Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

On the fourth day of the Starsea's rest and repair at its home port, Su Kuang was still in the cockpit, staring at the star map. The second set of routes was almost finished, but he hesitated over the distant, destroyed red node. Going there might yield nothing. Not going would mean the network would be completely severed after nearly a hundred million years of extinguishing.

Ji Beihang pushed open the door and entered without speaking. He stood behind Su Kuang, glanced at the star map, and said, "I'm not here to set sail; I'm here to check the route."

Su Kuang didn't turn around. His finger traced an arc on the star map, pushing outwards from the edge of the home port, passing three disconnected nodes marked in gray, and then stopping in front of the furthest red marker.

"This one has already been destroyed," Ji Beihang said.

"The core is still there," Su Kuang replied.

After drawing the flight path, Su Kuang turned around and zoomed in on the red node.

"The first batch is the innermost ring of the network," Su Kuang said. "This batch pushes outwards another ring. Along the way, we'll pass three lost nodes and one node marked as destroyed but still existing in the core layer. I'm going there."

Ji Beihang looked at the red marker on the star map. It had been extinguished on the woven star map for a long time, and the note next to it read, "Host species confirmed to be extinct, node quantum core layer is still operating at low frequency, status pending."

"There's probably no life up there anymore," Ji Beihang said.

"I know," Su Kuang said calmly. "But the node itself is still running. Its quantum storage array is still maintaining the recorded civilization data. If we don't activate it, that data will be permanently lost due to energy depletion. It's like writing the last word for it."

Ji Beihang was silent for a few seconds, then reached out and tapped the red marker on the star map. "This node went out nearly a hundred million years ago. Before its host civilization perished, it made a final, all-encompassing broadcast—not a cry for help, but a farewell. It hoped that one day another light would shine on their ruins."

Su Kuang said, "Then let's go order."

Ji Beihang didn't say anything more. He patted Su Kuang on the shoulder and paused at the door. "When submitting the route plan, mark the first port of call as not too precise. When we went to the first node, we set the error range at 300,000 kilometers."

Su Kuang said, "I understand."

After Ji Beihang left, Su Kuang looked at the route map twice more, then got up and went to the communications cabin.

Jian Ning was organizing the signal calibration table at the control panel in the communications cabin. She was twenty years old, with short black hair, and was sitting in Shen Yiming's former seat.

"Jian Ning." Su Kuang stood at the door.

Jian Ning raised her head.

"The new route plan will be submitted to central command tomorrow," Su Kuang said. "You have been appointed as the chief communications officer for the second batch of routes."

Jian Ning nodded: "I know."

"Did Shen Yiming tell you?"

"No." Jian Ning held out her hand; on the workbench lay a handwritten diary. It was an appendix to Shen Yiming's retirement diary. "He said this was his last task, to compile and archive the first sentence of all the diaries for me."

Su Kuang glanced at the page. It was filled with the first sentence of all of Shen Yiming's diaries over the decades, from "The Pioneer departed today" to "This is the last one."

Jian Ning said, "What he gave me wasn't a baton, but a road sign."

Su Kuang was silent for a few seconds, then said, "There are four nodes in the route planning. Each one is different."

Jane said, "I know."

Su Kuang left. Jian Ning sat at the workbench, closed the appendix to Shen Yiming's diary, and placed it on the top drawer. She took out a pen and wrote a few lines in her new diary.

She didn't write a number. She wrote a line in the center of the first page: "Today's log can be just two words." She finished writing those two words: "As usual." Then she began writing the actual log entries.

During the pre-flight briefing that day, Su Kuang submitted the complete plan for the second batch of routes to the central command. Zuo Weiyang published the route map in the central command's log, with a note: "This is not an approval process and does not require central command approval. It's here; anyone who wants to change routes can leave a message. If there are no adjustments after 24 hours, proceed with this route."

The entire network has gradually responded.

A message came from the enclave: "A small relay optical station can be added 3.7 light-years along the route from the enclave to the new air route. We'll build the station. No additional energy is needed; reflected light from the enclave will suffice."

After a moment of silence, the builder replied with a set of coordinates. "The edge of the nebula next to the third lost node is suitable for building a bridge. Draw a quantum-field-reinforced path from the nebula fibers. Free of charge. It's been a long time since I've woven such a long road."

Zuo Weiyang did not reply. She marked the two messages on the flight path map and then closed the central log.

Su Kuang read all the messages in the cockpit. He imported the coordinates of the listeners and builders into the navigation system, expanding the new route from a straight line of four points to seven segments on the star map. He wrote a line in the remarks column: "The first route is weaving a net. The second route is a bridge."

On the morning of the Xinghai's departure, the quantum optical flow at the home port was in a stable period. Su Kuang was conducting a final system check in the cockpit. Ji Beihang didn't come to see him off, but there was a note on his seat, unsigned. "The margin of error can be a little wider, but stop straight when docking. Don't tilt."

Su Kuang folded the note and put it into the booklet, stacking it together with the scanned copy of the gold circle drawn by Zuo Weiyang when she was three years old.

The instant the departure countdown reached zero, the Starsea's rainbow halo switched from standby mode to low-power operation. The quantum light stream surrounding the home port automatically narrowed in front of the spacecraft, forming an extremely short departure channel.

Su Kuang said in the cockpit, "Take off." The Starsea smoothly glided out of the home port's gravitational pull. Jian Ning opened the first page of the new route log in the communications cabin. She didn't use Shen Yiming's old numbering system; instead, she wrote a new starting number in the numbering column and then pasted a sentence in the blank space of the new page.

"I'm sitting in Professor Shen's seat. The rainbow halo outside the window is off by 0.04 degrees. It's not much, just enough to allow the halo to illuminate one more airspace we haven't traversed yet when it reaches the new node compared to the first batch."

As she wrote the last word, a rainbow halo passed through the observation window, its off-center light illuminating the label on the journal cover: "The Second Way."

In the cockpit, Su Kuang watched as the Starship's trajectory marker on the navigation star map moved outwards from the edge of the home port. He simply marked the starting coordinates of the route. "Second route. Starting point: Home port. Target: Four nodes on the edge of the network. Note: Turn on a lamp."

As the Starsea gradually accelerated in the quantum light trail at the edge of its home port, its rainbow halo slowly transitioned from pale to a darker transition zone before full-power operation. In the instant before it completely disappeared from the home port's perception range, Zuo Weiyang wrote a very brief update in the central log: "Starsea departs. Second route marked. The new route is a little further than the first. Further is correct. It's only necessary to weave across the distance."

Jian Ning adjusted the first batch of spectrum docking parameters in the communications module. She added a note at the end of the first paragraph of her log: "First batch. First spectrum calibration complete. The quantum optical flow wind speed at the home port was slightly low during calibration. The off-center rainbow halo has automatically returned to 0.04 degrees. It knows where it should deviate."

She put down her pen and turned off all the standby indicator lights on the control panel. As she leaned back in her chair, the rainbow halo outside the window completed its full circle against the backdrop of the half-lit, half-dark deep space.