Tales of the End of the Century

The self-sustaining observation station was hidden beneath a wind-eroded rock wall deep within the cave complex. The entrance wasn't a door, but a narrow alley carved out of a crack in the rock, so narrow that Tie Niu had to squeeze in sideways. At the end of the alley was a double riveted steel door, above which hung a bronze plaque, polished smooth by wind and sand, bearing a faded Russian serial number. Lan Susu adjusted her headlamp, recognizing it as the last operational signal relay hub before the Aurora Project was disbanded.

Tie Niu pried open the steel door with a crowbar. The hinges made a very faint scraping sound—they had been oiled, and the oil stains were fresh. Behind the door was a small foyer, with several fluorescent tubes that had long since gone out hanging from the ceiling. On the control panel beneath the tubes, rows of oscilloscopes, still humming softly, were neatly stacked. The screens of each oscilloscope were lit, displaying dark green waveforms that rose and fell slowly. Not a single signal, but dozens, all concentrated around the same frequency, neither overlapping nor interfering with each other, like a group of people in the dark knocking on the same door with an extremely slow, rhythmic beat.

Lan Susu walked to the control panel and recalibrated the antenna of one of the oscilloscopes. She recognized the arrangement of the waveforms on the screen—it was exactly the same as the arrangement of the pile of stones on the stone table in Yushugou. Each signal corresponded to a traveler still on the road, and each stone corresponded to someone who had already arrived. The relay hub collected, amplified, and forwarded these signals, radiating outwards from the relay station towards Yushugou. She compared the oscilloscope signals one by one, confirming that all frequencies previously marked as "direction unknown" had been included in this continuously operating radiation array—each waveform could find a corresponding node on this network, without needing to add any new names. She turned to Bai Ye: "A roster is no longer needed. The relay hub's signal array covers all frequencies."

Bai Ye walked behind the control panel. In the corner sat a makeshift cot, on which lay a faded military blanket, and on the blanket, an enamel mug. Chalk writing on the bottom of the mug was blurred into a white blob. The handwriting was exactly the same as the mug under the vent—the first horizontal stroke was crooked, and the last vertical stroke was elongated. Next to the mug was a stub of industrial crayon, under which was a note in Russian, blue ink, the handwriting steady. Lan Susu took it and read aloud: "The relay hub has been operating independently for many years. The signal amplifier power is sufficient to cover all remaining frequencies. The last direction—Yushugou—has been connected. No further connection needed. Sergei."

Bai Ye looked down at the line of text. Sergei knew someone would find this place—not him, but this transit hub. He had built the signal amplifier all the way from deep within the mine to this point; every observation post, every backup camp, every blast door that had been pried open served as a primary gain for this amplifier. He connected the signals of everyone—the living, those still on their way, those who no longer needed to look in the mirror, those he had personally marked with chalk, and those who had walked alone through every crevice in the rock outside every door that was later opened—to this machine.

On the other side of the control panel, Tie Niu found an open maintenance log. The log started recording from the first day Sergei entered the transit hub, one page per day, with a long gap before adding a new line to the last page: "A new signal was added in the southwest direction today. The frequency is extremely weak. The amplifier has automatically locked. No manual calibration is needed." After identifying the last new signal mentioned in the log, he found the version of the frequency that was still fluctuating on the oscilloscope, looked up at Bai Ye and said, "This last one belongs to the owner of the tank under the wind gap on the overseas exploration line. He also turned the reflector back before he left."

Bai Ye pulled the enamel mug from the side pocket of his backpack and placed it on the control panel, next to Sergei's mug. Then he placed the pebbles he had brought along the way, one by one, next to the oscilloscopes—the gray pebbles Zhao Zhiyuan had brought from the overseas farm, the flat, round pebbles the young man surnamed Ji had brought from the riverbank in his hometown, the cement fragment, the old nut, and the red clay bead that the three men in the old industrial area had each placed in the direction of the cooling tower, the last small piece of lime that Old Master Chen had found at the bottom of his satchel before leaving the outpost, the igneous clastic rock that the man in the backup camp had marked with his fingernail on the low table with his back to the door, and the half-piece of rivet washer that Shen Jing had pried off the filing cabinet in the sub-command post. Each pebble was placed next to an oscilloscope, and a signal lit up on the screen of each oscilloscope. After he finished placing the pebbles, he picked up the industrial crayon from beside Sergei's jar and drew an arrow on the outermost casing of the oscilloscope on the control panel. It was exactly the same kind of chalk mark he had drawn next to the fire door of the observation station and that Bai Ge had drawn on the outer wall of the cooling tower for many years—a mark that was neither a road sign nor a marker. The arrow pointed towards Elm Gully.

Tie Niu turned to the last page of the maintenance log and used the tip of his dagger to carve a new line below Sergei's last line: "All signals confirmed. Transit hub self-sustaining. Sergei." He closed the log and placed it in the center of the control panel, with an enamel mug pressing down on one corner.

Bai Ye finally walked to the signal amplifier. The machine occupied an entire wall, its panel densely packed with dozens of gain knobs, each with a small label indicating a direction. Mining area, old industrial area, cooling tower, backup camp, observation station, command post, wind vent—every direction they had traveled corresponded to a knob on this wall, and the pointers of each knob pointed to the same mark. He reached out and turned the gain of the knob for Elm Gully to the lowest setting. No need to amplify it anymore—those who were supposed to return were already on their way, and the lights were already on.

Then he turned and walked out of the transit hub, heading towards the outside of the cave complex. Lan Susu put away her oscilloscope and followed behind. Tie Niu half-closed the riveted steel door and used a dagger to carve a new scratch next to the bronze nameplate on the lintel—the seventh scratch. There was also a very shallow chisel mark nearby, left for the next group of travelers coming from the direction of the exploration line.