Bao Shu
Translated by Alex Woodend
1.
December 21st, 2012
At nine in the evening, Shanghai is a sea of lights. Colorful neon on both banks of the Huangpu pour to the center of the river, become luminous fish shoals that jump through sparkling ripples. On Puxi, a stretch of Western-style buildings is soaked in tender, extravagant colored lights that seem to reminisce over the vicissitudes of history. Meanwhile, on the opposite bank, the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower, World Financial Center, and other skyscrapers bring their dazzling splendor straight into the night sky with overpowering momentum to bring light to the dark universe.
Today is the winter solstice. Though the weather is cold, there are an unusually high number of tourists on the Bund. The river walk is dominated by young couples chatting and laughing. It’s Friday, of course. Tomorrow will be a pleasant weekend, and next week is Christmas. But the main reason for the thronging crowd is none of that.
Lin Lin leans on the riverside railing as her boyfriend Fang Yue hugs her from behind and gently kisses her neck. Lin Lin giggles coyly and says, “Stop it! Hey, tell me. If today really was doomsday, like the myth says, what would happen?”
“We would make out really hard,” Fang Yue says in her ear.
“Stop it, I’m serious!”
Fang Yue tilts his head, thinking carefully. “Even if it’s true, I’m not afraid. So many people in history, everyone dies. How many get to see doomsday? Not bad if we get to see it. Besides, we get to die together, that’s enough.”
Lin Lin’s heart instantly melts. “Hm, since when do you know how to sweet talk?”
“Do you really know what doomsday will be like?” a childish voice says from behind them before Fang Yue can respond.
Baffled, Lin Lin turns to look. It’s a strange boy, about seven or eight years old, wearing a kid’s shirt with Mickey Mouse printed on it, one hand gripping the hem of Lin Lin’s dress. Sweet talk with her boyfriend interrupted, Lin Lin is a little annoyed, but seeing the boy’s angelic face, she can’t help but feel affection. “Hey, Fang Yue, look. This kid’s so cute!”
Fang Yue makes a face, and to scare the boy says, “Doomsday? Terrifying. An asteroid as big as Shanghai will crash into Earth, make massive waves hundreds of meters high – whoosh, in a blink Shanghai drowns.”
“Massive waves hundreds of meters high, wow.” The boy’s eyes sparkle. “That would be amazing! But there’s no asteroid in the sky,” he says, looking up.
“Silly boy, it’s in space – so far away you can’t see it,” Fang Yue teases.
“Wrong,” the boy says seriously. “If it was going to hit Earth today, it would now be tens of thousands of kilometers away at most, definitely visible. Even if it was on the other side of the Earth, there would be reports on TV.”
“Well…how would I know that?” Fang Yue says to Lin Lin, a bit embarrassed, “Kids today are difficult.”
“You all right? Stumped by a kid?” Lin Lin laughs at him. “Don’t count on doomsday, okay? Tomorrow you still have to meet my parents.”
“Forget it, that’s truly the end of the world.…” Fang Yue grumbles.
The boy rolls his eyes and looks at Lin Lin. “You mean doomsday isn’t coming? Didn’t he just say an asteroid would crash into Earth?”
“Gosh.…” Lin Lin touches her forehead.
“Good boy, go ask your parents about it.” Fang Yue pats the boy’s head. “Aunt and uncle have things to do.”
“But they’re not here,” the boy says, still not letting them go. “What will doomsday really be like? Tell me, tell me!”
“Listen, don’t you know—”
Just when Fang Yue is about to explode, Lin Lin holds him back. “Forget it, why argue with a kid? Go on, let’s get Häagen-Dazs. Kid, go ask someone else!”
She pulls Fang Yue away, and the two weave through the crowd. Their place is immediately taken by another couple. The boy stands in a trance where he is. A girl his age pushes through the crowd, pats his shoulder. “How’s it going? Get the answer?”
“So weird,” the boy says. “I’ve asked a bunch of people, no one can give me a straight answer. How about you?”
“Same. Some say a supernova explosion, some say a volcano and earthquake, one guy says a zombie attack. Everyone has a different story.”
“How come they know what day doomsday is but don’t know what it will really be like? And.…” The boy points at the crowd around them. “Don’t you think they’re too happy? They don’t look worried at all.”
“Doomsday syndrome, very common,” the girl says precociously. “Fully aware that disaster is inevitable, people can’t dispel their inner panic and anguish because it’s outside the limit of what they can endure psychologically, and so they transform it into superficial celebration.”
“No, I get the sense something is wrong, very wrong.” The boy frowns, thinks hard. “Something is definitely going wrong.”
2.
As the two children talk, in the western hemisphere the morning sunlight of December 21st begins to light up the tropical rainforest of the Yucatan Peninsula. At the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, amid luxuriant jungle, dawn light passes through rosy clouds and outlines the towering step pyramid and the remains of the ancient temple.
Previously, at this hour, most tourists were still sleeping in their hotels. But today the Mayan ruins are already full of people as if the ancient city, gone for thousands of years, has come back to life. But unlike previous days, very few people talk or laugh. On the contrary, people mostly stand solemnly throughout the ruins like they’re waiting for something.
In the east, clouds grow brighter and brighter, blazing heavenly fire. Finally, the fiery-red sun rises radiantly, showering infinite brilliance on the Earth. The jungle lights up bit by bit, far to near. Many people kneel to pray, some even start to weep.
“Really so beautiful,” marvels a blond girl wearing a backpack on the observation platform. “Hi,” she says to a short-haired young man next to her as she hands over a digital camera. “Can you take a picture of me?” She strikes a cute pose.
The young man takes the camera, examines it confusedly a few seconds, not seeming to know how to operate it. The girl leans over and gives a few words of instruction. He understands, takes a few pictures of her, then hands the camera back to her and says smiling, “This is the last sunrise ever, huh?”
“It certainly is,” the girl replies, smiling. She grimaces. “Soon Earth will be blown in two, boom!”
“Then what’s the point of this?” the young man asks suddenly.
“The point of…what?”
“Taking pictures. If you know the world will be destroyed in a few hours. Nothing will be left. Why still take pictures?”
The girl gives him a wary glance. “You really believe Earth will be destroyed? So, you’re one of those people.” She points at others around them, praying on their knees.
“Who are they? I don’t know.”
“Believers of the Church of Armageddon Truth, the Church of Earth Redemption, the Church of Almighty God…and a jumble of other small religions. They believe Earth will be destroyed today.”
“Won’t it? Everyone’s saying so!” The young man looks very surprised.
“Of course it won’t!” the girl says emphatically, then softens her tone. “I mean, even though a lot of people believe it, if you ask me, I say it won’t. Nothing will happen.”
“But I heard that’s what’s going on.” The young man points at the black pyramid not far off. “The Ancient Mayans made astronomical observations to calculate that at the edge of the solar system there is a planet – called Nibiru, I think – which would approach Earth hundreds of years in the future and hit it today. Human technology can’t push it away, so…destruction.”
“All made up by third-rate tabloids.” The girl snorts. “Mayans couldn’t figure that out. Besides, if such a planet does exist, and it will hit Earth in a few hours, it would be bigger than a full moon now. But look, there’s nothing. Nowhere on Earth has such a planet been observed, so, only if it’s flying faster than light speed, which is impossible.”
“A planet traveling at light speed? Not necessarily impossible.…” The young man leans on the railing, looking at the girl thoughtfully. “Of course, the chances are slim. Sorry, I just got here, don’t know much. But if you think doomsday won’t happen, why come? I thought people came here to commemorate the Mayans’ ancient discovery.”
“Those people praying came looking for so-called redemption and rebirth, which is absurd. Others came just for fun. Me, well, I’m Emily, American, doing my Masters in sociology at the University of Chicago. My thesis is on ‘The Sociological Effects of Doomsday Expectation’. This place has valuable primary sources.”
“I see. But I still don’t understand. If there’s no such thing as Nibiru, why is there a doomsday prediction?”
“It’s a colossal misunderstanding.” Emily forces a smile. “I don’t know how many people I’ve explained it to this year. Mayans saw the winter solstice as the beginning of a new year. This year, 2012, is an important year in the Mayan calendar, representing the transition between two eras. December 21st, 2012, is the end of the old era and the beginning of the new era, but at its core, it’s just an arbitrary calendar date, has nothing to do with Earth itself.”
“You sure?” the young man asks, eyes sparkling. “Is this a generally accepted explanation?”
“Of course!” She’s a bit annoyed. “If you don’t believe it, you can certainly wait here and see what happens today!”
The young man looks toward the rising morning sun and says with a forced smile, “Maybe you’re right, but…maybe something really is going to happen, something you don’t expect.”
3.
Africa, the Congo Basin.
A clear brook winds across the valley, twisting and turning, flowing into the lake surrounded by thick forest. The surface of the lake is as smooth as a mirror. A herd of hippopotami soak leisurely in the lakeside reeds, only exposing their mouths and noses to breathe. On the other side of the lake, a few elephants walk out of the forest, come to the edge, and use their long trunks to scoop water into their mouths. A group of gorillas rest by the lake. The elders idly chew on grass and leaves, while the young ones play under the trees.
A lazy, cozy afternoon.
A tall, white-haired old man stands by the lake, quietly gazing at it all.
This is the last afternoon of this world. Now every second is precious. These ignorant and pitiful creatures, over their long evolutionary history, have experienced many trillions of tranquil moments like this. Naturally they think it will all last forever, think today is another normal day just like any previous one, that it will pass as night falls, and the next dawn will follow. But they are wrong. Their lives, along with the history of this planet, will end today. It is death’s approach that gives this ordinary scene a sense of tragic beauty.
Birth and death, two poles of the universe. The Big Bang, the ignition of stars, the formation of planets, the appearance of life.… Behind these great, exciting events is the uneventfulness of endless days until the moment before destruction, when amazingly spectacular beauty blooms again.
Suddenly the water divides, and a huge crocodile opens its sharp-toothed snout, pounces up from the lake, aiming for the old man’s ankle. It has been observing its prey for a long time, certain it can take it down in one go. As expected, the old man has no time to dodge and is bitten.
But the crocodile doesn’t taste the sweetness of human flesh, instead biting something hard as rock, completely unable to penetrate it. This is something that has never happened before. Its brain with its limited capacity cannot generate a sense of surprise, but it senses great danger, and so turns around in an attempt to flee into the lake. But the crocodile finds itself unable to command its limbs. As if it is held by an invisible force, it rises slowly, suspended in the air, rotates in front of the old man, vainly wiggling its body, but is unable to shake off the invisible restraint and so is forced to meet the old man’s gaze.
The crocodile lets out rumbling moans. The old man watches its terrified look, smiles, waves a hand. The crocodile drifts like a feather in the wind, drifts back to the lake, and slowly falls. In the end, the crocodile senses its abdomen touch the surface of the water as the force fades away. It dives down instinctively, sends up a spray of water, and is gone. A few seconds later, the incredible experience from a moment ago has been erased by its primitive brain. The crocodile again swims freely and calmly in the depths of the lake, looking for new prey.
Poor creature, enjoy the last few hours of your life, the old man thinks compassionately.
The old man leaves the lake and walks along the creek toward the thick forest upstream. This place is rarely trodden. Thorns grow in clumps, tree roots coil and twine, it’s very difficult to pass. But where the old man walks, tree roots and rocks are pushed aside or smashed by an invisible field. Nothing can impede his forward progress. He saunters across the valley, now and then using his intelligence field to catch a few small animals to scrutinize, then lets them go.
The old man likes this doomsday tour. To him it is returning to an old place. Of course, in his nearly infinite life, there have been thousands or tens of thousands of such trips. But such an opportunity doesn’t come often, at least not over the last millennium. Although worlds with life can be found everywhere in the Milky Way, and those with evolved intelligence aren’t rare, annihilative disasters aren’t common. Just like supernovas, they only come once every several thousand years. Take this planet, for example. The last annihilative catastrophe was nearly 7,000 years ago.
The old man still remembers the scene the last time he came to this planet. All kinds of strange, giant dragons leisurely roamed across the Earth and in the ocean, dominating the biosphere of the entire planet. The old man witnessed their last moments. The day heavenly fire fell, abundance returned to nothingness. The giant dragons died out. Their place in the biosphere was taken by the descendants of some kind of small, viviparous animals. Primitive intelligence arose even from them.
And today, another doomsday comes. He doesn’t know whether or not the ecosystem of this planet will survive.
On this doomsday tour, as is his habit, he doesn’t go to metropolises full of residents, watch people crying desperately, or join their hysterical parties. In his eyes they are meaningless, wicked pleasures. He just likes going to unclaimed countryside and carefully savoring the natural scenery of a world that will turn into ashes. Compared with those superficial, ridiculous, man-made things, nature, which has gone through billions of years of evolution, is more worthy of appreciation. The price to open the interstellar gate is not cheap. Of course, the money goes toward visiting the most worthwhile place.
“Attention: error!”
An emergency signal appears in the old man’s consciousness. Sent by the guide to the interstellar travelers, it is marked as urgent.
“What?”
The old man immediately sends an inquiry. Meanwhile, he sees in his consciousness’s remote-sensing network over 1,000 similar inquiries appear.
The response: “Universal intelligent monitoring system has failed, sent wrong information. We just double-checked and confirmed that no annihilative event will happen on this planet. Neither today nor within the next ten thousand years at least.”
“Then the doomsday tour isn’t.…”
“Very sorry, doomsday won’t happen. We don’t know at the moment how the error occurred, but the Abyss Group will be held responsible. Now everyone please follow article one hundred and fifty-eight, section seven of the Cosmic Civilization Management Act, immediately assemble, and evacuate this planet. Otherwise—”
The transmission suddenly stops. The person in charge clearly has some more urgent affair occupying their consciousness. The old man uses his antenna to search in the remote network and immediately finds where the problem lies: some tourists have gone off on their own!
4.
The Hoshino Maru sails across a brightly lit Tokyo Bay. There are brilliant urban nightscapes on both banks reflected in the sparkling ripples. Rainbow Bridge is like a jade belt that connects the two banks. The harbor is dotted with all kinds of boats like beautiful fireflies. In the sky, a crescent moon casts soft moonlight over the sea.
Tatsuya and Yuki Kurihara stand at the bow of the boat. Leaning against the sea breeze, they point at tall buildings and large houses on the banks, trying to find Tokyo Tower. Both are momentarily intoxicated by the entrancing nightscape.
“What do you say? This doomsday tour is all you hoped for, huh?” Yuki says to her husband, smiling.
“So beautiful! To think that all these beautiful things, Japan – no, all human accomplishment – will be devoured by the dark night of the universe, is quite upsetting,” Tatsuya sighs.
“Really?” Yuki counters. “You’re really upset? I think you wish it really was doomsday. This year you and your gang have been chatting about catastrophe and annihilation with some enthusiasm. You sci-fi fans look forward to the spectacle of the destruction of the world, right? It’s amazing you talk about something imaginary so vividly.”
“Not just sci-fi fans,” Tatsuya says. “For the first time in history, all human beings are indulging in this ‘imminent annihilation’ feeling. The concept of doomsday has given rise to a lot of business opportunities. I know you’ve made a lot of money from it.”
Yuki nods automatically. She runs an online store. For the last six months, at her husband’s suggestion, it has been selling ‘Doomsday Escape Kits’, bags packed with flashlights, compasses, hardtacks, bandages, and other often useless things, which are sold at the high price of several thousand yen. The product is surprisingly popular. Sometimes she receives more than 1,000 orders a day. Perhaps, in post-tsunami and post-Fukushima Japan, people’s idea of doomsday has an extra sense of urgency compared to that of people in other countries.
Tatsuya continues to speak his mind. “Doomsday is a complex mix of awe and sorrow, fear and hope, madness and silence. It’s too magnificent, too magnificent for you to remember its cruelty, and too grand, too grand for you to feel individual worry. Everything that happens has an insistent sense of reality before quickly returning to nothingness, as if everything can be redeemed in the embrace of the ‘void’. Antiquity gave birth to such great works as the Book of Revelation. Today, people let their imaginations loose in all kinds of literature, film, and TV. The 2012 prophecy is the pinnacle of this old tradition. This is the first time the entire human race has consciously participated in the imagination of doomsday.…”
“Still talking, huh?” Yuki curls her lips. “Today will soon pass. Tomorrow, when everything returns to normal, I’m afraid you’ll have post-doomsday depression.”
The words seem to cut deep. Tatsuya sighs, speaks no more.
“Sir, I think you are right,” a stranger’s voice rings out. Tatsuya turns and sees a middle-aged man in black has been standing next to him since who knows when. He is slightly confused but politely gives a slight bow.
“Doomsday is the highest imaginative feat a civilization can achieve,” the man in black says without looking at him. He looks instead into the distance at the city’s dazzling buildings. “It’s a tragedy that the power of civilization will eventually be overwhelmed by a mystery. You know what the most fascinating part is? Everything is subject to great force. Everything beautiful, every thought, every civilization, and all its ornaments, disappear in the play of forces. This is the ultimate destiny of our universe. In the end, everything will be ripped up by the acceleration and expansion of space. That will be the final doomsday, when space expands to the critical point. In the entire universe, not even an atom or electron will remain. Everything will be completely shattered by the sheer force of space!”
His appearance is like that of an average Japanese man, undistinguished. His Japanese is rather fluent, but his feel for the language is stiff like a foreigner’s. Yuki doesn’t know what the other is talking about at all, but she’s often heard similar conversations – it’s what her husband’s sci-fi friends often chatter about. She sees Tatsuya listening attentively, and murmurs to herself, “Hubby’s found another soulmate once again.”
“Big Rip Theory!” Tatsuya beams in agreement. “All doomsdays turn out to be previews of the final doomsday.… So all civilizations in the universe have doomsday?”
“Not necessarily so,” the man in black says. “The universe is partitioned by vast space. Except the final Big Rip, all the other natural catastrophes have limits. If a civilization expands to other galaxies in space’s depths, then an asteroid collision or stellar explosion is unlikely to cause fundamental destruction – not to mention other, smaller disasters. So as long as a civilization develops to a certain degree, it can say goodbye to the danger of doomsday. After all, the final destruction is incredibly far in the future.”
“No doomsday. Wouldn’t that be boring?” Tatsuya jokes, then laughs.
“Correct. Any civilization developing to that stage certainly won’t meet a doomsday. Otherwise, they would have been destroyed long ago. This doomsday complex has never been satisfied in the development of its civilization. So, after it expands to the entire universe, it won’t hesitate to traverse the whole universe, to those faraway planets, to watch all kinds of doomsdays in primitive worlds, in search of some feeling.”
“Good idea! But how do they know which world is about to end? And to traverse the Milky Way, even at light speed, would take tens of thousands of years, right?”
“The material foundation of the entire universe is a remote-sensing network based on states of matter. As early as the primordial stage of the universe, using it, the oldest civilizations created the Universe Wide Web to automatically monitor every planet with life. Those worlds are certainly undistinguished. Usually the interested aren’t many, but on the eve of doomsday, related information is sent to subscribers throughout the universe. Then a commercial company organizes the interested people into a tour group. Through interstellar gates, they instantly traverse the universe and come to the world where doomsday will strike.”
Tatsuya looks at him with increased curiosity. “You talk as if it were true.”
“True or not, soon you’ll know,” the man in black says with a mysterious smile.
While Tatsuya considers the meaning of his words, his feet jolt. Out of nowhere a huge wave appears in the bay, pushing the boat to one side. Many people are caught off guard and fall to the deck. Tatsuya immediately grabs the railing to stand steady.
“Yuki, are you all right?” Tatsuya looks at his wife. He sees Yuki is deathly pale, her eyes pop as they look ahead in disbelief. He automatically follows her gaze to look and immediately finds something unusual.
Underwater, a luminous thing swims in the direction of the Rainbow Bridge. It is at least as big as a whale. No, much bigger than an average whale. Is it a hostile country’s submarine?
Before Tatsuya can think any further, he sees it emerge from the water and stand up – very high, at least forty, fifty stories high. The huge wave it conjures makes the distant Hoshino Maru shake violently.
It is a huge, luminous ellipsoid supported by two long legs. In the middle there is a loop that constantly turns like a giant evil eye. Soon countless complex, tentacle-like chains stretch out from it. Each chain is longer than a locomotive but shockingly agile. The monster wraps its tentacles around the Rainbow Bridge. A few seconds later, the long bridge, indestructible just a moment ago, breaks into several sections like light building blocks, bringing the countless vehicles on top down into the sea.
The robo-octopoid monster starts walking. It looks very clumsy but moves at an amazing speed in the direction of the city proper on the west bank. The Orochi-like tentacles start to reach and wrap all around. Several seaside high-rises begin to collapse from its shaking. The sound of buildings collapsing comes like thunder over the horizon. But hardly any human voice can be heard, because they are so far off.
Tatsuya can’t think at all, just stares stunned as if watching a disaster film on widescreen. The giant octopus enters the city proper, its tentacles madly destroying everything like a naughty child trampling a splendid garden. Tatsuya suddenly remembers the films he watched about monsters destroying Tokyo. Those absurd scenes are now actually taking place before his eyes.
“Now this is a true doomsday celebration,” the man in black says. A trace of a smile appears at the corners of his mouth. “This is the most interesting game in the universe.”
Tatsuya seems to wake from a dream: “You, you and that monster…are.…”
“He’s my companion,” the man in black confesses. “In a world about to end, civilization protection laws are no longer applicable. We’ve crossed the Milky Way to come here, not just to be onlookers but to celebrate! There are lots of us competing to be the first to destroy this city. Seems like I have to hurry up.… Would you two like to be my guests to watch this wonderful scene?”
Tatsuya also sees in the distance that the monster has pulled Tokyo Tower up, broken it in two, and tossed it high into the night sky. He follows it up and sees in the moonlight that all kinds of fantastical monsters have appeared. Eerie clouds gather from all directions to cover the bright moon.
5.
Infinite Phases stands above the tranquil sea, gazes at the azure sphere suspended among the stars. His multidimensional sight brings everything into full view.
Via the remote-sensing network, he has noticed many astonishing changes on that sphere. In the last few minutes alone, city after city has been destroyed in different ways. Some were burned down by the blazing flames of anti-matter explosions. Some were frozen in absolute zero temperatures. Some were crushed to dust, courtesy of brutish tourists. Some were flattened by waves suddenly surging hundreds of meters high.…
A level five intervention at least. Awful. Irritated, Infinite Phases sends out a shock wave, blowing the Stars and Stripes in front of him to smithereens.
One of the universal values recognized by the Cosmic Civilization Union states: “It is strictly forbidden to intervene in the development of lower civilizations.” Before a civilization can join the Union, it must limit itself to external observation. It is not allowed to intervene. Both sending benevolent help and vicious destruction are strictly forbidden by Union law. Even if destruction comes, it is not allowed to help another escape the annihilation. That would be seen as a breach of sacred Union law.
But doomsday tours are an exception. After it is confirmed that some world will experience doomsday, one is permitted to visit that world during a certain final time period prior to doomsday. But, theoretically, they are required to assume the physical form of the intelligent life in that world and use built-in language-conversion devices so as not to cause panic among local residents. However, in the final moments, though there are still legal restrictions, even unbound, uninhibited destruction does not have serious consequences. Since the world is about to end, what’s wrong with Union tourists having some fun after traveling such a long distance?
The problem is, this world isn’t fucking going to be destroyed. This doomsday prediction is just a silly rumor.
Infinite Phases has thoroughly checked the data uploaded to the sensing network. There was undoubtedly a foolish mistake. Computer programming is computer programming, after all. There is no way to truly understand alien civilizations with completely different biological foundations and cultural channels. When it discovered the story of a so-called doomsday was being spread with unprecedented intensity and frequency on this planet, it collected a trove of data to make a judgment. The program thought the planet’s level of civilization was sufficient to accurately predict a potential annihilative catastrophe, and the story the majority agreed upon was highly credible. Since the doomsday story managed to have millions of reposts on the local network, and dissenting stories merely numbered in the tens of thousands, it fully accepted the information that doomsday was going to happen and carried out a rationalization algorithm on fragmented, contradictory explanations to make a logically consistent story and uploaded it to the Universe Wide Web. Then the Abyss Group hosted this damned doomsday tour. Then, a few hours before the expected doomsday time, they sent tens of thousands of tourists from all over the universe to this remote galaxy.
In the end, they made a huge, careless mistake. Before he could send out corrected information, mass destruction had already begun. Now deceased local residents number at least one billion, probably two billion, which already constitutes the gravest degree of intervention. Infinite Phases has sent out emergency notifications, asking everyone to stop the destruction immediately, but it’s too late. And there are some of an unknown race who have turned a deaf ear. Some lunatic is moving water from the Pacific into low orbit to make a ring.
“Big Sight!” Infinite Phases calls out. The Universe Wide Web turns on, connects him to Milky Way 19, 30,000 light-years away. His superior’s three-dimensional image ripples above the dust of the lunar sea.
“We have a major problem.” Infinite Phases starts information transmission, distressed, giving a rough outline of the story to Milky Way 19.
His interlocutor simply smiles. “You can solve it.”
Infinite Phases is speechless for a moment. “But at this point…how?”
Milky Way 19 makes an impatient gesture. “Use your logic. If this planet continues to exist, the remote-sensing network will discover our tourists have committed sabotage, but the catastrophe did not happen. This will immediately send an alarm signal to the Central Committee, providing evidence of our violation of the basic civilization code. In that case, we’re all in big trouble. If planetary doomsday happens as projected, then none of this is too out of line, and in the end no one will know.”
“But how.… You mean.…” Infinite Phases is stupefied. “We make one ourselves…?”
“Do you have a better solution?”
“But those tourists, they already know.”
“No worries, everyone went to the planet simply to release the pressures of life. Nobody wants to get themselves in trouble. Besides, do you think this is the first time it’s happened in the history of the universe?”
“What?!”
Milky Way 19 signals irony. “You just took over this job, are still unfamiliar with it. The Universe Wide Web is really old, in many places the software hasn’t been updated for billions of years at least. Such errors, in fact, often occur.”
Infinite Phases is terrified. “You mean, all those previous doomsday tours.…”
“Many cases are similar, at least ten percent, probably twenty percent. But who cares? Tourists have fun, we earn universal shopping credits, can even make a lot of money selling the digital replicas of some planets. As long as nobody is stupid enough to tell the Central Committee, nothing happens. And besides, we have our people high up, too.”
“But those planets.…”
“Just some primitive insects, don’t worry.”
Infinite Phases is dumbstruck. A long time later, he finally asks, “Then what…should I do?”
“That you can decide yourself,” Milky Way 19 says impatiently. “There are plenty of tricks, after all.”
He switches off. Above the tranquil moon sea, only Infinite Phases’ lonely rhomboid figure is left.
Fuck, get it done.
Infinite Phases starts to activate spacewave devices within tens of thousands of kilometers. He rotates the Higgs Field, adjusts the distribution of gravitons, and increases the gravity between the planet and its satellite. He wants to finish the job as soon as possible, so he turns the gravity to maximum, nearly equaling that of a black hole. Soon, the azure sphere starts to grow larger and larger as if falling from the sky.
The surface of the Moon trembles. The dust on the plane flies like rain in reverse, up to the black sky. The blue planet is buried in a veil of darkness.
6.
The ocean has all evaporated. The continents have all melted into magma. Burning red magma, under the force of the suddenly accelerated rotation caused by the collision of the Earth and the Moon, gathers toward the equator and becomes a flood tide a dozen kilometers high that sweeps across the surface of the lifeless planet. Huge impact debris flies into orbit and forms a temporary planetary ring.
The impact has long passed. The tourists watching have mostly left, but two small, luminous people still frolic in the magma tide – up and down, unwilling to leave this new wonderland full of endless fun. At the last minute they go through the black cloud formed by ejecta from Earth’s interior and surficial dust and fly into space.
When they leave the thick black cloud, they happen to see a dragonfly-like spacecraft falling into the black cloud. After making a faint streak of light, it disappears into the impenetrable depths of darkness.
“That’s a space station,” the girl says. “Earthmen’s sole presence in outer space – don’t laugh, they do call low Earth orbit outer space – is now gone.”
“Pity we don’t have time to do a digital scan,” the boy says. “Only got tiny pieces of that world.”
“Don’t worry, a lot of other tourists probably scanned. Later we can make copies and supplement it with data from other places on the Universe Wide Web. We’ll have a little simulated Earth as a souvenir. Can I see what you got?”
“Sure,” the boy says, projecting a shifting three-dimensional object in front of them. “See, it’s those people from a moment ago.”
It will take another half hour for them to reach the interstellar gate in Jupiter’s orbit. During that time, they watch the images with great interest.
7.
The tower bell strikes twelve, December 21st has passed.
“I told you.” In the taxi, Lin Lin leans on her boyfriend’s shoulder, mumbling. “No doomsday or anything at all, so boring.”
“From another perspective,” Fang Yue holds her tenderly, “it’s another chance God has given us to cherish each other, so tonight we’ll celebrate.”
“Hm, let me sleep a little.” Lin Lin gives a relaxed yawn in Fang Yue’s embrace and slowly drifts off.
Fang Yue strokes his girlfriend’s beautiful hair, absentmindedly thinks about meeting her parents, and begins to feel drowsy. Just when his eyelids are about to close, he suddenly has a strange feeling as if in an instant everything near or far has disappeared. All the lights in the city are extinguished by bottomless darkness.
Fang Yue rubs his eyes. Everything looks normal. The car lights in the city streets flow like a river. He can’t help but laugh at his neurosis. He digs out his phone and sends his friend a message: Be there in fifteen minutes.