“Can you be more specific? What does all this have to do with those two protons? Ultimately, what can the two protons that have reached the Earth do? Like the interrogator said, a single cilium on a bacterium can contain several billion protons. Even if these two protons turned entirely into energy on the tip of my finger, at most it would feel like a pinprick.”
“You wouldn’t feel anything. Even if they turned into energy on a bacterium, the bacterium probably wouldn’t feel anything.”
“Then what were you trying to say?”
“Nothing. I don’t know anything. What can a bug know?”
“But you’re a physicist among bugs. You know more than I do. At least you aren’t completely at a loss when faced with the knowledge of these protons. I beg you. Tell me. Otherwise I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
“If I tell you more, you really won’t be able to sleep. Forget it. What’s the point of worrying? We should learn to be as philosophical as Wei Cheng and Shi Qiang. Just do the best within your responsibility. Let’s go drinking and then go back to sleep like good bugs.”
31
Operation Guzheng
“Don’t worry,” Shi Qiang said to Wang, as he sat down next to him at the meeting table. “I’m not radioactive anymore. The last couple of days they’ve washed me inside and outside like a flour sack. They didn’t originally think you needed to attend this meeting, but I insisted. Heh. I bet the two of us are going to be important this time.”
As Da Shi spoke, he picked a cigar butt out of the ashtray, lit it, and took a long drag. He nodded, and, in a slow, relaxed manner, blew the smoke into the faces of the attendees sitting on the other side of the table. One of the people sitting opposite him was the original owner of the cigar, Colonel Stanton of the U.S. Marine Corps. He gave Da Shi a contemptuous look.
Many more foreign military officers were at this meeting than the last. They were all in uniform. For the first time in human history, the armed forces of the world’s nations faced the same enemy.
General Chang said, “Comrades, everyone at this meeting now has the same basic understanding of the situation. Or, as Da Shi here would put it, we have information parity. The war between alien invaders and humanity has begun. Our descendants won’t face the Trisolarans for another four and a half centuries. For now, our opponents are still human. Yet, in essence, these traitors to the human race can also be seen as enemies from outside human civilization. We have never faced an enemy like this. The next war objective is very clear: We must capture the intercepted Trisolaran messages stored on Judgment Day. These messages may have great significance for our survival.
“We haven’t yet done anything to draw the suspicion of Judgment Day. The ship still sails the Atlantic freely. It has already submitted plans to the Panama Canal Authority to pass through the canal in four days. This is a great opportunity for us. As the situation develops, such an opportunity may never arise again. Right now, all the Battle Command Centers around the globe are drafting up operation plans, and Central will select one within ten hours and begin implementation. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss possible plans of operation, and then report one to three of our best suggestions to Central. Time is of the essence, and we must work efficiently.
“Note that any plan must guarantee one thing: the secure capture of the Trisolaran messages. Judgment Day was rebuilt from an old tanker, and both the superstructure and the interior have been extensively renovated with complex structures to contain many new rooms and passageways. Supposedly even the crew relies on a map when entering unfamiliar areas. We, of course, know even less about the ship’s layout. Right now, we cannot even be certain of the location of the computing center on Judgment Day, and we don’t know whether the intercepted Trisolaran messages are stored in servers located in the computing center, or how many copies they have. The only way to achieve our objective is to completely capture and control Judgment Day.
“The most difficult part is preventing the enemy from erasing Trisolaran data during our attack. Destroying the data would be very easy. The enemy would not use conventional methods to erase the data during an attack, because it’s easy to recover the data using known technology. But if they just emptied a cartridge clip at the server hard drive or other storage media, it would all be over, and doing so would take no more than ten seconds. So we must disable all enemies near the storage equipment within ten seconds of their detecting an attack. Since we don’t know the exact location of the data storage or the number of copies, we must eliminate all enemies on Judgment Day within a very brief period of time, before the target has been alerted. At the same time, we can’t heavily damage the facilities within, especially computer equipment. Thus, this is a very difficult task. Some think it’s impossible.”
A Japanese Self-Defense Forces officer said, “We believe that the only chance for success is to rely on spies on Judgment Day. If they’re familiar with where the Trisolaran information is stored, they can control the area or move the storage equipment elsewhere right before our operation.”
Someone asked, “Reconnaissance and monitoring of Judgment Day have always been the responsibility of NATO military intelligence and the CIA. Do we have such spies?”
“No,” the NATO liaison said.
“Then we have nothing more to discuss except bullshit,” said Da Shi. He was met with annoyed looks.
Colonel Stanton said, “Since the objective is eliminating all personnel within an enclosed structure without harming other equipment within, our first thought was to use a ball lightning weapon.”
Ding Yi shook his head. “The existence of this kind of weapon is now public knowledge. We don’t know if the ship has been equipped with magnetic walls to shield against ball lightning. Even if it hasn’t, a ball lightning weapon can indeed kill all personnel within the ship, but it cannot do so simultaneously. Also, after the ball lightning enters the ship, it may hover in the air for some time before releasing its energy. This wait time can last from a dozen seconds to a minute or longer. They will have enough time to realize they’ve been attacked and destroy the data.”
Colonel Stanton asked, “What about a neutron bomb?”
“Colonel, you should know that’s not going to work.” The speaker was a Russian officer. “The radiation from a neutron bomb cannot kill right away. After a neutron bomb attack, the amount of time left to the enemy would be more than enough for them to have a meeting just like this one.”
“Another thought was to use nerve gas,” a NATO officer said. “But releasing it and having it spread throughout the ship would take time, so it still doesn’t achieve General Chang’s requirements.”
“Then the only choices left are concussion bombs and infrasonic waves,” Colonel Stanton said. Others waited for him to finish his thought, but he said nothing more.
Da Shi said, “I use concussion bombs in police work, but they’re toys. They’re indeed capable of stunning people inside a building into unconsciousness, but they’re only good for a room or two. Do you have any concussion bombs big enough to stun a whole oil tanker full of people?”