The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu Read Free Book Online Page B

someone to start a fire in your room—conditions at the base are a bit rough, and we have no heating system.”
    Ye stood next to the main control room door. The huge antenna was directly behind her and it blotted out half the sky. From here, she could clearly hear the sounds inside the main control room. Suddenly, the chaotic orders and responses ceased, and the room became completely quiet. All she could hear was the occasional low buzzing noise from some instrument.
    Then a loud male voice broke the silence. “The People’s Liberation Army, Second Artillery Corps, 10 Red Coast Project, one hundred and forty-seventh transmission. Authorization confirmed. Begin thirty-second countdown.”
    “Target Classification: A-three. Coordinates’ serial number: BN20197F. Position checked and confirmed. Twenty-five seconds.”
    “Transmission file number: twenty-two. Additions: none. Continuations: none. Transmission file final check completed. Twenty seconds.”
    “Energy Unit reporting: all systems go.”
    “Coding Unit reporting: all systems go.”
    “Amplifier Unit reporting: all systems go.”
    “Interference Monitoring Unit reporting: within acceptable range.”
    “We have reached the point of no return. Fifteen seconds.”
    Everything became quiet again. Fifteen seconds later, as a klaxon started to blare, a red light on top of the antenna began to blink rapidly.
    “Begin transmission! All units continue to monitor!”
    Ye felt a light itch on her face. She knew that an enormous electric field had appeared. She lifted her face and gazed in the direction the antenna was pointing and saw a cloud in the night sky glow with a dim blue light, so dim that at first she thought it an illusion. But as the cloud drifted away, the glow disappeared. Another cloud that drifted into position began to give off the same glow.
    From the main control room, she heard more shouts.
    “Malfunction with Energy Unit. Magnetron number three has burnt out.”
    “Backup Unit is in operation: all systems go.”
    “Checkpoint one reached. Resuming transmission.”
    Ye heard a fluttering noise. Through the mist, she could see shadows lift out of the woods below the peak and spiral into the dark sky. She hadn’t realized so many birds could be roused from the woods in deep winter. Then she saw a terrifying scene: One flock of birds flew into the region of air the antenna pointed at, and against the background of the faintly glowing cloud, the birds dropped out of the sky.
    The process continued for about fifteen minutes. Then the red light on the antenna went out, and the itch on her skin disappeared. From the main control room, the confusing murmur of orders and responses resumed even as the loud male voice continued.
    “Transmission one hundred forty-seven of Red Coast completed. Transmission systems shutting down. Red Coast now entering monitoring state. System control is hereby transferred to the Monitoring Department. Please upload checkpoint data.”
    “All units should fill out transmission diaries. All unit heads should attend the post-transmission meeting in the debriefing room. We’re done.”
    All was silent except for the howl of the wind against the antenna. Ye watched as the remaining birds in the flock gradually settled back into the forest. She stared at the antenna and thought it looked like an enormous hand stretched open toward the sky, possessing an ethereal strength. As she surveyed the night sky, she did not see any target that she thought might be serial number BN20197F. Beyond the wisps of clouds, all she could see were the stars of a cold night in 1969.

 
    PART II
    THREE BODY

4
    The Frontiers of Science
    Forty-plus years later
    Wang Miao thought the four people who came to find him made a rather odd combination: two cops and two men in military uniforms. If the latter two were armed police, that would be somewhat understandable, but they were actually PLA officers.
    As soon as Wang saw the cops, he felt annoyed.