Chii-Teen, after leaving the neutrino detector complex that he manages, has hit traffic; he’s going to be late. The flatness of the avenue gives him an unobstructed view of the sea of stationary cars. Today is the inauguration of the Beijing Museum of Science Fiction, which he runs. Ray guns, the crossbow from Barbarella, the Xenomorph Queen from Aliens, the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, the USS Enterprise from Star Trek, the Flash Gordon laser gun, first editions of Wells’s The Time Machine and Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, it’s all there, accessible to all earthlings, and yet the Mars Polar Lander craft, he thinks as he runs his hand over the steering wheel, was lost a long time ago due to an error of calculation on the part of NASA and now, untamed, it roves the galaxy emitting a roar we’ll never hear. At this point he stops thinking. A Chinese woman bearing a striking resemblance to his ex-wife, walking between the stationary vehicles, passes in front of his car.