65 million years ago, Venus
A mass of ice nearly a million kilometers across surrounded Saturn like an enormous lens. The shadow it cast blocked superluminal waves from reaching the Sun, forming a cluster of sunspots hundreds of thousands of kilometers across on its surface.
Venus happened to lie at the focal point of this enormous lens. As high-energy particle streams from one record-breaking solar flare after another swept over the planet, Venus's rotation slowed, then faltered. It had gone from one rotation every 23 hours to one every 200-plus days.
Venus was almost tidally locked to the Sun. One side always faced it, unbearably hot, while the other faced away, shrouded in darkness and cold.
Tens of thousands of Venusians who refused to upload their consciousness were forced to take refuge in the planet's terminator region. The terminator was the area whose longitude was exactly 90 degrees east or west.
When Venus rotated once each day, that location alternated between day and night.
But after Venus's rotation period grew to more than 200 days, almost matching its orbital period, the Sun's elevation at that location barely changed. The Sun remained on the horizon, neither rising nor setting.
Temperatures in the terminator region stayed in the thirties Celsius, making it the only place on Venus where people could survive.
At Director Diston's suggestion, before Venus's rotation stalled, Director Diston of the Venus Alliance administrative office had built a small, fully equipped city in the terminator region, large enough to house tens of thousands.
The Alliance government had dispatched every kind of transport, including electric trucks, high-speed trains, and all manner of aircraft, to move the entire population and a vast amount of supplies to this last city of Venusian civilization.
Those who had refused to upload their consciousness suddenly discovered an unexpected delight: all the goods and necessities produced for nearly six billion Venusians now belonged to this mere few tens of thousands.
Money had become meaningless. The very ideas of trading and shopping seemed ridiculous. There were more than enough resources; people could simply take what they needed.
Everyone erected a huge bar in the central plaza. Someone named it the Dark and Gloomy Bar. Old Speaker Kent suggested calling it the Dimly Lit Bar. No one objected. Whatever it was called, all that mattered was being able to celebrate day and night.
The old Speaker had not forgotten his mission: to preserve order as much as possible, prevent violence, and uphold the dignity of the Venusians on Venus until the very end.
But by then, all laws governing people's behavior had been abolished. Even if laws remained, there were no police or courts to enforce them. The last government officials, including Director Diston, were about to upload their consciousness and bid farewell to those staying behind.
The old Speaker knew exactly what he was doing. He understood people's feelings and was skilled at communicating with them. He went to the Dimly Lit Bar and called out to the people around him:
"Who would have thought that this would be the happiest time of our lives? We have plenty to eat and wear, more wine than we can drink, no need to pay or work, and we can take whatever we want. Isn't this the heavenly life we've always dreamed of?"
Everyone was swept up in his words. They raised their glasses in agreement and drank heartily, while people in the distance began to crowd around.
"We still have more than a year before the final moment arrives. While we're living this heavenly life, tell me: what else do you wish for?"
The atmosphere was noisy but carefree. A few burly men shouted, "Meat by the mouthful! Wine by the bowl!" Several women nearby were just as bold, saying with a grin, "Ten outfit changes a day! Five makeovers!"
A skinny, tall man shouted with a lecherous grin, "Sleep with women! Whoever you want!" His words drew a burst of laughter.
Suddenly, a plump woman shouted unabashedly, "Sleep with men! Whoever you want!" An even louder wave of laughter rang through the bar.
The old Speaker laughed along with them. When the laughter died down, he paused, then asked solemnly, "If the Venusians who uploaded their consciousness really can be reborn on Earth, would you want them to remember you? Would you like to leave something behind, so that those who come after us know you once lived in this world?"
The clamor in the bar stopped as if some strange chemical reaction had taken place. No one spoke at once, but their minds were clearly racing.
That was how people were: after endless indulgence and pleasure, what they gained wasn't just gratification. An inexplicable melancholy always arose in their hearts.
Even as they faced death with reluctance, everyone hoped to leave a mark showing they had once been here.
As if performing a magic trick, the old Speaker pulled a palm-sized wafer from his pocket. "This is a new, highly stable material developed by the Venus Academy of Sciences, resistant to decay. It's made of silicon crystal with a metal coating, using a special process. Put simply, it's a piece of gold-plated glass."
"It can withstand heat and cold. As a hard drive, it can preserve information for more than ten thousand years. I plan to make a film recording our daily lives, engrave it on a hard drive, and find a way to send it off Venus for people in the future to watch."
"Would anyone like to act in my film? Anyone who wants to take part, men and women alike, will be a star. The film doesn't have a title yet, because that depends on what we end up making. Maybe it'll be about indulgence and violence, not suitable for children; maybe it'll be about kindness and happiness. I don't know. I'm only the producer and director. You'll be the screenwriters and actors."
"Some of you have already said what you wish for. If you're curious about what I wish for..."
Everyone stared wide-eyed and held their breath, waiting for Speaker Kent to continue. The old Speaker closed his eyes halfway and placed his right hand over his chest. His voice was quiet, but his tone firm:
"I hope this film will be called Glorious Years: True Colors of Heroes, and that the final line will read: To be continued."
When he finished, tears filled the old Speaker's eyes. Someone began the chant, and soon everyone was shouting along:
"Glorious years! To be continued!"
Beyond the bar lay the open plaza. At its far end stood a row of hastily assembled prefab buildings, behind which was the Venus Alliance's last spacecraft launch site.
Inside one of the prefab buildings, Director Diston looked grave as Dean Abbott directed the staff, who worked in orderly haste.
After Director Diston and the last group of relevant personnel uploaded their consciousness, Abbott, the scientists from the project team, and the engineers would board a spacecraft and head for the base on Titan.
The most important cargo aboard the spacecraft was the genetic material of nearly six billion Venusians, along with several large computers containing the uploaded consciousness of nearly six billion people.
The time to say goodbye had come. Speaker Kent had also hurried over from the bar. He would bid farewell to Diston and Abbott in two different ways. Diston and the others would "die" by uploading their consciousness; Abbott and the others would board the spacecraft and set out on a new journey.
"I suggest you reconsider. You shouldn't upload your consciousness just yet. Come with me to the base on Titan and join Tesla and the others. We need you to keep leading us," Abbott said to Director Diston.
"The consciousness of nearly six billion people is stored in your computers. I want to be with them. Leave everything else to you and Tesla. I'm sure you'll overcome every difficulty and give me and all our people the chance to be reborn on Earth."
Speaker Kent signaled to Abbott that there was no need to press him. "The three of us each have our part to play. I'll stay on Venus and uphold our final dignity; Diston will upload his consciousness and comfort the people from inside the circuit boards; and you, Abbott, will take charge of the Earth Rebirth Project."
The final uploads proceeded in orderly fashion. Director Diston was almost at the end of the line when a question suddenly occurred to him. He asked Abbott:
"Can the consciousnesses of different people in the computers communicate with each other?"
"In theory, they can. But to reduce power consumption, we haven't enabled that function. They can't communicate with one another. Only those of us outside can send messages to everyone at once."
Diston thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know what it feels like to be trapped inside a computer, but it can't be good. I'll write a letter. Send it to everyone, and tell them I'm on my way to be with them, until the day they see the light of day again."
The letter to all Venusians was ready. It read:
"Dear fellow Venusians:
I am Diston, director of the Venus Alliance administrative office. On behalf of the Venus Alliance government, I send you my greetings.
None of us, myself included, ever imagined that we would lose our bodies and have our consciousness locked inside computers like this. I know many of you are angry. Why did this happen? It's all the fault of those mad scientists and adventurers.
But what is the truth? Are scientists to blame? Would this all have been avoided if we hadn't studied Superluminal Wave Theory or built the Superlight Wave Power Station? I don't know how to answer those questions.
I know that science can bring risks, even the risk of destroying all life on Venus. But I also know that we simply cannot do without science.
Scientists gave us electric lights, trams, and all kinds of appliances, but electricity itself is dangerous. Nuclear power gave us clean energy, but it also gave us atomic bombs capable of destroying Venus a hundred times over.
Every major technological advance may bring risks, and even threaten humanity's safety. Today, we Venusians are caught in a crisis without precedent.
Fortunately, our scientists have found a solution. After the Mars explosion, the Solar System will return to stability and balance. Earth's terrain is changing according to the scientists' designs, and it will become our new home.
As I prepare to upload my consciousness and join you, forced to say goodbye to our mother Venus forever, I can fully understand how you felt when you did the same.
The history of the Venusians spans thousands of years, and the flame of civilization has passed from one generation to the next.
Through conviction, wisdom, courage, resilience, and unity, we Venusians have overcome all kinds of hardship and survived one crisis after another. We have lived up to the gift of reason bestowed upon us. We have—
turned truths drawn from experience into science,
formed principles from the goodness born of our nature,
refined the love rising from our hearts into literature,
and captured the beauty we perceive through our senses in art.
Our thoughts and consciousness resonate in harmony with vast galaxies and tiny grains of dust. Amid the boundless universe, they shine with the brilliance of natural philosophy.
Dear brothers and sisters, elders and children! Today, though we are loath to do so, we bid farewell to our mother Venus. Before long, the flame of our civilization will be rekindled on Earth.
It is science—the very thing that destroyed the lives we once knew—that has given humanity the chance to live another way. Wait in hope. We'll meet again in our next lives! Believe this:
Venus will endure for all eternity, and humanity will live on forever!"
&
A poem assembled from lines:
With no means to provide for himself, he tried every way, Song dynasty, Chen Shidao
Success and failure follow one another; nothing lasts forever, Song dynasty, Lu You
Cultivate true understanding, for the heart is sacred, Song dynasty, Du Fan
With an open heart, everywhere is home, Song dynasty, Zhen Shanmin
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