The Datheon Emissary Star Map Draftsman II: Fate of the Galaxy

In the end, Jonathan’s mother agreed to Dawn and Sakya’s request to visit. When they flew the Sane ship to Tolay Planet, compared with the shock Dawn had felt the first time he woke up here, this time he felt mostly nervous, and a little grateful. Whatever the old woman’s reasons had been for rescuing him back then, it had let him see his son Stacean again, and that was enough. Once they had settled into a stable low orbit, Sakya warned Dawn to follow the rules here: don’t talk carelessly, don’t look around carelessly. The old man’s expression was exactly that of a parent who worried all day long, taking a child to visit someone else’s home for the first time, and it made Dawn want to laugh in spite of himself. The old man’s worries were unnecessary. What he was saying to Dawn was, in all likelihood, also what he was saying to himself. After all, in the entire Moreth Federation, no one was allowed to set foot on Tolay Planet, let alone meet Jonathan’s mother. Dawn patted the old man’s arm to tell Sakya not to be nervous. As he raised his hand to point below, he saw it again—the aircraft he had seen the first time he met the old woman: a completely transparent sphere, like the soap bubbles children blow in the park on a summer day. And the Old Lady was standing gracefully in the middle of the bubble.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you, Madam.” When the aircraft carrying Jonathan’s mother reached the two of them, Sakya immediately bowed his head and apologized.

“No matter. So, young man, what brings you to me this time?” the Old Lady asked, looking at Dawn.

“Madam, I’m…” Just as Dawn was about to walk toward the Old Lady, Sakya grabbed his clothes from behind and kept signaling to Dawn not to talk carelessly.

“You’d do better not to be so stiff,” the Old Lady said to Sakya.

“Yes, Madam.” Sakya said so, but he still held on to Dawn’s clothes for dear life.

“Mr. Sakya, relax. This life of mine was saved by the Old Lady. I have the deepest respect for her.” As he spoke, Dawn broke free of Sakya’s hand, took a few steps closer to the Old Lady and bowed deeply.

“All right, come with me.” With that, the Old Lady beckoned the two of them closer to her transparent transport, and the three of them flew toward the building at the top of the trees.

The place was just as it had been the first time Dawn came; nothing had changed. The huge building, like an enormous observation deck, had not gathered any dust. The dome floating above it looked as if someone had given it a fresh coat of paint. The big pool around the main building was as calm as time itself, though the ornamental plants at the edge of the pool had grown a great deal and now hid a fair part of the main building. There were fewer of the flying birds Dawn had seen the first time; now and then one or two swept overhead. The few buildings in the distance had not changed, and the great waterfall within view was still just as blue. The Old Lady had the two of them sit down at a table that had been set out in advance. Dawn helped himself to food and drink without a second thought, paying no attention to the look Sakya was giving him. The Old Lady unhurriedly sipped from her cup. To Dawn, the drink tasted a lot like tea leaves on Earth, and it had no sugar, which suited him just fine.

“Go on, then. What did you come to see me about?” the Old Lady spoke first.

With some green fruit still hanging from his mouth, Dawn looked up at the Old Lady, then said to Sakya: “Go on, tell her.”

“I…” Sakya glanced warily at the Old Lady, then said to Dawn: “You’d better tell her.” Sakya lowered his head again.

“Come on, if you have something to say, say it.” The Old Lady seemed a little impatient.

“Sorry, Madam,” Dawn said, hurriedly swallowing the food in his mouth. He quickly tidied himself up, sat up straight and went on: “Mainly we wanted to come and see you, Madam. I haven’t seen you since I left last time.” Having said that, Dawn reached over in front of Sakya, took the cup Sakya hadn’t touched and drained it in one go.

“Is it that good?” The Old Lady seemed even more impatient.

“Mm, my mom…” Dawn was just about to say something when he suddenly noticed the Old Lady’s attitude. He quickly grew alert, gave an embarrassed smile and went on: “I’m sorry, Madam, I forgot my manners. We wanted to come and ask your advice about the DeFi Passage.”

“Why do you think I would know anything about the DeFi Passage?”

“I don’t know.” Dawn shook his head.

“You don’t know? What kind of joke is that?” Sakya demanded, his voice rising at once. Realizing that it was improper to be so loud, he lowered his head again.

“That’s right. But my gut tells me that your wisdom and knowledge, Madam, must be the greatest in the Orion Arm.” When he had finished, Dawn nodded firmly.

“And what makes you think I would tell you?” the Old Lady asked, toying with her sleeve with amusement.

“I don’t know. If you don’t want to tell us, Madam, that’s fine too. At least I got the chance to see you once more. Oh, right—it looks like someone has cleaned the roof. And those trees have grown so tall. Would you like me to clear them for you?” Dawn said happily, pointing at the trees around the outside of the pool.

“Oh?” the Old Lady said with a cold laugh. “The Star Map Draftsman has gardening skills too?”

“I do. When my mom was still alive, she had a little garden, and I was always the one who cleared it for her…” At the mention of his mom, the smile left Dawn’s face. His mother had died early, and he had almost forgotten what she looked like. The thought made him a little sad, but he still managed to squeeze out a smile as he looked at the Old Lady.

The expression on the Old Lady’s face changed as well. She stood up and said: “Then clear these plants for me too. Find your own tools; Jonathan always used to bring his own. When you’ve finished, come and find me over there.” The Old Lady pointed at another building in the distance, and then she rode away on her transport.

Only after the Old Lady’s transport had disappeared among the giant plants did Sakya drop heavily into his chair. He stared straight at Dawn’s back, as angry as a little boy who had been wrongly accused of stealing glass marbles—nothing like a scientist of seventy or eighty. Dawn glanced at Sakya and spread his hands at him to tell the old man to relax. He pointed at the food in front of Sakya, then turned and wandered all over the huge observation deck. He went and patted the pillars, so thick that ten people holding hands couldn’t have wrapped their arms around them. He tugged at the uneven leaves, and he even stuck his hand into the pool and stirred it around. Looking at the water, so clear that his stirring couldn’t raise a splash, he felt sad that it couldn’t even nourish a single red goldfish.

“Hey, are you planning to waste your days like this?” Sakya shouted at Dawn from a long way off.

“Sir, how could I? I’m working hard,” Dawn said as he sized up the trees. He was working out how to prune them. If he used the robots on the Sane ship, the job might not be done before this universe burned out. Besides, the pruned branches at least needed to be moved to the woods in the distance, and that was something the robots couldn’t do. He squeezed his fist.

“That doesn’t look like serious work to me. We don’t have time for this.”

“Sir,” Dawn shouted at the top of his voice, “don’t get worked up. I’m working hard at it.”

“I don’t think so,” Sakya said—but the two of them were too far apart, and Dawn couldn’t hear what Sakya said after that. He had only heard Sakya’s first sentence.

Dawn walked to the edge of the round platform and gestured at the distance, working out his pruning plan.

Tolay Planet had no day and no night. Dawn guessed that the light drawn in by the huge black hole the planet orbited kept the planet in an almost eternal brightness. Tolay Planet must be able to adjust its distance from the black hole on the fly, making sure it wouldn’t be sucked in while still revolving around it. In that case, the companion star in the distance must work on the same principle. These two bodies were definitely not part of a native star system; most likely they were the result of artificial creation. Otherwise, going by the way star systems evolve, if a system’s sun turned from a star into a black hole, the planets around it would have had their atmospheres blown away and their water evaporated long before, and in the end they would have been swallowed by the black hole. There could not possibly be a planet like Tolay Planet around a black hole. But what was the companion star for? Surely not just to make a companion for an old lady—there was no need for that at all. Or else, perhaps someone important had originally been meant to live on that companion star too, and later that person had gone somewhere else. Dawn felt he was overthinking things, and he couldn’t help shaking his head. Perhaps one of humanity’s best qualities was curiosity.

“Good heavens, are you sure you want to use your powers like this?” Sakya started shouting from far away.

Dawn smiled at him. He clenched his right fist, and purple energy began to gather. He flew out beyond the observation deck and gave the plants a thorough pruning. He gathered the fallen branches into a mass and finally crushed them into small spheres, one after another, stacking them neatly on the ground beneath the round platform. After working for quite a while, Dawn carried the spheres to the woods in the distance and buried them. After he had leveled the ground, he flew back to Sakya’s side, bowed slightly and politely to Mr. Sakya, and sat back down in his original seat. Dawn poured himself a cup of tea. After drinking it he still felt thirsty, so he drank another cup. Then he simply lay down on the floor.

Sakya crouched down beside Dawn, pointed at the building in the distance and said: “Young man, the Old Lady said to go and find her once you finished pruning…”

“Sir,” Dawn said, raising a hand to cut Sakya off, and went on: “I’m going to rest for a bit. I’m a little tired. There’s no hurry.” With that, he rolled over with his back to Sakya. Dawn felt his eyelids beginning to sink, as though the weight of his whole head had gathered in those thin slips of flesh. When he couldn’t hold out any longer, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. When Dawn woke up, Sakya was gone. Only the Old Lady sat upright in a chair, looking at the blue waterfall in the distance. She glanced at Dawn stretching on the floor, then turned her gaze back to the blue waterfall. Dawn slowly sat up, looked all around, then glanced at the teacups on the table. He rubbed the arm he had slept on until it went numb, tugged at his collar, got up off the floor, walked back, sat down across from the Old Lady and poured himself another cup.

“Weren’t you planning to ask me something?” Seeing Dawn drinking tea as if nothing were the matter, the Old Lady simply spoke first.

“Mm, no hurry, Madam. Finish your drink first.” Dawn smiled.

“Let’s talk about what you want to know first.” The Old Lady’s face was serious.

“Oh, right—where’s Mr. Sakya?” Dawn asked, looking behind him.

“He went back to Planet Gorov first. He was in a hurry to go and find the coordinates of the DeFi Passage.”

“Oh, right. Thanks to Mr. Sakya—otherwise none of us would have known the DeFi Passage existed.” Dawn smiled wryly.

“Perhaps not knowing the truth is best for the people of this universe bubble. Or rather, best for the civilizations of the Orion Arm.”

“Madam, what do you mean by that?”

“I don’t think there’s any need to hide this from you anymore. After all, this universe bubble is almost gone. The Datheon had arrangements in place for the Orion Arm, the same as for other civilizations. But when it came our turn to choose, we chose not to live according to the Datheon’s arrangements, and that led to the situation we have today.”

“Madam, I still don’t understand.”

“It’s a rather long story. I’d better tell it to you from the beginning. Ah, when you get old, the thing you have most of is things weighing on your mind.” The Old Lady poured herself a cup of tea. After her first sip, she told Dawn that she was one of the Datheon emissaries. Of what followed, Dawn could only catch some of the key points.

The Datheon had appeared when the Orion Arm was torn by war. They had redrawn the shape of the Orion Arm and chosen the members who would lead the three core civilizations. Everyone knew that much. But there was a great deal more that no one knew, including the fact that Jonathan was not the Old Lady’s child, and Lord Winifred was not Madam Winifred’s son—only they didn’t know this secret. The Old Lady had originally been chosen as one of the Datheon emissaries. She had been assigned to inject energy into the old Star Map Draftsman, but in the end none of them had done it. As a result, the old Star Map Draftsman never had the full ability to control dark matter. He spent many years in an in-between state until he dissipated.

“Madam, then that means Jonathan must have found out that you’re not his birth mother,” Dawn said thoughtfully.

“Were you even listening to me?” the Old Lady said, raising her voice a little. She looked at Dawn and went on: “What this means is that if the Datheon emissary doesn’t inject energy into you, you will dissipate.”

“I heard you. But you’re here, aren’t you?” Dawn said with a smile.

“I’m not the one who’s supposed to inject energy into you. I was matched to the old Star Map Draftsman,” the Old Lady said angrily.

“Oh,” Dawn said, scratching his nose. He looked up at the Old Lady and continued: “So Jonathan does know the truth, and the former Chief Financial Officer really was his biological father. But Lord Winifred doesn’t know. He’s still unhappy with Madam Winifred’s arrangements, he’s angry, so he joined forces with Jonathan and the two princes of the Strath Federation…”

“That’s enough. Stop interrupting and let me finish.” The Old Lady impatiently raised her hand to cut Dawn off, and then she began her account.

Datheon emissaries were actually ordinary people; they had simply been chosen to become Datheon emissaries. The emissaries would be activated automatically at a particular time, but until they were activated, they had no way of sensing that they were Datheon emissaries. Everything the Old Lady said, directly or indirectly, showed her dissatisfaction with the Datheon’s arrangements. It was not as simple as sacrificing one random person from among the multitudes. Even a single ordinary life had, behind it, family after family, broken lover after broken lover—or else person after person who, without knowing it, was turned into an energy body, injected into a Star Map Draftsman’s body, and then dissipated. After the Old Lady had complained for a long time, she finally got to the Great Migration. When the universe was born, the total energy it carried was finite. The universe we live in is made up of countless universe bubbles; it’s just that these universe bubbles, like the development of organic life, have an infancy, a youth and prime, and also a day when they perish. When a universe bubble enters old age, the Shepherds create a new universe bubble and draw the old universe bubble’s dark matter into the new one. That way, galaxies can be born again, carrying different civilizations and species and giving the universe the breath of life. In this process, the Great Migration needs time, so before a universe bubble has completely declined, the Shepherds notify the Star Map Draftsmen and have them organize their own civilizations to begin migrating. The classic example is the Ponlehai Civilization, which began migrating many years ago. When a civilization has migrated to the vicinity of the DeFi Passage, its Star Map Draftsman is responsible for guiding that civilization into the DeFi Passage. Just like the second stage Minister Zhou Qing had mentioned, the Star Map Draftsman has to lead his civilization into the DeFi Passage to live there, until galaxies have matured in the new universe bubble. Only then do these civilizations move into the new universe bubble; that is the third stage. Having heard it all, Dawn felt that at least the Old Lady’s account was more believable. He should have come to see the Old Lady sooner.

“Madam,” Dawn said thoughtfully. He walked over near Jonathan’s mother, crouched down, looked at her and went on: “Why didn’t you tell us this information before?”

“Ha,” the Old Lady gave a scornful, cold laugh and continued: “Knowing these people the way I do, if I had said it earlier, the war it set off might have been even worse than the one on Visadio Planet. Besides, if I hadn’t indirectly let slip the information about the super Star Bridge, Hamilton would never have built his Star Bridge, and you would never have had the chance to go to the Ponlehai Civilization. And if I hadn’t indirectly hinted to the Defenders’ Alliance, none of you would have had the chance to learn that the DeFi Passage has three stages. Only at this tipping point, with the secret of the DeFi Passage exposed, could I be confident about telling you this information. Otherwise, it wouldn’t just have failed to help a few civilizations in the Orion Arm carry on—it would have sped up the destruction of the entire spiral arm.”

“A small number of civilizations carrying on? What does that mean?” Dawn asked, puzzled.

“The Great Migration can’t move every civilization.”

“Then who decides which civilizations can migrate and which can’t?” Hearing the Old Lady’s words, Dawn felt a little sad, and he asked in a low voice.

“No one decides. You fight for it yourself. Or else someone helps you. Take the Solar System civilization: because you come from there, and you’re helping them build ships, they have a chance to migrate. But there are too many Level Zero civilizations like the Solar System, and there are no Star Map Draftsmen in their civilizations. And the Level One and Level Two civilizations? They’re too busy looking after themselves.”

“What about the Defenders’ Alliance? Will they step in and help?”

“Certainly. Layte and his crowd are political masters. They knew the secret of the DeFi Passage perfectly well, but they were afraid others wouldn’t understand it, or that it would bring war, so they used the Star Map Draftsman as their talking point and only said that dark matter would speed up the collision of galaxies. That way they could pull in more of the civilizations that had a chance to migrate.”

“I see. But they can’t help everyone either, can they?”

“No. And their goal is very clear: only star systems with the capabilities of a Level One or Level Two civilization have a chance of being brought into the Defenders’ Alliance. The rest have no chance.”

“Madam, what else is there about the Great Migration that we don’t know?”

“Nothing else for now. You did very well, publishing the Star Map Draftsman’s ship technology to every civilization so that all of them have a chance to use the super Star Bridges.” The Old Lady looked at Dawn approvingly and nodded as she said it. But very soon the kindliness suddenly left her face, and she added thoughtfully: “However, anyone who has taken White Crystals has no chance to migrate.”

“I know that. They can’t enter the DeFi Passage.” Dawn smiled.

“No. A lifeform that has taken White Crystals will be dissolved by the DeFi Passage, and all the dark matter contained in the White Crystals will be transferred to the new universe bubble.”

Hearing the Old Lady say this, Dawn looked thoughtfully into the distance. The sunlight that never went away was steaming a thin layer of mist off the top of the forest. Flocks of birds plunged into the mist and came out one after another on the other side, chasing each other tirelessly, until one of them flew toward the building in the distance, and the other birds followed it and disappeared from Dawn’s sight together. He was thinking: if what the Old Lady said was true—“It must be true,” he told himself firmly, swallowing—then taking White Crystals was itself a huge conspiracy. If the dignitaries and nobles of the Orion Arm discovered this, they would probably wipe Visadio Planet off this spiral arm.

Dawn stood up and paced back and forth beside the Old Lady, stopping now and then to look at the drinks on the table with an extremely serious expression. Anyone who didn’t know better might have mistaken him for an expert beverage taster. In reality, his mind had long since wandered off into the universe. Thinking about the present situation, Dawn doubted he would get a chance to have energy injected a second time. Think about it this way: the Orion Arm had not joined the Great Migration in time because it had no Star Map Draftsman, and right at this moment, of all times, Dawn had become a Star Map Draftsman. But then why had the other Datheon emissary given up? He had always been a pessimist. What he feared was that the Shepherds, the Datheon and the Datheon emissaries had long ago overlooked the Orion Arm—and overlooked him, this Star Map Draftsman, along with it. To say he wasn’t afraid of dying would be a lie. Only when it came to choosing between his own life and Stacean did he always choose Stacean; when it came to his own life and death, he still felt some regret. Perhaps he wanted to start another life over again with Sandra.

“Madam, then tell me, who would the other Datheon emissary matched with me be?”

The Old Lady shook her head.

“Back then, aboard the Sane ship, a Datheon emissary injected energy into me, but I don’t know why the other one didn’t go on to inject me.”

“I don’t know.” The Old Lady still shook her head.

“Then…” Dawn didn’t know what to ask. The words that had been on the tip of his tongue—he couldn’t remember what they were. He looked at the building on the other side and forced a little smile onto the corners of his mouth. Maybe this time he wouldn’t be so lucky.

“But everything has been arranged. When the time comes, the other Datheon emissary will appear.”

“I don’t know,” Dawn said, glancing at the Old Lady. The back of his neck felt a little uncomfortable, and he reached up to scratch it. He lowered his head and went on: “I’m pretty torn too. If the other Datheon emissary doesn’t appear, then before long I’ll perish. But if it does appear and injects that last dose of energy into me, I’ll become a true Star Map Draftsman, a pure energy body. I’m afraid I won’t be able to touch Sandra’s face anymore, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to be by my son’s side whenever I want. When I think about that, I don’t know whether to hope the Datheon emissary shows up or hope it doesn’t.”

“Make your choice according to what you want most. Whatever you become, to Sandra and your son you will never have changed.” The Old Lady walked over to Dawn and patted him on the back.

“Thank you, Madam. I understand.” Dawn didn’t actually know what to choose either, but like a son who doesn’t want to make anyone worry, he gave the Old Lady a small smile.

“As for your other Datheon emissary, it is definitely in the Orion Arm. Like I said, it just doesn’t know it yet.”

“That’s really mysterious. I thought that with the Shepherds’ level of technology—or in an advanced Level Two civilization like the Moreth Federation—everything could be explained. I never imagined they would design rules like this.”

“The universe is far, far more complex than we understand. It’s normal for things not to make sense. Even if they do make sense, given the way carbon-based life sees the world now, it’s hard to imagine things from another angle.”

“Then Madam, how did you find out that you were a Datheon emissary?”

“Back then, at one particular moment, I suddenly awakened. It was as if someone had put a task I could not refuse into my mind, hidden in a box that even I didn’t know about. Only when a particular point in time arrived did the box open by itself. The task exploded in my mind and then, carrying clear instructions, melted into my flesh and blood. At that moment, I knew I was a Datheon emissary. But, as I said, the old Star Map Draftsman, Madam Winifred and I all felt we couldn’t keep blowing up stars. The reasoning is simple: with fewer stars, life loses its cradles and has nowhere to set foot. In the end, we chose to keep developing with the wisdom the Datheon had left us,” at this point the Old Lady let out a long sigh. Then she stood up, walked over near Dawn and went on: “Perhaps the situation we’re in now is what we deserve.”

“I understand the reasoning, Madam. Even if I hadn’t been dragged into this whole Great Migration business, I would have hesitated about blowing up stars too.”

“In that case, it was right to save you back then.”

“One last thing, Madam. This planet, and that huge black hole,” Dawn said, pointing at the bright accretion disk, and went on: “Are these technologies the Shepherds left behind?”

The Old Lady didn’t say anything, but she nodded.

“Will they help us with the Great Migration?”

The Old Lady shook her head.

“Why not?” Dawn pressed urgently.

“No one but the Shepherds could have built the system that exists now. That companion star isn’t an ordinary star,” the Old Lady said, pointing at the planet not far away, and went on: “It is the device that keeps this system running. I no longer remember how many generations of scientists have studied it endlessly, going from full of hope to despair, until no one was curious about this system anymore. None of them ever came up with any results. But…” The Old Lady raised her voice. She walked around to face Dawn directly, looked him in the eye and said: “Young man, you need to hurry. The difficulty of the Great Migration isn’t only knowing the coordinates; it’s also being able to use the super Star Bridge. And don’t forget—human nature. Human nature is the most complicated thing of all.”

Dawn nodded.

The Old Lady told Dawn everything she knew, and it was from her that Dawn learned the Shepherds were building an even bigger super Star Bridge in Kukra City. It worked on the same principle as the companion star where the Old Lady lived, and it didn’t need Hamilton’s people’s artificial antimatter to balance the opening of the Star Bridge. Kukra City was more like a station open twenty-four hours a day without rest; from here people from every civilization could be transferred without end, and as long as the Shepherds let them in, they could arrive at the DeFi Passage much more precisely. Dawn had doubts about the Shepherds’ motives. If the Shepherds were really willing to help the people of this universe migrate, they should have started notifying the people of the Orion Arm long ago. But the Old Lady’s explanation afterward made sense too: ever since the Orion Arm had had no Star Map Draftsman, none of the Shepherds’ will could be passed on, so they had been forced to step in personally at the last moment. As for why they weren’t willing to give up on the Orion Arm’s civilizations, the reason was very simple. The Shepherds had built a bigger pasture, and they wanted it full of sheep, rather than waiting for a small number of sheep to breed. So getting more civilizations into the new universe bubble was their main goal. The Orion Arm wasn’t large, but after so many years of development, the Three Federations really had made its population much larger. There was no war and no oppression, only smooth trade, and White Crystals that granted eternal life. In the Orion Arm, there were few barren planets left; almost all of them were full of the footprints of civilization. Even in the Sothatki Star River, large interstellar ships sailed, opening trade routes between different civilizations.

“But young man, you have to hurry. Kukra City is likely to be destroyed. You must save it before they make their move—for your son, and for these innocent civilizations.” When she had finished, the Old Lady patted Dawn on the shoulder.

Once he understood the situation, Dawn hurried back to Planet Gorov.