Chapter Summaries

With humanity facing possible enemies and its lunar ore reserves running low, Lü Yongchang proposed using nuclear explosives for destructive mining. Senator Li lent him hydrogen bombs, and Lü oversaw a massive detonation near the First Laboratory while Zero assured him it would not significantly affect the continental plates.

• Senator Li warned the councillors against cooperating with the Proxima Centauri civilization and urged them to prepare for war.
• Zero told Lü Yongchang that accessible lunar ore was nearly exhausted and existing reserves would last only two more weeks.
• Lü realized explosives could help obtain more minerals and asked Senator Li to lend him nuclear bombs for mining.
• Senator Li agreed, and a Black Lady Two carried a roughly 30-million-ton hydrogen bomb to a mining pit in the former Su Country territory.
• Several days later, a hydrogen bomb detonated, shaking the First Laboratory as Lü asked Zero whether the blast could affect the continental plates.

Lü Yongchang and Tang Wenshan completed a successful experiment showing that changing one entangled photon’s state corresponded to changes in the other, laying the groundwork for quantum superluminal communication. As Tang took on the communication algorithm, Lü raised concerns about the equipment’s size and hinted at another problem with the technology.

• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to manipulate one entangled photon while the researchers monitored the other, and Tang Wenshan observed corresponding changes in all one hundred initial trials.
• Zero completed one hundred thousand state-change trials, with the second photon responding every time, and Lü then ordered a new experiment manipulating the second photon.
• Lü assigned Tang the task of designing an algorithm to encode data in photon-state changes, and Tang agreed to work with Zero.
• Lü worried that the bulky equipment would limit deployment to Luan Bird Series Starships, but Tang proposed using them to relay messages for other ships.
• Lü began to explain that quantum Superluminal Communication Technology was not, strictly speaking, truly superluminal communication.

Lü Yongchang explained that quantum superluminal communication was limited to paired devices and still required a terminal to be delivered to each destination. At the Human Federation’s starship base, Hong Fan reunited with Andrew, Bruno, and Joy, and Officer Qi assigned the six of them to a combat squad supporting Professor Lü’s experiment.

• Lü Yongchang told Tang Wenshan that quantum communication devices could only contact their paired terminals, so reaching other civilizations still required slow electromagnetic communication or sending a terminal in advance.
• Andrew told Hong Fan that he, Bruno, and Joy had passed starship pilot training and had been directed to join Hong Fan’s squad.
• Hong Fan welcomed Andrew, Bruno, and Joy at the squad’s quarters, where they reunited with Bai Yixuan and Xia Wanyi.
• Officer Qi ordered Hong Fan, Bai Yixuan, Xia Wanyi, Andrew, Bruno, and Joy to form a combat squad and pilot the Luan Bird Type I Starship.
• Officer Qi assigned the squad to assist Professor Lü with an experiment and told them to cooperate unconditionally.

Bai Yixuan and his crew flew the modified Luan Bird Type I to the Moon to test the experimental Quantum Superluminal Communication Device. The test succeeded when a message appeared on the lunar device, and Lü Yongchang’s voice arrived 1.26 seconds later.

• Bai Yixuan received clearance from Lü Yongchang and guided the Luan Bird Type I out of Jianmu Spaceport toward the Moon.
• Bai Yixuan and the five other crew members reached the Moon and activated the bulky Quantum Superluminal Communication Device.
• Lü Yongchang sent a prepared message from the Ground Control Center and asked whether the crew had received it.
• Bai Yixuan’s team saw the message “Hello, human” on the lunar display, and Lü Yongchang’s voice arrived 1.26 seconds later.

Bai Yixuan and Lü Yongchang confirmed that humanity had achieved superluminal communication, while a Sweeper ordered a Star Eater to destroy the human civilization. As Mars City construction began, Zhao Zijie and Gao Yang were interrupted by a visit from Officer Qi.

• Bai Yixuan questioned Lü Yongchang's ominous-sounding greeting, and Lü explained that he had meant to send “Hello, world” before changing it to “Hello, humanity.”
• Bai Yixuan reported that the message arrived 1.26 seconds before Lü's voice, and Lü and the researchers celebrated humanity's success with superluminal communication.
• Sweeper 9527 detected a signal from humanity, ordered a cleansing, and dispatched a Star Eater toward the red dwarf system.
• Zero began manufacturing robots and equipment for the Mars City project and transporting them to ten Luan Bird starships.
• Zhao Zijie urged Gao Yang to keep preparing for interstellar warfare, then answered a knock at their dorm room and greeted Officer Qi.

Officer Qi assigned Zhao Zijie to lead the Mars City construction mission alongside Bai Yixuan’s squad, with Gao Yang as his deputy. The ten Luan Bird Starships departed for Mars in ahead-four mode, with Zhao Zijie aboard Bai Yixuan’s lead ship.

• Officer Qi ordered Zhao Zijie to report for the Mars mission the next morning and assigned Gao Yang as his deputy.
• Zhao Zijie and Gao Yang arrived at Jianmu Spaceport with about fifty other cadet captains and reunited with Bai Yixuan.
• The fleet formed up in ten supply-loaded Luan Bird Starships, with Bai Yixuan’s modified ship taking the lead.
• Bai Yixuan ordered the crew to enter Deep-Sea Mode before the fleet entered ahead four.
• Zhao Zijie entered a Deep-Sea Pod, and the ten Luan Bird Starships set course for Mars.

Atoka, a Proxima Centaurian signal receiver, saw an artificial streak of dark light plunge into Proxima Centauri and reported the anomaly. A week later, the star appeared unchanged, but someone in black entered Atoka’s room.

• Atoka observed Proxima Centauri and saw a streak of dark light dive into the star.
• A few days earlier, the Star Eater arrived in the system, reported to Sweeper 9527, and accelerated toward Proxima Centauri to absorb its energy.
• Atoka replayed the footage, concluded the object was artificial, and contacted his superior to report the anomaly.
• Atoka’s superior said specialists would investigate, while Atoka feared the dark light posed a crisis for their civilization.
• A week later, Atoka was still watching the unchanged star when a Proxima Centaurian dressed in black entered his room.

Atoka discovered that a black-clad Lair had seized his telescope and equipment, then altered the file in the last-message instrument and sent a second signal toward the Solar System. Four years earlier on Earth, Lü Yongchang learned that Mars City would be ready in about a month as researchers prepared to leave amid worsening weather.

• A Lair entered Atoka’s room, mocked his observations, and threw him to the floor.
• The Lair ordered Atoka’s telescope and nearby equipment dismantled and carried away, leaving Atoka furious and despairing.
• A few days later, Atoka changed the contents of the file and pressed the button to send a second signal toward the Solar System.
• Atoka watched the warning light and hoped the Solar System civilization would receive his message, knowing he would soon die.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zero about Mars City, and Zero reported that construction would finish in about a month and departure preparations could begin.

Lü Yongchang ordered humanity to begin evacuating Earth for Mars in three days, then received genetic data sent from the Proxima Centauri system. After learning that an Atoka had transmitted it, he saved the data for study and summoned Senator Li.

• Zero warned Lü Yongchang that Earth would soon become dangerously hot and that Mars was at its closest point, so Lü ordered the evacuation to begin in three days.
• Four years earlier, Kapu interrogated Atoka for secretly sending information to the Solar System and found that the data had not been deleted.
• Zero identified the newly received information as apparent Proxima Centaurian genetic data accompanied by a message from Atoka.
• Lü questioned the data's credibility, saved it for examination on Mars, and considered Atoka's account of his civilization's decline.
• Lü agreed that Zero should inform Senator Li, who soon hurried into his office.

Lü Yongchang told Senator Li that war with the Proxima Centauri Civilization was inevitable. On Proxima b, Atoka was executed, while Lair used evidence of an artificial object draining their star to urge the Proxima Centauri people to prepare for war.

• Lü Yongchang helped Senator Li to a sofa and said the two civilizations would inevitably go to war.
• Proxima Centauri executioners exposed Atoka to intense stellar light and positioned a concave mirror beneath him to burn him to death.
• Lair called for war and blamed Atoka for transmitting Proxima Centauri genetic data to the Solar System.
• Lair showed the crowd footage of an artificial object entering Proxima Centauri and claimed it was rapidly absorbing their star's energy.
• Lair warned that the star would go dark in around one to two hundred years, frightening the Proxima Centauri people.

As Proxima b’s star began to fade, Lair argued that interstellar migration was the Proxima Centauri Civilization’s only hope, though only a small fraction of its people could escape. He chose the closer Solar System over Barnard’s Star, then ordered everyone to prepare for war.

• Lair explained that Proxima b would become uninhabitable and said their technology could evacuate only one hundred thousand people.
• Rex agreed to plan an interstellar migration and asked Lair where they would go.
• Lair indicated the Solar System, alarming Rex, who feared their genetic data would make the journey dangerous.
• Rex proposed Barnard’s Star, but Lair said its greater distance meant they could take only ten thousand people, too few to preserve their technological civilization.
• Rex despaired that the survivors would enter a spiral of technological decline, while Lair ordered everyone to prepare for war.

Lü Yongchang and the last evacuees left Earth aboard the Starship Earth as the planet was devastated by catastrophic weather. From the Spaceport, he prepared to lead humanity’s fleet toward Mars and beyond.

• Lü Yongchang met Senator Li at the [Jianmu] underground base, where they looked at Earth before Zero transferred its main program to the Starship Earth.
• Lü Yongchang joined the final group of evacuees in the Space Elevator and encouraged them as [Jianmu] began its ascent.
• The evacuees watched robot footage of Earth’s ruined surface and the [Tower of Babel] as the elevator climbed toward the [Jianmu] Spaceport.
• Lü Yongchang arrived at the Spaceport, saw the fifty Luan Bird Type I Starships carrying five hundred million people in hibernation, and boarded the Starship Earth with Senator Li.
• Inside a Deep-Sea Pod, Lü Yongchang issued his final command: [Earth, depart!].

Lü Yongchang awoke from hibernation aboard the starship Earth as it reached Mars, then joined Senator Li and the researchers in descending toward Mars City. Their Space Elevator entered a Martian dust storm, leaving the passengers uneasy as Zero identified the cause.

• Zero woke Lü Yongchang, who emerged from the Deep-Sea Pod after its fluid and breathing tube were recovered.
• Lü Yongchang met Senator Li in the command hall, where they viewed Mars and learned that the second group of landing personnel would wake after descent.
• Zero announced that the starship Earth was entering Mars Port, and Lü Yongchang and Senator Li boarded the Xunmu Space Elevator.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to activate Xunmu as it began descending toward Mars City and displayed an introduction to the city's five sections.
• The Space Elevator slowed as a Martian dust storm surrounded it, and Zero told Lü Yongchang and Senator Li what was happening.

Lü Yongchang and the Head Councillor arrived at Mars City, where Bai Yixuan and the Starship pilots welcomed them before receiving a new mission to prospect near Sharp Mountain. Meanwhile, Lair oversaw the hatchery’s production of lower-class workers to build escape Starships, and Rex learned he might earn a place aboard one.

• Lü Yongchang reassured Senator Li that Mars City could withstand the dust storm as the Space Elevator brought them safely to the surface.
• Bai Yixuan and the Starship pilots saluted the arrivals, and Lü Yongchang assigned them an important mission.
• Bai Yixuan led a team in two Black Lady Two craft to Sharp Mountain in Gale Crater to investigate its mineral deposits.
• Lair told Rex that the hatchery’s rapidly matured lower-class Proxima Centauri people would build Starships before their primary star went out.
• Lair offered Rex a possible escape spot if he managed the hatchery well, while a small lower-class person listened nearby.

After analysis of Bai Yixuan’s samples suggested that Mars might once have supported Earth-like life, Professor Lü directed the team to drill in Gale Crater. The drill suddenly plunged through an unexpected gap, leaving Bai Yixuan and his teammates unsure what lay beneath.

• A Marus worker was frightened by an upper-class Proxima Centauri person and collapsed after being allowed to return to work.
• Lü Yongchang examined Bai Yixuan’s report, noted elements associated with life, and ordered the team to drill in Gale Crater.
• Bai Yixuan told Hong Fan, Xia Wanyi, and the others that Professor Lü suspected ancient Earth-like life might have existed there.
• Bruno identified patterned sedimentary rock at the foot of Sharp Mountain and suggested the area might once have been a lake.
• Bai Yixuan’s team set up the drill, but the bit suddenly plunged downward, so Bai Yixuan stopped it and found no rock layer below.

Bai Yixuan's team discovered damp sedimentary rock five meters beneath Mars, and simulations traced Gale Crater's ancient water to rainfall and glaciers on Sharp Mountain. Lü Yongchang then modeled a warmer Mars, where melting ice and released greenhouse gases led to rain, oceans, and lakes.

• Bai Yixuan and Hong Fan found the drill rod coated with damp, deep-red material, while the team waited anxiously for the sample to emerge.
• Lü Yongchang questioned how underground Martian soil could be damp, and Fang Xu suggested that limited magma activity beneath Gale Crater might explain it.
• Zero's report revealed sedimentary rock and signs of erosion and deposition by flowing water, so Lü Yongchang ordered Bai Yixuan's team to map Gale Crater with Black Lady Two.
• Zero's simulation traced Gale Crater's ancient water to rainfall and Sharp Mountain, where underground ice could once have formed glaciers.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zero to simulate Mars after a seventy-degree rise in surface temperature, and the reconstruction showed melting polar ice, greenhouse gases, rain, oceans, and lakes.

Lü Yongchang’s simulation suggested that the impact that formed Hellas Basin caused a temporary warm, wet period on Mars, potentially long enough for basic life to evolve. As the astronauts prepared to return with samples, a speck of damp Martian sand spread across the spacecraft’s deck, and Andrew stopped responding to Bai Yixuan’s calls.

• Zero showed Lü Yongchang evidence of a massive flood in Gale Crater around 3.9 billion years ago, and Lü linked its timing to the formation of Hellas Basin.
• Lü asked Zero to simulate the impact, and the simulation showed Mars briefly becoming warm and wet before losing its atmosphere and oceans as its core cooled.
• Lü concluded that Mars’s oceans may have lasted long enough for basic life to evolve and warned Bai Yixuan to handle the samples carefully because they might contain microorganisms.
• At Gale Crater, Hong Fan carried damp, dusty spacesuits toward the cleaning compartment, and a speck of Martian sand spread across his boot and the Black Lady Two’s deck.
• Bai Yixuan called Andrew over the radio twice, but Andrew did not respond.

Bai Yixuan discovered that an unidentified airborne microorganism had infected the astronauts aboard both Black Lady Two craft, and the crew members began collapsing. Zero brought the ships back to Mars City, where Lü Yongchang ordered an emergency lockdown and evacuation as the city sounded a level-one alert.

• Bai Yixuan found Andrew, Bruno, and Joy unconscious with fevers above 40 degrees Celsius aboard Starship Two.
• Hong Fan collapsed with a fever, and Xia Wanyi fell while trying to reach the oxygen masks after Bai Yixuan realized the air was contaminated.
• Bai Yixuan warned Mars City that the contamination was likely airborne before he passed out, while a damp drop of Martian sand lay on Starship Two's deck.
• Zero detected the contaminated sand, took control of both Black Lady Two craft, and flew them back to Mars City.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Port Ten evacuated, its air circulation shut down, the city placed under a level-one alert, and robots assigned to disinfection.

Lü Yongchang prepared Port Ten and a biological laboratory for the return of the Black Lady Two craft, whose pilots had encountered a dangerous microorganism. After the six pilots were taken for treatment and samples were retrieved, the investigation focused on a sample from the foot of Sharp Mountain.

• Lü Yongchang told the Head Councillor that the crisis was a necessary trial for Human Civilization and asked him to keep Mars City's residents calm.
• Zero announced the Black Lady Two craft were about to arrive, and the Head Councillor ended their call after saluting Lü Yongchang.
• Mao Zhengzhi saw that all six pilots were unconscious with temperatures of 40.5 degrees Celsius, and robots carried them out for treatment.
• Ding Xueming took charge of the pilots and ordered physical cooling while Lü Yongchang asked Zero to retrieve Gale Crater samples and analyze the pilots' blood.
• Lü Yongchang warned Mao Zhengzhi that the microorganism had survived disinfection, and Zero identified the sample's origin near the foot of Sharp Mountain.

Ding Xueming learned that the six Starship pilots had a highly contagious, rapidly reproducing bacterial infection that resisted nearly all antibiotics. Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi found that the bacteria clustered to survive sterilization and were most abundant deep beneath Gale Crater’s center, while the pilots remained in grave danger.

• Ding Xueming examined the blood tests and learned the bacteria infected all six pilots, spread through the air, and resisted their strongest antibiotics.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi observed the bacteria clustering together when exposed to disinfectant, allowing some to survive.
• Lü Yongchang used Zero’s data to map the bacteria and found the highest concentrations deep beneath Sharp Mountain at Gale Crater’s center.
• Lü Yongchang suggested Fang Xu’s theory of residual magma activity could explain the bacteria’s distribution and the underground moisture.
• Mao Zhengzhi reported that antibiotics had stabilized Bai Yixuan and the other pilots, but could not eradicate the bacteria and might encourage resistance.
• Lü Yongchang urged the researchers to continue testing and said he believed they could find a solution.