Death's End

“Does a rupture make the speed of light zero in the entire region?”

“No, no. After rupture, it turns into a regular trail. The speed of light inside goes up as the trail dissipates over a wider region, but it will never be much more than a dozen meters per second. After these death lines expand, this entire system might turn into a reduced-lightspeed black hole, or a black domain…. Let’s go.”

Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan turned toward the shuttle and began to run and leap.

“What kind of disturbance makes them spread?” Cheng Xin asked. She turned to give the death lines another glance. Behind them, the five death lines cast long shadows that stretched across the plain to the horizon.

“We’re not sure. Some theories suggest that the appearance of other curvature trails nearby would cause disturbance. We’ve confirmed that curvature trails within a short distance can influence each other.”

“So, if Halo accelerates—”

“That’s why we must get farther away using only the fusion engine before engaging the curvature engine. We’ve got to move… using your units of measurement… at least forty astronomical units away.”

After the shuttle took off, Cheng Xin continued to stare at the receding death lines. She said, “The Zero-Homers give me a bit of hope.”

Yifan said, “The universe contains multitudes. You can find any kind of ‘people’ and world. There are idealists like the Zero-Homers, pacifists, philanthropists, and even civilizations dedicated only to art and beauty. But they’re not the mainstream; they cannot change the direction of the universe.”

“It’s just like the world of humans.”

“At least the Zero-Homers’ task will ultimately be completed by the cosmos itself.”

“You mean the end of the universe?”

“That’s right.”

“But based on what I know, the universe will continue to expand, and become sparser and colder forever.”

“That’s the old cosmology you know, but we’ve disproved it. The amount of dark matter had been underestimated. The universe will stop expanding and then collapse under gravity, finally forming a singularity and initiating another big bang. Everything will return to zero, or home. And so Nature remains the final victor.”

“Will the new universe have ten dimensions?”

“Who knows? There are infinite possibilities. That’s a brand-new universe, and a brand-new life.”

—————

The trip back to Planet Blue was as uneventful as the trip to Planet Gray. Most of the time, Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan remained asleep under the sleep-aid machines. By the time they were awakened, Hunter was in orbit around Planet Blue. Looking down at the blue-and-white world, Cheng Xin almost thought she was home.

AA hailed them, and Yifan replied. “Hunter here. What’s wrong?”

AA’s voice was agitated. “I’ve called you multiple times, and the ship’s AI refused to wake you!”

“I told you we have to maintain radio silence. What happened?”

“Yun Tianming is here!”

Cheng Xin was thunderstruck. The last traces of sleep left her, and even Yifan’s jaw hung open.

“What?” Cheng Xin said softly.

“Yun Tianming is here! His ship landed three hours ago.”

“Oh,” Cheng Xin answered mechanically.

“He’s still young, as young as you!”

“Really?” Cheng Xin’s voice seemed to come from far away, even to herself.

“He brought a gift for you.”

“He already gave me a gift. We’re inside his gift now.”

“That’s nothing. Let me tell you, this is an awesome gift, and much bigger…. He’s outside right now. Let me get him.”

Yifan interrupted. “No. We’re coming down right now. So much radio transmission is dangerous. I’m cutting it off.”

Yifan and Cheng Xin stared at each other, and then laughed. “Are we really awake?” Cheng Xin asked.

Even if it was just a dream, Cheng Xin wanted to be dreaming for longer. She turned on the holographic display, and the starry sky no longer seemed so dark and cold—in fact, it seemed filled with a clear beauty like the sky after a fresh rain. Even the starlight seemed to exude the fragrance of spring buds. It was the feeling of being reborn.

“Let’s get into the shuttle and land,” Yifan said.

Hunter initiated the shuttle separation sequence. Inside the cramped cabin, Yifan used an interface window to perform the final check prior to atmospheric reentry.

“How did he get here so fast?” Cheng Xin muttered, as if still dreaming.

Yifan was now completely calm. “This confirms our guess. The First Trisolaran Fleet founded a colony nearby, within a hundred light-years of here. They must have received the gravitational wave signal from Halo.”

The shuttle separated from Hunter. They could see the tiny pyramid of Hunter recede on the monitoring system.

“What kind of gift is bigger than a sun and its planetary system?” Yifan asked, smiling.

An excited Cheng Xin shook her head.

The shuttle’s fusion reactor activated, and the cooling ring outside began to glow red. The thrusters were preheating, and the control interface window showed that deceleration would begin in thirty seconds. The shuttle was about to descend rapidly as it entered Planet Blue’s atmosphere.