“I believe you achieved most of your scientific accomplishments during that time.”
“Initially, Red Coast also took on some radio astronomy projects. At the time, it was the largest radio telescope in the country. Later, as other radio astronomy observatories were built, Red Coast’s research turned to the observation and analysis of solar electromagnetic activity. For this, they added a solar telescope. The mathematical model we built for solar electromagnetic activity was at the forefront of the field back then, and had many practical applications. With these later research results, the large amount invested in Red Coast had at least a little return.
“Actually, much of the credit should be given to Commissar Lei. Of course he had his own agenda. He realized that as a political officer in a technical unit, his future wasn’t bright. Before joining the army, he had studied astrophysics as well, so he wanted to return to doing science. The research projects that Red Coast took on outside of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence were all due to his efforts.”
“I doubt that he could have returned to technical work so easily after spending so much time as a political commissar. Back then, you still hadn’t been politically rehabilitated. It looks to me like all he did was to put his name on your research results.”
Ye smiled forgivingly. “Without Lei, Red Coast Base would have been finished even earlier. After Red Coast was designated for conversion to civilian use, the military basically abandoned it. Eventually, the Chinese Academy of Sciences couldn’t maintain the funds necessary for Red Coast’s operation, and it was shut down.”
Ye didn’t talk much about her daily life at Red Coast Base, and Wang didn’t ask. Four years after entering the base, she married Yang Weining. Everything just happened naturally, without any drama. Later, an accident at the base killed both Yang and Lei, and Yang Dong was born after her father’s death. The mother and daughter only left Radar Peak in the mid-eighties, when Red Coast Base was finally decommissioned. Ye later returned to Tsinghua, her alma mater, to teach astrophysics until retirement. All this Wang had heard from Sha Ruishan at the Miyun Radio Astronomy Observatory.
“The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a unique discipline. It has a profound influence on the researcher’s perspective on life.” Ye spoke in a drawn-out voice, as though telling stories to a child. “In the dead of the night, I could hear in my headphones the lifeless noise of the universe. The noise was faint but constant, more eternal than the stars. Sometimes I thought it sounded like the endless winter winds of the Greater Khingan Mountains. I felt so cold then, and the loneliness was indescribable.
“From time to time, I would gaze up at the stars after a night shift and think that they looked like a glowing desert, and I myself was a poor child abandoned in the desert…. I thought that life was truly an accident among accidents in the universe. The universe was an empty palace, and humankind the only ant in the entire palace. This kind of thinking infused the second half of my life with a conflicted mentality: Sometimes I thought life was precious, and everything was so important; but other times I thought humans were insignificant, and nothing was worthwhile. Anyway, my life passed day after day accompanied by this strange feeling, and before I knew it, I was old….”
Wang wanted to comfort this old woman who had devoted her life to a lonely but great enterprise, but Ye’s last speech caused him to sink into the same sorrowful mood. He found that he had nothing to say except, “Professor Ye, someday I’ll go with you to visit the ruins of Red Coast Base.”
Ye slowly shook her head. “Xiao Wang, I’m not like you. I’m getting on in years, and my health isn’t what it used to be. It’s hard to predict the future. I live my life day to day.”
Looking at the silvery head of hair on Ye Wenjie, Wang knew she was thinking of her daughter again.
15
Three Body: Copernicus, Universal Football, and Tri-Solar Day
After leaving Ye’s home, Wang Miao couldn’t calm down. The events of the last two days and the history of Red Coast, two seemingly unconnected strands, now twisted together, made the world unfamiliar overnight.
Once he was home, in order to escape this mood, Wang turned on the computer, put on the V-suit, and logged on to Three Body for the third time.
The attempt to adjust his state of mind worked. By the time the log-in screen appeared, Wang seemed like a different person, one filled with an unexplainable excitement. Unlike the first two times, this time Wang came with a purpose: He was going to reveal the secret of the world of Three Body.
He created a new log-in ID appropriate for his new role: Copernicus.
Once logged in, Wang again stood on that broad, desolate plain, facing the strange dawn of the world of Three Body. A colossal pyramid appeared in the east, but right away Wang knew it was no longer the pyramid of King Zhou of Shang or Mozi. It had a Gothic-style apex, stabbing straight into the morning sky, recalling St. Joseph’s Church at Wangfujing. But if that church were placed next to this pyramid, it would be nothing more than an entrance booth. He saw many buildings in the distance that were apparently dehydratories, but also now built in the Gothic style, with tall, sharp steeples, as though the ground had grown numerous spikes.
Wang saw a door on the side of the pyramid, lit from within by flickering lights. He walked over. Inside the tunnel was a row of statues of the gods of Olympus holding up torches, their surfaces blackened by smoke. He entered the Great Hall and saw that it was even dimmer than the entrance tunnel. Two silver candelabra on top of a long marble table provided a drowsy light.
Several men were seated around the table. The dim light allowed Wang to see only the outlines of their faces. Their eyes were hidden in the shadows of their deep eye sockets, but Wang could still feel their gazes focusing on him. The men seemed to be dressed in medieval robes. On closer examination, one or two of them had simpler robes, more like Classical Greek chitons. At one end of the table was a thin, tall man. The golden crown on top of his head was the only thing that glittered in the Great Hall other than the candles. With some effort, Wang saw by the dim candlelight that his robe was different from the others’: it was red.
Wang realized that the game displayed a distinct world for each player. This world, based on the European High Middle Ages, was chosen by the software based on his ID.
“You’re late. The meeting has been going on for a while,” the gold-crowned, red-robed man said. “I’m Pope Gregory.”
Wang tried to recall what little he knew of European history in the Middle Ages so that he could deduce the level of advancement of this civilization based on the name. But then he remembered how wildly anachronistic historical references could be in the world of Three Body and decided the effort wasn’t worth it.
“I’m Aristotle. You changed your ID, but we all recognize you. In the previous two civilizations, you traveled to the East.” The speaker was the man with the Greek chiton. He had a head of white curls.
“Yes.” Wang nodded. “There, I witnessed the destruction of two civilizations, one by extreme cold, another by a blazing sun. I also saw the great efforts the scholars of the East expended in trying to master the laws governing the sun’s motion.”
“Ha!” The sound came from a man with a goatee that curled upward. He was even thinner than the pope. “Eastern scholars tried to understand the secrets of the sun’s motion through meditation, epiphany, or even dreams. Utterly laughable!”