Chapter Summaries

As the Election Assembly began without the Head Councillor, Albert challenged Hong Qiming over the old man's absence and health. The Head Councillor, recovered enough to appear, arrived and opened the assembly by nominating Hong Qiming as the second Head Councillor.

• Albert questioned Hong Qiming about the Head Councillor's absence, while Hong urged the senators to wait.
• The day before, Lü Yongchang explained that the Head Councillor was undergoing treatment in a Medical Pod and might not recover in time for the assembly.
• The Head Councillor chose to let Hong handle the assembly alone as an opportunity to gain experience.
• At the assembly, Albert raised doubts about the Head Councillor's health, and Hong told the senators to wait longer.
• The Head Councillor entered the conference room, declared the Election Assembly open, and proposed Hong Qiming as the second Head Councillor.

The former Head Councillor stepped down in favor of Hong Qiming and used the unveiling of longevity enzyme to secure support for extending councillors’ terms to 100 years. After the meeting, Lü Yongchang revealed that the former Head Councillor had only about ten years left to live, even with the treatment.

• Albert hesitated when the Head Councillor invited objections, then accepted his departure without protest.
• Hong Qiming was unanimously elected the second Head Councillor, and the former Head Councillor proposed 100-year councillor terms.
• Hong Qiming revealed longevity enzyme, which could raise humanity’s maximum lifespan to over 600 years, and explained that it was still in biological testing.
• Albert and other elderly councillors objected that the treatment was unfair, but Hong Qiming said they could volunteer for testing with Professor Lü.
• More than half the councillors voted in favor of the 100-year term proposal.
• The former Head Councillor asked Lü Yongchang how long he had to live, and Lü said he had roughly ten years remaining.

Lü Yongchang arranged for the Elder Head Councillor to retire on Proxima b, then led Mo Zeyang and the researchers there to begin developing the Photon Computer. Their arrival exposed the physical effects of prolonged zero-gravity living, leaving Lü Yongchang considering artificial gravity for future starships.

• The Elder Head Councillor told Hong Qiming he would leave Parliament and asked Lü Yongchang for a suitable place to retire.
• Lü Yongchang invited the Elder Head Councillor to retire on Proxima b, and two weeks later the old man departed aboard a Black Lady Two.
• Lü Yongchang told Zero to prepare Mo Zeyang's team and announced that they would begin the Photon Computer project on Proxima b.
• Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang arrived at the completed Photon Computer laboratory with the researchers, who struggled to walk in Proxima b's stronger gravity after months in space.
• Lü Yongchang reflected on the health effects of zero-gravity living and concluded that future starships would need devices to simulate gravity.

At the Proxima b sanatorium, the old Head Councillor watched researchers arrive and wished for humanity’s prosperity. In the Photon Computer laboratory, Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang discovered that semitransparent material could function as a one-way photonic switch, potentially solving the computer’s logic gate problem.

• The old Head Councillor recovered enough mobility to enjoy the sanatorium, where he saw five flight trails and realized the surface laboratory was complete.
• The next day, Lü Yongchang’s research team began the Photon Computer project and announced that they had synthesized a new material.
• Lü Yongchang explained that the Proxima Centauri civilization called the material steri and that it behaved like a semiconductor, but acted on photons instead of electrons.
• Lü Yongchang showed Mo Zeyang that the black block transmitted light in one direction but blocked it in the other.
• Mo Zeyang recognized the material as a potential switch for Photon Computer logic gates, and Lü Yongchang clarified that it was a photonic switch.

Mo Zeyang and Lü Yongchang studied the semitransparent material’s semiconductor-like dopability and prepared to test it with a custom Ion Implanter. After implanting ions into a thin sheet, Lü Yongchang revealed that the formerly dark material had become transparent.

• Lü Yongchang explained that impurities could greatly improve the semitransparent material’s light transmission, and Mo Zeyang recognized its resemblance to semiconductor doping.
• Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang discussed how doping could help them develop Photon Computer components and waited for the custom Ion Implanter.
• Zero reported the Ion Implanter’s arrival, and Lü Yongchang had robots bring it into the prepared clean room.
• Lü Yongchang placed a thin sheet of semitransparent material in the Ion Implanter and had Zero bombard it with ions.
• Lü Yongchang removed the treated sheet and saw that it had become transparent like glass.

Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang advanced the Photon Computer from a promising material breakthrough to a working prototype, but its first performance test caused data loss before Zero stopped the transfer. The crisis was contained with less than one percent of Zero’s data lost and repaired, while the cause remained under investigation.

• Lü Yongchang produced the semitransparent material needed for the Photon Computer, putting its research on a clear path.
• Mo Zeyang told Lü Yongchang that Zero had verified the completed architecture, and Lü Yongchang ordered him to build a prototype with Zero.
• A week later, Lü Yongchang and the researchers powered on the room-sized Photon Computer, and it began operating normally.
• Zero’s first test detected data loss and halted the transfer, preventing the problem from worsening.
• Lü Yongchang confirmed that less than one percent of Zero’s data had been lost and that repairs were complete, then Mo Zeyang asked what had happened.

After the photon computer failed to run Zero, Lü Yongchang realized it needed an optical quantum computer and set out to build one. Its completion unlocked the level two civilization technology tree, revealing new paths in computing, robotics, energy weapons, and materials.

• Lü Yongchang realized the photon computer could not support Zero because it lacked quantum computing, and he decided to develop an optical quantum computer.
• Lü Yongchang checked the Technology Tree System and confirmed that mastering photon computing depended on controlling photons and building integrated optical circuits.
• A month later, Zero reported that the optical quantum computer installation was complete, and Lü Yongchang entered the technology tree space.
• Lü Yongchang crossed into the level two civilization tree and saw that the new path began with the photon computer and led to starship adaptive repair technology and a ternary computer.
• Lü Yongchang examined newly revealed paths for plasma weapons, advanced laser weapons, and materials technology, then left the technology tree space.

Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang successfully transferred Zero to the Optical Quantum Computer, which achieved nearly ten times the computing power of the Quantum Supercomputing Center aboard the [Earth]. Lü Yongchang assigned Mo Zeyang a week of rest before a new computer research project and left for the [Earth], while Mo Zeyang and the other researchers headed to Proxima b.

• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to begin the second experiment, and the data transfer to the Optical Quantum Computer proceeded without problems.
• After an hour, Zero reported that the new computer had reached 993% of the Quantum Supercomputing Center’s computing power, prompting the researchers to celebrate the success.
• Lü Yongchang told Mo Zeyang he would get one week of rest before taking on a project to research the next generation of computers.
• Lü Yongchang told Mo Zeyang and the researchers to visit Proxima b with robot escorts and said he was returning to the [Earth].
• A Black Lady Two took off with Mo Zeyang and the researchers aboard, and Mo Zeyang complained that Lü Yongchang had tricked him into worrying about the next assignment.

After returning from Proxima b with a breakthrough in photon computer technology, Lü Yongchang proposed reorganizing the human fleet around separate tactical and technological commanders. Zhao Zijie accepted the tactical command role and began reviewing the fleet’s wartime failures, while Lü Yongchang revealed a plan to improve intelligence gathering.

• Lü Yongchang returned to Earth and summoned Zhao Zijie to the command center.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zhao Zijie to assess the war, and Zhao Zijie called it a failure despite humanity’s victory and the peace it secured.
• Lü Yongchang proposed a dual command system and named Zhao Zijie tactical commander-in-chief while retaining technological command for himself.
• Zhao Zijie identified inadequate intelligence on the Proxima Centauri Civilization as the fleet’s most serious wartime problem.
• Lü Yongchang said he had a solution and displayed a hologram of small swarm probes.

Zhao Zijie proposed improvements to the Human Fleet, including surveillance probes and Suicide Drones, while Lü Yongchang revealed a solution to weak warship hulls. Lü assigned Tao Yuda a project to develop Nano-Robot technology that could autonomously repair damaged starships.

• Lü Yongchang showed Zhao Zijie a design for probes that could establish surveillance around Proxima b and its surrounding region.
• Zhao Zijie recommended equipping Golden Crow battleships with Suicide Drones to help counter swarms of small enemy warships, and Lü agreed to record the proposal.
• Zhao Zijie raised the problem of weak warship hulls, and Lü said he had already found a solution.
• Lü introduced Tao Yuda to Zhao Zijie and explained the coming Dual Fleet Command System, naming Zhao as Human Fleet tactical commander-in-chief and himself as Fleet Technology Commander-in-Chief.
• Lü gave Tao Yuda a new research assignment: develop Nano-Robots that could autonomously repair damaged starship hulls.

Lü Yongchang assigned Tao Yuda a research project and explained why remote warship control was not yet practical. After dismissing an initial brightness change at Ross 154 as an ordinary flare, he learned the flare had lasted more than ten hours and rushed to the main laboratory.

• Lü Yongchang encouraged Tao Yuda to lead a research task, joking that Cao Liangcai would take over if he failed.
• Zhao Zijie asked whether troops could remotely control warships using the Brainwave Reading Device, and Lü Yongchang explained its limitations.
• After half a month of struggling with Plasma Weapons research, Lü Yongchang dismissed an abnormal brightness change at Ross 154 as a routine flare.
• Fang Xu informed Lü Yongchang that the flare had continued for over ten hours, and Lü Yongchang hurried to the main laboratory.

Lü Yongchang and the researchers investigated Ross 154’s increasingly abnormal stellar flare and considered whether an advanced civilization might have attacked it. He publicly reassured the laboratory, but Cao Liangcai realized Lü’s private concern suggested the situation was more serious than he had admitted.

• Fang Xu told Lü Yongchang that Ross 154’s flare had lasted ten hours and grown five magnitudes brighter, far beyond a typical major flare.
• Fang Xu privately asked whether something had happened to Ross 154 and whether humanity had another destination; Lü Yongchang said no suitable alternative had been found within fifteen light-years.
• Lü Yongchang warned the researchers that an attack by an advanced civilization could not be ruled out, then said he personally favored an unknown natural cause.
• Lü Yongchang told everyone to keep observing and left the laboratory after giving Cao Liangcai a discreet look.
• Cao Liangcai made an excuse to leave his seat and realized Lü Yongchang’s reassurance had hidden how serious the situation was.

Lü Yongchang ordered interstellar probes and expanded telescope monitoring after Ross 154 underwent an alarming flare, though the star soon returned to normal. Half a month later, he returned to Proxima b, where Mo Zeyang demanded an update on the Photon Computer project.

• Lü Yongchang told Cao Liangcai that Ross 154 seemed to be losing energy and ordered two sets of Interstellar Probes, including a relay probe for the Solar System equipped with Nuclear Torpedoes.
• Lü Yongchang saw Ross 154’s readings fall toward normal, but remained wary and told Cao Liangcai to prioritize the probes and Zero to monitor the star around the clock.
• Humanity built a new Radio Telescope Array and began manufacturing ten spherical probes to survey Ross 154 and its planets.
• Half a month later, Mo Zeyang confronted Lü Yongchang on Proxima b about the Photon Computer project and complained that his vacation had been ruined.
• Lü Yongchang explained the Ross 154 incident and the newly completed Interstellar Probes, and Mo Zeyang reluctantly set aside his questions about the computer.

Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to awaken Maxim, a ternary-computer researcher who had been hibernating aboard Home ship 319. After waking more than a century in the future, Maxim learned he was in the Proxima Centauri System and reacted with shock.

• Lü Yongchang watched the two probe groups depart, then told Mo Zeyang that they were researching ternary computers.
• Mo Zeyang explained that his former supervisor had visited Maxim, whose father had worked on ternary computers, and asked Lü Yongchang to find him aboard the Home ships.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to locate and awaken Maxim, then bring him to Proxima b after he recovered.
• Zero found Maxim aboard Home ship 319 and started the Awakening Program.
• Maxim awoke after 115.5 years of hibernation, learned he had reached the Proxima Centauri System, and stared in surprise.

Maxim joined Mo Zeyang’s Ternary Computer project while Lü Yongchang developed carbyne to strengthen humanity’s ships. Sixty years later, humanity had rebuilt its fleet and civilization on Proxima b, but Lü Yongchang mourned the researchers who had died.

• Zero told Maxim that humanity still had no new home and explained the past hundred years, then asked him to help develop the Ternary Computer.
• Maxim learned that Mo Zeyang had revived the project and agreed to report for duty.
• Lü Yongchang used the Technology Tree System to obtain a carbyne synthesis approach and began refining it for experiments and production.
• Over the next sixty years, humanity developed stronger materials, faster ships, a Ternary Optical Quantum Computer, Engineering Ships, and more powerful weapons.
• Humanity built twenty cities on Proxima b, and its population rebounded to six billion.
• Qian Zhengyang, Ding Xueming, Tang Wenshan, Chris, and other elderly researchers died, leaving Lü Yongchang grieving.

As Proxima Centauri approached its final death throes, Lü Yongchang prepared humanity to leave Proxima b despite hundreds of millions refusing to go. A probe surveyed the Ross 154 system and found a promising planet, though the chapter ended before humanity chose its new home.

• Lü Yongchang learned that five hundred million people refused to leave Proxima b and ordered one final mobilization, allowing those who stayed to remain with supplies.
• Lü Yongchang and Fang Xu went to the astronomical observatory after Zero reported that the probe had completed its preliminary survey.
• Lü Yongchang examined the Ross 154 system and focused on its second planet, a solid world with gravity close to Earth's and abundant minerals.
• A young observer asked Lü Yongchang whether the promising planet would become humanity's future home.

Lü Yongchang and He Bilin examined the Ross 154 system, and probes found no sign of the anomaly observed sixty years earlier. Lü ordered preparations for humanity’s migration in 2210, while Ross 154 briefly showed a mysterious gray substance and the new fleet assembled around the flagship Earth.

• Lü Yongchang showed He Bilin the planets of the Ross 154 system, including a gas giant suitable for energy resupply.
• Five probes approached Ross 154, and Lü Yongchang and He Bilin found that its readings matched earlier observations.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to crash a probe into Ross 154, where it exploded without visibly disturbing the star.
• Lü Yongchang told Fang Xu to complete migration preparations within two years and announced that humanity would depart in 2210.
• A gray substance spread across Ross 154 toward the four orbiting probes, then withdrew into the star as the probes continued their orbits.
• Humanity assembled 3,000 starships around the 5,000-meter flagship Earth, with millions of reconnaissance satellites positioned to depart first.

Ren Feng returned home in City Three and rejected another attempt to persuade him to join the migration plan. His two younger siblings said they would stay with him, and his father began explaining to the migration official why the children were so attached to Ren Feng.

• Ren Feng confronted a Huashi Burger vendor about the stomach trouble the burgers had caused him, then walked away when the vendor asked him not to cause trouble before the migration.
• Ren Feng hurried home after a neighbor told him that visitors had come to see him again.
• Ren Feng rejected the uniformed official's appeal to join the migration plan, even after learning that his parents planned to migrate.
• Ren Feng's younger siblings declared that they would stay wherever their big brother went.
• Ren Feng's father privately told the official that Ren Feng and his siblings had grown up with their maternal grandfather, and that Ren Feng had always been closest to them.

The final mobilization drive persuaded Ren Feng to leave for City Four, but eighty million young people still refused to join the migration. After reviewing Zero’s estimate that those who stayed could survive for about a thousand years under ideal conditions, Lü Yongchang ordered the migration plan to begin.

• Mr. Ren told a uniformed official that Ren Feng refused to migrate because he wanted to care for his grandfather in City Four, and the official went to persuade the family.
• The official convinced Ren Feng’s grandfather that the migration plan concerned Ren Feng, prompting the old man to call his grandson.
• Three days later, Ren Feng boarded a maglev train for City Four, while the official told the Rens that the final mobilization drive had ended.
• Lü Yongchang reviewed the statistics showing that eighty million young people chose to stay and asked Zero how long they could survive after the migration.
• Zero estimated that they could last a thousand years under ideal conditions, and Lü Yongchang ordered the migration plan to begin with personnel entering hibernation in batches the next day.

The Human Fleet departed Proxima b for Ross 154, while Ren Feng stayed behind with his grandfather. Sixty years later, the fleet reached its preset awakening zone, and a gray shadow briefly appeared inside Ross 154 as the probes continued reporting normal conditions.

• Lü Yongchang ordered the 3,000 ships to set sail for Ross 154, then entered hibernation with the rest of the fleet.
• Ren Feng told his grandfather the fleet had left and reaffirmed his decision to remain in the Proxima Centauri System.
• Sixty years later, the fleet reached a point 0.01 light-years from Ross 154, and Earth began awakening its first group of personnel.
• Four probes continued sending normal readings of Ross 154 to Zero, but a gray shadow briefly appeared within the star.