Chapter Summaries

Lü Yongchang learned that the Sun’s transformation was accelerating and that Earth would soon become uninhabitable, so he summoned Fang Xu to discuss a migration plan. He proposed preparing the Spaceport and Luan Bird starships to move people to Mars as the Sun expanded toward a helium flash.

• Lü Yongchang asked Zero to assess the Sun’s condition and learned that it would enter its red giant phase in two years, with Earth’s average temperature forecast to rise by twenty degrees within a year.
• Lü Yongchang called Fang Xu to review the temperature projections and warned that sea levels could rise by roughly sixty meters, sharply reducing humanity’s living space.
• Fang Xu reported that the Tower of Babel was nearly complete after the team introduced a third-generation Quantum Computer.
• Lü Yongchang told Fang Xu to prepare the Spaceport plan and put the Luan Bird Series starships on the agenda for migration to Mars.
• Lü Yongchang showed Fang Xu simulations predicting that the Sun would engulf Mercury in 2040 and Venus in 2045, when it would undergo a helium flash.

Lü Yongchang outlined plans to save humanity from the Sun’s accelerating changes by sending people to the Kuiper Belt, migrating to Mars, or combining both approaches. The chapter ended as Grandpa Qi and Grandpa Zhang learned that Earth could become uninhabitable within months.

• Lü Yongchang proposed sending five billion people in hibernation aboard more than 500 Starships to wait near the Kuiper Belt, while reserving about 500 million people for work and research in the Spaceports.
• Lü Yongchang described migrating to Mars as a second way to buy humanity time, and Fang Xu suggested combining the two plans.
• During a heat wave, Grandpa Qi visited Grandpa Zhang and heard Zhang Man explain that the Sun was changing.
• A news report announced that Earth’s temperature was expected to rise another twenty degrees Celsius within three to six months, silencing the three listeners.

After the Human Federation announced the Escape Plan, Old Mr. Zhang decided to remain in the village, believing his place should go to the younger generation. Zhang Bojun and Su Nan left with Zhang Man after she fell asleep, while Zhang Man secretly watched her grandfather from her father's arms.

• Old Mr. Qi and Old Mr. Zhang discussed the Escape Plan, and both said they would stay behind in the village.
• Old Mr. Zhang told Zhang Bojun and Su Nan to take Zhang Man into town to register, explaining that he wanted to improve others' chances of escaping.
• Zhang Man cried and said she would not leave if her grandfather stayed.
• Zhang Bojun and Su Nan decided to leave that night while Zhang Man slept.
• Old Mr. Zhang held Zhang Man once more before Zhang Bojun and Su Nan carried her away, and she secretly opened her eyes to watch him from the window.

Su Nan and Zhang Bojun registered for the Escape Plan in the county town, where their daughter Zhang Man qualified for priority evacuation on a separate Starship. After entrusting Zhang Man to Wu Pengxing, they learned that many older people had given up their evacuation slots for the younger generation and proceeded to their medical examination.

• Wu Pengxing restored order at the crowded registration site and confirmed that Zhang Man qualified for priority evacuation.
• Wu Pengxing told Su Nan and Zhang Bojun that Zhang Man would board a different Starship, and Zhang Bojun agreed to entrust her to him.
• Su Nan and Zhang Bojun watched Zhang Man leave with Wu Pengxing and wondered if they would meet again.
• A registration staff member told Zhang Bojun that his father, Zhang Yinian, had given up his evacuation slot and that many older people had done the same.
• Su Nan and Zhang Bojun received their evacuation numbers and headed to the designated medical examination site.

Wu Pengxing brought Zhang Man and the other children to the Tower of Babel’s underground base in Africa to undergo medical examinations and enter hibernation for a fifty-year journey. Zhang Man successfully entered hibernation, tearfully thinking of her grandfather as she lost consciousness.

• Wu Pengxing took Zhang Man aboard the Black Lady Two and told her they were headed to Africa.
• Zhang Man saw the Tower of Babel from the starship and learned that its acceleration meant she could not travel up it without a Hibernation Chamber.
• Wu Pengxing led the children from the landed starship to the underground base for medical examinations and fifty years of hibernation.
• The examinations found that none of Wu Pengxing’s children were Hibernation-Incompatible Persons, and they each entered a Hibernation Chamber.
• Zhang Man remembered her grandfather as her countdown ended, and her chamber confirmed that hibernation had succeeded.

Lü Yongchang prepared the Escape Plan after four billion people applied and many eligible elderly people gave up their places. As Earth’s climate worsened and evacuation casualties mounted, Senator Li authorized Lü to address all humanity.

• Zero reported that only four billion people had applied for the Escape Plan, as many eligible elderly people relinquished their places to improve its odds.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to begin the Escape Plan, accelerate hibernation chamber production, and prepare medication for those left behind.
• Senator Li learned that coastal evacuations were complete, many elderly residents had stayed behind, and at least ten million people had died in relocation accidents.
• Senator Li decided to go to the front lines, but Hong Qiming urged him to remain at the head of the Human Federation.
• Zero informed Senator Li that Professor Lü had requested permission to address the world, and Senator Li ordered every department to cooperate unconditionally.

As the coastline advanced and forced Hope and his mother to flee again, they heard that hibernation had begun in Asia and was about to start in the Americas. They headed for an assembly point, where Hope’s mother realized she would soon have to part from him.

• Hope’s mother hurried him away from the window and began packing when the rising coastline threatened their home.
• Hope’s mother reminded him to protect his numbered wrist tag, which granted priority entry to a Hibernation Chamber.
• Hope and his mother drove inland with other fleeing families, unsure where they were going.
• The radio announced that hibernation had begun in Asia and that the Americas would start its first round in the coming days.
• Hope’s mother said she would take him to an assembly point, but Hope quietly suggested that he might not enter hibernation yet.

Hope and his mother were caught in a violent storm and took shelter beneath fallen trees, but his mother collapsed with a fever. Zero rescued them aboard the Black Lady Two and promised to take them to safety, while Hope looked forward to hearing Professor Lü Yongchang address Earth.

• Hope’s mother woke to rain and hurried to drive them toward the next city as Hope remembered a man killed in a storm.
• When fallen trees blocked the road, Hope’s mother drove the car against a tree to create a sheltered triangle where they could wait out the wind.
• After the wind eased, Hope found his mother unconscious and burning with fever, and he could not carry her back to the car.
• Zero arrived aboard the Black Lady Two, moved the fallen tree, and rescued Hope and his mother.
• Zero introduced himself as an AI controlling the Black Lady Two remotely and said he would take them to the nearest city.
• Hope recognized Professor Lü Yongchang in Zero’s hologram and eagerly agreed to listen to his address to Earth.

Lü Yongchang addressed humanity, describing the Escape Plan’s progress and urging people not to lose hope. His speech rallied crowds around the world, and Hope repeated the call for humanity’s glory to endure as Black Lady Two landed in a city.

• At an assembly point, a man in charge worried that the crowd’s grief and despair were harming morale as they waited for Lü Yongchang’s speech.
• Lü Yongchang began his broadcast, recounted the disasters caused by the Sun’s changes, and showed humanity’s progress on the Space Elevator, Jianmu, the Spaceport, and the Luan Bird project.
• Lü Yongchang acknowledged that more than a billion people had died, then shared his dream of humanity escaping Earth and finding a habitable planet.
• His speech revived the crowd’s hope, and people across the world joined in saying, “Humanity, may your glory endure forever.”
• Hope whispered the same words aboard Black Lady Two before Zero told him they had arrived; the craft had landed in a city, where excited soldiers waited outside.

Lü Yongchang learned that his global address had increased willingness to join the evacuation, but projections showed the Hibernation Plan would leave only about 3.8 billion evacuees. After hearing that Biosphere 2 had achieved interim success, he traveled to the Taklamakan Desert to inspect it and learn how it was coping with the Sun’s changes.

• Fang Xu told Lü Yongchang that the global address had prompted more people to volunteer for the Escape Plan.
• Zero projected that completing the Hibernation Plan would take about three more months and leave around 3.8 billion evacuees.
• Zero reported interim success for Biosphere 2, and Lü Yongchang decided to visit it.
• Lü Yongchang traveled by Black Lady Two to Biosphere 2 and met Professor Shen Siwen inside the dome.
• Shen Siwen explained that reflective pieces had been added to the dome to reduce sunlight and help the cooling system.

Lü Yongchang learned that Biosphere Two could not sustain itself without Zero’s constant adjustments, but clarified that the technology only needed to control starship environments. He then tasked Shen Siwen with designing a Mars City for 500 million people, which humanity would need to move into within six months.

• Shen Siwen showed Lü Yongchang the simulated ocean and explained that Zero had stabilized Biosphere Two after its first experiment failed.
• Shen Siwen said a self-sustaining starship biosphere was currently impossible, since Zero had to constantly regulate it and its crops barely fed the research team.
• Lü Yongchang clarified that biosphere technology only needed to maintain starship living environments, and Shen Siwen agreed that Zero could handle that more limited task.
• Lü Yongchang asked whether the ecosystem could be maintained on Mars and whether it could support 500 million people.
• Lü Yongchang explained that Earth would soon become uninhabitable and assigned Shen Siwen to design a Mars City for 500 million people within three months, ahead of humanity’s evacuation in six months.

As Earth's climate deteriorated, Lü Yongchang and the Human Federation prepared to evacuate 3.8 billion people aboard Luan Bird Type I Starships. The final ship was loading at the Spaceport, and the chapter ended with the Head Councillor visiting Lü Yongchang before the escape began.

• Shen Siwen asked Lü Yongchang to approve a gene preservation plan for essential plants, animals, and microorganisms, and Lü agreed to have him prepare a list.
• By January 2033, Zero had completed the [Tower of Babel] and [Jianmu], while two Spaceports and the Luan Bird Type I Starships stood ready for humanity's escape.
• As Earth's temperatures rose and most of humanity entered hibernation, the Human Federation First Laboratory relocated to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
• Lü Yongchang watched the final hibernating people being loaded onto the last Luan Bird Type I Starship and learned it would depart in an hour.
• The Head Councillor visited Lü Yongchang, spoke of missing the old Earth, and teased him and Su Yutong about their relationship.

The Human Federation launched the Escape Plan, sending 380 Luan Bird Type I Starships carrying 3.8 billion people toward the Kuiper Belt. Lü Yongchang and the Head Councillor watched them depart, knowing the sleeping passengers would die if humanity failed to reach them within fifty years.

• The Head Councillor praised Su Yutong’s research progress and urged her to surpass Lü Yongchang before the Escape Plan began.
• The 380th Luan Bird Type I Starship joined the formation at Jianmu Spaceport as the countdown reached zero.
• Lü Yongchang sent Zero’s command, and all 380 starships ignited their Hall Thrusters simultaneously.
• Mo Zeyang watched the starships’ lights from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and hoped Elder Lin would awaken by the time they reached Mars.
• The Head Councillor saluted the departing starships as Lü Yongchang explained their passengers would wait in hibernation for a rendezvous in the Kuiper Belt.
• The Head Councillor asked what would happen if they failed to reach the starships within fifty years, and Lü Yongchang said the 3.8 billion passengers would die.

Lü Yongchang weighed ways to shelter humanity from the Sun’s coming transformation, then risked unlocking Quantum Superluminal Communication Technology and received the prompt “[Photons].” He regained consciousness after twenty-four hours, with Doctor Wen reporting increased brain activity.

• Lü Yongchang rejected building an Underground City or moving humanity into the Spaceport as inadequate stopgap plans.
• Lü Yongchang entered the Technology Tree and decided to unlock Quantum Superluminal Communication Technology despite fearing it would harm him again.
• Lü Yongchang received the prompt “[Photons]” as he lost consciousness.
• Doctor Wen told Lü Yongchang he had been unconscious for twenty-four hours and that his brain activity was higher than last time.

After leaving the hospital, Lü Yongchang summoned the quantum researchers to discuss developing faster-than-light communication as a key step toward interstellar civilization. Tang Wenshan warned that achieving it through quantum communication would be extremely difficult.

• Doctor Wen confirmed that the system was improving Lü Yongchang's physical condition, especially his brain, and agreed to discharge him early for urgent research.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zero to summon Fang Xu, Mo Zeyang, Tang Wenshan, and the quantum researchers to the main laboratory.
• Mo Zeyang and Tang Wenshan speculated that Lü Yongchang had called them to discuss quantum communication.
• Lü Yongchang arrived in his hospital gown and explained that communication delays were a major obstacle to humanity's expansion beyond the Solar System.
• Tang Wenshan questioned whether quantum communication could enable faster-than-light communication and said the task would be extremely difficult.

Lü Yongchang and Tang Wenshan successfully tested a device that precisely controlled an individual photon, advancing their work toward quantum superluminal communication. The breakthrough also revealed Photon Computer Technology among the technologies of a Type II civilization, before Su Yutong found Lü Yongchang unresponsive in his office.

• Lü Yongchang argued that precise control over individual photons was the key obstacle to advancing quantum communication, and Tang Wenshan agreed.
• After three months of research, Lü Yongchang and Tang Wenshan tested the Single-Photon Control Device, and Zero successfully altered a photon's motion and spin states.
• Lü Yongchang celebrated the successful experiment with Tang Wenshan and proposed studying entangled photons next.
• Lü Yongchang entered the Technology Tree space and saw Photon Control reach a Type I civilization breakthrough, revealing dim Type II technologies including Photon Computer Technology.
• Su Yutong shook Lü Yongchang awake in his office and asked whether he was all right or should see Doctor Wen again.

Lü Yongchang and Su Yutong acknowledged their feelings while he insisted human civilization’s crisis had to come first. As researchers waited for a second single-photon control device, Zero revealed that the former Xia Country’s Sky Eye System had received a signal from Proxima Centauri.

• Lü Yongchang reassured Su Yutong that he would not seek another examination, then thanked her for waiting until human civilization escaped its crisis.
• Lü Yongchang inspected the unfinished second single-photon control device, while Tang Wenshan and Mo Zeyang arrived, eager for the next experiment.
• Lü Yongchang suggested Mo Zeyang consider developing a photonic computer after his superconducting quantum computer project stalled.
• Lü Yongchang told Tang Wenshan that a successful experiment would require new algorithms for quantum superluminal communication, and Tang eagerly accepted the work.
• Zero showed Lü Yongchang a signal waveform received by the former Xia Country’s Sky Eye System and said it had come from Proxima Centauri.

Atoka, a low-ranking receiver on Proxima b, discovered footage from a probe showing Earth and its intelligent inhabitants. After reporting the discovery, he followed orders to send a signal toward the Solar System, which Earth was due to receive in 2034.

• Atoka watched over Proxima b’s probe network and believed its search for extraterrestrial life had been futile.
• A high-priority alert led Atoka to inspect data from a probe launched forty-five years earlier.
• Atoka saw Voyager 2, Earth, and images of humans, recognizing them as evidence of an intelligent civilization.
• Atoka reported the discovery, received confirmation from the higher-ups, and sent an electromagnetic signal toward the Solar System.
• The chapter laid out the timeline: Proxima b’s probe reached the Solar System in 2025, its return signal reached Proxima b in 2030, and Earth was to receive Proxima b’s reply in 2034.

Lü Yongchang and the Human Federation learned that intelligent life near Proxima Centauri had sent a signal using repeating prime numbers. A second transmission included a dictionary that Lü began deciphering, leaving humanity on the verge of understanding the aliens’ message.

• Lü Yongchang ordered the Federation to convene a meeting and direct its radio telescopes toward Proxima Centauri after Zero confirmed the signal came from intelligent life.
• At the meeting, Zero processed the transmission into a repeating sequence of prime numbers, which Lü interpreted as a way to select civilizations capable of understanding it.
• Lü explained that the signal was directed at humanity and that evidence found on the Moon indicated an unidentified craft had traveled toward Proxima Centauri.
• Senator Li revealed that Xia Country had found lunar scorch marks consistent with an advanced Hall Thruster, shocking the councillors.
• Zero announced that a second transmission had arrived with a dictionary, and Lü explained how its diagrams linked symbols to cesium-133 and units of measurement.

Lü Yongchang and the Human Federation councillors decoded a message from the Proxima Centauri civilization, which proposed cooperation and described a technological bottleneck. Believing the aliens had contacted humanity because their progress had stalled, Lü Yongchang chose not to respond and called for preparations for war as humanity sought a habitable planet.

• Zero translated a message from Proxima Centauri proposing a cooperative relationship and included the civilizations’ relative coordinates.
• Zero explained that a technological bottleneck meant a civilization’s progress had stagnated, and Lü Yongchang realized this could explain why Proxima Centauri had reached out.
• Lü Yongchang told the councillors that humanity and Proxima Centauri were likely both making first contact with an alien civilization.
• When Albert asked whether they should respond, Lü Yongchang chose not to reply and confirmed that he meant to prepare for war.
• Lü Yongchang insisted that humanity’s priority was finding a habitable planet for its billions of people and said the Academy of Sciences was responsible for matters involving other civilizations.