Chapter Summaries

Miller learned the truth about North America’s collapse and reconciled with Professor Brand before agreeing to comfort Amelia. After Miller’s return drew scientific attention, Zhang Tianyuan and Yuan Heguang discussed inviting the world to help settle Planet No. 3.

• Professor Brand told Miller that starving discharged soldiers had been abandoned, and that he and Jody had refused orders to bomb them, contributing to NASA’s disbandment.
• Professor Brand admitted he had known Plan A would fail and had chosen Plan B before turning to Plan C; Miller forgave him, and he asked her to comfort Amelia.
• Miller found Amelia at a Mutual Aid Society meeting about surveying a new habitable planet, and Amelia said she would devote herself to work on the new planet despite Edmunds’s death.
• Miller returned to the space base, where scientists examined her and questioned her about landing on Planet No. 1; the Society then suspended experiments while it analyzed the limited data.
• Yuan Heguang told Zhang Tianyuan that Planet No. 3 was ready for settlement preparations and proposed inviting countries worldwide to send people, with help from those unable to transport them.

Yuan Heguang weighed the cost of exploring Star No. 3 and sought to ensure other spacetime branches shared the work rather than relying on the Mutual Aid Society. Zhang Tianyuan explained that the branches wanted to use Interstellar Spacetime’s Earth as a refuge and hub after its people evacuated, and Yuan agreed in principle to hand over its use once everyone had settled on the new planet.

• Yuan Heguang recognized that exploring Star No. 3’s primeval forests would bring casualties and wanted other countries in Interstellar Spacetime to contribute to the effort.
• Zhang Tianyuan assured Yuan Heguang that headquarters and the other branches had no designs on Star No. 3 and instead wanted the right to use Earth after its evacuation.
• Zhang Tianyuan explained that Earth could serve as a refuge for people evacuated from Wandering Spacetime and potentially become a new spacetime hub.
• Yuan Heguang supported the plan to hand over Earth’s use, but said the decision would have to wait until everyone had reached Star No. 3 and put down roots.

Miss Hanley reprimanded Murphy for reading old books and sharing information from radio broadcasts, then suspended her until the next semester. Murphy repeated her accusations about a massacre as Donald hurried her away, and he told her not to say it again next time.

• Miss Hanley summoned Donald to school and warned him to keep Murphy from reading old books or listening to the radio.
• Murphy said Steve, Tony, and Peter already knew about the events she had discussed, prompting Miss Hanley to investigate them as accomplices.
• Miss Hanley suspended Murphy until the next semester, and Donald failed to persuade her to change the decision.
• As Donald led her out, Murphy loudly accused the authorities of carrying out massacres and killing 380,000 starving people.
• Donald rushed Murphy out of the school and, once they were in the car, told her that what she had said was good but not to say it again next time.

Donald explained to Murphy that people could not overcome the blight because nothing but corn could grow, leaving her feeling hopeless. A radio announcement about the Nova Exploration Program’s discovery of a habitable Earth-like planet shocked Murphy and gave her a reason to call for Grandpa.

• Donald told Murphy that adults knew the world was wrong but could not change it without finding a way to make other crops grow.
• Murphy returned home discouraged, realizing that humanity faced starvation if the blight left the fields barren.
• Murphy turned on the radio and heard that the uncrewed spacecraft Nova had successfully discovered a habitable Earth-like planet.
• Murphy shouted for Grandpa after hearing the announcement.

After a broadcast announced a habitable new planet, Murphy and Donald saw a chance for humanity to escape Earth, while leaders in North America doubted the announcement and decided to pursue a new Lazarus Plan. They resolved to obtain the planet’s data before carrying it out.

• Murphy excitedly showed Donald and Tom the radio broadcast announcing a habitable new planet, and Donald recognized it as a possible way out for their family.
• Donald kept his worries about migration and scarce ship tickets to himself, and Murphy ate extra mashed potatoes after hearing the news.
• Countries that could contact Yuan Heguang received further details and data describing the new planet as nearly Earthlike, along with an invitation to help develop it.
• North American officials listened to the broadcast repeatedly, and their scientific adviser argued that the spacecraft could not have reached Saturn so quickly.
• The leader of the North American meeting reminded the others that the visitors had come from a parallel spacetime and could open micro wormholes, then proposed a new Lazarus Plan and ordered them to obtain the planet’s data first.

Major Ferguson Jenny secretly cooperated with the starving people occupying Florida’s C-37 granary, helping them sell its grain while reporting a false suppression campaign. After hearing Yuan Heguang’s broadcast about a newly discovered habitable planet, she concluded that the force supporting the starving people had made the discovery and decided to approach them about a broader alliance.

• Major Ferguson Jenny reported that her unit had used gas grenades against the C-37 granary and requested more ammunition and supplies.
• Jenny’s assistant told her that a thousand tons of grain had been shipped out that day, and Jenny encouraged the Guard to continue its work.
• Jenny recalled that she and the starving people had secretly sold more than a hundred thousand tons of grain and planned to build her own domain after years of cooperation.
• An assistant told Jenny about the broadcast, and she listened to Yuan Heguang announce the discovery of a new habitable planet.
• Jenny told her assistants that the East Asian force supporting the starving people was behind the discovery and decided to speak with the granary’s occupants about matters beyond selling grain.

Jenny visited Locke at the granary to seek the Mutual Aid Society’s support, offering the future backing of all North America. Locke rejected her assumptions about the Society’s motives, leaving Jenny to realize it might genuinely be helping the famine victims.

• Jenny arrived at the granary with gasoline and asked Locke whether he had heard the radio news and whether she could meet the people supporting him.
• Jenny offered the Mutual Aid Society the full support of North America in exchange for its aid.
• Locke questioned why the Society would care about North America and told Jenny what it had done for the famine victims.
• Jenny recognized that the Mutual Aid Society’s actions did not match her belief that it intended to intervene in North America for its own benefit.

North America proposed deeper cooperation with the Mutual Aid Society, while Zhang Tianyuan judged that its attempt to gain protection would not affect them. Reports showed grain theft and black-market sales intensifying across the other side, threatening to exhaust its reserves and fragment its guard forces.

• North America sent Yuan Heguang a letter proposing deeper cooperation in space exploration, and he forwarded it to the Mutual Aid Society.
• Zhang Tianyuan agreed that North America wanted to use the public announcement to present itself as an official partner, but said the Society had no plans to attack it and would let the North America Branch handle requests for data.
• Yuan Heguang reported that at least two million tons of grain had entered North America's black market in recent months, easing food shortages in some areas.
• Zhang Tianyuan and Yuan Heguang reasoned that guards and starving people would keep stealing grain as rival granaries competed, draining reserves and making the guard units harder to control.
• The chapter concluded that Blight would limit the development of North America's emerging warlords, leaving the Mutual Aid Society able to suggest that they take their troops to another planet to farm.

Yuan Heguang and Zhang Tianyuan prepared for the growing migration to the new planet while Professor Brand considered a cooperation request from North America’s local strongmen. Brand sent them Planet No. 3’s data, believing cooperation might improve relations, but the strongmen only wanted to placate the Mutual Aid Society and investigate its space-travel technology.

• Yuan Heguang estimated that North America’s migration effort would take about two years to build and planned to expand construction-material production and assess Planet No. 3.
• Professor Brand received a request from North America’s strongmen for detailed data about Planet No. 3 and discussed it with Amelia and Jody.
• Brand, Amelia, and Jody agreed to share the nonconfidential data, and Amelia sent it through the channel specified in the letter.
• Brand received a friendly reply and hoped the strongmen had begun cooperating sincerely.
• The strongmen decided to keep the Mutual Aid Society placated until the New Lazarus Plan began and ordered an investigation into its announced technology for shortening space travel distances.

Zhang Tianyuan secured the Mecha Factory blueprint, gathered resources, and began construction in Pacific Rim Spacetime while delegations from other countries started arriving in Interstellar Spacetime. He learned that a neighboring country had suffered an extraordinary catastrophe during the chaos more than ten years earlier.

• Zhang Tianyuan limited the cooperation with the North America Branch to sharing information and data about the new star.
• After months of grinding and a major resource-gathering effort, Zhang Tianyuan started building the Mecha Factory in Pacific Rim Spacetime, where Ke Jinjun and Mako Mori were expected to oversee its mechas.
• Countries responded to Yuan Heguang's broadcast by organizing visits, and Yuan Heguang accepted their requests.
• Zhang Tianyuan noticed that a nearby country had sent no response and asked Zhou Kun why.
• Zhou Kun said the area had been a priority during the chaos more than ten years earlier and implied that it had suffered 27 nuclear bomb explosions.

After the Mutual Aid Society’s position in North America seemed secure, Zhang Tianyuan learned that the system had found Snowpiercer Spacetime and considered whether its frozen Earth could become a home for Wandering Spacetime. He delayed any decision until reconnaissance could confirm the conditions there and sent a satellite to investigate.

• Zhang Tianyuan met representatives from several countries, while Zheng Xu and Instructor Yin received later delegations.
• Zhang Tianyuan learned that the system had found an eighth spacetime, Snowpiercer, and recalled how CW-7 had plunged Earth into an ice age.
• Zhang Tianyuan considered that the nearly empty Earth might suit Wandering Spacetime, but worried about the ice, the coming thaw, and possible flooding.
• Zhang Tianyuan contacted Wandering Spacetime and the other branch presidents to arrange reconnaissance and a later discussion.
• Zhang Tianyuan opened a tunnel to Snowpiercer Spacetime, then ordered the reconnaissance satellite sent through and launched.

Mather oversaw the launch of planes carrying CW-7 while protesters clashed with airport security, and the crews began releasing the refrigerant into the sky. As the pilots imagined their futures as heroes, one captain thought he saw a satellite.

• Reporters covered protests against CW-7 outside the airport as gunshots sparked chaos and security prepared tear gas and water cannons.
• Several planes took off after the control tower cleared them, while Mather watched the broadcast from his manor and prepared to travel with his son.
• Mather told his son that Alfred had no place on the train, then privately connected the idea to countries.
• Mather ordered the crews to release CW-7, and the planes began dispersing the refrigerant across the designated airspace.
• One captain spotted what he thought might be a satellite and asked his copilot about it.

Zhang Tianyuan discovered that No. 8 Spacetime was on the day CW-7 was released, setting off a disaster similar to the ice age in No. 6 Spacetime. He mobilized meteorological support and informed the other branch presidents as they prepared to respond.

• A satellite entered orbit over eastern North America in No. 8 Spacetime, and its images showed a thriving world in July 2014.
• Zhang Tianyuan ordered a search for CW-7 and learned that it had been released an hour earlier, beginning the Snowpiercer Spacetime disaster.
• Zhang Tianyuan summoned Liu Chunshi’s meteorological team, ordered climate monitoring and modeling, and coordinated with other departments.
• Zhang Tianyuan convened the branch presidents and explained that CW-7 would drive No. 8 Spacetime into an ice age.
• Zhong Ruijin and the other presidents reacted with disbelief at the refrigerant’s power to cool the entire planet.

Jack left Lucy to join Liu Chunshi’s team in No. 8 Spacetime, where they investigated rapidly spreading upper-atmosphere cooling in Snowpiercer Spacetime. The team warned that a global ice-sealing blizzard could begin within three days, and Zhang Tianyuan asked whether the cooling could be stopped or delayed.

• Jack told Lucy that Liu had assigned him to an urgent mission and left home after she reluctantly let him go.
• Zhang Tianyuan brought Liu Chunshi’s assembled team to Wandering Spacetime, where they began analyzing Snowpiercer Spacetime’s weather data.
• Liu Chunshi and Jack found that upper-atmosphere cooling resembled the disaster in The Day After Tomorrow Spacetime, but was spreading rapidly across North America.
• Liu Chunshi warned Zhang Tianyuan that the cooling could cover the globe within three days and trigger a world-spanning blizzard that would seal Earth in ice.
• Zhang Tianyuan asked Liu Chunshi whether they could stop or slow the atmospheric cooling.

Zhang Tianyuan, Liu Chunshi, and Cooper considered ways to slow Snowpiercer Spacetime’s atmospheric cooling and rejected altering Earth’s orbit as too dangerous and impractical. They realized Planetary Engines could provide the heat they needed, though the chapter left their proposal yet to be tested.

• Liu Chunshi explained that they lacked both a method and a mature theory for controlling the weather, but heating the atmosphere could slow its cooling.
• Cooper suggested shifting Earth’s orbit to receive more energy from the sun, drawing on the Planetary Migration Project.
• Zhang Tianyuan and Liu Chunshi warned that changing Earth’s orbit could disrupt the Solar System, damage the atmosphere, and could not be studied or implemented within three days.
• Zhang Tianyuan proposed using Planetary Engines as heat sources, noting that their exhaust created warm zones where people could survive.
• Liu Chunshi and Cooper agreed that the Planetary Engine approach could work.

As CW-7’s release sent Earth into an accelerating, uncontrolled freeze, Wilford prepared to begin his plan aboard the Snowpiercer. He ordered the train to depart immediately without the other investors, leaving the story on the brink of its departure.

• News outlets and scientists praised CW-7 as temperatures fell, while critics’ warnings were suppressed.
• An old man aboard a private plane revealed that he had secretly planned CW-7’s release for years and believed it would usher in a new era.
• A day after the release, the upper atmosphere continued cooling beyond expectations, but officials and media dismissed the warnings as a minor accident.
• Wilford confirmed that his soldiers, engineers, and attendants had assembled aboard the train, while the other investors were still expected at Station 0.
• Wilford told Claude to start the train immediately and said he had never intended to make room for the other investors.

Wilford ordered Claude to seize the Snowpiercer and depart before the other investors could board, then used a television advertisement to warn that CW-7 would trigger a deadly ice age and invite people onto his train. The Snowpiercer continued on its route as viewers heard the warning.

• Wilford told Claude to start the train and authorized the soldiers to kill.
• Claude relayed the orders, and the soldiers killed the other partners' people aboard the train and disposed of their bodies.
• Wilford entered the engine room with Claude and started the Snowpiercer.
• After the train departed unnoticed, Wilford's advertisement warned that CW-7 would cause a sudden ice age and said the Snowpiercer offered a chance to survive.
• The advertisement promised that Wilford would stop at the next station so people could board.

The old man’s plan to board Snowpiercer failed, and bombs destroyed Station 0 as Wilford escaped by train. As CW-7 caused far more severe cooling than expected, Mather realized his partners were unreachable and Wilford had taken control.

• The old man learned that Wilford’s men had been killed and that the train’s remote controls had been disabled.
• Snowpiercer sped past Station 0, and the old man ordered the tracks bombed before heading for his backup shelter.
• A bodyguard found a bomb beneath the waiting room floor, and multiple bombs exploded as Wilford watched from the train.
• Meteorological agencies reported that CW-7 was cooling the atmosphere more severely and for longer than its published plans predicted.
• Mather failed to reach Morgan or his other partners, then watched Wilford’s television message and grew alarmed.

After Wilford’s broadcast exposed his opposition to the CW-7 cooling plan and his train departed, Mather and the plan’s partners feared they had been abandoned. As abnormal cold spread worldwide, Cheng Wanli demanded full disclosure of CW-7’s properties and ordered the plan’s participants placed under supervision.

• Mather realized Wilford might be replacing the plan’s partners with new passengers and frantically called for answers.
• The partners learned Wilford had taken Snowpiercer and discussed sabotaging the tracks, but they could not find a way to escape the coming disaster or agree on who had a shelter.
• Wilford’s broadcast against the global cooling plan caused public alarm, while the organizers dismissed his warning as a publicity stunt.
• Abnormal cold, snowfall, and disrupted weather patterns appeared across the world as officials evacuated threatened areas and sent supplies.
• Cheng Wanli learned that global temperatures were still falling and that Mather was reassuring countries that CW-7 remained under control.
• Cheng Wanli ordered a diplomatic demand for all CW-7 materials and called for everyone involved in the cooling plan to be supervised pending an international trial.

A sudden July blizzard and hailstorm trapped residents and rescue workers inside a city building as the temperature plunged. When the rescue captain went outside to guide a convoy to shelter, a blue flash revealed a strange armored figure and a scar tearing across the sky.

• Rescue workers warned residents to seek shelter as snow, hail, and falling temperatures intensified across the city.
• The rescue team and stranded residents took refuge in an office building while the blizzard raged and hail shattered windows.
• The rescue captain spotted a convoy approaching through the storm and went outside, tied to a safety rope, to guide it toward the building.
• A person in a strange black armored suit stepped out of one vehicle and looked up as an intense blue light illuminated the sky.
• The captain looked up and saw a scar across the sky, as if the sky had been torn apart.