Remembrance of Earth's Past, #3
Death's End
by Cixin Liu
Contents
Part I — Crisis Era, Years 1–4 Cheng Xin (Chapter 11)
Overview
The Staircase Program moves from theory toward execution as nuclear warheads are launched into orbit and the PDC accepts Wade's plan to send a human brain instead of a whole body. Political limits force the PIA to seek terminally ill candidates, leading Cheng Xin to identify Yun Tianming.
Cheng Xin's wonder over the mysterious gift of DX3906 contrasts with the program's moral cost. Vadimov admits he feels responsible but cannot abandon his family, while Tianming, realizing Cheng Xin wants him for the mission rather than for love, accepts a terrifying fate.
Summary
At Cape Canaveral, Cheng Xin watches Peacekeeper missiles rise into orbit, joined by Russian and Chinese launches. Although the scene resembles nuclear war, the warheads are being sent into space to power the Staircase Program by accelerating a tiny probe to 1 percent of lightspeed. Cheng Xin is moved to tears, while Wade and Vadimov remain focused on the unresolved question of who will be sent.
The chapter recounts how Wade persuaded the PDC to approve sending only a cryogenically preserved brain, arguing that the Trisolarans might revive it and that the brain could still serve as an intelligence asset. Because the subject must be killed before launch, political sensitivities force the PIA to seek candidates only among terminally ill patients under newly passed euthanasia laws.
After the launch, Vadimov suggests that Cheng Xin look for DX3906, the star recently deeded to her by an unknown giver. Cheng Xin reflects on her joy at receiving the gift, Wade's cynical reaction, and Vadimov's warm congratulations. With binoculars, Cheng Xin and Vadimov find the faint red star, and Cheng Xin contemplates its unimaginable distance.
Looking at the star leads Vadimov to confess that he believes he is the best candidate for the Staircase Program because of his background in spaceflight, diplomacy, and intelligence. Yet Vadimov has avoided volunteering because he has a wife and young daughter, and Cheng Xin tells him that duty to loved ones is also part of loving humanity. Vadimov accepts her comfort while wishing he could give his own family a star.
As the PIA searches among terminal patients, Cheng Xin learns from a college classmate that Yun Tianming is dying of lung cancer. Cheng Xin proposes him as a candidate and, while traveling to China, agrees to ask Tianming on behalf of the PIA. She later recognizes that in doing so she failed to think of Tianming fully as a person.
After Cheng Xin explains the mission, Tianming realizes that she has not come to rescue him from death but to ask him to accept a fate that may be worse: an isolated brain wandering space or being revived and tortured by Trisolarans. His earlier hope that the star might win Cheng Xin's love collapses into bitter laughter. When Cheng Xin formally asks whether he will voluntarily accept the mission, Tianming looks at her solemn eagerness and says, "Of course. I accept."
Who Appears
- Cheng XinPIA aerospace specialist; watches launches, cherishes DX3906, identifies Tianming, and asks him to accept the mission.
- Yun Tianmingterminal cancer patient and secret star-giver; feels betrayed by Cheng Xin but accepts the Staircase mission.
- VadimovPIA colleague who helps Cheng Xin find her star and confesses he feels like the best candidate.
- WadePIA chief who persuades the PDC to send only a brain and dismisses Cheng Xin's star gift.
- Assistant Chief YuPIA official who asks Cheng Xin to approach Yun Tianming as a candidate.