohisbrainwitharoar.…At around four in the

morning, Zhang Xiang wasawakened by his phone. ItwasacallfromthePlanetaryDefense Council SecurityDepartment leadership who,in severe tones, demanded

thathereportimmediatelyonLuo Ji’s condition, andordered the base to be putunderastateofemergency.Ateam of experts was on itswayover.Assoonashehungup the

phone,itrangagain,thistimewithacallfromthedoctorinthe tenth basement, whoreported that the patient’scondition had sharplydeteriorated and he was nowin a state of shock. Zhang

Xiangdescended theelevatorat once, and the panickeddoctor and nurse informedhim that Luo Ji had begunspitting up blood in themiddle of the night and thenhadgoneunconscious.ZhangXiangsawLuoJilyingonthebed with a pale face, purplelips, and practically no signsoflifeinhisbody.The team, consisting of

experts from the ChineseCenter for Disease Control

andPrevention, doctors fromthe general hospital of thePLA, and an entire researchteam from the Academy ofMilitary Medical Sciencessoonarrived.As they observed Luo Ji’s

condition, one expert fromtheAMMStookZhangXiangand Kent outside anddescribed the situation tothem. “This flu came to ourattentionawhileago.Wefeltthat its origin and

characteristics were highlyabnormal, and it’s clear nowthat it’s a genetic weapon, ageneticguidedmissile.”“Aguidedmissile?”“It’s a genetically altered

virusthatishighlyinfectious,but only causes mild flusymptoms in most people.However, the virus has arecognition ability whichallows it to identify thegenetic characteristics of aparticular individual. Once

thetargethasbeeninfected,itcreates deadly toxins in hisblood.Wenowknowwhothetargetis.”Zhang Xiang and Kent

glancedateachother,first inincredulity and then indespair. Zhang Xiangblanchedandbowedhishead.“Iacceptfullresponsibility.”The researcher, a senior

colonel, said, “DirectorZhang, you can’t say that.There’s no defense against

this.Althoughwe had begunto suspect something oddabout the virus, we nevereven considered thispossibility. The concept ofgenetic weapons firstappeared in the last century,but no one believed thatanyone would actuallyproduce one. And althoughthisone’simperfect,ittrulyisa frightening tool forassassination.Allyouneedtodo is spread the virus in the

target’s general vicinity. Or,rather,youdon’tevenneedtoknowwherethetargetis:Youcouldjustspreaditacrosstheglobe, and because the viruscauses little to no illness inordinarypeople,itwillspreadquickly and would probablystrikeitstargetintheend.”“No, I accept full

responsibility,” Zhang said,coveringhiseyes.“IfCaptainShi was here, this wouldn’thave happened.”He dropped

his hand and his eyes shonewith tears. “The last thinghesaidtomebeforehibernationwas towarnmeofwhat yousaid about no defense. Hesaid,‘XiaoZhang,inthisjobofoursweneedtosleepwithone eye open. There’s nocertainty of success, andsome things we can’t defendagainst.’”“Sowhatdowedonext?”

Kentasked.“The virus has penetrated

deep. The patient’s liver andcardiopulmonary functionshave failed, and modernmedicine is helpless.Hibernate him as soon aspossible.”After a long while, when

LuoJirecoveredalittleoftheconsciousnessthathadtotallydisappeared, he hadsensationsofcold,acoldthatseemed to emanate fromwithin his body and diffuseoutward like light to freeze

the entire world. He saw asnow-white patch in whichthere first was nothing butinfinite white. Then a smallblack dot appeared its verycenter,andhecouldgraduallymake out a familiar figure,Zhuang Yan, holding theirchild. He walked withdifficulty through a snowywilderness so empty that itlost all dimension. She waswrapped in a red scarf, thesameoneshehadwornseven

yearsagoonthesnowynighthe first saw her. The child,red-faced from the cold,waved two small hands athim from her mother’sembrace, and shoutedsomething that he couldn’thear. He wanted to chasethem through the snow, butthe young mother and childvanished, as if dissolved intosnow. Then he himselfvanished, and the snowywhiteworldshrankintoathin

silver thread, which in theunbounded darkness was allthat remained of hisconsciousness. It was thethread of time, a thin,motionless strand thatextended infinitely in bothdirections.Hissoul,strungonthisthread,wasgentlyslidingoff at a constant speed intotheunknowablefuture.Twodayslater,astreamof

high-power radio waves wassent off from Earth toward

the sun, penetrating theconvectionzoneandreachingthe energy mirror in theradiation zone, where itsreflection, magnifiedhundredsofmillionsoftimes,carried Wallfacer Luo Ji’sspell into the cosmos at thespeedoflight.

Year12,CrisisEra

DistanceoftheTrisolaranFleetfromtheSolarSystem:4.18light-years

Another brush had appeared

inspace.TheTrisolaranFleethadcrossed the secondpatchof interstellar dust, andbecause Hubble II had beenclosely monitoring the area,thefleet’swakewascapturedas soon as it appeared. Thistime, it lookednothing likeabrush. Rather, it resembled apatch of grass that had justbegun to sprout in the darkabyss of space. Thosethousandbladesofgrassgrewwith a speed that was

perceptible to the naked eye,and they were much clearerthan thewake had been nineyears before, due to nineyearsofaccelerationthathadgreatly increased the fleet’sspeed and had made itsimpactontheinterstellardustmoredramatic.“General, look closely

here. What can you see?”Ringier said to Fitzroy as hepointed to the magnifiedimageonthescreen.

“There still seem to beaboutathousand.”“No,lookcloser.”Fitzroylookedcarefullyfor

a longmoment, then pointedtothemiddleofthebrush.“Itlookslike…one, two, three,four…tenbristlesarelongerthan the others. They’reextendedout.”“Right. Those ten wakes

are quiteweak.They’re onlyvisible after imageenhancement.”

Fitzroy turned to Ringier,wearing the same expressionhe had when the TrisolaranFleet had been discovered adecade earlier. “Doctor, doesthis mean that those tenwarshipsareaccelerating?”“All of them are

accelerating. But those tenshow a greater acceleration.But they’re not tenwarships.The number of wakes hasincreased by ten, to onethousandandten.Ananalysis

of the morphology of thosetenwakesshowsthattheyarefar smaller than thewarshipsbehind them: about one ten-thousandth the size, or aboutthesizeofatruck.Butduetotheir high speed, they stillproducedetectablewakes.”“So small. Are they

probes?”“Yes, they must be

probes.”This was another of

Hubble II’s shocking

discoveries:Humanitywouldmake contactwithTrisolaranentities ahead of schedule,even if they were just tensmallprobes.“Whenwill they reach the

SolarSystem?”Fitzroyaskednervously.“We can’t say for certain.

It depends on theacceleration, but they willdefinitely arrive before thefleet.Aconservativeestimatewould be half a century

earlier.The fleet accelerationis evidently at a maximum,butforsomereasonwedon’tunderstand, they want toreach the Solar System asquickly as possible, so theylaunched probes that canaccelerateevenfaster.”“Iftheyhavesophons,then

what’s the need for probes?”oneengineerasked.This question made them

allstopandthink,butRingiersoon broke the silence.

“Forget it. This isn’tsomethingwecanfigureout.”“No,” Fitzroy said, raising

ahand.“Wecanfigureoutatleast a part of it.… We’relooking at events from fouryearsago.Canyoudeterminethe exact date that the fleetlaunchedtheprobes?”“We’re fortunate that the

fleet launched them on thesnow … I mean, in thedust … allowing us topinpoint the time from our

observations of theintersection of the probewakes and the fleet tracks.”Then Ringier told him thedate.Fitzroy was speechless for

amoment,thenlitacigaretteandsatdowntosmoke.Aftera while, he said, “Doctor,you’re not politicians. JustlikeIcouldn’tmakeoutthoseten longer bristles, you can’ttellthatthisisacrucialfact.”“What’s so special about

that date?” Ringier asked,uncertainly.“On that day four years

ago, I attended the PDCWallfacer Hearing, at whichLuoJiproposedusingthesunto send a spell out into theuniverse.”The scientists and

engineers glanced at eachother.Fitzroy went on, “And it

was right around that timethatTrisolarisissuedasecond

command to theETOcallingforLuoJi’selimination.”“Him? Is he really that

important?”“You think he was first a

sentimentalplayboyand thena pretentious sham sorcerer?Ofcourse.Wethoughtsotoo.Everyone did, except forTrisolaris.”“Well…whatdoyouthink

heis,General?”“Doctor,doyoubelieve in

God?”

The suddenness of thequestion left Ringiermomentarily speechless. “…God? That’s got a variety ofmeanings on multiple levelstoday, and I don’t knowwhichyou—”“I believe, not because I

have any proof, but becauseit’s relatively safe: If therereallyisaGod,thenit’srightto believe in him. If thereisn’t, then we don’t haveanythingtolose.”

The general’s wordsprompted laughter, andRingier said, “The secondhalf is untrue. There issomething to lose, at least asfarasscienceisconcerned.…Still, so what if God exists?What’s he got to do withwhat’srightinfrontofus?”“If God really exists, then

hemayhaveamouthpieceinthemortalworld.”They all stared at him for

ages before they understood

the implication of hiswords.Then one astronomer said,“General, what are youtalking about? God wouldn’tchooseamouthpiecefromanatheistnation.”Fitzroy ground out his

cigarette end and spread outhis hands. “When you haveeliminated the impossible,whatever remains, no matterhow improbable,mustbe thetruth. Can you think of abetterexplanation?”

Ringier mused, “If by‘God’ you mean a force ofjustice in the universe thattranscendseverything—”Fitzroystoppedhimwitha

raised hand, as if the divinepower of what they had justlearnedwouldbereducedifitwere stated outright. “Sobelieve, all of you. You cannow start believing.” Andthen hemade the sign of thecross.

***

ThetrialrunofTiantiIIIwasairing on television.Construction on three spaceelevators had begun fiveyears ago, and sinceTianti Iand Tianti II had been putinto operation at the start oftheyear, thetestofTianti IIIdid not cause much of acommotion. All spaceelevators were currentlybeing builtwith just a single

primary rail, giving them afar smaller carrying capacitythan thefour-railmodelsstillunder design, but this wasalreadyanaltogetherdifferentworld from the age ofchemical rockets. Settingasideconstruction,thecostofgoing into space by elevatorwas substantially lower thanby civilian aircraft. This inturnhadledtoanincreaseinthe number of bodies inmotion in Earth’s night sky:

Thesewerehumanity’slarge-scaleorbitingstructures.Tianti III was the only

space elevator based on theocean.Itsbasewaslocatedonthe Equator on an artificialfloating island in the PacificOcean that could navigate atsea under its own nuclearpower, which meant that theelevator’s position on theEquator could be adjusted ifnecessary.Thefloatingislandwas a real-life version of the

Propeller Island Jules Vernehad described, and so it hadbeen dubbed “Verne Island.”The ocean wasn’t evenvisible on the television,whichwasshowingashotofametal,pyramid-shapedbasesurrounded by a steel city,and—atthebottomoftherail—the cylindrical transportcabin that was ready tolaunch. From this distance,the guide rail extending intospacewasinvisibleduetoits

sixty-centimeter diameter,although at times you couldcatchaglintofreflectedlightfromthesettingsun.Three old men, Zhang

Yuanchao and his two oldneighbors, Yang Jinwen andMiaoFuquan,werewatchingthisontelevision.Allofthemwere now past seventy, andwhilenoonewouldcallthemdoddering, they were nowdefinitely old. For them,recallingthepastandlooking

toward the future were bothburdens, and since theywerepowerless to do anythingabout the present, their onlyoption was to live out theirwaning years withoutthinking about anything inthisunusualera.Zhang Yuanchao’s son

Zhang Weiming led hisgrandsonZhangYan throughthe door. He was carrying apaper sack, and said, “Dad,I’ve picked up your ration

card and your first batch ofgrain tickets.” Then he tookout apackof colorful ticketsfrom the bag and gave themtohisfather.“Ah, just like in the old

days,” Yang Jinwen said, ashewatchedfromtheside.“It’s come back. It always

comes back,” ZhangYuanchao murmuredemotionally to himself, as hetookthetickets.“Is that money?” asked

YanYan, looking at the bitsofpaper.Zhang Yuanchao said to

his grandson, “It’s notmoney, child.But, fromnowon, if you want to buynonquota grain, likebreadorcake, or want to eat at arestaurant, you’ll need to usethesealongwithmoney.”“This is a little different

from the old days,” ZhangWeiming said, taking out anIC card. “This is a ration

card.”“Howmuchisonit?”“I get twenty-one and a

half kilos, or forty-three jin.YouandXiaohonggetthirty-seven jin, and Yan Yan getstwenty-onejin.”“About the same as back

then,”theeldermansaid.“Thatshouldbeenoughfor

amonth,”YangJinwensaid.ZhangWeiming shook his

head. “Mr. Yang, you livedthrough those days. Don’t

you remember? It might befine now, but very soonthere’ll be fewer nonstaples,and you’ll need numbers tobuy vegetables andmeat. Sothis paltry bit of grain reallywon’tbeenoughtoeat!”“It’s not that serious,”

Miao Fuquan said with awave of his hand. “We’vebeenthroughtimesliketheseafewdecadesago.Wewon’tstarve. Drop it, and watchTV.”

“Oh, and industrialcoupons16 may be comingsoon, too,” Zhang Yuanchaosaid, putting thegrain ticketsand ration card on the tableand turning his attention tothetelevision.On the screen, the

cylindrical cabin was risingfrom the base. It ascendedquickly and acceleratedrapidly,thendisappearedintothe evening sky.Because theguide rail was invisible, it

looked like it was ascendingon its own. The cabin couldreach a maximum speed offive hundred kilometers perhour,butevenatthatspeeditwould take sixty-eight hoursto reach the space elevator’sterminus in geostationaryorbit. The scene cut to adownward-facing camerainstalled beneath the cabin.Here,thesixty-centimeterrailoccupiedthelargerpartofthescreen.Itsslicksurfacemade

motion practicallyundetectable, except for thefleeting scale markings thatshowed the camera’s upwardvelocity. The rail quicklytapered into nothing as itextended downward, but itpointed at a spot far belowwhere Verne Island, nowvisibleintotal,seemedlikeagiant platter suspended fromthelowerendoftherail.Something occurred to

Yang Jinwen. “I’ll showyou

twoa real rarity,”hesaid,ashe got up and walkedsomewhatlessnimblyoutthedoor, perhaps to his ownhome.Hesoon returnedwitha thin slice of somethingabout the size of a cigarettebox and laid it on the table.ZhangYuanchaopickeditupand looked at it: The objectwas gray, translucent, andvery lightweight, like afingernail. “This is thematerial Tianti is made out

of!”YangJinwensaid.“Great. Your son stole

strategic materials from thepublic sector,” Miao Fuquansaid,pointingattheslice.“It’s just a leftover scrap.

HesaidthatwhenTiantiwasunderconstruction,thousandsuponthousandsoftonsofthisstuffwasshotintospace,andit was made into the guiderail thereandthenhungbackdown from orbit again.…Soon, space travel will be

popularized. I’ve asked myson to hook me up withbusinessinthatarea.”“Youwanttogotospace?”

asked Zhang Yuanchao,surprised.“It’s not such a big deal.

I’ve heard there’s not evenhypergravitywhenyougoup.It’s just like taking a long-distance sleeper train,” MiaoFuquan said dismissively. Inthe many years he had beenunable to operate his mines,

his family had gone intodecline. He had sold off hisvilla four years ago, leavingthis as his only residence.Yang Jinwen, whose sonworkedon thespaceelevatorproject,hadinasingleboundbecome the wealthiest of thethree, and this sometimesmadeoldMiaojealous.“I’m not going to space,”

Yang Jinwen said, lookingup, and when he saw thatWeiminghadtakentheboyto

another room, he went on.“But my remains will. Hey,you two fellows don’t haveany taboos about talkingaboutthis,doyou?”“What’s taboo about it?

Still,whydoyouwanttoputyour remains up there?”ZhangYuanchaoasked.“You know there’s an

electromagnetic launcher atthe end of Tianti. When it’stime,my casketwill be firedoff at the third cosmic

velocity and will fly out oftheSolarSystem.It’scalledacosmic burial, you know.After I die, I don’t want tostay on an alien-occupiedEarth. It’s a form ofEscapism,Iguess.”“And if the aliens are

defeated?”“That’s practically

impossible. Still, if it reallyhappens, it’s no great loss. Igettoroamtheuniverse!”ZhangYuanchaoshookhis

head. “You intellectualswithyour weird ideas. They’repointless. The fallen leafreturnstotheroot.I’mgoingtobeburiedintheyellowsoiloftheEarth.”“Aren’tyouafraid that the

Trisolarans will dig up yourgrave?”Atthis,MiaoFuquan,who

had been silent, suddenlygrew excited. He motionedfor theothers todrawcloser,and lowered his voice, as if

afraidthatthesophonswouldhear: “Don’t tell anyone, butI’ve thought of something. Ihave lots of empty mines inShanxi.…”“You want to be buried

there?”“No, no. They’re all small

pitmines.Howdeepcantheybe? But in several placesthey’re connected to majorstate-owned mines, and byfollowing their abandonedworks, you can get all the

way down to four hundredmeters below ground. Is thatdeep enough for you? Thenwe blast the shaft wall. Idon’t think the Trisolaranswill be able to dig downthere.”“Sheesh. If Earthlings can

dig that far, why can’t theTrisolarans? They’ll find atombstone and just keepdiggingdown.”Looking at Zhang

Yuanchao,MiaoFuquanwas

unable to hold back hislaughter. “Lao Zhang, haveyougonestupid?”Seeinghimstill at a loss, he pointed toYangJinwen,whohadgrownboredwith their conversationand was watching thetelevision broadcast again.“Letaneducatedmantellittoyou.”Yang Jinwen chuckled.

“Lao Zhang, what do youwant a tombstone for?Tombstones are meant for

people to see.By then, therewon’tbeanypeopleleft.”

***

All along the way to theThird Nuclear Fusion TestBase, Zhang Beihai’s cardrovethroughdeepsnow.Butas he neared the base, thesnow melted entirely, theroad turned muddy, and thecold air turned warm andhumid, like a breath of

springtime. On the slopeslining the road he noticedpatches of peach flowersblooming, unseasonable inthis harsh winter. He droveon toward thewhite buildingin the valley ahead, astructure thatwasmerely theentrance for the majority ofthe base, which wasunderground.Thenhenoticedsomeone on the hillsidepicking peach flowers.Lookingcloser,hesawitwas

theverypersonhehad cometosee,andhestoppedhiscar.“Dr. Ding!” he called to

him. When Ding Yi cameover to the car carrying abunchof flowers,he laughedand asked, “Who are thoseflowersfor?”“They’re for myself, of

course. They’re flowers thathave bloomed from fusionheat.” He practically beamedunder the influence of thebrightly colored flowers.

Evidently he was still in thethroes of excitement at thebreakthrough that had justbeenachieved.“It’sprettywasteful,letting

all thisheatdisperse.”ZhangBeihaigotoutofthecar,tookoff his sunglasses, and tookstock of the mini-spring. Hecouldn’t see his breath, andhe could feel the heat of thegroundeventhroughthesolesofhisshoes.“There’snomoneyortime

to build a power plant. Butthat doesn’t matter. Fromnow on, energy is notsomethingthatEarthneedstoconserve.”Zhang Beihai pointed at

the flowers in Ding Yi’shands.“Dr.Ding,Ireallywashoping that you had gottendistracted. This breakthroughwould have happened laterwithoutyou.”“Without me here, it

would’ve happened even

earlier. There are over athousand researchers at thebase. I just pointed them inthe right direction. I’ve feltfor a long time that thetokamakapproach17 isadeadend. Given the rightapproach,abreakthroughwasa certainty. Me, I’m atheoretician. I don’t getexperimentation. My blindpointing probably onlydelayed the progress ofresearch.”

“Can’t you postpone theannouncement of yourresults? I’m being serioushere.AndI’malsoinformallyconveying thewish of SpaceCommand.”“How could we postpone

it? The media has beenactively tracking theprogressofallthreefusiontestbases.”Zhang Beihai nodded and

let out a sigh. “That’s badnews.”“I know a few of the

reasons, but why don’t youtellmewhy.”“If controlled nuclear

fusion isachieved,spacecraftresearch will beginimmediately. Doctor, youknow about the two currentresearch forks: media-propelledspacecraftandnon-media radiation-drivespacecraft. Two opposingfactions have formed aroundthese two directions ofresearch: the aerospace

faction advocates researchinto media-propelledspacecraft, while the spaceforce is pushing radiation-drivespacecraft.Theprojectswill consume enormousresources, and if the twodirections can’t progresssimultaneously on equalfooting, then one directionmusttakethemainstream.”“The fusion people and I

are in favor of the radiationdrive.Formypart,Ifeelthat

it’stheonlyplanthatenablesinterstellar cosmic voyages.Of course, I’ll grant thatAerospace has its logic, too.Media-propelled spacecraftare actually a variant ofchemical rockets that usefusion energy, so theprospectsarea littlesaferforthatlineofresearch.”“Butthere’snothingsafein

the space war of the future!Asyousaid,media-propelledspacecraft are just huge

rockets. They have to devotetwo-thirds of their carryingcapacity to their propulsionmedia, and it’s consumedvery quickly. That type ofspacecraft requires planetarybases in order to navigatethroughtheSolarSystem.Wedo that, and we would bereenacting the tragedy of theSino-Japanese War, with theSolar System asWeihaiwei18.”“That’s a keen analogy,”

Ding Yi said, raising hisbouquetatZhangBeihai.“It’sa fact.Anavy’s front

line defenses ought to be atthe enemy’s ports. We can’tdo that, of course, but ourdefensive line ought to bepushedoutas faras theOortCloud, andwe should ensurethat the fleet possessessufficient flankingcapabilities in the vastreaches outside the SolarSystem. This is the

foundation of space forcestrategy.”“Internally,Aerospaceisn’t

entirelymonolithic,”DingYisaid. “It’s the old guard leftoverfromthechemicalrocketera that’s pushing for mediaspacecraft, but forces fromotherdisciplineshaveenteredthesector.Takethepeopleonour fusion system. They’remostly pushing for radiationspacecraft. These two forcesare evenly matched, and all

that’sneeded is threeor fourpeople in key positions tobreak the equilibrium. Theiropinions will decide theultimatecourseofaction.Butthosethreeorfourkeypeopleare,I’mafraid,allpartoftheoldguard.”“This is the most critical

decision in the entire masterstrategy. If it’samisstep, thespacefleetwillbebuiltatopamistaken foundation, and wemightwasteacenturyortwo.

And by that time, I’m afraidthere will be no way tochangedirection.”“But you and I aren’t in a

positiontofixit.”After lunching with Ding

Yi, Zhang Beihai left thefusion base. Before he haddriven very far, the moistground was again coveredwith wet snow that glowedwhite under the sun. As theair temperature plummeted,hisheartalsochilled.

He was in dire need of aspacecraft capable ofinterstellar travel. If otherroads led nowhere, then justonewas left. Nomatter howdangerous itmight be, it hadtobetaken.

***

When Zhang Beihai enteredthe home of the meteoritecollector, situated in acourtyardhouseinthedepths

of a hutong alleyway, henoticedthat theold,dimlylithome was like a miniaturegeological museum. Each ofits four walls was linedwithglass cases in whichprofessional lights shone onrockafterunremarkablerock.Theowner,inhisfifties,halein spirit and complexion, satat a workbench examining asmall stone with amagnifying lens, and hegreeted the visitor warmly

when he saw him. He was,Zhang Beihai noticedimmediately, one of thosefortunate people whoinhabited a belovedworld ofhis own. No matter whatchanges befell the largerworld, he could alwaysimmerse himself in his ownandfindcontentment.In the old-fashioned

atmosphere unique to oldhouses, Zhang Beihai wasreminded that he and his

comrades were fighting forthe survival of the humanrace, while the majority ofpeople were still clinging totheirexistinglives.Thisgavehim a sense of warmth andpeaceofmind.The completion of the

space elevator and thebreakthrough in controlledfusion technology were twoenormous encouragements totheworld,andeaseddefeatistsentiment to a considerable

extent.Butsoberleaderswereaware that this was only thebeginning:Iftheconstructionof the space fleet wasanalogous to naval fleets,then humanity had just nowarrived at the seashore,carrying tools. Not even theshipbuilding dockyards hadbeenbuiltyet.Apartfromtheconstruction of the mainspacecraftbody,researchintospace weapons andrecirculating ecosystems, as

well as the construction ofspace ports, represented anunprecedented technologicalfrontier for humanity. Justgetting the foundations inplacemighttakeacentury.Human society faced

another challenge aside fromthe terrifying abyss: Theconstruction of a spacedefense system wouldconsume an enormousamountofresources,andthisconsumption would likely

dragthequalityoflifebackacentury,whichmeantthatthegreatest challenge to thehuman spirit was still tocome.With that inmind, themilitary leadership haddecided to beginimplementing theplan tousepolitical cadres from thespace force as futurereinforcements.As the initialproponentof theplan,ZhangBeihai had been namedcommander of the Special

Contingent of FutureReinforcements. Uponaccepting the mission, heproposed that all of theofficers in the specialcontingent ought to undergoat leastayearofspace-basedtraining and work beforeentering hibernation in orderto provide them with thenecessary preparations fortheirfutureworkinthespaceforce. “Thebrasswon’twanttheir political commissars to

be landlubbers,” he said toChang Weisi. This requestwas swiftly approved, andone month later, he and thefirst special contingent ofthirty comrades went tospace.“You’re a soldier?” the

collector asked as he servedtea.Afterreceivinganod,hewenton:“Soldiersthesedaysaren’tmuchlikesoldiersusedtobe,butyou,Icouldtellataglance.”

“You were a soldier oncetoo,”ZhangBeihaisaid.“Goodeye.Ispentmostof

mylifeservingintheGeneralStaffDepartment’sSurveyingandMappingBureau.”“How did you get

interestedinmeteors?”ZhangBeihai asked as he lookedappreciatively at the richcollection.“OveradecadeagoIwent

with a survey team toAntarctica in search of

meteoritesburiedbeneath thesnow,andIgothooked.Theycome from outside of Earth,from distant space, sonaturally they’ve got thatattraction. Whenever I pickoneup, it’s likeI’mgoing toanewandalienworld.”Zhang Beihai shook his

head with a smile. “That’sjustafeeling.TheEarthitselfis formed out of aggregatedinterstellar matter, so it’sbasically just a giant

meteorite. The stone beneathour feet is meteorite. Thisteacup I’m holding ismeteorite. Besides, they saythat the water on Earth wasbrought here by comets,so”—he raised the teacup—“what’s contained in thiscupismeteorite, too.There’snothing particularly specialaboutwhatyouhave.”The collector pointed at

him and laughed. “You’resharp.You’vealreadystarted

tobargain.…Still, I trustmyfeelings.”The collector couldn’t

resisttakingZhangBeihaiona tour,andheevenopenedasafetoshowhimthetreasureof his house: a Martianachondrite the size of afingernail. He had him viewthe small round pits on themeteorite’s surface and saidthat they might be microbialfossils. “Five years ago,Robert Haag wanted to buy

her for a thousand times theprice of gold, but I didn’tagree.”“How many of these did

you collect on your own?”askedZhangBeihai,pointingaroundtheroom.“Only a small part. The

majority were bought fromthe private sector or tradedfrom the community.… So,let’shearit.Whatsortdoyouwant?”“Nothing too valuable. It

should be high density,shouldn’t break easily underimpact, and should be easilyworkable.”“I see. You want to

engraveit.”Henodded.“Youcouldsay

that. It would be great if Icouldusealathe.”“Then an iron meteorite,”

the collector said as heopenedaglasscaseand tookout a dark-colored stone thesize of a walnut. “This one.

It’s composedmainlyof ironand nickel, with cobalt,phosphorus, silicon, sulfur,andcopper.Youwantdense?Thisone’seightgramstothecubic centimeter. It’s easilyworkable, and highlymetallic,sothelathewon’tbeaproblem.”“Good. It’s just a little too

small.”The collector took out

another piece the size of anapple.

“Do you have anythingevenbigger?”Thecollectorlookedathim

and said, “This stuff’s notsoldbyweight.Thebigonesareexpensive.”“Well, do you have three

thesizeofthisone?”The collector brought out

three iron meteorites ofroughly the same size andbegan to lay the groundworkfor his asking price: “Ironmeteorites are not very

common.They represent justfivepercentofallmeteorites,and these three are finespecimens. See here—thisone’sanoctahedrite.Lookatthe crisscross pattern on thesurface. They’re calledWidmanstätten patterns. Andhere’s a nickel-rich ataxite.TheseparallellinesarecalledNeumann lines. This piececontains kamacite, and thisone is taenite, a mineral notfoundonEarth.Thispiece is

one I found in the desertusingametaldetector, and itwas like fishing a needle outof the ocean. The car gotstuck in the sand and thedrive shaft snapped. I almostdied.”“Nameyourprice.”“On the international

market, a specimen of thissize and gradewould have aprice of about twenty USDpergram.Sohow’sthis:sixtythousand yuan per piece, or

three for one hundred eightythousand?”19Zhang Beihai took out his

phone.“Tellmeyouraccountnumber.I’llpayrightaway.”The collector said nothing

for quite some time. WhenZhang Beihai looked up, hegave a slightly embarrassedlaugh.“Actually,Iwasreadyforyoutocounter-offer.”“No.Iaccept.”“Look. Now that space

travel is for everyone, the

market price has droppedsomewhat even though it’snot as easy to getmeteoritesin space as it is on theground. These, well, they’reworth—”Zhang Beihai cut him off

decisively. “No. That’s theprice. Treat it as a sign ofrespectfortheirrecipients.”

***

After leaving the collector’s

house,ZhangBeihai tookthemeteorites to a modelingworkshop in a researchinstitute belonging to thespaceforce.Workhadletoutand the workshop, whichcontained a state-of-the-artCNC mill, was empty. First,he used the mill to slice thethree meteorites intocylinders of equal diameter,about the thickness of apencillead,andthencuttheminto small segments of equal

length. He worked verycarefully, trying to minimizewaste as much as possible,and ended up with thirty-sixsmall meteorite rods. Whenthis was done, he carefullycollected the cutting debris,removed the specialbladehehad selected for cutting thestone from the machine, andthenlefttheworkshop.Theremainderofthework

he conducted in a secretbasement. He set thirty-six

7.62mm pistol cartridges onthe table before him andremoved each projectile inturn. If they had been old-style brass cartridges, thiswould have required a lot ofeffort, but two years ago theentiremilitaryhadupdateditsstandardguns tousecaselessammunition,whoseprojectilewas glued directly to thepropellant and was easy todetach. Next, he used aspecial adhesive to affix a

meteorite rod onto eachpropellant. The adhesive,originallydevelopedtorepairthe skin of space capsules,ensured that the bond wouldnotfailintheextremehotandcoldtemperaturesofspace.Inthe end he had thirty-sixmeteoritebullets.He inserted four meteorite

bullets into a magazine,which he then loaded into aP224pistolandfiredatasackin the corner. The gunshot

was deafening in the narrowbasement room and leftbehind a strong scent ofgunpowder.He carefully examined the

fourholesinthesack,notingthat they were small, whichmeant that the meteorite hadnot shattered upon firing.Heopened the sack andwithdrew a large hunk offresh beef, and with a knifecarefully extracted themeteorite that had penetrated

it. The four meteorite rodshad shattered completely,leavingasmallpileofrubblethathepouredontohispalm.It showed practically no signof having beenworked. Thisoutcomesatisfiedhim.Thesackthatheldthebeef

was made out of materialsused in space suits.Tomakethe simulation even morerealistic,ithadbeenarrangedin layers that sandwichedinsulation sponges, plastic

tubing,andothermaterial.Hecarefullypackedupthe

remaining thirty-twometeorite bullets and exitedthe basement, heading off tomake preparations for hisvisittospace.

***

Zhang Beihai hung in spacefive kilometers out fromYellow River Station, awheel-shaped space station

that lay three hundredkilometers above the spaceelevator terminus as acounterweight. It was thelargest structure humanityhadeverconstructedinspaceand it could house over athousandlong-termresidents.Theregionofspacewithin

a five-hundred-kilometerradius of the space elevatorwas home to other spacefacilities, all of them muchsmaller than Yellow River

Station and scattered aboutlike the nomadic tents thatdotted the prairie during theopening of the AmericanWest. These formed theprelude of humanity’s large-scaleentranceintospace.Theshipyards that had justcommenced constructionwere the largest yet andwould eventually cover anarea ten times greater thanYellow River Station, butright now, all that had been

put up was scaffolding thatlooked like the skeleton of aleviathan. Zhang Beihai hadcomefromBase1,aseparatespace station eightykilometersawayandjustone-fifththesizeofYellowRiverStation,thespaceforce’sbaseingeostationaryorbit.HehadbeenlivingandworkingwiththeothermembersofthefirstSpecial Contingent of FutureReinforcements for threemonths now and had only

beenbacktoEarthonce.At Base 1, he had been

waiting for an opportunity,and now an opportunitypresenteditself:theaerospacefaction was holding a high-level work conference onYellowRiverStation,andallthree of his targets forelimination would beattending.OnceYellowRiverStation went into operation,Aerospace had held quite afew meetings there, as if to

make up for the regrettablefactthatmostofthepeopleinthe aerospace sector hadnevergottenthechancetogotospace.Before leaving Base 1,

ZhangBeihaihaddroppedhisspace suit’s positioning unitin his own cabin so thesurveillance system wouldnot be aware that hehad leftthe base and there would beno record of his movements.Using the thrusters on his

suit, he flew eightykilometers through space tothe position he had selected.Thenhewaited.Themeetingwasover,but

he was waiting for theparticipants to come out andtakeagroupphoto.It was a tradition for all

meetingparticipantstotakeagroup photo in space.Usually, the photographwould be taken against thesun, because that was the

onlywaytogetaclearshotofthespacestation.Sinceeveryperson in the group shot hadto turn their helmet visors totransparent to expose theirface during the photo, theywouldhavetokeeptheireyesshutagainst thesun’s intenserays if they faced it, not tomention the fact that theinsideof theirhelmetswouldget intolerably hot. So thebesttimeforagroupshotwaswhen the sun was just about

toriseorfalloverthehorizonof the Earth. Ingeosynchronous orbit, onesunrise and one sunset tookplace every twenty-fourhours,althoughthenightwasveryshort.ZhangBeihaiwaswaitingforthesuntoset.HeknewthatYellowRiver

Station’s surveillance systemwas able to detect hispresence, but that wouldn’tattract any attention. As thepoint of origin for space

development, the region waslittered with constructionmaterials both unused andabandoned,aswellasanevengreater quantity of garbage.Muchofthisfloatingmaterialwas roughly the size of ahuman. Moreover, the spaceelevator and the surroundingfacilities had a relationshiplike a metropolis and itssurroundingvillages,withthesuppliesforthelattercomingentirely from the former, so

traffic between them wasquitebusy.Aspeoplebecameused to the environment ofspace,theygraduallyadoptedthe habit of crossing solo.Usingspacesuitsasasortofspace bicycle with thrustersthat could push them tospeeds of up to five hundredkilometers per hour was theeasiestmeansoftravelwithina few hundred kilometers ofthe space elevator. By thispoint, people were flying

between the space elevatorand the surrounding stationsallthetime.But right now, Zhang

Beihai knew the surroundingspacewasempty.Apartfromthe Earth (which was visibleas a complete sphere fromgeosynchronous orbit) andthesun,abouttodipbelowitsedge, everything in alldirections was a pitch-blackabyss, and the myriad starswere shining dust that was

powerless to alter theemptinessoftheuniverse.Heknew that his suit’s life-support system would onlyholdupfortwelvehours,andbefore that time ran out hehad to make it eightykilometers back to Base 1,nowjustashapelesspointfaroff in the distance of theabyss of space. The baseitselfwould not survive verylong, either, if it left theumbilical cord of the space

elevator. But now, as hefloated in the vast void, hefelt like his contact with theblue world down below hadbeen cut off. He was anindependent presence in theuniverse, unattached to anyworld, dangling in thecosmos, no ground beneathhis feet and surrounded byemptyspaceonallsides,withno origin or destination, likethe Earth, the sun, and theMilky Way. He simply

existed, and he liked thisfeeling.He even sensed that his

father’s departed spiritmightsharethisverysamefeeling.Thesunmadecontactwith

theedgeoftheEarth.Zhang Beihai raised one

hand. The glove of his suitheld a telescopic sightwhichhe used to observe one ofYellowRiver Station’s exits,tenkilometersdistant.Onthelarge, curved-metal exterior

wall, the round air lock doorwasstillsealed.He turned his head toward

the sun, which had now sethalfway and looked like aglitteringringatoptheEarth.Looking back through the

scopeat thestation, this timehe saw that the beacon lightnext to the exit had turnedfrom red to green, indicatingthattheairinsidetheairlockhad been emptied.Immediately afterward, the

hatch slid open and a groupof figures wearing whitespace suits filed out. Therewereaboutthirtyofthem.Asthey flew off in a group, theshadowtheycastontheouterwall ofYellowRiver Stationexpanded.They had to fly a

considerable distance to fitthe entire station into frame,but before long they sloweddown and began theirweightless lineup under the

photographer’s direction. Bynowthesunhadsunkbytwo-thirds. The remainder lookedlike a luminous object inlaidintotheEarthaboveasmoothseamirror thatwas half blueand half orange-red, its topcoveredbysun-soakedcloudsthatlookedlikepinkfeathers.As the light dropped in

intensity, the people in thedistant group photo began toturn their visors transparent,revealing the faces in the

helmets. Zhang Beihaiincreased his scope’s focallength and quickly found histargets. Just as he hadexpected, due to their rank,theywereinthecenterofthefrontrow.He released the scope,

leaving it suspended in frontofhim,andwithhislefthandhetwistedthemetalretainingring of his right glove todetach it. Now that his righthandwaswearing just a thin

cloth glove, he immediatelyfelt the minus-one-hundred-degree temperature of space,so toavoidaquick freezeheturned his body to an anglethat let the weak sunlightshine on his hand. Heextendedthehandintoasidepocket of his suit andwithdrew a pistol and twomagazines.Then,withhislefthand, hegrasped the floatingscope and affixed it to thepistol. The scope had been a

rifle sight that he hadmodified with a magneticattachmentsoitcouldbeusedonapistol.The vast majority of

firearmsonEarthcouldshootinspace.Thevacuumwasnota problem, because thebullet’s propellant containeditsownoxidizer, butyoudidneed to worry about thetemperature of space: Bothextremes differed greatlyfrom atmospheric

temperatures and had thepotentialtoaffectthegunandammunition,sohewasafraidto leave the pistol andmagazines exposed for toolong. To shorten that time,overthepastthreemonthshehad drilled repeatedly intakingout thegun,mountingthe sight, and changingmagazines.He started to aim, and

capturedhisfirsttargetinthecrosshairsofthescope.

In Earth’s atmosphere,even the most sophisticatedsniper rifles couldn’t hit atarget at a distance of fivekilometers, but an ordinarypistol could in space. Thebullets moved in a zero-gravity vacuum, free of anyoutside interference, so aslong as their aim was true,they would follow anextremely stable trajectorydirectlytothetarget.Zeroairresistance,meanwhile,meant

that the bullets would notdecelerate during flight andwould strike the target withthe initial muzzle velocity,ensuringalethalblowfromadistance.He pulled the trigger. The

pistol fired in silence, but hesawthemuzzleflashandfelttherecoil.Hefiredtenroundsatthefirsttarget,thenquicklyreplaced the magazine andfiredanothertenroundsatthesecond target. Replacing the

magazine again, he fired thelast ten rounds at the thirdtarget.Thirtymuzzle flashes.If anyone in the direction ofYellow River Station hadbeen paying attention, theywould have seen a fireflyagainst the dark backdrop ofspace.Now the thirty meteorites

were speeding toward theirtargets.TheType2010pistolhadamuzzlevelocityoffivehundred meters per second,

sotheywouldtakearoundtensecondstocrossthedistance,during which Zhang Beihaicould only pray that histargets did not changeposition. This hope wasn’tgroundless, because the twoback rowshadnotyetgottensituated for the group photo,and evenwhen theywere allsituated, the photographerhad to wait until the mistsprayedoutby the spacesuitthrusters dissipated, so the

leadersinthefrontrowhadtowait. But since the targetswere, after all, floating inspace and weightless, theycouldeasilydrift,causingthebullets to not onlymiss theirtargets but possibly hurtinnocents.Innocent?Thethreepeople

he was about to kill wereinnocent, too. In the yearsbefore the Trisolar Crisis,theyhadmadewhat, lookingback now, seemed like

particularly meagerinvestments, and had creptcarefully over the thin icetowardthedawnofthespaceage. That experience hadimprisoned their thinking.Theyhad tobedestroyed forthe sake of interstellar-capable spacecraft. Theirdeaths could be viewed astheir final contribution to thecause of humanity’sendeavorsinspace.As amatterof fact,Zhang

Beihaihaddeliberatelysentafewbulletswideof themarkin the hope of hitting peopleother thanhis targets. Ideallyhe would only wound them,but if he happened to kill anextra person or two, thatdidn’t matter. That wouldonly serve to reduce anypotentialsuspicion.He lifted the empty gun

and looked soberly throughthe scope. He was preparedforfailure.Inthateventuality,

he would dispassionatelybeginthesearchforasecondopportunity.Time passed second by

second,andatlastthereweresigns that a target had beenhit.ZhangBeihaididnot seetheholeinthespacesuit,buta white gas spurted out.Immediately afterward, aneven larger burst of whitesteam erupted from betweenthe first and second rows,perhaps because the bullet

had passed out the target’sback and penetrated histhruster pack. He wasconfident of the bullets’power: When the meteoriteprojectilesstrucktheirtargetswith practically no decreasein speed, it would be likebeing shot at gunpoint.Cracks suddenly appearedacrossthehelmetvisorofonetarget, rendering it opaque,but he could still see thebloodthatsplasheduponthe

inside before mixing withleaking gasses and sprayingoutofthebullethole,whereitquicklyfroze intosnowflake-likecrystals.Hisobservationssoon confirmed that fivepeople, including the threetargets,hadbeenhit,andeachtargethadbeenstruckatleastfivetimes.Through their visors he

saw everyone in the crowdscreaminginterror,andfromthe shape of their lips he

knew that their wordsincluded the ones he wasexpecting:“Meteorshower!”Everyone in the photo

groupturnedtheirthrusterstofull power and sped back tothe station, trailing tails ofwhite mist behind them, andthen they were through theround hatch and back insideYellow River Station. ZhangBeihai saw that the fivewhohad been hit were dragged

backwiththem.He activated his own

thruster pack and acceleratedtowardBase1.Hisheartwasnow as cold and calm as theempty space around him.Heknew that the death of thethree key aerospace figuresdid not guarantee that thenon-media radiation drivewould become themainstream of spacecraftresearch, but he had done allhe could. No matter what

happened next, as far as thewatchfuleyesofhisfather inthe beyond were concerned,hecouldnowrelax.

***

At practically the same timeas Zhang Beihai wasreturning to Base 1, back onEarth’s Internet, a group ofpeople hastily assembled inthe wilderness of the virtualThree Body world to discuss

whathadjusthappened.“Thistime,theinformation

transmitted via sophon wasvery thorough, or wewouldn’t have believed heactually did it,” Qin ShiHuang said as he waved thesword about him in hisuneasiness.“Lookatwhathedid,andthenlookatourthreeattempts on Luo Ji.” Hesighed. “Sometimes we’rejusttoonerdy.Wedon’thavethat kind of cool

competency.”“Arewejustgoingtositby

andlethimdothis?”Einsteinasked.“In accordance with the

Lord’s intentions, that’s allwe can do. The man is anextremely stubborn holdoutand a triumphalist, and theLord doesn’t want us tointerfere unnecessarily withthat type of human. Ourattentionmust be focused onEscapism. The Lord believes

that defeatism is moredangerous thantriumphalism,”Newtonsaid.“If we are to work

sincerelyandseriously in theserviceof theLord,wecan’twholly believe the Lord’sstrategy.Afterall,it’sjustthecounsel of a child,” Mozisaid.QinShiHuangknockedhis

sword on the ground.“Nevertheless,nonintervention is correct as

far as this matter isconcerned. Let them turntheir development in thedirection of radiation drivespacecraft. With physicsunder sophon lockdown, thatwill be a technological peakthat’s practicallyunsurpassable. Not tomention a bottomless abyssinto which humanity willpour all of their time andenergy and end up withnothing.”

“We are agreed on thispoint.But I believe thismanis critical. He’s dangerous,”VonNeumannsaid.“Precisely!” Aristotle said,

nodding repeatedly. “Weused to think he was a puresoldier, but is this thebehaviorofasoldierwhoactsin accordance with strictdisciplineandrules?”“He is indeed dangerous.

His faith is rock-solid, he’sfarsightedanddispassionately

ruthless, and he acts withcalm resolve.Ordinarily he’spreciseandserious,butwhenthere’s a need he can gooutside the lines and takeextraordinary action,”Confucius said with a sigh.“Just like the First Emperorsaid,thisisthesortofpersonwelack.”“Hewon’t be hard to deal

with. All we have to do isdenounce his murders,”Newtonsaid.

“It’s not that simple!”QinShi Huang said, flipping asleeve at him. “It’s all yourfault. You’ve been using theinformationyoureceivefromthesophonstosowdiscordinthe space force and the UN,so how did this happen?Denunciation would be anhonor, or even a symbol ofloyalty!”“And we don’t have any

conclusive evidence,” Mozisaid. “His plans were

thorough. The bulletsshattered when they hit, soany autopsy would retrieveonly authentic meteoritesfrom the bodies of the deadand wounded. Everyone isgoing to think they died in ameteor shower. The truth isso bizarre that no onewouldbelieveit.”“It’s a good thing he’s

going to reinforce the future.At least he won’t bemakingtroubleforusforawhile.”

Einsteinletoutalongsigh.“Gone. Everyone’s gone.Some of us should go to thefuturetoo.”

***

Although they said theywould meet again, everyoneknew in their hearts that thiswasafinalfarewell.When the Special

Contingent of FutureReinforcementsheadedtothe

hibernation center, ChangWeisi and a number of othersenior space force generalscame to the airport to seethem off. He handed a lettertoZhangBeihai.“Thisletterisformyfuture

successor.Init,Iexplainyourcircumstances and stronglyrecommendyou to the futureSpace Command. You’llawaken no sooner than fiftyyears in the future, possiblylonger than that, at which

timeyoumaybefacedwithamore challenging workenvironment. You’ll have toadapt to the future first, evenas you preserve the spirit ofthe soldiersofour time.Youmust be cognizant of ourworking methods today, andknowwhichareobsoleteandwhich should be carried on.Thismay turnout tobeyourgreatest advantage in thefuture.”Zhang Beihai said,

“Commander, for the firsttimeIfeelabitofregretthatI’m an atheist. Otherwise,we’d have the hope ofmeeting again at some othertimeandplace.”Chang Weisi was a little

taken aback at this sentimentcoming from the ordinarilysober man, and the wordsresonated in the hearts ofeveryone else. But, assoldiers,theykeptthebeatingoftheirheartsdeeplyhidden.

“I’m gratified that we’vebeen able to meet in thislifetime.Be sure togreetourfuture comrades for us,”ChangWeisisaid.After a final salute, the

special contingent boardedtheplane.ChangWeisi’seyesdidnot

leaveZhangBeihai’sbackforamoment.Asteadfastsoldierwas leaving, and theremightnever be another like him.Wheredidhisfirmfaithcome

from? The question hadalways lain hidden in thedepths of his mind, andsometimesitevenpromptedabitofjealousy.Asoldierwithfaithinvictorywasfortunate.In the Doomsday Battle,those lucky people would befew and far between. AsZhang Beihai’s tall framedisappeared inside the cabindoor, Chang Weisi had toadmitthat,uptotheveryend,he had never really

understoodhim.The plane took off,

carrying those who wouldperhaps have the chance toseehumanity’sfinaloutcome,thendisappearedbehind thin,pale clouds. It was a bleakwinter’s day. The sun thatshone listlessly behind ashroudofgraycloudsandthechilly wind that blew acrosstheemptyairportgavetheairthe feel of solidified crystal,conjuring up the sense that

the springtime might neverreally arrive. Chang Weisitightened the collar of hisarmy coat. He turned fifty-four years old today, and inthedrearywinterwindhesawhis own end, and the end ofthehumanrace.

Year20,CrisisEra

DistanceoftheTrisolaranFleetfromtheSolarSystem:4.15light-years

Rey Diaz and Hines were

awakenedfromhibernationatthe same time to the newsthat the technology theyawaitedhadappeared.“So soon?!” they

exclaimed upon learning thatjusteightyearshadpassed.They were informed that

due to unprecedentedinvestment, technology hadprogressed with amazingspeedoverthepastfewyears.But not everything wasoptimistic. Humanity was

simply making a final sprintacross the distance betweenthem and the sophon barrier,so the progress they weremaking was purelytechnological. Cutting-edgephysics remained stopped uplikeapoolofstagnantwater,and the reservoir of theorywas being drained.Technological progresswouldbegintodecelerateandeventually come to acomplete halt. But, for the

time being at least, no oneknew when the end oftechnologywouldarrive.

***

On feet that were still stifffrom hibernation, Hineswalked into a stadium-likestructure whose interior wasshrouded in a white fog,althoughitfeltdrytohim.Hecouldn’t identifywhatitwas.A soft moonlight glow

illuminated the fog, whichwasfairlysparseattheheightof a person but grew denseenoughupabovethattheroofwas obscured. Through thefog, he saw a petite figurewhom he recognized at onceas his wife. When he ran toher through the fog, it waslike chasing a phantom,except that in the end theycametogetherinanembrace.“I’msorry, love. I’veaged

eightyears,”KeikoYamasuki

said.“Even so, you’re still a

year younger than me,” hesaid as he looked her over.Time seemed to have left nomark on her body, but shelooked pale and weak in thefog’s watery moonlight. Inthe fog and moonlight, sheremindedhimofthatnightinthe bamboo grove in theiryard in Japan. “Didn’t weagree that you would enterhibernation two years after

me?Whyhaveyouwaitedallthistime?”“I wanted to work on

preparations for our post-hibernation work, but therewastoomuchtodo,sothat’swhat I’ve been doing,” shesaid as she brushed a strandofhairfromherforehead.“Wasithard?”“Itwasveryhard.Sixnext-

gen supercomputer researchprojects were launched notlong after you went into

hibernation. Three of thememployed traditionalarchitecture, one used non–Von Neumann architecture,and the other two werequantum and biomolecularcomputing projects. But twoyears later, the leadscientistsof those six projects toldmethat thecomputingpowerwedesired was impossible. Thequantum computing projectwasthefirsttobeterminated,because it failed to find

sufficient support in currenttheoretic physics: Researchhad run into the sophonbarrier. Next, thebiomolecular project wasdiscontinued. They said itwas only a fantasy. The lastto end was the non–VonNeumann computer. Itsarchitecture was actually asimulation of the humanbrain, but they said it was ashapeless egg that wouldnever turn into a chicken.

Only the three traditionalarchitectureprojectswerestillongoing, but for a long timethere was never anyprogress.”“So that’s it.… I ought to

havebeenwithyouthewholetime.”“It would have been no

use. You only would havewasted eight years. It wasonlyrecently,duringaperiodoftimewhenweweretotallydiscouraged,thatwecameup

with the crazy idea ofsimulatingthehumanbraininapracticallybarbaricway.”“Andwhatwasthat?”“To put the previous

software simulation intohardware by using amicroprocessor to simulateone neuron, letting all themicroprocessors interact, andallowingfordynamicchangestotheconnectionmodel.”Hines thought about this

for a few seconds, then

realizedwhatshemeant.“Doyou mean manufacturing ahundred billionmicroprocessors?”Shenodded.“That’s … that’s

practicallythesumtotalofallthemicroprocessorsthathavebeenmanufactured in humanhistory!”“I didn’t run the numbers,

but it’s probably more thanthat.”“Even ifyoureallyhadall

those chips, how longwouldit take to connect them alltogether?”Keiko Yamasuki smiled

wearily. “I knew it wasn’tworkable. It was just adesperate idea.Butwe reallythought about doing it backthen,andmakingasmanyaswe could.” She pointedaroundher.“Thishereisoneof the thirty virtual brainassembly shops we hadplanned.Butit’stheonlyone

thatgotbuilt.”“I really should have been

here with you,” Hinesrepeatedwithmoreemotion.“Fortunately we still got

the computer we wanted. Itsperformance is ten thousandtimes better than when youenteredhibernation.”“Traditionalarchitecture?”“Traditionalarchitecture.A

fewmoredropssqueezedoutofthelemonofMoore’slaw.It astonished the computing

community—but this time,my love, we’ve really cometotheend.”A peerless computer. If

humanity failed, it wouldnever be equaled, Hinesthought,butdidnotsayitoutloud.“With this computer,

research on the ResolvingImagerbecamemucheasier.”Then she suddenly asked,“Love,doyouhave any ideaof what a hundred billion

looks like?” When he shookhis head, she smiled andstretched out her handsaround her. “Look. This is ahundredbillion.”“What?” At a loss for

words, Hines looked at thewhitefogaroundhim.“We’reinthemiddleofthe

supercomputer’s holographicdisplay,” she said as shemanipulatedagadgethangingat her chest. He noticed ascroll wheel on it, and

thoughtitmightbesomethinglikeamouse.Assheadjustedit,hefelta

change in the surroundingfog.It thickenedinwhatwasclearly a magnification of aparticular region. Then henoticedthatitwasmadeupofan uncountable number oftiny glowing particles, andthese particles were emittingthe moonlike illuminationrather than scattering lightfrom an outside source. As

the magnification continued,the particles became shiningstars,butinsteadofseeingthestarry sky over Earth, it waslike he was situated at theheart of the Milky Way,where the stars were denseand left practically no roomfordarkness.“Every star is a neuron,”

she said. Their bodies wereplated in silver by the oceanformed from a hundredbillionstars.

Asthehologramcontinuedto enlarge, he noticedinnumerable thin tentaclesextendingradiallyfromeverystar to form intricateconnections, wiping out thestarfield and situating himinside an infinitely largenetworkstructure.The image enlarged

further, and every star begantoexhibitastructurethatwasfamiliar tohimfromelectronmicroscopy, that of brain

cellsandsynapses.Shepressedthemouseand

the image returned instantlytothewhitefogstate.“Thisisafullviewofthestructureofthe brain captured using theResolving Imager scanningthree million cross sectionssimultaneously. Of course,whatwe’reseeingnowis theprocessed image—for theconvenience of observation,thedistancebetweenneuronshasbeenmagnifiedbyfouror

fiveordersofmagnitudesoitlooks like we vaporized abrain.However, the topologyof the connections betweenthem has been preserved.Now, let’s take a look at adynamicview.…”Disturbances appeared in

the fog, glittering points inthe mist that looked like apinchofgunpowdersprinkledonto a flame. KeikoYamasukienlargedtheimageuntil it resembled a starfield,

andHinessawthesurgingofstartide in a brain-universe,the disturbances in the oceanofstarsappearingindifferentforms at different locations:somelikestreams,otherslikevortexes, and others like thesweeping tides, all of itinstantly mutable and givingrise to stunning pictures ofself-organization within theteeming chaos. Then theimage changed again toresemble a network, and he

saw myriad nerve signalsbusily passing messagesalong thin synapses, likeflashing pearls within theflow of an intricate networkofpipes.…“Whose brain is this?” he

askedinwonder.“Mine,” she said, looking

lovingly at him. “When thisthought picture was taken, Iwasthinkingofyou.”

Please note: When the light

turns green, the sixthbatch oftestpropositionswillappear.Ifthe proposition is true, pressthe right-hand button. If theproposition is false, press theleft-handbutton.Proposition1:Coalisblack.Proposition2:1+1=2.Proposition 3: Thetemperature inwinter is lowerthaninsummer.Proposition 4: Men aregenerallyshorterthanwomen.Proposition5:Astraightlineisthe shortest distance betweentwopoints.Proposition 6: The moon isbrighterthanthesun.

The statements weredisplayed in succession onthe small screen in front ofthe test subject. Eachpropositionwasdisplayedforfour seconds, and the subjectpressedtheleft-handorright-handbuttonsaccordingtohisown judgment.His headwasencased inametalcover thatallowedtheResolvingImagertocaptureaholographicviewof his brain, which thecomputer would process into

a dynamic neural networkmodelforanalysis.In this, the initial stage of

Hines’s research project, thesubject engaged in only thesimplest of critical thinking,and the test propositions hadconcise and clear answers.Duringsuchsimple thoughts,the operation of the cerebralneuralnetworkwasrelativelyeasy to identifyandprovidedastartingpointforamorein-depth study of the nature of

thought.The research teams led by

Hines and Keiko Yamasukihad made some progress.They discovered that criticalthinkingwasnotproduced inany specific location in thecerebral neural network butused a particular mode ofnerve impulse transmission,and that with the powerfulcomputer’s assistance, thismodelcouldberetrievedandlocated from among the vast

network of neurons using amethod quite similar to thestar positioning theastronomer Ringier hadprovided to Luo Ji. Unlikefinding a particular positionpattern in a starfield, in theuniverse of the brain thepatternwasdynamicandwasonly identifiable by itsmathematical characteristics.Itwasalittlelikelookingfora small whirlpool in anexpansive ocean, which

meant that the computingpower it required was manyorders of magnitude greaterthan that of the starfield andwas only feasible on thislatestmachine.Hinesandhiswifestrolled

through thecloudmapof thebrain in the holographicdisplay.Everytimeapointofcritical thinking wasidentified in the subject’sbrain, the computer wouldindicate its position on the

image with a flashing redlight.Thiswasactuallyjustaway to provide a moreintuitivefeastfortheeyesandwas not strictly required bythe study. The importantthingwas the analysis of theinternal structure of nerveimpulse transmission at thepointofthought,fortherelayhidden the mysteries of theessenceofthemind.Just then the research

team’smedicaldirectorcame

in and said that Subject 104wasexperiencingproblems.When the Resolving

Imager had just beendeveloped, scanning such ahuge quantity of crosssections generated powerfulradiationthatwasfataltoanylife being scanned, butsuccessive improvementshadbrought the radiation belowthe danger line, and a largenumber of tests haddemonstrated that so long as

filmingwaskeptbelowa setlengthof time, theResolvingImager would not cause anydamagetothebrain.“He seems to have caught

hydrophobia,” the medicaldirector said, as they hurriedtowardthemedicalcenter.HinesandKeikoYamasuki

stopped in their tracks insurprise. Hines stared at themedical director:“Hydrophobia? Did hesomehowgetrabies?”

Themedicaldirectorraiseda hand and tried to sort outhis thoughts: “Oh, I’m sorry.That wasn’t accurate. Hedoesn’t have any physicalproblems, and his brain andother organs have not beendamaged at all. It’s just thathe’s afraid of the water, likesomeone with rabies. Herefusestodrink,andhewon’teven eat moist food. It’s anentirely psychological effect.He justbelieves thatwater is

toxic.”“Persecutory delusion?”

KeikoYamasukiasked.The medical director

waved a hand. “No, no. Hedoesn’t think thatanyoneputpoison in the water. He justbelieves the water itself istoxic.”Again, Hines and his wife

stoppedstill,and themedicaldirector shook his headhelplessly. “Butpsychologically, he’s

completely normal in everyother way.… I can’t explainit. You’ve got to see it foryourselves.”Subject 104 was a

volunteercollegestudentwhohad come to earn somepocket money. Before theyentered the patient’s room,thedirectortoldHinesandhiswife, “He hasn’t had a drinkintwodays.Ifthiscontinues,he’ll become severelydehydratedandwe’llhave to

hydrate him by force.”Standing at the door hepointedtoamicrowaveoven,and said, “You see that? Hewants bread and other foodbaked completely dry beforehe’lleatit.”Hinesandhiswifeentered

the patient’s room. Subject104 lookedat themwith fearin his eyes. His lips werecracked and his hairdisheveled, but otherwise helooked entirely normal. He

tugged at Hines’s sleeve andsaid in a hoarse voice, “Dr.Hines,theywanttokillme.Idon’t know why.” Then hepointed a finger at a glass ofwater sitting on the cabinetnext to the head of the bed.“They want me to drinkwater.”Hineslookedattheglassof

clear water, certain that thesubject did not have rabies,because true hydrophobiawouldcausespasmsof terror

at the mere sight of it. Thesoundofrunningwaterwouldinduce madness, and theremightevenbeanintensefearresponse if others simplytalkedaboutit.“Fromhiseyesandspeech,

he ought to be in a normalpsychological state,” KeikoYamasuki said to Hines inJapanese.Shehadadegreeinpsychology.“Doyoureallybelievethat

wateristoxic?”Hinesasked.

“Isthereanyquestion?Justlike the sunhas lightand theair has oxygen. You can’tdeny this basic fact, canyou?”Hines leaned on his

shoulder and said, “Youngman, life was born in thewaterandcan’t existwithoutit.Yourownbody isseventypercentwater.”Subject 104’s eyes

darkened, and he slumpedback in bed, clutching his

head. “That’s right. Thisquestion torturesme. It’s themost incredible thing in theuniverse.”“Letme see Subject 104’s

experiment record,” Hinessaid to the medical directorafter they left the patient’sroom.Whentheyreachedthedirector’s office, KeikoYamasuki said, “Look at thetestpropositionsfirst.”The test propositions

displayed on the computer

screenonebyone:

Proposition1:Catshaveatotalofthreelegs.Proposition 2: Rocks are notliving.Proposition 3: The sun isshapedlikeatriangle.Proposition 4: Iron is heavierthan cotton of the samevolume.Proposition5:Wateristoxic.

“Stop,” Hines said,pointingtoProposition5.“His answer was ‘false,’”

thedirectorsaid.“Look at all parameters

and operations following theanswertoProposition5.”The records indicated that

once Proposition 5 wasanswered, the ResolvingImager increased thestrengthof its scan of the criticalthinkingpointinthesubject’scerebral neural network. Toimprove the accuracy of thescanofthisarea,theintensityof the radiation and the

magneticfieldwereincreasedin this small region. Hinesand Keiko Yamasukicarefully examined the longlistofrecordedparametersonthescreen.“Has this enhanced scan

been done to other subjectsand on other propositions?”Hinesasked.Thedirectorsaid,“Because

the effect of the enhancedscan was not particularlygood, it was canceled after

four tries due to fears ofexcessive localized radiation.The previous three…” Heconsulted the computer, andthen said, “were all benigntruepropositions.”“We should use the same

scanning parameters andrepeat the experiment forProposition 5,” KeikoYamasukisaid.“But … who will do it?”

askedthedirector.“Iwill,”Hinessaid.

Wateristoxic.

Proposition 5 appeared inblack text on a whitebackground. Hines pressedtheleft“False”button,buthefelt nothing apart from aslight sensation of heatproduced by the intensivescanning at the back of hishead.He exited the Resolving

Imager labandsatdownatatable, as a crowd, which

included Keiko Yamasuki,watched.Onthetablestoodaglass of clear water. Hepicked up the glass andslowlydrewit tohis lipsandtook a sip. His movementswere relaxedandhewore anexpression of quiet calm.Everyone began to sigh withrelief, but then they noticedthathisthroatwasn’tmovingto swallow the water. Themuscles of his face stiffenedand then twitched slightly

upward, and into his eyescame the same fear Subject104 exhibited, as if his spiritwas fighting with somepowerful, shapeless force.Finally he spat out all of thewater in hismouth and kneltdown to vomit, but nothingcame out. His face turnedpurple.HuggingHinestoher,KeikoYamasukiclappedhimonthebackwithonehand.Whenhehadrecoveredhis

senses, he held out a hand:

“Give me some papertowels,” he said. He tookthemandcarefullywipedoffthedropletsofwaterthathadsplashedonhisshoes.“Doyoureallybelievethat

water is toxic, love?”Yamasuki asked, tears in hereyes. Prior to the experimentshehadaskedhimrepeatedlyto replace the propositionwith a false one that wasentirely harmless, but he hadrefused.

He nodded. “I do.” Helooked up at the crowd,helplessnessandconfusioninhiseyes.“Ido.Ireallydo.”“Let me repeat your

words,” she said, clappinghim on the shoulder. “Lifewas born in the water andcan’t exist without it. Yourown body is seventy percentwater!”Hines bowed his head and

looked at thewater stains onthe floor. Then he shook his

head.“That’sright,dear.Thisquestion torturesme. It’s themost incredible thing in theuniverse.”

***

Three years after thebreakthrough in controllednuclear fusion, new andunusual heavenly bodies hadtaken their place in theEarth’s night sky, up to fiveof them now simultaneously

visible in one hemisphere.The bodies changeddramatically in luminance,outshining Venus at theirbrightest, and often blinkedrapidly. Sometimes one ofthem would suddenly eruptwith a rapid increase inbrightness, then go out aftertwo or three seconds. Theywere fusion reactorsundergoing tests ingeosynchronousorbit.Non-media radioactive

propulsionhadwonoutastheresearch path for futurespacecraft. This type ofpropulsion required high-powered reactors that couldonly be tested in space,leading to these glowingreactors thirty thousandkilometers out in spaceknownasnuclearstars.Everytimeanuclearstarerupted,itrepresented a disastrousdefeat. But contrary to whatmostpeoplebelieved,nuclear

star eruptions were notexplosions in the nuclearreactor, but the exposure ofthe core when the outer hullofthereactormeltedfromtheheatproducedbyfusion.Thefusion core was like a smallsun, and because it meltedEarth’s most heat-tolerantmaterialsasiftheywerewax,it had to be contained by anelectromagnetic field. Theserestraintsfrequentlyfailed.On the balcony of the top

floor of Space Command,Chang Weisi and Hines hadjust witnessed one sucheruption. Its moonlike glowcastitsshadowsontothewallbefore disappearing. HineswasthesecondWallfacerthatChang Weisi had met, afterTyler.“The third time this

month,”ChangWeisisaid.Hines looked out at the

now-darkened night sky.“The power of these reactors

only reaches one percent ofwhat’s needed for futurespacecraft engines, and theydon’t operate stably. Andeven if the required reactorswere developed, enginetechnologywillbeevenmoredifficult. We’re sure toencounter the sophon blockthere.”“That’s true. The sophons

areblockingoureverypath,”Chang Weisi said as helooked off into the distance.

The sea of lights in the cityseemed even more brilliantnow that the light in the skyhaddisappeared.“A glimmer of hope fades

assoonasit isborn,andoneday it will be destroyedforever. It’s like you said:The sophonsblockoureverypath.”Chang Weisi said, with a

laugh,“Dr.Hines,you’renothere to talk defeatism withme,areyou?”

“That’s precisely what Iwant to talk about. Theresurgence of defeatism isdifferent this time. It’s basedon the drastically reducedliving conditions in thegeneralpopulationandhasaneven greater impact in themilitary.”Chang Weisi looked back

from the distance but saidnothing.“I understand your

difficulties, General, and I’d

liketohelpyou.”Chang Weisi looked at

Hines in silence for a fewseconds, his expressionunreadable to the otherman.Then,without replying tohisoffer,hesaid,“Theevolutionof the human brain needstwenty thousand to twohundred thousand years toachieve noticeable changes,but human civilization has ahistory of just five thousandyears. So what we’re using

right now is the brain ofprimitive man.… Doctor, Ireally applaud your uniqueideas, and perhaps this iswheretherealanswerlies.”“Thank you. All of us are

basicallyFlintstones.”“Butisitreallypossibleto

use technology to enhancementalability?”This got Hines excited.

“General, you’re not soprimitive, at least comparedto others! I notice you said

‘mental ability’ rather than‘intelligence.’ The former ismuch broader than the latter.To overcome defeatism, forexample,wecan’tsimplyrelyon intelligence. Given thesophonblock,thehigheryourintelligence, themore troubleyou have establishing a faithinvictory.”“Sogiveme an answer. Is

itpossible?”Hines shook his head.

“How much do you know

about my and KeikoYamasuki’s work before theTrisolarCrisis?”“Nottoomuch.Ibelieveit

was: The essence of thoughtis not on themolecular levelbut is carried out on thequantum level. I wonder,doesthatimply—”“Itimpliesthatthesophons

are waiting for me. Just likewe’re waiting for them,”Hines said pointing at thesky. “But right now, our

research is still quite a waysfrom our goal. Still, we’vecome upwith an unexpectedby-product.”Chang Weisi smiled and

nodded, showing cautiousinterest.“I won’t talk about the

details. Basically, wediscovered the mind’smechanism for makingjudgments in the cerebralneuralnetwork,aswellastheability to have a decisive

impact on them. If wecompare the process bywhich a human mind makesjudgments to a computer’sprocess, there’s the input ofexternaldata,calculation,andthen the finaloutcome.Whatwe’re able to do is omit thecalculationstepoftheprocessand directly produce anoutcome. When a certainpiece of information entersthe brain, it exerts aninfluence on a particular part

oftheneuralnetwork,andwecancause thebrain to rendera judgment—to believe thatthe information is genuine—without even thinking aboutit.”“Has this already been

achieved?” Chang Weisiaskedsoftly.“Yes. It started with a

chance discovery, which wesubjected to in-depthresearch, and now we’vedoneit.Wecallitthe‘mental

seal.’”“And if the judgment—or

if youwill, faith—is at oddswithreality?”“Then the faith will

eventuallybeoverturned.Butthe process will be quitepainful,becausethejudgmentproduced in the mind by themental seal is particularlystubborn. Once, this had meconvinced that water wastoxic, and it was only aftertwomonthsofpsychotherapy

that I was able to drinkunimpeded. That processis…notsomethingIwanttoremember.Butthetoxicityofwater is an extremely clearfalse proposition. Otherbeliefs may not be. Like theexistenceofGod, orwhetherhumanitywillbevictoriousinwar. These don’t have aclearly determined answer,and in the normal course ofestablishing thesebeliefs, themind is slightly tilted in a

certain direction by all sortsof choices. If the belief isestablished by the mentalseal, itwillberock-solidandabsolutelyunshakeable.”“That is truly a great

achievement.” Chang Weisigrew serious. “I mean, forneuroscience. But in the realworld, Dr. Hines, you havecreated a truly troublesomething. Really. The mosttroublesomethinginhistory.”“Youdon’twanttousethis

thing, the mental seal, tocreate a space forcepossessing an unshakeablefaith in victory? In themilitary, you have politicalcommissars and we havechaplains. Themental seal isjusta technologicalmeansofaccomplishing their workmoreefficiently.”“Political and ideological

workestablishesfaiththroughrational,scientificthinking.”“But is it possible to

establish faith in a victory inthis war on the basis ofrational,scientificthought?”“Ifnot,Doctor,we’drather

have a space force that lacksfaith in victory yet retainsindependentthought.”“Apartfromthisonebelief,

therestofthemindwouldofcourse be entirelyautonomous. We would justbe performing a tinyintervention in the mind,using technology to leapfrog

thought to implant aconclusion—justonealone—intothemind.”“But one is enough.

Technologyisnowcapableofmodifying thoughts just likemodifying a computerprogram. After themodifications,arepeoplestillpeople, or are theyautomatons?”“You must have read A

ClockworkOrange.”“It’saprofoundbook.”

“General, your attitude iswhat I expected,”Hines saidwithasigh.“I’llcontinuemyeffortsinthisarea,theeffortsaWallfacermustexert.”

***

At the next PDC WallfacerProject Hearing, Hines’sintroduction of his mentalsealtriggeredrareemotioninthe assembly. The USrepresentative’s concise

evaluation expressed thefeelingof themajorityof theattendees: “With theirextraordinary talent, Dr.HinesandDr.Yamasukihaveopened up a great door intodarknessforhumanity.”The French representative

lefthisseatinhisexcitement.“Which is more tragic forhumanity: the loss of theability and right to thinkfreely,ordefeatinthiswar?”“Of course the latter is

more tragic!” Hines retorted,standing up. “Because underthe first condition, humanityat least has the chance ofregaining independentthought!”“I have doubts about that.

If this thing really does getused … Look at all youWallfacers,” the Russianrepresentative said, raisinghis hands toward the ceiling.“Tyler wanted to deprivepeopleoftheirlives,andyou

wanttodeprivethemof theirminds.Whatareyoutryingtodo?”His words caused a

commotion.The UK representative

said, “Today we are merelyproposing a motion, but Ibelieve that the governmentsof all countries will beunanimous in banning thisthing. Regardless of whathappens,nothingismoreevilthanthoughtcontrol.”

Hinessaid,“Why is it thateveryone gets so sensitive atthe mention of thoughtcontrol? From commercialadvertising to Hollywoodculture, thought control iseverywhere in modernsociety. You are, to use aChinese phrase, mockingpeople for retreating ahundred paces when you’veretreatedfiftyyourselves.”TheUSrepresentativesaid,

“Dr.Hines,youhaven’tgone

just one hundred paces.You’ve walked up to thethresholdofdarknessandarethreatening the veryfoundations of modernsociety.”Another commotion swept

through the assembly, andHinesknewthatnowwasthetime to seize control of thesituation.He raisedhis voiceand said, “Learn from thelittleboy!”Sure enough, there was a

lull in the noise after hisutterance. “What little boy?”askedtherotatingchair.“I think we’re all familiar

with this story: In a forest, alittle boy got his leg caughtunder a fallen tree. He wasaloneat the time,andhis legwas bleeding uncontrollably.It would have killed him,except that he made adecision that would shameevery one of you delegates:He took up his saw and

sawed off the leg that waspinned, then climbed into acar and found a hospital. Hesavedhisownlife.”Hinessawwithsatisfaction

that no one in the meetingroom had attempted tointerrupt him, at least. Hewent on. “Humanity is nowfacing a life-and-deathproblem.The lifeordeathofourspeciesandcivilizationasa whole. In thesecircumstances, how can we

notgiveupafewthings?”Twolightthumpssounded.

The chair was banging thegavel, even though therewasn’t much noise in theassembly.Theattendeeswerereminded that the Germanman had maintained anunusual silence during thecourse of the hearing. In agentle voice, the chair said,“Firstofall, Ihope thateachofyoucantakeagoodlookatthe current situation.

Investment in building aspace defense system isconstantlyincreasing,andtheworld economy isexperiencing a sharprecession during this time oftransition.Thepredictionthatthe standard of living willretreatacenturymaycometopass in the not-too-distantfuture. Meanwhile, spacedefense–related scientificresearchisrunningupagainstthe sophon block, and

technological progress isslowing. This will trigger anewwaveofdefeatismintheinternational community, andthis time, it may cause thetotal collapse of the SolarSystemDefenseProgram.”The chair’s words calmed

the assembly completely.After a silenceofnearlyhalfaminute,hecontinued.“Likeeach of you, when I learnedoftheexistenceofthementalseal,Ifeltthekindoffearand

loathingI’dgetfromseeingapoisonous snake. But themost rational approach totake right now is to calmdown and seriously considerit. When the devil doesactually appear, the bestoption is calmness andrationality. At this hearing,we are simply puttingforwardavotablemotion.”Hines saw a thread of

hope. “Mr. Chair,Representatives, since my

initialproposalisunabletobeput to an assembly vote,maybeweall can takea stepback.”“No matter how many

steps back you take, thoughtcontrol is absolutelyunacceptable,” the Frenchrepresentative said, but in aslightly softer tone thanbefore.“And if it weren’t thought

control? Perhaps somethingin between control and

freedom?”“The mental seal equals

thought control,” theJapaneserepresentativesaid.“Notso.Inthoughtcontrol,

theremustbeacontrolleranda subject. If someonevoluntarily places a seal intheirownmind, then tellme,whereisthecontrolinthat?”The assembly fell silent

again. Feeling that successwas near, Hines went on, “Ipropose that the mental seal

be opened up, like a publicfacility.Itwouldhavebutoneproposition: belief in avictory in the war. Anyonewilling to gain that faiththrough the use of the sealcould,totallyvoluntarily,takeadvantage of the facility. Ofcourse, all of this would beconducted under strictsupervision.”Theassemblyopenedupa

discussion and added toHines’s basic proposal a fair

numberofnewrestrictionsonthe use of the mental seal.Themostcrucialofthesewastheonelimitingitsusetothespace forces, because it wasrelatively easy for people toaccept the idea of uniformthinking in the military. Thehearing continued for nearlyeight hours, the longest ever,and eventually formulated amotion to be voted on at thenext meeting, and which thepermanent member states

wouldtakebacktotheirowngovernments.“Shouldn’t we come up

withanameforthisfacility?”askedtheUSrepresentative.“How about calling it the

FaithReliefCenter?”theUKrepresentative said. TheBritish humor of the oddname drew a burst oflaughter.“Takeout ‘relief,’ andcall

it the Faith Center,” Hinessaid,inallearnestness.

***

At the gate to the FaithCenter stood a reduced-scalereplica of the Statue ofLiberty. Its purpose wasunknown—perhaps it was anattempt to use “liberty” todilute the feeling of“control”—but the mostnotablethingaboutthestatuewas the altered poem on itsbase:

Givemeyourhopelesssouls,Yourfearfulcrowdsthatthirstforvictory,Thedazedrefuseofyourtreacherousshoals.Sendthese,thedowncast,wand’ringonestome,Forlo,mylampofgoldenfaithconsoles.

The golden faith of thepoem was prominently

inscribed in many differentlanguages on a black granitestone called the FaithMonument that stood besidethestatue:

In the war of resistance againstthe invasion from Trisolaris,humanitywillbevictorious.TheenemyinvadingtheSolarSystemwill be destroyed. Earth willendure in the cosmos for tenthousandgenerations.

TheFaithCenterhadbeenopen for three days, during

which timeHines andKeikoYamasuki had been waitingin the majestic foyer. ThesmallishbuildingerectedneartheUnitedNationsPlazahadbecome the latest touristattraction, with peopleconstantly coming up to takephotos of the Statue ofLiberty and the FaithMonument, but no one hadentered. They all seemed tobe maintaining a cautiousdistance.

“Do you get the feelingwe’re running a strugglingmom-and-pop store?” shesaid.“Mydear,onedaythiswill

beasacredplace,”Hinessaidsolemnly.On the afternoon of the

third day, someone finallywalked into theFaithCenter.The bald, melancholy-looking, middle-aged manwalked unsteadily and smeltof alcohol when he

approached.“I’vecometogetfaith,”heslurredout.“The Faith Center is only

open tomembers of nationalspace forces. Please showyour ID,” Keiko Yamasukisaid while bowing. Sheseemed toHines likeapolitewaitress at the Tokyo PlazaHotel.ThemanfishedouthisID.

“I’m a space force member.Civilian personnel. Is thatokay?”

After inspecting the ID,Hines nodded. “Mr. Wilson,doyouwanttodoitnow?”“That would be great,” he

said,andnodded.“The…thething you call a beliefproposition. I’ve written ithere. I want to believe this.”He pulled a neatly foldedpieceofpaperfromhisbreastpocket.KeikoYamasukiwantedto

explain that according to thePDC resolution, the mental

seal was only permitted tooperate on one proposition,the one written on themonument at the gate. It hadtobedoneexactlyaswritten,and any alteration wasprohibited. But Hines gentlystopped her. He wanted totakea lookat thepropositionthe man had submitted first.Unfolding the paper, he readwhatwaswrittenonit:

Katherinelovesme.She

hasneverandwillneverhaveanaffair!

Keiko Yamasuki stifled alaugh, but Hines angrilycrumpled up the paper andtosseditinthedrunkenman’sface.“Getthehellout!”After Wilson left, another

man passed the FaithMonument, the boundarybeyond which ordinarytourists maintained theirdistance. As the man paced

behind the monument, hesoon came to Hines’sattention.Hines calledKeikoYamasuki over and said,“Look at him. Hemust be asoldier!”“He looks mentally and

physically exhausted,” shesaid.“Buthe’sasoldier.Believe

me,”hesaid.Hewasabouttogo out and talk to the manwhenhesawhimheadingupthe steps. The man looked

about Wilson’s age and,though his Asian featureswere handsome, it was likeKeikoYamasukihadsaid:Heseemed a little melancholy,but in a different way fromthe previous hard-luck case.His melancholy lookedlighter, but also deeper, as ifit had been with him foryears.“Myname isWuYue. I’d

like togetbelief,” thevisitorsaid. Hines noticed how he

referredto“belief”insteadof“faith.”Keiko Yamasuki bowed

and repeated her earlier line:“The Faith Center is onlyopen to members of everycountry’s space force. PleaseshowyourID.”WuYuedidnotmove,but

hesaid,“Sixteenyearsago,Ispent amonth serving in thespace force, and then Iretired.”“You served for one

month? Well, if you don’tmind my asking, what wasyour reason for retiring?”Hinesasked.“I’m a defeatist. My

superiorsandIfeltthatIwasno longer suited to work inthespaceforce.”“Defeatism is a common

mentality. You’re evidentlyjust an honest defeatist, andstated your own ideasforthrightly. Your colleagueswho continued serving may

have harbored an evenstronger defeatist complex,but they just kept it hidden,”KeikoYamasukisaid.“Maybe.ButI’vebeenlost

alltheseyears.”“Because you left the

service?”Wu Yue shook his head.

“No.Iwasbornintoafamilyofscholars,andtheeducationI received made me treathumanity as a single unit,evenafterIbecameasoldier.

I always felt that a soldier’shighest honor would be tofight for the entire humanrace. This opportunity came,butitwasawarthatweweredestinedtolose.”Hines was about to say

something, but wasinterrupted by KeikoYamasuki.“Permitmetoaska question. How old areyou?”“Fifty-one.”“If you are really able to

returntothespaceforceafterobtaining faith in victory,don’t you think that at yourageit’salittlelatetostartupintheserviceagain?”Hines could see that she

didn’thavethehearttorefusehim directly. No doubt thisdeeply melancholy man wasvery attractive to a woman’seyes. But this didn’t worryhim, because the man wasobviouslysoconsumedbyhisdespair that nothing else had

anymeaningforhim.Wu Yue shook his head.

“You misunderstand. I don’twant to gain faith in victory.I’mjustlookingforpeaceformysoul.”Hineswantedtospeak,but

again Keiko Yamasukistoppedhim.Wu Yue went on. “I met

my present wife when I wasstudying at the navalacademy in Annapolis. Shewas a fervent Christian and

faced the future with acalmness that made mejealous. She said that Godhad everything planned out,from the past to the future.We children of the Lord didnot need to understand hisplans. We just needed tofirmly believe that this planwas themost reasonable onein theuniverse,and then livepeacefully according to theLord’swill.”“So youmean that you’ve

come to gain a belief inGod?”Wu Yue nodded. “I’ve

written out my beliefproposition. Please have alook.” He reached into hisshirtpocketashespoke.Again Keiko Yamasuki

stopped Hines from sayinganything. She said to WuYue, “If that’s the case, thenjust go and believe. There’sno need to resort to suchextreme, technological

means.”The former space force

captain showed a trace of awrysmile.“Igrewupunderamaterialist education. I’m astaunchatheist.Doyou thinkgaining this belief would beeasyforme?”“Absolutely not!” Hines

said, getting out in front ofKeikoYamasuki.Hedecidedto clear things up as quicklyas he could. “You ought toknow that according to the

UN resolution, the mentalseal can only operate on oneproposition.”Ashespoke,hetook out a large, exquisitelyfashioned red card case andopened it up forWu Yue tosee. There, on the blackvelvet lining, in lettersengraved in gold, was thevictory oath from the FaithMonument.He said, “This isa faith book.” He took out aset of cases in differentcolors.“Thesearefaithbooks

in different languages. Mr.Wu, let me tell you howstringent the supervision isforuseofthementalseal.Toguarantee safe and reliableoperation, the proposition isnotputuponadisplaybutisgiventothevolunteertoreadfrom this primitive faithbook. As a reflection of thevoluntary principle, thespecific procedure iscompleted by the volunteer.He opens up this faith book,

then presses the Start buttonon the mental seal device.Prior to actually performingtheprocedure,thesystemwillgive three confirmationopportunities. Before eachprocedure, the faith book isinspected by a panel of tenspecial commissioners fromthe members of the UNHuman Rights Commissionand the permanent memberstatesofthePDC.Duringtheoperation of the mental seal

device,theten-memberpanelwill be on site to strictlysupervisetheentireaffair.So,sir, your request can’t befulfilled. Forget about yourproposition for religiousbelief. Changing even oneword in the faith book is acrime.”“Then I’m sorry to have

troubled you,”WuYue said,nodding.Heappearedtohaveanticipated this outcome. Ashe turned to walk out, he

appearedlonelyandoldfromtheback.“Therestofhislifewillbe

hard,” Keiko Yamasuki saidsoftly, with a voice full oftenderness.“Sir!” Hines called,

stoppingWuYuejustoutsidethedoor.Heranouttowherethe light of the setting sunwasreflectinglikefireofftheFaith Monument and theglass-walled UN building inthe distance.He squinted his

eyes against the flames andsaid, “Youmight not believeme,butInearlydidtheexactopposite.”Wu Yue looked puzzled.

Hines looked back and,seeing that Keiko Yamasukihad not followed him, tookoutapieceofpaper fromhispocket and opened it forWuYue.“This is themental sealIwantedtoapplytomyself.Iwashesitant,ofcourse,andinthe end didn’t do it.” The

boldtextonthepaperread:

Godisdead.

“Why?” asked Wu Yue,raisinghishead.“Isn’titobvious?Isn’tGod

dead?ScrewtheLord’splan.Screwhismildyoke!”WuYuelookedatHinesin

silence for a moment, thenturned and walked down thesteps.WhenWuYuewalkedinto

the shadow cast by the FaithMonument,Hinescalledafterhim, “Sir, I wish I coulddisguise my contempt foryou,butIcan’t.”The next day, the people

Hines and Keiko Yamasukiwere waiting for finallystartedtoarrive.Inthebrightsunshine that morning, fourpeople walked in, three menwithEuropean faces and onewoman with Asian features.Young, standing straight and

tall, and walking at a steadypace, they looked confidentand mature. But Hines andKeikoYamasukisawin theireyes something familiar, thesame melancholy confusionthathadbeeninWuYue’s.They set their documents

neatlydownon the receptiondesk, and their leader saidsolemnly,“We’respaceforceofficers, and we’ve come togetfaithinvictory.”The mental seal process

wasquitefast.Afterthefaithbookswerepassedamongthetenmembersof theoversightpanel, each of whomcarefully checked thecontents, they signed theirnames to the notarycertificate. Then, under theirsupervision, the firstvolunteer received the faithbookandsatdowninfrontofthe mental seal scanner. Infront of him was a smallplatform onwhich he placed

thebook,andwhichhadaredbuttoninthelowerright-handcorner. When he opened thefaith book, a voice asked,“Are you certain that youwant to obtain a faith in thisproposition? If so, pleasepressthebutton.Ifnot,pleaseleavethescanningarea.”The questionwas repeated

three times, and each time itwasasked,thebuttonglowedred. A positioning apparatusslowly contracted to fix the

volunteer’sheadinplace,andthen the voice said, “Themental seal procedure isreadytostart.Pleasereadtheproposition silently and thenpressthebutton.”When the button was

pressed, it turned green, andafter about half a minute, itwent out. The voice said,“Thementalsealprocedureiscomplete.” The positioningapparatusseparated,and thenthevolunteergotupandleft.

After all four officerscompleted the procedure andreturned to the foyer, KeikoYamasuki carefully lookedthemover,confirmingalmostimmediately that herperception of their improvedmoods was not just herimagination. The melancholyand confusion haddisappeared from the fourpairs of eyes, which nowweresereneaswater.“How do you feel?” she

asked,smiling.“Excellent,” one young

officer said, returning hersmile.“Howitoughttobe.”When they left, the Asian

woman turned around andadded, “Doctor, I really feelgreat.Thankyou.”At thatmoment, the future

was certain, at least in theminds of those four youngpeople.From that day forward,

members of the space force

camewithoutpausetoobtainfaith—atfirstmostlyontheirown, but eventually in largergroups. They wore civilianclothesatfirst,butlatermostof them wore militaryuniforms. If more than fivepeople came at a time, thesupervisorypanelconvenedareviewmeeting toverify thatnoonehadbeencoerced.Oneweek later,more than

a hundred space forcemembers had obtained faith

invictory through thementalseal. They ranged in rankfrom private to seniorcolonel, the highest rankpermitted by national spaceforcestousethementalseal.That night, in the

moonlight at the FaithMonument, Hines said toKeiko Yamasuki, “Dear, weneedtogo.”“Tothefuture?”“That’s right. We’re not

any better than other

scientists in the study of themind, and we’veaccomplished everything weneeded to. We have pushedforward thewheelofhistory,so now let’s go to the futureandwaitforit.”“Howfar?”“Veryfar,Keiko.Veryfar.

To the day when theTrisolaran probes reach theSolarSystem.”“Beforewedothat,let’sgo

back to that house in Tokyo

forawhile.Afterall,thisageisgoingtobeburiedforever.”“Of course, dear. I miss it

too.”

***

Six months later, as KeikoYamasuki sank into thedeepeningcoldandwasaboutto enter hibernation, the coldfrozeand filteredout the riotof noise in her mind. Thisbrought the thread of her

focused thoughts into sharprelief in the lonely darkness,like the moment ten yearsbefore when Luo Ji plungedinto the icy lake. All of asudden, her hazy thoughtsbecame unusually clear, likethe chilly sky in the dead ofwinter.Shewantedtoshoutforthe

hibernationtostop,butitwastoo late. The ultra-lowtemperatures had seeped intoherbodyandshehadlostthe

abilitytoproducesound.The operators and doctors

noticed that just as she wasenteringhibernation,hereyessuddenly opened a crack,revealing an expression fullof horror and despair. If thecold hadn’t frozen hereyelids, her eyeswould havebeenwideopen.Butthiswasjust a normal reflex duringtheprocessthathadbeenseenon previous hibernators, sotheypaiditnomind.

***

The UN PDC WallfacerProject Hearing deliberatedthe stellar hydrogen bombtest.The giant breakthrough in

computing technology meantthat computers were at lastcapable of handling thetheoretical stellar model of anuclear explosion developedover thepastdecade,and themanufacture of large-yield

stellarhydrogenbombscouldbegin forthwith. Theprojected yield of the firstbomb was the equivalent of350 megatons of TNT, orseven times more powerfulthan the largest hydrogenbomb ever manufactured byhumanity. It was impossiblefor this superbomb to betested in theatmosphere, anda detonation in anunderground shaft of thedepth previously used would

eject the surrounding rockinto the air, so testing onEarth would require diggingan ultra-deep shaft.But evendetonating in an ultra-deepshaft would cause powerfulshockwavestospreadacrosstheworld andmight have anunanticipated effect on abroad range of geologicalstructures, possibly touchingoff disasters includingearthquakes and tsunamis.Therefore, the stellar

hydrogenbombcouldonlybetested in space. Yet it wasimpossible in high orbit,because at that distance, theelectromagnetic pulse thebombgeneratedwouldhaveacatastrophiceffectonEarth’stelecommunications andpowersystems.Theidealtestlocation, then, was on theback side of the moon.However, Rey Diaz chosedifferently.“I’ve decided to conduct

the tests on Mercury,” hesaid.Thisproposalsurprisedthe

representatives in attendance,and they voiced questionsabout the meaning of theplan.“According to the basic

principles of the Wallfacerplan, I do not have toexplain,” he answered icily.“The tests should beconducted underground. Weneed to dig ultra-deep shafts

onMercury.”TheRussian representative

said, “We can consider testson the surface of Mercury,butunderground testsare tooexpensive. Digging deepshafts there could cost ahundred timeswhata similarengineering project wouldcost on Earth. Besides, theeffects of a nuclear bombonthe environment of Mercurywouldtellusnothinguseful.”“Even a surface test on

Mercury is impossible!” theUS representative said. “Todate,ReyDiazhasconsumedthe most resources of all oftheWallfacers. The time hascome to stop him!” Thissentiment was echoed byrepresentatives from theUK,France,andGermany.ReyDiazsaidwithalaugh,

“Even if I used as fewresources as Dr. Luo, you’dstillbekeentovetomyplan.”He turned to the rotating

chair. “Iwould ask the chairand each representative toremember that out of all thestrategies proposed by theWallfacers, my plan is mostclosely in harmony withmainstream defense, to thepoint that you could view itas part of themainstream. Inabsolute numbers theconsumption of resourcesmight look large, but aconsiderable portion of thatoverlaps the mainstream.

Therefore—”The UK representative cut

him off. “You still ought toexplain why you need toconductundergroundtestsonMercury. Unless you’re justdoing it tospendmoney.Wecan’tfindanyexplanationforit.”“Mr. Chair,

Representatives,” Rey Diazcountered calmly, “you mayhavenoticedthatthePDCnolonger has even the barest

respect forWallfacers or fortheWallfacerprinciple.Ifwehave to explain every detailofourplans, thenhow is theWallfacer Projectmeaningful?”Onebyone,heturned his scorching gaze onevery representative, forcingthemtoturnaway.Hewenton,“Evenso,Iam

willing to offer anexplanation of the issue justraised. The goal ofconductingdeepunderground

tests on Mercury is to blastoutalargecaveontheplanetto serve as a futureMercurybase.Thisisclearlythemosteconomical way ofconducting an engineeringprojectofthiskind.”His words stirred up

whispers, and onerepresentative asked,“WallfacerReyDiaz,doyoumean you want to useMercury as the launch baseforstellarhydrogenbombs?”

Withconfidence,ReyDiazanswered, “Yes. Currentstrategic theory inmainstream defense holdsthat emphasis should beplaced on the outer planets,and so the inner planets,which are not believed to bedefensively significant, havenot been given sufficientattention.TheMercurybaseIhave planned is intended tomend this weak link inmainstreamdefense.”

“He’safraidofthesun,buthe wants to go to the planetclosest to it. Isn’t thata littlestrange?” the USrepresentative said. Therewas a bit of laughter,followed by a warning fromthechair.“It doesn’t matter, Mr.

Chair. I’ve grownaccustomed to this lack ofrespect.IwasusedtoitevenbeforeIbecameaWallfacer,”ReyDiazsaidwithawaveof

his hand. “But all of youshould respect the facts athand.When theouterplanetsand Earth have fallen, theMercurybasewillbe the lastbastion of humanity. Backedby the sun and situated amidthe cover of radiation, itwillbe the most rugged ofpositions.”“WallfacerReyDiaz,does

this mean that your plan’sentire significance lies in alast stand when humanity’s

situation is already hopeless?This is quite consistent withyour character,” the Frenchrepresentativesaid.“Gentlemen, we can’t

simply refuse to consider thefinal resistance,” Rey Diazsaidgravely.“Verywell,WallfacerRey

Diaz,” the chair said. “Now,would you be able to tell us,in your overall deploymentscenario, how many stellarhydrogenbombsyou’ll need,

alltold?”“The more the better.

Manufacture as many as theEarthhascapacitytoproduce.The specificnumberdependson the yield that hydrogenbombswillbeabletoachieveinthefuture,butaccordingtocurrentfigures,thefirstbatchin the deployment planrequiresatleastamillion.”Laughter shook the

auditorium at Rey Diaz’swords.

“Evidently Wallfacer ReyDiaz doesn’t just want tomake a small sun. He wantstomakea small galaxy!” theUSrepresentativesaidloudly.Then he leaned toward ReyDiaz. “Do you really thinkthat the ocean’s protium,deuterium, and tritium wereprepared just for you?Because of your pervertedaffection for the bomb, theEarthshouldbe turned intoabombworkshop?”

BythispointReyDiazwasthe only one in the assemblywith a straight face. Hewaited quietly until theclamor he had sparked dieddown, and then said, oneword at a time, “This is theultimate war of the humanrace, so thenumber Iask foris not at all large. But I didanticipate today’s outcome.Nevertheless, I will workhard. I will build bombs. IwillbuildasmanyasIcan,I

tellyou.IwillworkhardandIwon’tstop.”In response, the

representatives of the US,UK, and France put forth ajoint proposal, P269, toterminatethestrategicplanofWallfacerReyDiaz.

***

Only two colorswere visibleon the surface of Mercury:black and gold. The black

was theplanet’s land,and itslow reflectance meant thatevenundercloseilluminationfrom the fierce sun, itremained a sheet of black.The goldwas the sun,whichoccupied a considerableportion of the sky. In itsbroad wheel you couldclearly see the surging of itsfiery seas and the sunspotsdrifting by like black clouds,and,at itsedges, thegracefuldanceofsolarprominences.

Andon thishard chunkofrocksuspendedatopthesun’sfiery sea, humanity wasplantinganothersmallsun.Withthecompletionofthe

space elevator, humanity hadbegun the large-scaleexploration of the otherplanets in the Solar System.Manned spacecraft landingson Mars and the moons ofJupiter had not caused muchofastirbecausepeopleknewthat the purpose of these

expeditionswasmuchclearerandmorepracticalthaninthepast: They were purelyintendedtoestablishbasesforthe defense of the SolarSystem. These voyages,which relied mainly onchemical-propulsion rocketsand spacecraft, were merelythetiniestofstepstowardthatgoal. Initial explorationsfocused primarily on theouterplanets,butasthestudyof space strategy deepened,

neglecting the strategic valueof the inner planets wasincreasingly called intoquestion. Hence theexploration of Venus andMercurywassteppedup,andso it was that the PDCnarrowly passed Rey Diaz’splan to test the stellarhydrogenbombonMercury.Excavating the shaft

through the rock ofMercurywas the first large-scaleengineering project humanity

had undertaken on anotherplanet in the Solar System.Because construction couldonly take place duringMercury’s night, in stretchesof eighty-eight Earth days,the project would take threeyears to complete. However,in the end it only reachedone-third of the projecteddepth,duetothediscoveryofan unusually hard layerfarther down, a mixture ofmetal and rock. Continued

excavation would be muchslower and far more costly.Ultimately, itwas decided toterminate the project. If testswerecarriedoutatthepresentdepth, the surrounding rockwould most certainly beejected by the blast andwould form a crater, makingit basically a watered-downatmospheric test. Andbecause of the interferencefromthesurroundingcrust, itwould be far harder to

observe the test’s outcomethan with a purelyatmospheric test. But ReyDiaz thought that if a coverwerefittedontothiscrater, itcouldstillserveasabase,andinsisted on conducting thetest underground at thecurrentdepth.The testwascarriedoutat

dawn. Sunrise on Mercurywas a process that took overten hours, and a faint lighthad just appeared on the

horizon.Whenthedetonationcountdown reached zero,rings of ripples centered onground zero spread outward,and the ground on Mercuryseemed momentarily tobecomesoftassatin.Then,atthe blast site, a mountainslowlyroselikethebackofawakinggiant.When thepeakhad risen to around threethousand meters, the entiremountain exploded, sendingbillions of tons of mud and

rock flying into the air in atowering display of rage bythe ground toward the sky.And alongside the surginggroundcametheradiantlightof the underground nuclearfireball, which shone on therockandearthflyingthroughthe air to cause a grandspectacle of fireworks in theblack Mercury sky. Thefireball lasted for fiveminutes, as chunks of rockfell to the ground amid a

nuclear glow, before it wentout.Ten hours after the

conclusion of the blast,observers noticed that a ringhad appeared aroundMercury.Thiswasduetotheconsiderable amount of rockthat had achieved cosmicvelocity in the violentexplosionandhadturnedintomyriad satellites of varioussizes.Theyspreadoutevenlyinorbit,makingMercury the

first ringed terrestrial planet.The ring was thin, and as itsparkled in theharsh lightofthe sun, it lookedalmost likesomeone had taken ahighlightertotheplanet.Another proportion of the

rocks achieved escapevelocity and left Mercurybehind entirely, becomingsatellites of the sun in theirown right and forming anextremelysparseasteroidbeltinMercury’sorbit.

***

Rey Diaz lived undergroundnot out of any concern forsecurity, but because of hisheliophobia. Theclaustrophobic environment,far removed from thesunshine, made him feel alittle more comfortable. Hewatchedthelivebroadcastofthe Mercury test from thebasement where he lived. Itwasn’tactuallylive,sincethe

images took about sevenminutestoreachEarth.Whenthe blast on Mercury hadconcluded and the rock rainwas still falling in the post-fireballdarkness,he receiveda telephone call from therotating chair of the PDC,whosaidthat thetremendouspowerofthestellarhydrogenbombs had made a deepimpression on the PDCleadership, and that thepermanentmemberstateshad

requested that the nextWallfacer hearing be held assoon as possible to discussthe bombs’ manufacture anddeployment. The chair saidthat although the number ofbombs Rey Diaz hadrequested was animpossibility, the majorpowers were indeedinterestedintheproductionofthisweapon.Over ten hours after the

conclusion of the Mercury

test, as he was watchingMercury’snewringsparklingon the television, a guard’svoicecameovertheintercomto tell him that hispsychiatristhadarrivedforanappointment.“I never asked for any

psychiatrist.Sendhimaway!”He felt exasperated, like hehad suffered some greatindignity.“Don’t be like that, Mr.

Rey Diaz,” said another,

calmer voice, evidently thevisitor’s. “I can let you seethesun…”“Get the hell out,” he

shouted, but thenimmediately changed hismind. “No. Seize that idiotand find out where he camefrom.”“… because I know the

causeof your condition,” thevoice continued, still calm.“Mr.ReyDiaz,pleasebelieveme. You and I are the only

onesintheworldwhoknow.”Atthis,ReyDiazsuddenly

grewalert,andsaid,“Lethimin.” He stared at the ceilingfor a few seconds throughhaggard eyes, then got upslowly and picked up a tiefrom the cluttered sofa, onlyto toss it back again. Hewalked over to the mirror,straightened his collar, andcombed his hair with hishands, like he was preparingforasolemnevent.

Heknewthatitwasindeedasolemnevent.The visitor was a

handsome middle-aged manwho walked in but did notintroduce himself. Hefrowned slightly at theroom’s heavy odor of cigarsand alcohol, then simplystood there calmly as ReyDiazlookedhimover.“WhydoIhavethefeeling

I’ve seen you before?” hesaid, as he looked at the

visitor.“That’s not strange, Mr.

Rey Diaz. Everyone says IlooklikeSuperman,fromtheoldmovies.”“Do you really believe

you’reSuperman?”ReyDiazsaid.Hesatdownonthesofa,picked up a cigar, bit off theend,andbegantolightit.“That question shows that

you already know what kindof man I am. I’m notSuperman,Mr.ReyDiaz.Nor

are you.” As he spoke, theyounger man took a stepforward.ReyDiazfoundthatthemanwasstandingdirectlyinfrontofhim,peeringdownat him through the cloud ofsmoke he had just exhaled.Sohestoodup.The visitor said,

“WallfacerManuelReyDiaz,IamyourWallbreaker.”Gloomily, Rey Diaz

nodded.“May I sit down?” the

Wallbreakerasked.“You may not,” Rey Diaz

said, slowly blowing smokeintheotherman’sface.“Don’t be depressed,” the

Wallbreaker said with aconsideratesmile.“I’m not,” Rey Diaz said,

his voice cold and hard likestone.The Wallbreaker walked

overtothewallandflippedaswitch. Somewhere,ventilator fans started

humming.“Don’t mess with things

around here,” Rey Diazwarned.“Youneedalittlefreshair.

And, more than that, youneed sun. I’m quite familiarwith this room, WallfacerReyDiaz. In the images sentby the sophons I have oftenwatched you pace back andforth like a caged beast. NooneintheworldhasstaredatyouforaslongasIhave,and

on those days, believeme, itwasn’tanyeasierforme.”The Wallbreaker looked

straight at Rey Diaz, whoseexpressionwasasblankasanice sculpture, and then hewent on. “Compared toFrederick Tyler, you are abrilliant strategist. Acompetent Wallfacer. Pleasetrustthatthisisnotflattery.Imust admit that for quitesome time, for nearly adecade, you had me fooled.

Your mania for thesuperbomb, such aninefficientweapon inaspacebattle,successfullyconcealedyour own strategic direction,and for a long while Icouldn’t find any clue tocrack your true strategy. Istruggledinthemazethatyoulaid down, and at one pointalmost despaired.” TheWallbreaker lookedupat theceiling, overcome by thememory of those difficult

times. “Later, I thought ofchecking out informationfrom before you became aWallbreaker, but this wasn’teasy, because the sophonswere unable to help. Youknow, in those days, only alimited number of sophonshad reached Earth, and as aSouthAmericanheadofstateyou had not attracted theirattention.SoIhadtoresorttoconventionalmeans togathermaterials. This took three

years. In thosematerials,oneman stood out: WilliamCosmo. You met him insecretonthreeoccasions.Thesophons did not record thecontent of yourconversations,soIwillneverknow, but for the head of asmall, undeveloped countryto meet three times with aWestern astrophysicist ishighly unusual. We nowknow that at that time youhadalreadybeenpreparingto

becomeaWallfacer.“No doubt what interested

you was the fruit of Dr.Cosmo’sresearch.Howthoseresults first came to yourattentionIamnotclearonatthis time, but you had abackground in engineering,and you had the successfulexperienceofyoursocialism-loving predecessor, who hadequalenthusiasmforanationruled by engineers. Thiswasa major reason why you

becamehissuccessor.Soyouought to have had thecapability and sensitivity tonotice the potentialsignificance of Cosmo’sresearch.“Once the Trisolar Crisis

began, Dr. Cosmo’s researchteamworkedon studying theatmosphere of the Trisolaranstellar system. Theyspeculated that theatmosphere had beenproduced by a former planet

that had collidedwith a star.As it collided, it broke apartthe outer layers, itsphotosphere and troposphere,causing the stellar matterinsidetobeejectedintospaceand form a surroundingatmosphere. Due to the totalirregularity of the system’smotion, thereare timeswhenthestarspasseachotherquiteclosely, and at those times,one star’s atmosphere isdispersed by the gravity of

the other star, only to bereplenished by eruptions onthe stellar surface. Thesearen’t constant eruptions,more like volcanoes thatexperience sudden outbreaks.This is the reason for thecontinual contraction andexpansion of the stars’atmosphere. To prove thishypothesis, Cosmo searchedthe universe to find anotherstar with an atmosphere thatwas ejected following a

collisionwithaplanet.InthethirdyearoftheCrisisEra,hesucceeded.“Dr. Cosmo’s team

discovered planetary system275E1, about eighty-fourlight-years from the SolarSystem. Hubble II had notgone into operation at thattime,sotheyusedthewobblemethod. By observing andcalculating the wobblefrequency and light mask,they learned that the planet

was quite close to its parentstar. At first, this discoverydid not attract too muchattention because theastronomycommunityhadbythen discovered more thantwo hundred planetarysystems, but furtherobservations revealed ashocking fact: The distancebetween planet and star wascontinuallyshrinking,andtherate of shrinkage wasaccelerating. This meant that

humanitywould, for the firsttime,observeaplanet fallinginto a star. One year later—or, rather, eighty-four yearsprior to observation—ithappened. Observationalconditions at the time meantthat the collision could onlybe determined based on thegravitational wobble and theperiodic lightmask.But thensomething wondroushappened: A spiral ofmatterappearedaroundthestar,and

this spiral flow continued toexpand. It looked like amainspringslowlyunwindingwith the star as its center.Cosmo and his colleaguesrealizedthatthematerialflowhad been ejected from theplanet’s crash point. Thechunk of rock had crashedthrough the shell of thatdistant sun and ejected itsstellar matter into space,where, due to the star’s ownrotation,itformedaspiral.

“There were several keypieces of data here, sir. ThestarisayellowG2classwithan absolutemagnitudeof 4.3andadiameterof1.2millionkilometers. Quite similar tooursun.Theplanetwasaboutfour percent of the mass ofEarth, or a little smaller thanMercury,andthespiralcloudofmaterialproducedfromthecollisionhadaradiusofuptothree AU, more than thedistancebetweenoursunand

theasteroidbelt.“And it was in this

discovery that I found thecrack with which to breakopenyour real strategicplan.Now, as yourWallbreaker, Iwill explain your grandstrategy.“Supposing that you are

ultimately able to obtainthose million or more stellarhydrogenbombs,youwill,asyou promised to the PDC,stockpile them all on

Mercury. If the bombs aredetonated in the rock ofMercury, they’ll be like aturbo-engine decelerating theplanet. Eventually its speedwillnolongerbeabletokeepit in loworbitand itwill fallinto the sun. Next, whathappened on 275E1 eighty-four light-years away isreenacted here: Mercurypunctures the sun’sconvective shell and ejects ahugeamountofstellarmatter

from its radiation layer intospaceathighspeed;which,asthesunrotates,formsaspiralatmosphere similar to that in275E1. The sun differs fromtheTrisolaran system in that,as a lone star, it will nevercrosspathswithanother star,and therefore its atmospherewill continue to increaseuninhibited until it becomeseven thicker than theatmosphere of those stars.This was also confirmed by

observationsof275E1.Whenthe spiral flow of ejectedmatterexpandsoutwardfromthe sun like an unwoundmainspring, its thicknesseventually passes Mars’sorbit, at which point amagnificent chain reactionbegins.“First, three terrestrial

planets—Venus, Earth, andMars—passthroughthesun’sspiraling atmosphere, losingspeeddue to theatmospheric

frictionandturningintothreegiant meteors that eventuallycrash into the sun. But wellbefore this happens, theEarth’s atmosphere isstripped away by the intensefriction of the solar matter.Theoceansevaporate,andthelost atmosphere andevaporated oceans turn theEarth into a giant cometwhose tail extends along itsorbit to wrap all the wayaround the sun. The surface

of the Earth returns to thefierymagma sea of its birth,wherenolifecansurvive.“When Venus, Earth, and

Mars crash into the sun, itexacerbatesthesun’sejectionof solar matter into space.The single spiral flow ofmatter increases to fourflows.Becausethetotalmassofthosethreeplanets isfortytimes that of Mercury, andbecause their higher orbitsmeantheyimpactthesunata

muchhigherspeed,eachnewspiral is ejected with aferocity tens of times greaterthanMercury’s. The existingspiral atmosphere rapidlyexpands until its edgeapproaches the orbit ofJupiter.“Friction produces only a

verysmalldecelerationeffecton the huge mass of Jupiter,soitisquitesometimebeforethe spiral has a noticeableeffect on Jupiter’s orbit. But

Jupiter’s satellites meet oneof the following two fates:friction strips them awayfrom Jupiter and they losespeedandfallintothesun,orthey lose speed in Jovianorbit and fall into the liquidplanet.“As the chain reaction

continues, the decrease inspeed from the spiralatmosphere, though small, isstill present, and Jupiter’sorbit gradually decays. This

causes it to pass through anincreasingly denseatmosphere whose frictionaccelerates its loss in speed,thereby causing the orbit todecay even more quickly.…Inthisway,Jupitereventuallyfalls into the sun, too. Itsmassissixhundredtimesthatof the previous four planets,and the impact that such amassive body makes on thesun will, even according tothe most conservative

reasoning, produce an evenmore violent ejection ofstellar matter, increasing thedensity of the spiralatmosphere and exacerbatingthebitter coldofUranus andNeptune. But anotherpossibilityismorelikely:ThefalloftheJoviangiantpushesthe edge of the spiralatmosphereouttotheorbitofUranusorevenNeptune,andthough the atmosphere isquitethinatthetop,friction’s

deceleratingeffectspullthesetwo planets and theirsatellites toward thesun, too.What state the sunwillbe inand how the Solar Systemwill have been transformedafter the chain reactionfinishes and the four denseterrestrial planets and fourgas giants are consumed isunknowable.Butonethingiscertain: For life and forcivilization,thiswillbeahelleven crueler than attack by

Trisolaris.“As for Trisolaris, the

Solar System is their onlyhope before their planet isengulfedbytheirstars.Thereis no other world they canmigrate to in time, andtherefore, their civilizationwill follow humanity intototaldestruction.“This is your strategy:

death for both sides. Onceeverything is prepared, withall of the stellar hydrogen

bombs in place on Mercury,you will use it to coerceTrisolaris to surrender andgain the ultimate victory forhumanity.“What I’ve just presented

istheoutcomeoftheyearsofwork that I, yourWallbreaker,haveperformed.Iamnotseekingyouropinionor critique, because I knowthatallofthisistrue.”As theWallbreaker spoke,

Rey Diaz had been listening

quietly.Thecigarinhishandwasmorethanhalfwaygone,andhenowturneditaboutasifappreciatingtheglowofthetip.TheWallbreaker sat down

onthesofa,closebesidehim.Like a teacher evaluating astudent’s homework, hecontinued unfatigued: “Mr.Rey Diaz, I said you are abrilliant strategist, or at leastyou demonstrated manyexcellent qualities in the

formulation andimplementationofthisplan.“For one thing, you took

advantage of your ownbackground. Right now,people clearly remember thehumiliations you and yourcountry suffered when theOrinoco nuclear facility wasforced to be taken down asyou were developing nuclearenergy.Thewholeworldsawyour gloomy face, and youtook advantage of outside

perceptions of your paranoiaabout nuclear weapons toreduce or even eliminate anypossiblesuspicion.“But every detail in the

execution of your plandemonstrates your talent aswell. I will mention but oneexample:DuringtheMercurytest, you wanted the rock tobe blasted into the sky, butyouinsistedonexcavatinganultra-deep shaft in afarsighted gambit. You quite

precisely understood thetolerance of the PDC’spermanentmember states forthe cost of this enormousundertaking, and that isadmirable.“But you had one major

slipup.Why did the first testhave to be carried out onMercury? There would havebeen plenty of time to bringthe bombs there in a laterphase, but maybe you gotimpatient and wanted to see

the outcome of a stellarhydrogen bomb blast there.You saw it: lots of rockmatter blasted to escapevelocity, perhaps evenexceeding your expectations.You were satisfied. But thisprovided the finalconfirmation of myhypothesis.“Yes,Mr. Rey Diaz, even

given all my previous work,without that final event Imightneverhavebeenableto

determine your true strategicintentions. The notion wastoo mad. But it was grand,and even beautiful. If thechain reaction triggered byMercury’s fall actually tookplace, then it would be themost magnificent movementoftheentiresymphonyoftheSolar System … although,unfortunately, humanitywould only be able to enjoythe first section. Mr. ReyDiaz, you are a Wallfacer

withthemakingsofagod.Itis my honor to become yourWallbreaker.”The Wallbreaker stood up

andofferedReyDiazagenialbow.Rey Diaz did not look at

him. He took a puff of hiscigarandblewoutthesmokeashecontinuedtoexamineit.“Fine. Then I’ll ask thequestionthatTylerasked.”TheWallbreaker asked the

question for him. “If what I

sayistrue,thensowhat?”Rey Diaz stared at the lit

endofthecigarandnodded.“Myansweristhesameas

Tyler’s Wallbreaker’s: TheLorddoesnotcare.”Rey Diaz lifted his eyes

from the cigar and lookedquestioningly at hisWallbreaker.“You look crude, but your

mind is sharp. Yet in thedepths of your soul, you’restillcrude.Yournatureisthat

of a crude man. And thiscrudeness is revealed in thebasis of this strategic plan.It’sgreedy.Humanitydoesn’thave the ability tomanufacture so many stellarhydrogen bombs. Even if allofEarth’sindustrialresourceswere exhausted, it wouldn’tproduce even one-tenth ofthat number. And a millionstellarhydrogenbombs is farfrom enough to decelerateMercury into the sun.Witha

soldier’s recklessness, youformulated this impossibleplan, and then stubbornlycarrieditforwardstepbystepwiththewilycalculationsofasuperior strategist. WallfacerRey Diaz, this is truly atragedy.”AsReyDiaz lookedat the

Wallbreaker, his expressiongradually filled with anelusive softness, and hints ofconvulsions showed on hiscoarsely linedface,gradually

taking shape, until at last hissuppressedlaughtererupted.“Ha ha ha ha ha…” he

laughed, pointing at theWallbreaker. “Superman! Haha ha ha. I remember now.That … that old Superman.He could fly, and he couldreverse the rotation of theEarth,butwhenhewasridinga horse … ha ha ha ha …when he was riding a horse,hefellandbrokehisneck…ahhahaha…”

“ItwasChristopherReeve,the actor who playedSuperman,whofellandbrokehis neck,” the Wallbreakercorrectedhim,quietly.“Do you imagine …

imaginethatyourfatewillbebetter than his? Ha ha haha…”“Sincecominghere,Ihave

no regard for my fate. I’velived a full life,” theWallbreaker said evenly.“But you, Mr. Rey Diaz,

ought to think about yourownfate.”“You’lldiefirst,”ReyDiaz

said, smiling with his entireface as he pressed the cigarend directly between theWallbreaker’s eyes. Then,when the Wallbreaker wascovering his face with hishands, Rey Diaz took up amilitary-issue belt from thesofa, wrapped it around theWallbreaker’s neck, andstrangled him with every

ounce of his strength.Although the Wallbreakerwasyoung,hehadnowaytodefend himself against ReyDiaz’sagilestrength,andwasthrown to the floor by hisneck. Rey Diaz bellowed,“I’ll wring your neck! Youbastard!Whosentyouheretoplaysmart?Who thehell areyou?Bastard!I’llwringyourneck!” He tightened the beltand slammed theWallbreaker’s head into the

ground repeatedly, to thecrunchofteethsmackingintothe floor. When the guardsburst in to separate them, theWallbreaker’s face waspurple,hewasfoamingatthemouth, and his eyes wereprotrudinglikeagoldfish’s.Rey Diaz, still in a fury,

struggled with the guards ashecontinuedtoshout,“Wringhis neck! String him up andhanghim!Rightnow!Thisispart of the plan! Do you

fucking hearme? Part of theplan!”But the three guards did

not carry out his order. OneofthemheldReyDiaztightlywhile the other two lifted upthe Wallbreaker, who hadrecovered his breathsomewhat, and started tocarryhimout.“Just wait, you bastard.

Youwon’tdieeasy,”hesaid,abandoning his efforts toescape the guard and have

another go at theWallbreaker. He let out alongsigh.The Wallbreaker looked

back over the guard’sshoulder, a smile on hisbruised and swollen face.Heopened up a mouth that wasmissing several teeth andsaid,“I’velivedafulllife.”

PDCWallfacerHearing

As the meeting commenced,the United States, United

Kingdom, France, andGermany put up anotherproposition, this onedemanding the immediatesuspension of Rey Diaz’spositionasWallfacerandhistrial before the InternationalCourt of Justice for crimesagainsthumanity.The US representative

declared, “After substantialinvestigation,webelieve thatReyDiaz’sstrategicintentasdisclosed by theWallbreaker

is credible. What we arefacingnowisapersonwhosecrimedwarfsallofthecrimesever committed in humanhistory. We were unable tofindasinglelawapplicabletohis crime, sowe recommendthatthecrimeofExtinctionofLife on Earth be added tointernational law, and thatReyDiazbetriedunderit.”Rey Diaz appeared quite

relaxed at the hearing.Sneering, he said to the US

representative, “You’ve beentrying to get rid of me,haven’t you? Ever since theWallfacer Project began, youhave all applied a doublestandard to the Wallfacers.I’mtheoneyoulikeleast.”The UK representative

retorted, “Wallfacer ReyDiaz’s claim is baseless. Infact, the countries he isaccusing are the ones whoinvestedthemostmoneyintohis plan, far exceeding what

they invested in the otherthreeWallfacers.”“Sure,”ReyDiazsaidwith

a nod, “but the real reasonyouinvestedsoheavilyinmyplanisbecauseyouwantedtoget your hands on the stellarhydrogenbombs.”“Ridiculous! What would

we do with them?” the USrepresentative shot back.“They’re incrediblyinefficientweaponsinaspacebattle, and on the Earth,

there’s no practicalsignificance even for thoseoldtwenty-megatonhydrogenbombs, much less a three-hundred-megatonmonster.”Rey Diaz responded

calmly, “But the bombs willbethemosteffectiveweaponin battles on other planets,particularly in wars amonghumans. On the desolatesurface of other planets,there’s no need to beconcerned with civilian

casualties or environmentaldamage, so you’re free tocarry out wide-areadestruction, or even adevastating sweep of theentire surface. Here’s wherethe stellar hydrogen bombswill prove useful. You musthave anticipated that, ashumanity expands into theSolar System, Earth’sconflictswillexpandoutwardas well. This won’t changeeven with Trisolaris as a

common enemy, and you’repreparing for it. Right now,it’spolitically indefensible todevelopsuperweaponsforuseagainst humans, so you tookadvantage of me to makethem.”TheUSrepresentativesaid,

“That’sthepreposterouslogicof a terrorist and a dictator.ReyDiaz is the kind ofmanwho, granted the status andpower of a Wallfacer, turnstheWallfacer Project into as

bigadangerastheTrisolaraninvasion. We must takedecisiveactiontocorrect thismistake.”“They’re as good as their

word,”ReyDiazsaid,turningto Garanin, the incumbentrotating chair. “The CIA hasmenwaitingoutside toarrestme as soon as I go outsideafterthishearing.”The rotating chair glanced

in the direction of the USrepresentative, who was

fiddlingintentlywithhispen.Garaninhadfirsttakenofficeat the start of the WallfacerProject, and even he hadforgottenthenumberofshortterms inofficehehadservedduring the ensuing twodecades.Butthiswasthelasttime. Now white-haired, hewasabouttoretire.“Wallfacer Rey Diaz, if

whatyousayistrue,thenthatis inappropriate. So long asthe principles of the

Wallfacer Project still hold,Wallfacers have legalimmunity, and none of theirwords and actions can beused as evidence to chargethemofacrime,”hesaid.“Additionally, please

remember that this isinternational territory,” theJapaneserepresentativesaid.“So does that mean,” the

US representative said,raising a pencil, “that evenwhen Rey Diaz is about to

detonate the millionsuperbombs he’s buried onMercury, society still won’tbe able to chargehimwith acrime?”“According to the relevant

provisions in the WallfacerAct, placing limitations andcurbsonthestrategicplansofWallfacers who exhibitdangerous tendencies is anentirely separate matter fromthe Wallfacer’s own legalimmunity,”Garaninsaid.

“Rey Diaz’s crimes havecrossed outside the boundaryof legal immunity. He mustbe punished. This is aprecondition for thecontinued existence of theWallfacer Project,” the UKrepresentativesaid.“May I remind the chair

and the representatives,”ReyDiaz said, rising from hisseat, “that this is a PDCWallfacer hearing, and thatI’mnotontrial.”

“You’ll stand in courtsoon,” the US representativesaid,withachillysmile.“I agree with Wallfacer

Rey Diaz. We should returnto the discussion of hisstrategic plan,”Garanin said,seizing the opportunity totemporarilybypassthethornyissue.The Japanese

representative broke hissilence. “From the way itlooks now, the

representatives have reachedaconsensuson the followingpoint: Rey Diaz’s strategicplan exhibits dangeroustendencies toward clearviolations of human rights,andaccording to the relevantprinciples in the WallfacerAct,itshouldbestopped.”“Then Proposition P269,

proposed at the previousWallfacer hearing, regardinghalting Rey Diaz’s strategicplan, can now be put to a

vote,”Garaninsaid.“Mr. Chair, wait one

moment.”ReyDiazraisedhishand.“Beforethevote,IhopeImightbeabletoofferafinalexplanation of some of thedetailsofmyplan.”“If they’re just details, is

this really necessary?”someoneasked.“Saveitforcourt,”theUK

representative saidsarcastically.“No, these details are

important,” Rey Diazpersisted. “Right now, let usassume that what theWallbreaker has disclosedabout my strategic intentionsis true. One representativespoke of the moment whenthe million hydrogen bombsdeployed on Mercury areready to be detonated, atwhich point I will face theomnipresent sophons anddeclare to Trisolarishumanity’s intent to diewith

them. What will happenthen?”“The Trisolarans’ reaction

can’t be predicted, but onEarth,it’scertainthatbillionsof peoplewillwant towringyourneck,justlikeyoudidtothatWallbreaker,”theFrenchrepresentativesaid.“Exactly.So I tookcertain

measures todealwith suchasituation.Takealookatthis.”ReyDiazraisedhis lefthandand displayed his wristwatch

to the assembly. It wasentirely black, and the dialwas twice as large and thickas a normal men’s watch,although it didn’t appearlargeonhisthickwrist.“Thisis a transmitter sending asignal through a space linkdirectlytoMercury.”“You’ll use it to send the

detonation signal?” someoneasked.“Precisely the opposite. It

sends a non-detonation

signal.”His words focused the

attention of the entireassembly. He went on: “Thesystem is code-named‘cradle,’ meaning that whenthe cradle stops rocking, thebaby will wake. It sends acontinuous signal, receivedcontinuously on Mercury. Ifthe signal is interrupted, thenthe system will immediatelydetonate the hydrogenbomb.”

“It’s called a dead-man’sswitch,” the USrepresentative said stoically.“In the Cold War there wasresearch into using anti-triggers and dead-man’sswitches on strategic nukes,but they were neverimplemented. Only amadman would actually doit.”ReyDiazbroughtdownhis

left hand and covered thecradlewithhissleeve.“Iwas

taughtthiswonderfulideanotby an expert in nuclearstrategy but by an Americanfilm. In it, aman has one ofthesegadgetsthatsendsoutacontinuous signal, but if hisheartstopsbeating,thesignalis terminated. Another manhas a bomb strapped to himthat’s impossible to remove,and if the bomb doesn’treceive the signal, it’llexplode.So even though thishapless fool doesn’t like the

first guy, he has to doeverything he can to protecthim.… I like watchingAmerican blockbusters. EventodayIcanstillrecognizetheoldversionofSuperman.”“Do you mean that this

device is tied to yourheartbeat?” the Japaneserepresentative asked. Hereached over to Rey Diaz,who was standing next tohim, to touch the deviceunder his sleeve, but Rey

Diaz moved his arm andstoodabitfartheraway.“Of course. But the cradle

ismoreadvancedandrefinedthanthat.Itmonitorsnot justtheheartbeatbutlotsofotherphysiological indicators suchas blood pressure, bodytemperature,andsoforth,andconducts a comprehensiveanalysis of these parameters.If they’re not normal, then itimmediately stops the anti-trigger signal in the dead-

man’s switch. It can alsorecognizemanyofmysimplevoicecommands.”A nervous-looking man

entered the auditorium andwhispered something intoGaranin’s ear.Before he hadfinished whispering, GaraninglancedupatReyDiazwithapeculiar look in his eyes,which did not escape thekeen-eyedrepresentatives.“There’s a way to disarm

yourcradle.Countermeasures

for anti-triggerswere studiedduring the Cold War, too,”theUSrepresentativesaid.“It’snotmycradle.It’sthe

cradle for those hydrogenbombs. If the cradle stopsrocking, they’ll wake up,”ReyDiazsaid.“I’ve thought of the same

technique,” the Germanrepresentative said. “Whenthesignalis transmittedfromyour watch to Mercury, itmust pass through a

complicated communicationslink. Destroying or shieldingany node, then using a falsesignal source to continue totransmit the anti-triggersignalfartherdownthechain,will render your cradlesystemuseless.”“Thatisindeedaproblem,”

ReyDiaz said,with a nod atthe German representative.“Without the sophons, theproblem is easily solved.Allthe nodes are loadedwith an

identical encryptionalgorithm that generatesevery signal sent. To theoutside world, it looks as ifthe signal values are randomand different every time, butthe cradle’s sender andrecipient produce a sequenceof values that are identical.Only when the recipientreceives a signalcorresponding to its ownsequence is the signalconsideredvalid.Withoutthis

encryption algorithm, thesignal sent out by your falsesource won’t match therecipient’s sequence. But thedamn sophons can detect thealgorithm.”“You’ve perhaps come up

with another approach?”someoneasked.“Acrudeapproach.Me,all

my approaches are clumsyand crude,” Rey Diaz said,withaself-mockinglaugh.“Ihave increased the sensitivity

ofeachnode’smonitoringofits own state. Specifically,each communication node iscomposed of several unitsthat may be separated by alarge distance, but areconnected into a whole bycontinuouscommunication.Ifany one unit fails, the entirenode will issue a commandterminating the anti-trigger,afterwhich, even if the falsesignal source resumessending a signal to the next

node, it will not beacknowledged. Themonitoring of every unit canachieve a microsecond levelof accuracy, which meansthat—using the Germanrepresentative’s approach—everyunitof anodemustbesimultaneouslydestroyedandthe signal resumed from thefalsesignalsourcewithin thespace of a microsecond.Everynodeiscomposedofatleast three units, but may

have dozens of them. Theseunits are separated by adistance of about threehundredkilometers.Eachoneis built to be extremelyrugged, and it will issue itswarning upon any outsidetouch.Causing these units tofail within the space of amicrosecond might bepossible for the Trisolarans,butit’snotcurrentlypossibleforhumans.”His final sentence put

everyoneonalert.“I have just received a

report that the thing on ReyDiaz’swristhasbeensendingout an electromagneticsignal,” Garanin said. Theatmosphere of the assemblyturnedtenseatthenews.“I’dlike to ask you, WallfacerReyDiaz: Is the signal fromyourwristwatchbeingsenttoMercury?”Rey Diaz chuckled a few

times,thensaid,“Whywould

I be sending it to Mercury?There’s nothing there but agiantpit.Besides,thecradle’sspace communication linkhasn’t been set up yet. No,no, no. You don’t need toworry.The signal isn’tgoingto Mercury. It’s goingsomewhere in New YorkCity,veryclosetous.”Theairfroze,andeveryone

in the assembly, apart fromRey Diaz, stood as shockedaswoodenchickens.

“Ifthesignalsustainingthecradle is terminated, whatwill it trigger?” the UKrepresentative asked sharply,nolongerattemptingtomaskhistension.“Oh, something will be

triggered,allright,”ReyDiazsaid to him with a broadlaugh.“I’vebeenaWallfacerfor more than twenty years,and I’ve always been able togetafewthingsofmyown.”“Well then,Mr.ReyDiaz,

wouldyoube able to answeran even more directquestion?” the Frenchrepresentative said. Helooked entirely calm, butthere was a tremble in hisvoice. “Howmany liveswillyou, or will we, beresponsiblefor?”ReyDiazwidenedhiseyes

at the Frenchman, as if hethought the question bizarre.“What? The number ofpeoplemakes a difference? I

thought all of you here wererespectable gentlemen whoprizehuman rightsaboveall.What’s the differencebetween one life and 8.2million? If it’s the former,thenyoudon’thavetorespectit?”The US representative

stoodupandsaid,“Morethantwenty years ago when theWallfacer Project began, wepointed out what he was.”PointingafingeratReyDiaz

and spraying saliva as hespoke, he strove to containhimself, but ended up losingcontrol. “He’s a terrorist. Anevil, filthy terrorist!A devil!Youunstoppedthebottleandlet him loose, and you musttake responsibility! The UNmustbeheldresponsible!”heshouted hysterically, sendinghispapersflying.“Calm down, Mr.

Representative,” Rey Diazsaidwithaslightsmile.“The

cradleisverysensitivetomyphysiological indices. If Iwere togo intohysterics likeyou, ifmymoodwavered, itwould immediately stopsending the anti-triggersignal.Soyou,andallofyousitting here, shouldn’t makeme too upset. It would bebetter for all of us if youcould try and keep mehappy.”“What are your

conditions?” Garanin asked

softly.Abit of sadness crept into

thesmileonReyDiaz’s faceas he turned toward Garaninand shook his head. “Mr.Chair, what other conditionscould I name?To leave hereand return to my owncountry. A charter plane iswaiting for me at KennedyAirport.”The assembly was silent.

Unconsciously, they had allgradually turned their

attention from Rey Diaz tothe US representative, who,unabletostandalltheeyesonhim, threw himself back intohischairandhissed,“Getthehellout.”Rey Diaz slowly nodded,

thenstoodupandwalkedout.“Mr. Rey Diaz, I’ll take

you home,” Garanin said,leavingtherostrum.ReyDiazstoodwaitingfor

Garanin as he walked over,less nimbly than before.

“Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ithoughtyoumight liketogetoutofheretoo.”The two were at the door

when Rey Diaz grabbedGaranin and turnedwith himback toward the auditorium.“Gentlemen,Iwon’tmissthisplace. I’ve wasted these twodecades, and no one hereunderstandsme. Iwant togobacktomyhomeland,backtomy people. Yes, myhomeland and my people. I

missthem.”Toeveryone’ssurprise,the

big man’s eyes shone withtears.At lasthesaid,“Iwantto go back to my homeland.Thisisnotpartoftheplan.”When he walked out the

door of the UN GeneralAssemblybuilding,ReyDiazopened his arms wide to thesunandcalledoutwithrelish,“Ah, my sun!” His two-decade-long heliophobia hadvanished.

ReyDiaz’s flight tookoff,and crossed the easterncoastline to fly over the vastAtlanticOcean.In the cabin, Garanin said

to him, “With me here, thisaircraftissafe.Pleasetellmethelocationofthedeviceyouhave connected to the dead-man’sswitch.”“There’s no device.

There’snothing.Itwasjustatrick to escape.” Rey Diaztookoffhiswatchandhanded

it to Garanin. “This is just asimple transmitter convertedfrom a Motorola phone. It’snot connected to myheartbeat, either. It’s beenturned off. Keep it as asouvenir.”For a long time neither of

them spoke. Then Garaninsighed and said, “How didthishappen?TheWallfacers’privilege of sealed-offstrategic thinking was meantto be used against the

sophons and Trisolaris. Butyou and Tyler both used itagainsthumanity.”“There’s nothing strange

about that,” Rey Diaz said.He sat next to the window,enjoying the sunlight shiningin from the outside. “Rightnow, the greatest obstacle tohumanity’s survival comesfromitself.”Six hours later, the plane

touched down at CaracasInternational Airport on the

Caribbean coast.Garanin didnot get off. He would betaking the plane back to theUN.When they parted, Rey

Diaz said, “Don’t abort theWallfacerProject. It really isa hope amid this war. Thereare still two Wallfacers.Pleasewishthemthebestforme.”“I won’t be seeing them,

either,” Garanin said, withemotion. By the time Rey

Diazwalkedoff, leavinghimalone in thecabin,hewas intears.The sky over Caracas was

asclearasinNewYork.ReyDiazwalkeddowntheairstairand smelled the familiartropical atmosphere, thenbent down and gave a longkiss to the ground of hishomeland. Then, guarded byalargedetachmentofmilitarypolice, he took a motorcadetothecity.Afterhalfanhour

on awindingmountain road,they entered the capital anddrove up to the city centerand Plaza Bolívar. At thestatueofSimónBolívar,ReyDiaz got out of the car andstood on the statue’s base.Abovehimonhorsebackwasthe great armor-clad herowhohaddefeatedtheSpanishandtriedtoestablishaunifiedRepublic of Gran ColombiainSouthAmerica.Infrontofhim, a crowd of frenetic

people boiled under the sun,swelling forward, only to bemet with the vigorousresistance of the militarypolice. Shots were fired intotheair,but thetideofpeopleeventually surged past thepolicelineandpouredtowardthe livingBolívar at the footofthestatue.Rey Diaz held up his

hands, and, with tears in hiseyes, called out to the crowdin a voice dripping with

emotion,“Ah,mypeople!”The first stone thrown by

his people struck him on hisoutstretched left hand, thesecond hit him in the chest,andthethirdsmashedintohisforehead and nearly knockedhim out. After that, thepeople’s stones came likeraindrops,andhadpracticallyburiedhislifelessbodybytheend. The last stone that hitWallfacer Rey Diaz wasthrown by an old woman,

who struggled to carry it upto his corpse, then said, inSpanish, “Evildoer! Youwould kill everyone. Mygrandson would have beenthere. You’d have killed mygrandson!”Then,usingallthestrength

in her trembling hands, sheslammed her stone againstRey Diaz’s broken skull,where it layexposedbeneaththepileofrocks.

***

Time is the one thing thatcan’tbestopped.Likeasharpblade, it silentlycuts throughhard and soft, constantlyadvancing. Nothing iscapable of jolting it even theslightest bit, but it changeseverything.The same year as the

Mercury test, Chang Weisiretired. In his final mediaappearance, he frankly

acknowledgedthathehimselfhadnoconfidence invictory,but this did not affecthistory’s high opinion of theworkofthespaceforce’sfirstcommander. Working for somany years in a state ofanxiety had damaged hishealth,andhediedattheageof sixty-eight. The generalwaslucidonhisdeathbedandmentioned Zhang Beihai’snamemanytimes.After leaving her second

term in office, SecretaryGeneral Say launched theHuman Memorial Project,whose goal was thecomprehensive collection ofdata and commemorativeartifactsofhumancivilizationthatwouldultimatelybe sentout into the cosmos onunmanned spacecraft. Theproject’s most influentialcomponent was called theHumanDiary,aWebsitethatwas set up to allow asmany

people as possible to recordtheir lifetimes in the form oftext and images from theireveryday lives, to becomepart of the data ofcivilization. The HumanDiary Web site eventuallygrew to have more than twobillion users and formed thelargest-ever body ofinformation on the Internet.Later,thePDC,believingthattheHumanMemorial Projectcontributed to defeatism,

passed a resolution stoppingits further development, andeven equated it withEscapism.ButSaycontinuedto pour her individual effortsinto the project until shepassed away at the age ofeighty-four.After retirement, Garanin

and Kent made the samechoice:tosecludethemselvesin that Garden of Eden innorthernEuropewhereLuoJihadlivedforfiveyears.They

wereneveragainseenby theoutside world, and no oneevenknewtheexactdatetheydied. But one thing wascertain: They lived a longtime. Some said that the twoof them reached the centurymark before dying a naturaldeath.Just as Keiko Yamasuki

hadpredicted,WuYuespentthe remainder of his life indepressionandconfusion.Heworked for more than a

decade on the HumanMemorial Project but wasunabletofindanysolaceinit,and he passed away inloneliness at the age ofseventy-seven. Like ChangWeisi, Wu Yue had ZhangBeihai’s name on his lips inhis final moments. Theypinned theirsharedhopesforthe future on the stalwartwarrior now hibernatingthroughtime.Dr. Albert Ringier and

General Fitzroy both livedintotheireightiesandsawthecompletion of the hundred-meter Hubble III SpaceTelescope,whichtheyusedtolook at the planet Trisolaris.But theyneveragainsawtheTrisolaranFleetortheprobesnow flying ahead of it. Theydid not live long enough forthem to cross the third patchofsnow.The lives of ordinary

people continued and ended

aswell. Out of the three oldBeijing neighbors, MiaoFuquan was the first todepart, passing away at theageofseventy-five.Hereallydid have his son bury himtwohundredmetersdownanabandonedmine, andhis sonobeyed his last wishes toblow up the mine wall anderect a tombstone toremember him.According tohis father’s will, the lastgeneration before the

Doomsday Battle wassupposed to clear out thetombstone, and if humanitywon,thenitcouldberestoredtoitsoriginallocation.But,infact, less than half a centuryafter his death, the area overthe mine shaft became adesert. The tombstonedisappeared, the mine’slocation was lost, and theMiao family’s descendantscouldn’t be bothered to lookforit.

Zhang Yuanchao died ofillnesslikeanordinarypersonattheageofeighty,and,likean ordinary person, he wascremated.Hisasheswerelaidinanordinaryrectangularsloton a long rack in a publiccemetery.Yang Jinwen lived till

ninety-two, and the alloyvessel containinghis remainsheaded out of the SolarSystem and into the vastcosmos at the third cosmic

velocity. This consumed allofhissavings.ButDingYilivedon.After

the breakthrough incontrolled fusion technology,he turned his attention totheoretical physics, lookingfor ways to escape sophoninterference in high-energyparticle physics experiments.Hehad no success.Whenhereachedhisseventies,hehad,like other physicists,abandoned all hope of the

possibilityofabreakthrough.He entered hibernation andplanned to wake at theDoomsday Battle. His soledesire was to be able to seewith his own eyes thesuperior technology ofTrisolaris.In the century following

thestartoftheTrisolarCrisis,everyone who had livedthrough the Golden Agepassed away. It was an erathat was constantly recalled,

and the old folks who hadlived through those grandtimes chewed over theirmemoriesofitlikeruminants,savoring the flavors. Theyalways closed with one line:“Ah,ifonlyweknewhowtocherish things back then.”Youngpeoplewouldlistentotheirstorieswithamixtureofenvy and skepticism. Thatfabled peace, prosperity, andhappiness, that ideal utopiafree from care: Did it ever

reallyexist?As the elderly passed

away, the departed GoldenShore vanished into thesmokeofhistory.Theshipofhuman civilization floatedalone in the vast ocean,surrounded on all sides byendless, sinister waves, andno one knew if there evenwasanoppositeshore.

PARTIII

THEDARKFOREST

Year205,CrisisEra

DistanceoftheTrisolaranFleetfromtheSolarSystem:2.10light-years

Darkness. Before the

darkness there was nothingbut nothingness, and thenothingness was withoutcolor. Nothing was in thenothingness.Darknessatleastmeant that there was space.Soon, disturbances appearedin the darkness of space,penetrating everything like agentle breeze. It was thesensationoftimepassing,forthe nothingness was withouttime, but now time tookshapeinaglacial thaw.Only

muchlaterwastherelight,atfirst as a shapeless blob ofbrightness, and then, afteranother long wait, the shapeof the world graduallyemerged. The newlyresurrected consciousnessstruggledtomakesenseofit,atfirstmanagingtoworkouta few thin, transparent tubes,then a human face behindthem, which quicklydisappeared, exposing thecreamy-white light of the

ceiling.Luo Ji awoke from

hibernation.The face reappeared. It

belonged to a man with agentleexpressionwholookedatLuoJiandsaid,“Welcometo our era.” As he spoke, afield of vibrant roses flashedon his white lab coat, thengradually faded anddisappeared.Ashecontinuedspeaking,thecoatdisplayedacontinuous assortment of

delightful images thatmatched his expressions andemotions: seas, sunsets, andwoods in thedrizzle.He toldLuo Ji that his illness hadbeen cured duringhibernation, and that hisreawakening had gonesmoothly. Recovery wouldtakejustthreedaysorso,andthen he would completelyregain normal bodilyfunctions.…Luo Ji’s mind, still

sluggish and only partiallyawake, caught just one pieceof information out ofeverything the doctor said:This was year 205 of theCrisisEra,andhehadbeeninhibernationfor185years.He found the doctor’s

accentpeculiaratfirst,buthesoondiscoveredthatalthoughthe sounds of standardMandarin hadn’t changedmuch, it had been stuffedwith a large quantity of

Englishwords.As thedoctorspoke, the text of what hesaid was displayed on theceiling, apparently throughvoice recognition. Perhaps tohelp the newly awakenedbetterunderstand,theEnglishwords were replaced withChinesecharacters.At last thedoctor said that

Luo Ji could be transferredfrom the revival room to thegeneral ward. His coatshowed an evening scene in

which a setting sun rapidlyturnedintoastarryskytosayfarewell. As this was goingon, Luo Ji felt his bed begintomove.Justoutthedoor,heheard the doctor call out,“Next.” Twisting his headback to look, he saw anotherbed enter the revival roombearing someone who hadobviouslyjustbeentakenoutof the hibernation chamber.Thebedwasquicklywheeledtoabankofmonitors,andthe

doctor, his coat now a purewhite, tapped on the wallwith a finger, causing one-thirdof it todisplaycomplexcurvesanddatathathebegantomanipulateintensely.LuoJirealizedthathisown

reawakening was probablynot a major event at all, butrather just a part of day-to-day work here. The doctorwas friendly, but in his eyesLuoJiwasnothingmorethananordinaryhibernator.

Like the revival room, thehallway had no lamps. Thewalls themselves emittedlight, and although it wassoft,LuoJistillhadtosquint.Butashedidso,thewallsinthesectionofcorridorhewasin dimmed, and the dimmedsegment followed him as hisbed moved. Once his eyesgrewaccustomedtothelight,he opened them again, atwhich point the hallwaybrightened again, remaining

in his comfort zone.Evidently the hallway’sbrightness adjustment systemwas able to monitor thechangesinhispupils.Judging by that, he had to

beinapersonalizedage.This far exceeded his

expectations.Asthewallspassedslowly

by, he saw lots of activateddisplays of different sizesrandomly distributed onthem. Some of them were

movingimagesthathedidn’thave the time to look atclearly, andmight have beenleft behind by users whoforgottoturnthemoff.Sometimes, his automatic

bedcrossedpathswithpeoplewalking down the hallway.Henoticedthatboththesolesof their feet and the bed’swheels made luminous,watery waves of pressurewhere they contacted theground, like what used to

happen when you pressed afinger onto an LCD in hisown time. The long corridorgavehiman intense senseofcleanliness,ascleanasa3-Dcomputeranimation,althoughheknewallofitwasreal.Hemovedthroughitwithasenseof tranquility and comfort hehadneverknownbefore.But what impressed him

mostaboutthepeoplehesawwas that everyone—doctors,nurses, and nonstaff alike—

appeared clean and elegant,andsmiledwarmlyathimorwaved when theyapproached. Their clothesdisplayedgorgeous images,adifferent style for eachperson, some abstract, othersconcrete. He was won overby their expressions, becausehe knew that the eyes ofordinarypeoplewerethebestreflection of the level ofcivilization in a time andplace.Hehadonceseenaset

of photos taken by Europeanphotographers in the lateQing Dynasty, and hisdeepest impression had beenof thedullexpressionsof thepeople in the photographs.Officials and commonersalike had eyes that revealedonlynumbness and stupidity,lacking the slightest shred ofvitality. When the people ofthis new era looked at LuoJi’s eyes, they might behavingthesamefeelingabout

him. The gazes that crossedhis own were full of avigorous wisdom, and asincerity, understanding, andlove that he had rarelyperceivedinhisownage.Butwhatimpressedhimmostwasthe confidence in theirexpressions. The sunnyconfidence that filled everypair of eyes had evidentlybecomethespiritualbackdropforthepeopleofthisnewera.Thisdidnotseemtobean

age of despair, and that wasanotherunexpectedsurprise.Luo Ji’s bed moved

soundlessly into the generalward, which held two morereawakened hibernators. Oneof themwas lying on a bed.The other, next to the door,waspackinghisthingswithanurse’s help and seemedabout ready to leave. Fromthe look in theireyes,LuoJiknew thatbothof themwerefromhisownera.Their eyes

were like the windows oftime, and through them hehad another glance of thatgrayerahehadcomefrom.“How can they be that

way? I’m their great-grandfather!” Luo Ji heardthehibernatorwhowasabouttoleavecomplaining.“Youcan’tpullseniorityin

front of them. It’s the law:Hibernation doesn’t count asage,sointhepresenceoftheelderly, you’re the younger

generation.… Let’s go.They’ve waited in thereceptionroomlongenough,”the nurse said. Although shetried to avoidEnglishwords,sometimesshestumbledoverChinesewords,asifspeakingan ancient tongue, and wasforced to use the modernlanguage. Then the wallwould display a translationintoChinese.“I can’t evenunderstand it

whentheytalk.All thatbird-

speak mixed in!” thehibernatorsaid,asheandthenurse each picked up a bagandwentoutthedoor.“In this age, you’ve got to

keep learning. Otherwise,you’ll justhave togo liveuptop,” Luo Ji heard the nursesay. By now he couldunderstand the modernlanguage without difficulty,but hewas still unclearwhatthe nurse meant by her lastsentence.

“Hello. Did you hibernateduetoillness?”thehibernatorin the bed beside Luo Jiasked. He was young, andlooked to be in his earlytwenties.Luo Ji opened his mouth

but no sound came out. Theyoung man smiled at himencouragingly. “You canspeak.Tryharder!”“Hello,” Luo Ji managed

hoarsely.The young man nodded.

“The onewho just left did. Ididn’t. I camehere to escapefrom reality. Oh, and myname’sXiongWen.”“Here…howisit?”LuoJi

asked,muchmore easily thistime.“I don’t really know. I’ve

only been here five days.Still, it’s definitely a goodera.But for us, it’s bound tobe difficult to integrate intosociety. Mostly because wewoke up too soon. A few

years later would have beenbetter.”“A few years later?

Wouldn’t that be evenharder?”“No.It’sstillastateofwar

now, so society can’t takecare of us. In a fewdecades,after the peace talks, there’llbepeaceandprosperity.”“Peace talks? With

whom?!”“Trisolaris,ofcourse.”Shaken by Xiong Wen’s

final statement,LuoJi strovetositup.Anurseenteredandhelpedhimuptoahalf-sittingpositioninbed.“Theysaidtheywantpeace

talks?”heaskedanxiously.“Not yet. But they’ll have

nootherchoice,”XiongWensaid,nimblygettingoutofhisbed and coming over to sitdown on Luo Ji’s. He hadclearly been anticipating thepleasure of introducingsomeone newly awakened to

this era. “Don’t you know?Humanity is amazing now.Simplyamazing!”“How?”“Our spacecraft are

incrediblypowerful.Farmorepowerful than Trisolaranships!”“Howisthatpossible?”“Why wouldn’t it be? Put

the superweapons aside andlook purely at speed. Theycan reach fifteen percent ofthespeedoflight!Tonsfaster

thantheTrisolarans!”When Luo Ji turned a

skeptical eye toward thenurse,henoticedthatshewasexceptionally pretty.Everyone in this age seemedto be attractive. She noddedwithasmile.“It’strue.”XiongWenwenton,“And

doyouknowhowmanyshipsthere are in the space fleet?I’ll tell you: two thousand!Twice as many as theTrisolarans! And the

number’sstillgrowing!”LuoJiglancedagainatthe

nurse,whonodded.“You know how badly off

the Trisolaran Fleet is now?In two centuries they’vepassed through the, ah, thespacedust theycall thesnowpatch three times. I heardsomeone say that the mostrecent time was four yearsago, and the telescopeobserved that their formationhas become sparser. They’re

not holding together. Morethanhalfoftheshipsstoppedaccelerating long ago, andtheydeceleratedconsiderablywhen they crossed the dust.They’re crawling now, andthey won’t reach the SolarSystem for more than eighthundred years. They mightalready be broken hulks.Projecting from their currentspeed, no more than threehundred ships will arrive ontimetwocenturiesfromnow.

However, one Trisolaranprobe will reach the SolarSystem soon. This year. Theother nine are followingafterward and will get herethreeyearslater.”“The probe … What’s

that?” Luo Ji asked inconfusion.The nurse said, “We don’t

encourage the exchange ofpractical information. Whenthe previous reawakenedhibernatorlearnedaboutthese

things,ittookhimmanydaysto calm down. It’s notconducivetorecovery.”“It makes me happy, so

what’sittoyou?”XiongWensaid with a shrug. Then hereturnedtohisownbedtoliedown.Ashelaywatchingthesoft light emitted by theceiling, he sighed, “The kidsareallright.They’rereallyallright.”“Who’s a kid?” the nurse

sniffed. “Hibernation doesn’t

countasage.You’rethekid.”ToLuoJi’seyes,sheactuallylooked younger than XiongWen, although he knew thathis appearance-basedjudgmentofagemightnotbeaccurateinthisera.The nurse said to him,

“The people from your timeare all pretty despairing. Butthings aren’t really all thatserious.”To Luo Ji, this was the

voiceofanangel.Hefeltlike

he had turned into a childwho had just awakened froma nightmare, and all thefrightening things he hadexperienced were taken careof by a smile from an adult.When she spoke, her nurse’suniform shone a fast-risingsun, and under its goldenlight, the dry yellow earthturned green, and flowersbloomedinwildabandon.…When the nurse had gone,

Luo Ji asked Xiong Wen,

“What about the WallfacerProject?”XiongWenshookhishead

in confusion. “Wallfacer…?Neverheardofit.”Luo Ji asked when Xiong

Wenhadenteredhibernation.It had been before theWallfacerProjecthadstarted,when hibernation was veryexpensive. His family musthave had money. But if hehadn’t heard anything aboutthe Wallfacer Project in the

fivedayshehadbeenawake,that meant that even if theprogram hadn’t beenforgotteninthisera,itwasnolongerimportant.Next, Luo Ji personally

experienced the level oftechnologyofthisnewageintwotrivialareas.Soon after he entered the

ward, thenursecarriedinhisfirst meal after reawakening,averysmallquantityofmilkand bread and jam, because

his stomach functions werestill recovering. He took abite of bread and felt like hewaschewingsawdust.“Yoursenseoftasteisstill

recovering, too,” the nursesaid.“It’lltasteevenworseonce

you’ve recovered,” XiongWensaid.The nurse laughed. “Of

course,it’snotasgoodasthefoodgrownon the surface inyourera.”

“Then where does thiscome from?” Luo Ji asked,throughhisfullmouth.“It’s produced in a

factory.”“You’re able to synthesize

grain?”Xiong Wen answered for

the nurse. “There’s no otheroption but to synthesize it.The land won’t grow anycropsanymore.”LuoJi felt sorryforXiong

Wen. There had been people

in his era who had becomeimmune to technology andwereindifferenttoanysortoftechnological wonder, andXiong Wen was apparentlyone of them. He was unableto properly appreciate thisnewage.Thenextdiscoverywasan

incredible shock to Luo Ji,although the thing itself wasstill quite plain. The nursepointedtothecupofmilkandtold him that it had been put

into a heating cup especiallyfor hibernators, because thepeople of this era generallydid not drink hot liquids.Even coffee was taken cold.Ifhewasn’tused todrinkingcoldmilk,hecouldheatitupsimply by moving a slidernear thebottomof thecuptothe desired temperature.When he finished drinking,he inspected the cup. Itlooked like an ordinary glasscup apart from a thick,

opaque base which mustcontain the heat source. Butno matter how hard helooked, he couldn’t find anycontrols but the slider, andwhen he tried to twist thebase, he found it wasintegratedwiththerestofthecup.“Don’t mess around with

the supplies. You don’tunderstand them yet. It’sdangerous,” the nurse saidafter watching Luo Ji’s

efforts.“I’d like to knowwhere it

getsrecharged.”“Re … charged?” The

nurseawkwardlyrepeatedtheword,evidentlyhearingitforthefirsttime.“Charge. Recharge,” Luo

Ji said in English, but thenurse just shook her head inconfusion.“What happens when the

batteriesrunout?”“Batteries?”

“Batteries,” he said inEnglish. “You don’t havebatteries anymore?” Whenthe nurse shook her headagain, he said, “Then wheredoestheelectricityinthecupcomefrom?”“Electricity? There’s

electricity everywhere,” thenursesaiddisapprovingly.“The electricity in the cup

won’trunout?”“Itwon’trunout.”“It’sinexhaustible?!”

“Inexhaustible. How couldelectricityrunout?”Whenthenurseleft,LuoJi

still was unable to let go ofthe cup. He ignored XiongWen’s ridicule, for hissurging emotions told himthat he was holding a sacredobject, the age-old dream ofhumanity:aperpetualmotionmachine. If humanity hadreally achieved inexhaustibleenergy, then they couldachieve practically

everything. Now he believedthewordsoftheprettynurse:Things might not be soserious.Whenthedoctorcameinto

the ward for a routinecheckup, Luo Ji asked himabouttheWallfacerProject.“I know of it. It’s an

ancient joke,” the doctorrepliedoffhandedly.“What happened to the

Wallfacers?”“I think one of them

committed suicide, andanother was stoned to death.… It all happened in theproject’s early days, and it’sbeen nearly two centuriessincethen.”“Andtheothertwo?”“I don’t know. They’re

probablystillinhibernation.”“OneofthemwasChinese.

Doyourememberhim?”LuoJiventured,staringnervouslyatthedoctor.“You mean the one who

castaspellonastar? I thinkhe was mentioned inpremodernhistoryclass,” thenurseinterjected.“Right. And now he’s…”

LuoJisaid.“Idon’tknow.Ithinkhe’s

still in hibernation. I don’tpay much attention to thatstuff,” the doctor saidabsently.“And the star?Theonehe

cursed,thestarwithaplanet?What happened to it?” he

asked,hishearttensingup.“What do you think

happened? It’s probably stillthere. That spell? What ajoke!”“So nothing at all

happenedtothatstar?”“NothingI’veheard,atany

rate. You?” he asked thenurse.“Me neither,” she said,

shakingherhead.“Theworldwasscaredtodeathbackthenand lots of silly things

happened.”“And then?” Luo Ji said

withasigh.“Then therewas theGreat

Ravine,”thedoctorsaid.“The Great Ravine? What

wasthat?”“You’ll find out later. For

now,restup,”thedoctorsaidwith a gentle sigh. “But it’sprobablybetterthatyoudon’tknowabout it.”Ashe turnedto leave, his white coatdisplayed billowing dark

clouds, and the nurse’suniform displayed lots ofpairs of eyes, some of themfrightened, some brimmingwithtears.When the doctor had left,

Luo Ji sat motionless on hisbed for a long while,mumbling to himself, “Ajoke.An ancient joke.”Thenhebeganlaughing,silentlyatfirst, and then in greatguffaws,tremblingonhisbedand frightening Xiong Wen,

who wanted to call thedoctor.“I’m fine. Go to sleep,”

Luo Ji toldhim.Thenhe laydownandsoonfellasleepforthe first time since hisreawakening.He dreamed of Zhuang

Yanandthechild.Asbefore,Zhuang Yan walked throughthe snow, the child asleep inherarms.Whenhe awoke, thenurse

walked in and said good

morning to him. Her voicewassoftsoasnottowakethestill-sleepingXiongWen.“Isitmorning?Whyaren’t

there any windows in thisroom?”LuoJiasked,lookingaround.“Anyplaceonthewallcan

turn transparent. But thedoctors feel that you aren’treadytolookoutside.It’stoounfamiliar,anditwilldistractyouandaffectyourrest.”“I’ve been revived for a

while now, but I still don’tknowwhat theoutsideworldis like.Thisaffectsmy rest.”LuoJipointedatXiongWen,andsaid,“I’mnotthatkindofperson.”Thenurselaughed.“That’s

okay. I’m about to go offshift.ShallI takeyououtforalookaround?Youcanhavebreakfastafteryougetback.”Excitedly,Luo Ji followed

thenursetotheon-callroom.Looking it over, he could

guess what about half of thefurnishings were, but he hadno idea what the rest werefor. There was no computeror similar equipment, butbecause a display could beactivated anywhere on thewalls, this was to beexpected. Three umbrellaslined up outside the doorcaught his attention. Theywere in different styles, butfrom their shape, they weredefinitely umbrellas. What

surprisedhimwas theirbulk.Weren’t there foldingumbrellasinthisage?Thenurse cameout of the

changingroomdressedinherown clothes. Aside from theflashingmoviesonthefabric,changes to women’s fashionin this age were well withinthe scope of Luo Ji’simagination.Comparedtohisownera,themajordifferencewas their conspicuousasymmetry. He was pleased

that after 185 years hadpassed, he could still findbeauty in women’s clothing.The nurse picked up one ofthe umbrellas, which musthave been fairly heavy,because she had to carry itoverhershoulder.“Isitrainingout?”She shook her head. “You

think I’m carrying an …umbrella?” she said,unfamiliarwiththelastword.“If it’s not an umbrella,

then what is it?” Luo Jipointed to the device on hershoulder, imagining that shewould say some peculiarnameforit.But she didn’t. “It’s my

bicycle,”shesaid.When they arrived in the

corridor, Luo Ji asked, “Isyourhomefarfromhere?”“If you’re talking about

whereI live, it’snot far.Tenor twenty minutes biking,”she said. Then, standing still

and fixing him with hercharming eyes, she saidsomething that shocked him:“Therearenohomesnow.Noone has them. Marriage,family, theywent away afterthe Great Ravine. That willbe the first thing you’ll havetogetusedto.”“That first thing is

something Iwon’tbe able togetusedto.”“Oh, I don’t know. In

history class I learned that

marriage and family hadalready begun to disintegratein your own time. Lots ofpeopledidn’twant tobe tieddown. They wanted freelives.” This was the secondtime she had mentionedhistoryclass.I was like that once, but

then … Luo Ji said tohimself. From the momenthe’d reawakened, ZhuangYan and the child had neverreally left his mind. They

werethedesktopwallpaperofhisconsciousness,perpetuallyon display. But no one hererecognizedhim,andwith thesituation so uncertain, hecouldn’tjustrashlyaskabouttheir whereabouts, eventhough he was tormented bylonging.Theywalkedawaysdown

the corridor. Then, afterthey’d passed through anautomaticdoor,LuoJi’seyeslit up as he saw a narrow

platform extending into thedistance and felt fresh airblowing toward him. Hesensed that he was nowoutside.“Whatabluesky!”wasthe

first thing he shouted to theoutsideworld.“Really? It can’t compare

totheblueskiesofyourera.”Definitely bluer. Much

bluer. Luo Ji didn’t say thatout loud, just reveled in theboundless blue embrace and

lethissoulmelt.Thenhehada flash of doubt: Was thisheaven? In his memory, hehad only ever seen such apureblueskyduring the fiveyearshehadspentapartfromthe world, secluded in hisGardenofEden.Butthisbluesky had fewer white clouds,justacoupleofpalewispsinthewesternsky,likesomeonehad unintentionally left asmudge.Thesunthathadjustrisen in the east shone like

crystal in the entirelytransparent air, with its edgerimmedindew.Luo Ji turned his eyes

downward and immediatelybecamedizzy.Fromhighup,ittookhimalongmomenttorealizethatwhathesawfromherewas the city.At first hethought he was looking at agiant forest, the slender treetrunks stretching straight uptoward the sky, each onesprouting perpendicular

branches of varying lengths.Thecity’sbuildingswere theleaves hanging off thesebranches. The layout of thecity looked random, anddifferent trees had differentdensities of leaves. TheHibernation andReawakening Center formeda part of one of those largetrees, and the leaf thatcontained his bed hung fromthenarrowplatformthatnowextendedoutinfrontofhim.

Looking back, the treetrunk his branch wasconnected to extended so farupward that it disappearedoutofview.Thebranch theywere on was located in themiddletouppersectionofthetree, and above and belowthem he could see otherbranches, and the structuralleavesthathungonthem.Oncloser inspection, thebranches formed an intricatenetwork of bridges in space,

bridges with one end leftfloatinginmidair.“What is this place?” Luo

Jiasked.“Beijing.”He looked at the nurse,

even prettier now in themorningsun.Lookingbackatthe place she called Beijing,he asked, “Where’s the citycenter?”“In that direction. We’re

outsidetheWestFourthRing,inTree179,Branch23,Leaf

18, so you’re almost able toseetheentirecity.”LuoJilookedforabitinto

the distance where shepointed, and then exclaimed,“Impossible! How is therenothingleft?”“What would be left? In

your day, there wasabsolutelynothinghere!”“Nothing? The Imperial

Palace? Jingshan Park?Tiananmen? The ChinaWorldTradeCenter?Ithasn’t

evenbeentwohundredyears.It can’t all have been torndown.”“All those things are still

there.”“Where?”“Onthesurface.”Seeing Luo Ji’s terrified

look, she burst out laughingso hard that she had to leanon the railing for support.“Ah, ha-ha. I forgot. I’mreallysorry.I’veforgottensomany times. Look, we’re

underground here. Athousand meters beneath thesurface … If I ever get totime travel to your time, youcangetbackatmeandforgetto tell me that the city’s onthe surface, and I’ll be asterrified as you are now. Hahaha…”“But…this…”Heheldup

hishands.“The sky is fake. The sun

isfake,too,”thewomansaid,trying to suppress a smile.

“Of course, saying it’s fakeisn’tright,either,becauseit’san image taken from analtitude of ten thousandmeters and displayed downhere, so maybe it counts asreal,too.”“Whybuild thecitybelow

ground? And a thousandmeters—that’sreallydeep.”“For the war, of course.

Think about it. When theDoomsday Battle comes,won’tthesurfacebeanocean

of fire? Yeah, that battle isanother outdated idea now,but when the Great Ravineended, all the world’s citiesdevelopedunderground.”“So all the cites in the

worldareundergroundnow?”“Themajorityofthem.”Luo Ji took stock of the

world again. Now heunderstood that the trunks ofthegreattreeswerethepillarssupporting the vault of theunderground world, and also

served as the columns fromwhich the city’s buildingsweresuspended.“You won’t be

claustrophobic. Look at howbroad the sky is! Up on thesurface, the sky’s not nearlythiswonderful.”Luo Ji looked again at the

blue sky, or rather theprojectionofthebluesky.Henow noticed a few smallobjects—just some scatteredbits,atfirst,butoncehiseyes

got used to looking, he sawthat there were somany thatthey covered the entire sky.Strangely, the objects in thesky reminded him ofsomeplace completelyunrelated, the showcase of ajewelry store. Before hebecame a Wallfacer, backwhen he had fallen in lovewith the Zhuang Yan of hisimagination, he had oncebeen so obsessed that hewanted to buy his imaginary

angel a present. He went tothe jewelry store and lookedatalltheplatinumpendantsinthe showcase, every one ofthemexquisite,lyingthereonthe black velvet andtwinkling under thespotlights. If theblackvelvethad been blue, then it wouldhavebeenjustliketheskyhesawtoday.“Isthatthespacefleet?”he

askedexcitedly.“No.Thefleet isn’tvisible

from here. It’s beyond theasteroid belt. Those, well,they’re everything. The oneswithavisibleshapearespacecities, and the points of lightare civilian spacecraft. Butsometimes therearewarshipsin orbit, too. Their enginesare very bright, so you can’tstare at them.… Okay, I’vegot to get going.You shouldheadbacksoon.Itgetswindyhere.”LuoJiturnedaroundtosay

good-bye, but was sosurprised he couldn’t speak.Thewomanhadherumbrella—or, rather, her bicycle—positionedonherback likeabackpack, and then it stoodupinbackofherandopenedoverheadtoformtwocoaxialpropellers that started upsilently,turninginoppositionto offset rotational torque.Thensheliftedslowlyupintothe air and hopped over therailing beside her into the

abyss that had so dazzledhim.Suspendedthere,shecalled

to him: “You can see howthis is a pretty decent age.Think of your past as adream.Seeyoutomorrow!”She flew gracefully, the

small propellers churning thesunlight,untilsheturnedintoatinydragonflybetweentwogiant trees in the distance.Swarms of these dragonfliesflew between the giant trees

ofthecity.Morenotablestillwere the streams of flyingcars like schools of fishnavigating endlessly amongtheplantsontheoceanfloor.Therisingsunshoneontothecityandwascutintoshaftsoflightbythetrees,coatingthetrafficwithalayerofgold.Tears streamed down Luo

Ji’s face at the sight of thisbrave new world, and thesensation of newborn lifepermeatedhiseverycell.The

pastreallywasadream.

***

When he saw the Europeanman in the reception room,Luo Ji got the feeling thattherewassomethingdifferentabout him. Later, he realizedthatitwasbecausetheformalsuit he wore didn’t flash ordisplay any image, butresembled the clothing of abygone era.Perhaps thiswas

anexpressionofsolemnity.After Luo Ji shook his

hand, the visitor introducedhimself. “I’m SpecialCommissioner Ben Jonathanfrom the Solar Fleet JointConference. I arranged yourreawakening at thecommittee’sbehest,andnow,we’regoingtoattendthefinalhearing of the WallfacerProject. Oh, can youunderstand me? English haschangedquiteabit.”

Luo Ji could understandwhat Jonathan said, butlistening to him speak, thesense of Western culturalinvasion that Luo Ji had feltover the past few daysbecause of the changes tomodernChinese disappeared,because Jonathan’s Englishwas peppered with Chinesevocabulary. He said“Wallfacer Project” inChinese, for example.English, formerly the most

widely used language, andChinese, spoken by thelargest population, hadblended with each otherwithoutdistinctiontobecomethe world’s most powerfullanguage.LuoJilearnedlaterthattheotherlanguagesoftheworld were undergoing thesamefusion.The past isn’t a dream,

Luo Ji thought. The pastcatchesupwithyou.Thenherecalled that Jonathan had

said the word “final” andwondered if there was hopeofaquickresolutionafterall.Jonathanlookedback,asif

to make sure the door hadbeenclosed,andthenwalkedovertothewallandactivatedan interface. He gave a fewsimple taps on the surface,and then all four walls andtheceilingdisappearedintoaholographicdisplay.NowLuo Ji foundhimself

in an auditorium. Although

everything was greatlychanged, and the walls andtable glowed softly, thedesigners had clearly tried toreplicate the style of the oldera.Everythingfromthegreatcirculartableandtherostrumto the overall layoutembodied a nostalgia thatallowedhimtoknowatoncewhere he was. Theauditoriumwasemptybutfortwo staffers laying outdocumentsonthetables.Luo

Ji was astonished to see thatpaper documents were stillbeing used. Just likeJonathan’s clothes, thisseemedtobeanexpressionofsolemnity.“Remote meetings are a

common practice now.Takingpartinthiswaywon’taffect the meeting’simportance or seriousness,”Jonathan said. “There’s stillsome timebefore thehearingbegins,andyoulooklikeyou

don’t know much about theoutside world. Do you needmetotellyouabitaboutthebasics?”LuoJinodded.“Ofcourse.

Thankyou.”Jonathan pointed to the

auditorium and said, “I’ll bebrief. First, the countries.Europe is a single country,called the EuropeanCommonwealth, and itincludes both eastern andwestern Europe, but not

Russia. Russia and Belarusunified into a country stillcalledtheRussianFederation.Canada’s French-speakingand English-speaking areassplitintotwocountries.Therehave been some changes inother regions, too, but thesearethemajorones.”Luo Ji was shocked.

“Thosearetheonlychanges?It’sbeennearlytwocenturies.I’d have thought the changeswould have made the world

unrecognizable.”Jonathan turned back from

the auditorium and noddedsolemnly at Luo Ji.“Unrecognizable, Dr. Luo.The world is indeedunrecognizable.”“No,therewereearlysigns

ofthosechangesinourera.”“But there’sone thingyou

never anticipated: There areno longer any great powers.Allcountrieshavedeclinedinpoliticalpower.”

“All the countries? Thenwhoroseup?”“A suprastate entity: the

spacefleet.”LuoJithoughtthisoverfor

awhilebefore realizingwhatJonathan meant. “You meanthe space fleet isindependent?”“Yes. The fleets do not

belong to any country. Theyform independent politicaland economic entities that,like countries, are members

of the UN. Right now, thereare three major fleets in theSolar System: the AsianFleet,theEuropeanFleet,andthe North American Fleet.Their names refer only totheirprimaryregionoforigin,but the fleets themselves areno longer subordinate tothose regions. They areentirely independent. Eachone possesses the politicaland economic might of asuperpowerofyourera.”

“My god,” Luo Jiexclaimed.“But please don’t

misunderstand. Earth is notruled by a militarygovernment.Theterritoryandsovereignty of the spacefleets is in space, and theyrarely interfere with theinternal affairs of terrestrialsociety. This is stipulated bytheUNcharter.Sorightnowthe human world is dividedinto two international

spheres: the traditional EarthInternational, and the newlyemerged Fleet International.The three fleets of FleetInternational—the Asian,European, and NorthAmerican—make up theSolar Fleet, and the formerPlanetary Defense Councilevolved into the Solar FleetJoint Conference, nominallythehighestcommandbodyinthe Solar Fleet. However, aswith the UN, it has a

coordinating function, but noreal power. In fact, it’s aSolarFleetinnameonly.Theactual power of humanity’sspace-basedarmedforcesliesin the hands of the supremecommand of the three majorfleets.“Well,then,younowknow

enoughtotakepartintoday’shearing. It was convened bytheSFJC,whichinheritedtheWallfacerProject.”Thenawindowopenedup

on the holographic display,and an image of Bill Hinesand Keiko Yamasukiappeared in it. They lookedunchanged. Hines greetedLuo Ji with a smile, butYamasuki sat impassivelynext to him, giving only aslight nod ofacknowledgement atLuo Ji’sgreeting.Hinessaid,“Ijustwokeup,

Dr.Luo. Iwasquite sorry tolearn that that planet you

cursed isstillorbiting itsstarfiftylight-yearsaway.”“Heh. A joke. An ancient

joke,” Luo Ji said self-mockingly, with a wave ofhishand.“But compared to Tyler

and Rey Diaz, you’re prettylucky.”“Youappeartobetheonly

successfulWallfacer.Perhapsyour strategy really haselevatedhumanintelligence.”Hines displayed the same

self-mocking smile that LuoJi had just exhibited, and heshookhishead.“No,itreallyhasn’t. Iknownow thatafterwe entered hibernation,researchintothehumanmindquickly encountered aninsurmountable obstacle.Going forward meantapproaching the quantumlevel of the brain’s thoughtmechanisms. But at thatpoint, like all other science,they hit the impassible

sophon barrier. We didn’televatehumanintelligence.IfI did anything at all, it wasjusttoincreasesomepeople’sconfidence.”When Luo Ji entered

hibernation, the mental sealhad not yet been developed,sohedidn’treallyunderstandthe last thingHines said.Buthe noticed thatwhen he saidit,amysterioussmile flashedacross Keiko Yamasuki’sfrostyface.

Thewindowvanished,andthen Luo Ji realized that theauditoriumwasfullofpeople.Mostofthemweredressedinmilitary uniforms whosestyleshadn’tchangedall thatmuch. None of the attendeeshad pictures decorating theirclothing, but their lapel pinsandepauletsallglowed.The SFJC still used a

rotating chair system. It wascurrently held by a civilianofficer. As Luo Ji looked at

him, he was reminded ofGaranin. The thought struckhim that he was an ancientman from two centuries ago,but he was at least fortunatecomparedtothoseofhisownagewhohadbeenannihilatedbytheriveroftime.Once the meeting opened,

the chair spoke.“Representatives, at thishearing,wewillholdthefinalvote on Proposition 649, putforth by the North American

Fleet and the European Fleetat the forty-seventh JointConference this year. First,letmereadtheproposition.“In the second year of the

Trisolar Crisis, the UN’sPlanetary Defense Councilestablished the WallfacerProject. It was adoptedunanimously by thepermanent members of theUNandwasimplementedthefollowing year. At its core,the Wallfacer Project

attempted to develop hiddenstrategies for resisting theTrisolaran invasion bytasking four Wallfacersnominated by permanentmember states withformulating and executingstrategic plans in theseclusionoftheirownminds,out of reach of the sophons’omnipresentsurveillance.TheUN promulgated theWallfacer Act to guaranteeprivileges to the Wallfacers

forformulatingandexecutingtheirplans.“TheWallfacerProjecthas

been going on for twohundred five years to date, atime frame that has includedmore than a century’s hiatus.During this time, leadershipoftheprojectpassedfromtheformer PDC to the presentSFJC.“The Wallfacer Project

arose out of a uniquehistorical background. The

TrisolarCrisishadjustbegun,and in the face of adevastating crisis unheard ofin human history, theinternational community haddescended to unprecedentedlevels of fear and despair.This was the climate intowhich the Wallfacer Projectwasborn.Itwasnotarationalchoice, but a struggle ofdesperation.“The facts of history have

proven that, as a strategic

plan, the Wallfacer Projectwas a complete and utterfailure. It is no exaggerationto say that it was the mostnaïve and foolish action thathumansocietyasawholehasever taken. The Wallfacerswere granted unprecedentedpower without any legaloversight,andevenpossessedthe freedom to deceive theinternational community.Thisviolated thebasicmoraland legal norms of human

society.“During the execution of

the Wallfacer Project,enormous quantities ofstrategic resources wereexhausted for no reason.Wallfacer Frederick Tyler’smosquito swarm was provento have no strategicsignificance, whileWallfacerManuelReyDiaz’sMercury-chain-reaction plan wasunrealizable, even givenhumanity’s present

capabilities. Moreover, bothof thoseplanswere criminal.Tyler sought to attack andwipe out Earth’s fleet, whileReyDiaz’sevenmoresinistergoalwastoholdeverylifeontheplanethostage.“The other twoWallfacers

were similarly disappointing.The true strategic intent ofWallfacer Hines’s mentalupgradeplanhasnotyetbeenrevealed, but the use in thespace forces of its

preliminaryresult, thementalseal, is also a crime. It is aserious violation of freedomof thought, which is thefoundationofthesurvivalandfurther progress of humancivilization.As forWallfacerLuo Ji, he first irresponsiblysquandered public funds onhis own hedonistic lifestyleandthenplayedtothecrowdswithridiculousmysticism.“Webelieve thatgiven the

decisive growth in

humanity’s strength and itsseizureoftheinitiativeinthewar, theWallfacerProjectnolonger has anymeaning.Thetime has come to bring theproblem that history haspasseddowntous toanend.We propose that the SFJCimmediately terminate theWallfacerProjectandabolishtheUNWallfacerAct.“Here ends the

proposition.”The chair slowly set down

the proposal document, and,glancing around theauditorium, said, “We willcommence the vote on SFJCProposition 649. All infavor?”All of the representatives

raisedtheirhands.Voting in thiserawas still

done by primitive methods.Staffers walked through theauditorium solemnlyverifying the number ofvotes,andwhentheyreported

the result to the chair, heannounced, “Proposition 649has passed unanimously andis effective immediately.”The chair raised his head.Luo Ji didn’t know whetherhe was looking at Hines orhimself, because, like at thefirst remote hearing he hadattended185yearsbefore,hestilldidn’tknowwhereintheauditorium his and Hines’simagesweredisplayed.“Nowthat the Wallfacer Project is

terminated,theWallfacerActis abolished as well. Onbehalf of the SFJC, I herebynotify Wallfacers Bill Hinesand Luo Ji that yourWallfacer status has beenrevoked.Allassociatedrightsgrantedyouby theWallfacerAct, as well as thecorresponding legalimmunity, are no longer ineffect. You have recoveredyour identity as ordinarycitizens of your respective

countries.”The chair declared the

hearing adjourned. Jonathanstoodupandswitchedofftheholographic image,switchingoffLuoJi’stwo-century-longnightmareintheprocess.“Dr. Luo, as far as I am

aware, this is the outcomeyou were hoping for,”Jonathan said to him with asmile.“Yes. It’s just what I

wanted. Thank you, Mr.

Commissioner. And I thankthe SFJC for restoring myordinary status,” Luo Ji said,fromthedepthsofhisheart.“The hearing was simple.

Just a vote on a proposition.I’ve been empowered todiscuss matters with you inmore detail. You may startwithyourbiggestconcern.”“What about my wife and

child?” Luo Ji asked, unabletoholdbackthequestionthathad been tormenting him

since reawakening. It was aquestionhehadwantedtoaskwhen he first met Jonathan,before the start of themeeting.“Don’t worry. They’re

both fine. They’re still inhibernation. I can give youtheirfiles,andyoucanapplyto reawaken them wheneveryou’dlike.”“Thank you. Thank you.”

LuoJi’seyesgrewmoist,andonceagainhehadthatfeeling

ofarrivinginheaven.“However,Dr.Luo,Ihave

a small piece of advice,”Jonathansaidasheslidcloserto Luo Ji on the couch. “It’snot easy for a hibernator toget used to life in this age. Iadvise you to stabilize yourownlifefirstbeforeyouwakethem up. The UN funds areenough to keep them inhibernation for another twohundredthirtyyears.”“Well,howamI supposed

toliveoutthere?”The commissioner laughed

off his question. “Don’tworry about that. Youmightnot be used to the times, butliving won’t be an issue. Inthis age, social welfare isexcellent, and a person canenjoyacomfortablelifeevenif they don’t do anything atall. The university you usedtoworkat is still there, rightin this city. They said theywould consider the question

of your work, and they’llcontactyoulateron.”A thought suddenly

occurred to Luo Ji, and itnearly made him shudder.“What about my securitywhen I go out? The ETOwantstokillme!”“The ETO?!” Jonathan

burst into laughter. “TheEarth-Trisolaris Organizationwas completely wiped out acenturyago.There’snosocialfoundation for them to exist

in the world anymore. Ofcourse, there are still peoplewho have those ideologicaltendencies, but they aren’table to organize. You’ll beabsolutelysafeoutside.”As he was about to leave,

Jonathan dropped his officialattitude, and his suit startedshining with an exaggerated,distortedimageofthesky.Hesmiled and said to Luo Ji,“Doctor, out of all thehistorical figures I’ve seen,

you’ve got the greatest senseofhumor.Aspell.Aspellonastar.Hahaha…”Luo Ji stood alone in the

receptionroom,ruminatinginsilenceovertherealitybeforehim.After twocenturiesasamessiah, he was once againan ordinary person. A newlifewaswaitingbeforehim.“You’re a commoner, my

boy,” a gruff voice loudlyintrudedonLuoJi’sthoughts.Whenhelookedbacktoward

the door, he saw Shi Qiangcoming in. “Heh. I heard itfromtheguywhojustleft.”It was a happy reunion.

They tradedexperiences, andLuoJilearnedthatShiQianghad reawakened two monthsbefore. His leukemia hadbeen cured. The doctors hadalsodiscoveredthathewasathigh risk of liver disease,probably due to drinking, sothey had taken care of that,too. To the two of them, it

didn’treallyfeelliketheyhadbeen apart for very long.Nomore than four or five years,since there was no sense oftime in hibernation. Butmeeting in a new era twocenturiesinthefutureaddedadeeper level to theirfriendship.“I’ve come topickyouup

when you’re discharged.There’s no reason to stayhere,” Shi Qiang said as hetookasetofclothesoutofhis

backpackandhadLuo Ji putthemon.“Isn’t it … a little big?”

Luo Ji asked,openingup thejacket.“Lookatyou.Twomonths

latewaking up, and you’re ayahoonexttome.Tryiton.”Shi Qiang pointed out an

objectonthefrontoftheshirtandtoldhimthathecoulduseit to adjust the sizing.WhenLuo Ji put on the clothes, heheardahissingsound,andthe

clothing slowly shrank to fitthedimensionsofhisbody.Itwas the same with thetrousers.“Hey, you’re not wearing

that same set of clothes youwore two centuries ago, areyou?” Luo Ji asked, lookingatShiQiang.Herememberedquite clearly that the leatherjacketShiQiangwaswearingnowwasthesameonehehadonthelasttimehesawhim.“Most of my belongings

got lost in the Great Ravine,but my family did keep thatset of clothes for me. But itwasn’t wearable. You’ve gotsome things left over fromthateratoo,andwhenyou’resettleddownyoucangopickthem up. I tell you,my boy,when you see how that stuffhas changed, that’s whenyou’llreallyknowthatnearlytwo hundred years isn’t ashort length of time.” As hespoke, Shi Qiang pressed

something somewhere on hisjacket and his outfit turnedentirely white. The leathertexture had just been animage.“Ilikeitlikethepast.”“Can mine do that too?

Can it put up images liketheirs?”LuoJiasked,lookingathisownclothes.“They can, but it’s a little

hard to get it set up. Let’sgo.”LuoJiandShiQiang took

theelevatorinthetrunkdown

to the ground floor, passedthroughthetree’slargefoyer,andoutintothenewworld.

***

When the commissioner shutoff the holographic image ofthe hearing, the meeting hadnotactuallyconcluded.LuoJihad in factnoticed thatwhenthechairdeclaredthemeetingadjourned, a sudden voicehad rung out. It was a

woman’svoice,andwhilehehadn’t been able to make itout clearly, everyone in theassembly had turned in aparticular direction. ThenJonathan had turned off theimage.Hemusthavenoticedit,too,butoncethechairhadadjourned the meeting, LuoJi, now an ordinary citizenwithoutWallfacerstatus,wasnot eligible to participateevenifitwasstillinprogress.The speaker was Keiko

Yamasuki. She said, “Mr.Chair, I have something tosay.”The chair said, “Dr.

Yamasuki, you are not aWallfacer.Youareallowedtoattendtoday’smeetingduetoyour special status, but youdo not have the right tospeak.”Noneoftherepresentatives

seemed interested in her.They were getting up toleave. For them, the entire

Wallfacer Project wasnothing but a footnote inhistorythattheyhadtospendenergydealingwith.Butwhatshesaidnextstoppedthemintheir tracks. She turned toHines and said, “WallfacerBill Hines, I am yourWallbreaker.”Hines,whowasgettingup

to leave, felt his legs buckleatYamasuki’swords, andhesat down in his chair again.Thepeople in theauditorium

glanced at each other, andthenbegantowhisper,as thebloodgraduallydrained fromHines’sface.“I hope you have not all

forgotten the significance ofthat title,” Yamasuki saidimperiouslytotheassembly.The chair said, “Yes, we

knowwhat aWallbreaker is.But your organization doesnotexistanymore.”“I know.” She appeared

totally calm. “But as the last

member of the ETO, I willfulfillmydutyfortheLord.”“I should have known it,

Keiko.Ishouldhaveknown,”Hines said, his voicetrembling. He looked weak.He had known that his wifewasadevoteeof theideasofTimothy Leary, and he hadseen her fanatical desire toalterthehumanmindthroughtechnological means, but hehadneverconnecteditwithadeeply hidden hatred of

humanity.“First off, I’d like to say

that the true goal of yourstrategic plan was not theelevation of humanintelligence. You more thananyone are aware that it isutterly impossible for humantechnologytoaccomplishthisin the foreseeable future,because you were the onewho discovered the quantumstructure of the brain. Youknow thatwhen the study of

themindreachesthequantumlevel, the sophon lockdownon fundamental physicsmeans thatscientific researchwill be like water with nosource:It’sgotnogrounding,and will never succeed. Themental seal was not just achance by-product of yourstudyof themind. Itwas thething you always wanted.Thatwastheultimategoalofyour research.”She turned totheassembly.“Now,whatI’d

like to know from all of youisthis:Intheyearsthatwe’vebeen in hibernation, whathappenedtothementalseal?”“It didn’t have much of a

history,”therepresentativeofthe European Fleet said.“Nearlyfiftythousandpeoplefrom national space forcesvoluntarily accepted faith invictory through the mentalseal, and they formed aspecial class in the militaryknown as the ‘Imprinted.’

Lateron,abouttenyearsafteryouwentintohibernation,theuse of the mental seal wasfound by the InternationalCourtofJusticetobeacrime,an infringement on thefreedom of thought, and thesole mental seal device—theoneintheFaithCenter—wasput into storage. Themanufacture and use of thattypeofequipmentwasplacedunderaworldwidebannearlyas strict as nuclear

nonproliferation.And,infact,the mental seal was evenharder to obtain than nuclearweapons, primarily becauseof the computer it used. Bythe time you enteredhibernation, computingtechnology had basicallystoppedmovingforward.Thecomputer used by thementalseal is still a supercomputertoday and is inaccessible toordinary individuals andorganizations.”

Then Keiko Yamasukirevealed her first piece ofsubstantive information:“Whatyoudon’tknowisthatthere was more than onementalsealdevice.Fiveweremade, each with its ownaccompanyingsupercomputer. The otherfour, Hines secretly handedover to people who hadalreadyaccepted theseal, theones you call the Imprinted.Therewereonlyaroundthree

thousandofthematthattime,buttheyhadalreadyformedatightly knit supranationalorganization within themilitaries of individualcountries. Hines did not tellme this. I learned it from thesophons. The Lord does notcare about staunchtriumphalism, so we didn’ttakeaction.”“And how is this

significant?”thechairasked.“Let’s hypothesize, shall

we?Thementalsealdeviceisnot a continuously operatingpiece of equipment. It’s onlyactivated when necessary.Each device can be used forquite a long time, and ifthey’re properly maintained,it would be no problem forthem to be used for half acentury. If the four deviceswere used in turn, one runinto the ground before thenext one is started up, theywould have been able to last

for two centuries. WhichmeansthattheImprintedmaynot have died off, but mighthaveenduredfromgenerationto generation up to thepresent day. It’s a religionthatbelievesinfaithhardenedby the mental seal, and itsinduction ceremony is thevoluntary use of the mentalsealonyourownmind.”The representative of the

North American Fleet said,“Dr. Hines, you have lost

yourWallfacer status and nolonger have the legal powerto deceive the world.Wouldyou please tell the JointConference the truth: Is yourwife, or, rather, yourWallbreaker, telling thetruth?”“It’strue,”Hinessaid,with

aheavynod.“That’s a crime!” the

representative of the AsianFleetsaid.“Perhapsit is,”Hinessaid,

and nodded again. “But justlike all of you, I don’t knowwhether the Imprinted haveenduredtothepresentday.”“That’snotimportant,”the

representative of theEuropeanFleet said. “I thinkthenextstepshouldbetofindthe mental seal devices thatarestillaroundandsealthemupordestroythem.AsfortheImprinted, if they voluntarilyacceptedthementalseal,thenthat doesn’t appear to have

violatedthelawsofthetime.Iftheyappliedthementalsealtoothervolunteers, then theywereunder thedominanceofthe faith or belief that theyhad already received throughtechnical means, so theyshould not be subjected topunishment.Sotheonlythingwe need to do is find themental seals. The matter oftheImprintedmightnotneedtobepursuedatall.”“That’sright.It’snotabad

thing for there to be a fewpeopleintheSolarFleetwhohaveabsolutefaithinvictory.At least, it won’t cause anyharm. It should remain amatter of personal privacy,and no one needs to knowwho they are. Although it’shard to understand whyanyone would voluntarilyundergo the mental sealtoday, because humanity’svictory is so apparent,” therepresentative of the

EuropeanFleetsaid.Keiko Yamasuki smiled

derisively, revealing aseldom-seen expression thatconjuredup for theassemblyan ancient picture ofmoonlight reflecting off thescalesofasnakeinthegrass.“You’re being naïve,” she

said.“You’re being naïve,”

Hines echoed his wife, anddeeplybowedhishead.She turned once again to

her husband. “Hines, you’vealways hidden your thoughtsfrom me. Even before youbecameaWallfacer.”“Iwasafraidyou’ddespise

me,”hesaid,headstilldown.“How many times did we

looksilentlyintoeachother’seyes in the bamboo grove inthequietof theKyotonight?From your eyes I saw aWallfacer’s loneliness, and Isaw your desire to speak.How many times did you

almosttellmethetruth?Youwanted to bury your head inmyarms, put everything intowordsthroughyourtears,andobtain total release. But thedutyofaWallfacerpreventedyou.Deceit, even toward theone you loved themost,wasone of your responsibilities.SoIcouldonlylookintoyoureyes in the hope of findingsome trace of your truethoughts. You don’t knowhow many sleepless nights I

spent waiting next to you asyousleptsoundly,waitingforyou to talk in your sleep.…More often, I carefullyobserved you, studying yourevery move and capturingyoureverylook,includingtheyears you were first inhibernation. I recalled everydetail about you, not out oflongingbutbecauseIwantedtoseeyourtruethoughts.Fora very long time, I failed. Iknewyouworeamask,butI

knew nothing of what wasbelow the mask. The yearspassed, until finally, whenyou had just awakened andwalked through the neural-network cloud to my side,andIlookedintoyoureyes,Ifinally understood. I’dmatured eight years, whileyouwerestilltheyouofeightyears before. And so youwereexposed.“From that moment, I

knew the real you: a deep-

rooteddefeatistandastaunchEscapist. Both before andafteryoubecameaWallfacer,yoursolegoalwastoachievean exodus of humanity.Compared to the otherWallfacers, your genius laynotinstrategicdeception,butin concealing and disguisingyourtrueworldview.“But I still didn’t know

how you would achieve thisgoal through your researchinto thebrainand thoughts. I

was confused evenwhen themental seal came out, all theway up until the moment Ientered hibernation, when Iremembered their eyes. Theeyesofthosepeoplewhohadbeen given the mentalstamp … they were likeyours. And all of a sudden Iunderstood an expression ofyoursthatI’dneverbeenableto read before. That waswhenIbrokethroughtoyourreal strategy, but it was too

latetosayanything.”The representative of the

North American Fleet said,“Ms. Keiko Yamasuki, Idon’t think there’s anythingunusual here. We know thehistory of themental seal. Inthe first group of fiftythousand volunteers, theprocedure was carried outunder the strictest ofsupervision.”“That’s right,” she said.

“Butthesupervisionwasonly

absolutely effective so far asthe content of the faithproposition was concerned.The mental seal itself wasmuchhardertosupervise.”“Buttheliteratureindicates

that the supervision of thetechnicaldetailsofthementalseal was very strict as well,and it underwent a largenumberof testsbefore itwasput into operation,” the chairsaid.Yamasuki shook her head.

“The mental seal is anincredibly complicated pieceof equipment. Anysupervision will have gaps.Specifically, one tiny minussign out of hundreds ofmillions of lines of code.Even the sophons didn’tdetectit.”“Aminussign?”“When the neural circuit

model for judging aproposition to be true wasdiscovered, Hines also

discovered the model forjudging a proposition to befalse. That was what heneeded. He concealed thisdiscovery from everyone,including me. It wasn’tdifficult, because the twomodelswerehighlysimilar.Itmanifestedasthedirectionofflow of a key signal in theneuron transmission model,and in the mathematicalmodel of the mental seal, itwas represented by a sign.

Positivefortrue,negativeforfalse. Working in extremesecrecy, Hines manipulatedthis sign in themental seal’scontrol software. In all fivedevices, the sign wasnegative.”A deathly silence fell over

the auditorium, a silence thathad manifested only oncebefore during a PDCWallfacer Hearing twocenturiesago,whenReyDiazhadshownoffthe“cradle”on

his wrist and had told theassembly that the devicereceiving the anti-triggersignalwasnearby.“Dr.Hines,whathaveyou

done?” The chair turnedtowardhiminanger.Hines raised his head, and

everyone could see that hispallid face had returned tonormal. His voice was calmand even. “I admit that Iunderestimated the power ofhumanity. The progress that

you’ve made is trulyunbelievable. I have seen it,and I believe it, and I alsobelievethatvictoryinthewarbelongs to humanity. Thisfaithisassteadfastasifithadbeenimprintedbythementalstamp. The defeatism andEscapism of two centuriesago is truly ridiculous.However, Mr. Chair andrepresentatives, I would liketo say to the world that it isimpossibletomakemerepent

ofwhatIhavedone.”“You still think you

shouldn’t repent?” therepresentative of the AsianFleetdemandedangrily.Hinesraisedhishead.“It’s

not a question of ‘should.’It’s an impossibility. I usedthementalsealtoimprintthisproposition on myself:Everything about myWallfacer plan is entirelycorrect.”The assembly exchanged

amazed glances, andYamasuki even turned to herhusband with the sameexpression.Hines flashed her a small

smileandnodded.“Yes,dear,ifyou’llpermitmetocallyouthat.OnlybydoingthatcouldI obtain the spiritual strengthnecessarytoexecutetheplan.Yes, right now I believe allI’ve done is correct. Iabsolutely believe it,regardless of what reality

says.Iusedthementalsealtoturnmyselfintomyowngod,andGodcan’trepent.”“In the not-too-distant

future, when the Trisolaraninvaders surrender to amorepowerful human civilization,will you still think that?” thechairasked,withalookinhiseyes that was more curiousthanamazed.Hines nodded earnestly.

“I’ll still think that I’mright.Everything about my

Wallfacer plan is entirelycorrect.Ofcourse,inthefaceof the facts, I’ll be putthrough a hell of a torture.”He turned tohiswife.“Dear,you know I’ve alreadysuffered that torture once,when I believed that waterwastoxic.”“Let’s come back to the

present day,” therepresentative of the NorthAmerican Fleet said,interrupting everyone’s

whispered discussions. “It’sjust speculation that theImprinted have endured. It’sbeen over one hundredseventy years, after all. If aclass or organization withsuch an absolute faith indefeatismexists,whyhaven’ttherebeenanysignsofit?”“There are two

possibilities,” therepresentative of theEuropean Fleet said. “One isthat themental seal vanished

long ago, and this is just afalsealarm.…”The representative of the

Asian Fleet completed histhought. “But there’s anotherpossibility: The mostfrightening thing about thesituation is thefact that therearen’tanysigns.”

***

LuoJiandShiQiangwalkedthrough the underground city

shaded by the tree-shapedstructures as streams of carsflew through the gaps in thesky above them.Because thebuildings were “leaves”hangingintheair,thegroundwas wide open, and thewidely spaced trunks of thegiant trees meant there wasno sense of streets, just arolling plaza dottedwith treetrunks.The environmentwaswonderful: The wide swathsof grasses, forests of actual

trees,andfreshairallmadeitlook at first glance likebeautiful countryside.Pedestrianspassedthroughinshining clothes like glowingants.LuoJiwasimpressedtono end by the urban designthat elevated modern noiseand crowdedness into the airand let the ground return tonature. Here, there was noshadow of the war, onlyhuman comforts andpleasures.

Beforetheyhadgottenfar,he heard a woman’s gentlevoice. “Is that Mr. Luo Ji?”He looked around and foundthat the voice was comingfromabillboardon thegrassat the side of the road. Anattractivewomandressedinauniform was looking at himfromthemovingimage.“Iam,”hesaidwithanod.“Hello. I am Financial

Counselor 8065 of theGeneral Banking System.

Welcome to our era. I willnow inform you of yourcurrent financial situation.”Asshespoke,a tableofdataappeared beside her. “Theseareyour financial recordsforYear 9 of the Crisis Era,including deposits at theIndustrial and CommercialBankofChinaandtheChinaConstructionBank.Thereareinvestments in quotedsecurities as well, but thoseitemsmayhavebeenpartially

lostduringtheGreatRavine.”“How does she know I’m

here?”hewhispered.Shi Qiang said, “A chip’s

been implanted in your leftarm.Don’tworry, thesedayseveryone’s got one. It’s likeanIDcard.Allbillboardscanrecognize you. Ads are allpersonalized now, so nomatter where you go,everything on the billboardsisshowingjustforyou.”Apparently hearing Shi

Qiang’swords, the counselorsaid, “Sir, this isn’t anadvertisement. It’s a servicefrom the General BankingSystem.”“How much do I have on

deposit?”LuoJiasked.Ahighlycomplicatedchart

appeared next to thecounselor. “This is the statusof all your interest-bearingaccounts sinceYear 9 of theCrisis Era. It’s fairlycomplicated, but you can

access it in your personalinformation area from nowon.” Another, simpler chartpopped up. “This is yourcurrent financial situation inall of the various subsystemsof the General BankingSystem.”Luo Ji had no concept of

whatthosefiguresmeant,andasked blankly, “That’s …howmuch?”“My boy, you’re a rich

man!” Shi Qiang said,

slapping him vigorously. “Imaynothaveasmuchasyou,butI’vestillgotmoney.Heh,twocenturiesofinterest—it’sa real long-term investment.Pauper to tycoon. I onlyregret not saving a littlemore.”“Well … are you sure

there’s nothing wrong?” LuoJiasked,skeptically.“Hmm?” The big eyes of

thecounselorlookedatLuoJiquizzically.

“It’s been more than onehundredeightyyears.Wasn’tthere any inflation? Did thefinance system really justcontinueonsmoothly?”“You’re overthinking it,”

ShiQiangsaid,takingapackof cigarettes out of hispocket.LuoJiknewthenthattobaccowas still around.ButwhenShiQiangtookoneout,hewasabletopuffoutcloudsofsmokewithoutlightingit.The counselor replied,

“Thereweremany rounds ofinflation during the GreatRavine, and the finance andcredit systems came close tocollapse. But according tocurrent laws, interest on thedeposits of hibernators iscalculated according to aspecial formula that excludestheGreatRavine,andinsteadtransfers the deposit amountover to the financial level ofthe post-Ravine period andresumes calculating interest

fromthere.”“Wow, that’s some

preferential treatment!” LuoJiexclaimed.“My boy, these are good

times,” Shi Qiang said,blowing out smoke. Then,raising his still-burningcigarette,hesaid,“Exceptthecigarettesareterrible.”“Mr.LuoJi, this is justan

opportunity for us to getacquainted. When it’sconvenient for you, we can

discuss your personalfinancial arrangements andinvestment plan. If there’snothing else, then I’ll saygood-bye.” The counselorsmiledandwavedgood-bye.“I’vegotonequestion,”he

saidquickly.Hedidn’tknowwhat tocallyoungwomeninthis era, and didn’t want torisk making a mistake byaddressingherimproperly.Sohe simply said, “I’m not toofamiliar with this era, so

please forgive me if myquestionisoffensivetoyou.”The counselor smiled, and

said, “Not a problem. Ourresponsibility is to help yougetacquaintedwiththiseraasquicklyaspossible.”“Areyouarealpersonora

robot? Or are you aprogram?”The question didn’t faze

the counselor. She replied,“OfcourseI’marealperson.Could a computer handle

services as complicated asthis?”After the woman on the

billboard disappeared,Luo Jisaid to Shi Qiang, “Da Shi,there are some things I findhardtounderstand.Thisisanage that has inventedperpetual motion and cansynthesize grain, butcomputer technology doesn’tseemtohaveadvancedatall.Artificial intelligence can’teven handle personal

finance.”“What perpetual motion?

Youmeanaperpetualmotionmachine?”ShiQiangsaid.“Yeah. It signifies

unlimitedenergy.”Shi Qiang looked around

him.“Where?”Luo Ji pointed up to the

stream of traffic. “Thoseflyingcars.Dotheyconsumeoilorbatteries?”ShiQiang shook his head.

“Neither. Earth’s oil was

pumped dry. Those cars canfly forever without batteriesand they’ll never run out ofpower. They’re prettyawesome. I’m thinking ofgettingonemyself.”“How can you be so

unmoved by a technologicalmiracle?Unlimitedpowerforhumanity. This is as big anevent aswhenPangu createdthe heavens and the Earth!Don’t you realize what amagnificentagethisis?”

ShiQiang tossed aside thecigarette butt; then, thinkingbetterofit,reacheddownandretrieveditfromthegrassandthrewitintoanearbygarbagecan. “I’m unmoved? You’rean intellectual whoseimagination has gotten awayfrom him. The technology issomethingweactuallyhadinourera.”“You’ve got to be

kidding.”“I don’t understand most

tech, but I do know a bitabout this one thing inparticular because, as ithappens, Ioncehadoccasionto use a police bug that hadnobatteriesbutneverranoutof power. You know how itworked? It was poweredremotely by microwaves.That’s what electricity istoday, although the methodsare a littledifferent fromourday.”Luo Ji stopped and stared

atShiQiangforalongwhile,then up at the flying cars inthe air.He thought about theheating glass, and finallyunderstood: It was just awireless power supply. Thepower source emittedelectricity in the form ofmicrowaves or other EMradiation to form an electricfield over a certain space,allowing any equipmentwithin it to draw powerthrough an antenna or

resonantcoil.LikeShiQianghad said, even two centuriesago, this technology wasentirely ordinary. The onlyreason it hadn’t beencommonplace was becausethepowerlosswastoogreat.Only a small portion of thepower emitted into a spacecould be used, but themajoritywaslost.Inthisera,however, mature controlledfusion technologymeant thatenergy sources had been

greatly enriched, to the pointthat losses from wirelesspower supplies wereacceptable.“And the synthetic grain?

Can’t theysynthesizegrain?”LuoJiasked.“I’m not really sure about

that.Grainisstillgrownfromseed, it’s just that it’s grownin factories in thosecultivationtankthings.Cropsare all genetically modified,and I’ve heard that wheat

grows just an ear, with nostalk. And it grows prettyquicklybecauseofthestrongartificial sunlight, and otherthings like intense, growth-inducing radiation. A seasonof wheat and rice can beharvested in aweek, so fromthe outside it looks just likeit’sproducedonaproductionline.”“Oh—” Luo Ji punctuated

his thoughtwith an extendedsigh as the gorgeous bubbles

beforehiseyesbursttorevealthetruefaceoftheworld,andheknewthatinthisgreatnewera, sophons still floatedeverywhere and humanscience was still deadlocked.Existing technology couldnevercross the linesetdownbythesophons.“And the spacecraft that

can reach fifteen percent oflightspeed?”“Well, that’s true. When

those warships mobilize, it’s

likeatinysuninthesky.Andtheirspaceweapons—thedaybeforeyesterdayIsawanewsreportonTVabout anAsianFleetexercise.Alasercannonsweptatargetshipasbigasacarrier.Half of that iron guyevaporated like a chunk ofice, and the other halfexploded like fireworks in ashower of sparkling moltensteel. And there are railgunsthat can fire a hundred ironspheres a second, each the

size of a football, at tens ofkilometers per second. In afewminutestheycanflattenamountainonMars.…Soeventhoughthereisn’tanyofyourperpetual motion, with thesetechnologies, humanity ismore than capable of puttingdowntheTrisolaranFleet.”ShiQianghandedLuoJia

cigaretteand taughthimhowto twist the filter tip to lightit.Theysmokedandwatchedthe snow-white swirls drift

upward. “Anyway, my boy,thesearegoodtimes.”“Yes.Goodtimes.”Luo Ji had hardly finished

speaking when Shi Qiangpounced on him and the twoof them tumbled onto thegrass a few meters away,hearing a loud noise at theirheelsasaflyingcarsmashedinto the spot where they hadjustbeenstanding.LuoJifeltthe impact of the blast, andmetal debris whizzed

overhead, taking out half thebillboard and sending thetransparentglass tubesof thedisplay crashing to theground.Whilehewasstillonthegroundwithadizzyheadand a black eye, Shi Qiangleapt up and ran over to theflying car. Its disc-shapedbodywasentirelybrokenanddeformed,butduetothelackof onboard fuel, it hadn’tcaught fire. There was onlythesoundofsparkscrackling

inthetwistedmetal.“There’s no one in the

car,” Shi Qiang said to LuoJi,whowaslimpingover.“DaShi,yousavedmylife

again,” Luo Ji said, leaningon his shoulder andmassaginghisinjuredleg.“I don’t know how many

times I’llhave to.You reallyought to grow some sense,and a few more eyes.” Hepointed to the totaled flyingcar. “Remind you of

anything?”Luo Ji thought about that

occasiontwocenturiesbeforeandshiveredinvoluntarily.Lots of pedestrians

crowdedround, thescenesofterror on their clothingflashing as one. Two policecars landed, sirens blaring,andseveralofficersgotouttoformalinearoundthebrokencar. Their uniforms flashedlikethepolicelight,drowningoutthecrowd’sclothingwith

their brightness. The oneofficerwhocameovertoShiQiang and Luo Ji hadclothingsobrighttheyhadtoshuttheireyes.“Youwererightherewhen

the car fell. You aren’t hurt,are you?” he said withconcern. He evidently couldseethatthetwoofthemwerehibernators,becausehemadean effort to speak “ancientChinese.”Before Luo Ji could

answer,ShiQiangpulled theofficer who had asked thequestion across the tape andout of the crowd. Once theyhadgottenaway,theofficer’suniformstoppedflashing.“Youneed to check up on

this. It might be anassassination attempt,” hesaid.The officer laughed.

“Really? It’s just a trafficaccident.”“Wewanttoreportit.”

“Areyousure?”“Of course. We’re

reportingit.”“You’remakingabigdeal

outofit.Youmayhavebeenstartled, but it really was atraffic accident. However,according to the law, if youinsistonreportingit…”“Weinsist.”The officer pressed a

display area on his sleeve. Itpopped up an informationwindow, which he looked

over,andthensaid,“It’sbeenreported. For the next forty-eight hours, the police willtrack you, but this requiresyouragreement.”“We agree.Wemight still

beindanger.”The officer laughed again.

“It’s really a commonoccurrence.”“A common occurrence?

Letmeaskyou:Onaverage,howmanytrafficaccidentsofthis kind take place in this

cityeverymonth?”“There were six or seven

alloflastyear!”“I’ll have you know,

officer: In our time, this cityhad more than that everyday.”“Carsallranontheground

in your day. I can’t evenimagine how dangerous thatwas.Well,you’renowin thepolice surveillance system.You’ll be notified of anyprogress on your case, but,

please believe me, this is anordinary traffic accident.Whether or not you filed areport,youwouldstillreceivecompensation.”After they left the police

and the sceneof theaccidentbehind,ShiQiangsaidtoLuoJi, “We’d better get back tomyplace.Idon’tfeelateasewhenI’moutside.It’snotfar.We probably should walkback.Taxisareunmanned,soit’snotsafe.”

“But hasn’t the ETO beendestroyed?” Luo Ji asked,lookingabouthim.Offinthedistance, the fallen car hadbeen lifted up by a largerflying car. The crowd haddispersed, and the police carhad left. A municipal worksvehicle had landed, andseveral workmen had gottenout to gather scattered debrisand begin repairs to theground, which had beendamaged by the crash.

Following the smallcommotion, the city hadreturned to its normal,pleasingcalm.“Perhapsithas.Butyou’ve

got to trustmy intuition,myboy.”“I’m no longer a

Wallfacer.”“That car didn’t seem to

think so.… While we’rewalking, pay attention to thecarsaboveyou.”Theykepttothe“shade”of

thetreelikebuildingsasmuchas possible, and crossed anyopenspacestheyreachedatarun. Soon they arrived at abroad plaza, and Shi Qiangsaid, “My place is justopposite. It’s too far to goaround,sowe’llhavetomakearunforit.”“Isn’t that being a little

paranoid?Maybeitwasjustatrafficaccident.”“That’sa ‘maybe,’ though.

There’s nothing wrong with

being careful.… See thatsculpture in the center of theplaza? If anything happens,wecanhidethere.”There was a square sandy

areainthecenteroftheplaza,like a miniature desert. Thesculpture that Shi Qiangmentioned, located right inthe center of the sand,was agroup of black pillar-likeobjects, each two or threemeters tall. From a distance,it looked like a grove of

witheredblacktrees.LuoJiranacrosstheplaza

behindShiQiang.Whentheyneared the sandy area, heheardShiQiangcall,“Hurry.Get in there!” and he wasdragged skidding across thesand and then headlong intothewitheredgrove.Lyingonthe grove’s warm sand, helooked up between the blackpillars at the sky and saw aflying car zoom down andbuzzthegrovebeforepulling

up and accelerating away.Thegustofwindit left in itswake blew a burst of sandinto the air, which hit thepillarswithawhoosh.“Maybe it wasn’t headed

forus.”“Hmm.Maybe,”ShiQiang

said,ashesatupanddumpedthesandoutofhisshoes.“Will they laugh at us for

this?”“Don’t be afraid of that

crap. Who’s going to

recognize you? Besides,we’refromtwocenturiesago,so even if we’re entirelynormal,peoplearestillgonnalaugh.Myboy,nothing’slostbybeing careful.What if thething really was headed foryou?”Only then did Luo Ji turn

his attention to the sculpturethey were inside. He noticedthat the pillars weren’twithered trees, but armsextending out of the desert.

The skinny arms were justskin and bones, so at firstglance they looked like deadtree trunks. The hands atopthem made a variety ofdistorted gestures to the skyandseemedtoexpressakindofendlesspain.“What kind of sculpture is

this?” Within this group ofstrugglingarms,LuoJi felt achill,eventhoughhewasstillsweatingfromtherun.Atthesculpture’s edge, he saw a

solemnobelisk,onwhichwascarved a line of large goldencharacters: MAKE TIME FORCIVILIZATION, FOR CIVILIZATIONWON’TMAKETIME.“The Great Ravine

Memorial,” Shi Qiang said.Hedidnotseeminterestedinexplaining further, but ledLuo Ji out of the sculptureand across the other half oftheplazaatafastclip.“Okay,my boy. This tree’s where Ilive,” Shi Qiang said,

pointing to the massivearchitectural tree in front ofthem.Luo Ji looked around him

ashewalked.Allofasuddenhe heard the floor creak, andthen the ground fell awayunder his feet and heplummeted downward. ShiQiang grabbed hold of himwhenhischestwasalreadyatgroundlevelandstruggledtohaulhimup.Afterhehadhisfooting, the two of them

stared at the hole in theground.Itwasthemouthofasewer, and its cover had slidasidejustasLuoJiwasabouttosteponit.“Mygod!Areyouallright,

sir?That’sreallydangerous!”said a voice issuing from asmall billboard next to them.Thebillboardwasattachedtoa small pavilion containing amachine selling drinks andsuch, and the speaker was ayoungmandressed in a blue

uniform. His face was pale,and he seemed even morefrightened than Luo Ji. “I’mwiththeOfficeofEvacuationand Drainage at the ThirdMunicipal AdministrationCompany.Thatcoveropenedautomatically. It might be asoftwarefailure.”“Does this happen often?”

ShiQiangasked.“Oh, no, no. At least, this

isthefirsttimeI’veeverseenit.”

Shi Qiang picked up asmall round stone from thegrass next to the road andtossed it down the hole. Itwas quite some time beforethey heard any sound.“Damn. How deep is it?” heasked the man in thebillboard.“Around thirtymeters. So,

like I said, it’s reallydangerous! I’ve inspected thesurface drainage system.Thesewers in your day were all

pretty shallow. This accidenthas been recorded. You…”Heglancedathissleeveashespoke. “Ah, Mr. Luo. Youcan go to the TMAC to becompensated.”At last they reached the

lobby leading to ShiQiang’stree, #1863. He said that helivedonbranch106,nearthetop,andadvisedLuoJitoeatdownbelowbeforegoingup.They went into a restauranton one side of the lobby.

Aside frombeingascleanasa 3D rendering, onecharacteristic of this agewasevenmore obvious here thanwhen he first saw it in thereawakeningcenter:Dynamicinformation windows wereeverywhere, on the walls,tabletops, chairs, the floorand ceiling, and even onsmall objects like the glassesand napkin holders on thetable. Everything had aninterface and display with

scrolling text or movingimages.Itwasasiftheentirerestaurant was a giantcomputerdisplayshowingoffa diverse and glitteringsplendor.Not many people were

dining.Theychoseatablebythewindowandsatdown.ShiQiang tapped the tabletop toactivateaninterfaceandthenorderedafewdishes.“Ican’tread the foreign writing, soI’ve only ordered Chinese

ones.”“Theworld seems like it’s

built using bricksmade fromdisplays,”LuoJisighed.“That’s right. Anything

smoothcan lightup.”AsShiQiang spoke he took out apackofcigarettesandpassedit to Luo Ji. “Look at this.Just a pack of cheapcigarettes.”AssoonasLuoJiheld thepack inhishands, itstarted displaying ananimated image of several

miniature pictures thatseemedlikeanoptionsmenu.“This…it’sjustafilmthat

can display images,” Luo Jisaidashelookedatthepack.“A film? You can go

onlinewith this gadget!” ShiQiang reached over andtapped the pack, and one oftheminiaturepicturessankinlike a button. Then theadvertisement he selectedtookovertheentirepack.Inthepicture,LuoJisawa

family with one child sittingin a living room.Thepictureobviouslycamefromthepast,and a shrill voice soundedfromthepack:“Mr.Luo,thisistheerayouusedtolivein.We know that in that age,owningahouseinthecapitalwasthegranddreamofeveryperson. Now, the GreenleafGroup can help you achievethat dream. As you can see,this is a wonderful age.Houses have turned into

leaves on a tree, and theGreenleafGroup can provideyouwitheverykindof leaf.”Here the picture showed ascene of leaves being addedto a tree branch, and then adazzling variety of hanginghomes, one of which waseven completely transparent,with furnishings inside thatseemed suspended in midair.“Ofcourse,wecanalsobuildyouatraditionalhomeonthesurface to return you to the

warmth of the Golden Age,and build you a warm …family…” A lawn anddetached home, perhapsanother old photo, appearedonscreen. The voice artist inthe ad spoke in fluent“ancientChinese,”butpausedmomentarily before theword“family,” then said it withparticularemphasis.Afterall,itwas something the speakerdidn’t have, something thatbelongedtothepast.

Shi Qiang took thecigarettepackoutofLuoJi’shands,withdrew the last twocigarettes,passedonetohim,and thencrumpled theemptypack intoaball and tossed itonto the table. On thecrumpledball,theimagesstillflashed, but the sound haddisappeared. “Whenever I goanywhere, thefirst thingIdois to turn off every screenthat’s aroundme.They’re soannoying,” Shi Qiang said,

turning off the tabletop andfloor displayswith his handsandfeet.“Butthepeopleherecan’t be away from them.”He pointed around them.“There aren’t any computersanymore.Anyonewhowantstogoonlineorsomethingcanjust tap any smooth surface.Clothing and shoes can beused as computers, too.Believe it or not, I’ve evenseentoiletpaperthatyoucangoonlinewith.”

LuoJipulledoutanapkin.It was just ordinary, non-wired paper, but the paperbox activated, and the prettywoman on it hawkedbandagestoLuoJi,evidentlyaware of today’s experiencesand guessing that his armsand legs might have gottenscrapedup.“God,” Luo Ji sighed, and

stuffedthenapkinbackinthebox.“This is the information

age. Our times were prettydamn primitive,” Shi Qiangsaidwithalaugh.Whiletheywaitedfortheir

food,LuoJiaskedShiQiangabout his life.He felt a littleguilty for only asking now,but looking back on how theday had gone, he had beensomething of a clockworkmachine ticking relentlesslyforward. Only now did hehaveabitoffreetime.“They had me retire. It’s

not a bad deal,” Shi Qiangsaidsimply.“WasitthePublicSecurity

Bureau, or the unit youwereat later? Are they stillaround?”“They’re around. And the

PSBisstillthePSB.Butevenbefore hibernation I wasn’tconnected to itanymore.Theunit I was with later nowbelongs to the Asian Fleet.You know, the fleet is like abig country, so I’m a

foreigner now.” Saying this,he exhaled a long cloud ofsmoke.Hewatchedthecloudascend, as if he was tryinghardtounravelamystery.“Countries don’t have the

significance they used to.…The world’s changed. It’sconfusing. Fortunately, DaShi,youandIarethekindofindifferent people who canlive, and livewell, nomatterwhathappens.”“Luo, my boy, to tell you

the truth, I’m not as open-minded as you in certainthings.I’mnotasuninvolved.If I’d been througheverythingyouhave,I’dhavefallenapartlongago.”Luo Ji picked up the

crumpledcigarettepackfromthetable,openingittorevealthe image that was stillshowing, with only a littlediscoloration. It was playingthe Greenleaf Group advert.He said, “Whether as

messiah, or as refugee, I canalways use what resources Ihave to try and live a happylife. You might think I’mselfish, but to be honest, thisis the only thing I respectaboutmyself.DaShi, letmesay something about you.You look like a carelessperson, but deep in yourbones you’re someone whoprizes responsibility. Leavethat responsibilitycompletelybehindnow.Lookatthisage.

Whoneedsus?Carpediemisourmostsacredduty.”“Sure, but if I gave up all

responsibility, you wouldn’thave much of an appetite atall right now.” Shi Qiangtossed his cigarette into theashtray, activatinga cigaretteadvert.Luo Ji realized he had

misspoken. “Oh, no, Da Shi,you’ve still got to carry outyourresponsibilitytome.I’lldie if I leave you. Already

today you’ve saved me one,two, three times. Or at leasttwoandahalf!”“Ican’tjustleavesomeone

to die, youmean?That’s thelife I’ve got, a life of savingyours,” Shi Qiang saiddisapprovingly as he cast hiseyes about him, probablylookingforsomeplacesellingcigarettes. Then he lookedback,leanedintoLuoJi,andwhispered, “But you reallywere a messiah for a little

while,myboy.”“It’simpossibleforanyone

inthatpositiontobeofsoundmind. Fortunately, I’m nowbacktonormal.”“How did you come up

with the idea of putting aspellonthatstar?”“I was seriously paranoid

back then. I don’t want tothink about it. Believe it ornot, Da Shi, I’m certain thatwhile I was asleep, they notonly cured my illness, but

also conducted psychiatrictreatment.Really,I’mnotthesame person now that I wasback then.Howcould Ihavebeensostupidastohavethatkind of idea? That sort ofdelusion?”“What delusion? Let me

hearit.”“It’s difficult to explain

briefly. Besides, there’s nopoint.Inyourwork,youmusthave run into delusionalpatients, people who were

always thinking someonewanted to kill them. Is thereanypointtolisteningtothosepeople talk?” Luo Jimethodically tore thecigarette pack into pieces.This time the display wasdestroyed,but the scraps stillflashed in a grotesquelycoloredheap.“Okay. We’ll talk about

something happy. My son isstillalive.”“What?” Luo Ji asked,

practically jumping up in hissurprise.“Ijustlearnedaboutittwo

days ago. He looked me up.We haven’t met, just spokenbyphone.”“He’snot…”“Idon’tknowhowlonghe

spentinprison,butafterwardhe went into hibernation. Hesaid it was to come to thefuturetoseeme.Whoknowswherethekidgotthemoney.Nowhe’sonthesurface,and

he’s arranged to come overtomorrow.”Luo Ji stood up excitedly,

sweeping flashing scraps ofpaper to the floor. “Oh, DaShi, that’s just…We’ve gottodrinktothat.”“Adrink,then.Thealcohol

in this age tastes awful, butit’sstillthesamestrength.”Thenthefoodcame.LuoJi

didn’t recognize anything,and Shi Qiang said,“Nothing’s good. There are

restaurants supplied bytraditional farms, but thoseareallhigh-endplaces.We’lleat at one when Xiaomingcomes.”But Luo Ji’s attention had

shiftedtotheserver.Herfaceandbodywereunrealisticallybeautiful,andhesawthattheother servers sliding betweenthe tables had the sameangelicappearance.“Hey, don’t stare like an

idiot. They’re fake,” Shi

Qiang said, without lookingup.“Robots?”LuoJiasked.At

last the futurehad somethinghe had seen in one of hischildhood science fictionstories.“Sortof.”“What do you mean, ‘sort

of’?”Shi Qiang pointed to a

robot server and said, “Thissilly girl only knows how toserve food.They travel fixed

paths. How stupid is that?Once I saw a table that hadbeen temporarily moved, butthey kept bringing dishes tothe original location, soeverything crashed to theground.”When the robot serverhad

laid out the food, it smiledsweetly and wished them agood meal. Its voice did notsound robotic, but wasincredibly lovely. Then, itextended a slender hand and

pickedup thedinnerknife infrontofShiQiang.…Likelightning,ShiQiang’s

eyes shot from the knife inthe server’s hands to Luo Jiacrossthetablefromhim.Heleapt up, vaulted the table,and pulled Luo Ji violentlyoff his chair to the floor.Almost simultaneously, therobot stabbed the knife rightwhere Luo Ji’s heart wouldhave been. The knife wentthroughthebackofthechair,

activating its informationinterface.The robot retractedtheknifeandstoodbesidethetablewithaservingtrayinitsother hand, still with thesweet smile on itsunrealistically beautiful face.Panicked,LuoJistruggled tostandup,thenhidbehindShiQiang. But Shi Qiang justwaved his hand, saying,“Don’t worry. It’s not thatagile.”The robot stood

motionless, holding the knifeand smiling, and once againwished them a goodmeal initsgentlevoice.The startled diners had

clustered around themlooking at the scene inamazement. Then the dutymanager came rushing over.When she heard Shi Qiangaccusing the restaurant’srobot of attempted murder,she shook her head. “Sir,that’s impossible! Their eyes

don’t see people. They onlysee the sensors on the tablesandchairs!”“I’ll testify that it picked

upadinnerknifeandtriedtokillthatman.Wesawitwithourowneyes!”onemansaidin a loud voice. The otheronlookersaddedtheirproof.While the duty manager

wasconsideringhowtorebutthis, the robot stabbed theknife at the chair a secondtime, putting it precisely

through the hole puncturedthe first time and eliciting afewscreams.“Have a pleasantmeal,” it

saidwithasmile.A number of other people

arrived, including therestaurant’s engineer. Whenhe pressed the back of therobot’s head, the smile leftherfaceandshesaid,“Forcedshutdown. Breakpoint databackedup.”Thenshefrozeinplace.

“It’s probably a softwarefailure,” the engineer said,wipingawaycoldsweat.“Does this happen often?”

Shi Qiang said with asarcasticsmile.“No, no. I swear, I’ve

neverevenheardofanythinglike this,” the engineer said,thendirectedtwoassistantstohaultherobotout.The duty manager

energeticallyexplained to thecustomersthatuntilthecause

of the failure was identified,the restaurantwould use realhumanservers,butabouthalfofthecustomersleftanyway.“You both reacted pretty

fast,” one bystander saidadmiringly.“Hibernators. In their era,

people had experience withthiskindofsuddenincident,”someone else said. Hisclothing displayed aswordsman.The duty manager said to

Luo Ji and Shi Qiang, “Sirs,this was truly… Anyway, Iguarantee that you’ll receivecompensation.”“Good.Nowlet’seat.”Shi

Qiang beckoned Luo Ji toretake his seat, and a humanserver brought over newdishes to replace those thathadspilled.Sitting there,hisshocknot

yet abated, Luo Ji felt theuncomfortable hole in thechairback.“DaShi, it seems

the whole world is againstme.Iusedtohaveafavorableimpressionofit.”Shi Qiang considered one

of thedishes in frontofhim,then said, “I’ve got someideas about this.” He lookedupandpouredLuoJiadrink.“Ignore it for now. I’ll tellyouindetaillater.”“Here: to carpe diem, to

livingonedayatatime.Onehour at a time, even,”Luo Jisaid as he raised his glass.

“Here’s to your still-livingson.”“Areyoureallyokay?”Shi

Qiang said, shooting him asmile.“I’ve been a messiah.

Nothing scares me.” Heshrugged, then drained hisglass.Thetasteofthealcoholmadehimwince.“Thisislikerocketfuel.”“Youkillme,myboy.That

attitude of yours has alwayskilled me,” Shi Qiang said,

stickingupathumb.The leaf where Shi Qiang

lived was at the top of thetree.Itwasaspacioushouse,and was fully equipped withfacilities for comfortableliving.Ithadagym,andevenan indoor garden with afountain.He said, “The fleet gave

me these temporary livingquarters.TheysaidIcanbuya better leaf with myretirementmoney.”

“Does everyone have somuch space to live in thesedays?”“Probably. This kind of

structure is the best use ofspace.Abigleafisequivalenttoanentirebuildingfromourera. But mainly it’s becausethere are fewer people. Farfewer, ever since the GreatRavine.”“ButDaShi, your country

isinspace.”“I won’t be going there.

I’m already retired, youknow.”Luo Ji’s eyes felt more

comfortable here, largelybecause most of theinformation windows in ShiQiang’s house were closed,although therewere scatteredflashesinthewallsandonthefloor. Shi Qiang tapped aninterfaceonthefloorwithhisfoot,turningonewallentirelytransparent and unfurling thenightcitybeforetheireyes.It

wasadazzling,giantforestofChristmas trees chainedtogether by the lights of thetraffic.Luo Ji went over to the

sofa, which was hard asmarble to the touch. “Is thisforsitting?”heasked.AtShiQiang’s affirmative, he satgingerly down on it, only tofeel like he was sinking intosoftclay.Thesofa’scushionsand backrest adapted to aperson’s body, forming a

moldcompletelyinsyncwiththeir body shape, keepingpressuretoaminimum.Hisvisionfromtheslabof

iron ore in the MeditationRoom of the UN Buildingtwo centuries ago hadbecomereality.“Doyouhaveanysleeping

pills?”heasked.Nowthathewas in a space that felt safe,exhaustionhithim.“No,butyoucanbuythem

here,” Shi Qiang said, and

operated the wall again.“Here. Nonprescriptionsleepingpills.Thisone,RiverofDreams.”AlthoughLuoJithoughthe

would witness some sort ofhigh-tech hardware-over-the-network transmission, therealitywasmuchsimplerthanhe imagined. In a fewminutes, a small, flyingdelivery van pulled upoutside the transparent walland delivered the medicine

through the portal that hadjustopenedupwithaslendermechanical arm. Luo Ji tookthemedicinefromShiQiang.It was a traditional boxwithout any active display.The instructions said to takeone pill, so he opened thepack, took one out, andreached out for the glass ofwateronthecoffeetable.“Wait a moment,” Shi

Qiangsaid,takingtheboxoutofLuoJi’shandsandreading

itcarefullybeforereturningittohim. “Whatdoes this say?The one I asked for wascalledRiverofDreams.”LuoJisawalongstringof

complicated English-language drug names. “Idon’t recognize it. But it’scertainly not River ofDreams.”Shi Qiang activated a

window on the coffee tableand began looking for amedical consult. With Luo

Ji’s help, they found one, awhite-clothed consultingphysician who examined thebox, then looked from thebox to Shi Qiang with apeculiarexpression.“Where did this come

from?” the doctor askedwarily.“Iboughtit.Righthere.”“Impossible. This is a

prescription drug. It’s onlyfor use in the hibernationcenter.”

“What’s it got to do withhibernation?”“It’sshort-termhibernation

medicine. It can makesomeone hibernate for tendaystoayear.”“Youjustswallowit?”“No.Itrequiresawholeset

ofexternalsystemstosustaininternal bodily circulatoryfunctions before short-termhibernationcanbeachieved.”“Andifyoutakeitwithout

them?”

“Then you’d die for sure.But you’d die comfortably.So it’s often used forsuicide.”Shi Qiang closed the

window and tossed the boxonto the table. He lookedstraightatLuoJiforawhile,thensaid,“Damnit.”“Damn it,” Luo Ji said,

pitching back onto the sofa.Thenhewassubjected to thefinal attempt on his life thatday.

When his head touchedback against the sofa, thehardheadrestquicklyadaptedto the back of his head andbegan to form an impressionof its shape. But the processdidn’t stop there. His headand neck continued to sink,until the headrest on eithersideformedapairoftentaclesthatsqueezedtightaroundhisneck. He had no time to cryout, but could only open hismouthandeyesandscramble

withhishands.ShiQiangboundedintothe

kitchen and returned with aknife,which he used to hackat the tentacles a few times,then resorted to his ownhands to pry them from LuoJi’s neck. When Luo Ji leftthe sofa and pitched forwardonto the floor, the sofa’ssurfacelitupanddisplayedalargestringoferrormessages.“How many times have I

saved your life today, my

boy?” Shi Qiang asked,rubbinghishands.“This is … the … sixth,”

Luo Ji said, through gasps.He vomited onto the floor.When he finished, he leanedbackweaklyagainst thesofa,but then pulled backimmediately, as if shocked.Hedidn’tknowwhere toputhis hands. “How longwill itbebeforeIcanbeasagileasyouandsavemyownlife?”“Probably never,” Shi

Qiang said. A vacuumcleaner–like machine glidedovertocleanupthevomitonthefloor.“ThenI’mdeadmeat.This

isatwistedworld.”“It’s not that bad. I’ve got

an idea about the wholesituation, at least. The firstattempt on your life failed,andthentherewerefivemoreattempts. This is stupidity,not professional behavior.Something somewhere must

have gone wrong.… Let’scontact the policeimmediately. We can’t waitforthemtocrackthecase.”“Whomadeamistake,and

where?DaShi, it’sbeen twocenturies. Don’t just applyyourmind-setfromourtime.”“It’s the same thing, my

boy. Certain things are thesame no matter the age. Asfor whose mistake it is, Ireally don’t know. I evenwonderwhethersucha‘who’

actuallyexists.…”The doorbell rang. Shi

Qiangopenedittoseeseveralpeoplestandingoutside.Theyworecivilianclothes,butShiQiang identified them beforethe leader had even flashedhisID.“Wow. So there are actual

footbeats in this society.Comeonin,officers.”Three of them entered the

house, leaving two othersoutsidetoguardthedoor.The

officerincharge,wholookedabout thirty years old,surveyed the room. Like ShiQiang andLuo Ji, he had allthe displays on his clothesturnedoff,whichputthematease, and he spoke a pure,fluent “ancient Chinese”withoutanyEnglishwords.“I’m Officer Guo

Zhengming with the PSB’sDigitalRealityDepartment. Iapologize for our tardyarrival. That was negligent.

Thelasttimetherewasacaselike this was half a centuryago.”HebowedtoShiQiang.“I pay my respects to mysenior officer. Aptitude likeyoursisveryrareintheforcethesedays.”As Officer Guo was

speaking, Luo Ji and ShiQiang noticed that all of theinformation windows in thehouse had switched off. Theleaf had evidently been cutoff from the external hyper-

informationworld.The othertwo officers were hard atwork. They were holdingsomething he hadn’t seen inages: a notebook computer.But thecomputerwasas thinasasheetofpaper.“They’re installing a

firewallforthisleaf,”OfficerGuoexplained.“Restassured,you’re safe now. And I’llguarantee that you’ll receivecompensation from themunicipalPSBsystem.”

“Today,” Shi Qiang said,counting off on his fingers,“we’ve been guaranteedcompensationfourtimes.”“I know. And lots of

people in lotsofdepartmentshave lost their jobsover this.Ibegforyourcooperation,sothatIdon’tjointhem.Thanksin advance,” he said, bowingtothem.Shi Qiang said, “I

understand that. I’ve been inthatposition.Doyouneedus

tobriefyouonthesituation?”“No. We’ve actually been

tracking you all along. It’sjustnegligence.”“Can you tell us what’s

happening?”“Killer5.2.”“What?”“It’s a network virus. The

ETO first released it about acentury into the Crisis Era,and then there were lots ofsubsequent variants andupgrades.It’samurdervirus.

Firstitestablishestheidentityof the target by a variety ofmethods including the chipeveryone has implanted intheir body. When it locatesthe target, the Killer virusmanipulates every possiblepieceofexternalhardware tocarry out the murder. Itsconcrete manifestation iswhat you experienced today.Itseemslikeeverythingintheworldwantstokillyou.So,atthe time, people called it a

‘modern hex.’ For a while,the Killer software was evencommercialized and sold ontheonlineblackmarket.Youentered the personal IDnumber of your target anduploaded the virus. Then,even if that person was ableto evade death, they wouldstillhaveahardtimelivinginsociety.”“Theindustrydevelopedas

far as that? Incredible!” ShiQiangexclaimed.

“Software from a centuryagocanstill runtoday?”LuoJiaskedincredulously.“Sure it can. Computer

technology stoppedadvancing long ago. WhentheKillervirusfirstappeared,it killed quite a few people,includingaheadof state,buteventually it was controlledby firewalls and antivirussoftware and gradually fadedaway. This version of Killeris programed specifically to

attack Dr. Luo, but becausethe targetwas inhibernation,it never had the opportunitytotakeanyconcreteaction.Itstayed dormant and wasn’tdetected or recorded by theinformation security system.It was only when Dr. LuoemergedintotheworldtodaythatKiller5.2activated itselfand carried out its mission.It’s just that itscreatorswerewipedoutacenturyago.”“They were still trying to

kill me a century ago?” LuoJi said. A mood he thoughtwas gone forever returned,and he struggled to dispel itagain.“Yes. The key thing about

thisversionoftheKillervirusis that it was programmedspecifically for you. It wasneveractivated,whichiswhyit was still lurking in waittoday.”“Then what are we

supposed to do now?” Shi

Qiangasked.“The entire systemwill be

cleanedofKiller5.2,butthatwill take some time. Beforeit’s completed, youhave twochoices.First,Dr.Luocanbegiven a temporary falseidentity, but this will nottotally guarantee his safetyandmight lead toothermoreseriousconsequences.Due tothe technologicalsophistication of the ETOsoftware, Killer 5.2 might

have already recorded othercharacteristicsofitstarget.Inone case that caused asensationacenturyago,whena protected individual wasgiven a false identity, Killerused fuzzy recognition tosimultaneously kill over ahundred people, targetincluded. The other choice,and my personalrecommendation,isforyoutolive up on the surface for awhile. Killer 5.2 won’t have

any hardware to manipulateupthere.”Shi Qiang said, “I agree.

Even without this situation,I’vebeenwantingtogouptothesurface.”“What’s on the surface?”

LuoJiasked.Shi Qiang explained,

“Most of the reawakenedhibernators live on thesurface. It’s hard for them toadaptdownhere.”“That’sright.Soyouought

tospendatleastsometimeupthere,” Officer Guo said.“Many aspects of modernsociety—politics, economics,culture, lifestyle, andrelationsbetweenthesexes—have changed greatly in twocenturies, so it takes sometimeforustoadapt.”“But you’ve adapted well

enough,” Shi Qiang said,looking him over. He andLuo Ji had both noticed thattheofficerhadsaid“us.”

“I went into hibernationbecause of leukemia, and Iwas quite young when Ireawakened, just thirteenyears old,” Guo Zhengmingsaid with a laugh. “Butpeople still don’t understandthe difficulties I’ve had. Idon’t know howmany timesI’ve gone for psychologicaltreatment.”“Are there many other

hibernators like you whohave totally adapted to

modernlife?”LuoJiasked.“Lots.Butyoucanstilllive

quitewellonthesurface.”

***

“SpecialContingentofFutureReinforcements commanderZhang Beihai reporting,”Zhang Beihai said, andsaluted.Behind the commander of

the Asian Fleet flowed thebrilliant Milky Way. Fleet

Command was in orbitaround Jupiter and rotatedcontinuously to produceartificial gravity. ZhangBeihai noticed that the roomlights were relatively dim,and the wide windowsseemed intended to integratethe interior environmentwithspace outside as closely aspossible.The commander saluted

back. “Greetings,predecessor.”Helookedquite

young, his Asian featuresilluminatedbytheglowofhisepaulets and cap insignia.When he was issued auniformonthesixthdayafterhereawakened,ZhangBeihaihad noticed the familiaremblemof the space force:asilverstarshiningraysinfourdirections, the rays in theshape of sword. Twocenturies had passed, andwhile the insignia had notchanged much, the fleet had

become an independentcountry, with a president asits supreme leader. Thecommander was just inchargeofthemilitary.ZhangBeihaisaid,“That’s

too much, Commander.We’re all just new recruitsnow, who have to learneverything.”The commander smiled

and shook his head. “Youcan’tsaythat.You’vealreadylearnedeverything there is to

know here. And theknowledge you’ve got, we’llneverbeabletolearn.That’swhyweawakenedyounow.”“CommanderChangWeisi

of the Chinese Space Forceasked me to convey hisgreetings.”Zhang Beihai’s words

touched something in thecommander’s heart. Heturned and looked outthrough the window at theriver of stars, like the upper

reaches of a long river. “Hewas an exceptional general,one of the founders of theAsian Fleet. Today’s spacestrategy still uses theframeworkheestablishedtwocenturies ago. I wish that hecouldhaveseenthisday.”“Today’sachievementsare

far beyond anything he everdreamed.”“But all of this began in

his…inyourtime.”Then Jupiter appeared, at

firstasasliverofanarc thatquickly took over the entirefield of view in thewindow,bathing the office in itsorange light. The dreamlikepatterns of hydrogen andhelium in its vast gaseousoceanwereonabreathtakingscale and fascinating in theirdetail. The Great Red Spotmoved into view. Thesuperstorm that could holdtwo Earths looked like thegiant, pupilless eye of this

blurryworld.ThethreefleetshadputtheirprimarybaseonJupiter because its hydrogen-helium ocean held aninexhaustiblesupplyoffusionfuel.Zhang Beihai was

transfixed by the Jovianscene.Countlesstimeshehaddreamed of the new domainthat now presented itselfbefore his eyes. He waiteduntilJupiterhadmovedoutofthe window before speaking.

“Commander, the greatachievements of this age arewhat make our missionunnecessary.”The commander turned to

himandsaid,“No, that’snotright. The FutureReinforcement Plan was afarsighted initiative. Duringthe Great Ravine, when thespace armed forces were onthe brink of collapse, thespecial reinforcementcontingents played a major

role in stabilizing the overallsituation.”“Butourcontingentarrived

toolatetobeofassistance.”“I’m sorry, but that’s how

things are,” the commandersaid. The lines on his faceturnedgentle.“Afteryouleft,they sent more specialreinforcement contingents tothe future, and the last to besent out were the first to bereawakened.”“That’s understandable,

Commander, since theirknowledge framework wasclosertothatera’s.”“Right. Eventually your

contingent was the only oneleft inhibernation.TheGreatRavine ended and the worldentered a period of rapiddevelopment. Defeatism hadpractically vanished, so therewasnoneedtoreawakenyou.At the time, the fleet madethedecisiontokeepyouuntiltheDoomsdayBattle.”

“Commander, this wasactually what we all hopedfor,” Zhang Beihai saidexcitedly.“Andit’sthehighesthonor

ofallspaceservicemen.Theywerewellawareofthiswhentheymade that decision. Butpresent circumstances aretotally different, as you ofcourse know.” Thecommander pointed at theriver of stars behind him.“TheDoomsdayBattlemight

nevereventakeplace.”“That’s excellent,

Commander.Mysmallregretasasoldiercountsfornothingcompared with the greatvictory humanity is about towelcome. I just hope you’llbe able to fulfill our onerequest:toletusjointhefleetat the lowest level, asordinary soldiers, to dowhateverworkwecan.”The commander shook his

head. “The length of service

for all special contingentpersonnel will resume fromthe date of reawakening, andrankswillbeelevatedoneortwolevels.”“Commander, that

shouldn’t be.We don’t wantto spendour remainingyearsinanoffice.Wewanttogotothe fleet’s front lines. Twocenturiesago,thespaceforcewas our dream. Without it,our lives have no meaning.Butevenatourpresentranks,

we are unqualified for workinthefleet.”“IneversaidIwantedyou

to leave the fleet. Preciselythe opposite.Youwill all beworking in the fleet tocomplete a highly importantmission.”“Thank you, Commander.

Butwhatmissioncantherebeforustoday?”The commander did not

answer him. Instead, as if ithadonlyjustoccurredtohim,

he said, “Are you okay withtalking while standing likethis?” The commander’soffice had no chairs, and thetablehadbeendesignedtobehighenoughtoworkatwhilestanding. Fleet Command’srotation produced one-sixthof Earth’s gravity, whichmeant there wasn’t muchdifference between standingandsitting.Zhang Beihai smiled and

nodded. “Not a problem. I

spentayearinspace.”“And the language? Do

youhaveanycommunicationproblemsinthefleet?”The commander was

speaking standard Chinese,but the three fleets hadformed a language of theirown, similar to the modernChinese and modern Englishon Earth, but with the twolanguages blended moreclosely. Chinese and Englishwordseachaccountedforhalf

ofthevocabulary.“Atfirst—mostlybecauseI

couldn’t distinguish betweenChinese and Englishvocabulary—butIwasabletounderstand it pretty quickly.Speakingismoredifficult.”“That doesn’t matter. If

you just use English orChinese when you speak,we’ll be able to understandyou. So that means that theGeneralStaffDepartmenthasfullybriefedyou?”

“That’s right. In the firstfew days on base, they gaveus a comprehensiveintroductiontoeverything.”“Then you must be aware

ofthementalseal.”“That’sright.”“Recent investigations still

haven’t discovered any signsoftheImprinted.What’syourread?”“I believe that one

possibility is that theImprinted have disappeared.

Another possibility is thatthey’ve been deeply hidden.If a person has an ordinarydefeatist mentality, they willspeak of it to others. But aone-hundred-percentunshakeable technologicallyhardenedfaithwill inevitablyproduce a correspondingsense of mission. Defeatismand Escapism are intimatelyrelated, and if the Imprintedreally exist, then theirultimate mission is bound to

be accomplishing an escapeinto the universe. But toachieve this goal, they haveto deeply conceal their truethoughts.”The commander nodded

with approval. “An excellentanalysis. This is the opinionofGeneralStaff.”“Commander, the second

alternative is verydangerous.”“Yes, it is, particularly

with the Trisolaran probe so

close to the Solar System.The fleet is divided bycommand systemclassifications into twomajorgroups. The first, adistributed command system,is a traditional structure akinto the naval craft you oncecommanded. The captain’sorders are carried out byvarious operating personnel.The second is a centralizedcommand system. Thecaptain’s orders are carried

out automatically by theship’s computer. The mostrecentlybuiltadvancedspacewarships, as well as thosecurrently under construction,fall into this category. It ismainly against this categoryof warship that the mentalseal poses a threat, becausethe captain wields enormouspower in the commandsystem. He can unilaterallycontrol when the ship leavesand returns to port, its speed

and course, and even a largeportion of its weaponssystems.Underthiscommandsystem, you could call theship an extension of thecaptain’s body. Right now,179 of the 695 stellar-classwarships in the fleet have acentralizedcommandsystem.The commanding officers onboard these shipswill be thefocus of review. Originally,all the warships involved inthe review process were

supposed to be docked andsealed up, but presentcircumstances no longerpermit this,because the threefleets are preparing tointercepttheTrisolaranprobewhen it arrives. This will bethe first actual engagementbetween the Space Fleet andtheTrisolaraninvaders,soallwarships must be onstandby.”“So, Commander, the

command authority for

centrally commandedwarshipsmustbeturnedoverto reliable individuals,”Zhang Beihai said. He hadbeen speculating about hismissionbuthadnotguessedityet.“Who is reliable?” the

commanderasked.“Wedon’tknowtheextentofthementalseal, and we have noinformation about theImprinted. In thesecircumstances,noonecanbe

trusted,notevenme.”The sun appeared outside

the window. Although itslightwas farweaker than onEarth from this distance, thecommander’s body washidden in a glare when thedisc passed behind him,leaving only his voice: “Butyou are all reliable. Whenyou entered hibernation, themental seal didn’t exist.Andone of the most importantfactorsforyourselectiontwo

centuries ago was yourloyaltyandfaith.Youaretheonly trustworthy groupavailable to us in the fleetright now. So the fleet hasdecidedtoputtheauthorityofthe centralized commandsystem into your hands, toappoint you as actingcaptains, through whomevery order issued by theformer captains must passbefore being issued to thecommandsystem.”

Two tiny suns ignited inZhangBeihai’seyes.Hesaid,“Commander, I’m afraidthat’snotpossible.”“Saying no to an order is

notourtradition.”The commander’s use of

“our”and“tradition”warmedZhang Beihai, letting himknowthatthebloodlineofthemilitary of two centuries agostillenduredinthespacefleetoftoday.“Commander, we’re from

twocenturiesago,afterall.Inthecontextofthenavyofourtime,it’slikeusinganofficialin the Beiyang Fleet tocommand a twenty-firstcenturydestroyer.”“Do you think that the

QingadmiralsDengShichangand Liu Buchan20 wouldreallybeunable tocommandyour destroyers? They wereeducated, and their Englishwas good. They would havelearned. Today, captaining a

spacewarshipdoesn’tinvolvetechnical details. Captainsissue general commands, butthewarship isablackbox tothem. Besides, the warshipswill be docked at basewhileyou serve as acting captain.They won’t be navigating.Your duty will be to conveythe former captains’commands to the controlsystem once you’vedeterminedwhetherornotthecommandsarenormal.You’ll

beabletopickthatupasyoulearn.”“We’ll have too much

power in our hands. Youcould let the former captainsretainaportionofthatpower,andwe could supervise theirorders.”“If you think about it

carefully, you’ll realize thatwon’twork. If the Imprintedreally do occupy key battlepositions, they’ll take anynecessary measures to evade

your supervision, includingassassinating theirsupervisors. A centrallysupervised ship on standbyrequires just three commandsto take off, after which it’stoo late to do anything. Thesystem must onlyacknowledgecommandsfromtheactingcaptain.”

***

As the personnel craft flew

past theAsianFleet’s Jupiterbase, Zhang Beihai felt hewas flying over a range oftowering mountains, excepteach was a docked warship.The naval base had enterednightsideorbitaroundJupiter,and the steel mountainclusters slept silently underthe surface phosphorescenceand the silvery moonlightfrom Europa overhead. Amoment later, aballofwhitelight rose from the edge of

the mountain range, lightingthe moored ships in perfectclarity in an instant. ToZhangBeihai,itlookedlikeasunrise over the mountains,casting a moving shadow ofthe fleet upon the turbulentJovian atmosphere downbelow. When a second lightroseovertheothersideofthefleet,herealizeditwasn’tthesun, but two warships thatwere entering the dock andturning their fusion engines

towardthebasetodecelerate.The fleet’s chief of staff,

who was delivering ZhangBeihai to his new post, toldhim that more than fourhundred warships,representingtwo-thirdsoftheAsian Fleet, were nowmoored at the base. Theremainderof the fleet’sshipsnow cruising the SolarSystemandbeyondwerealsoexpectedtoreturntoport.Zhang Beihai had to tear

himself away from the grandspectacle of the fleet andreturn to reality. “Sir, won’trecalling all of the shipsprovoke any Imprinted therearetoimmediateaction?”“Hmm. No, the order

recalling the shipswas givenfor another reason—a realone, not an excuse, althoughit does sound a littleridiculous.You haven’t beenwatching the news lately, Itakeit?”

“No. I’ve been readingmaterials on NaturalSelection.”“Don’t worry about that.

You’ve got a good grasp ofthings, judging from the lastphaseof basic training.Yourtask now is to familiarizeyourself with the systems tothe point that everything canproceedinanorderlymanneronce you go aboard. It’s notas hard as you think.…Competition among the three

fleets for the task ofintercepting the Trisolaranprobe has turned intobickering, but a preliminaryagreementwashammeredoutby the Joint Conferenceyesterday: Each fleet’s shipswillassemblebackatbase.Aspecial committee willsupervisetheexecutionofthemaneuver to avoid any shipsbeing dispatched withoutauthorization tocarryout theinterception.”

“Whyhas it come to that?Any technologicalinformation and intelligenceobtained from a successfulinterception would beshared.”“Yes,butit’saquestionof

honor. There’s considerablepolitical capital to be gainedby the fleet that makes firstcontact with Trisolaris. Whydid I call it ridiculous?Because it’s cheap andabsolutely risk-free. The

worstthingthatcouldhappenis if the probe self-destructsduring the interceptionprocess, so everyone’sgunning for it. If it was abattle with the mainTrisolaranFleet,thenallsideswould try to preserve theirstrength. Politics today isn’tall that different from yourtime.…Look,there’sNaturalSelection.”As the personnel craft

approachedNaturalSelection

andthesheerbulkoftheironmountain gradually becameclear, the image of Tangfloated up in Zhang Beihai’smind. Natural Selection,comprised of a disc-shapedbody and a separatecylindrical engine, lookedentirely different from thatseagoing aircraft carrier oftwo centuries before. WhenTangmet itsuntimelyend, itwas like he had lost hisspiritual home, even though

hehadnevermovedin.Now,thisgiantspaceshipgavehima new feeling of home. OnNatural Selection’s stalwarthull, his spirit found a placeto live after two centuries ofwandering, like a childenfolded in the embrace ofsomeenormouspower.Natural Selection was the

flagshipofthethirdsquadronof the Asian Fleet, and ingross tonnage andperformanceitwassecondto

none. Possessing the latestnon-media fusion propulsionsystem, at full thrust it couldaccelerateto15percentofthespeed of light, and itsimpeccable internalecological systems couldsustain a long-term voyage.In fact, an experimentalversion of this system wasfirstputintouseonthemoonseventy-five years ago andhad not yet exhibited anymajor defects or faults.

Natural Selection’s weaponswerethemostpowerfulinthefleet, too. Its gamma-raylasers, railguns, high-energyparticle beams, and stellartorpedoes made up a four-way weapons system thatcouldobliteratethesurfaceofanEarth-sizedplanet.Natural Selection now

occupied Zhang Beihai’sentire field of view so thatonly part of it was visiblefrom the personnel craft. He

noticedthattheouterwallsofthe shipweremirror-smooth,a broad mirror that perfectlyreflected the atmosphericocean of Jupiter, as well asthe gradual approach of thepersonnelcraft.An oval opening appeared

in the outerwall of the ship.The craft flew straight insideandcametoahalt.Thechiefofstaffopenedthecabindoorand exited first. AlthoughZhang Beihai was slightly

nervous because he hadn’tseenthecraftpassthroughanair lock, he immediatelysensed the influx of fresh airfrom the outside. Thetechnology to maintain apressurized compartmentopening directly into spacewithout allowing air to leakoutwasnotsomethinghehadseenbefore.ZhangBeihaiandthechief

of staff were inside a giantsphere the diameter of a

soccer field. Spaceshipcompartments typicallyadopteda spherical structure,because during acceleration,deceleration, or change ofdirection, any point on thesphere could serve as a flooror ceiling, and duringweightlessness, the center ofthe sphere would be thecrew’smainactivityspace.InZhang Beihai’s time, cabinshad been modeled on thestructure of Earth buildings,

so he was not at all used tothis entirely new cabinstructure. The chief of stafftold him that this was thefighterhangar,butsincetherewereno fighters rightnow,aformation of NaturalSelection’s two thousandofficers and soldiers wasfloating in the center of thesphere.Before Zhang Beihai

entered hibernation, nationalspace forces had begun

conducting drills in theweightlessnessofspace.Theyhad developed specificationsanddrillbooksasaresult,butimplementation had beenparticularly difficult.Personnel could use theirspace suits’microthrusters tomoveaboutoutsidethecabin,but since they lackedpropulsion equipment inside,they had to maneuver bypushing against bulkheadsand paddling the air. Under

such conditions, it was verydifficult to form neat lines.Now, he was astonished atthe sight of more than twothousand people floating inspace in such a neatformation without anysupports. These days,personnel moved throughweightless cabins primarilyby using magnetic belts,fabricated fromsuperconductors andcontaining a circuit that

generated a magnetic fieldthat interacted with themagnetic field that wasalways present in the cabinsand corridors of thespacecraft. With a tinycontrollerinhand,theycouldmove freely inside the ship.Zhang Beihai was nowputting on such a belt, but itwouldrequireskilltomaster.He watched the formation

ofspacesoldiers,agenerationthathadgrownupinthefleet.

Their tall, slenderbodieshadnoneoftheclumsysturdinessof people growing up underEarth’sgravity,butpossessedthe light agility of spacers.Three officers were in frontoftheformation,andhisgazeeventually rested on theyoung woman in the centerwith four glittering stars onher shoulder—NaturalSelection’scaptain,nodoubt.A typical representative ofnew space humanity, taller

eventhanZhangBeihai,whowas himself quite tall. Shedrifted easily over from theformation, her slender bodyfloatingthroughspacelikeanelegant musical note. WhenshereachedZhangBeihaiandthechiefofstaffshestopped,and the hair that had beenfloating behind her rippledaround the fair skin of herneck. Her eyes were full ofsunshine and vitality, andZhang Beihai immediately

trusted her, because theImprinted would never wearsuchanexpression.“Dongfang Yanxu, captain

of Natural Selection,” shesaid, saluting him.A note ofplayfulchallengeappeared inher eyes. “On behalf of theentire crew, I offer a gift tomy forbear.” She extendedher hand, and he saw that,although the object she heldin ithadchangedquite abit,it was still recognizably a

pistol.“IfyoureallyfindthatI have defeatist thinking andEscapist goals, you may usethistokillme.”

***

Getting to the surface waseasy.Thetrunkofeverygianttree building was a pillarsupporting the dome of theunderground city, and fromthe trunk you could take anelevator directly to the

surface,passingthroughmorethan three hundredmeters ofrock. When Luo Ji and ShiQiang exited the elevator,they felt nostalgic, a feelingprompted by one thing: Thewallsandflooroftheexithalldidnothaveactivateddisplaywindows. Information wasdisplayed on actual displayscreens that hung from theceiling. It looked like an oldsubway station, and most ofthe handful of people in it

woreclothesthatdidn’tflash.When they passed through

the hall air lock, they weremet by a hot wind blowingdustyair.“There’s my boy!” Shi

Qiang shouted, pointing at aman bounding up the steps.From this distance, Luo Jicouldmake out only that themanwas inhis forties, sohewas a little surprised at ShiQiang’s certainty. As ShiQianghurrieddownthestairs

to welcome his son, Luo Jiturned his eyes from thereunion to the surface worldbeforehim.The sky was yellow. He

now realized why the imageof the sky showing in theunderground city was shotfromaheightoftenthousandmeters, because, from theground, the sun was onlyvisible as a hazy outline.Sand covered everything onthe ground, and cars passed

by on the streets draggingdusty tails. It was anothersightfromthepastforLuoJi:cars that traveled on theground. They didn’t seem torun on gasoline. They camein all kinds of weird shapes,andsomewerenewandsomeold, but they all shared onefeature: Every car had a flatsheet installed on the roof,like an awning. Across thestreet, he saw an old-erabuilding with sand-covered

windowsills and windowsthatwereeitherboardeduporglassless black holes.However, people wereevidently living in some ofthe rooms, because he sawclothing hanging outside todry and even some pottedflowers on the windowsills.Thoughtheairbornesandanddust kept visibility low, hesoon located a couple offamiliar building outlinesfarther away and knew for

certain that he was in thesamecitywherehehadspenthalf his life two centuriesago.Hewalked down the steps

to the two men who werehugging and pounding eachother in their excitement.Seeing the middle-aged manup close, he knew that ShiQianghadn’tmadeamistake.“Dad, when you figure it,

I’m only five years youngerthan you,” Shi Xiaoming

said, wiping tears from thecornersofhiseyes.“Not bad, kiddo. I was

afraid some damn white-bearded old man would becalling me Dad,” Shi Qiangsaidwith a chuckle.ThenheintroducedLuoJitohisson.“Oh,Dr.Luo.Youusedto

be world famous,” ShiXiaoming said, as he lookedLuoJiupanddown.The three of them headed

toward Shi Xiaoming’s car,

whichwasparkedat the sideof the road. Before they gotin, Luo Ji asked about thethingontheroof.“It’sanantenna.Uponthe

surface, we have to usewhatever electricity leaksthrough from theunderground city, so theantennas are a little larger,andthepowerisonlyenoughtorunthecarsontheground.Theycan’tfly.”The car wasn’t fast, due

either to the power or thesand on the road. Luo Jilookedout thewindowat thesandycity.Hehadabellyfullof questions, but ShiXiaomingandhis fatherkepttalking and he couldn’t get awordin.“Mom passed away in

Year34oftheCrisis.Meandyourgranddaughterwerewithherthen.”“Oh, good.… You didn’t

bringmygranddaughterwith

you?”“After the divorce, she

wentwithhermom.I lookedupherfile.Shelivedintohereighties and died in Year105.”“Too bad I nevermet her.

… How old were you whenyoursentenceended?”“Nineteen.”“Whatdidyoudothen?”“Everything. At first, with

no other way out, I kept uptheswindles,but thenIdida

bit of legitimate business.After Ihad themoney, Isawthesignsof theGreatRavineand went into hibernation. Ididn’t know then that thingswould get better later on. Ijustwantedtoseeyou.”“Isourhousestillthere?”“Land-use rights were

extended past the originalseventy-year period, but Ionly got to stay a short timebeforeitwasdemolished.Theone we bought later is still

there, but I haven’t been toseeit.”ShiXiaomingpointedoutside. “The city populationisn’tevenonepercentofwhatit was in our day. Do youknow what the mostworthless thing is? Thathouse. You dedicated yourentire life to it, Dad, buteverything’semptynow.Youcanlivewhereveryoulike.”Finally Luo Jimanaged to

seize a gap in theirconversation to ask, “Do all

reawakened hibernators liveintheoldcity?”“No way! They live

outside. There’s too muchsand in the city. But mostly,it’sbecausethere’snothingtodo. Of course, you can’t gotoofar fromtheundergroundcity, or you can’t getelectricity.”“What do all of you do?”

ShiQiangasked.“Think: What can we do

thatthekidscan’t?Farming!”

Shi Xiaoming, like otherhibernators, no matter theirage, had the habit of callingmodernpeople“kids.”The car left the city and

drove east. As the sandlessened to reveal thehighway,LuoJirecognizeditas the old expresswaybetween Beijing andShijiazhuang, although bothsides were piled high withsand now. The old buildingsstill stood there amid the

sand, but what brought asparkoflifetothisdesertifiedplain of northernChinawerethe small oases ringed bysparse trees, which ShiXiaoming said werehibernatorsettlements.Theydrove intooneoasis,

asmallresidentialcommunitysurrounded by a sand-breakof trees that Shi Xiaomingcalled New Life Village #5.When he got out of the car,Luo Ji felt time flowing

backward: rows of six-storyapartments fronted by openspace,oldmenplayingchesson stone tables, motherspushingbabycarriages,andafew children playing socceron the sparse lawn growingonthesand.…ShiXiaoming lived on the

sixth floor with a wife nineyears younger than him. Shehad entered hibernation inYear 21 due to liver cancer,but was completely healthy

now. They had a four-year-oldsonwhocalledShiQiang“Grampa.”A sumptuous lunch had

beenlaidouttowelcomeLuoJi and Shi Qiang: local farmproduce, chicken and porkproduced at other nearbyfarms, and even home-brewed alcohol. They calledthree of their neighbors tojoin them, three men who—like Shi Xiaoming—hadentered hibernation relatively

early, back when it wasexpensive and available onlytorichmembersof theupperclass or their sons anddaughters. Now, gatheredhereafteraspanofmorethana century, they were all justordinary people. ShiXiaoming introduced oneneighbor as Zhang Yan, thegrandson of ZhangYuanchao, the man he hadcheatedbackintheday.“Rememberhowyoumade

me return the money Icheated him out of? I beganthe day I got out, and that’show I met Yan. He had justgraduated from college.Taking inspiration from histwo neighbors, we went intothe funeral business andcalled our firm theHigh andDeep Company. ‘High,’ forspace burials.We shot ashesinto the Solar System, andlater on we were able tolaunch entire bodies. For a

price, of course. ‘Deep,’ formineburials.Atfirstweusedabandoned shafts, and lateron we dug new ones, sincetheywouldworkequallywellasanti-Trisolaristombstoo.”ThemancalledYanwasa

little older—he looked to bein his fifties or sixties. ShiXiaomingexplained thatYanhad been reawakened oncebefore and lived for morethanthirtyyearsbeforegoingbackintohibernation.

“What’s our legal statushere?”LuoJiasked.Shi Xiaoming said,

“Completely equivalent tomodern residential areas.Wecount as the city’s distantsuburbs, and we have aproper district government.It’s not just hibernators wholive here. We also havemodern people, and peoplefrom the city often comeouthereforfun.”ZhangYantookover:“We

call the modern people‘walltappers,’ because whenthey first get here they’realways touching thewall outof habit, trying to activatesomething.”“So life’s okay?” Shi

Qiangasked.They all said itwas pretty

good.“But along the road I saw

the fieldsyouplant.Canyoureally support yourselves bygrowingcrops?”

“Why not? In the citiesthese days, agriculturalproducts are luxury items.…The government’s actuallyquite good to hibernators.Even if you don’t doanything, you can still livecomfortably off governmentsubsidies. But you’ve got tohave something to do. Theideathathibernatorsallknowhow to farm is nonsense.Noonewasa farmerat first,butthisisallwecando.”

The conversation quicklyturned to the history of thepasttwocenturies.“Sowhatwasthedealwith

the Great Ravine?” Luo Jibrought up the question hehadlongbeenwantingtoask.Instantly their faces grew

serious. Seeing that themealwas almost over, ShiXiaoming allowed the topicto continue. “You’veprobablylearnedalittleaboutitoverthepastfewdays.It’s

alongstory.Formorethanadecade after you went intohibernation, life was prettygood.But later on,when thepace of economictransformationpickedup, thestandardoflivingdeclinedbythe day and the politicalclimate constricted. It reallyfeltlikewartime.”Aneighborsaid,“Itwasn’t

just a few countries. Theentire Earth was like that.Society was on edge, and if

you said something wrongthey would say you wereETO,oratraitortohumanity,sonobodyfeltsafe.Andfilmand television from theGolden Age began to berestricted, and then wasbannedworldwide.Ofcourse,there was too much of it tobaneffectively.”“Why?”“They were afraid of

eroding the fighting spirit,”Shi Xiaoming said. “Still, so

longastherewasfoodtoeat,youcouldmakedo.But lateron, thingsgotworse,and theworld began to starve. Thiswas about twenty years afterDr. Luo went intohibernation.”“Because of the economic

transition?”“Right. But environmental

deteriorationwasalsoamajorfactor. The environmentallawswere there, but in thosepessimistic times, thegeneral

attitudewas,‘Whatthehellisenvironmentalprotectionfor?Even if Earth turns into agarden,isn’titallgoingtotheTrisolarans anyway?’Eventually, environmentalprotectionwasseenasnolesstreasonous to humanity thanthe ETO. Organizations likeGreenpeacewere treated likeETO branches andsuppressed. Work on thespace forces accelerated thedevelopment of highly

polluting heavy industry,which made environmentalpollution unstoppable. Thegreenhouse effect, climateanomalies, desertification…”Hesighed.“When I entered

hibernation, desertificationwas just starting,” anotherneighbor said. “It’s not whatyou imagine, like the desertadvancing from the GreatWall. No! It was patchworkerosion. Perfectly fine plots

of land in the interior beganturning to desertsimultaneously, and it spreadfromthosepoints,likehowadampclothdriesinthesun.”“Then agricultural

production plummeted, andgrain reserves wereexhausted. And then … andthencametheGreatRavine.”“Didthepredictionthatthe

standard of living would gobackward a hundred yearscometrue?”LuoJiasked.

Shi Xiaoming gave a fewbitterchuckles.“Ah,Dr.Luo.A hundred years? In yourdreams! A hundred yearsback from that time wouldhave been … around the1930s or so. A paradisecompared to the GreatRavine! No way the two arethesame.Foronething,therewere so many more peoplethan in the Great Depression—8.3 billion!”He pointed atZhang Yan. “He saw the

Great Ravine when hereawakened for awhile.Youtellthem.”Zhang Yan drained his

glass.Eyesblank,he said, “Ihaveseenthegrandmarchofhunger. Millions of peoplefleeing famine on the greatplains through sand thatblockedoutthesky.Hotsky,hotearth,andhot sun.Whenthey died, they were dividedupon the spot.… Itwashellon Earth. There are tons of

videos towatch if youwant.You think of that time, andyoufeelluckytobealive.”“The Great Ravine lasted

for about half a century, andin those fifty-odd years, theworld population droppedfrom8.3billionto3.5billion.Think about what thatmeans!”Luo Ji got up and went

over to the window. Fromhere he could see the desertacrosstheprotectivetreeline,

its yellow covering of sandextending silently to thehorizon under the noondaysun. The hand of time hadsmoothedovereverything.“And then?” Shi Qiang

asked.Zhang Yan let out a long

breath,asifnolongerhavingto talk about that period ofhistoryhadtakenaburdenoffhis shoulders. “After that,well, some people came totermswith it, and thenmore

and more people did. Theywondered whether it wasworth it to pay so high aprice, even if it was forvictory in the DoomsdayBattle. Think about what’smore important: the childdying of starvation in yourarms, or the continuation ofhuman civilization? Rightnow you might think thelatter choice is moreimportant, but you wouldn’thave in thatdayandage.No

matter what the futuremightbring, the present is mostimportant. Of course, thatmind-set was outrageous atfirst, theclassic thinkingofatraitor to humanity, but youcouldn’t stop people fromthinkingit.Andverysoontheentire world thought so.There was a popular sloganback then, which soonbecame a famous historicalquote.”“‘Make time for

civilization, for civilizationwon’t make time,’” Luo Jicontributed, without lookingbackfromthewindow.“Right, that one.

Civilizationismeantforus.”“And after that?” Shi

Qiangasked.“A second Enlightenment,

a second Renaissance, asecondFrenchRevolution…You can find all that stuff inthehistorybooks.”Luo Ji turned back in

surprise. The predictions hehadmadetoZhuangYantwocenturies before had come topass. “A second FrenchRevolution?InFrance?!”“No, no. That’s just a

saying. It was the entireworld! After the revolution,thenewnationalgovernmentsterminated their spacestrategies and poured theirattention into improvingpeople’s lives. And thencritical technology emerged:

Genetic engineering andfusion technology wereharnessedforlarge-scalefoodproduction,endingtheageofweather-dependent food.From then on, the worldwould no longer be hungry.Everything moved quicklyafter that—there were fewerpeople, after all—and in thespaceofjusttwodecades,lifereturned to pre–GreatRavinelevels. Then Golden Agelevels were restored. People

had set their hearts on thisroad of comfort, and no onewantedtogoback.”“There’s another term you

might find interesting, Dr.Luo,” said the first neighbor,drawing closer to him. Aneconomistbeforehibernation,he had a deeperunderstanding of the issues.“It’s called civilizationimmunity.Itmeansthatwhenthe world has suffered aserious illness, it triggers

civilization’simmunesystem,so that something like theearlyCrisisErawon’thappenagain.Humanismcomesfirst,and perpetuating civilizationcomes second. These are theconcepts that today’s societyisbasedon.”“And after that?” Luo Ji

asked.“Afterthatcamethefreaky

stuff.” Shi Xiaoming grewexcited. “Originally, thecountries of the world had

planned to live in peace andpush the Trisolar Crisis ontothe back burner, butwhat doyou think happened? Therewas swift progresseverywhere.Technologyspedforwardandbrokethroughallthe technical obstacles thathadstoodinthewayofspacestrategy before the GreatRavine,oneaftertheother!”“That’snotfreaky,”LuoJi

said. “Emancipation ofhuman nature inevitably

brings with it scientific andtechnologicalprogress.”“Afterabouthalfacentury

of peace following the GreatRavine, the world turned itsthoughts back to theTrisolaraninvasionandfeltitought to reconsider the war.With humanity’s power nowon a completely differentplane than before the GreatRavine, a global state ofwarwas again declared, andconstruction was begun on a

space fleet. But unlike thefirst time, nationalconstitutionswereclearaboutone thing: Resourceexpenditure for the spacestrategyhadtobekeptwithina specified range, and mustnot have a disastrous impactontheworldeconomyandoncommunity life. And that’swhenthespacefleetsbecameindependentcountries.…”“You don’t actually have

to think about any of this,

though,” the economist said.“From now on, just thinkabouthowtoliveagoodlife.ThatoldrevolutionarysloganisjustanadaptationoftheoldsayingfromtheGoldenAge:‘Make time for life, or lifewon’t make time.’ To newlife!”When they had drained

theirlastglass,LuoJipraisedthe economist for puttingthingssowell.Nowhismindhad space only for Zhuang

Yanandthechild.Hewantedto get settled as soon aspossible, and then go wakethem.Make time for civilization,

maketimeforlife.

***

After boarding NaturalSelection, Zhang Beihaifound that the moderncommandsystemhadevolvedfar beyond what he had

imagined. The giantspacecraft,equalinvolumetothree of the largest seagoingcarriers of the twenty-firstcentury, was practically asmall city, but it had nobridge or command module,or even a captain’s room oroperations room. In fact, ithad no specific functionalcompartments whatsoever.All of them were identical,regular spheres that differedonly in size. At any location

insidetheship,youcouldjustuseadataglove toactivateaholographic display, which,due to the high cost, was ararity even in Earth’s super-wired society. And at anylocation, so long as you hadthe appropriate systempermissions, you could pullup a complete commandconsole,includingacaptain’sinterface, which effectivelymadetheentireship,eventhepassageways and bathrooms,

a bridge, command module,captain’s room, andoperations room! To ZhangBeihai, it felt like theevolutionfromaclient-servermodel to a browser-servermodel in late-twentieth-century computer networks.With the former, you couldonly access the serverthrough specific softwareinstalled on a computer, butusing the latter, you couldaccess the server from any

computer on the network solong as you had the rightpermissions.Zhang Beihai and

Dongfang Yanxu weresituated in an ordinary cabinthat,likeeveryotherone,hadno special instruments orscreens. It was just asphericalcompartmentwhosebulkheadswerewhitemostofthe time, making it feel likethe inside of a giant Ping-Pongball.Whengravitywas

produced by shipacceleration, any part of thespherical bulkhead could betransformed into a shapesuitableforuseasachair.ForZhangBeihai,thiswas

another aspect of moderntechnology that few peoplehadimagined:theeliminationof single-purpose facilities.Only the first tendrils of thistrend had appeared onEarth,but it was part of thefundamental structure of the

far more advanced world ofthe fleet. This world wasspare and simple. Deviceswere no longer permanentlyinstalled, but would appearwhen necessary at anylocation required.Theworld,madecomplexbytechnology,was becoming simple again,its technology hidden deeplybehindthefaceofreality.“Now we come to your

first onboard lesson,”Dongfang Yanxu said. “Of

course, you really shouldn’tbe getting this lesson from acaptain who’s under review,butnooneinthefleetismoretrustworthythanIam.Today,we’ll demonstrate how tolaunchNatural Selection andput it into navigation mode.And, in fact, so long as youremember what you seetoday, you’ll have closed offthe primary opening for theImprinted.”Asshespoke,sheusedherdataglovetocallup

aholographicstarchartintheair. “This may be a littledifferent from the spatialmapsofyourtime,butitstillusesthesunastheorigin.”“I studied this in training,

so I can read it fine,” ZhangBeihai said, looking at thestarchart.HismemoryoftheancientSolarSystemmapheandChangWeisihadstoodinfront of two centuries agowas still fresh. This chart,however, precisely marked

out the positions of allcelestial bodies within aradius of one hundred light-years of the sun, at a scalemore than a hundred timesgreaterthantheolderone.“You don’t really need to

understand much. In thepresent state, navigation toany position on the map isprohibited.… If I wereImprinted, and wanted tohijack Natural Selection toflee into thecosmos, I’d first

need to selectaheading, likethis.”Sheactivatedapointonthemap,turningitgreen.“Ofcourse, we’re just insimulation mode right now,because I no longer havepermissions. When youobtain captain’s permissions,I’llhavetogothroughyoutoperformtheoperations.ButifI really submitted thisoperationrequest,itwouldbea dangerous act, and youshould refuse it. You should

alsoreportme.”Once the heading was

activated, an interfaceappeared in the air. ZhangBeihai was already quitefamiliar with the appearanceand operations from histraining, but he still listenedpatiently to DongfangYanxu’s explanation andwatchedhowshebroughtthehuge ship from completeshutdowntohibernation,thento standby, and finally to

SlowAhead.“If these were real

operations, Natural Selectionwould now leave port.Whatdo you think? Simpler thanspaceship operations in yourday?”“Yes. Much simpler.”

Whenheandtheotherspecialcontingentmembers first sawthe interface, they weresurprisedatitssimplicity,andthe total lack of technicaldetail.

“The operation is totallyautomatic, leaving thetechnical process entirelyhiddenfromthecaptain.”“This display only shows

general parameters. How doyouseetheship’soperationalstatus?”“Operational status is

monitored by officers andnoncommissioned officers atlower levels. Their displaysare more complex—thefurther down you go, the

more complicated theinterfacebecomes.Ascaptainand vice-captain, we mustfocus our attention on moreimportant matters.… Verywell, let’scontinue. If IwereImprinted…ThereIgowiththat supposition again. Whatdoyouthink?”“Given my position, any

response would beirresponsible.”“Fine. If Iwere Imprinted,

then I’d set the throttle

directly to Ahead Four. Noother ship in the fleet cancatchNaturalSelectionunderAheadFouracceleration.”“But you couldn’t do that,

even if you had thepermissions, because thesystem will only proceed toAhead Four if it detects thatall passengers are in a deep-seastate.”Under maximum

propulsion, the ship’sacceleration could reach 120

gs, but this exerted a forcemore than ten times what ahuman could tolerate undernormal conditions. To go tomaximum,theyhadtoentera“deep-sea state,” whichconsisted of the cabins beingfilled with an oxygen-rich“deep-sea acceleration fluid”that trained personnel couldbreathe directly. As theybreathed, it would fill theirlungs and then the rest oftheirorgans.Firstdreamedup

in the first half of thetwentieth century, the liquidwas intended at the time tofacilitate ultra-deep dives.Pressure was in equilibriuminsideandoutsideofahumanbody filled with deep-seaacceleration fluid,meaning itcould sustain high pressureslike a deep-sea fish. Theenvironmentofaliquid-filledcabininarapidlyacceleratingspacecraftwaslikethatofthedeep sea, so the liquid was

now being used to protecthuman bodies against theultra-high acceleration ofspace travel. Hence the term“deep-seastate.”Dongfang Yanxu nodded.

“But you should know thatthere’s a way to get aroundthat. Ifyouset the spacecrafttoremotecontrol,thenitwillassume that no one is onboard andwon’t perform thecheck. This setting is part ofthecaptain’spermissions.”

“Letme try it andyou tellmeifI’vegotitright.”ZhangBeihai activated an interfacein front of him and begansetting up remote controlmode for the spacecraft,looking at a small notebookfrom time to time as he didso.DongfangYanxusmiledat

the notebook. “There aremore efficient recordingmethodsnow.”“Oh, it’s just habit. For

particularly important things,it’salwaysmorereassuringtowritethemdownlikethis.It’sjust that I can’t find a pennow. I brought two with meintohibernation,butonly thepencilwasstillusable.”“You’velearnedquickly.”“That’s because the

commandsystemretainsalotof the navy’s style. After allthese years, the names ofthings haven’t even changed.The engine orders, for

example.”“The space fleet did have

its origins in the navy.…Okay, you’ll soon bereceiving system permissionsas the acting captain ofNatural Selection. Thiswarshipisinclass-Astandby,or, as they called it in yourtime, ‘fired up and ready togo.’” She extended herslender arms and turned acircleintheair.ZhangBeihaihadnotbeen

able to figure out how toperform that action using thesuperconducting belt. “Wedidn’t‘fireup’inthosedays.Butyouevidentlyknowquitea bit of naval history,” hesaid, changing the subjectfrom the sensitive issue thatwasliabletomakeherhostiletohim.“Agrandoldbranchofthe

service.”“Doesn’t the space fleet

inheritthatgrandeur?”

“Yes. But I’m going toleaveit.Iplanonresigning.”“Becauseofthereview?”She turned to look at him,

her thick black hair leapingagain from the lack ofgravity. “You encounteredthis sort of thing all the timebackthen,didn’tyou?”“Notnecessarily.Butifwe

did, every comrade wouldunderstand, becauseundergoing review is one ofthedutiesofasoldier.”

“Two centuries havepassed.Thisisnolongeryourtime.”“Dongfang, don’t

deliberately widen the gap.Therearesimilaritiesbetweenthe two of us. Soldiers in allages have to bear up underhumiliation.”“Are you advising me to

stay?”“No.”“Ideological work. That’s

theword,isn’tit?Wasn’tthat

yourdutyonce?”“Not anymore. I have a

newduty.”She floated easily around

him, as if carefully studyinghim.“Isitthatwe’rechildrento you? Half a year ago Iwent to Earth, and in onehibernator district, a six- orseven-year-oldboycalledmeakid.”Helaughed.“Arewekidstoyou?”“In our day, seniority was

very important. In thecountryside,therewereadultswhocalledchildrenAuntandUncle because of familyseniority.”“But your seniority is

unimportanttome.”“I can see that in your

eyes.”“Your daughter, and your

wife—they didn’t come withyou? Special Contingentfamily members wereallowed to hibernate, too, as

farasI’maware.”“They didn’t come, and

they didn’t want me to go.Youknow,trendsat thetimepointed toward a very bleakfuture.Theycriticizedmeforbeing irresponsible. She andhermothermovedout,andinthedeadofnightthedayafterthey left, the SpecialContingent received theorder.Ididn’tevenhavetimetoseethemagain.Itwasonalate winter’s night, a cold

one,thatIlefthomecarryingmy bags.… Of course, I’mnot expecting you tounderstandanyofthis.”“I understand.… What

happenedtothem?”“Mywifedied inYear47.

MydaughterinYear81.”“They saw the Great

Ravine.” She lowered hereyesandremainedsilentforawhile. Then she activated aholographic window andswitched to an external

displaymode.Thebulkheadsofthewhite

sphere melted like wax andNatural Selection vanished,leaving them suspended ininfinite space, facing themisty starfield of the MilkyWay. They were now twoindependent beings in theuniverse, unattached to anyworld, with nothing but theabyss surrounding them.They hung in the universelike the Earth, the sun, and

the galaxy itself, with noorigin and no destination.Simplyexisting…Zhang Beihai had

experienced this feelingbefore, 190 years ago, whenhe floated in space wearingnothing but a space suit,holding a pistol loaded withmeteoritebullets.“I like it this way, where

youcanignorethespacecraftand the fleet and everythingoutside your ownmind,” she

said.“Dongfang,” he called

softly.“Hmm?” The captain

turned around, her eyesshining with the starlight oftheMilkyWay.“If the day comes when I

have to kill you, pleaseforgiveme,”hesaidgently.She met his words with a

smile.“DoI look toyou likeI’mImprinted?”He looked at her in the

sunlight coming from fiveAU away. She was a lithefeather floating against thebackdropofthestarfield.“We belong to the Earth

andthesea,youbelongtothestars.”“Isthatbad?”“No.It’sverygood.”

***

“Theprobe’sgoneout!”The report from the duty

officercameasashocktoDr.Kuhn andGeneralRobinson.They knew that once thenews got out it would makewaves in both the EarthInternational and the FleetInternational, particularlysince the latest observationsof the probe’s speed meantthatitwouldcrosstheorbitofJupiterinjustsixdays.Kuhn and Robinson were

ontheRingier-FitzroyStationthatorbitedthesunalongthe

outside rim of the asteroidbelt. Floating in space fivekilometers away from thestationwerethemostpeculiarobjectsintheSolarSystem:asetofsixgiantlenses,thetopone1,200metersindiameter,and the fivebelow it slightlysmaller in size. Thiswas thelatestincarnationofthespacetelescope, but unlike theprevious five generations ofthe Hubble, this spacetelescope had no barrel, or

anyconnectingmaterialatallbetween the six giant lenses.They floated independently,therimofeachlensequippedwith multiple ion thrustersthatcouldpreciselyadjustthedistance between them orchange the orientation of theentire group. Ringier-FitzroyStationwasthecontrolcenterfor the telescope, but evenfrom this close, thetransparent lenses werepractically invisible. When

technicians and engineerswould fly between themduring maintenance, theuniverseoneithersidewouldbe grossly distorted, and iftheywereattheproperangle,the protective iris on thesurface would reflect thesunlightand reveal theentiregiant lens, whose curvedsurface would then resemblea planet covered inbewitching rainbows. Thetelescope broke with the

Hubble series namingconvention and was dubbedthe Ringier-FitzroyTelescope, to commemoratethe twomenwho discoveredthe tracks of the TrisolaranFleet. Although theirdiscovery had no scholarlysignificance, the name wasfitting, because the primarypurpose of this massivetelescope, a joint project ofthethreemajorfleets,wasthecontinued monitoring of the

TrisolaranFleet.A team like Ringier and

Fitzroy—aleadscientistfromEarth and a head of militaryaffairs from the fleet—hadalways been in charge of thetelescope, and in every suchteam there were the samedifferences of opinion thatRingier and Fitzroy had.Right now, Kuhn wanted tosqueeze in some observationtimeforhisownstudyof thecosmos, while Robinson

worked to stop him, so as tosafeguardthefleet’sinterests.They argued about otherthings, too: For example,Kuhn reminisced over thewonderful way that Earth’ssuperpowers, headed up bythe United States, wereleading theworld, incontrastto the fleets’ currentinefficient bureaucracy; butevery time he did so,Robinson would ruthlesslydismantle Kuhn’s ridiculous

historical fantasies. But themost heated argument wasover the station’s rotationspeed.Thegeneralinsistedona slow rotation for minimalgravity, even to the point ofkeeping the station in anentirelyweightless statewithnorotationatall,whileKuhnstumped for a fast rotationandEarthstandardgravity.But what was happening

nowoverwhelmedallofthat.Theprobehaving“goneout”

meant that its engines hadturnedoff.Twoyearsbefore,far beyond the Oort Cloud,the probe had begun todecelerate, which meant thatitsenginehadstartedup inasun-facingdirection,enablingthe space telescope to trackthe probe by engine light.Now that the light had goneout, tracking was no longerpossible, because the probeitself was far too small—probably no bigger than a

truck, based on the wake itleft crossing the interstellardust.Anobjectthatsmallouton the periphery of theKuiper Belt, no longeremitting its own light andreflecting the weak light ofthe distant sun even moreweakly—even a telescope aspowerful as Ringier-Fitzroycouldn’t see sucha tinydarkobject so far off in thedarknessofspace.“The three fleets don’t

knowhowtodoanythingbutstruggle over power. This isjustperfect—thetarget’sbeenlost.…” Kuhn grumbled,waving his arms foremphasis. He forgot thestation was now in aweightless state, and hismovements caused him toperformasomersault.For the first time, General

Robinson did not defend thefleet. The Asian Fleet hadoriginally dispatched three

light, high-speed ships totracktheprobeatcloserange,but after the dispute eruptedamong the three fleets overtherighttointercept,theJointConference had issued aresolutionrecallingallcrafttobase. The Asian Fleetrepeatedly protested that thethree fighter-class spaceshipshad been stripped of allweapons and externalequipment andwere carryinga crew of just two people

each to achieve maximumacceleration for tracking thetarget, and even so, theycould not possibly interceptthe probe. However, theEuropean and NorthAmerican Fleets wereunconvinced, and insistedthat all spaceships in transitbe recalled and replaced bythree spaceships dispatchedby Earth International as afourth party. If not for that,the fleet shipswould already

havemadeclosecontactwiththeprobeandbegun trackingit. Earth’s ships, dispatchedby the EuropeanCommonwealth and China,hadnotevenpassedtheorbitofNeptune.“Perhaps.Itsenginesmight

start up again,” the generalsaid.“It’sstilltravelingprettyfast, and if it doesn’tdecelerate itwon’tbeable torest in solar orbit. It’ll passright through the Solar

System.”“Are you the Trisolaran

commander? Maybe theprobe wasn’t ever planningon remaining in the SolarSystem,butwasjustgoingtopass through anyway!”Kuhnsaid.Thenathoughtsuddenlystruck him. “If the enginesare off, then it can’t changecourse! Can’t you just figureout where it’s headed andsend the tracking spacecrafttowaitforit?”

The general shook hishead. “That’s not preciseenough. It’s not like an airforce search in Earth’satmosphere. One minisculeerror, andyou’llbehundredsofthousandsorevenmillionsof kilometers off course. Insuchahugearea,thetrackingcraft won’t be able to findsuchatiny,darktarget.…Butwe’vegot to comeupwithawaysomehow.”“What canwe do?Let the

fleetfigureitout.”The general turned tough.

“Doctor,you’vegottorealizethe nature of the situation.Even though this isn’t ourfault, the media won’t care.The Ringier-Fitzroy systemwas, after all, responsible fortracking the probe in deepspace, so a good portion ofthat dirty water is going tolandonourheads.”Kuhn said nothing, but

remained with his body

perpendiculartothegeneral’sfor a while. Then he asked,“Is there anything elseoutside Neptune’s orbit thatcouldbeuseful?”“For the fleet, probably

nothing. For Earth…” Thegeneralturnedtoaskthedutyofficer and soon learned thatthe UN EnvironmentalProtection Organization hadfourlargeshipsnearNeptune,workingontheearlystagesofthe Fog Umbrella Project.

The three small craft newlytasked with tracking theprobe had been dispatchedfromthoseships.“Andthey’retheretomine

oil film?” Kuhn asked. Thereply was affirmative. OilfilmwasasubstancefoundinNeptune’s rings. At hightemperatures, it turned into arapidlydiffusinggasthatthencondensed into nanoparticlesin space, formingspacedust.Itwassocalledbecausewhen

it evaporated, it becamehighly diffusive, so a smallquantity of the substancecould form a large patch ofdust,likeatinydropletofoilspreading into an oil film ofmolecular thickness across alarge area of water. Dustformedfromthisoilfilmhadanother property: Unlikeother types of space dust,“oil-filmdust”wasnoteasilydispersedbythesolarwind.Itwas the discovery of oil

film that made the FogUmbrella Project possible.The plan was to use nuclearblasts in space to evaporateand spread the oil-filmsubstance intoacloudofoil-filmdustbetweenthesunandEarth as a means ofdecreasingthesun’sradiationon Earth and alleviatingglobalwarming.“I remember there’s

supposedtobeastellarbombnear Neptune orbit from

beforethewars,”Kuhnsaid.“There is. And the Fog

Umbrella spaceships broughtalonga few, too, forblastingNeptuneanditssatellites.I’mnot sure of the precisenumber.”“I’d say one is enough,”

Kuhnsaidexcitedly.Like Wallfacer Rey Diaz

had predicted two centuriesprior when he developed thestellarhydrogenbombforhisWallfacer plan, although the

weapon would be of limiteduse in the Doomsday Battle,themajorpowerswantedittoprepare for the possibleoutbreak of interplanetarywar between humans. Morethanfivethousandbombshadbeen manufactured, mostlyduring the Great Ravine,when international relationsgrew volatile due to lack ofresources, and humanity waspushed to the brink of war.When the new era dawned,

the horrifying weaponsbecame dangerousnonessentials that were keptin storage in outer space,although they still belongedto countries on Earth.A fewof them were blown up inplanetary engineeringprojects, and another setwassent into orbit in the remoteSolarSystemwith thenotionthat the fusion materialscould supplement the fuel oflong-range spacecraft.

However, because of thedifficulty involved indismantling the bombs, thisideawasneverrealized.“Doyou think it’llwork?”

Robinson asked, his eyesaglow.Hewas a little ruefulthat he hadn’t thought upsuch a simple idea himself,and that Kuhn had snatchedtheopportunitytogodowninhistory.“Giveitatry.It’stheonly

thingwe’vegot.”

“If your idea works,Doctor, then the Ringier-Fitzroy Station will foreverrevolve fast enough togenerateEarthgravity.”

***

“It’s the biggest thinghumanityhasevermade,”thecommander of Blue Shadowsaid, as he looked out thespacecraft’s window into thepitch-blackofspace.Nothing

was visible, but he tried toconvince himself that hecouldseethedustcloud.“Whyisn’titlitbythesun,

like the tail of a comet?” thepilot said. He and thecommander were the onlycrew on Blue Shadow. Heknew the density of the dustcloud was as thin as acomet’s tail, or about thesame as a vacuumcreated inanEarth-basedlaboratory.“Maybe the sunlight is too

weak.” The commanderlooked back at the sun,which, in the lonely spacebetween Neptune’s orbit andtheKuiperBelt,lookedlikealargestar, itsdisc shapeonlybarely distinguishable. Still,even theweaksunlightcouldstill cast shadows on thebulkhead. “Besides, a comettail is only visible from acertain distance away.We’rejustattheedgeofthecloud.”The pilot tried to conjure

upamentalimageofthethinyet gigantic cloud. A fewdays ago, he and thecommander had seen withtheirowneyeshowsmallthecloud was when compressedinto a solid.At the time, thegiant spaceship Pacific hadarrivedfromNeptuneandleftbehind five things when itstopped in this section ofspace. The Blue Shadow’smechanicalarmfirstretrievedastellarhydrogenbombfrom

the early days of the war, acylinderfivemeterslonganda meter and a half indiameter. Next it picked upfour large spheres betweenthirty and fifty meters indiameter. The four spheres,the oil film harvested fromNeptune’s rings,were placedat points several hundredmeters from the bomb.OncePacific had departed thevicinity, the bomb exploded,forming a small sun whose

lightandheatsurgedintothecold abyss of space andinstantly vaporized thesurrounding spheres. Thegaseous oil film diffusedrapidly under the typhoon ofH-bomb radiation, thencooled into countless tinyparticles of dust, forming acloud. The cloud had adiameter of two millionkilometers, greater than thatofthesun.Thedustcloudwaslocated

in the region that theTrisolaran probe wasexpected to pass through,according to pathobservationsmadepriortoitsengineshuttingoff.Dr.KuhnandGeneral Robinson hopedto precisely determine theprobe’s path and position bythe tracks it left in the man-madedustcloud.Followingtheformationof

thecloud,Pacific returned toNeptunebase,leavingbehind

three small spaceships thatwouldtracktheprobecloselyonce its wake showed. BlueShadowwasoneofthem.Thesmall high-speed ship hadbeendubbeda“space racer.”With a small capsule thatcould seat five as its onlypayload, its remainingvolumewasentirelyoccupiedby a fusion engine, giving ithigh acceleration andmaneuverability. Once thedust cloud took shape, Blue

Shadow flew through theentire area to test whetherwakes would be left, withquite satisfactory results. Ofcourse, thewakes couldonlybe observed by the spacetelescope more than onehundred AU distant. FromBlue Shadow itself, its ownwake was invisible, and thesurrounding space was asdeserted as it always hadbeen. Still, after passingthrough the cloud, the pilot

insisted that thesun lookedalittle dimmer, that itsformerlysharpcircumferencehad gone a bit blurry.Instrument observationsconfirmed the sole visualimpression they had of thisgiantcreation.“Less than three hours to

go,” the commander said,lookingathiswatch.Thedustcloud was actually a giant,thin satellite in orbit aroundthe sun, its position

constantlychanging.When iteventually moved out of thespacewhere the probemightpass through, another dustcloud would have to becreatedbehindit.“Do you really hope we’ll

catch up to it?” the pilotasked.“Why not? We’re making

history!”“Won’tthethingattackus?

We’re not soldiers. Thisreallyoughttobedonebythe

fleet.”Then their spacecraft

received a message from theRingier-Fitzroy Stationreporting that the Trisolaranprobe had entered the dustcloud and left a wake, andthat precise parameters hadbeen calculated for itstrajectory. Blue Shadow wasordered tomove immediatelyto rendezvous with andclosely track the target. Thestation was more than one

hundredAUaway fromBlueShadow, meaning themessage was delayed morethan ten hours in transit, butthe key had made animpression in the mold.Orbital calculations had eventaken into account the effectof the thin dust cloud, so arendezvouswas just amatteroftime.Blue Shadow set a course

in accordance with theprobe’s path and once again

entered the invisible dustcloud, this time heading inthedirectionoftheTrisolaranprobe.Itwasalongflightthistime, and over the course ofmore than ten hours, bothpilot and commander grewsleepy. But the continuouslyshrinking distance betweenthemandtheprobekeptthemonedge.“Iseeit!Iseeit!”thepilot

shouted.“What are you talking

about? There’s still overfourteen thousand kilometersto go!” rebuked thecommander. The naked eyecouldnotpossiblyseeatruckat a distance of fourteenthousand kilometers, evengiven the transparency ofspace.Butsoonhesawitforhimself: On the trajectorydescribed by the parameters,againstthesilentbackdropofspace,apointof lightwas inmotion.

After amoment’s thought,the commander understood:Thecloudofdust larger thanthesunhadbeenunnecessary,since the Trisolaran probehad restarted its engines andwas continuing to decelerate.It did not intend to skipthrough the Solar System. Itwouldremainhere.

***

Because it was only a

temporary measure in thefleets, the ceremony forhanding over captain’spermissions on NaturalSelection was a simple andlow-key affair attended onlybyCaptainDongfangYanxu,ActingCaptainZhangBeihai,First Vice-Captain Levine,and Second Vice-CaptainAkira Inoue, as well as aspecialteamfromtheGeneralStaffDepartment.Despite this era’s

technological development,theyhadstillnotmanaged toovercome the stagnation offundamental theory, soNatural Selection’spermissionstransferwasdoneviameans ZhangBeihaiwasfamiliar with: three-factorretina, fingerprint, andpassphraseauthentication.Once the General Staff

team had finished resettingthepupilandfingerprintdatathat identified the captain in

the system,DongfangYanxusurrendered her pass phraseto Zhang Beihai: “Menalways remember lovebecauseofromanceonly.”“You don’t smoke,” he

repliedcalmly.“And the brand was lost

duringtheGreatRavine,”shesaid with a trace ofdisappointment, and loweredhereyes.“Butthepassword’sagood

one.Notmanypeopleknewit

backtheneither.”The captain and vice-

captains exited, leavingZhangBeihaialonetoupdatethe password and obtaincomplete control overNaturalSelection.“He’sclever,”Akira Inoue

said when the door to thesphericalcabinvanished.“Ancient wisdom,”

Dongfang Yanxu said,watching the spot where thedoor had disappeared, as if

trying to see through it.“We’llneverbeable to learnthestuffhebroughtfromtwocenturies ago, but he canlearnwhatweknow.”Then the three of them

remained silent and waited.Five minutes passed, clearlytoo long for changing apassword, especially sinceCaptain-in-waiting ZhangBeihai had come throughtraining as the most skilledcommandsystemoperatorout

of all the members of hisSpecial Contingent. Fivemore minutes passed. Thetwo vice-captains beganswimming impatiently in thecorridor, but DongfangYanxu remained silent andmotionless.Atlastthedoorreappeared.

To their surprise, thespherical cabin had turnedblack. Zhang Beihai had aholographic star map pulledup on which the labels had

been blocked, leaving onlythe twinkling stars. From thedoorway, he seemed to besuspended outside thespaceship, with his interfacefloatingalongsidehim.“I’mdone,”hesaid.“Whydidittakesolong?”

Levingrumbled.“Were you relishing the

thrill of gaining NaturalSelection?” Akira Inoueasked.ZhangBeihaisaidnothing.

He didn’t look at theinterface, but gazed offinstead at a star in a distantpart of the map. DongfangYanxu noticed that a greenlight was flashing in thedirectionhewaslooking.“That would be

ridiculous,” Levin said,pickingupfromAkiraInoue.“May I remind you that thecaptainship still belongs toColonel Dongfang? Theacting captain is just a

firewall.I’msorrytoberudeabout it, but that’s prettymuchthetruth.”AkiraInouesaid,“Andthis

statewon’tlastforverylong.The investigation of the fleetis nearing an end, and it’sbasicallybeenproventhattheImprinteddon’texist.”Hewasabouttogoon,but

wasstoppedbyalowgaspofsurprise from the captain.“Oh, god!” she said, and thetwo vice-captains, following

her eyes, noticed NaturalSelection’s current status onZhangBeihai’sinterface.The warship had been set

into remote control mode,thereby bypassing the checkfor deep-sea state prior toAhead Four. Outsidecommunication had beensevered.And,finally,mostofthe captain’s settings forputting the ship intomaximumpropulsionwere inplace. With the push of just

one more button, NaturalSelection would head off atmaximumspeed to the targetselectedonthemap.“No, this can’t be

happening,”DongfangYanxusaid, her voice so low onlyshe could hear it. It was forher own ears, in response toherearlier“god”exclamation.ShehadneverbelievedintheexistenceofGod,butnowherprayerswerereal.“Are you insane?” Levin

shouted.He andAkira Inouerushedtowardthecabin,onlyto crash into the bulkhead.There was no door, just anoval-shaped section of wallthathadturnedtransparent.“NaturalSelectionisabout

toproceedtoAheadFour.Allcrew must enter deep-seastate immediately,” ZhangBeihaisaid,everywordinhissolemn, calm voice lingeringin the air like an ancientanchor standing in the chill

wind.“Thisisimpossible!”Akira

Inouesaid.“Are you Imprinted?”

Dongfang Yanxu asked,quicklycalmingherself.“You know that’s not

possible.”“ETO?”“No.”“Thenwhoareyou?”“Asoldiercarryingouthis

duty to fight for humanity’ssurvival.”

“Whyareyoudoingthis?”“I’ll explain after

acceleration is complete. Irepeat: All crew must enterdeep-seastateimmediately.”“Thisisimpossible!”Akira

Inouerepeated.Zhang Beihai turned

aroundand,without somuchas looking at the two vice-captains, stared straight atDongfang Yanxu. His eyesinstantly reminded her of theemblemoftheChineseSpace

Force, bearing swords andstarsalike.“Dongfang, I said that I

wouldbesorryifIhadtokillyou.There’snotmuchtime.”Then the deep-sea

acceleration fluid appearedwithin Zhang Beihai’sspherical compartment,forming into balls in theweightlessenvironment.Eachliquid globe, containing hisdistortedreflectionalongwiththeinterfaceandthestarmap,

began to combine into largerones. The two vice-captainslookedatDongfangYanxu.“Doashesays.Thewhole

ship will enter deep-seastate,”thecaptainsaid.The two vice-captains

staredather.Theyknewwhatthe consequences were forproceeding to Ahead Fouroutside of the deep-seaprotective state: The bodywould be plastered to thebulkheadbyaforce120times

that of Earth gravity. Firstblood would burst out underthe immense weight,spreading intoa thin layerofimpossibly huge, radiallypatterned blood stains, andthen the organs would besqueezed out, forminganother thin layer thatwouldbe pressed together with thebody into an ugly Dalipainting.…As they left for their

cabins, they issued orders to

the entire ship to enter adeep-seastate.“You’re a well-qualified

captain.” Zhang Beihainodded at Dongfang Yanxu.“Thisshowsmaturity.”“Wherearewegoing?”“Wherever we’re going,

it’samoreresponsiblechoicethanstayinghere.”And then he was

submerged in the deep-seaacceleration fluid, andDongfang Yanxu could only

make out a murky bodythroughtheliquidnowfillingthesphericalcompartment.Floating in the translucent

liquid,ZhangBeihai recalledhis diving experience in thenavytwocenturiesbefore.Hehad never imagined that theoceanwouldbesodarkafewdozen meters down, but thatunderseaworld gave him thesamefeelinghelaterfoundinspace. The ocean was spacein miniature on Earth. He

tried breathing, but hisreflexes made him violentlycough up liquid and residualgas,andhisbodyshiftedwiththe recoil. Still, there wasn’tthe suffocation that he hadanticipated,andascoolliquidfilledhislungs,theoxygenitcontainedwassuppliedtohisblood. He could breathefreely,likeafish.Ontheinterfacesuspended

in the liquid, he saw that thedeep-sea acceleration fluid

was filling each occupiedcompartmentinthespaceshipin turn. The processcontinued for more than tenminutes. His consciousnessbegantoblurasthebreathingliquid was injected with ahypnotic component that puteveryone aboard ship into astate of sleep so as to avoiddamage to thebrainfromthehigh pressure and relativehypoxia generated byaccelerationatAheadFour.

Zhang Beihai felt hisfather’s spirit alight on thespaceship from the beyond,becoming one with it. Hepressed the button on theinterface, issuing in hismindthe command that he hadbeen working toward hisentirelife:“Natural Selection, Ahead

Four!”

***

A small sun appeared inJovian orbit, its bright lightwashing out thephosphorescence of theplanet’s atmosphere.Dragging the sun behind it,the stellar-class warshipNatural Selection eased outof the Asian Fleet base andaccelerated rapidly, castingshadows of the otherwarships—eachdarkspotbigenoughtocontaintheEarth—onto the Jovian surface. Ten

minuteslater,alargershadowwas flung onto Jupiter like acurtaindrawnacrossthegiantplanet.NaturalSelectionwaspassingIo.Itwasatthispointthatthe

Asian Fleet High Commandconfirmed the incredible factthat Natural Selection haddefected.The European and North

American Fleets issuedprotests and warnings to theAsian Fleet under the initial

impression that it was anunauthorized move tointercept the Trisolaranprobe, but they soon realizedfrom Natural Selection’sheading that thiswas not thecase. It was headed in theopposite direction from theTrisolaraninvasion.The various systems

hailing Natural Selectiongradually let up afterreceiving no response. Thehigh commands began to

deploy pursuit and interceptships, although they soonrealized that little could bedone about the defectorwarship. Bases on four ofJupiter’s moons possessedsufficient firepower todestroyNaturalSelection,buttheywouldnottakethatpath,because it was quite likelythat only a smallminority ofthose on board, or even asingleindividual,hadactuallydefected, and the two

thousand-odd soldiers indeep-sea state were merelyhostages.Commanders at thegamma-ray laser base onEuropa could only watch asthe small sun flewacross thesky and into outer space,sprinkling Europa’s vast icesheetswith light likeburningphosphorus.Natural Selection crossed

the orbits of sixteen Jovianmoons, and achieved escapevelocity by the time it

reached Callisto. Seen fromthe Asian Fleet base, thesmall sun gradually shrank,turning into abright star thatremained faintlyvisible foraweek,asareminderfromthestarsofthelastingpainoftheAsianFleet.Since the pursuing force

hadtoenterdeep-seastate, ittook forty-five minutes afterNatural Selection left forthoseshipstolaunch,lightingup Jupiter with another six

suns.At Asian Fleet Command,

which had stopped rotating,thecommandersilently facedthe giant dark side of Jupiteras lightning flashed in theatmosphere ten thousandkilometers below him.Powerful radiation from thefusion engines of NaturalSelection and the pursuingforcehadcausedatmosphericionization and lightning. Thefleeting lightning strikes

illuminated the surroundingatmosphere, visible at thisdistance as halos inconstantly changinglocations, turning the surfaceof Jupiter into a pondspattered with fluorescentrain.

***

Natural Selection acceleratedin silence to one-hundredththespeedoflight,thepointof

no return for its fusion fuelconsumption. Now unable toreturn to the Solar Systemunder its own power, it hadbecome a lonely boat boundto forever wander in outerspace.The commander of the

AsianFleetgazedatthestarstrying unsuccessfully to findoneinparticular,foralltherewas in that directionwas thefaint light of the pursuers’fusionengines.Areportsoon

came in: Natural Selectionhad stopped accelerating. Awhile later,NaturalSelectionrestored communication withthe fleet. Then the followingcommunication took place,with delays ofmore than tenseconds betweentransmissions due to the factthat the ship was now overfivemillionkilometersaway:

NATURAL SELECTION: NaturalSelection calling Asian

Fleet! Natural SelectioncallingAsianFleet!

ASIANFLEET:NaturalSelection,Asian Fleet reads you.Reportyourstatus.

NATURAL SELECTION: This isacting captain ZhangBeihai. I’ll speak directlytothefleetcommander.

FLEET COMMANDER: I’mlistening.

ZHANG BEIHAI: I take fullresponsibility for NaturalSelection’s breakaway

voyage.FLEET COMMANDER: Is anyoneelseresponsible?

ZHANG BEIHAI: No.Responsibility is minealone. The situation hasnothing at all to do withanyoneelseaboardNaturalSelection.

FLEET COMMANDER: I want totalk to Captain DongfangYanxu.

ZHANGBEIHAI:Notnow.FLEET COMMANDER:What is the

ship’scurrentstatus?ZHANG BEIHAI: All is good.Everycrewmemberisstillin deep-sea state, apartfrom me. Power systemsand life support areoperatingnormally.

FLEET COMMANDER: And yourreasonsforthistreason?

ZHANG BEIHAI: I may havedeserted, but I am notraitor.

FLEET COMMANDER: Yourreasons?

ZHANG BEIHAI: Humanity iscertain to lose on thebattlefield. I only want tosaveoneofEarth’sstellar-class spaceships topreserve a seed of humancivilizationintheuniverse,ascrapofhope.

FLEET COMMANDER: That makesyouanEscapist.

ZHANGBEIHAI:I’mjustasoldierfulfillinghisduty.

FLEET COMMANDER: Have youreceivedthementalseal?

ZHANGBEIHAI:Youknowthat’snot possible. Thattechnology wasn’t aroundwhen I went intohibernation.

FLEET COMMANDER: Then yourunusuallyresolutedefeatistbeliefsarebaffling.

ZHANGBEIHAI: I don’t need themental seal. I am themaster of my beliefs. Myfaith is resolute because itdoesn’t come from myown intelligence. At the

beginning of the TrisolarCrisis, my father and Ibegantoseriouslyconsiderthe most basic questionsabout this war. Gradually,a group of deep-thinkingscholars, includingscientists, politicians, andmilitary strategists,gatheredaroundhim.Theycalled themselves theFutureHistorians.

FLEET COMMANDER: Was it asecretorganization?

ZHANGBEIHAI:No.Theystudiedvery basic questions, andtheir discussions werealways conducted in theopen.Thegovernmentandmilitary even cameforward and held severalacademic conferences onFutureHistory.Anditwasfrom their research that Iarrivedatthemind-setthathumanityisdoomed.

FLEET COMMANDER: But thetheories of Future History

have since been provenincorrect.

ZHANG BEIHAI: Sir, youunderestimate them. Theynot only predicted theGreat Ravine but theSecondEnlightenmentandSecond Renaissance aswell. What they predictedfor today’s era ofprosperity is virtuallyindistinguishable from thereal thing. And, finally,they predicted that

humanitywould be totallydefeated,wiped out in theDoomsdayBattle.

FLEET COMMANDER: Have youforgotten that you’re on aspaceship capable oftraveling at fifteen percentofthespeedoflight?

ZHANG BEIHAI: Genghis Khan’scavalry attacked with thespeed of twentieth-centuryarmored units. Themounted crossbow of theSongDynastyhad a range

of up to fifteen hundredmeters, comparable totwentieth-century assaultrifles. But it’s impossiblefor ancient cavalry andcrossbowstocompetewithmodern forces.Fundamental theorydetermineseverything.TheFuture Historians clearlysawthispoint.You,ontheother hand, have beenblinded by the dyingradiance of low-level

technology and areluxuriating in the nurseryof modern civilization,without any mentalpreparationwhatsoever forthe coming ultimate battlethatwilldeterminethefateofhumanity.

FLEET COMMANDER: You comefromagreatarmy,onethatwas victorious over anenemy with far moreadvanced equipment. Itwon victory in one of the

largest land wars in theworld, relying solely onseized weapons. Yourbehavior is a disgrace tothatarmy.

ZHANG BEIHAI: My dearcommander, I’m morequalifiedthanyoutospeakof that army. Threegenerations of my familyserved in it. During theKorean War, mygrandfather attacked aPershingtankarmedwitha

grenade. The grenade hitthetankandslidoffbeforeexploding. The target wasbarely scratched, but mygrandfather was hit bymachine-gun fire from thetank,hadboth legsbrokenunder its treads, and spentthe rest of his life aninvalid. But compared totwo of his comrades, whowerecrushed toapulp,hewas lucky.… It’s thatarmy’s history that so

clearly taught us thesignificance of atechnological gap duringwartime. The glory youknow is what you’ve readin the history books, butour trauma was cementedbythebloodofourfathersand grandfathers. Weknow more than you dowhatwarmeans.

FLEET COMMANDER: When didyou conceive of yourtreasonousplan?

ZHANG BEIHAI: I repeat: I mayhavedeserted,butIamnotatraitor.IconceivedoftheplanthelasttimeIsawmyfather. I saw in his eyeswhatIneededtodo,andittook me two centuries torealizemyplan.

FLEET COMMANDER: And to dothisyoudisguisedyourselfas a triumphalist. A verysuccessfuldisguise.

ZHANG BEIHAI: General ChangWeisi almost saw through

me.FLEETCOMMANDER:Yes.Hewaskeenly aware that he hadnever worked out thefoundation of yourtriumphalist faith, and hissuspicions were onlyaggravated by yourunusual enthusiasm forradiation propulsionsystems capable ofinterstellar travel. He hadalways been opposed toyou joining the Special

Contingent of FutureReinforcements, but hecouldn’t breach hissuperiors’ orders. Hewarned us in the letter hesent, but did so in yourera’s subtle way, and weoverlookedit.

ZHANGBEIHAI:Inordertoobtaina spacecraft capable offleeing into space, I killedthreepeople.

FLEET COMMANDER: We did notknow that. Maybe no one

did. But one thing iscertain: The researchdirection chosen at thattime was crucial for thesubsequentdevelopmentofspaceflighttechnology.

ZHANG BEIHAI: Thank you forsayingso.

FLEET COMMANDER: I will alsosaythatyourplanwillfail.

ZHANG BEIHAI: Perhaps. But ithasn’tyet.

FLEET COMMANDER: NaturalSelection’s fusion fuel is

onlyatone-fifthcapacity.ZHANGBEIHAI: But I had to actimmediately. There wouldbenootheropportunity.

FLEET COMMANDER: What itmeans is that you’re onlyable to accelerate to onepercentoflightspeednow.Youcan’t consumeexcessfuel, because thespaceship’s life-supportsystemsstillneedpowertomaintain operations for atimespan that could be as

short as a few decades oras longasa fewcenturies.But at that speed, thepursuing force will catchuptoyouquitesoon.

ZHANG BEIHAI: I still controlNaturalSelection.

FLEETCOMMANDER:True.Andofcourse you know ourconcern: that pursuit willdrive you to continueaccelerating, expendingfuel until life support failsand Natural Selection

becomes a dead ship atnear-absolute zero. That’swhy the pursuit forcewon’t draw near NaturalSelection for the timebeing.Wehaveconfidencethat the commander andsoldiers aboard will solvetheir own warship’sproblems.

ZHANG BEIHAI: I’m alsoconvinced that allproblemswillbe resolved.I will shoulder my

responsibility, but I stillfirmlybelievethatNaturalSelection is headed in therightdirection.

***

When Luo Ji jerked awake,herecognizedsomethingelsethat had endured from thepast: firecrackers. It wasdawn, and through thewindow the desert glowedwhite in the early light,

illuminated by bursts offirecrackers and fireworks.Thencameanurgentknockatthedoor.Withoutwaitingforit to be answered, ShiXiaoming opened it up andcharged in, his face redwithexcitementasheurgedLuoJitowatchthenews.Luo Ji watched television

only rarely. Since arriving inNewLifeVillage #5, he hadreturned to a life in the past.After the post-awakening

impact of the new era, thiswas a precious feeling forhim, and, for the time being,hedidn’twanttobedisturbedby information about thepresentday.Hespentmostofhis time immersed inmemoriesofZhuangYanandXiaXia.Allofthepaperworkhad been filed for theirreawakening,butgovernmentcontrolsonhibernatorsmeantthat it would not happen fortwomonths.

The television newsbroadcast the following:Fivehours ago, the Ringier-Fitzroy Telescope observedtheTrisolaranFleet crossyetagain intoan interstellardustcloud. This was the seventhtime since its launch twocenturies ago that the fleethadrevealeditselfbypassingthrough a dust cloud. Thefleet had lost its rigorousformation, so that the brushshape it had formed on

passing through the firstcloud was now alteredbeyond all recognition. Butjustas in itssecondcrossing,a bristle was observedextending out in front.Whatwas different this time,however, was that the shapeofthetrackindicatedthatthebristlewasnotaprobe,butawarship of the fleet. Havingcompleted the accelerationand cruising legs of theirjourney to the Solar System,

some of the ships in theTrisolaran Fleet had beenobserveddeceleratingasearlyas fifteen years ago. Tenyears ago, the majority ofthem had begun to slowdown. It was clear now thatthisparticular shiphadneverreduced speed. In fact,judgingfromitspaththroughthe dust cloud, it was stillaccelerating. At its currentrate of acceleration, it wouldarrive in the Solar System

half a centurybefore the restofthefleet.A lone ship charging into

Solar System territory and inrange of Earth’s powerfulfleet would be suicide, if itwasaninvasion.Thisleftjustone possible conclusion: Itwas coming to negotiate.Observations of theTrisolaran Fleet over thecourse of two centuries haddetermined the maximumacceleration of every ship,

andprojections indicated thatthis advance ship would beunable to deceleratesufficiently, so it would passright through the SolarSystem in 150 years. Thatmeant just two possibilities.The first was that theTrisolarans wanted Earth toassist in deceleration. Morelikely was that, before theship passed out of the SolarSystem, it would drop asmaller craft that could

deceleratemoreeasily,ashipthat would be carrying theTrisolaran negotiationdelegation.“But if they desired to

negotiate, wouldn’t theynotify humanity by sophon?”LuoJiasked.“That’s easy to explain!”

ShiXiaoming said excitedly.“It’s a different way ofthinking. The Trisolaranshave totally transparentminds, so they imagine that

we already know whatthey’rethinking!”Even though the

explanation wasunconvincing, Luo Ji sharedShi Xiaoming’s feeling, likethe sun outside was risingearly.Whenthesunroseforreal,

the revelry reached a climax.This was just a small corneroftheworld,andthecenterofthe activity was in theunderground cities, where

people left their trees andcrowded into the streets andplazas, their clothing turneduptomaximumbrightnesstoform a glowing sea of light.Virtual fireworks blossomedinthevaultsoverhead,andattimesacolorfulburstcoveredthe entire sky, its brilliantlightamatchforthesun.News continued to arrive.

Thegovernmentwascautiousatfirst,anditsspokespersonsstated repeatedly that there

was no conclusive evidencetodemonstrate thatTrisolarishad the intent to negotiate.But,atthesametime,theUNand the SFJC convened anemergency summit toformulate strategies fornegotiation procedures andterms.…InNew Life Village #5, a

short interlude paused therevelry: A city legislatorcame to make a speech. Hewas a fanatical supporter of

what was called ProjectSunshineandwas taking thisopportunity to win thesupport of the hibernatorcommunity.ProjectSunshinewasaUN

proposal whose main thrustwas that, in the event of ahuman victory in theDoomsday Battle, defeatedTrisolarans ought to beprovided with space in theSolar System. There werevarious versions of the

project. The Weak SurvivalPlan set up Pluto, Charon,andthemoonsofNeptuneasTrisolaran reservations thatwould grant admission onlyto those aboard the defeatedTrisolaris ships. The livingconditions on thesereservations would be verypoor,and theywouldrelyonfusionenergyandthesupportof human society to sustainthemselves. The StrongSurvivalPlanwoulduseMars

fortheTrisolaransojournandwould eventually admit allTrisolaran immigrants, inaddition to members of thefleet.ThisplanwouldprovideTrisolaran civilization withtheSolarSystem’sbestlivingconditions apart from Earth.Theotherversionsweremoreorlesssituatedbetweenthesetwo,buttherewerealsoafewmore extreme ideas, such asaccepting Trisolarans intoEarth society. Project

Sunshine had won broadsupport from EarthInternational and FleetInternational,andpreliminarystudies and planning hadalready begun, with manynongovernmental forces inboth Internationals pushingfor it.Yet ithadencounteredfierce resistance from thecommunity of hibernators,whohadevencoinedanamefor supporters of the project:“Dongguo,” after the soft-

hearted scholar in the fablewhosavedawolf’slife.21As soon as the legislator’s

speech began, he was metwith strong pushback fromthe audience, which tossedtomatoesathim.Ducking,hesaid, “I’d like to remind youthat we’re in a humanitarianage following the SecondRenaissance. The life andcivilization of every race areaccorded thegreatest respect.Youarebathedinthelightof

this age, are you not?Hibernators in modernsociety enjoy citizenship incomplete equality and sufferno discrimination. Thisprinciple is recognized in theconstitution and in the law,butmoreimportantly,itexistsin everyone’s heart. I trustyou can appreciate this.Trisolaris, too, is a greatcivilization. Human societymustacknowledgeitsrighttoexist. ProjectSunshine is not

a charity. It is anacknowledgement and anexpressionofhumanity’sownvalue! If we … Hey, jerks.Focusonyourwork!”The legislator’s final line

was addressed to his team,whowerebusilygatheringupthetomatoesthathadfallentothe ground—they were quiteexpensive underground, afterall.Whenthehibernatorssawthis, they began tossingcucumbers and potatoes onto

thestageaswell,andthustheminor confrontation wasresolved in mutualmerriment.At noon, every household

feasted. On the grass, asumptuous meal ofunadulterated agriculturalproductswas laid out for thecity folk who had come tojoininthefun, includingMr.Dongguo the legislator andhis entourage. The festivitiescontinued tipsily through the

afternoon and until sunset,which was exceptionallybeautiful that evening. Thesandy plains outside theneighborhood lookedcreamily soft and delicateunderthered-orangesun,andthe rolling dunes looked likethe bodies of sleepingwomen.…By nighttime, one news

item pushed their flaggingspirits to new heights ofexcitement: the Fleet

International had made thedecision to combine thestellar-class warships of theAsian Fleet, the EuropeanFleet, and the NorthAmerican Fleet into a singlefleet of 2,015 ships to sallyforth in unison and interceptthe Trisolaran probe as itcrossedtheorbitofNeptune!The news propelled the

revelry to a renewed climax,andfireworksfilled thenightsky.But it alsoelicitedsome

disdainandmockery.“Mobilizing two thousand

warshipsforatinyprobe?”“It’s like using two

thousand butcher knives tokillachicken!”“That’s right! Two

thousand cannons to hit amosquito! It’s not thattough!”“Hey,everyone,weshould

bemoreunderstandingoftheFleet International. Youknow, it might be the only

chance they’ll get to fightTrisolaris.”“Right.Ifthiscanbecalled

fighting.”“It’s okay. Just think of it

as a military parade forhumanity.Let’sseewhatthissuperfleet’sgot.It’llscaretheTrisolarans to death! They’llbe so frightened they won’tbe able to pee. If they evenhavepee.”Laughter.Close to midnight, more

news came: The combinedfleet had set off from Jupiterbase!Viewerswere informedthat in the southern sky, thefleet could be seen with thenaked eye. At this, therevelersquieteddownforthefirst time and searched theskyforJupiter.Itwasn’teasy,butundertheguidanceoftheexpert on the television, theysoonlocatedtheplanetinthesouthwest. At this point, thelight of the combined fleet

was moving in Earth’sdirection from a distance offive AU. Forty-five minuteslater,thebrightnessofJupitersuddenly increased, soonsurpassing Sirius to becomethe brightest object in thenight sky. Then a brilliantshining star separated fromJupiter, like a soul leaving abody. The planet returned toits original brightness as thestarmovedslowlyawayfromit.Thatwasthelaunchofthe

combinedfleet.At practically the same

time, live images of Jupiterbase reached Earth. On thetelevision, people saw thesudden appearance of twothousand suns in theblackness of space. Standingout awesomely in the eternalnight of space, their cleanrectangularformationputonethought in everyone’s mind:God said, Let there be light,and there was light. Under

the light of those twothousandsuns,Jupiteranditsmoonsseemedtohavecaughtfire.Theplanet’satmosphere,ionized by the radiation,produced lightning that filledthe entire fleet-facinghemisphere and covered it ina giant blanket of electriclight. The fleet acceleratedwith no disruption to itsformation, its huge wallblockingoutthesun,andthenmade a stately advance into

space with the force of athundercloud,declaringtotheuniverse the dignity andinvincibility of the humanrace. The human spirit thathad been repressed since thefirst appearance of theTrisolaranFleettwocenturiesago had finally found totalliberation.Atthismoment,allthestarsinthegalaxysilentlyheld back their light, andHuman andGod stepped outproudly into the universe as

one.The people wept and

cheered, and many of themwere moved to loud wails.Never before in history hadtherebeensuchamoment,inwhicheverysinglepersonfeltfortunate and proud to be amemberofthehumanrace.But there were some who

kept their heads. Luo Ji wasone of them. Surveying thecrowd, he noticed thatsomeone else was calm: Shi

Qiang was off by himself,leaning against one side ofthe giant holographictelevision, smoking acigarette and watching therevelersindifferently.Luo Ji went over and

asked,“Whatareyou…”“Ah,hellomyboy.I’vegot

adutytofulfill.”Heindicatedtheebullientcrowd.“Extremejoy easily turns to grief, andnow’s the best time forsomething to happen. Like

when Mr. Dongguo lecturedthismorning.IfIhadn’tcomeup with the tomatoes andsuchinatimelyfashion,theywouldhaveusedstones.”Shi Qiang had recently

been appointed chief ofpolice for New Life Village#5. To the hibernators, thefact that someone belongingto the Asian Fleet, someonewhonolongerwasaChinesecitizen, had been given anofficial post in the national

government was a littlestrange. However, his workhad been universallyacclaimed among thevillagers.“Besides, I’m not the type

to get carried away,” hecontinued, clapping Luo Jiacrosstheshoulders.“Neitherareyou,myboy.”“No, I’m not.” Luo Ji

nodded.“Iwasalwaysoutforinstant gratification. Thefuturehadnothingtodowith

me, even though for a whilethereIwasforced tobecomeamessiah.Maybemypresentstateisasortofcompensationfor the harm from that. I’mgoing to bed. Believe it ornot, Da Shi, I’ll actually beabletogettosleeptonight.”“Go and see your

colleague. He just arrived.Humanity’svictorymightnotbeagoodthingforhim.”Luo Ji was slightly taken

aback by this remark.

LookingatthemanShiQiangpointed to, he realized withsurprise that it was the oldWallfacerBillHines.Hisfacewas ashen and he seemed tobe in a trance. He had beenstandingnot faroff fromShiQiangandhadonly justnownoticed Luo Ji. When theyhugged each other ingreeting, Luo Ji felt thatHines’s body seemed totremblewithweakness.“I came looking for you,”

he said to Luo Ji. “Only thetwo of us, history’s rubbish,understand each other. Butnow, I’m afraid even youdon’tunderstandme.”“What about Keiko

Yamasuki?”“RemembertheMeditation

Room in the UN AssemblyBuilding?” Hines said. “Itwasalwaysdeserted.Touristsonly visited occasionally.…Do you remember the chunkof iron ore? She committed

seppukuontopofit.”“Oh…”“Before she died, she

cursedme,sayingthatmylifewould be worse than death,since I’m marked with thementalsealofdefeatismevenashumanityisvictorious.Shewas right. I’m in real painright now. Of course I’mhappyforthevictory,butit’simpossible for me to believeany of it. It’s like there aretwogladiators fighting inmy

mind. You know, it’s farharder than trying to believethatwaterisdrinkable.”AfterheandShiQianghad

gotten Hines set up with aroom, Luo Ji returned to hisown room and soon fellasleep. Once again hedreamed of ZhuangYan andthechild.Whenhewoke,thesun was shining through thewindow and the revelrieswerestillgoingonoutside.

***

Natural Selection flew at 1percent of the speed of lighton a course between Jupiterand the orbit of Saturn.Behind it, the sun was nowsmall,althoughitwasstillthebrightest of the stars, whileup ahead, the Milky Wayshone with an even greaterbrilliance.Theship’sheadingwas more or less in thedirection of Cygnus, but in

theexpanseofouterspace,itsspeed was imperceptible. Toa nearby observer, NaturalSelectionwouldhaveseemedsuspended in deep space.From its own vantage point,in fact, all movementthroughout the universe hadbeen erased, leaving the shipseemingly in a static state,with the Milky Way aheadand the sun behind. Timeseemedtohavestopped.“You have failed,”

Dongfang Yanxu said toZhang Beihai. All personnelaboardtheshipbutthetwoofthem were still in deep-seasleep state. Zhang Beihairemained shut inside thespherical compartment, andDongfang Yanxu, unable toenter, had to talk with himthrough the communicationsystem. Through the sectionof bulkhead that was stilltransparent,shecouldseetheman who had hijacked

humanity’s most powerfulwarshipfloatingquietlyinthecenter of the compartment,headbent,intentonwritingina notebook. In front of himfloated an interface thatshowed the ship on standbyfor Ahead Four, ready to goat the press of a button.Around him floated severalglobs of liquid deep-seaacceleration fluid that hadn’tyet been evacuated. Hisuniform had dried, but its

wrinkles made him lookmucholder.He ignored her and

continuedtowrite,headbent.“Thepursuingforceisonly

1.2 million kilometers awayfrom Natural Selection,” shesaid.“I know,” he said without

looking up. “You were wiseto keep the entire ship indeep-seastate.”“It had to be this way.

Otherwise, agitated officers

and soldiers would haveattacked this cabin. And ifyoutookNaturalSelection toAhead Four at will, youwould have killed them all.That’s also the reason whythe pursuers haven’t closedin.”Hesaidnothing.Flippinga

page in the notebook, hecontinuedwriting.“You wouldn’t do that,

wouldyou?”sheaskedsoftly.“You never imagined I’d

dowhat I’mdoingnow.”Hepaused a few seconds, thenadded, “The people of mytime have our own ways ofthinking.”“Butwe’renotenemies.”“There are no permanent

enemies or comrades, onlypermanentduty.”“Then your pessimism

about the war is totallyunfounded.Trisolarishasjustshownsignsofwantingtalks,andthecombinedSolarFleet

has set off to intercept theTrisolaran probe. The warwill end with a victory forhumanity.”“I’ve seen the news that

camein…”“And you still persist in

your defeatism andEscapism?”“Ido.”She shook her head in

frustration. “Your way ofthinking really is differentfrom ours. For instance, you

knewfromthestart thatyourplan would be unsuccessful,becauseNaturalSelectionhasonly a fifth of its fuel and iscertaintobecaught.”Hesetdownhispenciland

lookedoutofthecabinather.Hiseyeswerecalmaswater.“We’re all soldiers, but doyou know what the biggestdifference between soldiersfrom my time and soldiersnow is? You determine youractions according to possible

outcomes. But for us, wemust carry out our dutyregardless of the outcome.Thiswasmyonlychance, soItookit.”“You’re saying that to

comfortyourself.”“No.It’smynature.Idon’t

expect you to understand,Dongfang. We’re separatedbytwocenturies,afterall.”“So you’ve carried out

yourduty,butthere’snohopefor your Escapist endeavor.

Surrender.”He smiled at her, then

looked back at his writing.“It’s not time yet. I need towrite down all that I’veexperienced. Everythingacross twocenturiesneeds tobe written down, so that itmight be of assistance to afew sober-minded people inthenexttwocenturies.”“You can dictate to the

computer.”“No, I’m used to writing

by hand. Paper lasts longerthan a computer. Don’tworry. I’ll bear fullresponsibility.”

***

Ding Yi looked out throughQuantum’s broad porthole.Even though the holographicdisplay in thesphericalcabinprovided a better view, hestill liked seeing things withhis own eyes. What he saw

wasthathewassituatedonalarge plane consisting of twothousandsmall,dazzlingsunswhoselightseemedtosethisgray hair aflame. The sighthadgrownfamiliar tohim inthe days since the launch ofthe combined fleet, but itsgrandeurstillshookhimeachtimehelooked.Thefleetwasnot just in this configurationasashowofforceormajesty.In a traditional navalconfiguration of staggered

columns, the radiationproduced by the engine ofeverywarshipwouldhaveaneffectontheshipstotherear.In this rectangular formation,the ships were separated byabout twenty kilometers.Even though each of themwas an average of three tofour timesthesizeofanavalaircraft carrier, from thatdistancetheywerepracticallydots, with only the glow ofthe fusion engines to prove

theirexistenceinspace.Thecombined fleetwas in

a dense formation, one thathad only ever been used infleet review. In a normalcruising formation, the shipsought tohavebeenspacedatroughlythreehundredtofivehundred kilometers, so atwenty-kilometerspacingwasbasically like sailing hull-to-hullthroughtheocean.Manyof the generals in the threefleets disagreed with this

dense formation, butconventional formationspresentedanumberofthornyproblems. First of all, therewas the principle of fairnessin battle opportunity. If theprobe were approached in astandard formation, then theships at the edge would stillbe tens of thousands ofkilometers away from thetarget when the formationreachedminimumdistance.Ifcombat broke out during the

capture, a fair number of theships could not have beenconsideredtohavetakenpart,leaving them nothing in thehistory books but eternalregret. But the three fleetscouldn’t break off into theirown subformations, becauseit was impossible tocoordinate which of themwould occupy the mostadvantageous position in theoverall formation. So theformation had to bemade as

dense as possible, a reviewformation that placed allships within combat distanceoftheprobe.Asecondreasonfor selecting this formationwas that the FleetInternational and the UnitedNationsbothdesiredstunningvisuals,notsomuch toshowoff for Trisolaris as to givethemassessomethingtolookat. The visual impact heldenormous politicalsignificance for both groups.

With the main enemy forcestilltwolight-yearsaway,thedenseformationwascertainlynotindanger.Quantum was located in a

corner of the formation,givingDingYiaviewof themajority of the fleet. Whenthey crossed the orbit ofSaturn, all the fusionenginesturned toward the forwarddirection and the fleet beganto decelerate. Now, as thefleet closed in on the

Trisolaran probe, its velocitywas negative—it wastravelingbacktowardthesunas it closed the distanceseparatingitfromitstarget.Ding Yi put a pipe to his

lips.Withnoloosetobaccointhisage,itwasanemptypipethat dangled there, thelingering flavor of two-century-old tobacco faint andindistinct, like a memory ofthepast.He had been reawakened

seven years earlier and hadbeen teaching in the PekingUniversity physicsdepartment since then. Lastyearhehadputinarequesttothe fleet asking to be one ofthe people who wouldexamine theTrisolaranprobeup close when it wasintercepted. Although DingYi was held in high regard,his request had been refuseduntil he declared that hewouldkillhimself infrontof

thethreefleetcommandersifthey did not comply. Thenthey said they would thinkabout it. In fact, selection ofthefirstpersontocontact theprobe was a knotty problem,becausefirstcontactwith theprobemeantfirstcontactwithTrisolaris. According to thefairness principle to beobserved during interception,noneof thethreefleetscouldbe permitted to enjoy thishonor alone, but sending

someone from each of thempresented operationalproblems and couldcomplicate matters. So themissionhadtobeundertakenby someone outside FleetInternational. Ding Yi wasnaturally the most suitablecandidate, although anotherunstatedreasonlayatthecoreof his request’s ultimateapproval: Neither the FleetInternational nor the EarthInternational had much

confidence in obtaining theprobe, because it waspractically certain to self-destruct during or afterintercept. Before it did so,close-range observation andcontact were imperative ifthey wanted to obtain asmuchdataaspossible.Asthediscoverer of the macroatomandtheinventorofcontrolledfusion, the veteran physicistwas completely qualified inthis area. At any rate, Ding

Yi’s lifewashisown,andateighty-three, his unparalleledqualifications naturally gavethe oldman the power to doanythinghewanted.At the final meeting of

Quantum command beforethe intercept began, Ding Yisaw an image of theTrisolaran probe. Threetracking craft had beendispatchedby the threefleetsto replace EarthInternational’s Blue Shadow.

They had captured an imageat a distance of five hundredkilometers from the target,the closest that any humanspacecraft had come to theprobe. The probe was aboutas large as expected, 3.5meters long, and when DingYi saw it, he had the sameimpression as everyone else:a droplet of mercury. Theprobe was a perfect teardropshape, round at the head andpointy at the tail, with a

surface so smooth it was atotal reflector. The MilkyWay was reflected on itssurfaceasasmoothpatternoflight that gave the mercurydroplet a pure beauty. Itsdroplet shape was so naturalthatobserversimagineditinaliquidstate,oneforwhichaninternal structure wasimpossible.Ding Yi remained silent

afterhesawtheimageof theprobe.Hedidnotspeakatthe

meeting, and his expressionwasdowncast.“MasterDing,youseemto

have something on yourmind,”thecaptainsaid.“Idon’tfeelgood,”hesaid

softly, and pointed at theholographic probe with hispipe.“Why? It looks like a

harmless work of art,” anofficersaid.“And that’s why I don’t

feel so good,” Ding Yi said,

shaking his gray head. “Itlookslikeaworkofartratherthananinterstellarprobe.It’snot a good sign whensomething’s so far removedfrom our own mentalconcept.”“Itispeculiar.Itssurfaceis

entirely sealed. Where’s theenginenozzle?”“Yet its engine lights up.

We’veobservedthat.Whenitwent out for a second time,Blue Shadow wasn’t close

enoughtocaptureanimageintime, so we don’t knowwherethelightcamefrom.”“What is its mass?” Ding

Yiasked.“We don’t have an exact

value right now. A roughvalue,obtainedthroughhigh-precision gravitationalinstruments, is less than tentons.”“Thenatleastit’snotmade

of matter from a neutronstar.”

The captain put an end tothe officers’ discussion andcontinued with the meeting.He said to DingYi, “MasterDing,thisishowthefleethasplanned out your visit: Aftertheunmannedcraftcompletesits capture of the target andcarries out an observationperiod, if nothing unusual isfound, you will enter thecapturecraftonashuttleandconduct a close-upobservationofthetarget.You

may not stay longer thanfifteenminutes.ThisisMajorXizi. She will represent theAsian Fleet and accompanyyou as you carry out yourexamination.”A young officer saluted

Ding Yi. Like the otherwomen in the fleet, she wastall and slender, the veryepitome of New SpaceHumanity.With only a glance at the

major,DingYi turned to the

captain. “Why does therehave to be someone else?Can’tIgoalone?”“Ofcoursenot,sir.You’re

unfamiliar with the spaceenvironment, and you needassistance throughout theentireprocess.”“Inthatcase,I’dbetternot

go.Doessomeonereallyneedtofollowme…”Hebrokeoffwithoututtering“todeath.”The captain said, “Master

Ding, this trip is dangerous,

tobesure,butnotcompletelyso.Iftheprobeself-destructs,then itwillmost likelyoccurduring the intercept. Thelikelihood of it self-destructing two hours afterthe intercept is very low, solong as the examinationprocess does not usedestructiveinstruments.”In point of fact, the

primary reason theEarthandFleet Internationals decidedtosendahumantotheprobe

was not for an inspection.When the world saw theprobe for the first time,everyone was captivated byits magnificent exterior. Themercury droplet was just sobeautiful, so simple in shapeyet masterfully styled, witheach point on its surface inexactlytherightplace.Itwasimbued with a gracefuldynamism, as if at everymoment it was drippingendlesslyinthecosmicnight.

It inspired the feeling thatevenifhumanartiststriedouteverypossible smoothclosedshape,theywouldn’tcomeupwith this one. It transcendedeverypossibility.NoteveninPlato’s Republic was theresuch a perfect shape:straighter than the straightestline, more circular than aperfect circle, a mirroreddolphinleapingoutoftheseaofdreams,acrystallizationofalltheloveintheuniverse.…

Beauty is always pairedwithgood, so if there reallyexisted a demarcationbetweengoodandevil in theuniverse, this object wouldfallonthegoodside.So a hypothesis was

quickly worked out: Theobject might not even be aprobe. Further observationconfirmed this hypothesis, toanextent.Peoplefirstnoticeditsexterior,thehighlysmoothfinish that made it a total

reflector.Thefleetconductedan experiment on the probeusing a large quantity ofmonitoring equipment: Itsentire surface was irradiatedwithdifferentwavelengthsofhigh-frequencyelectromagnetic waves, andthereflectancewasmeasured.To their shock, theydiscovered that at everyfrequency, including visiblelight, the reflection waspractically 100 percent. No

absorptionwasdetected.Thismeant that the probe couldnotdetectanyhigh-frequencywaves—or, in layman’sterms, it was blind. Theremust be a particularsignificancetoablinddesign.The most reasonable guesswas that it was a token ofgoodwill from Trisolaris tohumanity, expressed throughits nonfunctional design andbeautiful form. A sinceredesireforpeace.

So the probe was given anew name inspired by itsshape:“thedroplet.”OnbothEarth and Trisolaris, waterwas the source of life and asymbolofpeace.Public opinion maintained

thataformaldelegationoughtto be sent to make contactwith the droplet, rather thanan expedition team made upof a physicist and threeordinary officers. But aftercareful consideration, Fleet

International decided to keepitsoriginalplanunchanged.“Can’tyouatleastswapin

someone else? Letting thisyoung lady…”DingYi said,gesturingatXizi.Xizi smiled at him and

said, “Master Ding, I amQuantum’s science officer.I’m in charge of off-shipscientific expeditions duringour voyages. This is myduty.”“Andwomenmakeuphalf

the fleet,” the captain said.“Three people willaccompany you. The othertwo are science officers sentby the European and NorthAmerican Fleets. They’ll bereporting shortly. MasterDing, let me reiterate onepoint: According to thedecision of the SFJC, youmust be the first to makedirectcontactwith the target.Only then are they permittedtomakecontact.”

“Pointless.”DingYishookhis head again. “Humanityhasn’t changed at all. Soeagertochaseaftervanity.…But, rest assured, I’ll do asyouwish.I justwant tohavealook,isall.WhatI’mreallyinterested in is the theorybehind thissuper-technology.But I’m afraid that this lifeis…ah.”Thecaptainfloatedoverto

him and said with concern,“MasterDing,youcangorest

now. The intercept will bestartingsoon,andyouneedtopreserve your energy beforesetting off on yourexpedition.”Ding Yi looked up at the

captain. For a moment hedidn’trealizethatthemeetingwasgoingtocontinueafterheleft. Then he looked back atthe image of the droplet,noticing now how its roundhead reflected a regular rowof lights that gradually

deformed toward the rear,merging into the reflectedpattern of the Milky Way.Thatwasthefleet.Helookedagain at Quantum’scommanders floating beforehim, all of them so veryyoung. Just children. Theylooked so noble and perfect,from the captain to thelieutenants, and their eyesshonewithagodlikewisdom.The light of the fleetstreaming in through the

portholes was tinted like agolden sunset by the auto-darkening glass, envelopingthemallingold.Behindthemfloated the image of thedroplet like a supernaturalsilver symbol, making theplace otherworldly andtranscendent, and turningthemintoahostofgodsatopMount Olympus.…Somethingstirreddeepwithinhim,andhegrewexcited.“MasterDing,doyouhave

something else to add?” thecaptainasked.“Er, I’d like to say…”His

hands moved aimlessly, andhelethispipefloatintheair.“I’d like to say thatyoukidshave been great to me overthepastfewdays.…”“You’re the man we

admire the most of all,” avice-captainsaid.“Oh… so there are a few

things I’d really like to say.Just…thenonsenseofanold

fool.Youdon’thavetotakeitseriously. Still, children, assomeone who’s crossed twocenturies,I’vebeenthroughabit more than you.… Ofcourse, likeIsaid,don’t takeitseriously.…”“Master Ding, if you’ve

got something to say, thenjust say it. You really haveourhighestrespect.”Ding Yi slowly nodded.

Then he pointed upward. “Ifthis spaceship has to go to

maximum acceleration,everyoneherewillneedto…beimmersedinaliquid.”“That’s right. Deep-sea

state.”“Yes, right. The deep-sea

state.” Ding Yi hesitatedagain, and ruminated for amoment before resolving togo on. “Whenwe go out forour examination, could thisship, ah, Quantum, be putintoadeep-seastate?”Theofficerslookedateach

other in surprise, and thecaptainsaid,“Why?”Ding Yi’s hands began

fluttering again. His hairglowed white under thefleet’s light. Like someonehad noticed when he firstcameaboard,helookedquitea bit like Einstein. “Um …well, at any rate there’s noharm in doing it, right? Youknow, I don’t have a goodfeeling.”After saying this, he

remained silent, his eyeslocked onto the infinitedistance. At last he reachedout, plucked the pipe out ofthe air, and put it into hispocket.Withoutsayinggood-bye, he awkwardly workedhis superconductor belt tofloat toward the door as theofficerswatchedhim.Whenhewashalfwayout,

heslowlyturnedbackaround.“Children,doyouknowwhatI’ve been doing all these

years? Teaching physics at auniversity and advisingdoctoral students.” As helooked out at the galaxy, aninscrutable smile played onhis face—tinted with, theofficers noticed, a hint ofsadness. “Children, a manfromtwocenturiesagoisstillable to teach universityphysics today.”With that,heturnedandleft.The captain wanted to say

something to him, but now

that he was gone, the wordsdidn’tcomeout.Heremaineddeep in thought.Someof theofficerslookedatthedroplet,butmoreofthemturnedtheirattentiontothecaptain.“Captain,you’renotgoing

to take him seriously, areyou?”onelieutenantasked.“He’s a wise scientist, but

he’s still an ancient man.Their thoughts aboutmodernthings are always…”someoneelseadded.

“But inhis field,humanityhasn’tmadeanyprogress.It’sstillstuckathisera’slevel.”“He spoke of intuition. I

think his intuition may havediscovered something,” anofficersaid,inavoicefullofawe.“Also…”Xizi blurted out.

But looking at thesurrounding officers whooutrankedher,sheswallowedtherestofherwords.“Major, please continue,”

thecaptainsaid.“Also, likehe said, there’s

noharmindoingit,”shesaid.“Think about it this way,”

a vice-captain said.“According to present battleplans, if thecapture failsandthe droplet unexpectedlyescapes, then the fleet canonly deploy fighters as atracking force. But long-range tracking needs to bestellar-class, so the fleetought to have warships

prepared.Thisisanoversightintheplan.”“Make a report to the

fleet,”thecaptainsaid.The fleet’s approval was

swift:When the examinationteam had set off, Quantumand the neighboring stellar-class warship Bronze Agewouldenteradeep-seastate.

***

To capture the droplet, the

fleet’sformationmaintainedadistance of one thousandkilometers from the target, afigure decided after carefulcalculation. There werevarious hypotheses about themanner in which the dropletmight self-destruct, but themaximum release of energywould come from self-destruction by antimatterannihilation.Sincethedroplethad a mass of less than tentons, the largest energy burst

that needed to be consideredwas that produced by theannihilationof five tonseachofmatterandantimatter.Thatannihilation, if itoccurredonEarth, would be enough todestroy all life on the planetsurface, but in space, theenergy would be releasedentirely in the form of lightradiation. For stellar-classwarships, with their superanti-radiation capacity, onethousand kilometers was far

enough to allow for asufficientmarginofsafety.The capture would be

accomplished by Mantis, asmall unmanned craft thathad previously been used forcollecting mineral specimensin the asteroid belt. Its keyfeature was an extra-longroboticarm.At the start of the

operation,Mantiscrossed thefive-hundred-kilometer lineheld by the previous

monitoringcraftandcarefullyapproached the target, flyingslowly and pausing forseveral minutes every fiftykilometers so that the denseomnidirectional surveillancesystem behind it couldperform a complete scan ofthe target. Only afterconfirmingthattherewerenoabnormalitiesdiditproceed.Atonethousandkilometers

fromthetarget,thecombinedfleethadmatchedspeedwith

the droplet, and most of thewarships had turned off theirfusionenginestodriftsilentlyin the abyss of space, theirgiant metal hulls reflectingtheweaksunlight.Theywerelike abandoned space cities,thewholefleetarrayasilent,prehistoric Stonehenge. The1.2millionpeopleinthefleetheld their breath as theywatchedMantis on its briefvoyage.The images seen by the

fleet traveled at the speed oflight for three hours beforereaching Earth, where theywere transmitted to the eyesof three billion peoplesimilarlyholdingtheirbreath.All activity in the humanworldhadstopped.Theflyingcars had disappeared fromamong the giant trees, and astillness had fallen over theunderground metropolises.Even the global informationnetwork, busy since its birth

three centuries before,emptied out. Themajority ofdata transmissions wereimages from twenty AUaway.Mantis’s stop-and-go

advance tookhalf an hour tocover a distance that washardly even a step throughspace. Finally, it hung inplace fifty meters from thetarget. Now the Mantis’sdistorted reflection could beclearly seen in the droplet’s

mercury surface. The ship’smany instruments began aclose-rangescanofthetarget,first confirming priorobservations: The droplet’ssurfacetemperaturewasevenlower than the surroundingspace, close to absolutezero.Scientists had thought thatthere might be powerfulcooling equipment inside thedroplet, but Mantis’sinstruments were still unableto detect anything about the

target’sinternalstructure.Mantis extended its extra-

long robot arm toward thetarget, starting and stoppingover the fifty-meter distance.But the dense monitoringsystem did not pick upanything abnormal. Thegrueling process lasted halfan hour before the tip of thearm finally reached thetarget’s position and touchedit, an object that had comefromfourlight-yearsawayon

a nearly two-century-longtrekthroughspace.Whentherobotarm’ssixdigitsgraspedhold of the droplet at last, amillionheartsinthefleetbeatas one, echoed three hourslaterbythreebillionheartsonEarth.Holding the droplet, the

mechanical arm waitedmotionless. When the targetstill showed no response orabnormalityaftertenminutes,itbegantopullitback.

It was at this point thatpeople noticed a strangecontrast:Themechanicalarmwas obviously designedpurely as a functional object,witharuggedsteelframeandexposed hydraulics that feltcomplicatedly technologicaland crudely industrial. Butthe droplet was perfect inshape, a smoothly gleaming,solid drop of liquid whoseexquisite beauty erased allfunctional and technical

meaning and expressed thelightness and detachment ofphilosophy and art.The steelclaw of the robot armclutched the droplet like thehairy hand ofAustralopithecus clutching apearl. The droplet looked sofragile, like a glass thermosliner in space, that everyonewasafraiditwouldshatter inthe claw. But that did notoccur, and the robot armbegantoretract.

It took another half hourforthearmtoretractandpullthe droplet into Mantis’smain cabin, after which thetwo bulkheads graduallycame together. If the targetwere to self-destruct, thiswould be the most likelytime. The fleet and Earthbehinditwaitedquietly,asifthroughthesilencetheycouldhear the sound of timeflowingthroughspace.Two hours later, nothing

hadhappened.

***

The fact that the droplet hadnot self-destructed was finalproof of what people hadguessed: If it was a militaryprobe, it surely would haveself-destructed after fallingintoenemyhands.Itwasnowcertain that this was a giftfromTrisolaristohumanity,asign of peace sent in that

civilization’s baffling modeofexpression.Once again the world

erupted with joy. This timetherevelrywasn’taswildandabandoned as the last,because humanity’s victoryand the end of the war wereno longer anythingunanticipated. Taking athousand steps back, even ifthe coming negotiationsbroke down and the warcontinued, humanity would

stillultimatelybe thevictors,becausethepresenceinspaceof the combined fleet hadgiven the masses a visualimpression of human power.Earth now had the calmconfidencetofaceanysortofenemy.With the arrival of the

droplet, people’s feelingstoward Trisolaris slowlybegan to change. Theyincreasingly began torecognize that the race

marching toward the SolarSystem was a greatcivilization, one that hadexperiencedtwo-hundred-oddcyclic catastrophes and hadendured with unbelievabletenacity. Their arduousjourney of four light-yearsacross the vastness of spacewasallforthesakeoffindingastablestar,ahomeinwhichto live out their lives.…Thepublic’s feelings towardTrisolaris began to change

from enmity and hatred tosympathy, compassion, andeven admiration. People alsorealized another fact:Trisolarishadsentoutthetendroplets two centuries ago,but humanity had only justrealized their truesignificance. This was nodoubtbecausethebehaviorofTrisolaris was overly subtle,aswell as a reflection of thefact that humanity’s state ofmindhadbeendistortedbyits

own bloody history. In aglobal online referendum,citizen support for ProjectSunshine rose rapidly,increasingly inclined towardthe StrongSurvival Plan thatoffered Mars as a Trisolaranreservation.The UN and the fleets

accelerated their preparationsfor negotiations, and the twointernationals beganorganizingdelegations.Allofthistookplaceinthe

day after the droplet wascaptured.But what excited people

most of allwas not the factsbefore their eyes, but therudimentary outline of abright future: What sort offantastic paradise would theSolar System become afterthe union of Trisolarantechnology and humanpower?

***

Ataboutthesamedistanceonthe other side of the sun,Natural Selection coastedsilentlyat1percentthespeedoflight.“Message just received:

The droplet didn’t self-destruct upon capture,”Dongfang Yanxu said toZhangBeihai.“What’s a droplet?” he

asked.They facedeachotherthrough the transparentbulkhead. His face was

haggard.“The Trisolaran probe.

Now we have confirmationthat it’s a gift to the humanrace, an expression of theTrisolaranwishforpeace.”“Is that so? That’s very

good.”“You don’t seem to care

verymuch.”Hedidn’t reply. Insteadhe

liftedthenotebookupinfrontofhimwithbothhands.“I’vefinished.”Thenheput it into

aclose-fittingpocket.“So can you hand over

control of Natural Selectionnow?”“I can, but first I’d like to

knowwhatyouplanondoingonceyou’vegainedcontrol.”“Decelerating.”“To rendezvous with the

pursuingforce?”“Yes. Natural Selection’s

fuel store is below returncapacity,soitneedstorefuelbeforebeingabletoreturnto

the Solar System. But thepursuing force doesn’t haveenoughfuelforus.Thosesixships are only half thetonnageofNaturalSelection,and in their pursuit they’veaccelerated to fivepercent oflight speed and decelerated asimilar amount. They’ve gotenough fuel for a return. SoNaturalSelection’spersonnelwillhavetoreturnaboardthepursuing force. Later, a shipcarrying enough fuel will be

sentafterNaturalSelectiontotake it back to the SolarSystem, but that will requiretime. We need to decelerateas much as possible beforeleaving to minimize thattime.”“Don’t decelerate,

Dongfang.”“Why?”“Deceleration will

consume all of NaturalSelection’s remaining fuel.Wecan’tbecomeapowerless

ship.Nooneknowswhatwillhappen. As captain, yououghttokeepthatinmind.”“What can happen? The

future is clear: The war willend and humanity will win,and you’ll be proven totallywrong!”He smiled at her

excitement, as if trying toquell it.Ashe looked at her,there was a softness in hiseyesthathadneverbeentherebefore. It rocked her

emotions. She found hisdefeatism unbelievable, andsuspectedhimofhavingothermotivations for defecting.Shehadevenwonderedabouthis sanity. But for somereason she felt a certainattachment to him. She hadleft her father when she wasvery young, certainly notanything unusual for a childofthatera.Fatherlylovewassomethingancient.Butinthisancient soldier from the

twenty-first century, she hadcometounderstandit.He said, “Dongfang, I

come from troubled times.I’m a realist. All I know isthat the enemy is still thereand it’s still approaching theSolar System. As a soldierknowing this, I can’t behappy until everyone is atpeace.… Don’t decelerate.This is the condition underwhich I’ll relinquish control.Ofcourse,theonlyguarantee

Ihaveisyourcharacter.”“I promise that Natural

Selectionwillnotdecelerate.”Zhang Beihai turned and

floated to the interfacepanel,where he called up thepermissions-transfer interfaceand entered his password.After a series of taps, heturneditoff.“Natural Selection’s

captain’sprivilegeshavebeentransferred to you. Thepassword is still Marlboro,”

hesaid,withoutlookingbackather.DongfangYanxucalledup

an interface in the air andquickly confirmed this.“Thank you. But I ask younot tocomeoutof thatcabinfor the time being, or openthe door. The ship’spersonnel are awakeningfrom deep-sea state and I’mafraid they might actaggressivelytowardyou.”“Will they make me walk

the plank?” At her mystifiedexpression, he laughed. “It’saformofthedeathpenaltyonancient ships. If it had reallycarried on through to today,you would have to shove acriminallikemerightoutintospace.…Okay. I’d quite liketobealone.”

***

The shuttle that sailed out ofQuantum seemed as small as

acarleavingacitycomparedto its mother ship. The lightofitsengineilluminatedonlyasmallpartoftheship’shull,like a candle beneath a cliff.It eased out of Quantum’sshadow into the sunlight, itsengine nozzle glowing like afirefly as it flew toward thedropletathousandkilometersaway.The expedition team

consisted of four people: amajor and a lieutenant

colonel from the Europeanand North American Fleets,DingYi,andXizi.Throughtheporthole,Ding

Yi looked back at thereceding fleet formation.Quantum, situated in acorner, still appeared large,but its nearest neighbor, thewarshipCloud, was so smallthat its shape could onlybarely be made out. Fartheraway, the ranks of warshipswere just rows of points

acrosshisfieldofview.DingYi knew that the rectangulararraywas a hundred ships inlength by twenty in width,with an additional fifteenshipsmaneuveringoutsideofthe formation. But when hecounted along the length, bythe timehe reached thirty hecouldn’t see clearly, and thatwas just six hundredkilometers away. It was thesame looking up, where theshortsideextendedvertically.

The warships that could bemade out in the far distancewerejustfuzzypointsoflightunder the weak sunlight,nearly indistinguishable fromthe starry background. Onlywhentheirenginesstartedupwould the fleet array betotally visible to the nakedeye. The combined fleetwasa one-hundred-by-twentymatrixinspace.Heimaginedanother matrix beingmultiplied with it, the

horizontal elements fromonemultiplied in turn withvertical elements from theother to form an even largermatrix,althoughinrealitytheonly important constant forthematrixwasonetinypoint:the droplet. He didn’t likeextreme asymmetry inmathematics, so this attemptto calm himself throughmentalgymnasticsfailed.When the force of

acceleration subsided, he

struckupaconversationwithXizi,whowas sittingnext tohim. “Child, are you fromHangzhou?”Xizi was staring straight

ahead, as if trying to locateMantis, which was stillhundredsofkilometersaway.Then she recovered andshook her head. “No,MasterDing.IwasbornintheAsianFleet. I don’t know whethermy name has anything to dowith Hangzhou.22 I’ve been

there, though. It’s a niceplace.”“Itwasaniceplacebackin

our day. But West Lake hasnow turned into CrescentLake, and it’s in a desert.…Still,eventhoughthedesert’severywhere, today’s worldstillremindsmeofthesouth,and the age in which thewomen were as graceful asthewater.”Ashesaidthis,helooked at Xizi, whoseenchanting silhouettewas set

off by the soft light of thedistant sun that streamed inthrough the porthole. “Child,lookingatyou,I’mremindedof someone I once loved.Like you, she was a major,and although she wasn’t astall as you, she was just asbeautiful.…”“In the old days, lots of

girls must have been in lovewith you,”Xizi said toDingYi,turningbacktohim.“I wouldn’t usually bother

thegirlsIliked.Ibelievedinwhat Goethe said: ‘If I loveyou, what business is it ofyours?’”Xizilaughed.Hewenton,“Oh, ifonlyI

had the same attitude towardphysics! My life’s biggestregret is that we’ve beenblinded by the sophons. Buthere’samorepositivewayofthinking about it: If we’reexploringlaws,whatbusinessis thatof the laws?Oneday,

perhaps, humanity—ormaybe someone else—willexplore the laws sothoroughly that they’ll beable to alter not only theirown reality, but perhaps theentire universe. They’ll beabletoturneverystarsysteminto whatever shape theyrequire, like kneading a ballof dough. But so what? Thelaws still won’t havechanged. Yes, she’ll still bethere, the one unchanging

presence, forever young, likehow we remember a lover.…”As he spoke, he pointedout the porthole at thebrilliant Milky Way. “Andwhen I think about that, myworriesgoaway.”Xizisaidnothing,andthey

fell into a heavy silence.Mantis soon came into view,albeit as a point of light twohundred kilometers away.The shuttle rotated 180degrees, and the engine

nozzle,nowpointingaheadofthem, began theirdeceleration.Thefleetwasnowdirectly

ahead of the shuttle, aroundeight hundred kilometersaway, a trivial distance inspace,butonethatturnedthemassive warships into barelyvisiblepoints.Thefleet itselfwas distinguishable from thestarrybackgroundonlybyitsneatly arranged ranks. Theentire rectangular array

seemed like a grid coveringtheMilkyWay, its regularitystanding in stark contrast tothe chaos of the starfield.With itsgreat sizemade tinyby thedistance, thepowerofthe formation was madeapparent.Manypeople in thefleet and the distant Earthbehind itwhowerewatchingthis image sensed that itwasavisualdisplayofwhatDingYi had just been talkingabout.

TheshuttlereachedMantisand the force of decelerationcut off. To the shuttle’spassengers, the speed of theprocess made it feel as ifMantis had suddenly poppedupinspace.Docking was completed

quickly. Since Mantis wasunmanned,therewasnoairinthe cabin, so the fourmembers of the expeditionteamputonlightspacesuits.Upon receiving final

instructions from the fleet,they filed weightlesslythrough the docking hatchandintoMantis.The droplet floated dead

center in Mantis’s onespherical main cabin. Itscolorswere entirely differentfrom the image seen aboardQuantum, paler and softer,evidently due to differencesin the scene reflected on itssurface—the droplet’s totalreflectance meant that it had

nocolorofitsown.Arrangedin the main cabin ofMantiswas the folded robotic arm,an assortment of equipment,and several piles of asteroidrock samples. Floating in amechanical and stonyenvironment,thedropletonceagain presented a contrastbetween exquisiteness andcrudeness, aesthetics andtechnology.“It’sthetearoftheblessed

mother,”Xizisaid.

Her words weretransmitted from Mantis atthespeedof light,first to thefleet and then resonatingthree hours later throughouttheentirehumanworld.Xizi,thelieutenantcolonel,andthemajor from the EuropeanFleet—ordinarypeopleontheexpedition team placed, byunexpectedcircumstance,inacentral position at thepinnacle moment in thehistory of civilization—

sharedacommonfeelingnowthattheyweresoclosetothedroplet: All sense of thedistant world’s unfamiliarityvanished, replaced by anintensedesireforrecognition.Yes, in the cold expanse oftheuniverse,allcarbon-basedlifesharedacommondestiny,onethatmighttakebillionsofyears to cultivate, but adestiny that cultivatedfeelings of love thattranscended time and space.

And now, they sensed thatloveinthedroplet,alovethatcouldbridgethechasmofanyenmity.Xizi’seyeswerewet,andthreehourslater,theeyesof billions of people like herwouldfillwithtears.ButDingYiwatchedallof

this dispassionately from therear. “I see something else,”hesaid.“Somethingfarmoresublime.A realmwherebothself and other are forgotten,an effort to encompass

everything by shutting outeverything.”“That’s too much

philosophy for me tounderstand,” Xizi laughedthroughhertears.“Dr. Ding, we don’t have

much time.” The lieutenantcolonelmotionedforDingYito come forward to be thefirsttotouchthedroplet.Ding Yi floated slowly

towardthedropletandplaceda hand on its surface. To

avoid frostbite from the coldmirror surface, he had totouch it with a gloved hand.Then the three officerstouchedit,too.“It looks so fragile. I’m

afraid of breaking it,” Xizisaidsoftly.“Ican’tfeelanyfrictionat

all,” the lieutenant colonelmarveled.“It’ssosmooth.”“How smooth is it?” Ding

Yiasked.To answer that question,

Xizi took out a cylindricalinstrument, a microscope,from a pocket in her spacesuit. She touched the lens tothe droplet, and they couldseeamagnified imageof thesurface on the instrument’ssmall display. Displayed onthe screen was a smoothmirror.“What’s the

magnification?” Ding Yiasked.“A hundred times.” Xizi

pointed to a number in thecorner of the screen, thenadjusted themagnification toonethousand.The enlarged surface

remainedasmoothmirror.“Your device is broken,”

thelieutenantcolonelsaid.Xizi removed the

microscope from the dropletand placed it against herspace suit visor. The otherthree drew closer to look atthescreen,where thevisor—

asurfacewhich,tothenakedeye, looked as smooth as thedroplet—was a rough androcky beach on the screenunder one-thousand-timesmagnification. Xizi returnedthemicroscopetothesurfaceof thedroplet,andthescreenonce again displayed asmooth mirror, no differentfrom the surrounding,unmagnifiedsurface.“Increase it by another

factoroften,”DingYisaid.

This was beyond thecapabilities of opticalmagnification,soXizicarriedout a series of operations toswitch the microscope fromoptical to electron tunnelingmode.Nowthemagnificationpowerstoodattenthousand.The magnified surface

remained a smooth mirror.The smoothest surface thathuman technology couldproduce revealed itself asrough at just one thousand

times magnification, likeGulliver’s impression of thefaceofthebeautifulgiantess.“Adjust to a hundred

thousand times,” thelieutenantcolonelsaid.Still they saw a smooth

mirror.“Amilliontimes.”Asmoothmirror.“Tenmilliontimes.”Macromolecules would be

visible at this magnification,but what they saw on the

screen remained a smoothmirror without the slightestsign of roughness, nodifference in smoothnessfrom the surroundingunmagnifiedsurface.“Pushitupagain!”Xizi shook her head. This

wastheelectronmicroscope’shighest level ofmagnification.More than two centuries

before, in his novel 2001: ASpace Odyssey, Arthur C.

Clarke had described a blackmonolithleftonthemoonbyan advanced aliencivilization. Surveyors hadmeasureditsdimensionswithordinaryrulersandhadfoundaratioofonetofourtonine.When these were recheckedusingthemosthigh-precisionmeasurement technology onEarth, the ratio remained anexactonetofourtonine,withno error at all. Clarkedescribed it asa“passiveyet

almost arrogant display ofgeometricalperfection.”Now,humanitywasfacing

afarmorearrogantdisplayofpower.“Cananabsolutelysmooth

surface really exist?” Xizigasped.“Yes,”DingYi said. “The

surface of a neutron star isnearlyabsolutelysmooth.”“But this has a normal

mass!”Ding Yi considered this,

then looked about him.“Hook up to the spaceshipcomputer and find the spotthat the robot arm grippedduringcapture.”This was accomplished

remotely by a fleetsurveillance officer. TheMantis computer projectedthin red laser beams tomarkthe position on the dropletsurfacethathadbeengrippedby the steel claw. Xiziexamined one of the spots

withthemicroscope,andatamagnification of ten milliontimes,shestillsawasmooth,flawlessmirror.“How high was the

pressure at the point ofcontact?” the lieutenantcolonel asked, and soonreceived a reply from thefleet: approximately twohundredkilogramspersquarecentimeter.Smooth surfaces are easily

scratched, but the strong

metalclampdidnotleaveanyscratches on the droplet’ssurface.Ding Yi floated away in

search of something withinthecabin.Hereturnedwitharockpick,perhapsdroppedinthe cabin by someone duringcollection of rock samples.Before anyone could stophim,heslammeditforcefullyintothemirrorsurface.Therewas a clang, crisp andmelodious, like the pick had

smashed into jade-pavedground. The sound traveledthrough his body, but theother three didn’t hear itbecauseof thevacuum.Withthe handle of the pick, hepointed out the spot he hadstruck, and Xizi examined itwiththemicroscope.At ten million times

magnification, it was still asmoothmirror.Ding Yi tossed the pick

aside dejectedly and looked

away from the droplet, deepin thought. The eyes of thethreeofficers,andtheeyesofthemillionpeopleinthefleet,wereallfocusedonhim.“All we can do is guess,”

he said, looking up. “Themolecules in this thing areneatlyarranged,likeanhonorguard, and they’re mutuallysolidifying. Do you knowhow solid it is? It’s as if themolecules are nailed intoplace. Even their own

vibrationsaregone.”“That’swhyit’satabsolute

zero!”Xizi said.She and theother twoofficersunderstoodwhatDingYiwasgettingat:Atnormaldensitiesofmatter,the separation betweenatomicnucleiisquitelarge.Itwould be no easier to fixthem all in place than itwould be to join the sun totheeightplanetswithrods toformastationarytruss.“What force would allow

that?”“There’s only one option:

stronginteraction.”23Throughhis visor, itwas obvious thatDing Yi’s forehead wascoveredinsweat.“But…that’slikeshooting

the moon with a bow andarrow!”“Indeed, they’ve shot the

moonwith abowandarrow.… The tear of the blessedmother?” He gave a chillylaugh, amournful sound that

made them shiver, and thethree officers knew what itmeant: The droplet wasn’tfragilelikeatear.Entirelytheopposite: Its strength was ahundred times greater thanthe sturdiest material in theSolar System. All knownsubstanceswere as fragile aspaperbycomparison.Itcouldpass through theEarth like abullet through cheese,without even the slightestharmtoitssurface.

“Then … what’s it herefor?” the lieutenant colonelblurtedout.“Who knows? Maybe it

reallyisjustamessenger.Butit’s here to give humanity adifferent message,” Ding Yisaid, turning his gaze awayfromthedroplet.“What?”“If I destroy you, what

businessisitofyours?”The words were followed

byamomentarysilenceasthe

three other members of theexpeditionary team and themillion members of thecombined fleet ruminatedover theirmeaning.Then,allof a sudden, Ding Yi said,“Run.”Thewordwasutteredsoftly, but then he raised hishands and shouted hoarsely,“Stupidchildren.Run!”“Run where?” Xizi asked

infright.JustsecondsafterDingYi,

thelieutenantcolonelrealized

the truth. Like Ding Yi, heshouted desperately: “Thefleet!Evacuatethefleet!”But it was too late.

Powerful interference hadalready wiped out theircommunicationchannels.TheimagebeingtransmittedfromMantisvanished,andthefleetwas unable to hear thelieutenantcolonel’sfinalcall.A blue halo emerged from

thetipof thedroplet’s tail. Itwas small at first, but very

bright,andcastablueshroudoveritssurroundings.Thenitdramatically expanded,turning from blue to yellowand finally to red. It almostseemed as if the dropletwasn’t producing the halo,but had just drilled out fromwithin it.Thehaloweakenedin luminosity as it expanded,and when it had reached adiameter twice that of thelargest part of the droplet, itvanished. The instant it

vanished,asecondsmallbluehalo emerged from the tip.Like the first one, itexpanded, changed color,weakened, and quicklydisappeared. The haloscontinuedtoemergefromthedroplet’s tail at a rate of twoor three a second, and undertheir propulsion, the dropletbegan to move forward, andthenrapidlyaccelerated.But the four members of

the expedition team never

saw the second halo emerge,because the first one wasaccompanied by ultra-hightemperatures approachingthat of the sun’s core,whichvaporizedtheminstantly.ThehullofMantisglowed

red, resembling from theoutsideapaperlanternwhosecandle had just been lit. Itsmetal body melted like wax,but no sooner had the shipbegun to melt than itexploded, dispersing into

space as an incandescentliquid with hardly any solidfragmentsleftbehind.From a thousand

kilometersaway,thefleethada clear view of Mantis’sexplosion, but the initialanalysis was that the droplethadself-destructed.Everyonefeltsorrowforthesacrificeofthe four expedition teammembers, followed bydisappointment that thedroplet was not a messenger

ofpeace.Butthehumanracedid not have even theslightest bit of psychologicalpreparation for what wasabouttohappen.The first anomaly was

identifiedbythefleet’sspacesurveillance computer,whichdiscovered during the courseof processing images ofMantis’s explosion that oneof the fragments wasabnormal.Mostof thepieceswere molten metal that flew

uniformly through spacefollowing the explosion, butthis onewas accelerating.Ofcourse, only a computer wasable to find a tiny objectamong the massive quantityof flying fragments.Fromanimmediate search of itsdatabase and knowledgebank, which included anenormous amount ofinformation on Mantis, itarrived at several dozenpossible explanations for the

peculiardebris,butnonewascorrect.Neither computer nor

human realized that theexplosionhaddestroyedonlyMantis and the four-memberexpedition team, but not thedroplet.As for the accelerating

fragment, the fleet’s spacesurveillance system issuedonly a level-three attackalarm, because theapproachingobjectwasnota

warship and was headedtoward one corner of therectangular formation.On itscurrentheading,itwouldpassoutside the formation andwouldnotstrikeanywarship.Due to the large number oflevel-one alarms issuedfollowing the Mantisexplosion, this level-threealarm was completelyignored. The computer had,however, also noted thefragment’s high rate of

acceleration. By threehundred kilometers it hadalready passed the thirdcosmic velocity and wascontinuingtogainspeed.Thealert was upgraded to leveltwo,butwasstillignored.By the time the fragment

had flown roughly 1,500kilometersfromtheexplosionsite toward the corner of theformation, only fifty-oneseconds had elapsed. By thetime it reached the corner, it

was traveling at a speed of31.7 kilometers per second.Now itwas on the peripheryof the formation, 160kilometersawayfromInfiniteFrontier, the first warship inthis corner of the array. Thefragment did not pass by theformation, but executed athirty-degree turn, and,without slowing down, spedstraight toward InfiniteFrontier. In the roughly twoseconds it took to cover that

distance, the computeractually dropped its alertfrom level two back to levelthree, concluding that thefragment wasn’t actually aphysicalobjectduetothefactthat its motion wasimpossible under aerospacemechanics.Attwicethethirdcosmic velocity, executing asharp turn without a drop inspeedwaslikeslammingintoanironwall.Ifitwasavesselcontaining ametal block, the

change in direction wouldhaveexertedsuchforceas toflattenthatmetalblockintoathinfilm.Sothefragmenthadtobeanillusion.In thatmanner, thedroplet

struck Infinite Frontier attwice the third cosmicvelocity,ataheadingstraightalongthefirstrowofthefleetrectangle.The droplet struck Infinite

Frontier in its rear third andpassed through with no

resistance, as if penetrating ashadow. The extreme speedof the impactmeant that twohighly regular entry and exitholesroughlythediameterofthe droplet’s thickest partappeared in its hull. But nosooner had they appearedthan the holes deformed andvanished as the surroundinghull melted under the heatproduced by the high-speedimpact and the ultrahightemperature of the droplet’s

trailing halo. The part of theship that had been hit turnedred-hot, and the rednessspread from the point ofimpact until it covered halftheship, likeachunkof ironthathadjustbeentakenoutoftheforge.After passing through

Infinite Frontier, the dropletcontinued onward at a speedof thirty kilometers persecond. In the space of threeseconds ithadcrossedninety

kilometers, passing firstthrough Yuanfang, InfiniteFrontier’s neighbor in thefirst row, and then throughFoghorn, Antarctica, andUltimate, leaving their hullsred-hot, as if the warshipsweregiantlampslinedup.Then Infinite Frontier

exploded. It and the fourwarships after it were hit inthe fusion fuel tanks. ButunlikeMantis’sconventional,high-temperature explosion,

this explosion was a fusionreaction triggered in InfiniteFrontier’s fuel. No one everfigured out whether thefusion reaction had beensparkedbythedroplet’sultra-high-temperature propulsivehalo or some other factor.The fireball of thethermonuclear explosionappeared at the point ofimpactwiththefueltankandswiftly expanded until itilluminated the entire fleet

against the velvetybackground of space,outshiningtheMilkyWay.Nuclear fireballs then took

shapeonYuanfang,Foghorn,Antarctica, and Ultimate insuccession.In the next eight seconds,

thedropletpassedthroughtenmorestellar-classwarships.By this point, the

expanding nuclear fireballhad engulfed the entirety ofInfinite Frontier and had

begun to shrink, while morefireballswerelightingupandexpandingonothershipsthathadbeenstruck.The droplet continued to

traverse the length of thearray,penetratingonestellar-classwarshipafteranotheratintervals of less than asecond.The fusion fireball on

Infinite Frontier had goneout, leaving the ship’s hulltotally melted. Now it

exploded, spewing a milliontons of glowing, dark-redmetallic liquid like a budbursting into bloom, themolten metal scatteringunimpeded in anomnidirectional storm ofburningmetallicmagma.The droplet continued its

advance, following a straightline through more warshipsand leaving a line of tennuclear fireballs behind it.The entire fleet shone in the

flamesoftheseburningsmallsuns as if it had been setablaze and turned into a seaof light. Behind the line offireballs, themeltedwarshipscontinued to fling waves ofhot molten metal into space,as if massive rocks werebeing pitched into a magmasea.Inoneminuteandeighteen

seconds, the droplet hadcompleted a two-thousand-kilometer course, passing

through each of the hundredships in the first row of thecombined fleet’s rectangularformation.Bythetimethelastshipin

the row, Adam, wasswallowed up in a nuclearfireball,theburstsofmetallicmagma at the opposite endhad scattered, cooled, andspread out, leaving the heartof the explosion—the spotwhere Infinite Frontier hadbeenaminutebefore—empty

of practically everything.Yuanfang, Foghorn,Antarctica,Ultimate…allofthem vanished one afteranother intometallicmagma.Whenthelastnuclearfireballin the line went out anddarknessfelluponspaceoncemore, the gradually coolingmagma that had barely beenvisiblereappearedasdarkredlights in the blackness ofspace, like a two-thousand-kilometer-longriverofblood.

After punching throughAdam, the droplet flew ashortdistanceofabouteightykilometers through emptyspace, then executed anothersharp turn unexplainable byhumanity’s aerospacemechanics. This time theangle it described was evensmaller: just fifteen degreesoff a total reversal, executednearly instantaneously evenas it maintained a constantspeed. Then, after a small

heading adjustment thatbrought it in line with thesecondrowofwarshipsinthefleet’s array—or what wasnow the first row, in light ofthe recent destruction—itsped toward the first ship inthat row, Ganges, at thirtykilometerspersecond.Until this point, Fleet

Command had notmade anyresponse.The fleet’s battle

information system had

faithfully carried out itsmissionandcapturedthroughits massive monitoringnetworkacompleterecordofallbattleinformationoverthecourseofthatoneminuteandeighteen seconds. The sheeramount of information wasfor the time being onlyanalyzable by thecomputerized battlefielddecision-making system,which had arrived at thefollowing conclusion: A

powerful enemy space forcehad appeared in the vicinityandhadlaunchedanattackonthe fleet. However, thecomputerdidnotprovideanyinformationaboutthatenemyforce. Only two things werecertain: 1. The enemy spaceforce was located at theposition occupied by thedroplet,and2.Theforcewasinvisible to every means ofdetectiontheypossessed.By this time, fleet

commanders were in a stateof numb shock. For nearlytwo centuries, research intospacestrategyandtacticshaddreamed up every possiblekind of extreme battlecondition, but witnessing ahundredwarshipsblowinguplikeastringoffirecrackersinunder a minute was beyondwhat their minds couldcomprehend. The tide ofinformationsurgingoutofthebattle information system

meant that they were forcedto rely on the analyses andjudgments of the computerbattlefield decision-makingsystem and focus theirattention on detecting aninvisible enemy fleet thatdidn’t even exist. All battlemonitoring capacity wasdirected into the distantregionsofspace,ignoringthedangerrightinfrontofthem.Afairnumberofpeopleevenbelieved that the powerful

invisible enemy might be athird-partyalienforcedistinctfromhumanityandTrisolaris,becauseintheirsubconsciousminds, Trisolaris remainedtheweaker,losingside.The fleet’s battle

monitoring system did notdetect the droplet’s presenceany earlier primarily becauseitwasinvisibletoradaratallwavelengths and could onlybelocatedthroughanalysisofvisible spectrum images, but

visible images were treatedwith far less importance thanradar data. Most of thefragments scattered throughspace in storms of explodeddebris were liquid metalmelted by the high-temperature nuclear blasts,upward of a million tonsmelted in the destruction ofeach ship. A fair proportionof this massive amount ofmolten debris was roughlythe same size and shape as

the droplet, which presentedthe computer image analysissystemwith thedifficult taskof distinguishing the dropletfrom the debris. Besides,practically all of thecommandersbelievedthatthedroplet had self-destructedinside Mantis, so no oneissuedspecific instructions toperformsuchananalysis.Meanwhile, other

circumstances wereexacerbatingtheconfusionof

battle. Debris ejected fromtheexplosionsofthefirstrowofwarships soon reached thesecond row, prompting theirbattle defense systems torespond with high-energylasers and railguns tointercept the debris. Theseflying fragments, consistinglargelyofmetalmeltedbythenuclear fireballs, wereirregularinsize,andalthoughtheyhadbeenpartiallycooledin flight by the low

temperatures of space, onlytheir outer shells hadsolidified.Their insideswerestillinafieryliquidstate,andwhenstruck,theyscatteredina brilliant explosion offireworks. It was not longbefore thesecondrowturnedintoaflamingbarrierparallelto the dull “river of blood”left behind by the explodedwarships in the first, roilingwith explosions as ifwashedina tideof fire surging from

the direction of that invisibleenemy. Debris flew thick ashail, more than defensivesystems could block, andwhen fragments slippedthrough and struck thewarships, the impactof thesejets of solid-liquid metalpossessed considerabledestructive power.A numberof the ships in the fleet’ssecond row suffered majorhull damage, and somewereeven punctured. Shrill

decompressionalarmsblared.…Although the dazzling

battlewithdebrisdid receivenotice, given thecircumstances,itwashardforthecomputersandhumansinthecommandsystemtoavoidthe misconception that thefleetwas engaged in a fierceexchange of fire with anenemy space force. Neitherperson nor machine noticedthe tiny figure of Death that

had begun to destroy thesecondrowofships.And so, when the droplet

charged at Ganges, thehundred warships in thesecond row were stillassembled in a straight line.Adeathformation.The droplet surged like

lightning,andinthespaceofjust ten seconds, it passedthrough twelve warships:Ganges, Columbia, Justice,Masada, Proton, Yandi,

Atlantic, Sirius,Thanksgiving, Advance,Han,and Tempest. As in thedestruction of the first row,each warship turned red-hotafter penetration, beforebeing engulfed in a nuclearfireballthatleftamilliontonsofdarkred,glowing,metallicmagmathatthenexploded.Inthis brutal destruction, thelined-upwarshipswerelikeatwo-thousand-kilometer fusethat burned with such

intensity that it left behindnothing but ash glowing adull,darkred.One minute and twenty-

one seconds later, thehundred ships in the secondrow had been completelyannihilated.After passing through the

last ship, Meiji, the dropletreached the end of the rowand turned another acuteangletochargestraightatthefirst ship in the third row,

Newton. During thedestructionofthesecondrow,debris from the explosionshad raged into the third. Thetideofdebrisincludedmoltenmetal flung from explosionsin the second row aswell asmostly cooled metalfragments from the ships ofthe first. Most of the third-rowshipshadbynowstartedup their engines anddefensive systems and hadbegun maneuvering, which

meantthatthistime,theshipswere not situated along aperfectly straight line, as hadbeenthecaseforthefirstandsecond rows. Nevertheless,the hundred ships were stillroughly in line. After thedroplet passed throughNewton, it sharply adjusteddirection and, in a twinkling,crossedthetwentykilometersseparating Newton fromEnlightenment, now at athree-kilometer offset from

theline.FromEnlightenment,it turned sharplyagain, racedtoward Cretaceous, whichwasmoving toward theotherside, and penetrated it.Following this broken path,thedropletdrilledthroughtheships in the third row oneafter the other, neverdropping its speed belowthirtykilometerspersecond.When analysts

subsequently observed thedroplet’s route, they were

amazed to discover that itseveryturnwasasharpcorner,not the smooth curve of ahuman spacecraft. Thediabolical flight pathdemonstrated a space driveentirely beyond humancomprehension, as if thedropletwasashadowwithoutmass, unconcerned with theprinciples of dynamics,movingatwilllikethenibofGod’s pen.During the attackon the fleet’s third row, the

droplet’s sharp changes ofdirectionoccurredatarateoftwo or three per second, adeathly embroidery needlesewingathreadofdestructionthrough the row’s hundredships.The droplet took two

minutes and thirty-fiveseconds to destroy the thirdrowofships.By this time, all of the

warships in the fleet hadstarted their engines.

Although the array had lostits shape entirely, thedropletcontinued to strike theevacuatingships.Thepaceofdestruction slowed, but, atany given time, three to fivenuclearfireballswereburningamong the ships. Theirdeathly flames drowned outthe glow of the engines,turningthemintoaclusterofterrifiedfireflies.Thefleetcommandsystem

still had no clue about the

true source of the attack andcontinued to focus itsenergies on searching for theimaginary invisible enemyfleet. However, subsequentanalysis of the massiveclouds of vague informationtransmitted by the fleetrevealed that it was at thispointthattheearliestanalysistocomeclosetothetruthwasperformed by two low-ranking officers in the AsianFleet. One was Ensign Zhao

Xin, an assistant targetingscreener onBeifang, and theotherwasCaptainLiWei,anintermediate EM weaponssystemcontrolleronWannianKunpeng.Atranscriptoftheirconversationfollows:

ZHAO XIN: This is BeifangTR317 calling WannianKunpeng EM986! This isBeifang TR317 callingWannian KunpengEM986!

LI WEI: This is WannianKunpeng EM986. Pleasebe advised, transmittingship-to-ship voicecommunication at thisinformation level is aviolation of wartimeregulations.

ZHAOXIN: Is thatLiWei?Thisis Zhao Xin! You’re whoI’mtryingtofind!

LI WEI: Hi! I’m glad to knowyou’restillalive.

ZHAO XIN: Captain, here’s the

thing. I’ve discoveredsomething that I’d like totransmit to the sharedcommand level, but myprivileges are too low.Couldyouhelpmeout?

LI WEI: My privileges are toolow, too. But sharedcommand has plenty ofinformation right now.What do you want totransmit?

ZHAO XIN: I’ve analyzed avisual image of the battle

—LI WEI: Shouldn’t you beanalyzing radarinformation?

ZHAO XIN: That’s a systemfallacy. When I analyzedthe visual image andextracted only the speedcharacteristic, do youknow what I found? Doyou know what’s beengoingon?

LIWEI:Youseemtoknow.ZHAO XIN: Don’t think I’ve

gone crazy—you knowme,we’refriends.

LI WEI: You’re a stone-coldbeast.You’llbe the last togocrazy.Goahead.

ZHAOXIN: Listen, it’s the fleetthat’s gone crazy. We’reattackingourselves!

LIWEI:…ZHAO XIN: Infinite Frontierattacked Yuanfang, andYuanfang attackedFoghorn, and Foghornattacked Antarctica, and

Antarctica…LI WEI: You’re out of yourdamnmind!

ZHAO XIN: That’s what’shappening. A attacks B;andafterBisattacked,butbefore it explodes, itattacks C; and after C isattacked but before itexplodes, it attacks D.…It’slikeeverywarshipthatwas hit attacked the nextwarship in the row—likean infection, damn it, or a

game of pass the parcel,but to the death. It’sinsane!

LIWEI:Whatweaponsaretheyusing?

ZHAO XIN: I don’t know. Ipicked up a projectile inthe image, so frickin’ tinyand so frickin’ fast, waythe hell faster than yourrailguns. And incrediblyprecise.Ithitthefueltankseverysingletime!

LIWEI:Sendmetheanalysis.

ZHAOXIN:I’vesentitover,theoriginal data and vectoranalysisboth.Takealook,goddamnit!

Ensign Zhao Xin’s analysis,though unconventional, waspretty close to the truth. LiWei took half a minute tostudy the informationhesentover. In that time, anotherthirty-nine warships weredestroyed.

LIWEI: I’venoticedsomethingaboutthespeed.

ZHAOXIN:Whatspeed?LIWEI:Thespeedof thesmallprojectile. Its speed whenit’s launched from eachwarship is slightly slower.Thenitacceleratestothirtykilometers per secondduring flight. Then itstrikes the next warship,andwhenit launchesfromthat warship prior to theexplosion, its speed is a

little slower. Then itaccelerates.…

ZHAO XIN: That doesn’t meananything.…

LIWEI:WhatImeanis…it’salittlelikedrag.

ZHAOXIN:Drag?Howso?LI WEI: Every time thisprojectilepasses throughatarget, the drag slows itdown.

ZHAO XIN: I see what you’redoing.I’mnotstupid.Yousaid “this projectile” and

“passes through atarget.” … Is it a singleobject?

LI WEI: Take a look outside.Another hundred shipshaveexploded.

This conversation tookplace not in the modernlanguage of the fleet but intwenty-first-centuryMandarin.From themodeofspeech, it was obvious thatthe two were hibernators.

There were few hibernatorsserving in the fleet, andalthough most of them hadawakened while still veryyoung, they still lacked amodern person’s capacity toabsorb information, whichmeant that most of themcarried out relatively low-level duties. It was laterdiscovered that the vastmajority of officers andsoldiers who recovered theirsensesandgoodjudgmentthe

earliest during the granddestruction were hibernators.These two officers, forinstance, despite being at alevelthatdidnotevenpermitthem the use of the ship’sadvanced systems, werenonethelessabletoperformaremarkablepieceofanalysis.Zhao Xin and Li Wei’s

information was not passedupthefleetcommandsystem,but the system’s analysis ofthe battle was headed in the

rightdirection.Realizing thatthe invisible enemy forceposited by the computerdecision-making systemdidn’t exist, attention wasnowfocusedonanalyzingtheaggregatedbattleinformation.After a search andmatch onmassive amounts of data, thesystem finally discovered thecontinued existence of thedroplet. The image of thedroplet extracted from battlerecordings was unchanged

apart from the addition of apropulsion halo at the tail. Itwas still a perfect dropletshape, only this time whatwas reflected as it spedonward was the glow ofnuclear fireballs and metalmagma, glaring brightnessalternating with dark red. Itlookedlikeadropofburningblood. Further analysisarrived at a model of thedroplet’sattackpath.Various scenarios for the

Doomsday Battle had beenconcocted during twocenturies of the study ofspace strategy, but in theminds of strategists, theenemy had always been big.Humanity would meet themain part of the mightyTrisolaran force on a spacebattlefield, with everywarshipafortressofdeaththesizeofasmallcity.Theyhadimaginedeveryextremeformof weapons and tactics the

enemy could possiblypossess,themostterrifyingofwhichinvolvedtheTrisolaranFleet launching an attackusing antimatter weapons,andobliteratingastellar-classbattleshipwith antimatter thesizeofariflebullet.But now the combined

fleet had to face facts: Theironlyenemywasatinyprobe,one drop ofwater out of theenormousoceanofTrisolaranstrength, and this probe

attacked using one of theoldest and most primitivetactics known to humannavies:ramming.Roughly thirteen minutes

passed from the moment theprobe started its attack untilthe fleet command systemarrived at the correctassessment. Given thecomplex and grim battlefieldconditions, this was fairlyquick, but the droplet wasquicker. In twentieth-century

naval battles, there mighthave been time forcommanderstobesummonedto the flagship for aconference once the enemyfleetappearedonthehorizon.But space battles weremeasured in seconds, and inthat thirteen-minute span,more than six hundredwarships were destroyed bythe probe. Only then didhumanity realize thatcommand of a space battle

was beyond their reach.Anddue to the sophon block, itwasbeyondthereachoftheirartificial intelligence as well.Purely in termsofcommand,humanity might never havethe capacity to engage in aspacebattlewithTrisolaris.The speed of the droplet’s

strikes and its invisibility toradar meant that defensivesystems on the first ships hitnever responded. But as thedistance between the

warships grew and thedroplet’s striking distanceincreased, defensive systemson all warships wererecalibrated based on thedroplet’s targetcharacteristics. This meantthatNelsonwas thefirstshipto attempt to intercept, usinglaserweapons to increase theaccuracy of firing on thesmall, high-speed target.When struck by the multiplebeams, the droplet emitted a

powerful visible light, eventhough the Nelson had firedgamma-ray lasers that wereinvisible to the naked eye.Thedroplet’simperceptibilityto radar had never beenunderstood, since it had acompletely reflective surfaceandashapethatwasperfectlydiffuse, but perhaps theability to alter the frequencyof reflected electromagneticwaves was the secret to thisinvisibility.The light emitted

from thedropletwhen itwasstruck was so bright itdrowned out the nuclearfireballs going off all aroundit, forced the monitoringsystems to dim their imagesto avoid damage to theiroptical components, andcaused sustainedblindness toanyone who looked directlyat it. In other words, thissuperpowerful light wasindistinguishable fromdarkness in its effect. The

droplet, wrapped in this all-engulfing light, enteredNelsonandwasextinguished,plunging the battlefield intopitch darkness. Momentslater, the nuclear fireballsreestablishedtheirdominanceandthedropletemergedfromNelson unscathed and spedstraightforGreen,eighty-oddkilometersaway.Green’s defense system

switched over to EM-basedkinetic weapons to intercept

the attacking droplet. Themetal shells fired by therailgun possessed enormousdestructive power, and thekinetic energy inherent intheir high speed meant thatevery shell that struck thetarget hitwith the force of abomb. Against groundtargets, they would flatten amountain in no time at all.Thedroplet’srelativevelocityonly added to the shells’energy,butwhentheystruck,

the droplet slowed onlyslightly before it adjusted itspropulsion and recovered itsspeed.Under a dense hail ofshells, it flew straight atGreen and penetrated it.Under the ultrahighmagnification microscope,the droplet’s surface wouldstill be mirror-smooth andtotallyscratch-free.Strong-interaction material

differs from ordinary matterlike solid differs from liquid.

Theattacksonthedropletbyhuman weapons were likewaves striking a reef.Damaging it was impossible,which meant that nothing inthe Solar System coulddestroyit.Itwasuntouchable.Thefleetcommandsystem

hadjuststabilizeditself,onlytobeplungedonceagainintochaos. This time, its despairoverthelossofeveryweaponavailabletoitmeantitwouldnot recover from this

collapse.The merciless slaughter in

space continued. As thedistance between ships grew,the droplet accelerated andhadsoondoubleditsspeedtosixty kilometers per second.Exhibitingacoolandpreciseintelligence in its continuousattacks,itsolvedthetravelingsalesman problem in localregionswithperfectaccuracy,hardlyeverretracingitspath.With its targets in constant

motion, the dropletaccomplishedahugerangeofaccurate measurements andcomplex calculationseffortlesslyandathighspeed.In the course of its intenselyfocused massacre, it wouldoccasionally veer off to theedgesofthegroupofshipstoquickly dispatch a fewoutliers and arrest the fleet’sinclination to flee in thatdirection.The droplet usually made

precise strikes on the ships’fuel tanks—whether it foundthem by real-time locationdetectionorwiththeuseofastored database of everyship’s structure provided bythe sophons was unknown.However, in around 10percent of the targets, thedroplet did not strike thetanks. The destruction ofthose ships did not involvefusioninthenuclearmaterial,so it took a comparatively

long time for the red-hotships to finally explode, abrutal situation in which thecrew suffered under hightemperatures before burningtodeath.Theevacuationoftheships

did not go smoothly. It wastoo late to enter deep-seastate, so the warships couldonlyevacuateatAheadThreeacceleration, which madescattering impossible. Like asheepdog racing alongside a

flock, the droplet executedoccasionalblockingstrikesatdifferent positions at thefleet’s edges to keep it inshape.Spacewasfullofcooledor

still-molten debris and largechunks of warships, so shipdefense systems had tocontinually sweep their flightpath with lasers or railguns.The fragments formedglittering, flaming arcs thatwrapped each ship in a

brilliant canopy. Yet somedebris still slipped throughthe defenses and causedserioushulldamageandevenlossofnavigationalcapabilitywhen they struck the shipsdirectly.Collisionwithlargerfragmentswasfatal.Despite thecollapseof the

fleet command system, HighCommandremainedinchargeduring evacuation, but thedensity of the initialformation meant collisions

between ships wereunavoidable. Himalaya andThorcollidedhead-onathighspeed and were smashed tobits. Messenger rear-endedGenesis, and the air thatleaked like a hurricanethrough the gashes tore intoboth ships and blewpersonnel and other objectsout into space, forming tailsthat dragged along in thewakeofthetwogiantwrecks.Most horrifying of allwas

what happened to Einsteinand Xia, whose captainsbypassed system protectionsvia remote controlmode andentered Ahead Fouracceleration. None of theirpersonnel was protected bydeep-sea state. Imagestransmitted fromXia showeda hangar emptied of fightersbut occupied by over ahundred people who wereflattened against the deck bythehighgs once acceleration

began. From this vantagepoint, observers saw crimsonflowers of blood bloom onthewhite space the size of afootball field, formingextremely thin layers thatspread out and ultimatelymerged into one under theimmense force.… Sphericalcabins presented the ultimatehorror: At the beginning ofhypergravitation everyoneinsideslid to thebottom,andthenthedevil’sweightyhand

squishedthemallintoalump,as ifballingupapileofclaymen,withnotimeforanyoneto even scream. The onlysoundwasofshatteringbonesand viscera squeezing out.Then the pile of flesh andbones was submerged in abloody liquid that turnedeerily clear once the solidswere precipitated out by thehigh gs, its surface flat andmotionless as amirror underthe intense force. It seemed

solid,andtheformlesspileofflesh, bone, and organs laywithin it likerubiessealed incrystal.…Afterward, people initially

thought that putting EinsteinandXia intoAheadFourhadbeen a mistake made duringthechaos,butfurtheranalysisrepudiated this view. Usingthe remote control mode tobypass the stringentprocedures required by thewarship control system prior

to executing Ahead Fouracceleration, including theconfirmation that allpersonnel were in deep-seastate, involved a complicatedseriesofoperationsthatwereunlikelytohavebeenmadeinerror. In the informationtransmitted from the twoships, itwas also found that,priortoenteringAheadFour,Einstein and Xia had beenusing fighters and smallercraft to transport personnel

outside. They did not enterAhead Four until the dropletdrew nearer and neighboringwarships began to explode.This suggested that theyintendedtoescapethedropletattopaccelerationtopreservehumanity’s warships, buteven Einstein and Xia wereunable to evade the droplet’sclutches. The keen-eyeddeath god noticed that twoships were accelerating farfasterthantheaveragerateof

the group and swiftly caughtup to themanddestroyed theshipsandtheirlifelesscargo.But two other warships

successfully accelerated atAhead Four and escaped thedroplet’s attack: Quantumand Bronze Age, which hadboth entered deep-sea stateprior to the battle, at DingYi’s behest. As soon as thethird row of ships had beendestroyed, the two of thementeredAheadFourandmade

an emergency escape in thesamedirection.Theirpositioninacornerof thearray,withthe entire fleet separatingthem from the droplet, gavethemsufficienttimetoescapeintothedepthsofspace.More than a thousand

ships,overhalf thefleet,hadbeen destroyed in a twenty-minuteattack.Space was chock-full of

debris in a cluster tenthousand kilometers in

diameter,arapidlyexpandingmetallic cloud whose edgeswere illuminated time andagainby thenuclear fireballsofexplodingwarships,asifagiant, stony face wereflickering in and out of thecosmic night. In between thefireballs,theglowofmetallicmagma turned the cloud intoablood-redsunset.The remaining warships

were scattered widely, butnearly all of them were still

withinthemetalliccloud.Themajority had exhausted theirrailguns and had to rely onlasers to open up a paththrough the cloud, but theenergy drainmade the lasersunderpowered and left theships to wend a slow,torturous path through thedebris. Most of them movedat a speed practically thesame as the cloud’s rate ofexpansion, turning it into adeath trap from which

evacuation and flight wereimpossible.The droplet’s speed was

now ten times the thirdcosmic velocity, or roughly170kilometerspersecond.Itscourse took it smashingthrough debris that liquefiedunderimpact,splashingawayat high speed to collide withother debris and giving thedropletabrilliant tail.First itresembled a comet bristlingwith rage, but as the tail

lengthened, it turned into ahuge silver dragon thatstretched ten thousandkilometers. The entiremetallic cloud glowed withthe dragon’s light as itwhippedtoandfroinitsmaddance. The warshipspenetrated by the dragon’shead began to explode alongitsbody,sothatitwasdottedwiththenuclearexplosionsoffourorfivesmallsunsatanygiven time. Further back,

molten battleships becamemillion-ton metallic magmaexplosionsthatdyedits tailabewitchingbloodred.…The brilliant dragon was

still flying thirty minuteslater,butthenuclearfireballson its body had disappeared,and its tail was no longerbloodred. Not a singlewarship remained in themetalliccloud.When the dragon flew out

of the cloud, its body

vanished at the cloud’s edge,its head followed by its tail.Then it began taking out theremnants of the fleet. Onlytwenty-one warships hadcleared the cloud, most ofthem suffering enoughdamage in the process thatthey retained minimalacceleration or were evencoasting unpowered. Thesewere quickly caught anddestroyedbythedroplet.Themetallic clouds formed from

the newly exploded shipsexpandedandmergedintothelargercloud.Thedroplethadtospenda

bit more time destroying thefive mostly intact shipsbecause they had alreadypicked up speed and wereheadedindifferentdirections.The final ship to bedestroyed,Ark,hadtraveledaconsiderable distance fromthe cloud, so when thefireballof itsexplosionlitup

space for a few secondsbeforegoingout,itwaslikeasolitary lamp in the wind ofthewilderness.Humanity’s space-based

armed forces had beenannihilated.The droplet briefly

accelerated in the directionQuantumandBronzeAgehadfled, but soon abandoned thechasebecausethetwotargetswere too far away and hadpicked up too much speed.

And thus, Quantum andBronze Age became the onlysurvivors of the tremendousdestruction.Thedropletleftthefieldof

slaughter and set its headinginthedirectionofthesun.Apart from those two

complete warships, a smallnumberofpeople in thefleethadsurvivedtheholocaustbyboarding fighters or othersmall craft before thedestruction of their ships.

Although the droplet couldhave destroyed themeffortlessly, ithadno interestin small spacecraft. Thebiggestthreattothesevessels,which lacked defensivesystems and couldn’t survivean impact, was from high-speed metal fragments, andsomeofthemweredestroyedby debris after leaving theirmother ships. They had thegreatestchanceofsurvivalatthe beginning and the end of

theattack,becauseatthestartthemetalliccloudhadnotyetformed, and by the end thecloud had grown far lessdenseasitexpanded.The surviving small craft

and fightersdrifted fora fewdays beyond the orbit ofUranus and were eventuallyrescuedbycivilianspacecraftplying that region of space.The survivors numberedaround sixty thousand, andincluded the two hibernator

officers who had made thefirstcorrectassessmentofthedroplet’sattack:EnsignZhaoXinandCaptainLiWei.The region eventually

becamestill,and themetalliccloud lost its luster in thecoldness of the cosmos anddisappeared into darkness.Overtheyears,underthepullofthesun’sgravity,thecloudstopped its expansion andbegan to lengthen, ultimatelyforming a long strip that

turned intoanextremely thinmetallic belt around the sun,as if a million restless soulswerefloatingendlesslyinthecold outer reaches of theSolarSystem.The destruction of the

entirety of humanity’s spaceforce was accomplished byjustoneTrisolaranprobe,andnine like it were three yearsaway from theSolarSystem.The ten of them togetherweren’t even one ten-

thousandththesizeofasinglewarship, andTrisolaris had athousand of those that evennow were flying onwardtowardtheSolarSystem.“If I destroy you, what

businessisitofyours?”

***

Awakeningfromalongsleep,Zhang Beihai looked at thetime: He had been asleepfifteen hours, perhaps the

longest he had ever sleptapart from his two centuriesinhibernation.Nowhe felt anew feeling. Examining hismind, he realized where thisfeelingcamefrom.Hewasonhisown.In the past, even when

floating alone in theendlessness of space, he hadneverhadthefeelingofbeingonhisown.Hisfather’seyeswere watching him from thebeyondwith a gaze that was

present every moment ofevery day. Like the sunlightduring daytime and thestarlight at night, it hadbecome a part of his world.Now his father’s gaze haddisappeared.Time to go out, he said to

himself as he adjusted hisuniform. He had sleptweightless, so no part of hishair or clothing was out ofplace. Taking a last look atthe spherical cabin in which

he had spent more than amonth, he opened the doorand drifted out, prepared tocalmly face the fury of thecrowd, to face the countlessexpressions of disdain andcondemnation, to face thefinaljudgment…andtoface,as a conscientious soldier, alifewhosedurationhedidnotknow. Whatever happened,therestofhislifewassuretobecalm.Thecorridorwasempty.

He advanced slowly,passing compartments oneither side, all of themopen.Theywereall identical tohisown spherical cabin, theirsnow-white walls resemblingpupilless eyes. Theenvironment was clean, andhe saw no open informationwindows. The ship’sinformation system hadprobably been restarted andreformatted.Herecalledamoviehehad

seen in his youth, in whichthe characters lived in aRubik’sCubeworldmadeupof countless identical cubicrooms, each of whichcontained a different sort ofdeath mechanism. Theypassed fromone room to thenext,endlessly.…The free rein of his

thoughts surprised him. Thisused tobea luxury,butnowthat his nearly two-century-long mission was at an end,

his mind could walk aleisurelypath.He turned a corner, and

ahead of him was another,longer corridor that was justas empty. The bulkheadsemitted an even, milky-softlightthatwasenoughtomakehim lose his sense of depth.The world felt compact.Again, the doors to thesphericalcabinsoneithersidewere all open, and each onewasanidenticalwhitespace.

Natural Selection lookedabandoned. To ZhangBeihai’s eyes, the massiveship he occupied was oneenormous yet concisesymbol,ametaphor forsomelaw hidden beneath reality.Hehadtheillusionthat theseidentical white sphericalspaces extended endlesslyinto space around him,repeating infinitely throughtheuniverse.An idea popped into his

mind:holography.Every spherical cabin

could achieve totalmanipulation and control ofNaturalSelection, so,at leastfrom an informaticsperspective, every cabin wasthe totality of NaturalSelection.ThatmeantNaturalSelectionwasholographic.Theshipitselfwasametal

seed carrying the totalinformation of humancivilization. If it germinated

somewhere in the universe,then it might grow into acomplete civilization. Thepart contained the whole,hence human civilizationmightbeholographicaswell.He had failed. He had not

managed to spread theseseeds, and for this he feltregret. But not sadness, andnot just because he’d doneeverything he could to carryout his duty. His mind, nowfreed, took flight, and he

imagined the universe asholographic, every pointcontaining thewhole, so thattheentireuniverseenduredsolong as one atom remained.Suddenly he had an all-encompassingsenseoffocus,thesamefeelingthatDingYihadjustovertenhoursagoatthe other end of the SolarSystem on the last stage ofhis approach toward thedroplet, while Zhang Beihaiwasstillasleep.

He reached the end of thecorridorandopened thedoorto enter thewarship’s largestsphericalhall,theonehehadarrived at when he firstentered Natural Selectionthreemonths ago.As before,a formation of fleet officersand soldiers was floating inthe center of the sphere, buttheir numbers were severaltimes greater and made upthree layers in the formation.The two-thousand-strong

crew of Natural Selectionformed the center layer,which he realized was theonlyreallayer.Theothertwowereholograms.Lookingcloser,hesawthat

thehologramformationsweremade up of the officers andsoldiers from the fourpursuing ships. Right in thecenter of the three-layerformation was a row of fivecolonels: Dongfang Yanxuand the captains of the four

otherships.AllbutDongfangYanxu were holograms thatwere evidently beingtransmittedfromthepursuingships. When he entered thehall,theeyesoffivethousandpeople focused on him withan expression clearly notdirected at a defector. Thecaptainssalutedinorder.“Blue Space, of the Asian

Fleet!”“Enterprise, of the North

AmericanFleet!”

“DeepSpace, of theAsianFleet!”“Ultimate Law, of the

EuropeanFleet!”Dongfang Yanxu was the

last to salute him. “NaturalSelection,of theAsianFleet!Sir, the five stellar-classwarships you have preservedfor humanity are all that isleft of Earth’s space fleet.Please accept yourcommand!”

***

“It’s a collapse.Everything’scollapsed. It’s a collectivemental breakdown!” ShiXiaoming sighed and shookhishead.Hehadjustreturnedfrom the underground city.“The whole city’s out ofcontrol.It’schaos.”Theadministrativeofficials

hadall come toameetingofthe neighborhoodgovernment. Hibernators

made up two-thirds, withmodernpeopleaccountingforthe rest. They were easilydistinguishable now:Althoughtheywereinastateof extreme depression, thehibernator officials kept theircomposure despite their lowspirits, while the modernsmanifested signs ofbreakdowntovaryingdegreesand lost control on multipleoccasions during the courseof the meeting. Shi

Xiaoming’swordspluckedattheir fragile nerves onceagain. The neighborhoodchief executive’s eyes werewet with tears, and when hecovered his face to weep, itprompted several othermodernofficialstoweepwithhim.Theofficialinchargeofeducation laughedhysterically,andseveralothermoderns began to snarl,before tossing their cups ontheground.…

“Quiet down,” Shi Qiangsaid. His voice wasn’t loud,but it had a dignity thatquieted the modern officials.The executive and the otherswhowerecryingstruggledtoholdbacktheirtears.“They’re just kids,” Hines

said, shaking his head.Attending the meeting as apeople’s representative, hewas perhaps the only personwho had benefited from thedestruction of the combined

fleet,becausenowthatrealitywas in line with his mentalseal, he had returned tonormal. Previously, he hadbeentormenteddayandnightbythementalsealinthefaceof what seemed like an all-but-certain victory, and hehad nearly suffered a mentalbreakdown.Hehadbeensentto the largest hospital in thecity, where expertpsychiatrists had beenpowerless to help him,

althoughtheyhadproposedanovel idea,whichLuoJiandthe suburban officials helpedcarry out. As in Daudet’s“TheSiegeofBerlin,”or theold Golden-Age film GoodBye, Lenin!, why notfabricate a fictionalenvironment in whichhumanity had failed?Fortunately,atthepinnacleofmodern virtual technology, itwasn’t at all hard to createsuch an environment. Every

day at his residence, Hineswatched news that wasbroadcast especially for him,accompanied by lifelikethree-dimensionalimages.Hesaw a portion of theTrisolaran Fleet accelerateandarriveattheSolarSystemearly, and humanity’scombined fleet suffer heavylossesinabattleattheKuiperBelt. Then the three fleetswere unable to hold the lineat Neptune’s orbit, and they

were forced to stage adifficultresistanceatJupiter’sorbit.…The neighborhood official

in charge of manufacturingthis false world got quitewrapped up in it, and whenthe crushing defeat actuallytookplace,hewasthefirsttosuffer a mental breakdown.He had exhausted hisimagination paintinghumanity’sdefeatinthemostdisastrouswaypossible, both

forHines’sneedsand forhisown personal pleasure, butcruel reality far outstrippedanythinghehadimagined.When the images of the

fleet’sdestructiontwentyAUaway reached Earth after athree-hour delay, the publicbehaved like a gang ofdesperate children, turningthe world into a nightmare-plagued kindergarten. Massmental breakdown spreadrapidly, and everything went

outofcontrol.In Shi Qiang’s

neighborhood,alltheofficialsrankedhigherthanhimeitherresigned or simply brokedownanddidnothing,sothehigher-level authorities gavehim an emergencyappointment to take over theduties of the local chiefexecutive. It may not havebeenallthatimportantapost,but thefateof thishibernatorneighborhood was in his

hands during this crisis.Fortunately, compared to theunderground city, thehibernator societies remainedrelativelystable.“I would ask everyone to

remember the situationwe’rein,” Shi Qiang said. “Ifthere’s ever a problem withthe artificial environmentalsystem in the undergroundcity,theplacewillturntohellandeveryonetherewillfloodout to the surface. If that

happens, this place won’t befitforsurvival.Wehadbetterconsidermigration.”“Migration where?”

someoneasked.“To somewhere sparsely

populated,likethenorthwest.Of course,wewouldhave tosend people to check it outfirst. Right now, no one cansay what will happen to theworld, or whether there willbeanotherGreatRavine.Wehave tomake preparations to

survive totally onagriculture.”“Will the droplet attack

Earth?”someoneelseasked.“What’s the point of

fretting?” Shi Qiang shookhis head. “No one can doanythingaboutit,atanyrate.And until it punches throughthe Earth, we’ve still got tolive,right?”“That’s right. Worrying is

pointless. I’m quite clear onthat point,” Luo Ji said,

breakinghissilence.

***

Humanity’s seven remainingspaceships flew away fromthe Solar System, split intotwo groups: five shipscomprised of NaturalSelectionanditspursuersandanother group of two ships,Quantum and Bronze Age,which had survived thedroplet’s devastation. The

two small fleets were atopposite ends of the SolarSystem,separatedbythesun.They were on headings thattook them inalmostoppositedirections, and graduallygettingfartherapart.OnNaturalSelection,after

Zhang Beihai heard theaccount of the combinedfleet’s annihilation, hisexpressiondidn’tchange.Hiseyesremainedcalmaswater,andhesaid lightly,“Adense

formation is an unforgivableerror. Everything elsewas tobeexpected.”“Comrades,” he said,

sweeping his eyes over thefive captains and the threelayers of assembled officersand soldiers, “I call you bythat ancient title because Iwant us all to share acommon will from this dayforward. Each of you mustunderstand the realitywe arefacing,andmustenvisionthe

future that we will face.Comrades,wecan’tgoback.”Indeed,therewasnogoing

back. The droplet that haddestroyed the combined fleetwasstill in theSolarSystem,and nine others would arrivein three years. For this smallfleet, their former home wasnow a death trap. From theinformation they hadreceived, human civilizationwould totally collapse evenbefore the main Trisolaran

Fleet arrived, so Earth’sdoomsday was not far off.The five ships had to acceptthe responsibility of carryingcivilization forward, but allthey could do was to flyonward, and fly far. Thespaceships would be theirhome forever, and spacewould be their final restingplace.Together, the 5,500

crewmembers were like aninfantwhohadbeencutfrom

its cord, then cruelly tossedinto the abyss of space. Likethat infant, therewasnothingthey could do but cry. YetZhang Beihai’s calm eyeswerea strong force field thatupheld the stability of theformation and helped themmaintain theirmilitary poise.Children cast aside into theendlessnightneededa fathermost of all, and now, likeDongfangYanxu, they foundthepowerofthatfatherinthe

personofthisancientsoldier.Zhang Beihai went on.

“We will be a part ofhumanity forever, butwe arean independent society andmust rid ourselves of ourpsychological dependence onEarth. Now we need tochoose a new name for thisworldofours.”“WecomefromEarth,and

wemaybethesoleinheritorsof Earth civilization, so let’scall ourselves Starship

Earth,” Dongfang Yanxusaid.“Excellent.” Zhang Beihai

nodded approvingly, thenturned to the formation.“From now on, we are eachof us citizens of StarshipEarth.Thismomentmightbea second starting point forhumancivilization.Therearemany things we need to do,so I would ask all of you toreturntoyourpostsnow.”The two hologram

formations vanished, andNaturalSelection’s formationbegantodisperse.“Sir, shouldour four ships

rendezvous?” the captain ofDeep Space asked. Thecaptainshadnotvanished.Zhang Beihai shook his

head firmly. “That’s notnecessary. You are currentlyaroundtwohundredthousandkilometers from NaturalSelection,andalthoughthat’sclose, a rendezvous would

expend nuclear fuel. Energyis the foundation of oursurvival, andwithwhat littlewehave,wemustconserveasmuch aswe can.We are theonly humans in this part ofspace, so I understand yourdesire to gather together, buttwo hundred thousandkilometersisashortdistance.From now on, we have tothinkaboutthelongterm.”“Yes, we have to think

about the long term,”

Dongfang Yanxu repeatedsoftly,hereyesstillstaringatthe horizon as if surveyingthelongyearsaheadofthem.Zhang Beihai continued,

“A citizens’ assembly mustbe convened immediately toset down basic issues, thenthe majority of the peopleneed to be put intohibernation as soon aspossiblesothattheecologicalsystems can be operated at aminimum.… Whatever

transpires, the history ofStarshipEarthhasbegun.”Zhang Beihai’s father’s

eyes emerged from thebeyond once again, like raysfrom the edge of the cosmosthat penetrated everything.He felt the gaze, and in hisheart he said, No, Dad. Youreallycan’trest.It’snotover.It’sstartedupagain.

***

The next day, still keepingEarth time, Starship Earthconvened its first plenaryCitizens’Assembly,heldinavenue formed from thecombination of fiveholographic subvenues. Thecitizens in attendancenumbered around threethousand, and the remainderwho were unable to leavetheirpostsnetworkedin.First off, the assembly

identified an urgent matter:

the destination of StarshipEarth’s voyage. Maintainingthe current headingunchanged was passed byunanimous vote. This targetwastheoneZhangBeihaihadset for Natural Selection, aheading in the direction ofCygnus—or, more precisely,the starNH558J2,oneof theplanetary systems closest tothe Solar System. It had twoplanets, both of which weregaseous like Jupiter and not

suitable for human life, butcould provide supplementalnuclear fuel. Itnowappearedthat the choice of destinationhad been made afterconsiderablethought,becausealongadifferentheading,atadistance just 1.5 light-yearsfarther than their presentdestination,therewasanotherplanetary system which,according to observations,contained a planet whosenatural environment was

similar to Earth’s. But thatsystem had just one planet,and if it turned out to be aninhospitable world—theconditions for a hospitableworld were more exactingthan the rough observationsfrom light-years away couldreveal—then Starship Earthwould miss the chance torefuel. After reachingNH558J2 and refueling, theycould fly at even higherspeeds toward their next

target.NH558J2 was eighteen

light-years away from theSolarSystem.Attheirpresentspeed, taking into accountvarious uncertainties in thevoyage,StarshipEarthwouldreach it in two thousandyears.Two millennia. The grim

number presented anotherclear picture of the presentand the future. Even takinghibernation into account,

most of the citizens ofStarship Earth would neverlive to see their destination.Their lives would last just asmall part of the twenty-century-long voyage, andeven for their descendantswhowouldreachit,NH558J2was just a way station. Noone knew what their nextdestination would be, muchless when Starship Earthwould finally reach its true,hospitablehome.

In fact, Zhang Beihai hadbeenexceptionallyrationalinhisthinking.Heclearlyknewthat Earth’s suitability forhuman life was nocoincidence, much less aneffect of the anthropicprinciple, but rather was anoutcome of the long-terminteraction between thebiosphere and the naturalenvironment,anoutcomethatwould not likely be repeatedon another planet around

some far-flung star. Hischoice of NH558J2 impliedanotherpossibility:Perhapsahospitableworldwouldneverbefound,andthenewhumancivilization would forevervoyageonastarship.But he did not make this

ideaexplicit.Itmighttakethenext generation born onStarshipEarthtotrulybeableto accept a starshipcivilization. The presentgenerationwouldhavetolive

their lives sustained by thethought of a home on anEarth-likeplanet.The assembly also

determined Starship Earth’spoliticalstatus.Itdecidedthatthe five ships would remainpart of the human worldforever,butunderthepresentcircumstances, it wasimpossible for StarshipEarthto be politically subordinatetoEarthorthethreefleets,soit would become a totally

independentcountry.When this resolution was

transmitted back to SolarSystem,theUNandtheSFJCwere silent for quite sometimebeforereplying.Withouttakingaposition,theymerelysenttheirtacitblessing.And thus thehumanworld

was divided into threeinternationals: the ancientEarth International, the FleetInternational of the new era,and theStarshipInternational

that was voyaging into thedepths of the cosmos. Thelast group had just over fivethousand people, but itcarriedwithitallthehopeofhumancivilization.

***

At the secondmeetingof theCitizens’ Assembly, theybegandiscussing the issueofStarship Earth’s leadershipstructure.

When the meeting began,Zhang Beihai said, “I thinkit’s too early for this agendaitem.We’vegottodeterminethe shape of society onStarshipEarth beforewe candecidewhatsortofgoverningbodiesweneed.”“You mean, we need to

draft a constitution first,”DongfangYanxusaid.“At least the basic

principlesforaconstitution.”So the meeting continued

along those lines. Theinclination of the majoritywas that because StarshipEarth was a highly fragileecosystem traveling throughthe harsh environment ofspace, a disciplined societyhad to be established toguarantee a unified will tosurvive under theseconditions. Someoneproposed maintaining thepresent military system, andthe idea received majority

support.“You mean a totalitarian

society,”ZhangBeihaisaid.“Sir, there ought to be a

nicer name for it. We’remilitary,afterall,”thecaptainofBlueSpacesaid.“I don’t think it’ll work.”

ZhangBeihai shookhisheaddecisively. “Staying alive isnot enough to guaranteesurvival. Development is thebest way to ensure survival.During our voyage, we’ll

have to develop our ownscience and technology toexpand the size of our fleet.The historical facts of theMiddle Ages and the GreatRavine prove that atotalitarian system is thegreatest barrier to humanprogress. Starship Earthrequires vibrant new ideasand innovation, and this canonlybeaccomplishedthroughtheestablishmentofasocietythat fully respects freedom

andindividuality.”“Are you talking about

establishingasocietylikethemodern Earth International,sir?StarshipEarthhascertainintrinsic conditions,” a low-rankingofficersaid.“That’s right.” Dongfang

Yanxunoddedatthespeaker.“StarshipEarthmayhavefewpeople, but it possesses ahighly refined informationsystem through which anyproblem can easily be put to

discussion and vote by allcitizens.Wecanestablishthefirst truly democratic societyinhumanhistory.”“That won’t work either.”

ZhangBeihai shookhisheadagain. “Like those citizenssaid before, StarshipEarth istraveling through the harshenvironment of space, wherecatastrophes that threaten theentire world might occur atany time. Earth’s historyduring theTrisolarCrisishas

demonstratedthat,inthefaceof suchdisasters,particularlywhen our world needs tomake sacrifices in order topreserve the whole, thehumanitarian society youhave in mind is especiallyfragile.”All of those in attendance

atthemeetingglancedateachother, their eyes holding thesame question: So whatshouldwedo?Smiling, Zhang Beihai

said, “I’m thinking toosimply.There’sneverbeenananswer to this questionthroughouthumanhistory,sohow can we solve it in onemeeting? It will, I think,require a long process ofpractice and explorationbeforewecan find the socialmodel most suitable forStarship Earth. After themeeting, discussions shouldbeopenedupon the issue.…Please forgive me for

disrupting the meeting’sagenda. We should continuewiththeoriginaltopic.”DongfangYanxuhadnever

seenZhangBeihai smile likethat. He rarely smiled, andwhen he occasionally did, itwas confident and forgiving.But this smile had shown anapologetic shyness that shehad never seen before. Eventhough interrupting themeetingwasn’tabigdeal,hewasamanwithanespecially

discreet mind, and this wasthefirsttimehehadputforthan opinion only to retract it.She noticed his distraction.Hehadn’t takennotesduringthis meeting, unlike thecarefulrecordinghehaddoneat the previous one. He wasthe only one on board whostill used an ancient pen andpaper, and it had become anemblemforhim.Sowhatwasoccupyinghis

thoughtsnow?

Themeetingturnedtowardthe matter of governingbodies.Thecitizenstendedtofeel that conditions were notyet right for holdingelections, so the ships’present chains of commandshould not be changed.Captains would lead theirrespective ships, and aStarship Earth AuthorityCommittee formed from thefive of them would discussand decide upon major

affairs. Zhang Beihai wasunanimously elected as chairof the committee, to serve assupreme commander ofStarshipEarth.Theresolutionwas put to the entireassembly, and passed with100percentofthevotes.But he refused the

appointment.“Sir, it’s your

responsibility,”thecaptainofDeepSpacesaid.“OnStarshipEarth,you’re

theonlyonewiththeprestigeto command all the ships,”DongfangYanxusaid.“I feel I’ve fulfilled my

responsibility. I’m tired, andI’ve reached retirement age,”ZhangBeihaisaidsoftly.When the meeting

adjourned, Zhang BeihaicalledforDongfangYanxutostay behind. Once everyonehad left, he said, “Dongfang,Iwanttorecovermypositionas acting captain of Natural

Selection.”“Actingcaptain?”Sheeyed

himinsurprise.“Yes.Giveme operational

permissions over the shipagain.”“Sir, I can hand over the

captain’s chair of NaturalSelection to you. I mean it.AndtheAuthorityCommitteeand the body of citizenscertainlywon’topposeit.”He shook his head with a

smile.“No,you’llstillbethe

captain, with a captain’s fullpower to command. Pleasetrust me. I won’t interferewithyourworkatall.”“Thenwhydoyouwantan

actingcaptain’sprivileges?Isthereaneedfortheminyourpresentposition?”“I just like the ship. It’s

beenadreamofoursfor twocenturies.DoyouknowwhatI’ve done for this ship to behereforustoday?”Whenhelookedather,the

stony hardness that had beenin his eyes was gone,revealing a tired emptinessandadeep sorrow thatmadehim look like a differentperson.Hewasnolongerthecalm, grim survivor whothought deeply and acteddecisively, but rather a manbentwith theweightof time.Looking at him, she felt aconcern and compassion shehadneverfeltbefore.“Sir, don’t think about

those things. Historians havea fair evaluation of youractions in the twenty-firstcentury:Choosingresearchinradiation propulsion was akeystepintherightdirectionfor humanity’s spacetechnology. Perhaps at thetime, it … it was the onlychoice, just like escape wasthe only choice for NaturalSelection. Besides, accordingtomodern law, the statute oflimitationsranoutlongago.”

“But I can’t get rid of thecross I bear. You can’tunderstand.…Ihavefeelingsfor this ship, more feelingsthanyou.Ifeellikeit’sapartofme. I can’t leave it. Also,I’vegottohavesomethingtodo in the future. Havingthings to do puts my mindmoreatease.”Then he turned and left, a

tired figure floating away,turningintoasmallblackdotwithin the huge white

spherical space. DongfangYanxu watched until hedisappeared into thewhiteness, and a lonelinessshe had never felt beforesurged in from all sides andovercameher.

***

In future Citizens’ Assemblymeetings, the people ofStarship Earth immersedthemselves in the passion of

creating a new world. Theyheld lively debates on theconstitution and socialstructureoftheworld,draftedvariouslaws,andplannedthefirst election.… There was athorough exchange of viewsbetween officers and soldiersofdifferentranks,andamongthe different ships. Peopleacknowledged theirprospectsand looked forward toStarshipEarthformingacorethat would snowball into a

future civilization,continually increasing in sizeas the fleet reached starsystem after star system. Anincreasing number of peoplebegancallingStarshipEartha“second Eden,” a secondpoint of origin for humancivilization.Butthisstateofwonderdid

not last very long, becauseStarship Earth truly was aGardenofEden.As Natural Selection’s

chiefpsychologist,LieutenantColonel Lan Xi headed theSecond Civilian ServiceDepartment, an agency ofmilitary officers trained inpsychology that wasresponsible for psychologicalhealthontheshipduringlongspace voyages and in battle.WhenSpaceshipEarthbeganits journey of no return, LanXiandhis subordinateswenton alert, like warriors facingan attack from a powerful

enemy. The plans they hadrehearsed on many previousoccasions had prepared themfor a wide range of possiblepsychologicalcrises.They agreed that the

biggest enemy was noneother than “Problem N”:nostalgia, or homesickness.This was, after all, the firsttime that humankind hadembarked on an endlessvoyage,soProblemNhadthepotential to cause a mass

psychological disaster. LanXicommandedCSD2totakeevery necessary precaution,including establishingdedicated channels forcommunicating with Earthand the three fleets. Thisenabledeveryoneonboardtomaintain constant contactwith their family and friendsonEarthandinthefleet,andallowed them to watch mostof the news and otherprogramming from the two

Internationals. AlthoughStarship Earth was seventyAU away from the sun,meaning that signals weredelayed nine hours, thequality of communicationwithEarthand thefleetswasexcellent.In addition to conducting

active psychologicalcounseling and adjustmentswhen signs of Problem Ncropped up, CSD2psychological officers also

preparedanextrememeansofresponding to a large-scalemass psychological disaster:quarantining an out-of-controlcrowdinhibernation.Subsequent events

demonstrated that theseconcerns were superfluous.While Problem N waswidespreadonStarshipEarth,itwasfarfromoutofcontrol,and did not even reach thelevel of previous, ordinarylong-range voyages. Lan Xi

was confused by this at first,but he soon found a reason:After the destruction ofhumanity’s main fleet, Earthhad lost all hope. Eventhough the ultimatedoomsday was still twocenturies away (using themostoptimisticestimate), thenews from Earth informedthem that theworld, plungedintochaosbytheheavyblowofthegreatdefeat,wasfullofthe stench of death. For

Starship Earth, there wasnothingontheEarthorintheSolarSystemtoprovidethemwith sustenance. Nostalgiafor a home like that waslimited.However, an enemy

nevertheless appeared, onethat was more ominous thanProblemN. By the time thatLanXiandCSD2realizedit,their position had alreadybeenovercome.Lan Xi knew from his

experiencethatonlongspacevoyagesProblemNtendedtocrop up in soldiers and low-rankingofficersfirst,becausetheir jobsand responsibilitiescommanded less of theirattention compared to high-ranking officers, and theirmental conditioning wascomparativelypoor.SoCSD2turned its attention to thelower levels from the start,buttheshadowfirstfellupontheupperlevels.

Around that time, Lan Xinoticed something peculiar.ThefirstelectionforStarshipEarth’sgoverningbodieswasabout to take place, anelectionthatwouldbeopentothe entire population,meaning that most of thesenior commanders werefacingatransitionfrombeingmilitary officers to beinggovernment officials. Theirpositions would bereshuffled,andmanyofthem

would be replaced by lower-ranking competitors. Lan Xiwassurprisedtolearnthatnoone in Natural Selection’ssenior command was overlyconcerned about the electionthatwoulddetermine therestof their lives. He saw nosenior officers engaging ineven the least bit ofcampaigning, and when hementioned the election, noneof themwasat all interested.He couldn’t help but recall

Zhang Beihai’sabsentmindedness during thesecond Citizens’ Assemblymeeting.Then he began to see

symptoms of psychologicalimbalance among officersabove the rank of lieutenantcolonel.Mostofthemstartedto become increasinglyintroverted, spending longperiods alone with theirthoughtsandsharplyreducingtheirsocialinteractions.They

spoke less and less atmeetings, sometimeschoosing to becomecompletely silent. Lan Xinoticed that the light haddisappeared from their eyes,and their expressions hadturnedgloomy.Theycouldn’tlook anyone in the eye forfear that others would noticethe fog in theirs.When theyoccasionally met someone’sgaze, theywouldbreakawayimmediately like they had

been shocked.… The highertherank,themoreseriousthesymptoms. And there weresigns that it was spreadingthroughthelowerranks,too.There was no way for

psychological counseling toproceed.Everyonestubbornlyrefused to talk to thepsychological officers, soCSD2 was compelled toexercise its special power toconduct mandatorycounseling. Still, most of

theirsubjectsremainedsilent.Lan Xi decided that he

neededtotalktothesupremecommander, so he went toDongfang Yanxu. AlthoughZhang Beihai had once heldsupreme prestige and statusonNatural Selection and thewhole of Starship Earth, hehad rejected it all,withdrawing from the raceand insisting he was anordinary person. The onlyduties he had retained were

those of acting captain:transmitting the captain’sorders to the ship’s controlsystem.The remainderofhistime he spent wanderingNatural Selection, learningaboutthespecificsoftheshipfrom officers and soldiers atall ranks and showing aconstant affection for thespaceark.Apartfromthis,heremained calm andindifferent, practicallyunaffectedbytheship’smass

psychological shadow. Hewasnodoubttryingtoremainaloof, but Lan Xi knew ofanother important reason forhis immunity: The ancientswere not as sensitive asmoderns, and in the presentcircumstances, numbnessserved an excellent self-protectivefunction.“Captain,yououghttogive

us some indication ofwhat’shappening,”hesaid.“Lieutenant Colonel, you

oughttobetheonegivingusanindication.”“Do you mean that you

don’t know anything aboutyourpresentstate?”An infinite sadness welled

up in her dull eyes. “I onlyknow that we’re the firsthumans who have gone intospace.”“Whatdoyoumean?”“This is the first time

humanity has really gone tospace.”

“Oh.Iseewhatyoumean.Before, no matter how farhumans traveled into space,theywerestilljustakitesentaloft by Earth. They wereconnected to Earth by aspiritual line. Now that linehasbeensevered.”“That’s right. The line is

severed.Theessentialchangeis not that the line has beenlet go, but that the hand hasdisappeared. The Earth isheadingtowarddoomsday.In

fact,she’salreadydeadinourminds.Ourfivespacecraftarenot connected to any world.There is nothing around usapart from the abyss ofspace.”“Indeed. Humanity has

never faced a psychologicalenvironmentlikethisbefore.”“Yes. In this environment,

the human spirit will befundamentally changed.People will become—” Shesuddenly broke off, and the

sadness inhereyesvanished,leaving only gloom, like acloud-covered sky after therainhasstopped.“You mean that in this

environment, people willbecomenewpeople?”“New people? No,

Lieutenant Colonel. Peoplewillbecome…non-people.”At that last word, Lan Xi

shuddered. He looked up atDongfang Yanxu, and shemethisgaze.Intheblankness

of her eyes, all he sawweretightlyclosedwindowstohersoul.“What I mean is that we

won’t be people in the oldsense.… Lieutenant Colonel,that’s all I can say. Just doyourbest.And…”Thewordsthatfollowedseemedlikeshewastalkinginhersleep.“It’llbeyourturnsoon.”The situation continued to

deteriorate.ThedayafterLanXi’s talk with Dongfang

Yanxu, there was a viciousinjury on Natural Selection.A lieutenantcolonelwith theship’s navigational systemfired upon another officerbunkingwithhim.Accordingto the victim’s recollection,the officer had awakenedsuddenlyinthemiddleofthenight and, noticing that thevictim was also awake, hadaccused him ofeavesdroppingonhimtalkingin his sleep. In the struggle,

hisemotionshadgottenawayfromhimandhehadfiredthegun.LanXiwentatoncetosee

the detained lieutenantcolonel. “What were youafraidofhimhearingyousayinyoursleep?”heasked.“Youmeanhereallyheard

it?” the attacker asked interror.Lan Xi shook his head.

“He said that you didn’t sayanything.”

“So what if I did saysomething? You can’t takesleep talk for the truth! Myminddoesn’treallythinkthat.SurelyI’mnotgoingtogotohell for something I said inmysleep!”In the end, Lan Xi was

unable to draw out what theattacker imagined he said inhissleep,soheaskedwhetherhe minded going underhypnotherapy. Unexpectedly,the attacker once again blew

upat thissuggestion, lungingatLanXiandstranglinghimuntil the military policefinallycameinandpriedhimoff.Leavingthebrig,oneMPwho had overheard theconversation said to Lan Xi,“Lieutenant Colonel, don’tmention hypnotherapy againunless CSD2 wants tobecome themost hated placeon the ship. You wouldn’tlastverylong.”So Lan Xi had to contact

ColonelScott, apsychologistaboardEnterprise. Scott alsoservedas theship’schaplain,a position most ships in theAsian Fleet did not have.Enterpriseandtheotherthreeships in the pursuing forcewere still two hundredthousandkilometersaway.“Why is it so dark over

there?” Lan Xi asked as helookedat thevideosentoverfrom Enterprise. The curvedwalls of the cabin Scott was

inhadbeenadjusted toglowa faint yellow, and theydisplayed an image of thestars outside, making it lookas ifhewas insidea fogged-over cosmos. His face wasshroudedinshadow,butevenso, Lan Xi could still senseScott’s eyes slipping quicklyawayfromhisgaze.“The Garden of Eden is

growingdark.Blacknesswillswallow everything,” Scottsaidinawearyvoice.

Lan Xi had consulted himbecause, as chaplain ofEnterprise, he would likelyhave had people confide thetruth in him duringconfession, and he might beable to pass on some advice.But at these words, andnoticing how the colonel’seyes loomed in the shadows,Lan Xi knew that he wouldcomeupwithnothing.Sohesuppressed the question hewas about to ask and turned

toanother,one that surprisedevenhim:“Willwhathappenedinthe

first Garden of Eden berepeatedinthesecond?”“Idon’tknow.Atanyrate,

thevipershavecomeout.Thesnakes of the secondGardenof Eden are even nowclimbinguppeople’ssouls.”“You mean, you’ve eaten

thefruitofknowledge?”Scott slowlynodded.Then

he bowed his head, but did

notraiseitagain,asifhewastrying to hide the eyes thatwould betray him. “Youcouldsaythat.”“Who will be expelled

from the Garden of Eden?”LanXi’svoicequavered,anda cold sweat was on hispalms.“Many people. But unlike

the first time, this time somepeoplemightremain.”“Who?Whowillremain?”Scott gave a long sigh.

“LieutenantColonelLan,I’vesaid enough.Why don’t youseek the fruit of knowledgefor yourself? Everyone’s gotto take that step, after all.Isn’tthatright?”“WhereshouldIseekit?”“Set down yourwork, and

thinkaboutit.Feelmore,andyou’llfindit.”After speaking with Scott,

LanXi halted his busyworkamid chaotic feelings, andstopped to think, as the

colonel had advised. Fasterthanhehadimagined,Eden’scold, slippery vipers crawledinto his consciousness. Hefound the fruit of knowledgeandateit,andthelastraysofsunshine in his souldisappeared forever aseverything plunged intodarkness.On Starship Earth, an

invisible, taut string wasbeing pulled close tosnapping.

Twodayslater,thecaptainof Ultimate Law committedsuicide.Hehadbeenstandingon the aft platform at thetime,aplatformenclosedinatransparentdomethatmadeitseem exposed to space. Thestern of the ship faced theSolar System, where the sunwas by now no more than ayellowstar justabitbrighterthan the rest. The peripheralspiral armof theMilkyWaylay in this direction, its stars

sparse. The depth andexpanse of deep spaceexhibited an arrogance thatleft no support for the mindortheeyes.“Dark. It’s so fucking

dark,” thecaptainmurmured,andthenshothimself.

***

When Dongfang Yanxulearned that the captain ofUltimateLaw had committed

suicide, she had thepremonitionthattimewasup,so she convened anemergency meeting with thetwovice-captainsinthelargesphericalfighterhangar.In the corridor on theway

to the hangar, she heardsomeone behind her call hername.ItwasZhangBeihai.Inhergloomystateofmind,shehad practically forgottenabouthimforthepastcoupleofdays.Helookedherupand

down, his eyes full of afatherlyconcernthatgaveheran undreamed-of sense ofcomfort, for it was hard tofind a pair of eyeswithout ashadow on Starship Earththesedays.“Dongfang, I don’t think

you’ve been right lately. Idon’t know the reason, butyou seem to be hidingsomething. What’s goingon?”She didn’t answer his

question, but instead asked,“Sir, how have you beenlately?”“Well. Very well. I’ve

been touring all over theplace and studying. I’mfamiliarizing myself withNatural Selection’s weaponssystem. Of course, I’m onlyscratchingthesurface,butit’sfascinating. Imagine howColumbuswouldfeelvisitingan aircraft carrier. I’m thesameway.”

Seeing how calm andrelaxed he was now,Dongfang Yanxu felt a littlejealous. Yes, he hadcompletedhisgreat endeavorand had the right to enjoytranquility. The history-makinggreatmanhadturnedback into an ignoranthibernator. All he needednowwasprotection.Withthatinmind, she said, “Sir, don’task anyone else about thequestion you just asked.

Don’taskaboutanyofthis.”“Why? Why shouldn’t I

ask?”“It’s dangerous to ask.

Besides, you really don’tneedtoknow.Believeme.”He nodded. “Very well. I

won’t ask. Thank you fortreating me like an ordinaryperson. That’s all I’ve beenhopingfor.”She said a hurried good-

bye,butasshewentherownway, she heard the voice of

the founderofStarshipEarthbehind her: “Dongfang, nomatter what happens, letthings go as they will.Everythingwillbeokay.”She saw the two vice-

captains in the center of thesphericalhall.Shehadchosentomeetthemherebecausethesize of the hall made it feellike they were in thewilderness.Thethreeofthemfloated at the center of aworldofpurewhite,asif the

whole universe was emptyexcept for them. It lent asense of security to theirconversation.Each of them looked in a

differentdirection.“We have to make things

clear,”shesaid.“Yes. Every second we

delay is dangerous,” Vice-CaptainLevinesaid.Thenheand Akira Inoue turnedaround to face DongfangYanxu. His meaning was

clear: You are the captain,youspeakfirst.But she didn’t have the

courage.Whatever happened now,

attheseconddawnofhumancivilization, might be thefoundationofanewHomericepicoraBible.Judasbecamewho he was because he wasthefirsttokissJesus,andthatmade him fundamentallydifferentfromthesecondoneto kiss him. It was the same

now.Thefirsttospeakwouldmark a milestone in thehistory of the secondcivilization.Perhapsheorshewould become Judas, orperhaps Jesus, but whateverthe possibility, DongfangYanxu did not have thatcourage.But she had to undertake

herownmission,soshemadea smart choice. She did notavoid the gaze of her vice-captains. Language was not

necessary now. Allcommunication could beaccomplished through theeyes. As they stared at eachother,theirinterlockinggazeswere like informationconduits linking their threesouls together andcommunicating everything athighspeed.Fuel.Fuel.Fuel.The route is still unclear,

but at least two clouds ofinterstellar dust have beenfound.Drag.Of course. After passing

through them, the spaceshipswill drop to 0.03 percent ofthespeedoflightduetodragfromthedust.We’re still more than ten

light-years away fromNH558J2. We’ll need sixtythousandyearstogetthere.Thenwe’llneverarrive.

The ships may arrive, butthelifeonboardwon’t.Evenhibernation can’t besustainedforthatlong.Unless…Unlessspeedismaintained

through the dust clouds, orweaccelerateafterward.Fuelisinsufficient.Fusion fuel is the only

sourceofenergyaboardship,and it needs to be used inother areas: environmentalsystems, possible course

corrections.…And for deceleration once

the target system is reached.NH558J2 is much smallerthan the sun. We can’tachieve orbit relying solelyon gravity for deceleration.We’ll have to expend largequantities of fuel, or elsewe’ll fly by the target starsystem.All of the fuel on Starship

Earth isbasicallyenough fortwospacecraft.

But, if we’re careful, it’senoughforjustone.Fuel.Fuel.Fuel.“Andthenthere’stheissue

of parts,” Dongfang Yanxusaid.Parts.Parts.Parts.Particularly parts for

critical systems: fusionengines, information and

control systems,environmentalsystems.Itmaynotbeasurgentas

fuel,butit’sthefoundationoflong-term survival. NH55J82doesn’t have a hospitableplanet for settlement orestablishment of industry, oreven the necessary resourcesto do so. It’s just a place torefuel before heading to thenext system, where industrycanbeestablishedtoproduceparts.

Natural Selectionhas onlytwo levels of redundancy forkeyparts.Toofew.Toofew.Apart from the fusion

engines,mostofthekeypartson Starship Earth areinteroperable.Engine parts can be used

aftermodification.“Can all personnel be

gathered onto one or twoships?”DongfangYanxusaid

aloud,buthervoicewasonlymeant to guide the directionoftheireyecommunication.Impossible.Impossible.Impossible. There are too

many people. Environmentalandhibernationsystemscan’taccommodate them all. Ifpresent capacity is boostedeven a little, it will bedisastrous.“So, is it clear now?”

Dongfang Yanxu’s voice

resoundedintheemptywhitespace like the mutterings ofsomeonedeeplyasleep.Clear.Clear.Some people must die, or

everyonewilldie.Thentheireyeswentsilent.

The three of them felt anintensedesiretoturnaway,asifshakenbythunderfromthedepths of the universe thatmade their souls quake interror. Dongfang Yanxu was

the first to stabilize her owngaze.“Stopit,”shesaid.Stopit.Don’tgiveup.Don’tgiveup?Don’tgiveup!Becauseno

one else has given up. If wegive up, then we’ll beexpelled from the Garden ofEden.Whyus?Of course, it shouldn’t be

them,either.

But someone has to beexpelled.TheGardenofEdenhasalimitedcapacity.Wedon’twanttoleavethe

garden.Sowecan’tgiveup!Three pairs of eyes, so

close to breaking apart,lockedtogetheragain.InfrasonicH-bomb.InfrasonicH-bomb.InfrasonicH-bomb.Everyshipisequippedwith

them.

It’shard todefendagainstastealthlaunch.Their gazes separated

temporarily as their mindswere pushed to the brink ofcollapse. They needed rest.When the three pairs of eyesmet once again, they wereuncertain and erratic, likecandles flickering in thewind.Evil!Evil!Evil!

We’llbecomedevils!We’llbecomedevils!We’llbecomedevils!“But … what are they

thinking?” Dongfang Yanxuaskedsoftly.Tothetwovice-captains, her voice, whilesoft, seemed to lingeruninterrupted in the whitespace, like the buzz of amosquito.Yes. We don’t want to

becomedevils,butwhoknowswhatthey’rethinking.

Thenwe’re already devils,orhowelsecouldwethinkofthemasdevilsunprovoked?Very well, then we won’t

thinkofthemasdevils.“That won’t solve the

problem,” Dongfang Yanxusaid with a gentle shake ofherhead.Yes. Even if they aren’t

devils,theproblemremains.Because they don’t know

whatwe’rethinking.Suppose they know that

we’renotdevils?Theproblemstillexists.They don’t know what

we’rethinkingaboutthem.They don’t know what

we’re thinking about whatthey’rethinkingaboutus.That carries on in an

endless chain of suspicion:They don’t know what we’rethinking about what they’rethinking about what we’rethinking about what they’rethinkingaboutwhatwe’re…

How can this chain ofsuspicionbebroken?Communication?OnEarth,perhaps.Butnot

in space. Some people mustdie,oreveryonewilldie.Thisis the unwinnable dead handthat space has dealt for thesurvivalofStarshipEarth.Aninsurmountable wall. In thefaceofit,communicationhasnomeaning.Onlyonechoiceisleft.The

question is who makes that

choice.Dark.It’ssofuckingdark.“We can’t delay any

longer,” Dongfang Yanxusaiddecisively.No more delays. In this

dark region of space, theduelists are holding theirbreath.Thestringisabouttosnap.Every second, the danger

growsexponentially.Since it’s all the same no

matter who pulls it, why not

pullitourselves?ThenAkiraInouesuddenly

broke the silence: “There’sanotherchoice!”Wesacrificeourselves.Why?Whyus?The three of us could, but

do we have the authority tomakethischoiceonbehalfofthe two thousand people onNaturalSelection?The three of them were

standing on a knife blade.

Though itscutswerepainful,a jump off either side wouldbe into a bottomless abyss.These were the labor painsforthebirthofthenewspacehumans.“How about this?” Levine

said.“Firstlockinthetargets,and then think it over somemore.”Dongfang Yanxu nodded.

Levine called up a controlinterface for the weaponssystem in the air and opened

up the window for theinfrasonic H-bombs andcarrier missiles. On aspherical coordinate systemwithNatural Selection at theorigin, Blue Space,Enterprise, Deep Space, andUltimateLawweredisplayedas four points of light twohundred thousand kilometersaway. The distance maskedthe structure of the targets,for at the scale of space,everythingwasjustapoint.

Butthefourpointsoflightwere ringed with four redhalos, four deathly noosesindicating that the weaponssystemhadalreadylockedonthetargets.Stunned, the threeof them

looked at each other andshook their heads to say thatitwasn’ttheirdoing.Apart from them,

privileges to place a targetlock in the weapons systemwere also held by the arms

control and target screeningofficers, but their lockplacement had to beauthorized by the captain orvice-captain. That left justone other person with directprivilegestolockatargetandlaunchanattack.We’re idiots. He’s only

someone who’s changedhistorytwice!Herealizedallofthisfirst!Who knows when he

realized it? Maybe when

Starship Earth was founded,or even earlier, when helearned that the combinedfleet had been destroyed. Heisthelasttoshowworry.Liketheparentsofhisera,alwayskeeping their children inmind.Dongfang Yanxu flew

across the spherical hall asfast as she could, followedclosely by the two vice-captains. They went out thedoor and down that long

corridor until they arrived atthe door to Zhang Beihai’scabin. Suspended in front ofhimwasaninterfaceidenticaltotheonetheyhadjustseen.They rushed forward,but thescene from NaturalSelection’s escape replayeditself: They crashed into thebulkhead.Therewasnodoor,just an oval-shaped areawhere the bulkhead wastransparent.“What are you doing?”

Levineshouted.“Children,” Zhang Beihai

said, the first time he hadaddressed them this way.Even though his back wasturned, they could imaginethathiseyeswereascalmaswater.“Letmedothis.”“Youmean, ‘If I don’t go

to hell, who will?’24 Is thatit?”DongfangYanxu said inaloudvoice.“From the moment I

became a soldier, I was

prepared to go there ifnecessary,” he said,continuingwiththeweapons’prelaunch operations. Fromoutside,thethreeofthemsawthatwhilehewasn’tskilledatthese operations, every stephetookwascorrect.Tears welled up in

DongfangYanxu’s eyes, andshecried, “Let’sgo together.Letmein.I’llgotohellwithyou!”He made no answer, but

continued his manipulations.Hesettheguidedmissilesformanual self-destruct so thatthey could be detonated bythe mother ship while inflight.Onlyafterfinishingthelast step did he say,“Dongfang, think. Could wehave made this choicebefore? Absolutely not. Butnowwecanmakeit,becausespacehas turnedus intonewhumans.”Hesetthemissiles’warheads to explode at a

distance of fifty kilometersfromeach target.Thiswouldavoidcausing the targetsanyinternal damage, but an evengreaterdistancewouldstillbewithinthefatalrangeforanylife aboard the targets. “Thebirth of a new civilization isthe formation of a newmorality.” He removed thefirst safety lock on the H-bombwarheads. “When theylook back in the future oneverything we’ve done, it

may seem entirely normal.So, we won’t go to hell,children.” The second safetylockwasremoved.Suddenly, the alert

sounded throughout the shiplike the crying of tenthousand ghosts in thedarkness of space. Displayinterfaces popped up inmidair like snowflakes,showing a huge quantity ofinformation that NaturalSelection’s defense systems

had received about theincomingmissiles,butnoonehadtimetoreadit.There was a space of just

four seconds from thesounding of the alert to thedetonation of the infrasonicH-bombs.Images transmittedback to

Earth fromNatural Selectionshowed that Zhang Beihaimay have understood all ofthis in just one second. Hehad imagined that his heart

had grown as hard as ironthrough the arduousprocession of more than twocenturies, but he hadoverlookedsomethinghiddeninthedeepestpartofhissoul,and had hesitated beforemakingthefinaldecision.Hetriedtorestrainthetremblingof his heart, and it was thatlast moment’s softness thatkilled him and everyone onboard Natural Selection.Afterthemonth-longface-off

inthedarkness,hewasjustafew seconds slower than theothershipwas.Threesmallsuns litup the

blackness of space, formingan equilateral triangle withNatural Selection at thecenter,atanaveragedistanceof forty kilometers. Thefusion fireball lasted fortwenty seconds and sparkledwith infrasonic frequenciesthat were invisible to thenakedeye.

The returned imagesshowed that in the threesecondsthatremained,ZhangBeihai turned to DongfangYanxu, flashed her a smile,andspoke:“Itdoesn’tmatter.It’sallthesame.”Theexactwordswereonly

a guess, because he didn’thave time to finish before apowerful electromagneticpulse arrived from threedirections, vibrating NaturalSelection’s enormous hull

like a cicada’s wings. Theenergy in these vibrationswas converted to infrasonicwaves, which, in the image,looked like a fog of bloodthatenvelopedeverything.The attack had come from

Ultimate Law, which hadfired twelve cloakedmissilesarmed with infrasonic H-bombsatthefourotherships.The three missiles fired atNaturalSelection,whichwastwo hundred thousand

kilometers away, had beenlaunchedbeforetheotherssothattheonesfiredatitsthreeneighboring ships wouldreach their detonation pointsat the same time. A vice-captain had taken over afterthesuicideofUltimateLaw’scaptain, but it was unknownwho ultimately made thedecision to launch theattack.And it would never beknown.Ultimate Law was not one

of the lucky ones remainingin theGarden ofEden at theend.Ofthethreeotherpursuing

ships, Blue Space had beenthe best prepared againstunexpected incidents. Beforeitwas attacked, it had turneditsinteriorintoavacuumandput all personnel in spacesuits. Because infrasonicwaves were impossible in avacuum, no personnel wereinjured, and the body of the

ship suffered only minimaldamage from theelectromagneticpulse.Right after the nuclear

fireballs exploded, BlueSpacebeganitscounterattackwith lasers, the fastestresponse possible. It lit upUltimate Law with fivegamma-ray laser beams andburned five huge holes in itshull. Its insides quicklycaught fire and there wereminorexplosions,causingthe

ship to lose all combatcapability. Harsher attacksfrom Blue Space followed,and under continuous attackbynuclearmissilesandarainof railgun fire,Ultimate Lawexploded violently, leavingnosurvivors.Atalmostthesametimeas

Starship Earth’s Battle ofDarkness was going on, asimilar tragedy was takingplace faron theother sideoftheSolarSystem.BronzeAge

launched a sudden strike onQuantum, using the sameinfrasonicH-bombstokilloffall life inside its target, butpreserving the target shipwhole.Becausethetwoshipshad sent only minimalinformationbacktoEarth,noone knew exactly what hadtaken place between them.They had both gone intointenseaccelerationtoescapefrom the probe attack, butthey had not decelerated like

Natural Selection’s pursuershad, so their remaining fueloughttohavebeenmorethanenoughtoreturntoEarth.Theboundlessnessofspace

nurturedadarknewhumanityinitsdarkembrace.In the expanding metal

cloud formed from theexplosion of Ultimate Law,Blue Space rendezvousedwith Enterprise and DeepSpace, neither of whichshowed signs of life, and

collected all of their fusionfuel. After stripping them oftheir hardware, Blue Spaceflew the two hundredthousand kilometers toNaturalSelectionanddid thesame to that ship. StarshipEarthwas likeaconstructionsiteinspacenow,themassivehulls of the three dead shipsdottedwiththesparksoflaserwelding.IfZhangBeihaihadstill been alive, the scenewould certainly have

reminded him of the aircraftcarrier Tang two centuriesbefore.Blue Space took pieces of

the three derelict warshipsand set them up in aStonehenge formation,forming a tomb in outerspace. There, they held afuneral for all the victims oftheBattleofDarkness.Wearing space suits, the

1,273 crewmembers ofBlueSpaceassembledinafloating

formationat thecenterof thetomb. These were theremainingcitizensofStarshipEarth. Around them, hugepieces of spaceships toweredlike a ring ofmountains, thegashes cut into thewreckagelike enormous mountaincaves. The bodies of 4,247victims remained within thisdebris,whichcastitsshadowsoverallofthelivingasiftheywere a mountain valley atmidnight.Theonly lightwas

the icinessof theMilkyWaywhere it shone through thegapsbetweenthewreckage.Moods remained calm

during the funeral. The newspace humans had passedthroughtheirinfancy.A small votive lamp was

lit. It was a fifty-watt bulbwith a hundred spare bulbsnext to it that would beautomatically substituted inthelamp.Poweredbyasmallnuclear battery, the votary

lamp could remaincontinuously lit for tens ofthousands of years. Its dimlightwas likeacandle in themountain valley, casting asmallhaloontoahighcliffofthe wreckage and shining ona piece of titanium bulkheadengraved with the names ofthe victims. There was noepitaph.One hour later, the space

tomb was illuminated onefinaltimebythelightofBlue

Space’s acceleration. Thetomb was traveling at 1percent of the speed of light.In several hundred years itwould decelerate to 0.03percent of light speed due tothedragfrominterstellardustclouds. It would still reachNH558J2 in sixty thousandyears, butBlue Space wouldalready have headed offtoward its next star systemmore than fifty thousandyearsbeforethat.

Blue Space traveled deepinto space carrying plenty offusion fuel and an eight-foldredundant supply of criticalparts. There was so muchmaterial it was impossible tofit it all inside the craft, soseveral external storagecompartments were attachedto the hull, completelyalteringtheship’sappearanceand turning it into anenormous, ugly, irregularbody.Indeed,itlookedlikea

traveleronalongjourney.The previous year, on the

opposite side of the SolarSystem, Bronze Age hadaccelerated away from theruins of Quantum in thedirectionofTaurus.Blue Space and Quantum

had come from a world oflight, but they had becometwoshipsofdarkness.The universe had once

been bright, too. For a shorttime after the big bang, all

matter existed in the formoflight, and only after theuniverse turned to burnt ashdid heavier elementsprecipitateoutofthedarknessand form planets and life.Darkness was the mother oflifeandofcivilization.On Earth, an avalanche of

curses and abuse rolled outintospacetowardBlueSpaceandBronze Age, but the twoshipsmadenoreply.Theycutoff all contactwith theSolar

System, for to those twoworlds,theEarthwasalreadydead.Thetwodarkshipsbecame

one with the darkness,separatedbytheSolarSystemand drifting further apart.Carrying with them theentirety of human thoughtsandmemories,andembracingall of the Earth’s glory anddreams, they quietlydisappeared into the eternalnight.

***

“Iknewit!”That was the first thing

Luo Ji said upon learningabout the Battle of Darknessthat had taken place at theedges of the Solar System.LeavingbehindabaffledShiQiang,heranoutoftheroomand raced through theneighborhood until he stoodfacing the northern Chinadesert.

“Iwas right! Iwas right!”heshoutedatthesky.It was late at night, and,

perhaps because of the rainthat had just fallen,atmospheric visibility wasexcellent. The stars werevisible,althoughtheyweren’tnearly as clear as in thetwenty-firstcentury,andtheywere far sparser than before,sinceonlythebrightestcouldbe seen. Yet he still swelledwith that feeling he had on

that cold night on the frozenlaketwocenturiesago:LuoJithe ordinary person haddisappeared,andhebecameaWallfaceronceagain.“Da Shi, I have in my

hands the key to humanvictory!” he said to ShiQiang, who had followedafterhim.ShiQianglaughed.“Oh?”Shi Qiang’s slightly

mockinglaughterdashedLuoJi’s excitement. “I knew you

wouldn’tbelieveme.”“So what will you do

now?”ShiQiangasked.Luo Ji sat down on the

sand, and his mood crashedrapidly.“WhatshouldIdo?Itlooks like there’s nothing Icando.”“You could at least find a

waytoreportitupstairs.”“Idon’tknowifthatwould

work, but I’ll give it a try.Even if it’s just to fulfillmyresponsibility.”

“How high up will yougo?”“The highest. The UN

secretarygeneral.OrthechairoftheSFJC.”“That won’t be easy, I’m

afraid. We’re just ordinarypeople now.… Still, you’vegottotry.Youcan,uh,gotothe city government first.Findthemayor.”“Very well. I’ll go to the

city,then.”Hestoodup.“I’llgowithyou.”

“No,I’llgoalone.”“Evenatthisrank,I’mstill

anofficial.I’llhaveaneasiertimemeetingthemayor.”LuoJilookedupatthesky

and asked, “When does thedropletreachEarth?”“The news said it’ll arrive

intenortwentyhours.”“Do you know what it’s

coming to do? Its missionwasn’t to destroy thecombinedfleet.Norwasittoattack the Earth. It’s here to

kill me. I don’t want you tobewithmewhenitdoes.”Shi Qiang laughed the

same mocking laugh again.“There’sstilltenhours,right?By that time, I’ll just stayfartherawayfromyou.”LuoJishookhisheadwith

a wry smile. “You’re nottakingmeseriouslyatall.Sowhy do you want to helpme?”“Myboy,it’suptothetop

whether they believe you or

not.Ialwaysplaythingssafe.Ifyouwereselectedfromoutof billions of people twocenturies ago, there’s got tobe a reason, right? If I delayyou here, then won’t I becondemned by the ages? Ifthehigher-upsdon’ttakeyouseriously, I won’t have lostanything. It’s just a trip intothe city. But there’s onething:You say that the thingthat’s flying toward Earth iscoming to kill you. I don’t

believe that at all. I’m wellacquainted with killing, andthat’s excessive, even forTrisolarans.”They reached the passage

from the old city to theundergroundcity in theearlyhours of morning and sawthattheelevatorsgoingdownwere still functioningnormally.Lotsofpeoplewerecoming out carrying largequantities of luggage. Fewwere going down, however,

and on their elevator therewereonlytwootherpeople.“Are you hibernators?

They’re all going up top.Whyareyougoingdown?”“The city’s in chaos,” one

of them, a young man, said.Onhisclothes,fireballsshonecontinually against a blackbackground. A closer lookrevealedthat itwasanimageof the destruction of thecombinedfleet.“Thenwhat are you going

downfor?”ShiQiangasked.“I’ve foundaplace to live

on the surface, so I’m goingdowntogetafewthings,”hesaid.Thenhenoddedatthem.“Youonthesurfacearegoingto get rich. We don’t haveany houses there, and theproperty rights to the surfacehouses are mostly in yourhands. We’ll have to buythemoffyou.”“If the underground city

collapsesandallthosepeople

rush to the surface, there’sprobablynotgoing tobeanyactualbuyingorselling,”ShiQiangsaid.A middle-aged man

huddling in a corner of theelevator was listening tothem, and he suddenlycovered his face with hishands and let out a whine.“No.Oh…”Thenhesquatteddown and started crying.Hisclothing showed a classicalbiblicalscene:anakedAdam

and Eve standing beneath atreeintheGardenofEdenasa bewitching snake crawledbetween them. It may havebeen a symbol for the recentBattleofDarkness.“There are lots of people

like him,” the young mansaid, pointing disdainfully atthe weeping man. “Unsoundof mind.” His eyes lit up.“Actually, doomsday is awonderful time. The mostwonderful time,even.Thisis

theonlytimeinhistorywherethere’sachanceforpeopletoabandonalloftheircaresandburdens and belong entirelyto themselves. It’s stupid tobe like him. The mostresponsible way of life rightnow is to enjoy ourselveswhilewecan.”When the elevator reached

the bottom, Luo Ji and ShiQiang exited the hall andimmediately smelled thestrong, strange odor of

something burning. Theundergroundcitywasbrighterthan before, but it was anirritatingwhitelight.Lookingaround, what Luo Ji sawthrough the gaps in the hugetreeswasn’tthebluesky,buta total blank. The projectionoftheskyonthevaultoftheunderground city hadvanished. The blanknessreminded him of sphericalspaceshipcabinshehad seenonthenews.Thelawnswere

litteredwithamessofdebristhathadfallenfromthehugetrees. Not far off was thewreckage of several crashedflyingcars,oneofwhichwasinflamesandsurroundedbyacrowd of people who werepickingupothercombustiblesfrom the lawn and throwingthem into the flames.Someone even threw in hisownclothingwhileitwasstillflashing images. A rupturedunderground pipe sprayed a

high column of water,drenching a group of peoplewho played around in it likechildren. From time to timethey would scream excitedlyinunisonandscattertoavoiddebris falling from the trees,then theywould regroup andcontinue their revels. Luo Jilookedupagainandsawfiresinseveralplacesonthetrees.The sirens of flyingfirefighting vehiclesscreamed as they flew

through the air, danglingplucked tree leaves that hadcaughtfire.…He noticed that the people

they met on the streets fellintotwotypes,muchlikethetwo people they hadencountered in the elevator.One type was depressed,walking with dull eyes orsimply sitting on the lawnsenduring the torment ofdespair, a despair whosecause had now shifted from

humanity’s defeat to thepresent difficult livingconditions. The other typewas in a state of crazedexcitement and grewintoxicatedfromindulgence.Traffic in the city was in

chaos. It tookLuoJiandShiQiang half an hour to hail ataxi, andwhen the driverlessflying car that carried thempassedthroughthehugetrees,Luo Ji was reminded of hisfirst horrific day in the city

andfeltthetensionofridingarollercoaster.Fortunately,thecarsoonarrivedatCityHall.Shi Qiang had been here

several times because ofwork, andwas fairly familiarwith the place. After aconsiderablenumberofsteps,they finally receivedpermission to meet themayor, but they had to waituntil the afternoon. Luo Jihad expected complications,so themayor’sacceptanceof

the meeting caught him bysurprise, since this was anextraordinary time, and theywere little people. At lunch,ShiQiangtoldLuoJithatthemayor had taken office thedaybefore.Heusedtobetheofficial in charge ofhibernator affairs in the citygovernment and was, in away,ShiQiang’ssuperior,soheknewhimfairlywell.“He’s one of our

countrymen,”ShiQiangsaid.

Inthisage,themeaningofthe term “countryman” hadshifted from geography totemporality. But it wasn’tused between all hibernators.Only those who had enteredhibernation at roughly thesame time counted ascountrymen. When they gottogether across the longyears, temporally basedcountrymen shared an evencloser affinity thangeographically based

countrymenusedto.Theywaiteduntilhalfpast

four to see themayor.High-ranking officials in this agetypically possessed a starquality, with only the mostattractive getting elected, butthe currentmayor was plain.He was about Shi Qiang’sage, but far thinner, and hehad one trait that made himidentifiableasahibernatorata glance: He wore glasses.Theyweredefinitelyantiques

from two centuries ago,because even contact lenseshad long since disappeared.Butpeoplewhousedtowearglasses tended to feel thatsomething was wrong withtheir appearance when theydidn’t wear them, so lots ofhibernators wore them evenafter their vision wasrepaired.The mayor looked utterly

exhausted and seemed tohavedifficultyrisingfromhis

chair. When Shi Qiangapologized for theinterruption, andcongratulated him on hispromotion,heshookhishead.“These are vulnerable times.Us rugged savages come inhandyagain.”“You’re the highest-

ranking hibernator on Earth,right?”“Who knows? As the

situation develops, we mighthavecountrymenpromotedto

evenhigherpositions.”“And the former mayor?

Mentalbreakdown?”“No, no. There are strong

people in this age, too. Hewas very competent, but hewaskilled inacarcrash inariotareatwodaysago.”The mayor noticed Luo Ji

behind Shi Qiang andimmediatelyextendedahand.“Oh, Dr. Luo, hello. Ofcourse I recognize you. Iworshiped you two centuries

ago,becauseoutofthosefourpeople,youseemedmostlikeaWallfacer. I really couldn’tfigureoutwhatyouwantedtodo.” But their hearts sank atthe next thing he said.“You’re the fourth messiahI’ve received in the past twodays. And there are dozensmore waiting outside who Idon’thavetheenergytosee.”“Mayor,he’snotlikethem.

Twocenturiesago—”“Of course. Two centuries

ago, he was selected frombillionsofpeople,andit’sforthat reason that I decided toseeyou.”Themayorpointedat Shi Qiang. “There’ssomething else I need youfor, but we’ll talk about thatafterward. First, let’s talkaboutwhatyou’vegot.But Ihaveasmallrequest:Canyounot talk about your plan tosave the world? They’realways so long.First just tellmewhatyouneedmetodo.”

AfterLuoJiandShiQiangexplained what they wanted,themayorimmediatelyshookhishead.“EvenifIwantedtohelp,Icouldn’t.I’vegotpilesof stuff ofmyown I need toreport to the seniorleadership. But that level’slower than you imagine. It’sjust provincial and nationalleaders. It’s hard foreveryone.Yououghttoknowthat the senior leadership ishandling even bigger

problemsrightnow.”Luo Ji and Shi Qiang had

been paying attention to thenews, sonaturally theyknewabout the bigger problemsthatthemayorreferredto.The annihilation of the

combined fleet saw the swiftresurrectionofEscapismaftertwo centuries of silence. TheEuropean Commonwealthhad even drafted a plan toselect one hundred thousandcandidates for departure

through a nationwidedrawing, and the plan hadbeen passed by a popularvote. But after the results ofthe drawing, the majority ofthose who had not beenpicked were furious, leadingto widespread rioting. Thepublic turnedunanimously toEscapism as crime againsthumanity.After the Battle of

Darknesseruptedbetweenthesurviving warships in outer

space, accusations ofEscapism gained newmeaning: Recent events hadprovedthatwhenthespiritualbonds with Earth weresnapped, people in spacesuffered total spiritualalienation. So even if escapewere successful, whatsurvived would no longer behuman civilization, but someotherdarkandevilthing.Andlike Trisolaris, that thingwould be the antithesis of

human civilization and anenemyofit.Ithadevenbeengiven a name:Negacivilization.As thedropletcamecloser

to Earth, the public’ssensitivity to Escapismreached a peak. The mediawarned it was highly likelythat someone would attempttoescapebeforethedroplet’sattack.Crowdsflockedtothevicinityofthespaceportsandthe base points of the space

elevators with the intent ofcutting off all channels intospace. They did indeedpossess that ability. In thisage, thecitizensof theworldall had the freedom to ownweapons, and most of themhad small laser guns. Ofcourse,alaserpistolposednothreat to the cabin of thespace elevator or thelaunching spacecraft, butunlike a traditional gun, alarge number of lasers could

focus their light on a singlepoint. If ten thousand laserpistols fired at one point atthe same time, they wereunstoppable. Crowdsnumberinginatleastthetensof thousands, with up to amillion people in places,gathered around the basepoints and launching sites,and at least a third werecarryingweapons.Whentheysaw a cabin ascend or aspacecraftlaunch,theywould

fire their weaponssimultaneously. The straightpath of the laser beammadeaiming incredibly precise, somost of the beams wouldfocus on the target anddestroyit.Inthisway,Earth’stransport links with spacewerealmostentirelysevered.The chaos grew worse.

Overthepastcoupleofdays,the target of the attacks hadshifted to space cities insynchronous orbit. Rumors

flew thick online that certaincitieshadbeenconvertedintoescape ships, so they toobecame subject to attack bythepeopleofEarth.Owingtothevastdistance,laserbeamsdissipated and wereweakened by the time theyreached targets in space, andgiven theadditional factorofthe space cities’ rotation, nomaterial injury was caused.But the activity became akind of collective

entertainmentforhumanityinthose last days. Thatafternoon, the EuropeanCommonwealth’s third spacecity, New Paris, had beensubject to simultaneousirradiation by ten millionlaserbeamsfromthenorthernhemisphere, causing thetemperatureinthecitytorisesharply and prompting theevacuation of its residents.Fromthespacecity,theEarthhad been brighter than the

sun.There was nothing more

for Luo Ji and Shi Qiang tosay.“I was really impressed

with your work at theHibernation ImmigrationBureau,” the mayor said toShi Qiang. “And GuoZhengming. You know him,right? He was just promotedto director of the PublicSecurity Bureau, and herecommended you to me. I

hopeyou’llcomeworkatthecity government. We needpeoplelikeyourightnow.”Shi Qiang thought for a

moment, and then nodded.“Once I’ve settled things inmyneighborhood.How’s thesituation in the city rightnow?”“The situation is

deteriorating, but it’s stillunder control.Right now thefocus is on maintaining theoperation of the induction

fieldpowersupply.Oncethatgoes, the city will collapsecompletely.”“These riots are different

fromthoseinourday.”“Yeah,theyare.First,their

source is different. They’resparked by total despair forthe future and are incrediblyhard to handle. At the sametime,wehavefewermeansatour disposal than in thosedays.” As the mayor wasspeaking, he pulled up an

image on the wall. “This isthe central plaza from aheightofahundredmeters.”The central plaza was

where Luo Ji and Shi Qianghad taken refuge from theflying car.From this vantagepoint, the Great RavineMemorialanditssurroundingpatch of desert couldn’t beseen. The entire plaza waswhite, with white dotscrawlingaroundlikericeinapotofporridge.

“Arethosepeople?”LuoJiaskedinwonder.“Naked people. It’s a

tremendous sex party, withmore than a hundredthousandpeople,andit’sstillgrowing.”Acceptanceofheterosexual

and homosexual relations inthis era was far beyondanything Luo Ji hadimagined, and some thingswere no longer consideredremarkable. Still, the sight

before themcameasa shockto both of them. Luo Ji wasreminded of the dissolutescene in the Bible beforehumanity received the TenCommandments. A classicdoomsdayscenario.“Why doesn’t the

governmentputastoptoit?”ShiQiangaskedsharply.“How would we stop it?

They’re completely withinthelaw.Ifwetakeaction,thegovernmentwouldbetheone

committingacrime.”Shi Qiang let out a long

sigh. “Yes, I know. In thisage, police and the militarycan’tdomuch.”The mayor said, “We’ve

beenthroughthelaw,andwehaven’t found any provisionsfor coping with the presentsituation.”“With the city like this, it

wouldbebetter if thedropletsmasheditapart.”Shi Qiang’s words jerked

Luo Ji awake. He askedhurriedly, “How long untilthedropletgetstoEarth?”The mayor replaced the

image of spectacularpromiscuity with a breakingnews channel showing asimulation of the SolarSystem.Theeye-catchingredline that marked the path ofthe droplet looked like theorbitofacomet,exceptthatitterminatedclosetotheEarth.In the lower right was a

countdown clock indicatingthat if the droplet didn’treduce speed, it would reachEarth in fourhoursandfifty-fourminutes.Thenewscrawlwasnowdisplayinganexpertanalysis of the droplet.Despite the terror grippingthe world, the scientificcommunity had recovered itssenses after the initial shockofdefeat,sotheanalysiswascalm and sober. Thoughhumanity knew absolutely

nothing about the droplet’senergy source and drivemechanism, the analyst feltthat it had run into a powerconsumption problem,because its accelerationtoward the sun afterdestroyingthecombinedfleethad been particularlysluggish. It had passed closeby Jupiter but, ignoring thethree warships at the base,used the planet’s gravity toaccelerate, a move that

further demonstrated that thedroplet’s energy was limitedto the point of exhaustion.Scientists believed that thenotion that thedropletwouldcrash into Earth was utternonsense, but they had noidea what it had actuallycometodo.Luo Ji said, “I have to

leave, or else the city willreallybedestroyed.”“Why?”themayorasked.“Because he thinks the

droplet wants to kill him,”ShiQiangsaid.Themayorlaughed,buthis

smilewasstiff.Apparentlyhehadn’tlaughedinalongtime.“Dr. Luo, you’re the mostself-absorbed person I’veevermet.”

***

Luo Ji and Shi Qiang droveoff immediately aftertraveling back to the surface

from the underground city.The city’s inhabitants werepouringoutinlargenumbers,which meant that groundtraffic was so heavy that ittook them half an hour toleave the old city and reachfull speed on the highway tothewest.On the car’s television,

theysawthat thedropletwasapproachingEarth at a speedofseventy-fivekilometerspersecondandshowednosignof

slowing.Atthatrate,itwouldarriveinthreehours.The weakening of the

induction field power supplyslowedthecar,andShiQianghadtotapastoragebatterytomaintainspeed.Theyreachedthe large hibernatorresidential area, but drovepastNewLifeVillage#5andcontinued westward. Theystayed silent along the way,speaking little and focusingtheirattentiononthebreaking

newsonthetelevision.The droplet passed lunar

orbitwithoutslowing.Atthisrate it would reach Earth injust half an hour. No oneknew how it would behave,sotoavoidapanic, thenewsdidn’t predict a point ofimpact.Luo Ji made a determined

effort to welcome themoment he had long wantedto postpone, and said, “DaShi,stophere.”

Shi Qiang stopped the carand they got out. The sun,nownearingthehorizon,castlongshadowsofthetwomenon the desert. Luo Ji felt theearthbeneathhis feet turn assoft as his heart. He almostlackedthestrengthtostand.Hesaid,“I’lltrymybestto

reach a sparsely populatedarea. There’s a city ahead ofus, so I’m going to turn thisway.Youfindyourownwayback, and get as far as

possible from the directionI’mgoing.”“Myboy, I’llwait for you

here.Whenit’sover,we’llgoback together.” Shi Qiangtook out a cigarette from hispocketandlookedaroundfora lighter before rememberingthat the cigarette didn’t needtobelit.Liketheotherthingshe had brought from thatdistant past, his personalhabitshadnotchangedatall.LuoJismiledalittlesadly.

HehopedShiQiang actuallybelievedthat,becauseatleastthatwouldmaketheirpartingalittleeasiertotake.“Waitifyou’d like. When the timecomes, you had better moveto the other side of theembankment. I don’t knowhow powerful the strike willbe.”Shi Qiang smiled and

shookhishead.“Youremindme of an intellectual I mettwo hundred years ago. He

had the same hangdog lookyou’ve got. I remember himsitting out early in themorning in front of theWangfujingchurch,crying.…But he got out okay. Ichecked after I woke up: Helivedtobenearlyahundred.”“What about the first guy

totouchthedroplet,DingYi?I believe you knew eachother,too.”“He had a death wish.

Nothing you could do about

that.”ShiQianglookedupattheskyclothedinsunset,asifreminding himself what thephysicist looked like. “Still,he was a truly broad-mindedman, the kind that couldaccept any situation. I nevermet anyone like him in mywhole life. Seriously, a greatmind.My boy, you ought tolearnfromhim.”“And again I say to you:

We’re just ordinary people,you and I.”He looked at his

watch, knowing that therewas nomore time for delay.He extended a firm hand toShi Qiang. “Da Shi, thankyou for everything you’vedone for me the past twocenturies. Good-bye. Maybewe’ll meet again in someotherplace.”ShiQiang did not take his

hand, but gave him a wave.“Cut the crap! Believe me,my boy. Nothing’s going tohappen. Go, and when it’s

over, hurrybackandgetme.And don’t blame me if Imakefunofyoutonightoverdrinks.”Luo Ji got into the car

quickly, not wanting ShiQiang to see the tears in hiseyes. Sitting there, he stroveto etch the rearview-mirrorimage of Shi Qiang onto hismind,thensetoffonhisfinaljourney.Maybe they would meet

again someplace. The last

time it had taken twocenturies, so what would theseparation be this time?LikeZhang Beihai two centuriesbefore,LuoJisuddenlyfoundhimselfhatingthathewasanatheist.The sun had now entirely

set, and the desert on eitherside of the road shone whitein the twilight, like snow. Itsuddenlyoccurredtohimthatitwas along thisvery stretchofroadtwocenturiesagothat

he had driven in the Accordwith his imaginary lover,when the northern Chinaplain was covered with realsnow. He felt her hairblowing in the wind, itsstrandsteasinghimwiththeirstrange tickles on his rightcheek.No, no. Don’t say where

weare!Onceweknowwherewe are, then the worldbecomesasnarrowasamap.When we don’t know, the

worldfeelsunlimited.Okay. Then let’s do our

besttogetlost.Luo Ji had always had the

feeling that ZhuangYan andXia Xia had been broughtinto the world by hisimagination.Hefeltastabinhis heart when the thoughtentered hismind, because, atthis moment, love andlonging were the mostexcruciating things in theworld. Tears blurred his

visionashestrovetokeephismind blank. But Yan Yan’slovely eyes stubbornlysurfaced through theblankness, accompanied byXia Xia’s intoxicatinglaughter. It was all he coulddo to focus his attention onthetelevisionnews.Thedroplethadpassedthe

Lagrange point,25 but it stillspedtowardEarthatconstantspeed.Luo Ji parked the car at

whathethoughtwasthemostfitting spot, the borderbetween the plain and themountains, where there wereno people or buildings as farashecouldsee.Thecarstoodin a valley surrounded by aU-shaped ring of mountains,which would dissipate someof the shockwaves from theimpact.Hetookthetelevisionfrom the car and carried itontotheopensand,wherehesatdown.

The droplet crossed the34,000-kilometergeosynchronousorbitaltitudeandpassedclosebythespacecity New Shanghai, whoseinhabitantsallclearlysawthebright point of light passrapidly across their sky. Thenewsdeclaredthattheimpactwouldoccurineightminutes.The news finally predicted

the latitude and longitude ofimpact: to the northwest ofChina’scapital.

LuoJiknewthatalready.Twilighthadfallenheavily

now,andthecolorsoftheskyhadshrunktoasmallspaceinthe west, like a pupillesseyeball watching the worldindifferently.Perhaps as a way to pass

the remaining time, Luo Jibegantolookbackonhislife.It had been divided into

two entirely distinct parts.The part after he became aWallfacer spanned two

centuries, but it felt denselycompacted. He passedquicklybackthroughitasifithadbeen justyesterday.Thatpart of his life didn’t seemlike his own, including thelove that was engraved ontohis bones. It all felt like afleetingdream.Hedidn’tdarethink about his wife andchild.Contrary to his

expectations,hismemoriesoflife before becoming a

Wallfacer were a blank. Allthat he could fish out fromtheseaofmemorywereafewfragments, and the fartherbackhewent,thefewertherewere. Had he really been tohigh school? Had he reallyattendedprimaryschool?Hadhe really had a first love?Some of the fragments boreclear scratches, remindinghim that those things hadindeed taken place. Thedetails were vivid, but the

feelingshadvanishedwithouta trace. The past was like ahandful of sand you thoughtyou were squeezing tightly,butwhichhadalreadyrunoutthrough the cracks betweenyour fingers. Memory was ariver that had run dry longago, leaving only scatteredgravel in a lifeless riverbed.He had lived life alwayslookingoutforthenextthing,andwheneverhehadgained,he had also lost, leaving him

withlittleintheend.He looked around at the

twilight mountains, recallingthat one winter’s night hespent here more than twohundred years ago, in themountains that had growntiredofstandingforhundredsofmillions of years, and hadlain down “like old villagersbasking in the sun,” as hisimaginary lover had oncesaid. The fields and cities ofthe northern China plain had

long since turned to desert,but the mountains didn’tseem to have changed. Theywere still plain and ordinaryin shape, and witheredgrasses and vitex vines stillgrew stubbornly from thecrevicesinthegrayrocks,nolusher and no sparser thantwo centuries ago. Twocenturieswasfartooshortforanyvisiblechangetocometotheserockymountains.Whatwasthehumanworld

like in the eyes of themountains? Perhaps justsomething they saw on aleisurely afternoon. First, afew small living beingsappearedontheplain.Afterawhile, they multiplied, andafter another while theyerectedstructureslikeanthillsthatquickly filled the region.Thestructuresshonefromtheinside, and some of them letoff smoke. After anotherwhile, the lights and smoke

disappeared, and the smallthings vanished as well, andthen their structures toppledandwere buried in the sand.That was all. Among thecountless things themountains had witnessed,thesefleetingeventswerenotnecessarily the mostinteresting.Finally, Luo Ji located his

earliest memory. He wassurprised to discover that thelife he could remember also

began on the sand. It was inhis own prehistoric age, in aplace he couldn’t remember,and with people he couldn’trecall, but he clearlyremembered the sandy shoreofariver.Therewasaroundmooninthesky,andtheriverrippled under the moonlight.He was digging in the sand.When he had dug out a pit,water seeped through thebottom,andinthewatertherewas a small moon. He kept

digginglikethat,digginglotsofpitsandbringingforthlotsofsmallmoons.That was his earliest

memory. Before that,everythingwasblank.In the dark of night, only

the light of the televisionilluminatedthesmallpatchofsandsurroundinghim.As Luo Ji worked to

maintain a blank state in hismind,hisscalptightened,andhefeltlikeanenormoushand

had covered the entire skyoverhead and was pressingdownonhim.But then the giant hand

slowlywithdrew.At a distance of twenty

thousandkilometers from thesurface, the droplet changeddirection and headed directlytowardthesun.The TV reporter shouted,

“Attention northernhemisphere! Attentionnorthern hemisphere! The

droplet has grown brighter,and you can see it with thenakedeye!”LuoJilookedup.Hecould

actually see it: It wasn’t toobright, but its high speedmadeiteasilydistinguishableas it crossed the sky like ameteor and vanished in thewest.At last thedroplet reduced

its velocity relative to theEarth to zero and rested at apoint 1.5 million kilometers

away.ALagrangepoint.Thatmeant that, in the days tocome, it would remainmotionless relative to bothEarth and sun, squarelybetweenthetwo.Luo Ji had a hunch that

somethingelsemighthappen,so he sat on the sand andwaited. The mountains, likeoldmenbesideandinbackofhim,waitedquietlywithhimand gave him a sense ofsecurity. For the time being,

therewas nomore importantinformation in the news. Aworld uncertain whether ornotithadescapedcatastrophewaitednervously.Ten minutes passed, but

nothing happened. Themonitoring system showedthe droplet suspendedmotionless, the propulsionhalogonefromitstailanditsround head facing the sun. Itreflected the bright sunlight,sothatitsfrontthirdappeared

tobeonfire.ToLuoJi,somesort of mysterious inductionseemed to be taking placebetween the droplet and thesun.The image on the

television suddenly blurred,and the sound turnedscratchy. Luo Ji sensedcommotion in thesurrounding environment: Astartled flock of birds tookflightinthemountains,andadogbarkedinthedistance.It

might have been a falseimpression, but he felt hisskin begin to itch. Thetelevision’ssoundandpicturejittered for a moment andthen cleared up. Later it waslearned that the interferencewas still present, but globaltelecommunications systemshad quickly filtered out thesudden noise with their anti-interference capabilities.However, the news reactedslowly to this development

because of the vast amountsof monitoring data thatneeded to be pooled andanalyzed. It was another tenminutes or more beforeprecise information becameavailable.The dropletwas sending a

continuous, powerfulelectromagneticwavedirectlyat the sun with an intensityfar exceeding the sun’samplification threshold and afrequencythatcoveredallthe

bands that the sun couldamplify.LuoJibegantogiggle,and

thenlaugheduntilhechoked.Yes, he really was self-absorbed. He should havethought of all of this longago.LuoJiwasn’timportant.Thesunwasimportant.Fromnow on, humanity could nolonger use the sun as apowerful antenna to transmitmessagestotheuniverse.The droplet had sealed it

off.“Hah! My boy, nothing’s

happened! We really shouldhavewageredonit.”Atsomepoint, Shi Qiang had madehis way over to Luo Ji. Hehadflaggeddownacartogethere.Luo Ji felt like something

hadbeendrainedoutofhim.He lay limply down on thesand, which was still warmfrom the sun. It wascomfortablebeneathhim.

“Yes, Da Shi. We can goand live our lives now.Everything’sfinished.”

***

“Myboy,thisisthelasttimeI help you do Wallfacerstuff,” ShiQiang said on theroad back. “That occupationmust causemental problems,and you’ve just had anotherepisode.”“I hope that’s the case,”

LuoJisaid.Outside,thestarsthat were visible yesterdayhad vanished, and the blackdesert and night sky joinedinto one at the horizon. Asectionofroadilluminatedbythe headlights stretched outahead of them. The worldwas like the stateofLuoJi’smind: darkness everywhere,with one spot incrediblyclear.“You know, it’ll be easy

foryoutogetbacktonormal.

It’stimeforZhuangYanandXia Xia to reawaken.Although, with the recentchaos,Idon’tknowifthey’vesuspended reawakening. Buteveniftheyhave,itwon’tbefor very long. The situationwillquicklystabilize,Ithink.Afterall,there’sstilltimeleftfor several generations.Didn’t you say you can goandliveyourlife?”“I’ll go inquire at the

Hibernation Immigration

Bureau tomorrow.” ShiQiang’swords remindedLuoJi of the bit of color thatexisted in his dull mind.Maybe a reunion with hiswife and child was his onlychanceforredemption.But humanity was beyond

hope.As they neared New Life

Village #5, Shi Qiangsuddenly slowed the car.“Something’s not right,” hesaid, looking ahead.

Following his gaze, Luo Jisawaglowintheskycastbyalightontheground,butthehigh embankments on theroadwaymeant they couldn’tsee its source.Theglowwasinmotion.Itdidn’tseemlikethelightsofaresidentialarea.Whenthecarturnedoffthe

highway, a strange andspectacular sight met them:ThedesertbetweenNewLifeVillage #2 and the highwayhadbeenturnedintoashining

blanketdensewithlights,likean ocean of fireflies. It tookLuo Ji a moment to realizethatitwasacrowdofpeople.All of them were from thecity, and the lightcame fromtheirclothes.As the car slowly

approached the crowd,everyone ahead of themraisedtheirhandstoblocktheglareoftheheadlights,soShiQiang turned them off,leavingthemfacingabizarre,

gaudyhumanwall.“Lookslikethey’rewaiting

forsomeone,”ShiQiangsaid,lookingatLuoJi,whotensedup at his expression.The carstopped, and ShiQiangwenton,“Youstayhereanddon’tmove. I’ll go have a look.”Hejumpedoutofthecarandwalked over to the crowd.Against the glowing humanwall,ShiQiang’sstockybodystood out as a blacksilhouette. Luo Ji watched

himwalk to the crowd, thenexchange a few words withthepeoplebeforeturningandwalkingback.“Turns out they’rewaiting

foryou.Go,”hesaid,leaningon the door. Seeing Luo Ji’sface, he reassured him,“Relax.It’llbeokay.”Luo Ji got out of the car

and went over to the crowd.He had grown familiar withthewiredclothingofmodernpeople, but in the desolate

desert,hestillhadthefeelingthat he was walking towardtheOther.Butwhenhedrewcloser and could make outtheir expressions, his heartbegantobeatfaster.The first thing he had

learned when he awakenedfromhibernationwasthatthecrowds of every age havetheir own unique expression.Thedifferencesacrosstimetothis far-off age wereremarkable—youcouldeasily

distinguish between modernsandhibernatorswhohadonlyjust reawakened. But theexpressions Luo Ji saw nowweren’t modern, nor werethey twenty-first century. Hedidn’t know what era theybelonged to. Fear nearlyrootedhimtothespot,buthistrust in Shi Qiang propelledhis steps mechanicallyforward.Whenhehadgottencloser

to the crowd, he finally

stopped, because he saw theimages they had on theirclothes.Their clothing displayed

picturesofLuoJi—somestillphotographs,somevideos.LuoJihadrarelyappeared

before the media sincebecoming aWallfacer, so hehadn’t left much of a visualrecord, but a fairly completeset of those videos andimages was now on displayon the people’s clothing. On

some people, he even sawphotographs of his pre-Wallfacer self. The clothingtook its images from theInternet, which meant thatthese images must becirculating worldwide. Healso noticed that the imageswere in their original stateandhadnotbeensubjectedtothe artistic deformation thatthe moderns liked to do,which meant that they hadjustappearedonline.

When they saw him stop,thecrowdmovedtowardhim.When they got as close astwo or three meters, thepeople in frontheldback therest of the crowd, and thenknelt down. Those behindthemkneltdownsuccessivelyin awave of glowing peoplethatrecededalongthesand.“Lord, save us!” he heard

someone say. The wordsbuzzedinhisears.“Ohgod,savetheworld!”

“Great spokesman, upholdjusticeintheuniverse!”“Angel of justice, save

humankind!”Two people came up to

LuoJi,andherecognizedtheone whose clothing wasn’tglowing as Hines. The otherman was a soldier withglowingbadgesandribbons.Hines said to him gravely,

“Dr. Luo, I’ve just beenappointed your liaison to theUN Wallfacer Project

Commission.ItismydutytoinformyouthattheWallfacerProjecthasbeenrevived,andyouhavebeennamedthesoleWallfacer.”The soldier said, “I am

special commissioner BenJonathan of the SFJC. Wemet when you had just beenreawakened. I am alsoinstructed to inform you thattheAsianFleet,theEuropeanFleet, and the NorthAmerican Fleet have agreed

with the revalidation of theWallfacer Act and haverecognized your status asWallfacer.”Hinespointedtothecrowd

kneeling on the sand, andsaid, “In the eyes of thepublic, you now have twoidentities.Fortheists,youarethe angel of justice. Toatheists, you are thespokesperson for a just,superior civilization in theMilkyWay.”

This was followed bysilence,withalleyes focusedon Luo Ji. He thought for awhile,butcameupwithonlyone possibility: “The spellworked?”heventured.Hines and Jonathan

nodded, and Hines said,“187J3X1 has beendestroyed.”“When?”“Fifty-one years ago. It

wasobservedayearago,butno one was paying much

attention to that star, so theobservations were onlydiscovered this afternoon. Afew desperate people in theSFJC wanted to findinspiration in history, andthey remembered theWallfacer Project and yourspell. So they looked at187J3X1 and found that itwasn’t there anymore. In itsplacewasanebulaofdebris.They scanned through allobservational records of the

staruntilitsdestructionayearago, then pulled all of theobservational data of187J3X1 at the time itexploded.”“Howdotheyknowitwas

destroyed?”“You’re aware that

187J3X1 was in a stableperiod, like the sun, so itwouldbe impossible for it togo nova. And its destructionwas observed: A bodytravelingclosetothespeedof

light struck 187J3X1. Thetinyobject—they’recallingita ‘photoid’—was observedthe instant it passed into theperiphery of the stellaratmosphere by the tracks itmade. Even though it wassmallinvolume,itsnear-lightvelocitymeant that its vastlyamplified relativistic masshad reached one-eighth of187J3X1’s by the time itstruck the target. Itdestroyedthe star immediately. The

star’s four planets were alsovaporizedintheblast.”Luo Ji looked up at the

night’s dark sky, where thestars were practicallyinvisible.Hewalkedforward,and the people stood up andsilentlymade apath forhim,closing back togetherimmediately behind him.Theywere all trying to pushcloser to him, as if yearningfor sunlight amid the cold,but they respectfully lefthim

acircleof space, adark spotin a fluorescent ocean, likethe eye of a storm. A manpushedforwardandfelltotheground in front of Luo Ji,compelling him to stop, andthen theman kissed his feet.Afewothersenteredtheringto repeat that act. Just whenthesituationseemedabout togo out of control, therewerecritical shouts from thecrowd, prompting the peopleto scramble and retreat back

intothegroup.LuoJicontinuedonahead,

but realized that he didn’tknow where he was going.Hestopped, foundHinesandJonathan in the crowd, andwalkedovertothem.“So what should I do

now?” he asked when hereachedthem.“You’reaWallfacer, soof

course you can do anythingwithin the scope of theWallfacerAct,”Hinessaidto

him with a bow. “Althoughthe act still has restrictions,you can now mobilizepracticallyalloftheresourcesofEarthInternational.”“That includes the Fleet

International’s resources,too,”Jonathanadded.Luo Ji thought for a

moment, and said, “I don’tneed to tap any resourcesright now. But if I’ve reallyrecovered the power grantedbytheWallfacerAct…”

“There’s no doubt aboutthat,” Hines said. Jonathannodded.“Then I’ll make two

requests. First, order will berestored in all cities, andnormal life will resume.There’snomysteryaboutthisrequest. I’m sure youunderstand.”Everyone nodded.

Someone said, “Theworld islistening,ohgod.”“Yes, the world is

listening,” Hines said.“Restoring stability willrequire time, but because ofyouwehave faith that it canbe done.” His words wereechoedinthecrowd.“Second: Everyone, go

home. Leave this place inpeace.Thankyou!”The people were silent

after hearing this, but soonbegan to buzz as his wordswerepassedbackthroughthecrowd. The crowd began to

disperse, slowly andunwillingly at first, buteventuallythepacepickedupand car after car headed offdowntheroadinthedirectionof the city.Themanypeoplewalking along the roadsidelooked like a long glowingcolonyofantsinthenight.Thenthedesertwasempty

once again.OnlyLuo Ji, ShiQiang, Hines, and Jonathanwere left on the sand litteredwithchaoticfootprints.

“Iamtrulyashamedofmyformer self,” Hines said.“Human civilization has ahistory of just five thousandyears,yetwecherishlifeandfreedom so highly. Theremust be civilizations in theuniverse with a history ofbillionsofyears.Whatsortofmorality do they possess? Isthere any point to thatquestion?”“I’m ashamed for myself,

too. The past few days, I’ve

even begun to doubt God,”Jonathan said. When he sawHines about to cut in, heraised his hand to stop him.“No, friend. We might betalkingaboutthesamething.”They embraced, tears

streamingdowntheirfaces.“So, gentlemen,” Luo Ji

saidashepattedthemontheback. “You cangoback. If Ineed you, I’ll get in touch.Thankyou.”He watched them go off,

supporting each other like ahappypairoflovers.NowheandShiQiangwere the onlyonesleft.“Da Shi, anything you’d

like to say now?” he said,turning to Shi Qiang with asmile.Shi Qiang stood rooted to

the spot, as stunned as if hehad justwitnessed a thrillingmagic trick. “My boy, I’mdamnconfused.”“What? You don’t believe

I’manangelofjustice?”“You’dhave tobeatme to

deathbeforeI’dsaythat.”“And a spokesperson of a

superiorcivilization?”“A little better than an

angel,butIdon’tbelievethateither, to tell you the truth.I’ve never thought that wasthecase.”“Don’t you believe in

fairness and justice in theuniverse?”“Idon’tknow.”

“But you’re in lawenforcement.”“I said I don’t know. I’m

genuinelyconfused.”“Then you’re the most

soberonehere.”“So can you tellme about

thejusticeoftheuniverse?”“Very well. Come with

me.” Then Luo Ji walkedstraight out into the desert,with Shi Qiang followingclose behind him. Theywalked a long while in

silence, then crossed thehighway.“Wherearewegoing?”Shi

Qiangasked.“Tothedarkestplace.”

***

They crossed the highway towhere the embankmentblocked out the lights of theresidential area. Gropingabout in the dark thatsurrounded them, Luo Ji and

Shi Qiang sat down on thesandyground.“Let’s begin,” Luo Ji’s

voicesoundedinthedark.“Givemetheeasyversion.

Atmylevel,I’mnotgoingtounderstand anythingcomplicated.”“Everyone can understand,

Da Shi. The truth is simple.It’s the kind of thing that,once you hear it, you’llwonderwhyyoudidn’tcomeup with it yourself. Do you

know about mathematicalaxioms?”“I took geometry in high

school. ‘Only one straightline can be drawn betweentwo points.’ That kind ofthing.”“Right. So now we’re

going to set out two axiomsfor cosmic civilization. First,survival is the primary needof civilization. Second,civilization continuouslygrows and expands, but the

total matter in the universeremainsconstant.”“Andthen?”“That’sit.”“Whatcanyouderivefrom

thoselittlethings?”“The same way you can

figureoutanentirecasefroma bullet or a drop of blood,cosmic sociology is able todescribeacompletepictureofgalactic and cosmiccivilization from those twoaxioms. That’s what science

is like, Da Shi. Thecornerstone of everydisciplineisquitesimple.”“So let’s see you derive

something.”“First, let’s talk about the

Battle of Darkness. Wouldyou believeme if I said thatStarship Earth was amicrocosm of cosmiccivilization?”“No.StarshipEarth lacked

resources like parts and fuel,but the universe doesn’t. It’s

toobig.”“You’re wrong. The

universe is big, but life isbigger! That’s what thesecond axiom means. Theamount of matter in theuniverse remains constant,but life grows exponentially.Exponentialsarethedevilsofmathematics. If there’s amicroscopic bacterium in theoceanthatdividesonceeveryhalfhour,itsdescendantswillfill the entire ocean in the

space of a few days, so longas there are sufficientnutrients.Don’t let humanityandTrisolarisgiveyouafalseimpression. These twocivilizationsaretiny,buttheyare only in their infancy.Once a civilization passes acertain technologicalthreshold, the expansion oflife through the universe isfrightening.Forinstance,takehumanity’s presentnavigationspeed.Inamillion

years,Earthcivilizationcouldfill thegalaxy.Andamillionyearsisashorttimemeasuredagainsttheuniverse.”“So you’re saying that,

taking the long view, theentire universe might havethatkindof…whatare theycallingit,a‘deadhand’?”“No need for the long

view. Right now the entireuniverse has been dealt thatdead hand. Like Hines said,civilization may have started

in the universe billions ofyears ago. Looking at thesigns, the universe might bepacked full already. Whoknows how much emptyspace there is in the MilkyWay or the universe, or howmanyresourcesareleft?”“But that’s not right, is it?

The universe looks empty.We haven’t seen any otheralien life apart fromTrisolaris,right?”“That’s what we’ll talk

about next. Give me acigarette.” Luo Ji gropedabout in thedark for awhilebefore taking the cigarettefromShiQiang’shand.WhenLuoJinextspoke,ShiQiangrealized he had moved to aspot three or four metersaway. “We need to increasethe distance to make it feelmorelikeouterspace,”LuoJisaid.Thenhelit thecigaretteby twisting its filter, and ShiQiang lit one of his own. In

thedark,twotinyredplanetsstoodindistantopposition.“Okay. To illustrate the

problem, we now need toestablishthemostelementarymodel of cosmic civilization.These two balls of flamerepresent two civilizedplanets.Theuniverseismadeupofonly these twoplanets,and apart from them there’snothingelse.Erase all ofoursurroundings.Canyou locatethatfeeling?”

“Yeah. That’s an easyfeelingtofindinadarkplacelikethis.”“Let’s call these two

civilized worlds yourcivilization and mycivilization. They’reseparatedbyagreatdistance,say, a hundred light-years.You can detect that I exist,but you don’t know anydetails. However, I’mcompletely ignorant of yourpresence.”

“Right.”“Now we need to define

two concepts, ‘benevolence’and ‘malice’ betweencivilizations. These wordsthemselves aren’t veryrigorous in a scientificcontext, so we’ve got torestrict their meaning.‘Benevolence’ means nottaking the initiative to attackand eradicate othercivilizations. ‘Malice’ is theopposite.”

“That’s a low bar forbenevolence.”“Next, consider your

options for dealing with me.Please remember that theaxiomsofcosmiccivilizationshould be kept in mindthroughout the process, aswellasthedistancescaleandtheenvironmentofspace.”“I could choose to

communicatewithyou.”“Ifyoudothat,youshould

be aware of the price you’ll

pay: You’ll have exposedyourexistencetome.”“Right. In the universe,

that’snosmallthing.”“There are different

degrees of exposure. Thestrongest formofexposure iswhen I know your preciseinterstellar coordinates. Nextiswhen I knowyour generaldirection, and the weakest iswhen I only know of yourexistence. But even theweakest form of exposure

makes it possible for me tosearchforyou,becausesinceyou’ve detected myexistence, I know that I’ll beable to find you. It’s only amatter of time, from thestandpoint of technologicaldevelopment.”“But my boy, I could still

taketherisktotalktoyou.Ifyou’remalicious,thenit’smybad luck. But if you’rebenevolent, then we couldhave further exchanges and

ultimately be united into abenevolentcivilization.”“Okay,DaShi.Nowwe’ve

come to the crux of it. Let’sreturn to the axioms ofcosmic civilization: Even ifI’mabenevolentcivilization,canIdetermineatthestartofour communication whetheror not you are alsobenevolent?”“Ofcoursenot.Thatwould

violatethefirstaxiom.”“So once I’ve received

yourmessage, what should Ido?”“Naturally, you ought to

determine whether I’mbenevolent or malicious.Malicious, and you eradicateme. Benevolent, and we cancontinuecommunicating.”TheflameonLuoJi’sside

rose up andmovedback andforth.Evidentlyhehadgottenup and was pacing. “That’sfine on Earth, but not out inthe universe. So next we’ll

introduce an important newconcept: the chain ofsuspicion.”“That’sanoddterm.”“The term is all I had at

first. It wasn’t explained tome. But, later, I was able toinfer its meaning from thewordsthemselves.”“Whodidn’texplainit?”“…I’lltellyoulater.Let’s

continue. If you think I’mbenevolent, that’s not areason to feel safe, because

accordingtothefirstaxiom,abenevolent civilization can’tpredict that any othercivilization is benevolent.You don’t know whether Ithink you’re benevolent ormalicious. Next, even if youknow that I think you’rebenevolent, and I also knowthatyouthinkI’mbenevolent,I don’t knowwhat you thinkaboutwhatIthinkaboutwhatyou’rethinkingaboutme.It’sconvoluted, isn’t it? This is

just the third level, but thelogicgoesonindefinitely.”“Igetwhatyoumean.”“That’s the chain of

suspicion. It’ssomething thatyou don’t see on Earth.Humanity’s shared species,cultural similarities,interconnected ecosystem,and close distances meansthat, in this environment, thechain of suspicion will onlyextend a level or two beforeit’s resolved through

communication.Butinspace,thechainofsuspicioncanbeverylong.SomethingliketheBattle of Darkness willalready have taken placebefore communication canresolveit.”Shi Qiang took a drag on

his cigarette, and hiscontemplative face emergedfrom the darkness for amoment. “It looks now likethe Battle of Darkness has alottoteachus.”

“That’s right. The fiveships of Starship Earthformed a quasi-cosmiccivilization, not a real one,because they consisted of asingle species—humans—whowere very close to eachother.Butevenso,whentheyweredealtthatdeadhand,thechain of suspicion emerged.In actual cosmic civilization,the biological differencesbetween different groupsmight be as high as the

kingdom level, and culturaldifferences are even furtherbeyondourimagining.Addtothis the vast distancesbetween them, and you havechains of suspicion that arepracticallyindestructible.”“That means that the

outcome is the same,regardless of whether we’rebenevolent civilizations ormaliciouscivilizations?”“That’s right. That’s the

most important aspect of the

chain of suspicion. It’sunrelated to the civilization’sown morality and socialstructure.It’senoughtothinkof every civilization as thepoints at the end of a chain.Regardless of whethercivilizations are internallybenevolent or malicious,when they enter the webformed by chains ofsuspicion, they’re allidentical.”“But if you’re much

weaker than Iam,you’renota threat to me. So I couldalways communicate withyou,right?”“That won’t work, either.

Here we need to introduce asecondimportantconcept:thetechnological explosion. Ididn’t get a full explanationfor this, either, but itwas fareasier to infer than the chainof suspicion. Humancivilizationhas five thousandyears of history, and life on

Earthmight be asmuch as afew billion years old. Butmodern technology wasdeveloped over the course ofthree hundred years. On thescale of the universe, that’snot development. It’s anexplosion! The potential fortechnological leaps is theexplosiveburiedwithineverycivilization, and if it’s lit bysome internal or externalfactor,itgoesoffwithabang.On Earth it took three

hundredyears,but there’snoreason why humanity shouldbe the fastest of all cosmiccivilizations.Maybethereareothers whose technologicalexplosions were even moresudden.I’mweakerthanyou,but once I’ve received yourmessage and know of yourexistence, the chain ofsuspicion is establishedbetween us. If at any time Iexperience a technologicalexplosion that suddenly puts

mefaraheadofyou,thenI’mstronger than you. On thescale of the universe, severalhundredyearsisthesnapofafinger. And it might be thatmy knowledge of yourexistenceandtheinformationI received from ourcommunication was theperfect spark to set off thatexplosion. That means thateven though I’m just anewborn or growingcivilization, I’m still a big

dangertoyou.”Shi Qiang watched Luo

Ji’s flame in the darkness ashethoughtforafewseconds,then looked at his owncigarette. “So I have to keepquiet.”“Do you think that will

work?”Theysmoked.Theballsof

flame brightened and theirfaces emerged from thedarknesslikethegodsof thissimple universe, deep in

thought.Shi Qiang said, “No, it

won’t.Ifyou’restrongerthanme, then since I was able tofind you, one day you’ll beable to find me. And thenthere will be a chain ofsuspicion between us. Ifyou’re weaker than me, youcould experience atechnological explosion atanytime,andthatwouldtakeus back to the first case. Tosum up: one, letting you

knowIexist,andtwo,lettingyou continue to exist, areboth dangerous to me andviolatethefirstaxiom.”“DaShi, you’ve really got

aclearmind.”“My brain can keep up

with yours so far, but we’reonlygettingstarted.”Luo Ji was silent in the

darkforalongtime.Hisfaceemerged in theweak lightoftheballofflametwoorthreetimesbeforehesaid,“DaShi,

this isn’t a start. Ourreasoninghasalreadyreachedaconclusion.”“Conclusion? We haven’t

figured anything out!Where’sthepictureofcosmiccivilizationyoupromised?”“If neither communication

nor silence will work onceyou learn of my existence,you’re left with just oneoption.”In the long silence that

followed, the two flames

wentout.Therewasnowind,and the dark silence turnedthick as asphalt, connectingsky and desert into a murkywhole. At last Shi Qianguttered one word in thedarkness:“Fuck!”“Extrapolate that option

out to the billions uponbillionsofstarsandhundredsof millions of civilizations,andthere’syourpicture,”LuoJi said, nodding in thedarkness.

“That’s … that’s reallydark.”“The real universe is just

that black.” Luo Ji waved ahand, feeling the darkness asif stroking velvet. “Theuniverse is a dark forest.Everycivilizationisanarmedhunter stalking through thetrees like a ghost, gentlypushing aside branches thatblock the path and trying totread without sound. Evenbreathing is done with care.

Thehunter has to be careful,because everywhere in theforestarestealthyhunterslikehim. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or ademon, a delicate infant or atotteringoldman,afairyorademigod—there’s only onethinghecando:openfireandeliminatethem.Inthisforest,hell is other people. Aneternalthreatthatanylifethatexposes its own existencewill be swiftly wiped out.

This is the picture of cosmiccivilization. It’s theexplanation for the FermiParadox.”Shi Qiang lit another

cigarette,ifonlytohaveabitoflight.“But in this dark forest,

there’s a stupid child calledhumanity, who has built abonfireandisstandingbesideitshouting,‘HereIam!HereIam!’”LuoJisaid.“Hasanyoneheardit?”

“That’s guaranteed. Butthose shouts alone can’t beused to determine the child’slocation. Humanity has notyet transmitted informationabout the exact position ofEarth and the Solar Systeminto the universe. From theinformationthathasbeensentout,all thatcanbe learned isthe distance between Earthand Trisolaris, and theirgeneral heading in theMilkyWay.Theprecise locationof

the two worlds is still amystery. Sincewe’re locatedin the wilderness of theperipheryofthegalaxy,we’realittlesafer.”“So what’s the deal with

thespell?”“Using the sun, I

transmitted three images tothe cosmos. Each oneconsisted of thirty pointsrepresenting the planarprojection of a three-dimensional coordinate

system containing theposition of thirty stars.Combining the three imagesinto three-dimensionalcoordinates forms a cubicspace populated by thosethirty points. That representsthe relative positions of187J3X1 and its twenty-ninesurrounding stars. There’salso a label pointing out187J3X1.“Think about it carefully

andyou’llget it.Ahunter in

a dark forest, stalking withbated breath, suddenlynotices that a piece of barkhasbeenstrippedfroma treein front of him. On the eye-catching bit of white woodthat’s been revealed is aposition in the forest,writtenin characters all hunters canrecognize.Whatwillhethinkabout that location? He’scertainlynotgoingtoimaginethat someone has laid outsuppliesforhimthere.Outof

all the possibilities, themostlikelyone is that theblaze isinforming everyone thatthere’s live prey at thatlocation that needs to beeliminated. It doesn’t matterwhat motivated someone toleave the mark. What’simportant is that the deadhandhasstretchedthenervesof the dark forest to thebreaking point, and it’s themost sensitive nerve that’smost liable tomake amove.

Suppose there are a millionhunters in the forest—thenumberofcivilizationsonthebillionsuponbillionsofstarsin the Milky Way could bethousands of times that.Perhaps nine hundredthousand of them willdisregardthemarking.Oftheremaining one hundredthousand, maybe ninetythousand of them will probethe location, and, afterconfirmingthatithasnolife,

disregard it. But one of theremaining ten thousandhunters will surely make achoicetofireonthatposition,because for civilizations at acertain level of technologicaldevelopment, attacking maybe safer and less of a hasslethanprobing.If there’sreallynothing at that location, thenit’snoloss.“Now,” Luo Ji concluded,

“thathunterhasappeared.”“That spell of yours can’t

besentanymore,right?”“That’s right, Da Shi. The

spellneedstobebroadcasttothe entire galaxy, but thesun’sbeenlockeddown,soitcan’tbesentanymore.”“Was humanity just a step

late?”ShiQiangflickedasidehis cigarette end. The flamedrew an arc through thedarkness as it fell,momentarily illuminating asmallcircleofsandyground.“No,no.Thinkabout it: If

the sun hadn’t been sealedoff, and I had threatenedTrisolaris with sending out aspell against them, whatwouldhavehappened?”“You would’ve been

stonedtodeathlikeReyDiaz.And then they would haveenactedlegislationtoprohibitanyone else from thinkingalongthoselines.”“That’s right, Da Shi.

Because we’ve alreadyrevealedthedistancebetween

the Solar System andTrisolaris as well as ourgeneral heading in theMilkyWay,exposingthelocationofTrisolaris is tantamount toexposing the location of theSolar System. That’s a deathstrategy.Maybewe’re a steplate, but it’s a step thathumanity would never beabletotake.”“You should have

threatened Trisolaris backthen.”

“Things were too weird. Iwasn’t certain about the ideaat the time, so I needed toconfirm it. After all, therewas plenty of time. But thereal reasonwas that, deep inmyheart,Ireallydidn’thavethe mental strength. I don’tthink anyone else would,either.”“Thinkingaboutitnow,we

shouldn’t have gone to seethe mayor today. Thissituation—if theworld learns

about it, then it’s evenmorehopeless. Think about howthefirsttwoWallfacersendedup.”“You’re right. The same

thingwouldhappentome,soIhope thatneitherofussaysanything.Butyoustillcan,ifyouwant.Likesomeoneoncetold me: Either way, I’vefulfilledmyduty.”“Don’t worry, my boy. I

won’tsayanything.”“Regardless, there’s no

longeranyhope.”They walked along the

embankment and to thehighway, where it wasslightly less dark.The sparselights of the residential areain the distance were enoughtoblindthem.“There’s one more thing.

Thatpersonyoumentioned?”LuoJihesitated.“Forgetit.

All youneed to know is thatthe axioms of cosmiccivilization and the theory of

the dark forest were not myinvention.”“Tomorrow I’mgoing into

the city to work with thegovernment. If you need anyhelpinthefuture,justsaytheword.”“DaShi,you’vehelpedme

more than enough. I’ll headintothecitytomorrow,too,tothe Hibernation ImmigrationBureau, to take care ofwakingupmyfamily.”

***

Contrary to Luo Ji’sexpectations, the HibernationImmigrationBureau said thatreawakeningZhuangYanandXiaXiawasstillblocked,andthe bureau’s directormade itclear to him that hisWallfacer powers wereineffective in this regard.Heconsulted Hines andJonathan, who wereunacquaintedwith the details

of the situation,but they toldhimthattherevisedWallfacerAct contained a provisionstating that the UN andWallfacer ProjectCommission could take allnecessarystepstoensurethatthe Wallfacer remainedfocused on his work. Whichmeant that, after twocenturies, the UN was onceagainusingLuoJi’ssituationasatooltocoerceandcontrolhim.

Luo Ji requested that hishibernator settlement remaininitscurrentstateandbekeptfree of outside harassment.This request was faithfullyexecuted. The news mediaand the masses of pilgrimswere kept at a distance, andafter calm was restoredthroughoutNewLifeVillage#5, it was like nothing at allhadhappened.Two days later, Luo Ji

attended the first hearing of

therevivedWallfacerProject.He didn’t go to theunderground UNheadquarters in NorthAmerica, but attended byvideo link from his spartanresidenceinNewLifeVillage#5, where scenes from theassembly appeared on theordinary television in hisroom.“WallfacerLuoJi,wewere

prepared to faceyouranger,”thecommissionchairsaid.

“My heart has been burntto ash. It no longer has thecapacity for anger,” Luo Jisaid, reclining lazily on thesofa.The chair nodded. “That’s

a wonderful attitude.However, the commissionfeelsyouought to leaveyourvillage. That little place isn’taworthycommandcenterforthe defense of the SolarSystem.”“Do you know about

Xibaipo?It’sanevensmallervillage not far from here.Overtwocenturiesago,that’swhere our nation’s founderscommandedoneofthelargestoffensivesinhistory.”26The chair shook his head.

“Clearlyyouhaven’tchangedat all. Very well. Thecommission respects yourhabits and choices. Youshould get to work. It’s notgoing to be like back then,withyouclaimingthatyou’re

alwaysatwork,isit?”“I can’t work. The

conditions for my work nolongerexist.Canyouharnessstellarpowertobroadcastmyspellintotheuniverse?”The representative of the

AsianFleet said, “Youknowthat’s impossible. Thedroplet’sradiosuppressionofthesuniscontinuous.Andwedon’t anticipate that it willstopforthenexttwoorthreeyears,bywhichtimethenine

other droplets will havereachedtheSolarSystem.”“Thenthere’snothingIcan

do.”The chair said, “No,

WallfacerLuoJi.There’soneimportant thing you haven’tdone. You haven’t disclosedthe secret of the spell to theUN and SFJC. How did youuseittodestroyastar?”“Ican’ttellyouthat.”“Andifitwereacondition

for reawakening your wife

andchild?”“That’s a despicable thing

tosayatatimelikethis.”“This is a secret hearing.

Besides,theWallfacerProjectdoesn’t have any place inmodern society. The revivalof the Wallfacer Projectmeansthatalldecisionsmadeby the UN’s WallfacerProject Commission twocenturies ago are still ineffect.Andaccordingtothoseresolutions, Zhuang Yan and

yourchildwouldreawakenattheDoomsdayBattle.”“Didn’t we just fight the

DoomsdayBattle?”“The two Internationals

don’tthinkso,sincethemainTrisolaran Fleet has yet toarrive.”“Keeping the secret of the

spellismyresponsibilityasaWallfacer. Otherwise,humanity will lose its lasthope, though that hope mayalreadybegone.”

In the days following thehearing,LuoJistayedinside,drinking heavily, and spentmostofhis time inastateofintoxication. Peopleoccasionallysawhimemergewith his clothes disheveledandhisbeardlong.Helookedlikeatramp.When the next Wallfacer

Project hearing wasconvened, Luo Ji againattendedfromhome.“Wallfacer Luo Ji, your

conditionhasusworried,”thechair said when he saw LuoJi’s unkempt appearance inthe video. He directed thecameraaroundLuoJi’sroom,and the assembly could seethat it was littered withbottles.“Yououghttogettowork,

ifonlytorestoreyourselftoanormal state of mind,” therepresentative of theEuropean Commonwealthsaid.

“You know what willreturnmetonormal.”“The reawakening of your

wifeandchild really isn’tallthat important,” the chairsaid. “We don’t want to usethattocontrolyou.Weknowthatwecan’tcontrolyou.Butit’s a resolutionmade by theprevious commission, soaddressing the issue presentssome difficulties. Bottomline: There must be acondition.”

“Irejectyourcondition.”“No, no, Dr. Luo. The

conditionhaschanged.”At the chair’s words, Luo

Ji’seyeslitup,andhesatupstraight on the sofa. “Andnowtheconditionis…”“It’s simple. Couldn’t be

simpler.You just have to dosomething.”“If I can’t senda spellout

into the universe, there’snothingIcando.”“You have to think of

somethingtodo.”“You mean, it could be

somethingmeaningless?”“So long as it looks

significant to the public. Intheir eyes, you’re either thespokesman of the force ofcosmic justice or a heaven-sent angel of justice. At theveryleast,theseidentitiescanbe used to stabilize thesituation. But if you donothing, you’ll lose the faithofthepublicafterawhile.”

“Achieving stability thatwayisdangerous.It’llleadtonoendoftrouble.”“But what we need right

now is to stabilize theglobalsituation. The nine dropletsare coming to the SolarSysteminthreeyears,andwehave to be prepared to dealwiththat.”“I really don’t want to

wasteresources.”“In that case, the

commissionwill provide you

with a task. One that won’twaste resources. I’ll ask thechairman of the SFJC toexplain it to you,” the chairsaid as he gestured to theSFJCchairman,whowasalsoattending via video. TheSFJCchairmanwasevidentlyin some space-basedstructure, because the starswere shifting slowly acrossthe broad window behindhim.He said, “Our estimate of

thearrivaloftheninedropletsin the Solar System is basedentirely on speed andacceleration estimatesobtained when they crossedthe final interstellar dustcloud four years ago. Theydiffer from the one that’salready here in that theirengines operate withoutemitting light. They don’temit any other high-frequency electromagneticradiationthatcouldprovidea

position.Thisislikelyaself-adjustment made afterhumanity successfullytracked the first droplet.Locating and tracking suchsmall, dark bodies in outerspace is incredibly difficult,andnowthatwe’velost theirtracks, we don’t know whenthey’ll reach the SolarSystem.Wedon’tevenknowhow to detect that they’vearrived.”“SowhatcanIdo?”LuoJi

asked.“Wehopethatyoucanlead

theSnowProject.”“What’sthat?”“Using stellar hydrogen

bombs and Neptune’s oilfilm, we will manufactureclouds of space dust that thedroplets will leave tracks inwhentheypassthrough.”“You’ve got to be joking.

You do realize that I’m notentirely ignorant aboutspace.”

“You were an astronomeronce. That makes you evenmore qualified to lead thisproject.”“Making a dust cloudwas

successful last time becausethe approximate path of thetarget was known. But nowweknownothing. If theninedroplets accelerate or changecourse while dark, then theymight even enter the SolarSystem from another sidealtogether! Where are you

going to spread the dustcloud?”“Ineverydirection.”“You mean to say that

you’re going to manufacturea ball of dust to envelop theentireSolarSystem?If that’sthe case, then you’re the onewho’sbeensentbyGod.”“A ball of dust is

impossible, butwe canmakea ring of dust on the eclipticplane, between the asteroidbeltandJupiter.”

“But what if the dropletsenter outside the eclipticplane?”“That can’t behelped.But

from an astrodynamicsperspective, if the dropletgroup wants to encounterevery planet in the SolarSystem, then the greatestlikelihood is entry on theeclipticplane.That’swhatthefirst droplet did. That way,thedustcloudwillbeabletocapturetheirtracks,and,once

captured, the Solar System’soptical tracking system willbeabletolockontothem.”“But what’s the point of

that?”“We’ll at least know that

thedropletgrouphasenteredtheSolarSystem.Theymightstrike civilian targets inspace, so all ships will needto be recalled, or at leastthose in the droplets’ path.And the inhabitants of spacecities will have to be

evacuated to Earth, becausethoseareweaktargets.”“There’s another matter

that’sevenmorecritical,”theWallfacer ProjectCommission chair said.“Identifying safe routes forthe possible withdrawal ofspacecraftintodeepspace.”“Withdrawal into deep

space? We’re not talkingaboutEscapism,arewe?”“If you must use that

name.”

“Whynotbegintheescapenow?”“Present political

conditions do not permit it.But when the droplet groupapproaches Earth, a limited-scale flight might becomeacceptabletotheinternationalcommunity. Of course, it’sonlyapossibility.ButtheUNand the fleets must makepreparationsforit.”“I understand. But the

Snow Project doesn’t really

requireme.”“It does. Even inside the

orbit of Jupiter, creating adust cloud is an enormousundertaking and will requirethedeploymentofalmost tenthousand stellar hydrogenbombs,morethantenmilliontons of oil film, and theformation of an enormousspace fleet. To accomplishthat within three yearsrequires taking advantage ofyour current status and

prestige to organize andcoordinate the resources ofthetwoInternationals.”“IfIagreetoundertakethis

mission,whenwillyouwakethem?”“Once the project is

started. Like I said, it won’tbeaproblem.”

***

But the Snow Project nevergotfullyofftheground.

The two Internationalswere not interested in theproject. What the publicwanted was a strategy forglobal salvation, not a planthat would merely informthem of the enemy’s arrivalso they could escape.Besides, they knew that thiswasn’ttheWallfacer’sidea.Itwas just a plan implementedby the UN and SFJC thatexploitedhisauthority.Afulllaunch of the Snow Project

would bring the entire spaceeconomy to a standstill andlead to a general economicrecessiononEarthand in thefleet. In addition, contrary tothe UN’s prediction, as thedroplets drew nearer,Escapism turned even morerepugnant in the eyes of thepublic, so the twoInternationalswere unwillingto pay such a high price foran unpopular plan. As aresult, both the construction

ofafleettogathertheoilfilmmaterial on Neptune and themanufacture of sufficientstellar hydrogen bombs tosupplement the fewer thanone thousand from the GreatRavine that were still usablemadeveryslowprogress.But Luo Ji poured himself

entirely into the project. Atfirst, the UN and the SFJChadonlywantedtoexploithisprestige to mobilize theresources needed, but Luo Ji

immersed himself in everydetailoftheproject,spendingsleepless nights shoulder-to-shoulder with the scientistsand engineers of theTechnical Committee andproposing many of his ownideas. For example, hesuggested that a smallinterstellar ion engine beinstalled onto each bomb toallow them a certain degreeofmobility in orbit, enablingtimely adjustments to the

densityof thestellarcloudindifferent regions. Moreimportantly, the hydrogenbombs could act as attackweapons. He called them“space mines,” and arguedthat even though stellarhydrogen bombs had provenincapable of destroyingdroplets, they might in thelong run be useful againstTrisolaranships,becausetheyhadnoevidencethattheshipswere also constructed out of

strong-interaction material.Hepersonallydetermined theorbit for every bomb’sdeployment. From a moderntechnologicalperspective,hisideasmayhavebeenfullofatwenty-first-centuryignoranceandnaiveté,buthisprestige andWallfacer statusmeant that most of hissuggestionswereadopted.Luo Ji treated the Snow

Projectasameansofescape.He knew that he wanted to

escape reality, and the bestwaytodothatatpresentwasto involve himself deeply inthe project. But the more hedevoted himself to it, themoredisappointedinhimtheworld became. Everyoneknew he had only attachedhimself to the largelyinsignificant project so thathe could see his wife andchildassoonaspossible.Theworld waited for a plan forsalvation that never

materialized. Luo Ji declaredover and over in the mediathatwithout the capability touse stellar power to send outa spell, he was powerless todoanything.The Snow Project ground

to a halt after a year and ahalf, at which time only 1.5million tons of oil film hadbeencollectedfromNeptune.Evenaddingthe600,000tonscollected for the FogUmbrella, thefigurewasstill

far from what the projectrequired. Ultimately, 3,614stellar hydrogen bombspacked in oil film weredeployed in anorbit twoAUfrom the sun. This wasn’teven a fifth of the intendednumber. When detonated,they would form a largenumber of independent dustcloudsorbitingthesun,ratherthan a continuous dust cloudbelt, greatly reducing theireffectivenessasawarning.

It was an age in whichhope came as quickly asdisappointment, and afteranxiously waiting for a yearand a half, the public lostfaith and patience in Luo JitheWallfacer.At the general meeting of

the InternationalAstronomical Union, a bodythat last attracted worldwideattention in 2006 when itrevoked Pluto’s eligibility asa planet, a large number of

astronomers andastrophysicists were of theopinion that the explosion of187J3X1 was a chanceoccurrence. Being anastronomer,LuoJimayhavediscovered certain signs thatthe star would explode. Thetheory was full of holes, butmore and more people cametobelieveit,acceleratingLuoJi’sdeclineinprestige.Intheeyes of the public, his imagegradually transitioned from

messiah to commoner, andthentofraud.Hestillenjoyedthe Wallfacer status grantedbytheUN,andtheWallfacerActwasstill ineffect,buthenolongerhadrealpower.

Year208,CrisisEra

DistanceoftheTrisolaranFleetfromtheSolarSystem:2.07light-years

On a cold, drizzly autumn

afternoon, a meeting of theNew Life Village #5Residents’ Council came tothefollowingdecision:LuoJiwould be expelled from theneighborhoodon thegroundsthat he was affecting thenormal life of theneighborhood’s residents.While the Snow Project wasin progress, Luo Ji hadfrequently gone out to attendmeetings, but themajority ofhistimewasstillspentinthe

area, and he kept in contactwith various Snow Projectentities from home.Disruptions had onlyworsened as his positiondeclined, since from time totimecrowdsofpeoplewouldgather at the foot of hisbuilding to jeer at him orthrow stones at his window.Media interest in thespectacle was enough tomake reporters as numerousas protestors. But the real

reasonforLuoJi’sexpulsionwas that he was an utterdisappointment to thehibernators.When the meeting

adjourned that evening, theneighborhood committeedirector went to Luo Ji’shome to inform him of thecouncil’s decision. Afterpressing the doorbellrepeatedly, she pushed openthe unlatched door andpracticallychokedonthemix

ofalcohol, smoke,and sweatthat filled the room. Shenoticed that the walls hadbeenconvertedintocity-styleinformation surfaces thatallowed information screenstobecalledupanywherewithjust a tap. A confusion ofimages filled thewalls,mostof them displaying complexdata and curves, but thelargest showing a spheresuspended in space: a stellarhydrogenbombpackedinoil

film. The transparent filmwith thebombclearlyvisiblewithin it reminded thedirector of amarble, the sortofthingchildrenlikedtoplaywith back in Luo Ji’s day. Itrotated slowly. There was asmall protrusion at one pole—the ionengine—and in thesphere’s smooth surface wasthe reflection of a tiny sun.All of those dazzling screensturned the room into a hugegaudy box. Since the lights

were off, theywere the onlysource of illumination,dissolving everything intoblurry color so that it washard at first to distinguishwhatwasaphysicalpresenceandwhatwasjustanimage.Once the director’s eyes

hadadapted,shesawthattheplace looked like thebasementofadrugaddict,thefloor litteredwithbottlesandcigarette ends, the piles ofclothes covered in ash like a

garbageheap.Sheeventuallymanaged to locate Luo Jiamong the garbage. He wascurled up in a corner, blackagainst the backdrop of theimageslikeawitheredbranchthat had been cast aside. Shethoughthewasasleepatfirst,but then noticed that hissightless gaze was fixed onthe piles of garbage on theground. His eyes werebloodshot, his face haggard,his body gaunt, and he

seemedunable to supporthisown weight. When he heardthe director he greeted herandturnedtowardherslowly,then justasslowlynoddedather, so that sheknewhewasstill alive. But the twocenturies of torment that hadaccumulated in his body hadnow completelyoverwhelmedhim.The director didn’t show

the slightest bit of mercytoward this man who had

been totally used up. Likeother people of their era, shehad always felt that,regardless of how dark theworld seemed, ultimatejustice was still present insome unseen place. Luo Jihad first validated that beliefandthenmercilesslyshatteredit, and her disappointmentwithhimhadturnedtoshameand then anger. Coldly, sheannounced the results of themeeting.

Luo Ji nodded slowly asecond time, then forced avoice through his swollenthroat.“I’llleavetomorrow.Iought to be going. If I’vedone anything wrong, I askforyourforgiveness.”It was only two days later

that the director learned thetrue meaning of his finalwords.In fact, Luo Ji had been

planning on leaving thatnight. After seeing the

neighborhood committeedirector off, he roseunsteadily to his feet andwent into the bedroom insearchof a travel bag,whichhe packed with a few items,including a short-handledshovel he had found in thestorage room. The shovel’striangular handle poked outof the travel bag. Then heretrieved a filthy jacket fromthe floor,put it on, slung thebagacrosshisback,andwent

out. Behind him, the room’sinformation walls continuedtoflash.The hallway was empty,

butatthefootofthestairsheran into a kid, probably justhome from school, whostaredatLuoJiwithastrangeand unreadable expression ashe left the building. Outside,he found that it was stillraining,buthedidn’twanttogobackforanumbrella.Hedidn’tgotohisowncar

becausethatwouldattracttheattention of the guards.Walking along the street, helefttheneighborhoodwithoutrunningintoanyone.Thenhewalkedthroughtheprotectiveforest belt outside theneighborhood and he was inthe desert, the drizzlesprinklingonhisfacelikethelight caress of a pair of coldhands. Desert and sky werehazy in the dusk, like theblank space of a traditional

painting. He imaginedhimself added to that blankspace, like the painting thatZhuangYanhadleftbehind.He reached the highway,

and after a few minutes wasable to flag down a carcarrying a family of three,who warmly welcomed himaboard. They werehibernatorsontheirwaybacktotheoldcity.Thechildwassmall and themother young,and theywere squeezed next

tothefatherinthefrontseat,whispering to each other.Occasionally the childwouldburrow his head into hismother’s bosom, andwhenever this happened thethree of them burst outlaughing. Luo Ji watched,spellbound, but he couldn’thear what they were sayingbecausemusicwasplayinginthe car, old songs from thetwentiethcentury.Helistenedas he rode, and after five or

six songs, including“Katyusha” and “Kalinka,”he was filled with a longingto hear “Tonkaya Ryabina.”Hehad sung that song to hisimaginary lover on thatvillage stage two centuriesago, and later with ZhuangYanintheGardenofEdenonthe shore of the lake thatreflectedthesnowypeaks.Then the headlights of an

oncomingcar illuminated thebackseat as the child was

glancing backwards. HeturnedentirelyaroundtostareatLuoJi,thenshouted,“Hey,he looks like theWallfacer!”The child’s parents turned tolookathim,andLuoJihadtoadmitthathewas.Just then, “Tonkaya

Ryabina”startedplaying.Thecarstopped.“Getout,”

thechild’s father saidcoldly,asmother and child watchedhim with expressions aschilly as the autumn rain

outside.Luo Ji didn’t move. He

wantedtolistentothesong.“Please get out,” the man

said, and Luo Ji could readthe words in their eyes: Notbeing able to save the worldisn’tyourfault,butgivingtheworld hope only to shatter itagainisanunforgiveablesin.Sohehadtogetoutofthe

car.Histravelbagwastossedout after him. As the cardroveoff,heranafteritfora

few steps in the hopes ofbeingable to listen toa littlemore of “Tonkaya Ryabina,”butthesongdisappearedintothecold,rainynight.Bynowhewasattheedge

oftheoldcity.Theoldhigh-rises of the pastwere visibleinthedistance,standingblackin the rainy night, eachbuilding’sfewscatteredlightslooking like lonely eyes. Hecame across a bus stop andsatshieldedfromtherainfor

nearly an hour before adriverless public bus finallyarrivedthatwasheadedinthedirection hewanted to go. Itwas mostly empty, and thesixorsevenpeoplewhowereseated there looked likehibernators fromtheoldcity.Nooneonthebusspoke,justsat silently in the gloom ofthis autumn night. Thejourneypassedsmoothlyuntila little over an hour later,when someone else

recognized him, and theneveryone on the busunanimously asked him toleave.He argued that he hadpaid the credits to buy aticket, so surely he had theright to a seat, but a gray-haired oldman took out twocashcoins—rarelyseen thesedays—and tossed them athim. So in the end he wasforcedoffthebus.As the bus started up,

someonestuck theirheadout

the window to ask,“Wallfacer, what are youdoingwiththatshovel?”“I’m digging my own

grave,”LuoJisaid,toaburstoflaughterfromthebus.No one knew that he was

tellingthetruth.The rain was still coming

down.Therewouldn’tbeanymore cars now, butfortunately he wasn’t too farfrom his destination. Heshouldered his backpack and

headedoff.Afterwalkingforabouthalfanhour,he turnedoff the highway and onto apath.Itgotmuchdarkerawayfrom the road lamps, so hetook a flashlight out of hisbag to illuminate the groundunderhisfeet.Thepathgrewmoredifficult,andhissoddenshoessquishedontheground.He slipped time and againinto themud, which coveredhisbody,andhehadtoresortto using the shovel from his

bagasawalkingstick.Allhecould see ahead of him wasfogandrain,butheknewthathe was walking in the rightgeneraldirection.Afterwalkinganotherhour

through the rainy night, hereachedthecemetery.Halfofit was buried beneath thesand, while the half onslightly higher ground wasstill exposed. He used theflashlight to search the rowsof headstones, ignoring the

imposing monuments andonly looking at theinscriptions on the smallerstones. Rainwater on thestones reflected the light likeflashingeyes.Henoticedthatalloftheheadstoneshadbeenerected in the late twentiethand early twenty-firstcenturies.Those peoplewerefortunate—in their lastmoments, they must havebelieved that the world theylivedinwouldexistforever.

Hedidn’thavemuchhopethat he would find theheadstonehewaslookingfor,but,asitturnedout,hefounditquickly.Theoddthingwas,despite the passage of twocenturies, he recognized itwithout even looking at theinscription.Maybe itwas thewash of the rain, but theheadstone showed no tracesof time. The inscription,GRAVEOFYANGDONG, seemedlikeithadbeencutyesterday.

YeWenjie’sgravesatbesideher daughter’s, the twotombstones identical apartfrom the inscription. YeWenjie’sboreonlyhernameandthedatesofherbirthanddeath, reminding him of thesmall tablet at the ruins ofRed Coast Base, a memorialfor the forgotten. The twoheadstones stood silently inthe night rain, as if they’dbeen waiting for Luo Ji’sarrival.

He felt tired, so he satdown next to Ye Wenjie’sgrave, but he soon began toshiver from the rain’s chill.Graspingtheshovel,hestoodupand,next to thegravesofmother and daughter, begandigginghisown.At first, digging into the

wet ground required littleeffort, but as he got fartherdown, the earth turned hardand was littered with stones,whichmade him feel like he

was digging into themountain itself. He at oncefelt both the power and thepowerlessness of time:Maybe only a thin layer ofsandhadbeendepositedoverthe course of two centuries,but the long geologic agewhen humans were notpresent had produced themountain that now housedthese graves. He dug withgreat effort, restingfrequently, and the night

slippedawayunnoticed.Sometime after midnight,

therainstopped,andthentheclouds parted to reveal someof the starry sky.Thesewerethebrighteststars thatLuoJihadseensincearrivinginthisage. On that evening 210years ago,he andYeWenjiehad stood facing the samestars.Nowhesawonly the stars

and the headstones, the twogreatestsymbolsofeternity.

Finally, he ran out ofstaminaandcouldn’tdiganymore. Looking at the pit hehaddug,hesawthat itwasalittle shallowforagrave,butit would have to do. Doingthiswasnothingmore thanareminder to others that hewished to be buried on thisspot,anyway.Hismostlikelyresting place would be thecrematorium,wherehewouldbe burnt to ashes and thendiscarded in some unknown

place. But it didn’t reallymatter. It was highly likelythat shortly after his death,his remains would join theworldinanevengranderfireand be reduced to individualatoms.Resting against Ye

Wenjie’s headstone, hequickly dropped off to sleep.Perhapsitwasbecauseofthecold, but he once againdreamed of the snowy field.On it he saw Zhuang Yan

holding Xia Xia, her scarflike a flame. She and thechildwerecallingsoundlesslyto him. He shouted backdesperately for them to leavethisplacebecausethedropletwould strike right here, buthis vocal cords produced nosound. It was like the entireworld had gone mute, andeverything stayed absolutelysilent. But Zhuang Yanseemedtounderstandwhathemeant and walked far across

the snowy field holding thechild, leaving a string offootprints in the snow like afaintinkmarkonatraditionalpainting. The snow wasblank, and the inkmarkwasall that revealed the land,revealed the existence of theworld. The impendingdestruction was all-encompassing, but it was adestruction that had nothingtodowiththedroplet.…Oncemore, Luo Ji’s heart

tore painfully and his handsclutchedattheairinvain,butintheblanknessofthesnowyfield, therewas only ZhuangYan’s distant form, now asmall black dot. He lookedabout him, hoping to findanythingelsethatwasreal intheblankworld.As it turnedout, he found it: two blacktombstones standing side bysideonthesnowyground.Atfirst they were eye-catchingin the snow, but then their

surface began to change.They turned to mirrors thatrecalled the finish of thedroplet,and their inscriptionsdisappeared. He bent downtoward one of them,wantingto look at himself in themirror,butwhathesawinthemirror wasn’t a reflection.Thesnowyfieldinthemirrordid not have the figure ofZhuang Yan, just a line offaint footprints in the snow.Hewhipped his head around

and saw that the snowy fieldoutside themirrorwas just ablankexpanse—thefootprintshad disappeared. When heturned back to the mirrors,theyreflectedtheblankworldandwerepractically invisiblethemselves. But his handcould still feel their cold,smoothsurface.…Heawokewhenitwasjust

daybreak.Thegraveyardwasclearer in the first light ofdawn, and from his prone

vantage point, thesurroundingheadstonesmadehim feel like he was in aprehistoric Stonehenge. Hehad a high fever, and hisbody’sviolent trembling senthisteethchattering.Hisbodyseemed like a wick that hadburntdryandwasconsumingitself. He knew that the timehadcome.Leaning against Ye

Wenjie’s headstone, he triedtostandup,but thenasmall,

moving black dot caught hisattention. Ants ought to befairly rareduring thisseason,but it was indeed an antcrawling on the stone. Likeits fellow ant two centuriesbefore,itwasattractedbytheinscription and devoted itselfto exploring the mysteriouscrisscrossing trenches. LuoJi’s heart experienced a lastspasmof pain as hewatchedit, this time for all life onEarth.

“If I’ve done anythingwrong, I’msorry,”hesaid totheant.Hestoodupwithdifficulty,

trembling weakly. He had tosupport himself on theheadstonetobeabletostand.Reaching out a hand, hestraightenedhissoaked,mud-covered clothing and wildhair,thengropedinhisjacketpocket for a metal tube: afullychargedpistol.Then, facing the dawn in

the east, he began a finalshowdown between thecivilization of Earth and thecivilizationofTrisolaris.

***

“IamspeakingtoTrisolaris,”LuoJisaid.Hisvoicewasn’tloud. He thought aboutrepeating himself, but heknew that they could hearhim.Nothing changed. The

headstones stood quietly inthe stillness of the dawn.Puddles on the groundreflected the brightening skylikecountlessmirrors,givingtheillusionthattheEarthwasa mirrored sphere with theground and the world just athin layer on top. The rain’serosion had exposed smallpiecesofthesphere’ssmoothsurface.Itwasaworldthathadnot

awakened yet, and didn’t

know that itwas now a chipplacedonacosmicgamblingtable.LuoJiraisedhis lefthand,

revealing an object on hiswrist the size of a watch.“This isavitalsignsmonitorlinked through a transmitterto a cradle system. Youremember Wallfacer ReyDiaz from twocenturiesago,so you certainly know aboutcradle systems. The signalsentfromthismonitortravels

thelinksofthecradlesystemto the Snow Project’s 3,614bombs deployed in solarorbit.The signal is sentonceevery second tomaintain thebombs in a non-triggeredstate. If I die, the system’smaintenance signal willvanish and all of the bombswill detonate, turning the oilfilm surrounding the bombsinto 3,614 interstellar dustclouds ringing the sun. Froma distance, the sun’s visible

light and other high-frequency bands will appearto flicker through the dustcloud coverage. The positionof every bomb has beenprecisely arranged in solarorbit so that this flickeringwill generate a signaltransmitting three simpleimages of the sort I sent outtwo centuries ago: eachimage an arrangement ofthirty points, with onelabeled, for composition into

a three-dimensionalcoordinate diagram. But,unlike last time, the positionwill contain the transmissionof Trisolaris relative to itssurrounding twenty-ninestars. The sun will be agalactic lighthouse castingthat spell, in the process, ofcourse, also exposing thepositionofthesunandEarth.To receive the entiretransmission at any singlepoint in the galaxy will take

more than a year, but thereought to bemore than a fewcivilizations that have thetechnologytoobservethesunfrommultiplevantagepoints.If that’s the case, they mayonlyneedafewdays,orevena fewhours, toobtainall theinformationtheyneed.”Asdaylightbrightened,the

starswentoutonebyonelikethe gradual shutting ofinnumerableeyes,evenasthemorning sky slowly opened

in theeast likea singlegianteye. The ant continued itsclimb, threading themaze ofYe Wenjie’s name on hergravestone. Its species hadbeen living on the Earth ahundredmillion years beforethe emergence of thisgambler who now leaned onthestone.Eventhoughithadno care for what was nowhappening, it held a stake intheworld.Luo Ji left the gravestones

and stood beside the pit hehad dug for himself. Heplaced the tipof thepistol tohisheartandsaid,“Now,I’mgoing to stop the beating ofmyheart.Bydoingso, Iwillbe committing the greatestcrime in the history of ourtwo worlds. I express mydeepest apologies to our twocivilizationsforthecrimethatI commit, but I have noregrets, because this is theonly option. I know the

sophons are nearby, but youhaveignoredhumanity’scall.Silenceisthegreatestformofcontempt,andwehaveputupwith this contempt for twocenturies. Now, if you wish,you can continue to remainsilent. I will give you thirtyseconds.”Hemarked time according

to his pulse, counting twobeats to a second since hisheart was beating so rapidly,but in his heightened anxiety

he startedoffwrongandhadto begin again. So hewasn’tcertain how much time hadpassed by the time thesophons appeared. Possiblyless than ten seconds inobjective time, butsubjectively, it took alifetime. He saw the worldbeforehiseyessplitintofourparts:onepartmadeupofthereal world that surroundedhim; the other three,deformed images in three

spheres that appearedsuddenly overhead, whosemirror surfaces were exactlylike the gravestones he hadseen in his last dream. Hedidn’t know which of thesophons’ dimensionalunfoldings this was, but thethree spheres were bigenough to cover half the skyabove him, blocking out thebrightening light in the east.In the spheres’ reflection ofthewesternsky,hecouldsee

a few lingeringstars, and thebottom of the spheresreflected a deformedgraveyardandhisownimage.What he most wanted toknow was why there werethree of them. His firstthought was that theysymbolized Trisolaris, justlike the work of art that YeWenjie had seen at the finalETO gathering. But lookingat what the spheres reflected—an uncommonly clear,

albeit deformed, picture ofreality—hehadthesensethatthey were entrances to threeparallel worlds, implyingthreepossiblechoices.But what he saw next

negated this notion, becausethe three spheres flashed thesameword:

Stop!

“CanIdiscussterms?”LuoJi asked, looking up at the

threespheres.

First put down the gun, and then wecandiscussterms.

The words displayedsimultaneouslyonthespheresin letters that glowed astriking red. He saw nodeformation in the line oftext. It was straight, andseemed as if it was both onthe surface of andwithin thespheres.Heremindedhimselfthat he was looking at a

projection of higher-dimensional space into athree-dimensionalworld.“This is not a negotiation.

These are my demands, if Iamtogoonliving.AllIwishtoknowiswhetherornotyouaccept.”

Stateyourdemands.

“Havethedroplet,orratherthe probe, cease itstransmissions toward the

sun.”

Ithasbeendoneasyouask.

The spheres’ answer wasfaster thanheanticipated.Hehadnowaytoverifyitatthemoment,buthesensedsubtlechanges in his surroundings,as if a background noisewhose continued existencemeant it had escaped notice,had disappeared. Of course,this could be an illusion,

since humans don’t senseelectromagneticradiation.“Have theninedropletsen

route to the Solar Systemchange course immediatelyandflyaway.”This time the answer from

thethreesphereswasdelayedbyafewseconds.

Ithasbeendoneasyouask.

“Please give humanity themeanstoverifythis.”

Thenineprobeswillemitvisiblelight.Your Ringier-Fitzroy Telescope willbeabletodetectthem.

This was still impossiblefor him to verify, but hebelievedTrisolaris.“The final condition: the

Trisolaran Fleet may notcrosstheOortCloud.”

The fleet is now under propulsionpowerformaximumdeceleration.Itisimpossible for it to bring its speedrelative to the sun to zero beforereachingtheOortCloud.

“Then, like the dropletgroup,setacourseawayfromtheSolarSystem.”

Changing course in any direction isdeath.Thiswill cause the fleet to flyby the Solar System and into thedesolation of space. The fleet’s life-support system will not last longenough to return to Trisolaris orsearchforanotherviablestarsystem.

“Death isn’t a certainty.Perhaps human or Trisolaranshipscancatchupandrescuethem.”

ThiswillrequireacommandfromtheHighConsul.

“If changing course is alengthy process, get startedon itnow.Thatwillgivemeand all the other lives achancetoliveon.”Theperiodofsilencelasted

forthreeminutes.Then:

The fleetwillbegin tochangecourseintenEarthminutes.Twoyearsfromnow, human space observationsystems will be able to observe thechangeofheading.

“Good,”LuoJi said,asheremoved the pistol from hischest.Withhisotherhandheleaned on the gravestone,trying not to fall. “Were youalready aware that theuniverseisadarkforest?”

Yes. We knew about it long ago.What’s strange is that you onlyrealized it so late.… Your state ofhealth concerns us. This won’tunintentionally interrupt the cradlesystem’smaintenancesignal,willit?

“No. This device is far

more advanced than ReyDiaz’s.SolongasIamalive,the signal won’t beinterrupted.”

Youreallyshouldsitdown.Thatwillhelpwithyoursituation.

“Thank you,” Luo Ji said,and he sat down against theheadstone.“Don’tworry.I’mnotgoingtodie.”

We are in contact with the highestlevels of the two Internationals. Doyouneedustocallyouanambulance?

He smiled and shook hishead.“No.I’mnotasavior.Ijustwanttoleaveherelikeanordinarypersonandgohome.I’ll rest for a bit and thenbeonmyway.”Two of the three spheres

disappeared. The text on theone that remained, which nolonger glowed, now seemeddimanddreary.

In the end, strategy was where wefailed.

Luo Ji nodded. “Blockingthe sun with dust clouds tosend an interstellar messagewasn’t my invention.Twentieth-centuryastronomers had alreadyproposed the idea. And youactuallyhadmultiplechancestoseethroughme.DuringthedurationoftheSnowProject,for example, I was alwaysconcerned with the preciseplacement of the bombs insolarorbit.”

You spent two whole months in thecontrol roomremotelycontrolling theion engines tomake fine adjustmentsto their positioning. We didn’t careabout that at the time because wethought you were just using themeaningless task as a way to escapereality.We never imagined what thedistance between the bombs reallymeant.

“AnotherchancewaswhenI consulted a group ofphysicists with questionsabout sophon unfoldings inspace. If the ETO was stillaround, they would have

alreadyseenthroughme.”

Yes.Abandoningthemwasamistake.

“Also, I requested that theSnow Project build thispeculiar cradle triggersystem.”

That did remind us of ReyDiaz, butwedidnotpursuethosethoughts.Twocenturies ago, Rey Diaz was not athreat to us, nor were the other twoWallfacers. We transferred ourcontemptforthemontoyou.

“Your contempt for them

was unfair. Those threeWallfacers were greatstrategists. They saw clearlythe inevitable fact ofhumanity’s defeat in theDoomsdayBattle.”

Perhapswecanbeginnegotiations.

“That’snotmyaffair,”LuoJi said, and let out a longsigh.Hefeltasrelaxedandascomfortable as if he had justbeenborn.

Yes, you’ve fulfilled the Wallfacermission.Butyou’vegottohavesomesuggestions.

“Humanity’s negotiatorswill no doubt first proposethatyouhelpusbuildabettersignal transmission system,so thatwe’ll have the abilityto transmit a spell into spaceat any time.Even though thedroplet has lifted its seal onthesun,thepresentsystemistooprimitive.”

We can help build a neutrinotransmissionsystem.

“They may, as far as Iunderstand things, be moreinclined toward gravitationalwaves. After the sophonsarrived, this was the area inwhich human physicsprogressed furthest. Ofcourse, they’ll need a systemwhose principles they canunderstand.”

The antennas for gravitational waves

areimmense.

“That’s between you andthem.It’sstrange.RightnowIdon’t feel likeamemberofthe human race.My greatestdesire is tobe ridof it all assoonaspossible.”

Next they’ll ask us to lift the sophonblock and teach science andtechnologyacrosstheboard.

“This is important to youas well. The technology of

Trisolaris has developed at aconstant speed, and twocenturies later, you stillhaven’t sent a faster follow-upfleet.InordertorescuethedivertedTrisolaranFleet,youhave to rely on the future ofhumanity.”

Imust go. Are you really able to goback on your own? The survival oftwocivilizationshingesonyourlife.

“No problem. I feel muchbetter now. After I go back,

I’ll immediately hand overthe cradle system, and thenI’ll have nomore to dowithallof this.Finally,I’dliketosaythankyou.”

Why?

“Because you let me live.Or, if you think about it adifferentway:Youletusbothlive.”The sphere vanished,

returning to its eleven-

dimensional microscopicstate.Acornerofthesunwaspeeking out in the east,casting gold across a worldthathadsurviveddestruction.Luo Ji slowly stood up.

AftertakingalastlookatthegravestonesofYeWenjieandYang Dong, he stumbledslowlybackthewayhecame.The ant had reached the

summit of the headstone andproudly waved its feelers atthe rising sun.Out of all life

on Earth, it was the onlywitnesstowhathadjusttakenplace.

FiveYearsLater

Luo Ji and his family couldsee the gravitational-waveantennainthedistance,butit

was still another half-hourdrive away. Only when theyarrived did they get a realsense of its enormous size.The antenna, a horizontalcylinder a kilometer and ahalf long and fifty meters indiameter, was entirelysuspended about two metersoff the ground. Its surfacewasmirror-smooth, half of itreflectingtheskyandhalfthenorthern China plain. Itreminded people of a few

things: the giant pendulumsof theThreeBody world, thesophons’ lower-dimensionalunfoldings, and the droplet.Themirroredobject reflecteda Trisolaran concept thathumanity was still trying tofigure out. In thewords of awell-known Trisolaransaying, “Hiding the selfthroughafaithfulmappingofthe universe is the only pathintoeternity.”The antenna was

surrounded by a big greenmeadow that formed a smalloasisinthedesertofnorthernChina, but this meadow hadnot been specially planted.Once the gravitational-wavesystemhadbeencompleted,itbegan sending continuous,unmodulated emissions thatwere indistinguishable fromthe gravitational wavesemitted from supernovae,neutron stars, or black holes.The density of the

gravitational beam had apeculiar effect in theatmosphere: Water vaporcollected above it, so that itfrequently rained in theantenna’s vicinity. At times,the rain only fell within aradius of three or fourkilometers, and a small,circularraincloudwouldhangin the air above the antennalike a giant flying saucer,leaving the brilliant sunshinein the surrounding area

visible through the rain.Andso this area grew lush withwild vegetation. But today,LuoJiandhisfamilydidnotwitness that spectacle.Instead, they saw whiteclouds gather over theantenna, only to dissipatewhen the wind blew themawayfromthebeam.Yetnewclouds were continuallyforming, making the roundpatchofskyseemlikeatimewormhole to some other

cloud universe. Xia Xia saidthat it looked like the whitehairofagiantoldman.As the child ran about on

thegrass,LuoJiandZhuangYan followed behind, untiltheyreachedtheantenna.Thefirst two gravitational-wavesystemswerebuilt inEuropeand North America, andemployedmagnetic levitationthat suspended them a fewcentimeters from the base.But this antenna used

antigravity, and could havebeenraisedupintospaceifsodesired. The three of themstoodonthegrassbeneaththeantenna, looking up at thehugecylindercurlingupovertheir heads like the sky. Itslargeradiusgavethebottomalow curvature, which meanttherewasnodistortioninthereflected image. The settingsun now shone beneath theantenna, and, in thereflection, Luo Ji could see

Zhuang Yan’s long hair andwhite dress fluttering in thegolden sunlight like an angellookingdownfromthesky.He lifted up the child and

she touched the antenna’ssmoothsurface,pressinghardinonedirection.“CanImakeitturn?”“If you push long enough,

youcan,”ZhuangYansaid—then,lookingatLuoJiwithasmile,asked,“Right?”He nodded at her. “With

enoughtime,shecouldmovetheEarth.”As had occurred so many

times before, their eyes metand intertwined, acontinuationofthatgazetheyhadheldinfrontoftheMonaLisa’s smile two centuriesbefore. They had discoveredthat the language of the eyesthat Zhuang Yan haddreamed up was now areality, or maybe lovinghumanshadalwayspossessed

this language. When theylooked at each other, arichness of meaning pouredfrom their eyes just as thecloudspouredfromthecloudwell created by thegravitational beam, endlessandunceasing.Butitwasn’talanguage of this world. Itconstructedaworldthatgaveit meaning, and only in thatrosy world did the words ofthe language find theircorresponding referents.

Everyone in that world wasgod; all had the ability toinstantaneously count andremembereverygrainofsandinthedesert;allwereabletostring together stars into acrystal necklace to hangaroundalover’sneck.…

Isthislove?

The lines were displayedon a lower-dimensionalunfolding of a sophon that

appeared abruptly besidethem. The mirrored sphereseemedlikeadropletthathadfallenoffofsomemeltedareaon the cylinder above them.Luo Ji knew few Trisolaransand didn’t know who it waswhowasspeakingtothem,orwhether this one was onTrisolaris or on the fleet thatwas growing increasinglydistant from the SolarSystem.“Probably.”Luo Jinodded

withasmile.

Dr.Luo,Ihavecomeinprotest.

“Why?”

Because in last night’s speech, yousaidthathumanityhadbeensolatetorealize the dark forest nature of theuniverse not because your immaturestate of cultural evolution caused alackofawarenessoftheuniverse,butbecausehumanityhaslove.

“Isn’tthatcorrect?”

It’scorrect,thoughtheword“love”isa little vague in the context of

scientificdiscourse.Butwhatyousaidnext was incorrect. You said thathumanityisprobablytheonlyspeciesin the universe to have love, and it’sthisnotionthatsupportedyouthroughthe most difficult period of yourWallfacermission.

“That’sonlyanexpression,of course. Just anonrigorous…analogy.”

IknowthatatleastTrisolarishaslove.But because it was not conducive tothe civilization’s overall survival, itwas suppressedwhen ithadonly justgerminated.Yet the seed possesses astubbornvitality,andwillstillgrowincertainindividuals.

“MayIaskwhoyouare?”

We’ve nevermet. I was the operatorwho transmitted thewarning toEarthtwoandahalfcenturiesago.

“My god, and you’re stillalive?” Zhuang Yanexclaimed.

Iwon’tbeformuchlonger.I’vebeenin a dehydrated state, but over thelong years, even a dehydrated bodywill age. However, I have seen thefutureIhopedtosee,andforthisIamhappy.

“Please accept ourrespects,”LuoJisaid.

I only wish to discuss with you onepossibility: Perhaps seeds of love arepresentinotherplacesintheuniverse.Weoughttoencouragethemtosproutandgrow.

“That’sagoalworthtakingrisksfor.”

Yes,wecantakerisks.

“I have a dream that oneday brilliant sunlight will

illuminatethedarkforest.”The sun was setting. Now

only its tip was exposedbeyondthedistantmountains,as if the mountaintop wasinset with a dazzlinggemstone.Like thegrass, thechild running in the distancewas bathed in the goldensunset.

Thesunwillsetsoon.Isn’tyourchildafraid?

“Ofcourseshe’snotafraid.

She knows that the sun willriseagaintomorrow.”

ABOUTTHEAUTHOR

CixinLiu is themostprolificand popular science fictionwriter in the People’sRepublic of China. Liu is aneight-time winner of the

Galaxy Award (the ChineseHugo) and a winner of theChineseNebulaAward.Priorto becoming a writer, heworked as an engineer in apower plant in Yangquan,Shanxi. You can sign up foremailupdateshere.

ABOUTTHETRANSLATOR

Joel Martinsen is researchdirector for a mediaintelligence company. Histranslations have appeared in

Words Without Borders,Chutzpah!,andPathlight. HelivesinBeijing.Youcansignupforemailupdateshere.

TORBOOKSBYCIXINLIU

TheThree-BodyProblemTheDarkForest

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Contents

TitlePageCopyrightNoticeDramatisPersonae

Prologue

PartI:TheWallfacersYear3,CrisisEra

PartII:TheSpellYear8,CrisisEraYear12,CrisisEraYear20,CrisisEra

PartIII:TheDarkForestYear205,CrisisEraYear208,CrisisEraFiveYearsLater

AbouttheAuthorAbouttheTranslator

TorBooksbyCixinLiuCopyright

Thisisaworkoffiction.Allofthecharacters,organizations,andeventsportrayedinthisnovelareeitherproductsoftheauthor’simaginationorareusedfictitiously.

THEDARKFOREST

Copyright©2008by (LiuCixin)

Englishtranslation©2015byChinaEducationalPublicationsImport&Export

Corp.,Ltd.

TranslationbyJoelMartinsen

ThispublicationwasarrangedbyHunanScience&TechnologyPress.Originally

publishedas in2008byChongqingPublishingGroupinChongqing,China.

Allrightsreserved.

CoverartbyStephanMartiniere

ATorBookPublishedbyTomDohertyAssociates,LLC

175FifthAvenueNewYork,NY10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor®isaregisteredtrademarkofTom

DohertyAssociates,LLC.

eBooksmaybepurchasedforbusinessorpromotionaluse.Forinformationonbulkpurchases,pleasecontactMacmillan

CorporateandPremiumSalesDepartmentbywritingto

MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

TheLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailableuponrequest.

ISBN978-0-7653-7708-1(hardcover)ISBN978-1-4668-5343-0(e-book)

e-ISBN9781466853430

FirstEdition:August2015

1 Translator’s Note: Xiǎo is a diminutivemeaning “little” or “young” and is usedbeforeasurnamewhenaddressingchildrenortoshowaffection.

2 Translator’s Note: Zhìzi literally“knowledge particle.” The character for“particle” frequentlyappears in femalegivennames in Japanse, where it is pronounced“ko.”

3Translator’s Note: Lǎo, meaning “old,” isoften used before a surname of those olderthan the speaker to show respect orfamiliarity.

4 Translator’s Note: A historical novelattributedtoLuoGuanzhong(c.1330–1400),RomanceoftheThreeKingdomsdescribesthecontest between three regional powers fromthewaningdaysof theEasternHanDyansty(184)tothereunificationoftheempireunderthe Jin Dynasty (280). It is known for itsiconic characters, battle scenes, and politicalintrigue.

5 Translator’s Note: The insignia of thePeople’s LiberationArmy is a star inscribedwiththecharacterseightandone.

6 Translator’s Note: The Kuiper Belt is aregionextendingfromtheorbitofNeptune,atroughly 30 AU, to roughly 50 AU, and ishome to Pluto and two other dwarf planets,amongotherobjects.

7 Translator’s Note: Roughly equivalent to$65,000inearly2015.

8Translator’sNote:VastnetworksoftunnelswerebuiltincitiesacrossChinabeginninginthe late 1960s as defensivemeasures againstenemy attack. This slogan, adapted fromadvice given to the founder of the MingDyansty,waspromulgatedasadirectivefromMao Zedong in thePeople’sDaily’s annualNewYear’sEditoralinJanuary1973.

9 Translator’s Note: Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997) was an influential novelist, essayist,and screenwriter whose work becameenormouslypopularafterhisuntimelydeath.

10Translator’sNote:Firstcosmicvelocityisthe initial velocity a body needs to achieveorbit, second cosmic velocity the amountneededtoleaveanobject’sgravitationalpull,and thirdcosmicvelocity theamountneededtoleavetheSolarSystem.

11 Translator’s Note: The Oort Cloud iscollection of icy objects in a sphericaldistributionthatsurroundstheSolarSystemata distance of 50,000 to 100,000 AU and isbelieved to be the source of long-periodcomets.

12Translator’sNote:YangWen-li is oneofthe protagonists of Legend of the GalacticHeroes, a series of Japanese science fictionnovels launched in1982byYoshikiTanaka,and followed by manga and animeadaptations.

13 Translator’s Note: This famous quoteabout filial piety appears in Mencius, acollection of conversations and anecdotesrelated to the Confucian philosopher of thesame name, who lived in the late fourthcenturyBC.

14 Translator’s Note: “Al-Qaeda” istranslated into Chinese rather thantransliterated,andisknownasJīdì, the sameterm used for the title of Asimov’sFoundationnovels.

15Translator’sNote:Dunhuang, anoasisontheSilkRoadinwhatisnowGansuprovince,washometospectacularlydecoratedBuddhistgrottoes inhabited from the fourth tofourteenthcenturies.In1900,WangYuanlu,aTaoist abbot at Dunhuang’s Mogao Caves,discovered a sealed-up Library Cavecontainingacacheofancientdocuments thathe subsequently sold to Hungarian-BritisharcheologistAurelSteinandFrenchsinologistPaulPelliot.

16Translator’sNote:Chinainstitutedarationsystemforgrainandcookingoil in theearly1950s, and expanded it in 1961 to includegoods ranging from shoes and scissors tohome appliances and electronics. With thetransition from planned economy to marketeconomy in the 1980s, use of the rationsystemdeclined,anditwasterminatedintheearly1990s.

17Translator’sNote:Inatokamak,plasmaisconfined to a torus shape by a toroidalelectromagnetic field surrounding the torusand a current induced in the plasma itself.Developed by Soviet scientists in the 1950s,theyproducedbetterresultsthanotherplasmacontainmentdevices.

18 Translator’s Note: The Battle ofWeihaiwei was the last major battle of theFirst Sino-Japanese War. In February 1895,the ships of the Beiyang Fleet, the QingDynasty’s northern navy, were anchored intheharboratWeihaiwei,Shandongprovince,their home base, for safety from theadvancing Imperial Japanese Navy. WhenJapanese land forces seized shorefortifications, theChinesefleetwasforcedtosurrender.

19 Translator’s Note: Roughly $10,000 perpiece,oratotalof$30,000.

20 Translator’s Note: Liu BuchancommandedtheBeiyangFleet’sflagship, thebattleship Dingyuan, in the aforementionedBattleofWeihaiweiinFebruary1895.

21Translator’sNote: In thefable“TheWolfof Zhongshan,” attributed to the MingDynasty writer Ma Zhongxi, the bookishscholar Master Dongguo takes pity on ahunted,starvingwolfandhidesitinabagashunterspassby.Whenheletsthewolfout,itthreatens to eat him but is persuaded to puttheissuetoathirdparty.Anoldfarmer,afterhearing the situation, protests that the wolfcould not possibly fit in the bag. The wolfclimbsbackin,whereuponthefarmertiesupthebagandbashesthewolftodeathwithhishoe.

22Translator’sNote:XīzǐisanothernameforXi Shi, one of the Four Beauties of ancientChina,who livednearHangzhou.WestLake(Xīhú) in Hangzhou has a particularassociationwithXiShi.

23Translator’sNote:Stronginteractionisthestrongestofthefourfundamentalinteractions,andisresponsibleforthestrongnuclearforcethat binds together subatomic particles. It isroughly 100 times more powerful thanelectromagnetism, but is only effective atdistancesoflessthanafemtometer.

24Translator’sNote: This popular quotationsums up the great vow of the bodhisattvaKsitigarbha (Dìzàng Púsà) not to achieveBuddhahooduntilalllivingbeingsaresaved.

25Translator’sNote:LagrangePointsarethefive positions where a small object affectedonlybygravity can remain in equilibrium inrelationtotwolargerbodies.

26Translator’sNote:DrivenoutofYan’anbya Nationalist offensive in 1947, CommunistforcesestablishedabaseinXibaipo,avillagein the foothills of the TaihangMountains insouthwesternHebeiprovince.Fromtheretheydirected the Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjincampaigns,thedecisiveoffensivein1948and1949 that pushed the Nationalists out ofnorthernChina.

TableofContents

TitlePageCopyrightNoticeDramatisPersonaeProloguePartI:TheWallfacers

Year3,CrisisEraPartII:TheSpell

Year8,CrisisEra

Year12,CrisisEraYear20,CrisisEra

PartIII:TheDarkForestYear205,CrisisEraYear208,CrisisEraFiveYearsLater

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