Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 287 Before Launch

Twenty-four hours before launch. Pioneer's propellant loading was completed at 3:00 AM. The fuel tanks of all four engines were filled with liquid hydrogen. The six crew members were undergoing their final medical examinations. Wenya signed "qualified" on the report and handed her stethoscope to the nurse next to her, asking her to double-check.

The lights in the 402 headquarters building were all on. No one had gone home. The corridors were full of people jogging, each holding a tablet, walkie-talkie, and a half-empty cup of coffee. The large screen displayed the launch countdown: 23 hours and 57 minutes.

There was another screen hanging there. It was newly installed and diagonally opposite Zuo Cheng's workstation. There was no countdown timer on it, only one line of text: Obstetrics Department Ready.

Yu Ying's due date had passed by three days. The child chose not to be born on the eve of one of the most important human launch missions.

It's like they're waiting for something.

Han Lu emptied the three offices next to the infirmary. She and her team spent two hours moving things, pushing the metal cabinets to the end of the corridor. She also brought in a complete set of obstetrics equipment from the hospital, signing for each item herself.

Chen Hao passed by the makeshift delivery room after finishing his night shift and stood there for thirty seconds. He took out a marker and wrote four words on the door.

Pioneer 2 launch pad.

"What are you writing?" Han Lu glanced at it. "This is the delivery room."

"That's right." Chen Hao put the pen cap back on. "The one in the sky is number one, and the one in the hall is number two. They're both launch missions."

Han Lu glared at him for three seconds, then couldn't help but laugh. She bent down and added a small note: Estimated launch time unknown, the entire building is on standby.

Liu Wei walked over with two cups of tea, glanced at the words on the door: "He's like a telemetry controller simultaneously monitoring two launch missions. On one hand, there's the rocket, and on the other, his life."

He handed a cup to Zuo Cheng. Zuo Cheng had just come out of the control center, took the tea, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes for a while.

"Where is Yu Ying?"

"The waiting room. Just finished fetal heart rate monitoring; the doctor said everything is normal. The baby's probably waiting for the engine to start."

Zuo Cheng drank his tea and then pushed open the door to the lounge.

Yu Ying leaned against the headboard, her hand resting on her abdomen. The fetal heart monitor read around 140. She heard the door open but didn't open her eyes; her lips twitched slightly.

"How's it going at the monitoring and control center?"

"Everything is normal. Shen Yiming's heart rate is 62, which is two beats lower than this afternoon."

"He never gets nervous in front of important matters."

"Never."

Zuo Cheng sat on the edge of the bed. The two were separated by the curve of his abdomen.

After a moment of silence, Yu Ying pulled Zuo Cheng's hand to her abdomen. Zuo Cheng felt it—a very tiny kick, slow and rhythmic, like a tiny person probing a wall with their toes.

"She's been moving around a lot today. I wonder if the people in the building woke her up."

Zuo Cheng didn't speak immediately. He placed his palm on the curved surface, feeling the rhythmic pressure. Then he slowly leaned down, pressing his face against Yu Ying's stomach. His voice was very soft.

"My name is Zuo Cheng. I'm your father."

Yu Ying's fingers ran through his hair.

"You were born at a rather special time. Tomorrow morning, humanity's first deep-space spacecraft will be launched. On that spacecraft is an uncle named Shen Yiming, who will fly as far as Neptune before you grow up. By the time you grow up, perhaps someone will have already flown as far as the solar system."

The fetal movement stopped for a moment. Then it came again.

"Your mother is amazing. She discovered many things in the solar system that others can't see—the nodes of the web, the codes of origin. On the day you were born, she was in the same building monitoring two things: the engines in the sky and the heartbeat on the ground."

He paused for a moment.

"I hope you're like her. Not like me. Because I love running into the desert too much."

Yu Ying laughed, and tears streamed down her face. The tears slid onto the pillow, and her voice trembled slightly.

"You could do it too. You'd bring a satellite phone before you go to the desert."

Zuo Cheng looked up at her. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then both laughed. The laughter was soft, like two bubbles released into the air during a hectic night.

Yu Ying wiped away her tears.

"I saved what you just said using a web browser. When she connects to the internet, she'll find it amidst the background noise. She'll discover that her father spoke to her even before she was born."

Zuo Cheng was taken aback. "You're using the web hosting service like a personal cloud storage."

"Is it a waste to store a voice message of less than two hundred words from a civilization that existed four billion years ago?"

It was two in the morning. Zuo Cheng told the obstetrics nurse to rest in the next room. He sat down beside Yu Ying's bed. Outside the window, it was still dark; the lights of Hangzhou looked like a layer of quiet golden mist.

Yu Ying suddenly asked a question.

"If the Pioneer has succeeded, would you like to fly it yourself?"

Zuo Cheng didn't answer immediately. He looked out the window. The Pioneer was traveling through the night sky at nearly eight kilometers per second, and on the web-based sensing interface was a moving point of light.

He thought of the web-weaving node in Alpha Centauri, dormant for tens of millions of years. The founders waited four billion years. Then he spoke.

"I don't want to fly all the way. But if someone needs to open the first door, that person has to be me."

Yu Ying was not surprised.

"It's not because you're the most suitable."

"No," Zuo Cheng said, "it's because I can't let someone else go in my place."

A thin layer of mist rose from the window. The air conditioner was running quietly, and the numbers on the monitor continued to fluctuate steadily. 141, 140, 139.

Yu Ying rested her head on the pillow and turned her face to look at him.

"Do you know when I found out? Not today. Not four months ago when you drew up the ten-year roadmap. It was at the Huaxia University Library. You asked me if I wanted to work on a project together. You were just a senior then, without a company, without even money. But the way you said 'work on a project together' made it sound like it was already a done deal."

Her voice was very calm.

"I accepted it back then. This job has no end. I joined with a life sentence."

Zuo Cheng took her hand in his. Their fingers intertwined, slightly damp, it was hard to tell whose sweat it was.

4:43 AM.

Zuo Cheng emerged from the lounge. The corridor finally quieted down, with people who had been running around all day sitting against the wall. Han Lu stood waiting for him at the entrance of the control center, holding a freshly printed launch procedure sheet. The paper was still warm.

"Seven hours before launch. The fleet is ready." She glanced at Zuo Cheng. "Are you ready?"

Zuo Cheng took the program sheet. The top line read: Launch time, 9:00 AM.

"I'm ready."

He folded the program sheet into thirds and put it into his breast pocket.

"She is too."

Han Lu did not ask whether "she" referred to Yu Ying or Pioneer.

Five o'clock in the morning. The sky began to lighten. Only the countdown timer sounded in the telemetry and control center. Pioneer quietly turned in its orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometers, the six founder codes on its silver hull, "the first to open the door," illuminated by the first rays of dawn.

Downstairs in the temporary delivery room, the number on Yu Ying's fetal heart monitor screen jumped to 142.

Upstairs at the Deep Space Tracking and Control Center, Shen Yiming transmitted back the final self-check confirmation from the isolation zone. The commander reported that the entire system was green and ready to initiate pre-launch procedures.

Zuo Cheng sat in front of the control console and tuned the walkie-talkie to the main channel. His left hand was on the program table, and his right hand was in his pocket.

Inside his pocket was a folded note that Yu Ying had given him three hours earlier. It contained only one line of her handwriting.

Take her to see the door you pushed open.