A6-03 Refusing Wade

"No."

Your voice is firmer than you expected.

"I cannot support an experiment that could destroy the solar system. Mr. Wade, the risks you describe — miniature black holes, permanent light speed reduction — these are not risks worth taking. The solar system is humanity's last home. We cannot gamble everything on an experiment that might succeed or might catastrophically fail."

Wade's face is like stone.

"Do you know what happens if we don't experiment?" His voice is low.

"I do. But the consequences of experimenting could be worse."

"They can't be worse." Wade stands. His height makes the small compartment feel oppressive. "Cheng Xin, listen to me — without lightspeed ships, when the strike comes, not a single human escapes. Not one. Bunker Cities? That's self-deception. You know the strike might not be a photoid — it could be a two-dimensional foil. A two-dimensional foil flattens the entire solar system into two dimensions. Will hiding behind Jupiter help?"

You say nothing.

"You're making the same mistake you made as Swordholder," Wade says, his tone no longer pleading — now an ice-cold pronouncement. "You chose kindness. You chose safety. You chose not to take risks. But the universe does not spare humanity because of your kindness."

He walks to the door. Stops without turning around.

"You will regret this."

The door closes.

Wade doesn't give up. He tries to bypass you and pressure the Federal Government directly. But your influence — your credibility with the public — becomes an insurmountable obstacle. The public trusts you, and you said "no."

Wade grows increasingly radical. He begins secretly conducting unauthorized small-scale experiments. Federal security forces intervene.

The situation escalates into a small-scale armed standoff.

Wade and his supporters — several hundred scientists and engineers — occupy the experimental base beyond Neptune's orbit, refusing to surrender. The Federal fleet surrounds them.

You are asked to mediate.

"Mr. Wade," you say through the communication channel, "put down your weapons. Surrender. Your experiments —"

"You don't understand." Wade's voice comes through the speakers, carrying an exhaustion you've never heard from him. "You will never understand. You think you're protecting humanity. But what you're doing is strangling humanity's last hope with your own hands."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe not. But the law is the law. Experiments require authorization. Armed confrontation is not the answer."

A long silence.

Then Wade surrenders.

The trial is swift. Wade is sentenced to death — for treason and endangering public safety.

On the day of execution, you don't go to watch. But you hear his final words — relayed to you by a guard:

"I should have pulled the trigger."

You don't know whether he means he should have used force to break through the blockade, or whether he should have — long ago — shot you.

Perhaps both.

Wade is dead. The lightspeed ship project dies with him.

No one replaces him. No one has his capability, his determination, his madness.

Humanity huddles in the Bunker Cities, awaiting the universe's judgment. No lightspeed ships. No escape route.

And you — the one who stopped Wade — sit in your compartment on Europa, holding the star certificate in your hands. DX3906.

You wonder: when Tianming gave you that star, did he ever imagine that one day you would be trapped in a world unable to reach any star at all?

⟲ Return to Wade's request