After Earth’s signals cease, most of the crew aboard Bronze Age assume Trisolaris has conquered the Solar System. The ship accelerates toward a star system with terrestrial planets twenty-six light-years away, choosing survival over return.

Ten days later, Bronze Age receives a rare radio message from Fleet Command, also sent to Blue Space, explaining Earth’s survival and the creation of a deterrence system against Trisolaris. The crew suspect a trap and receive no further radio confirmation because Earth maintains silence, but an unfolded sophon opens quantum communication and confirms the message.

Earth presents the crew as heroes and awards them high honors. Bronze Age begins the long trip home from deep space, but because deceleration consumes most of its fuel, the return takes eleven years. Near Earth, the ship is met by Gravity, a new stellar-class warship whose hull functions as a gravitational wave antenna and forms part of humanity’s dark forest deterrence system.

Bronze Age enters geosynchronous orbit under escort and docks at a crowded orbital spaceport, where the crew see flowers, cheering crowds, and signs of welcome. A fleet captain boards, says the new Solar System Fleet is unified, praises the crew as future key figures, and urges everyone to disembark without leaving a skeleton crew aboard.

After every crew member has entered the spaceport, the captain is made to perform and repeat a roll call. The celebration suddenly becomes silent and is revealed as a deception: the welcoming crowd vanishes into darkness, armed military police surround the crew, and the fleet captain announces that they have been dishonorably discharged, rejected by their families, and transferred to Fleet International’s justice system.

The apparent hero’s welcome turns into an arrest. With the power to their magnetic boots cut off, the crew drift helplessly while a cold voice orders armed personnel to surrender their weapons and declares them under arrest for first-degree murder and crimes against humanity.