Recaps

Lü Yongchang launched Black Lady Two to Mars, where its crew began investigating signs of life as NASA's Pathfinder team suffered a life-threatening equipment failure. After the United States abandoned Andrew, Bruno, and Joy, Lü ordered Bai Yixuan to rescue them.

• Andrew safely landed Pathfinder One, Pathfinder Two, and Pathfinder Three on Mars, and the crew began assembling the Mars Module.
• Lü Yongchang oversaw the Moon Palace Project’s lunar mining launch, then collapsed after pushing the Technology Tree System too hard and later used Zero to identify a promising site for signs of life on Mars.
• After Zero estimated a high probability of life near a crater, Lü ordered Black Lady Two developed on a rapid schedule, and Xia Country launched it toward Mars.
• Bai Yixuan, Hong Fan, and Xia Wanyi arrived at Mars and landed at ZHZ72 Meteorite Crater to drill for signs of life, while Andrew’s crew suspended its own work.
• A Martian rock breached Pathfinder’s air circulation system, and Andrew, Bruno, and Joy discovered that their Return Capsule engine would not start.
• President Albert refused to rescue the stranded astronauts or ask Xia Country for help, and Morton told Professor Chris that the United States had abandoned them.
• After Chris told the astronauts to contact Black Lady Two, Bai Yixuan received their distress call, and Lü Yongchang ordered him to begin a rescue mission.

As the Sun’s imminent transformation forced humanity to unite, Lü Yongchang pursued Martian hibernation research, lunar construction, and a space elevator. The Human Federation appointed him Chief Scientist, and the first elevator cable began production in orbit.

• Lü Yongchang persuaded Senator Li to approve twenty Black Lady-X fighters and send a rescue mission to Mars, where Bai Yixuan and his crew rescued Andrew, Bruno, and Joy.
• Xia Wanyi detected fungi at the Martian site, and Lü Yongchang’s tests showed that the ancient fungi could induce suspended animation through hibernatin and an antibody later named anti-hibernatin.
• Senator Li announced the solar crisis, while Xia Country released its evidence and the Human Federation formed to coordinate humanity’s response.
• Lü Yongchang developed hibernation technology, began plans for the African Tower of Babel space elevator, and sent a weak AI named One to direct construction at the Moon Palace.
• Lü Yongchang and Wei Rong discovered a carbon nanotube arrangement with 1,590 GPa tensile strength, and Lü Yongchang was appointed Chief Scientist of the Human Federation’s Academy of Sciences.
• Lü Yongchang devised a way to build the space elevator cable in orbit, and eleven Black Lady Two spacecraft assembled into a platform 91,000 kilometers above Earth.
• Bai Yixuan and Wu Ran started the orbital production line, and a five-meter-wide space elevator cable began feeding toward Earth.

As the Sun’s transformation threatened Earth, Lü Yongchang and the Human Federation prepared a mass evacuation, sending 3.8 billion people into hibernation aboard starships bound for the Kuiper Belt. With the fleet underway, Lü turned to developing quantum superluminal communication to overcome the delays facing humanity’s expansion.

• Zhao Zijie passed the starship pilot selection after reporting a suspected human trafficker on his train, then began training without outside contact.
• Mao Zhengzhi and Lü Yongchang developed a way to keep hibernating mice alive in deep-sea fluid using nanorobot catheters, and Lü placed the ailing Lin Hongsheng in a Hibernation Chamber.
• After learning the Sun would soon make Earth increasingly uninhabitable, Lü proposed evacuating most of humanity aboard starships while others prepared a Mars settlement.
• Old Mr. Zhang stayed behind as Zhang Bojun and Su Nan took Zhang Man to register for evacuation, and Wu Pengxing escorted her to hibernation aboard the Black Lady Two.
• As storms and rising seas displaced people, Zero rescued Hope and his mother, and Lü’s broadcast renewed hope among crowds waiting to evacuate.
• Lü assigned Shen Siwen to design a Mars City for 500 million people, while the Human Federation completed the Tower of Babel, Jianmu, Spaceports, and 380 Luan Bird Type I Starships.
• Lü launched the starships toward the Kuiper Belt, where their 3.8 billion passengers would hibernate for up to fifty years, while the Head Councillor warned that they would die if the rendezvous failed.
• Lü unlocked Quantum Superluminal Communication Technology and collapsed, after waking, he summoned the quantum researchers and explained that communication delays hindered expansion beyond the Solar System.

Humanity established quantum communication, received warnings from Proxima Centauri, and evacuated Earth for Mars as the alien star began to fail. On Mars, an expedition to Gale Crater uncovered evidence of ancient water and a dangerous bacterium that infected six pilots, leaving Lü Yongchang and the researchers searching for a cure.

• Lü Yongchang and Tang Wenshan tested the Single-Photon Control Device, and Zero successfully controlled a photon's motion and spin, opening the way to further quantum research.
• Zero detected a signal from Proxima Centauri, and Lü Yongchang interpreted its prime-number sequence and translated message as first contact before choosing to prepare humanity for war.
• Lü Yongchang used nuclear explosives to mine the Moon, while Tang Wenshan and Zero developed a quantum communication system that let a lunar crew receive a message before Lü's voice arrived.
• Atoka discovered the Star Eater threatening Proxima Centauri and sent humanity genetic data and a warning before his people executed him and prepared for war.
• As Earth became uninhabitable, Lü Yongchang and Senator Li led humanity's evacuation aboard the starships, and Lü ordered the Starship Earth to depart for Mars.
• Lü Yongchang arrived at Mars City and sent Bai Yixuan's team to investigate mineral deposits near Sharp Mountain, where they found damp material and evidence that Gale Crater had once held water.
• After Martian sand spread aboard Starship Two, Bai Yixuan, Andrew, Bruno, Joy, Hong Fan, and Xia Wanyi collapsed with high fevers, and Zero returned the craft while Lü Yongchang ordered Mars City into lockdown.
• Lü Yongchang and the researchers identified an airborne bacterium deep beneath Sharp Mountain that resisted disinfection and antibiotics, while treatment stabilized the infected pilots without eradicating it.