One after the other, the Earth’s soldiers boarded Fangs’ spaceship. Because its ladder was intended for Dinosaurs, they had to pull their entire body up each rung to climb inside. The Marshal was the last human to board the ship. Holding to the lowest rung of the ship’s ladder, he pulled his body off the ground. Just at that moment something in the ground beneath his feet caught his eye. He stopped in mid-pull, looking down. For a long time he hung there, motionless.
He had seen… an ant.
The ant had climbed out of that box of soil. Never losing sight of the tiny insect, the Marshal let go of the ladder and squatted down. Lowering his hand, he let the ant clamber onto his glove. Raising it to his face, he carefully studied the small creature. Its obsidian body glinted in the sunlight. Holding it, the Marshal walked over to the box. There he cautiously returned the ant to the tiny blades of grass. As he lowered his hand he noticed more ants climbing about the soil beneath the grass.
Raising himself, he turned to Fangs who was standing right by his side. “When we leave, this grass and these ants will be the dominant species on Earth.”
Fangs was at a loss for words.
“Earth’s civilized life seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Dinosaurs, humans and now probably, ants,” the Marshal said, returning to his squat. He looked on, his eyes deep with love and admiration as he watched these small beings live their lives in the grass. “It is their turn.”
As he spoke, the Earth’s soldiers reemerged from the spaceship. Climbing down to Earth, they returned to the box of living soil. Standing around it they, too, were filled with deep love.
Fangs shook his head. “The grass cannot survive. It might even rain, here at the seaside, but it won’t do for the ants.”
“Is the atmosphere too thin? They seem to being doing just fine at the moment,” someone noted.
“No, the air is not the problem. They are not like humans and can live well in this atmosphere. The real crux of the matter is that they will have nothing to eat,” Fangs replied.
“Can’t they eat the grass?” another voice joined in.
“And then? How will they live on? In this thin air the grass will grow very slowly. Once the ants have eaten all the blades, they will starve. In many ways their situation mirrors the destiny of the Devourer civilization,” Fangs mused.
“Can you leave behind some food from your spaceship for them?” another soldier asked, almost pleaded.
Fangs again shook his massive head. “There is nothing in my spaceship besides water and the hibernation system. On that note, we will hibernate until we catch up with the Devourer. But what about your spaceship, do you have any food onboard?”
Now it was the Marshal’s turn to shake his head. “Nothing but a few injections of nourishment solution; useless.”
Pointing to the spaceship, Fangs interrupted the discussion. “We must hurry. The Empire is accelerating quickly. If we tarry, we will not catch up.”
Silence.
“Marshal, we will stay behind.” It was the young lieutenant who broke the silence.
The Marshal forcefully nodded.
“Stay behind? What are you up to?” Fangs asked in astonishment, turning from one to the other. “The hibernation equipment on your spaceship is almost completely depleted and you have no food. Do you plan to stay and wait for death?”
“Staying will be the first step,” the Marshal calmly answered.
“What?” the ever more perplexed Fangs asked.
“You just mentioned the first step toward a new civilization,” the Marshal explained.
“You,” Fangs could hardly believe his own words, “want to be ants’ food?”
Earth’s soldiers all nodded. Fangs wordlessly gazed at them for what seemed like forever, before turning and slowly hobbling back to his spaceship, heavily leaning on his walking stick.
“Farewell, friend,” the Marshal shouted after Fangs.
Fangs replied with a long, drawn-out sigh. “An interminable darkness lies before me and my descendants; the darkness of endless war and a vast universe. Oh, where in it could there be a home for us?”
As he spoke, the humans saw that the ground beneath his feet had moistened, but they could not tell if he could, or did, shed tears.
With a thunderous roar the Dinosaur’s spaceship lifted off and quickly disappeared into the sky. Where it had disappeared, the Sun was now setting.
The last warriors of Earth seated themselves around the living soil in silence. Then, beginning with the Marshal, they all, one by one, opened their visors and laid their bodies on the sandy earth.
As time passed, the Sun set. Its afterglow bathed the plundered Earth in a beautiful red. As it faded, a few stars began to twinkle in the sky. To his surprise, the Marshal saw that the dusky sky was a beautiful blue. Just as the thin atmosphere began to deprive him of his consciousness, the Marshal felt the tiny movements of an ant on his temple, filling him with a deep sense of contentment. As the ant climbed up to his forehead, he was transported back to his so very distant childhood. He was at the beach, lying in a small hammock that hung between two palm trees. Looking up to the splendid sea of stars above, he felt his mother’s hand gently stroke his forehead…
Darkness fell. The remnant ocean lay flat as a mirror, pristinely reflecting the Milky Way above. It was the most tranquil night in the planet’s history.
In this tranquility, the Earth was reborn.
(END)
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Copyright © 2011 by Liu Cixin.
The English edition copyright © 2012 by Beijing Guomi Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
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