Three-Body Episode 24 Recap
> Three-Body Recap
Despite encouragement from Yang Weining and Lei Zhicheng to continue her research, Ye Wenjie felt her project had reached a dead end and prepared a final report acknowledging her inability to make further breakthroughs. However, she overheard Lei Zhicheng persuading Yang Weining to provide her with ample conditions to continue, arguing that such a highly theoretical study marked a researcher's expertise and could bring them credit if she achieved a breakthrough.
Listening to their conversation, Ye Wenjie decided not to submit her report, realizing that ending the research would mean losing access to invaluable astrophysics resources and foreign language journals. This decision unexpectedly led her to a surprising discovery. While officially continuing her research on solar interference, Ye Wenjie was actually refining her mathematical model of the sun. After completing complex matrix calculations, she came across a journal paper about Jupiter by Dr. Harry Peterson.
He had published data from June 12th and July 2nd, revealing accidental detections of strong electromagnetic radiation from Jupiter itself, lasting 81 and 76 seconds respectively, during his observations of Jupiter's rotational oscillation caused by planetary gravity. Ye Wenjie vividly remembered these dates because the Red Coast Monitoring System had experienced strong solar interference then. Crucially, these solar interference events occurred exactly 16 minutes and 42 seconds after the Jovian radio outbursts reached Earth.
She contacted the National Astronomical Observatories for Jupiter's and Earth's coordinates on those dates. Her calculations confirmed that the time difference between direct travel from Jupiter to Earth and travel from Jupiter to the sun and then to Earth was precisely 16 minutes and 42 seconds. This finding supported Ye Wenjie's conjecture: the sun amplified electromagnetic radiation.
She explained that her solar structure mathematical model indicated that as radiation passed through different frequencies within the sun, it encountered distinct boundaries, or "energy mirrors." These mirrors not only reflected lower-frequency radiation but also amplified it, a phenomenon she termed "gain reflectivity." She theorized that mysterious sudden fluctuations in narrow frequency bands observed previously were amplified cosmic radiation.
She also explained that the sun's convection zone acted as a shield, requiring incoming radio waves to exceed a certain power threshold to reach the radiation zone and be amplified. While most Earth-based radio sources fell below this threshold, Jupiter's electromagnetic radiation and Red Coast's maximum transmission power both exceeded it.
This implied an exciting possibility: humanity could use the sun as a super-antenna to broadcast radio waves to the universe with stellar-level energy, potentially achieving Kardashev Type II civilization transmission capabilities, with a power nearly a hundred million times stronger than anything Earth could produce. She proposed comparing the Jovian radio outburst waveforms with Red Coast's solar interference waveforms to confirm her theory.
Yang Weining was excited by the possibility but noted the significant difficulty and potential political risk ("colluding with foreign powers") in contacting Dr. Harry Peterson to obtain his waveform records. Ye Wenjie then proposed a simpler, more direct method: transmitting radio waves directly to the sun using Red Coast's system at a power exceeding the threshold. Yang Weining was hesitant, knowing Political Commissar Lei would never agree.
Ye Wenjie suggested framing it as a solar research experiment, using Red Coast's system as a solar exploration radar to analyze echoes, citing precedents in Western research. Although Yang Weining attempted to persuade Lei Zhicheng, arguing the experiment was technically simple, would only take minutes, and involved minimal workload, Lei strongly opposed the idea. He cited the extreme uncertainty and immense risks involved, insisting Ye Wenjie continue with solar interference research and abandon thoughts of such an experiment.
Disappointed but undeterred, Ye Wenjie refused to let her rekindled hope be extinguished and resolved to find an opportunity to conduct the experiment. An opportunity arose due to the Red Coast transmitter's high fault rate and frequent test transmissions after maintenance. During one such test, Ye Wenjie seized the moment, setting the transmission power just above the theoretical threshold for the sun's gain reflectivity and the frequency to one most likely to be amplified.
Under the pretext of testing the antenna's mechanical performance, she aimed it at the setting sun and initiated a transmission identical to the usual test content. Immediately after she pressed the button, a massive alarm blared. Ye Wenjie rushed to find Yang Weining, urging him to have the base station receive on the 12,000 MHz channel.
Yang Weining quickly took action, instructing the radio operators to monitor the specified frequency and report any findings, although he expressed doubt about receiving anything due to the expected weakness of any echo. Realizing she had used Red Coast to send a signal to the sun, Yang Weining sternly warned her never to tell anyone and that this must not happen again. Initially, Yang Weining reported that nothing had been received, deeply disappointing Ye Wenjie.
However, he then presented her with a surprising reply from Dr. Harry Peterson, expressing his interest in collaborating with a fellow researcher in China. The letter included complete records of the two Jovian radio outburst waveforms. Ye Wenjie eagerly laid them out, hoping for a match with the solar interference waveforms to confirm her theory. But halfway through the comparison, she lost all hope, knowing the familiar solar interference waveforms would not align.
She dismissed it as a dream that had ended. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that moment marked the first detectable cry from Earth civilization into space. Amplified by the sun to stellar power, the strong radio wave had already passed Jupiter's orbit, spreading through the universe at the speed of light. On the 12,000 MHz band, the sun became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way, effectively broadcasting humanity's message.
That call was heard, and a response came from the Trisolarans: "Your call to the universe let Lord finally hear us! Eliminate human tyranny! The world belongs to Trisolaris!" At the time, Ye Wenjie couldn't fathom these profound consequences. The transmission seemed like a fleeting, beautiful bubble, bursting and returning her life to peace. The Red Coast Project had completed its experimental phase, and technical problems dwindled.
Four years after she arrived at the base, Yang Weining married her, sacrificing his career prospects. They remained at the base as ordinary technicians. As her work and life became routine, Ye Wenjie found a newfound tranquility. This inner peace allowed memories suppressed by tension and fear to resurface, leading her to rationally confront the madness and prejudice that had harmed her, and to acknowledge humanity's darker side.
She immersed herself in foreign philosophy and history, their insights leading her to the core of human nature. In reality, human madness continued unabated, with rampant deforestation, expanding wastelands, and the Cold War reaching its terrifying peak, pushing humanity's insanity to a historical zenith. Confronted by such madness, rationality seemed powerless. As an idealist, Ye Wenjie felt a profound loss of purpose, believing her past efforts were meaningless and that no meaningful pursuit lay ahead.
However, on November 21, 1979, everything changed. While on night duty at Red Coast, monitoring cosmic radio waves and meaningless noise, Ye Wenjie, with her deep familiarity with cosmic noise waveforms, realized that the moving wave in front of her was intelligently modulated. Red Coast had never received a signal with a recognition level exceeding 'C', but this one registered as 'AAAAA'. This extreme rating signified that the received information used the same coding language as Red Coast's outbound transmission. She decoded the chilling message: "Do not answer."
