“I’m the opposite. I’ve become a philosopher now. You’re right that it’s a philosophical question and needs to be studied from that standpoint. We really should have done that thinking long ago, but it’s not yet too late. Philosophy is a layer of gauze, but at least for me, it’s been punctured, and in an instant, or practically an instant, I know what lies on the road ahead.”

“We need to terminate our migration in this age,” the captain said. “If we continue onward, migrants will have an even harder time adapting to the target environment. We can rise up and fight for our own rights.”

“That’s impossible. And unnecessary.”

“Do we have any other choice?”

“Of course we do. And it’s a choice as clear and bright as the sun rising in front of us. Call out the engineer.”

The engineer had been thawed out together with the ambassador and was now inspecting and repairing the equipment. His frequent thaws had turned him from a young man to an old one. When the confused captain called him out, the ambassador asked, “How long can the freezer last?”

“The insulation is in excellent condition, and the fusion reactor is operating normally. In the Lobby Age, we replaced the entire refrigeration equipment with their technology and topped up the fusion fuel. Without any equipment replacement or other maintenance, all two hundred freezer rooms will last twelve thousand years.”

“Excellent. Then set a final destination on the atomic clock and put everyone into supersleep. No one is to wake up until that destination is reached.”

“And that destination is …”

“Eleven thousand years.”

Again, Hua entered the ambassador’s fragmented consciousness, more real than ever: his dark hair floated about in the chill wind, his eyes wet with tears, and he called out to her. Before she entered the void of unconsciousness, she said to him, “Hua, we’re coming home! We’re coming home!”

THE TREK

Outside of perception, the sun swept through the sky like a shooting star, and time slipped past in the outside world.

… 1,000 years … 2,000 years … 3,500 years … 5,500 years … 7,000 years … 9,000 years … 10,000 years … 11,000 years.

STOP 4: BACK HOME

This time, even in supersleep time felt endless. Over the long ten-thousand-year night, the hundred-century wait, even the computer steadfastly controlling the world’s two hundred superfreezers went to sleep.

During the final millennium, parts began to fail, and one by one its myriad sensor-eyes closed, its integrated circuit nerves paralyzed, its fusion reactor energy petered out, leaving the freezers holding at zero through the final decades only by virtue of their insulation. Then the temperature began to rise, quickly reaching dangerous levels, and the liquid helium began to evaporate. Pressure rose dramatically inside the supersleep chambers, and it seemed as if the eleven-thousand-year trek would terminate unconsciously in an explosion.