Part 9 (2/2)

”I'm not interfering in your work, am I?”

”No. Since you need such low precision, we can just use some basic data from COBE. Okay, it's all set. From now on, if such great fluctuations occur, the data will be automatically saved to disk.”

”I think it might happen around one o'clock A.M.”

”Wow, so precise! No problem, since I'm working the night s.h.i.+ft, anyway. Have you had dinner yet? Good, then I'll take you on a tour.”

The night was moonless. They walked along the row of antenna dishes, and Sha pointed to them. ”Breathtaking, aren't they? It's too bad that they are all like the ears of a deaf man.”

”Why?”

”Ever since construction was completed, interference has been unceasing in the observational bands. First, there were the paging stations during the eighties. Now, it's the scramble to develop mobile communications networks and cell towers. These telescopes are capable of many scientific tasks-surveying the sky, detecting variable radio sources, observing the remains of supernovae-but we can't perform most of them. We've complained to the State Regulatory Radio Commission many times, never with any results. How can we get more attention than China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom? Without money, the secrets of the universe are worth s.h.i.+t. At least my project only depends on satellite data and has nothing to do with these 'tourist attractions.'”

”In recent years, commercial operation of basic research has been fairly successful, like in high-energy physics. Maybe it would be better if the observatories were built in places farther away from cities?”

”It all comes down to money. Right now, our only choice is to find technical means to s.h.i.+eld against interference. Well, it would be much better if Professor Ye were here. She accomplished a lot in this field.”

So the topic of conversation turned to Ye Wenjie. And from her student, w.a.n.g finally learned about her life. He listened as Sha told of how she witnessed the death of her father during the Cultural Revolution, how she was falsely accused at the Production and Construction Corps, how she then seemed to disappear until her return to Beijing at the beginning of the nineties, when she began teaching astrophysics at Tsinghua, where her father had also taught, until her retirement.

”It was only recently revealed that she had spent more than twenty years at Red Coast Base.”

w.a.n.g was stunned. ”You mean, those rumors-”

”Most turned out to be true. One of the researchers who developed the deciphering system for the Red Coast Project emigrated to Europe and wrote a book last year. Most of the rumors you hear came out of that book. Many who partic.i.p.ated in Red Coast are still alive.”

”That is ... a fantastical legend.”

”Especially for it to happen during those years-absolutely incredible.”

They continued to speak for a while. Sha asked the purpose behind w.a.n.g's strange request. w.a.n.g avoided giving a straight answer, and Sha didn't press. The dignity of a specialist did not allow Sha to express too much interest in a request that clearly went against his professional knowledge.

Then they went to an all-night bar for tourists and sat for two hours. As Sha finished one beer after another, his tongue loosened even more. But w.a.n.g became anxious, and his mind kept returning to that green line on the terminal in Sha's office. It was only at ten to one in the morning that Sha finally gave in to w.a.n.g's repeated pleas to go back to the lab.

The spotlights that had lit up the row of radio antennas had been turned off, and the antennas now formed a simple two-dimensional picture against the night sky like a series of abstract symbols. All of them gazed up at the sky at the same angle, as though waiting expectantly for something. The scene made w.a.n.g shudder despite the warmth of the spring evening. He was reminded of the giant pendulums in Three Body.

They arrived back at the lab at one. As they looked at the terminal, the fluctuation was just getting started. The flat line turned into a wave, the distance between one peak and the next inconstant. The line's color became red, like a snake awakening after hibernation, wriggling as its skin refilled with blood.

”It must be a malfunction in COBE!” Sha stared at the waveform, terrified.

”It's not a malfunction.” w.a.n.g's tone was exceedingly calm. He had learned to control himself when faced with such sights.

”We'll know soon enough,” Sha said. He went to the other two terminals and typed rapidly to bring up the data gathered by the other two satellites, WMAP and Planck.

Now three waveforms moved in sync across the three terminals, exactly alike.

Sha took out a notebook computer and rushed to turn it on. He plugged in a network cable and picked up the phone. w.a.n.g could tell from the one-sided conversation that he was trying to get in touch with the rmqi radio astronomy observatory. He didn't explain to w.a.n.g what he was doing, his eyes locked onto the browser window on the notebook. w.a.n.g could hear his rapid breathing.

A few minutes later, a red waveform appeared in the browser window, moving in step with the other three.

The three satellites and the ground-based observatory confirmed one fact: The universe was flickering.

”Can you print out the waveform?” w.a.n.g asked.

Sha wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead and nodded. He moved his mouse and clicked ”Print.” w.a.n.g grabbed the first page as soon as it came out of the laser printer, and, with a pencil, began to match the distance between the peaks with the Morse code chart he took out of his pocket.

short-long-long-long-long, short-long-long-long-long, long-long-long-long-long, long-long-long-short-short, long-long-long-short-short-short, short-short-long-long-long, short-long-long-long-long, long-long-long-short-short-short, short-short-short-long-long, long-long-short-short-short.

That's 1108:21:37, w.a.n.g thought.

short-long-long-long-long, short-long-long-long-long, long-long-long-long-long, long-long-long-short-short, long-long-long-short-short-short, short-short-long-long-long, short-long-long-long-long, long-long-long-short-short-short, short-short-short-long-long, long-short-short-short-short-that's 1108:21:36.

The countdown continued at the scale of the universe. Ninety-two hours had already elapsed, and only 1,108 hours remained.

Sha paced back and forth anxiously, pausing from time to time to look at the sequence of numbers w.a.n.g was writing down. ”Can't you tell me what's going on?” he shouted.

”I can't possibly explain this to you, Dr. Sha. Trust me.” w.a.n.g pushed away the pile of papers filled with waveforms. As he stared at the sequence of numbers, he said, ”Maybe the three satellites and the observatory are all malfunctioning.”

”You know that's impossible!”

”What if it's sabotage?”

”Also impossible! To simultaneously alter the data from three satellites and an observatory on Earth? You're talking about a supernatural saboteur.”

w.a.n.g nodded. Compared to the idea of the universe flickering, he would prefer a supernatural saboteur. But Sha then deprived him of this last glimmer of hope. ”It's easy to confirm this. If the cosmic microwave background is fluctuating this much, we should be able to see it with our own eyes.”

”What are you talking about? The wavelength of the cosmic microwave background is seven centimeters. That's five orders of magnitude longer than the wavelength of visible light. How can we possibly see it?”

”Using 3K gla.s.ses.”

”Three-K gla.s.ses?”

”It's a sort of science toy we made for the Capital Planetarium. With our current level of technology, we could take the six-meter horn antenna used by Penzias and Wilson almost half a century ago to discover the cosmic microwave background and miniaturize it to the size of a pair of gla.s.ses. Then we added a converter in the gla.s.ses to compress the detected radiation by five orders of magnitude so that seven-centimeter waves are turned into visible red light. This way, visitors can put on the gla.s.ses at night and observe the cosmic microwave background on their own. And now, we can use it to see the universe flicker.”

”Where can I find these gla.s.ses?”

”At the Capital Planetarium. We made more than twenty pairs.”

”I must get my hands on a pair before five.”

Sha picked up the phone. The other side picked up only after a long while. Sha had to expend a lot of energy to convince the person awakened in the middle of the night to go to the planetarium and wait for w.a.n.g's arrival in an hour.

As w.a.n.g left, Sha said, ”I won't go with you. What I've seen is enough, and I don't need any more confirmation. But I hope that you will explain the truth to me when you feel the time is right. If this phenomenon should lead to some research result, I won't forget you.”

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