One day, while scanning the sky, she saw a fixed, unmoving speck of colour. Switching from one telescope to another, she upgraded to a semi-professional astronomical model, finally realising it wasn’t a bird, though it had wings. She thought it was a bird beyond her knowledge, but common sense told her birds never flew that high—nor did planes. To be visible through an astronomical telescope, it had to be at least a hundred kilometres above the ground. Looking closer, she saw it falling, slowly breaking through the clouds, gliding towards Earth’s orbit. A comet! She thought of War and Peace and how, for the first time in her life, she had discovered a great comet ahead of everyone else. She hurriedly drew what she saw, titling it My Icarus, and handed it to her professor during the next week’s class.

Jimmy remembered when he and Alice had come on a mission to sample Saturn’s rings a little over half a year ago.
Up close, Saturn’s rings consisted of several juxtaposed orbits of varying widths that stretched all the way to the sky. He remembered roaming along one orbit with her, unable to take them all in sight. When it was time to leave, Alice was so unsatisfied:
“May I keep a small bit of it as a memento of the day?”
“Strictly speaking, this is not in line with organizational discipline. But I’m only responsible for reminding, so you decide for yourself.”
“Alright then.” Alice’s face was a shade of red and a shade of white as she reluctantly reached out from behind her back and added the tiny bit of sample hiding between her fingers to the organization’s sampling box.
On the way back, Alice was as giddy as ever, counting the wonders she’d witnessed that day, but Jimmy noticed the red corners of her eyes, which stood out against her pale skin.
Two months later, at Alice’s birthday party, Jimmy brought a whole box of samples of Saturn’s rings.
When Alice asked in surprise, Jimmy just smiled mysteriously and said, “Their first mission is accomplished, and now comes the second: Happy Birthday to you!”
He wouldn’t tell her, of course, that it was the result of his marching orders at the Captain’s, in exchange for full attendance and overload for the latter half of the year.

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The Astras Desert is renowned for its vast meteorite belt, and while many meteorite hunters return empty-handed, they remain undeterred. The W hunter is said to be keeping a close eye on it. He is as swift as a rattlesnake and as protective of his food as a meteorite. Once he has it in his hands, it is difficult to circulate and rare to see. This W hunter is clearly trying to take over the desert. He’s amassing a staggering collection of meteorites to declare his sovereignty.
Meteorites were much more than collections. David was not willing to spend any more time with quarry traders. They unquestionably signalled danger when they came in force. He knew better than that.
The ridge of the roof was the first to be melted by the hot stone, and the beams were charred black and brittle. The destruction will happen in an instant. Dozens of metres away, David heard a loud bang and the loose earth beneath his feet trembled. He was seized by unease and looked back. The monstrous black smoke was rising from his own bearing. His former shelter was in ruins. He had not had time to inform his grandfather and father to evacuate. As the smoke cleared, several stones of different sizes could be seen glinting with cold light, ready to be picked up. David had never touched a meteorite before. His fingers followed the shape of the air prints, feeling the unexpected smoothness and the coarse coarseness beneath.
He felt his life stained with iron.
David has since made it his mission to document the meteorites of this desert region in the most comprehensive way possible. He didn’t stop there. He developed his own set of classification criteria and used lenses to characterise meteorites found at different times. He was determined to find out what this charred lump of rock that had fallen from the sky was. And what mysteries lay hidden within them that had almost driven his grandfather and father mad. It must have been the unique jewel-like lustre that had a mesmerising effect. Or was the bumpy surface and the rows of holes a symbol that could be understood by humans?
David was determined to solve the mystery and discover the truth about the asteroid’s de-orbit. He was prepared to spend the rest of his life revolving around the meteorite, or even laying out a whole new life orbit for it.
He was engaged in a private dispute with the universe. He would rather be a star hunter who shines by conquest than become a star chaser.

In the darkness, Chen Peng felt the reflection of light on the metallic shell of the space vacuum cleaner. Then, the tombstone numbered 017, which he had just adjusted to target the area and direction, turned from a glowing black crystal into an extreme whiteness that extended infinitely, resembling ripples in water that spread towards the distant galaxies beyond as one steps onto them.
“I must be dead,” thought Chen Peng. “Turns out you can have hallucinations after death.”
He walked forward step by step, feeling both buoyant and slightly weighted, similar to the sensation in a microgravity environment of a space capsule—light yet with an indescribable solidity.
The surroundings were dim and hazy. As he gradually saw more clearly, he found himself in a labyrinthine library where towering bookshelves cut the space into countless vertical and horizontal sections. Each shelf was like a reflective mirror, projecting countless other shelves and countless versions of himself. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that although each shelf and each version of him looked very similar, the books on each shelf were different, and so were the ages, expressions, and actions of each version of himself.
He reached out to touch the books on the shelf but felt as if he was squatting down instead. Then it seemed he was not squatting but running and shouting crazily. Then he felt he wasn’t running or shouting but lying on the ground dead, and the place he lay was also a compartment among the bookshelves. The dead him caught a glimpse of the book spine in the compartment: “Year 300,000 AD.”
He forcefully opened the cover, like opening a huge and heavy gate made of Han white jade, feeling as if he had entered the underground palace of human history. The text inside the book flew past his ears like strings of fireflies, and he unexpectedly comprehended the fate of humanity 300,000 years later: Humans as we know them no longer exist but are present in the form of particles; in today’s terms, a rock is a human, a tree is a human, a flame is a human, and even a planet is human.
He closed the book cover, like shutting a door, feeling somewhat enlightened but still confused.

The residents of Eltia are divided into many small settlements, living on a vast plain. The water and soil here are fertile, and life is peaceful and harmonious. At the edge of the vast land are stone walls and a taller tower. The people here seem to live in a paradise, without any desire for expansion and development. They are content with their situation and believe that the area outside the high wall is the realm of the gods they worship.

Aiden told them the story of his planet, but because many concepts related to technology could not be well conveyed, their discussions all turned to theology. Here, Aiden made many friends and became a very good brother with a young man of similar age.

One day, a young man in a settlement passed the news between the settlements, saying that someone had found “the gift left by God” on the other side of the tower, and decided to organize the young and strong on the plain to go over the tower and to the other side of the wall to bring back the gift left by God. This is the first time that the people living on this land have seen the divine manifestation of God for generations. A large number of young and strong people joined this action, and Aiden also participated in this action.

They marched towards the tower all the way, and on the way, Aiden’s friend told him his guess. He said that a long time ago, he had seen a white long line across the sky, but it disappeared quickly. Aiden calculated that the time his friend said was not much different from the time he woke up. Suddenly, Aiden felt an inexplicable fear in his heart, which made him break into a cold sweat.

A few days later, a large number of people came to the foot of the tower. With Aiden’s help, they found the passage of the tower that only existed in legends and successfully climbed to the top of the tower. When people stood on the high wall and looked far away at the plains and mountains, and pointed to the “gift left by God” they had been looking for, and celebrated each other, Aiden stood there in a daze. The “gift left by God” in people’s mouths was his spaceship that had fallen outside the tower and had been scrapped. At the same time, he realized that he had brought “technology” to this planet, and this planet, as well as the people on it, might also go down the same path as the planet where he once lived…