The Dark Forest
Page 59
Yes, you’ve fulfilled the Wallfacer mission. But you’ve got to have some suggestions.
“Humanity’s negotiators will no doubt first propose that you help us build a better signal transmission system, so that we’ll have the ability to transmit a spell into space at any time. Even though the droplet has lifted its seal on the sun, the present system is too primitive.”
We can help build a neutrino transmission system.
“They may, as far as I understand things, be more inclined toward gravitational waves. After the sophons arrived, this was the area in which human physics progressed furthest. Of course, they’ll need a system whose principles they can understand.”
The antennas for gravitational waves are immense.
“That’s between you and them. It’s strange. Right now I don’t feel like a member of the human race. My greatest desire is to be rid of it all as soon as possible.”
Next they’ll ask us to lift the sophon block and teach science and technology across the board.
“This is important to you as well. The technology of Trisolaris has developed at a constant speed, and two centuries later, you still haven’t sent a faster follow-up fleet. In order to rescue the diverted Trisolaran Fleet, you have to rely on the future of humanity.”
I must go. Are you really able to go back on your own? The survival of two civilizations hinges on your life.
“No problem. I feel much better now. After I go back, I’ll immediately hand over the cradle system, and then I’ll have no more to do with all of this. Finally, I’d like to say thank you.”
Why?
“Because you let me live. Or, if you think about it a different way: You let us both live.”
The sphere vanished, returning to its eleven-dimensional microscopic state. A corner of the sun was peeking out in the east, casting gold across a world that had survived destruction.
Luo Ji slowly stood up. After taking a last look at the gravestones of Ye Wenjie and Yang Dong, he stumbled slowly back the way he came.
The ant had reached the summit of the headstone and proudly waved its feelers at the rising sun. Out of all life on Earth, it was the only witness to what had just taken place.
Five Years Later
Luo Ji and his family could see the gravitational-wave antenna in the distance, but it was still another half-hour drive away. Only when they arrived did they get a real sense of its enormous size. The antenna, a horizontal cylinder a kilometer and a half long and fifty meters in diameter, was entirely suspended about two meters off the ground. Its surface was mirror-smooth, half of it reflecting the sky and half the northern China plain. It reminded people of a few things: the giant pendulums of the Three Body world, the sophons’ lower-dimensional unfoldings, and the droplet. The mirrored object reflected a Trisolaran concept that humanity was still trying to figure out. In the words of a well-known Trisolaran saying, “Hiding the self through a faithful mapping of the universe is the only path into eternity.”
The antenna was surrounded by a big green meadow that formed a small oasis in the desert of northern China, but this meadow had not been specially planted. Once the gravitational-wave system had been completed, it began sending continuous, unmodulated emissions that were indistinguishable from the gravitational waves emitted from supernovae, neutron stars, or black holes. The density of the gravitational beam had a peculiar effect in the atmosphere: Water vapor collected above it, so that it frequently rained in the antenna’s vicinity. At times, the rain only fell within a radius of three or four kilometers, and a small, circular raincloud would hang in the air above the antenna like a giant flying saucer, leaving the brilliant sunshine in the surrounding area visible through the rain. And so this area grew lush with wild vegetation. But today, Luo Ji and his family did not witness that spectacle. Instead, they saw white clouds gather over the antenna, only to dissipate when the wind blew them away from the beam. Yet new clouds were continually forming, making the round patch of sky seem like a time wormhole to some other cloud universe. Xia Xia said that it looked like the white hair of a giant old man.
As the child ran about on the grass, Luo Ji and Zhuang Yan followed behind, until they reached the antenna. The first two gravitational-wave systems were built in Europe and North America, and employed magnetic levitation that suspended them a few centimeters from the base. But this antenna used antigravity, and could have been raised up into space if so desired. The three of them stood on the grass beneath the antenna, looking up at the huge cylinder curling up over their heads like the sky. Its large radius gave the bottom a low curvature, which meant there was no distortion in the reflected image. The setting sun now shone beneath the antenna, and, in the reflection, Luo Ji could see Zhuang Yan’s long hair and white dress fluttering in the golden sunlight like an angel looking down from the sky.
He lifted up the child and she touched the antenna’s smooth surface, pressing hard in one direction. “Can I make it turn?”
“If you push long enough, you can,” Zhuang Yan said—then, looking at Luo Ji with a smile, asked, “Right?”
He nodded at her. “With enough time, she could move the Earth.”
As had occurred so many times before, their eyes met and intertwined, a continuation of that gaze they had held in front of the Mona Lisa’s smile two centuries before. They had discovered that the language of the eyes that Zhuang Yan had dreamed up was now a reality, or maybe loving humans had always possessed this language. When they looked at each other, a richness of meaning poured from their eyes just as the clouds poured from the cloud well created by the gravitational beam, endless and unceasing. But it wasn’t a language of this world. It constructed a world that gave it meaning, and only in that rosy world did the words of the language find their corresponding referents. Everyone in that world was god; all had the ability to instantaneously count and remember every grain of sand in the desert; all were able to string together stars into a crystal necklace to hang around a lover’s neck.…
Is this love?
The lines were displayed on a lower-dimensional unfolding of a sophon that appeared abruptly beside them. The mirrored sphere seemed like a droplet that had fallen off of some melted area on the cylinder above them. Luo Ji knew few Trisolarans and didn’t know who it was who was speaking to them, or whether this one was on Trisolaris or on the fleet that was growing increasingly distant from the Solar System.
“Probably.” Luo Ji nodded with a smile.
Dr. Luo, I have come in protest.
“Why?”
Because in last night’s speech, you said that humanity had been so late to realize the dark forest nature of the universe not because your immature state of cultural evolution caused a lack of awareness of the universe, but because humanity has love.
“Isn’t that correct?”
It’s correct, though the word “love” is a little vague in the context of scientific discourse. But what you said next was incorrect. You said that humanity is probably the only species in the universe to have love, and it’s this notion that supported you through the most difficult period of your Wallfacer mission.
“That’s only an expression, of course. Just a nonrigorous … analogy.”
I know that at least Trisolaris has love. But because it was not conducive to the civilization’s overall survival, it was suppressed when it had only just germinated. Yet the seed possesses a stubborn vitality, and will still grow in certain individuals.
“May I ask who you are?”
We’ve never met. I was the operator who transmitted the warning to Earth two and a half centuries ago.
“My god, and you’re still alive?” Zhuang Yan exclaimed.
I won’t be for much longer. I’ve been in a dehydrated state, but over the long years, even a dehydrated body will age. However, I have seen the future I hoped to see, and for this I am happy.
“Please accept our respects,” Luo Ji said.
I only wish to discuss with you one possibility: Perhaps seeds of
love are present in other places in the universe. We ought to encourage them to sprout and grow.
“That’s a goal worth taking risks for.”
Yes, we can take risks.
“I have a dream that one day brilliant sunlight will illuminate the dark forest.”
The sun was setting. Now only its tip was exposed beyond the distant mountains, as if the mountaintop was inset with a dazzling gemstone. Like the grass, the child running in the distance was bathed in the golden sunset.
The sun will set soon. Isn’t your child afraid?
“Of course she’s not afraid. She knows that the sun will rise again tomorrow.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cixin Liu is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People’s Republic of China. Liu is an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant in Yangquan, Shanxi. You can sign up for email updates here.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Joel Martinsen is research director for a media intelligence company. His translations have appeared in Words Without Borders, Chutzpah!, and Pathlight. He lives in Beijing. You can sign up for email updates here.
TOR BOOKS BY CIXIN LIU
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dramatis Personae
Prologue
Part I: The Wallfacers
Year 3, Crisis Era
Part II: The Spell
Year 8, Crisis Era
Year 12, Crisis Era
Year 20, Crisis Era
Part III: The Dark Forest
Year 205, Crisis Era
Year 208, Crisis Era
Five Years Later
About the Author
About the Translator
Tor Books by Cixin Liu
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE DARK FOREST
Copyright © 2008 by (Liu Cixin)
English translation © 2015 by China Educational Publications Import & Export Corp., Ltd.
Translation by Joel Martinsen
This publication was arranged by Hunan Science & Technology Press. Originally published as in 2008 by Chongqing Publishing Group in Chongqing, China.
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Stephan Martiniere
A Tor Book
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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7708-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-5343-0 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466853430
First Edition: August 2015
1 Translator’s Note: Xiǎo is a diminutive meaning “little” or “young” and is used before a surname when addressing children or to show affection.
2 Translator’s Note: Zhìzi literally “knowledge particle.” The character for “particle” frequently appears in female given names in Japanse, where it is pronounced “ko.”
3 Translator’s Note: Lǎo, meaning “old,” is often used before a surname of those older than the speaker to show respect or familiarity.
4 Translator’s Note: A historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong (c. 1330–1400), Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes the contest between three regional powers from the waning days of the Eastern Han Dyansty (184) to the reunification of the empire under the Jin Dynasty (280). It is known for its iconic characters, battle scenes, and political intrigue.
5 Translator’s Note: The insignia of the People’s Liberation Army is a star inscribed with the characters eight and one.
6 Translator’s Note: The Kuiper Belt is a region extending from the orbit of Neptune, at roughly 30 AU, to roughly 50 AU, and is home to Pluto and two other dwarf planets, among other objects.
7 Translator’s Note: Roughly equivalent to $65,000 in early 2015.
8 Translator’s Note: Vast networks of tunnels were built in cities across China beginning in the late 1960s as defensive measures against enemy attack. This slogan, adapted from advice given to the founder of the Ming Dyansty, was promulgated as a directive from Mao Zedong in the People’s Daily’s annual New Year’s Editoral in January 1973.
9 Translator’s Note: Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997) was an influential novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work became enormously popular after his untimely death.
10 Translator’s Note: First cosmic velocity is the initial velocity a body needs to achieve orbit, second cosmic velocity the amount needed to leave an object’s gravitational pull, and third cosmic velocity the amount needed to leave the Solar System.
11 Translator’s Note: The Oort Cloud is collection of icy objects in a spherical distribution that surrounds the Solar System at a distance of 50,000 to 100,000 AU and is believed to be the source of long-period comets.
12 Translator’s Note: Yang Wen-li is one of the protagonists of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, a series of Japanese science fiction novels launched in 1982 by Yoshiki Tanaka, and followed by manga and anime adaptations.
13 Translator’s Note: This famous quote about filial piety appears in Mencius, a collection of conversations and anecdotes related to the Confucian philosopher of the same name, who lived in the late fourth century BC.
14 Translator’s Note: “Al-Qaeda” is translated into Chinese rather than transliterated, and is known as Jīdì, the same term used for the title of Asimov’s Foundation novels.
15 Translator’s Note: Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road in what is now Gansu province, was home to spectacularly decorated Buddhist grottoes inhabited from the fourth to fourteenth centuries. In 1900, Wang Yuanlu, a Taoist abbot at Dunhuang’s Mogao Caves, discovered a sealed-up Library Cave containing a cache of ancient documents that he subsequently sold to Hungarian-British archeologist Aurel Stein and French sinologist Paul Pelliot.
16 Translator’s Note: China instituted a ration system for grain and cooking oil in the early 1950s, and expanded it in 1961 to include goods ranging from shoes and scissors to home appliances and electronics. With the transition from planned economy to market economy in the 1980s, use of the ration system declined, and it was terminated in the early 1990s.
17 Translator’s Note: In a tokamak, plasma is confined to a torus shape by a toroidal electromagnetic field surrounding the torus and a current induced in the plasma itself. Developed by Soviet scientists in the 1950s, they produced better results than other plasma containment devices.
18 Translator’s Note: The Battle of Weihaiwei was the last major battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. In February 1895, the ships of the Beiyang Fleet, the Qing Dynasty’s northern navy, were anchored in the harbor at Weihaiwei, Shandong province, their home base, for safety from the advancing Imperial Japanese Navy. When Japanese land forces seized shore fortifications, the Chinese fleet was forced to surrender.
19 Translator’s Note: Roughly $10,000 per pie
ce, or a total of $30,000.
20 Translator’s Note: Liu Buchan commanded the Beiyang Fleet’s flagship, the battleship Dingyuan, in the aforementioned Battle of Weihaiwei in February 1895.
21 Translator’s Note: In the fable “The Wolf of Zhongshan,” attributed to the Ming Dynasty writer Ma Zhongxi, the bookish scholar Master Dongguo takes pity on a hunted, starving wolf and hides it in a bag as hunters pass by. When he lets the wolf out, it threatens to eat him but is persuaded to put the issue to a third party. An old farmer, after hearing the situation, protests that the wolf could not possibly fit in the bag. The wolf climbs back in, whereupon the farmer ties up the bag and bashes the wolf to death with his hoe.
22 Translator’s Note: Xīzǐ is another name for Xi Shi, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China, who lived near Hangzhou. West Lake (Xīhú) in Hangzhou has a particular association with Xi Shi.
23 Translator’s Note: Strong interaction is the strongest of the four fundamental interactions, and is responsible for the strong nuclear force that binds together subatomic particles. It is roughly 100 times more powerful than electromagnetism, but is only effective at distances of less than a femtometer.
24 Translator’s Note: This popular quotation sums up the great vow of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha (Dìzàng Púsà) not to achieve Buddhahood until all living beings are saved.
25 Translator’s Note: Lagrange Points are the five positions where a small object affected only by gravity can remain in equilibrium in relation to two larger bodies.