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The stars in the formation closest to the direction of dawn were also the brightest, shining with a silver light that cast shadows on the ground. The brightness decreased as one moved away from that edge. Wang counted more than thirty stars along each edge of the formation, which meant a total of more than a thousand stars. The slow movement of the obviously artificial formation against the starry universe exuded a solemn power.

A man standing next to him nudged him lightly and spoke in a low voice, “Ah, Great Copernicus, why have you come so late? Three cycles of civilizations have passed, and you’ve missed many great enterprises.”

“What is that?” Wang asked, pointing at the formation in the sky.

“The Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet. It’s about to begin its expedition.”

“Trisolaran civilization has already achieved the capacity for interstellar flight?”

“Yes. All those magnificent ships can reach one-tenth the speed of light.”

“That is a great accomplishment, as far as I understand it, but it still seems too slow for interstellar flight.”

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The key is finding the right target.”

“What’s the fleet’s destination?”

“A star with planets about four light-years away—the closest star to the Trisolaran system.”

Wang was surprised. “The closest star to us is also about four light-years away.”

“You?”

“The Earth.”

“Oh, that’s not very surprising. In most regions of the Milky Way, the distribution of stars is fairly even. It’s the result of star clusters acting under the influence of gravity. The distance between most stars is between three and six light-years.”

A loud, joyous cry erupted from the crowd. Wang looked up and saw that every star in the square formation was rapidly growing brighter. This was due to the light emitted by the ships themselves. Their combined illumination soon overwhelmed the dawn, and one thousand stars became one thousand little suns. Trisolaris was bathed in glorious daylight, and the crowd raised their hands and formed an endless prairie of uplifted arms.

The Trisolaran Fleet began to accelerate, solemnly gliding across the dome of the sky, skimming past the giant, just-risen moon’s tip, casting a dim blue glow against the moon’s mountains and plains.

The joyous cry subsided. The people of Trisolaris mutely gazed as their hope gradually shrunk in the western sky. They would not know the outcome of the launch in their lifetimes, but four or five hundred years from now, their descendants would receive the news from a new world, the beginning of a new life for Trisolaran civilization. Wang stood with them, silently gazing, until the phalanx of a thousand stars shrank into a single star, and until that star disappeared in the western night sky. Then the following text appeared:

The Trisolaran Expedition to the new world has begun. The fleet is still in flight.…

Three Body is over. When you have returned to the real world, if you remain true to the promise you’ve made, please attend the meet-up of the Earth-Trisolaris Organization. The address will be in the follow-up e-mail you receive.

PART III

SUNSET FOR HUMANITY

21

Rebels of Earth

There were many more attendees this time than at the last Three Body meet-up. They met at the employee cafeteria of a chemical plant. The factory had already been moved elsewhere, and the interior of the building, which was about to be demolished, was worn out but spacious. About three hundred people were gathered here, and Wang Miao noticed many familiar faces: celebrities and elites of various fields; famous scientists, writers, politicians, and so on.

The first thing to attract Wang’s attention was the strange device at the center of the cafeteria. Three silver spheres, each slightly smaller than a bowling ball, hovered and swirled over a metal base. Wang guessed the device was probably based on magnetic levitation. The orbits of the three spheres were completely random: a real-life version of the three-body problem.

The others didn’t pay much mind to the artistic portrayal of the three-body problem. Instead, they focused on Pan Han, who was standing on top of a broken table in the middle of the cafeteria.

“Did you murder comrade Shen Yufei?” a man asked.

“Yes,” Pan said, perfectly calm. “It’s because the Adventists have traitors like her in our midst that the Organization faces the crisis it does today.”

“Who gave you the right to kill?”

“I did it out of a sense of duty to the Organization.”

“Duty? I think you’ve always had malice in your heart!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What has the Environment Branch done under your leadership? Your charge is to exploit and create environmental problems to make the population loathe science and modern industry. But in reality, you’ve only used our Lord’s technology and predictions to gain riches and fame for yourself!”