by Hao Jingfang
“We’ve evolved along with our planet. From the first day humankind set foot upon this land, it has been the foundation of our survival. We have grown our food here, lived in its extrusions, sculpted it with our machines, changed the atmosphere with our exhalations. From this day forward, our mutual dependence will deepen. We’ll have to slow down the wind erosion, thicken the air, warm the ground, improve the soil quality. Our planet will give us life, give us the possibility of breathing in the open. From this day onward, we will no longer be a species in isolation but will evolve together with our planet.
“We can be lazy, but we cannot lie to our planet.
“Ex-consul Hans Sloan once told me something Galiman had said, which I will now repeat for all of you. No words seem more appropriate to this occasion: ‘The sky is silent; let the land witness and weigh our soul.’ ”
The glowing torch of mud and ice now approached the surface of the planet, and the engines began to brake, to slow the descent. As everyone watched, a glowing wheel of light slowly approached the rim of the crater. It would collide with a plateau, melt in the subsequent explosion, and flow along the canyons into the bottom of the crater to form waterfalls, rivers, and, finally, a lake.
* * *
In various places on Earth, the same scene played out on various screens—though just a few clips lasting mere seconds, to fill in gaps in the financial news, a change of pace for exhausted nerves. Here and there, a few people glanced up from the noisy crowd, trying to imagine the fantastic myths being played out on another world. Stories of Mars would always be myths, even if they really happened.
Eko sat in his bedroom watching the computer screen, his mind ablaze. On the screen a fiery planet spun in space while a tiny rock, like a drop of water, circled it. Pride and a dreamlike sense of unreality came over him as he recalled that he had once set foot upon that world.
* * *
Maearth drifted in space, steady as always.
Hans and Luoying were both in the weightless gym at the stern of the ship, so that they could face Mars. Luoying lay on her back in the air, floating in the middle of the cabin. Her dress and hair drifted with her, like ribbons in a dance.
She was finally back here, the locus of joy and movement, the repository of the group’s best memories, the only stable place in the cosmos. She looked up at the curved ceiling, where Uncle Laak’s face was superimposed over the red planet. At the edge of the cabin, near the handholds, Hans stood in full dress uniform, saluting the screen overhead. Luoying thought her grandfather had never looked so handsome: the wrinkles in his face seemed carved by a knife, his white hair drifting with the air currents.
Maearth was heading for Earth. The empty quarters would soon be filled with trade goods. The photographs on the walls had been changed. They were still clean and neat, but the hands dusting them now belonged to a different old man.
Laak was nearing the end of his speech. His voice felt heavy and his gaze was like fire burning underwater. He seemed to see everyone looking back at him. They were all speaking to him, and he was speaking to all of them.
“We exist as momentary gatherings of dust, brilliant flashes of fireworks. Yet each of us carries in our atoms the history of the entire cosmos. Each of our gestures reflects the culmination of the movements of the eternal sky and sea over the eons. Our actions today will be seen by the sky, while our spirit will be etched into the soil.
“The sky is silent; let the land witness and weigh our soul!”
In the bright sun the floodwaters fell from the sky.
One story was over and another chapter of history began. No one knew what the future held. Everyone looked up into the sky, and over the broad, vast land, silence reigned.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge Mr. Liu Cixin for giving me a lot of encouragement for the first version of this book and Ken Liu for the excellent translation. I’d also like to thank all my colleagues at Fangjing Sci-Fi, my studio, for supporting me throughout. Finally I’d like to thank my husband and parents for their love and care all these years.
TRANSLATOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank all the wonderful people at Simon & Schuster who made the publication of this book in English possible, especially but not limited to: Joe Monti (editor), Lauren Jackson (publicity), Alexandre Su and David Chesanow (copyediting), Christopher Milea and Benjamin Holmes (proofreading), Madison Penico (manuscript assistance). I also want to thank Nic Cheetham and his staff at Head of Zeus for bringing out the UK edition, Erwann Perchoc for a critical piece of translation assistance, and Russell Galen, my agent, for his ongoing support.
Finally, the greatest share of my gratitude goes to Hao Jingfang, who created this beautiful book and entrusted me with it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HAO JINGFANG is a Chinese science fiction writer. She won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for Folding Beijing, also translated by Ken Liu, marking the first Hugo ever awarded to a Chinese woman. Hao works as a macroeconomics researcher at the China Development Research Foundation, a quango organization located in Beijing, China.
KEN LIU is an award-winning American author of speculative fiction. His collection The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories has been published in more than a dozen languages. Liu’s other works include The Grace of Kings and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He frequently speaks publicly on futurism, cryptocurrency, the mathematics of origami, and other topics. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Jia Jiangsu Phoenix Arts Publishing
English language copyright © 2020 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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First Saga Press hardcover edition April 2020
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Interior design by Erika Genova
Jacket design by Jonathan Bush
Jacket photography by iStock by Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-9821-4331-2
ISBN 978-1-5344-2210-0 (ebook)
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