Remembrance of Earth's Past, #3
Death's End
by Cixin Liu
Contents
Part II — Deterrence Era, Year 61 The Swordholder (Chapter 17)
Overview
Cheng Xin awakens in the Deterrence Era because her star, DX3906, has become a valuable system with an apparently Earthlike planet. Her compromise over ownership reveals both her enduring attachment to Yun Tianming’s gift and her uneasy fit with a future society that regards her conscience as archaic.
The chapter shifts Cheng Xin toward the center of humanity’s survival politics when Luo Ji’s deterrence is publicly challenged and Cheng Xin is implicitly positioned as a possible successor. Thomas Wade confirms the stakes by attempting to assassinate Cheng Xin so that Wade can become the Swordholder, revealing that Cheng Xin is expected to win a role she does not yet understand.
Summary
Cheng Xin is awakened after 264 years of hibernation because DX3906, the star Yun Tianming bought for her, has become materially valuable. New observations reveal two planets around it, one apparently Earthlike, and because Cheng Xin is the only surviving legal star owner from the Stars Our Destination Project, the UN and Solar System Fleet must negotiate with her rather than simply reclaim it.
Cheng Xin first learns that the Staircase Program left no trace: the Trisolarans never intercepted Yun Tianming’s brain, and its fate is unknown. She meets Ai AA, the young astronomer who discovered the planets and now serves as Cheng Xin’s liaison. Cheng Xin refuses to sell Tianming’s loving gift outright, but agrees to sell the planets while keeping the star and granting humanity use of its energy; AA resigns to help manage Cheng Xin’s new fortune, while criticizing Cheng Xin’s old-fashioned sense of duty and conscience.
AA introduces Cheng Xin to the transformed Earth of the Deterrence Era: forestlike cities built in giant trees, cleaner air, recovered ecology, and a society shaped by long peace. Cheng Xin is unsettled by the era’s softened gender presentation, especially when she realizes that many people she assumed were women are men. Cheng Xin’s alienation deepens as Cheng Xin thinks of the past and of Yun Tianming.
While walking with AA, Cheng Xin sees a public speech about putting Luo Ji on trial for suspected mundicide because his dark forest broadcast led to another world’s destruction. The speaker suddenly recognizes Cheng Xin through the interactive media and calls Cheng Xin a hope who will save the world. AA shuts the window off and questions Cheng Xin about whether Cheng Xin would destroy worlds to maintain deterrence; Cheng Xin insists she would never accept such a role.
The next morning, a call apparently from AA sends Cheng Xin into a flying car, but it is a trap. Cheng Xin is delivered to an abandoned Common Era residential area, where Thomas Wade appears with an old gun. Wade says he wants to be the Swordholder, that Cheng Xin is his competitor and will win, and that he must remove Cheng Xin just as he removed Vadimov for the Staircase Program.
Wade shoots Cheng Xin in the shoulder and abdomen, but before Wade can fire again, police arrive and destroy Wade’s gun arm. AA arrives with the officers, sobbing that her call was faked. As Cheng Xin is evacuated and begins losing consciousness, Cheng Xin asks herself what a Swordholder is.
Who Appears
- Cheng XinAwakened star owner; adapts uneasily to the future and becomes Wade’s Swordholder rival.
- Ai AAAstronomer and liaison who discovers DX3906’s planets, joins Cheng Xin, and helps expose the trap.
- Thomas WadeFormer Staircase Program leader who shoots Cheng Xin to eliminate her as Swordholder competition.
- Luo JiCurrent deterrence figure discussed in media as facing trial for suspected mundicide.
- Yun TianmingAbsent source of Cheng Xin’s star gift; his lost brain remains unrecovered in space.
- VadimovFormer colleague whose murder by Wade is confirmed during Wade’s attack on Cheng Xin.
- Public speakerMedia politician advocating judgment of Luo Ji and hailing Cheng Xin as humanity’s hope.