In 2060, a deep-space telescope at the Potala Palace Astronomical Monitoring Station in Tibet, China, detects a strange object: a “watermelon-shaped” celestial body hurtling toward the solar system at 100 kilometers per second. Calculations show a 78 percent chance of it hitting Earth, enough to trigger a disaster on the scale of the extinction of the dinosaurs. A young astrophysicist, A E, notices an even more disturbing detail in the data: its trajectory has been subtly adjusted several times.
China launches the “Suirenshi” program, sending an uncrewed spacecraft to intercept the object and collect samples. When the drill pierces its dark green-striped shell, the images sent back show neither rock nor ice crystals, but a metallic inner wall gleaming with geometric patterns. This is no celestial body. It is a dormant interstellar spacecraft. For the first time, humanity has reached out to extraterrestrial civilization. What awaits us is not destruction, but an ultimate answer concerning the survival of civilization: is this a cosmic coffin speeding toward the sun, or a messenger bearing the final judgment of doom?
