One Impossible Technology Per Day

Night had fallen when the *White Heron* reached Lingang Harbor. News vans choked the docks. Every screen replayed the blue light cutting through the clouds. The official announcement claimed the unknown spacecraft had disintegrated on impact, yet Hanhai Heavy Industries sealed its largest dry dock while military trucks arrived in darkness. Lin and Han were not newsworthy. They were merely one of twenty-seven civilian crews searched near the exclusion zone. The creditor, however, arrived on time. “Five days, Mr. Lin.” A suited man slapped a court notice against the hull. “Eight hundred sixty thousand yuan. Fail to pay, and Yuansheng Dismantling takes the boat.” Han offered him a cigarette. He refused it. “Understood,” Lin said.