Silent Ark

Chapter 17: Taking on a Critical Mission

"I found this stone on the edge of the outer shell of Arc 4 after the whale crash," Liu Pan said. "The outer shell of the superconducting magnet in Arc 4 developed a crack during the Big Rip—not just simple physical damage, but the material of the shell changed its topological properties at that location—from a simple, connected three-dimensional solid to a non-orientable, genus 7 curved surface. In other words, the metal at that location 'became' a different geometry, but the atomic arrangement and chemical composition remained the same; only space itself curved at that point."

He tapped the stone with his finger.

"I pried this piece off from the broken part at the bend. Its material composition is exactly the same as the outer shell of the curved section—316L stainless steel, 16% chromium, 10% nickel, and 2% molybdenum. But it's behaving wrong."

He pushed the stone toward Chen Dunli.

"Professor Chen, you've already been exposed to that frequency band, so it won't have any impact. You can touch it and feel it."

Chen Dunli reached out and touched the stone.

Then his hand reflexively withdrew.

It wasn't a burn or an electric shock—it was a more subtle kind of repulsion.

It's like your finger touching a water film with abnormally high surface tension, making it difficult to pass through.

"It seems to be rejecting my hand," Chen Dunli said.

"It's not that I'm rejecting your hand," Liu Pan said, "it's that I'm rejecting your intentions. What were you thinking when you touched it?"

"...to confirm its basic, perceptible data, such as temperature and hardness."

"Yes. Your intention is to 'acquire information.' This stone is refusing to have its information acquired. Its information structure is closed—external observation cannot penetrate it."

Liu Pan looked at the first topology diagram on the right side of Yao Chong's notebook, which was projected onto the screen.

"arrogant."

"These frequency bands not only affect living things, but also non-living things. This stone has been infected by the arrogant cross-section. Its information boundary has been rewritten into a self-mapping structure—f(x)=x. It only points to itself. Any probe signal from the outside world will bounce back along the same path, always carrying the stone's 'own' information, and will never be able to obtain new information 'about' the stone."

"You can only ever see its surface. And you can only ever see the surface it wants you to see."

Chen Dunli stared at the stone.

"This isn't physics—is this theology? Philosophy?"

"This is physics," Liu Pan interrupted him, "or more precisely—this is the new physics. The old physics—relativity, quantum mechanics, the Standard Model—is the 'old clothes' woven from those five smooth manifolds (the five constants). Whale fall has taken off the old clothes. Now we see the body beneath the clothes. And certain parts of the body—are infected by those seven non-smooth manifolds (the seven deadly sins)."

"Infect?"

"I didn't use 'influence' or 'effect.' I used 'infection.' Because those seven aren't 'forces.' Forces are bidirectional—you push me, I push you. Infection is unidirectional. A virus infects a cell, but the cell doesn't infect the virus in return. The way the seven deadly sins affect lower-dimensional matter is through infection—a unidirectional, irreversible rewriting of information structures."

"Matter infected with arrogance becomes unobservable. Matter infected with envy becomes mimicry of its surroundings—if you place a piece of iron infected with envy next to a gold nugget, its surface will begin to gleam with a golden sheen, but its internal structure remains iron. It's not a chemical change. It's mimicry at the informational level."

"Material infected by rage becomes brittle—not structurally weakened, but with infinite stress concentration at any interface where differences exist. If you lightly touch the interface between a steel plate infected by rage and another material of a different type, the contact point will explode. This is because the characteristic function of rage creates a singularity at the interface."

"Matter infected by laziness becomes sluggish—not in terms of being non-conductive or non-thermal, but in terms of the rate constant of all transmission processes being divided by a large number. Light travels slowly in it, sound travels slowly in it, even the response of quantum entanglement slows down. Like a piece of the universe soaked in syrup."

"Substances infected by lust become sticky—not adhesive. Any object that comes into contact with it is forcibly fused together. When two pieces of metal infected by lust touch, the contact surface disappears within 0.1 seconds—not welding, but the atoms of the two objects rearrange themselves into a larger object. There are no welds. No interfaces. It's as if they were always one."

After Liu Pan finished speaking.

The temperature in the conference room seemed to drop a few degrees—the physical temperature hadn't changed, but the seventy-three people simultaneously experienced the same physical reaction: their skin tightened, which manifested as chills and goosebumps.

"What about the five permanent members of the UN Security Council?" asked a Chinese-American female physicist sitting in the back row.

Yao Chong recognized her—Shen Ruozhi from ETH Zurich, specializing in quantum information theory.

Before the whale fall, she had collaborated with Liu Pan's detector engineering team once, but the collaboration ended because "Liu Pan was too careless".

The way she asked the question at that moment made Yao Chong realize that she wasn't questioning, but confirming.

"Wuchang is not infected," Yao Chong said.

Why?

"The seven non-smooth manifolds function by infection—one-way, destructive rewriting of information. The five smooth manifolds function differently. They do not infection. They weave."

Yao Chong opened his laptop and projected the screen to the five topology diagrams on the left.

"Benevolence does not infect. Benevolence connects. In areas covered by the field of benevolence, information channels are created between matter—not physical connections, but something more fundamental. Two stones covered by benevolence, if one is subjected to force, the other will undergo a corresponding deformation within 0.001 seconds. It is not gravity. It is not electromagnetism. It is 'synchronization at the information level.' Like two tuning forks connected by the same string."

"Justice does not infect. Justice cuts. In areas covered by Justice, matter is redistributed according to a certain 'suitability' standard—uneven density becomes uniform, inconsistent temperature becomes uniform. It is not thermodynamic equilibrium—Justice is more precise than thermodynamics. Thermodynamics only governs the distribution of energy, Justice governs the fairness of the distribution of information."

"Ritual does not infect. Ritual encodes. In areas covered by ritual, the spontaneous behavior of matter will exhibit patterns—the vibration of atoms is no longer random thermal motion, but tends towards a certain periodic structure; the collision of molecules is no longer random Brownian motion, but tends towards a certain lattice-like arrangement. Ritual does not create order—ritual allows order to emerge from chaos."

"Intelligence does not infect. Intelligence filters. In areas covered by intelligence, the 'noise' in matter—meaningless fluctuations, random fluctuations—is suppressed. Not eliminated—it is filtered. Like a water purifier. The water is still water, but the impurities are gone. In spaces covered by intelligence, the amplitude of quantum fluctuations is significantly reduced, and the vacuum becomes 'quieter.'"

"Faith doesn't infect. Faith is anchored. In areas covered by faith, physical constants are locked. It's not about 'restoring to the old value'—it's about 'locking in regardless of the value.' If the speed of light is 299792447 m/s in an area covered by faith, then it will always be 299792447 m/s, no matter how things change outside. Faith doesn't care about 'correctness.' Faith only cares about 'remaining unchanged.'"

Yao Chong closed his notebook again.

"Seven infections. Five weavings."