Chapter Summaries

Director Hutchings and Fowler announced a NASA–European Space Agency lunar mission, but Hutchings’s press conference helped trigger worldwide unrest. Houseman then heard Chief Engineer Ji warn that an alien presence on the moon made the mission dangerous, before Ding Hongbo revealed a plan to push the moon away with Planetary Engines.

• Hutchings told Mr. Fox that the moon would reach Earth’s Roche limit in three weeks, and Fox revealed that an alien weapon might be on the moon and that ZX-7 could destroy it.
• Hutchings agreed to cooperate with the European Space Agency on a lunar mission and announced the project at a NASA press conference, prompting panic and disorder around the world.
• Houseman watched the unrest worsen and regretted that his leaked data had helped spread the news that the moon was falling toward Earth.
• Houseman heard Chief Engineer Ji say that alien life was likely responsible for the moon’s orbit shift and warn NASA and the European Space Agency against sending astronauts before they could destroy it.
• Ding Hongbo announced a plan to push the moon away using roughly a hundred Planetary Engines, each with 150 trillion tons of thrust, shocking Houseman’s group and Fox.

Ding Hongbo announced that a parallel spacetime would help alter the moon’s orbit, while Chief Engineer Ji’s team prepared the Planetary Engines and NASA readied a lunar mission. Just as NASA was about to launch, footage showed spacesuited people on the moon, leaving Hutchings and Fowler questioning who they were.

• Ding Hongbo announced the Moon Expulsion Project and revealed that he had made contact with a parallel spacetime.
• Fox and Hutchings questioned Ding Hongbo’s claims, while scholars reported that the Mutual Aid Society had warned them about the moon’s orbit shift.
• Chief Engineer Ji directed his team to select Planetary Engine locations, aided by engineers and scientists from Wandering Spacetime.
• NASA prepared its SLS lunar rocket and selected three astronauts as unrest and panic spread around the world.
• As Hutchings and Fowler prepared to launch, Fox ordered them to watch the broadcast, which showed spacesuited people standing on the moon.

Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts lured the Swarm from its lunar hole while the world watched the livestream, confirming the alien machine life existed. They escaped its attacks through the Spacetime Tunnel and prepared to study it further.

• Hutchings redirected lunar satellites and telescopes to verify that the livestream showed astronauts on the moon.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts collected lunar soil in Mare Crisium Basin and prepared to lure the Swarm from the deep hole.
• The Swarm emerged as a vast mass of bee-sized machines, attacked the astronauts, and obscured the camera before searching the empty lunar surface.
• Fox realized the astronauts had escaped through the Spacetime Tunnel, and the Swarm returned to the hole after finding no living beings.
• Zhang Tianyuan led the astronauts back onto the moon and drew the Swarm out again so they could examine it more closely.
• Zhang Tianyuan used the Spacetime Tunnel to evacuate everyone just as the Swarm attacked, leaving it to strike empty air.

As the Swarm repeatedly emerged from and retreated into the moon, viewers grew bored while NASA concluded its appearances were linked to attempts to correct the lunar orbit. Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts finished recording and withdrew, while Brian seized on the broadcast as proof that he had been right about aliens.

• Mike repeatedly commentated on the Swarm's attacks and retreats as viewers grew tired of the looping spectacle.
• Hutchings and Fowler told Fox that the lunar orbit's attempted corrections coincided with the aliens appearing on the surface, and Fowler mentioned a classified electromagnetic pulse weapon before Fox ended the call.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts judged the Swarm's intelligence unimpressive, packed their equipment, and withdrew after recording enough footage.
• The Swarm searched for the vanished astronauts, found no life, and burrowed back into the moon.
• Brian called a former colleague, declaring that aliens existed and that NASA had framed and persecuted him.

Zhang Tianyuan and experts began relocating a Planetary Engine from Wandering Spacetime to the Moon in another spacetime, using an enormous Spacetime Tunnel. As the engine emerged, observers on Earth saw a great black spot appear on the Moon.

• NASA staff noticed that the people who had entered the Spacetime Tunnel had not returned, then learned that lunar landers had appeared and Mr. Fox’s Moon-moving plan had begun.
• Zhang Tianyuan led teams from Wandering Spacetime and Moon Spacetime to survey a lunar site and assess whether its soil could support a relocated Planetary Engine.
• The experts found the Moon’s soil strong enough for the project, and Zhang Tianyuan began the relocation after the site was evacuated.
• Zhang Tianyuan opened two vast, closely spaced Spacetime Tunnels and began moving a Planetary Engine through them.
• NASA’s lunar observers saw a great black spot appear on the Moon’s surface.

After the Planetary Engine emerged on the moon, Fox and NASA abandoned their planned lunar mission and joined the effort to save it. Zhang Tianyuan tested the engine against the Swarm, which survived but retreated into the moon, allowing the Mutual Aid Society to continue relocating engines.

• Fox studied NASA’s images of the Planetary Engine and ordered NASA to cancel its lunar launch and seek cooperation with the Mutual Aid Society.
• Hutchings and Fowler ended NASA’s partnership with the European Space Agency, then agreed to provide astronauts and the ZX-7 Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb in exchange for a role in the lunar operation.
• Zhang Tianyuan led the Mutual Aid Society away when the Swarm detected them, while the first Planetary Engine was transferred to the moon and successfully started.
• Zhang Tianyuan directed a Planetary Engine’s plasma jet at the Swarm, which survived by sacrificing outer components and retreated into the moon’s core.
• Zhang Tianyuan resumed the transfers and began moving twenty Planetary Engines at a time as the Swarm remained hidden.

Zhang Tianyuan and the international teams began using one hundred Planetary Engines to push the moon away from Earth, and measurements confirmed that its orbit had started to shift. The initial success brought worldwide relief, but experts warned that a full day of thrust would only delay a possible impact by another month.

• Houseman watched livestreams of the Planetary Engines on the moon and posted excitedly about their technological significance.
• Zhang Tianyuan told Ding Hongbo that all one hundred engines had been moved and tested, and they agreed to begin the push-away plan the next day.
• NASA Director Hutchings announced the project to the public, while reporters challenged him over the late arrival and limited role of NASA's astronauts.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the lunar teams started all one hundred Planetary Engines as the world watched the moon glow blue with expelled plasma.
• Fowler, Chief Engineer Ji, and other space officials received measurements confirming that the moon's orbit was moving away from Earth, prompting worldwide celebrations.
• Zhang Tianyuan received the experts' warning that a day of continuous thrust would delay the predicted impact by only another month.

Zhang Tianyuan and the Mutual Aid Society began preparing Moon Spacetime for a possible evacuation while pushing the moon away to buy time. At an online meeting with prospective member nations, he revealed that the moon was an ancient spaceship whose failing systems had been disrupted by the Swarm, and said destroying it could restore the moon to its proper orbit.

• Zhang Tianyuan ordered evacuation preparations as the Planetary Engine extended the time before the moon fell, and Ding Hongbo began coordinating Migration Order No. 1.
• Ding Hongbo arranged contingency plans to move Moon Spacetime’s population to 2012 Spacetime and invited nations to an online meeting to establish Mutual Aid Society Branch No. 10.
• Fox arranged for the stranded NASA astronauts to reach the country before the meeting, where Ding Hongbo introduced Zhang Tianyuan and the delegation.
• A Mutual Aid Society expert reported that the Planetary Engine had extended the time before the moon’s fall to about fifty days, but only destroying the Swarm inside the moon could solve the underlying problem.
• Zhang Tianyuan told the attendees that the moon was an ancient artificial spaceship and that the Swarm was blocking its energy source and disrupting its systems.
• Zhang Tianyuan assured Fox that destroying the Swarm would restore the moon’s energy supply and allow it to return to its original orbit.

Fox decided to restart the lunar landing program, while the FBI recruited Brian and Houseman for NASA’s urgent mission to destroy the Swarm beneath the moon. Fowler briefed them on the plan, but Brian questioned why they were needed when the Mutual Aid Society was already handling the threat.

• Fox asked Director Hutchings how many astronauts were available, then ordered him to restart the lunar landing program.
• FBI agent James used fabricated rent debts and a lawsuit against Brian’s son Sonny to pressure Brian into returning to NASA.
• FBI agents recruited Houseman by promising him a chance to join a space mission and arranging care for his mother.
• At NASA, Brian discovered that Fowler and Houseman would be his teammates for the lunar mission.
• Fowler explained that the team would travel to the moon, enter the deep lunar cavern, and destroy the alien weapon, prompting Brian to ask why the Mutual Aid Society could not handle it.

Fowler explained to Brian and Houseman that the moon was an artificial spaceship, and that the Swarm had disrupted its systems, prompting their mission to destroy the Swarm inside it. Meanwhile, Zhang Tianyuan’s group planned to intercept Fox’s spacecraft and make its crew join the Mutual Aid Society, while Zhang raised concerns about restrictions on the moon AI.

• Fowler told Brian and Houseman that the moon was a spaceship whose systems the Swarm had interfered with, and explained their mission to eliminate the Swarm inside it.
• Brian accused Fox of seeking control of the moon spaceship and revealed that the FBI had taken his son and Houseman’s mother into its care to pressure them into joining the mission.
• Fowler promised to find out where their loved ones were and went to coordinate their safety.
• Zhang Tianyuan and Ding Hongbo discussed Fox’s request to send a spacecraft to the moon, and Zhang decided their people would intercept it and require its crew to join the Mutual Aid Society.
• Zhang Tianyuan said he suspected the Galactic Humans had heavily restricted the moon AI, possibly because they had not solved the technical causes of an earlier AI rebellion.

Brian, Fowler, and Houseman reached the moon on North America's hastily prepared mission and discovered the Mutual Aid Society's vast array of Planetary Engines. As they approached the deep hole in Mare Crisium Basin, the Swarm emerged and pursued their spacecraft, leaving them racing toward the Mutual Aid Society's base for help.

• Fowler gave Brian and Houseman phones so they could call their families before the mission, then briefed them on the rushed and dangerous plan.
• Zhang Tianyuan watched North America's lunar rocket launch from the Mutual Aid Society's lunar base and prepared to see what its three astronauts could contribute.
• Brian piloted the spacecraft to the moon while Houseman admired Earth and the Planetary Engines; Fowler explained that the Mutual Aid Society had installed a hundred engines across the lunar surface.
• As Brian approached the deep hole in Mare Crisium Basin, the Swarm alarm activated and its reading rapidly climbed.
• Brian ordered Fowler to ready the electromagnetic pulse bomb and turned toward the Mutual Aid Society's base, but the Swarm burst from the hole and charged after them.

Brian, Fowler, and Houseman escaped a Swarm attack with help from the Mutual Aid Society and landed at its temporary lunar base. There, Zhang Tianyuan welcomed them and proposed modifying their spacecraft with a Spacetime Tunnel, which Brian and Fowler accepted.

• Brian piloted the spacecraft through repeated Swarm attacks as Houseman panicked and Fowler prepared the electromagnetic pulse bomb.
• A missile from the Mutual Aid Society struck the Swarm, and blue plasma also attacked it, giving Brian time to reach the temporary lunar base.
• Brian, Fowler, and Houseman landed and joined the astronauts gathered at the base.
• Zhang Tianyuan welcomed Brian and Fowler, noted that poor communication had contributed to their danger, and gave them a spacecraft modification plan.
• Brian and Fowler agreed to add a Spacetime Tunnel to their spacecraft.

The Mutual Aid Society modified Brian's spacecraft and sent Brian, Fowler, and Houseman into the moon, where an unknown force wrecked their craft and the lunar AI intervened. Zhang Tianyuan met the AI and revealed that he and his team came from a parallel spacetime.

• The Mutual Aid Society upgraded Brian's spacecraft, and Director Hutchings reluctantly accepted the modifications after the Society condemned his plan as reckless.
• Houseman joined Brian and Fowler aboard the spacecraft, and they used the Society's bait to draw out the Swarm and slip into the lunar passage.
• The Swarm pursued them into the moon, but a tractor beam pulled their spacecraft through a gate; the crash knocked all three unconscious.
• Zhang Tianyuan entered the lunar spacecraft through a Spacetime Tunnel, prevented the AI from taking Brian, and repeatedly escaped its sealed corridor using another tunnel.
• The lunar AI explained the Swarm's origins and humanity's ancient inheritance, and Zhang Tianyuan revealed that his group came from a parallel spacetime.

Zhang Tianyuan and the others destroyed the Swarm attacking the lunar spaceship by modifying electromagnetic pulse bombs, while another Swarm was unleashed on the Precursors through a Spacetime Tunnel. Afterward, Zhang gained partial control of the spaceship and disabled its consciousness-scanning function.

• The moon AI told Zhang Tianyuan that Galactic Intelligence would reach Earth within sixteen years, and that its technology had not advanced significantly during the intervening billions of years.
• As the Swarm drilled through the spaceship’s armor, Zhang had the moon AI modify electromagnetic pulse bombs and sent Brian and Fowler to lure the Swarm into the passage.
• Zhang opened a Spacetime Tunnel that severed part of the Swarm and sent the severed mass to the Precursors’ planet, where it restarted and attacked them.
• Brian separated the lander’s rear cabin inside the passage, and Fowler and another astronaut detonated the bombs before escaping through a Spacetime Tunnel, destroying the pursuing Swarm.
• Earth celebrated as the moon moved away from the planet, and Zhang questioned the moon AI about his newly granted control permissions.
• Zhang discovered that the AI could scan, interfere with, and copy living beings’ consciousnesses, then disabled that function.

Zhang Tianyuan evacuated No. 0 Spacetime after extraterrestrial ships began slaughtering its inhabitants and destroying the Mutual Aid Society’s former base. He overloaded the game world with solar plasma, causing its system to restart and grant him the highest level of access, then discovered that the game was a superdevice built around a black hole.

• Ke Jinjun urgently requested an evacuation after unknown spaceships appeared over No. 0 Spacetime and attacked its factions, so Zhang Tianyuan brought the personnel back through Spacetime Tunnels.
• Zhang Tianyuan watched the ships destroy the game world and bombard the island where his former main base had stood, while their crews searched for his relocated base.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the branch presidents decided to send solar plasma into No. 0 Spacetime through a Spacetime Tunnel to overload the world’s computational limits.
• The plasma submerged the ships and destroyed them, while Zhang Tianyuan’s system panel flickered, vanished, and then returned after a restart.
• The restarted system granted Zhang Tianyuan the highest access as the sole remaining account, and he learned that the game world was a black-hole superdevice left behind by a supercivilization.

Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts lured the Swarm out of its lunar hole, revealing the alien machines to a worldwide audience. After the Swarm attacked and the group escaped through a Spacetime Tunnel, they returned to observe it again, then teleported away once more.

• Hutchings and NASA staff verified that the astronauts were on the moon, while the three astronauts waiting in a rocket worried that their launch had been delayed.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts collected lunar soil in Mare Crisium Basin and prepared to draw the Swarm out of its deep hole.
• The Swarm emerged as a vast mass of tiny machines, and people around the world watched it circle and attack the astronauts.
• Zhang Tianyuan teleported the group away; the Swarm found no life-forms and retreated into the hole, confirming the alien presence to viewers.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts returned to the lunar surface and lured the Swarm out again so they could study it.
• When the Swarm attacked a second time, Zhang Tianyuan teleported everyone away again.

As the Swarm and the astronauts repeated their stalemate on the Moon, NASA confirmed that the creature’s movements were linked to attempts to correct the lunar orbit. Zhang Tianyuan withdrew after collecting enough footage, while Fowler’s mention of a classified electromagnetic pulse weapon prompted Fox to consider stopping the Swarm.

• Mike and the viewers watched the Swarm emerge and retreat in a repetitive stalemate that wore down their interest.
• Hutchings and Fowler told Fox that the Moon’s orbit only attempted to correct itself when the Swarm appeared, and Fowler suggested destroying it or preventing it from returning underground.
• Zhang Tianyuan judged the Swarm’s behavior unintelligent, collected enough footage, and withdrew with the astronauts as the Swarm burrowed back into the Moon.
• Brian called a former colleague, insisting that aliens were real and that NASA had framed and persecuted him, and vowed to make them pay.

At NASA, Hutchings and Fowler discovered that the Moon Expulsion Project had begun as Zhang Tianyuan’s teams prepared to relocate a Planetary Engine through Spacetime Tunnels. The chapter ended with observers on Earth seeing a vast dark patch appear on the Moon.

• Hutchings and Fowler learned that many landers had appeared on the Moon and that the plan to push it away had begun.
• Zhang Tianyuan led experts from Wandering Spacetime and Moon Spacetime to assess a lunar test site and found its soil strong enough to support a Planetary Engine.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the experts agreed to try relocating the engine, and personnel evacuated the area.
• Zhang Tianyuan opened two enormous Spacetime Tunnels and began moving a Planetary Engine onto the lunar surface.
• NASA observers looked up and saw a great dark patch on the Moon.

As the Planetary Engine emerged on the moon, Fox and NASA abandoned their lunar mission and negotiated with Chief Engineer Ji to join the effort to save the moon. Zhang Tianyuan tested the engine against the Swarm, drove it back into the moon’s core, and resumed transferring engines, leaving enormous dark patches visible from Earth.

• Fox examined NASA’s lunar images, recognized the Planetary Engine, and ordered the lunar launch canceled in favor of cooperation with the other side.
• Hutchings and Chief Engineer Ji agreed that NASA would provide its astronauts and the ZX-7 Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb, while the European Space Agency and Russian Space Agency later sought to join the effort.
• Zhang Tianyuan’s team completed the first Planetary Engine transfer, started it successfully, and confirmed it operated normally on the moon.
• When the engine’s noise drew the Swarm out, Zhang Tianyuan redirected a plasma jet at it; the Swarm survived by sacrificing outer material and retreated into the moon’s core.
• After monitoring the Swarm’s retreat, Zhang Tianyuan resumed transferring Planetary Engines and increased the process to batches of twenty, creating vast dark areas on the lunar surface.

Zhang Tianyuan and the astronauts began firing all one hundred Planetary Engines to push the Moon away from Earth. The Moon’s orbit started to recede, but experts warned that the collision danger remained and required another day of propulsion to delay the projected collision by a month.

• Houseman watched livestreams of the Planetary Engines on the Moon and posted excitedly about their potential for artificial planets.
• Zhang Tianyuan and Ding Hongbo agreed to begin the engine operation, while NASA and other agencies arranged to send astronauts to participate.
• Hutchings announced the project’s start to the public, and the reports helped calm unrest and slow looting.
• Zhang Tianyuan returned to the Moon as experts and astronauts took their stations, and all one hundred Planetary Engines began firing together.
• Fowler, Chief Engineer Ji, and other agencies received measurements confirming that the Moon’s orbit had started moving away from Earth, and countries announced the news.
• Zhang Tianyuan learned that the collision danger remained and that a full day of continuous propulsion could delay the projected collision by another month.