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Destroy Apollo: Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Space-Time Loop
Obtaining this data didn’t take much effort at all.
The museum’s security level wasn’t very high, and after we scoped out the area, we split up into three teams. I disguised myself as a janitor and sneaked into the server room, while Greta infiltrated the surveillance room to monitor the movements of the human security guards, keeping me informed. Gaia was responsible for erasing our tracks—controlling the museum’s not-so-intelligent security system.
After hacking into the database, I searched for the exact time and place, and indeed, I found the records. Once I transcribed them, we left under the cover of night.
The information was formatted in a special way, but fortunately, Gaia converted it into a universal VR format, and Greta’s studio had a compatible holographic chamber.
My journey through time began.
The first stop: 3971, Old Era, Paris.
This experience was strange. Although I was standing in the crowd, I felt like a transparent outsider, able only to observe the history that had already been set in stone and unable to alter anything.
“When did women forget their own roles and start acting like men? They abandoned their duties to their families and children, stepping into public spaces, onto podiums, into congress, attempting to claim rights that should only belong to men by nature? Who gave them permission to do so?”
The man passionately speaking in the square was none other than the Prosecutor General.
A faint but determined female voice sounded: “It’s a natural right! Why can’t we be female citizens with the same rights as men? Didn’t women help expel the king from the Palace of Versailles? You speak of equality, freedom, democracy—does it only apply to men?”
The Prosecutor General sneered through his nose and gestured for the nearby guards to find this dissenter. “What, does someone here want to follow in the footsteps of that shameless Olympe de Gouges 1? She neglected her family responsibilities, went mad with the delusion of participating in public affairs, but in reality, she was a lazy woman who wandered the streets. She was already punished by the law! She’s gone to the guillotine, do you want to join her in hell?”
The dissenter was quickly apprehended.
The crowd watched as she was dragged away by two guards.
The Prosecutor General scanned the trembling civilians before him to ensure the message of terror was well received: “I’ll reiterate the parliament’s decree regarding women.
No women’s clubs or public associations may be formed under any name!
Women may only participate in social activities when accompanied by their husbands or children!
The previous women’s civil associations have been shut down. If any remnants remain, the guillotine awaits you!”
The men in the crowd cheered, shouting “It’s about time!” “The Women Citizens’ Club was ridiculous.” “De Gouges was a madwoman.”
The women in the crowd murmured, and no one else spoke.
The second stop: 3191, Old Era, London.
The sounds of chaotic discussions reached my ears, and it seemed they were talking about the same name—Emily Davison 2. Before I could gather more information, someone shouted, “They’re here!”
The surrounding area quieted slightly. I quickly realized who had arrived— a funeral procession. The women were all dressed in white dresses, with black flowers on their left arms and purple, white, and green ribbons draped around them.
At the front of the procession were several rows of women holding wreaths, followed by a massive flag—held up by two women.
The flag read “FIGHT ON.”
Further back were four black hearses drawn by horses.
The silent procession didn’t seem very long. They stopped at an intersection.
A woman in the middle of the row before the flag looked around and then spoke: “Ladies and gentlemen, today we mourn the loss of our sister, Emily Davison, a women’s suffrage advocate. For the past seven years, she has been on the frontlines. She was arrested multiple times and imprisoned. She went on hunger strikes and was forcibly fed through a nasal tube. Just a few days ago, during a horse race, she rushed onto the track and was tragically struck by a horse. She passed away in the hospital.
For all these years, everything she did was to cry out a demand to the public—women’s right to vote!
How can we ensure that her sacrifice was not in vain? I think, the only way is to continue walking the path she started, to keep shouting our slogans, to dedicate ourselves to our just cause.
Women have the right to vote. Women have the right to control their own property. Women have the right to dictate their own destiny, rather than being controlled by their fathers, husbands, or brothers.
Some say she was crazy, that all women suffragists are crazy.
I don’t think so. We are not people who want to be slaves; we are people who have discovered the injustice in the system and decided to rebel. What we are doing is a righteous cause. Those who accuse us of being crazy, those who call us radicals, the old fossils who stick to tradition—do you think our voices are disturbing you?
That’s not enough.
Today, 5,000 women suffragettes 3 have gathered to bid farewell to our comrade. Today, the whole of London will hear Emily’s voice, hear our voices.”
She raised her hand and shouted loudly: “Votes For Women!”
Immediately, all the women in the procession—tall and short, fat and thin, from different social classes, from different ages and backgrounds—shouted together: “Votes For Women!”
The sound was earth-shattering, echoing through the skies, as if the thick, dark fog at the ends of the earth had been torn apart by their voices.
The third stop: 3191, Old Era, Beiping.
In a hidden private room of a restaurant, several women were sitting together.
One of them spoke up—it was Tang Xitao 4: “Inside information. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has decided to dissolve the Women’s Suffrage Alliance, claiming the reason is ‘inciting ignorant women, undermining law and order.’ The decree will be officially issued in a few days.”
“How despicable!” A woman in military uniform said angrily, “Last year, they reversed the political platform and even removed the clause for gender equality. We caused a ruckus in the Senate over it. Now it seems we didn’t make enough noise; we should’ve slapped those men a few more times!
I say, we ought to rally our sisters from the Women’s Martial Spirits Society and employ the same tactics we used against the Man Ting 5: the assassination squad, the Jing Wu team, all of it. We left our homes to take on the work of beheading—not for the rights of our two hundred million female compatriots, but to be undermined by them as they cross the river and dismantle the bridge behind them? In the past, all our efforts were in vain, flowing away like water. There’s no logic in this! Xitao, what do you think”
Tang Xitao’s voice was heavy. “How could I not want to strike back decisively! But can we really do that?
Last year, Mr. Zi Xi sent me a letter, saying ‘Removing the clause for gender equality was the will of the majority of men, not something the few can reverse.’ How many former comrades who I thought were allies are now glaring at us and avoiding us? I fear that in a few days, my name will be on a wanted list!”
The woman in a long robe scoffed. “First, there was someone named Song, then someone named Yuan, and so many other opponents. I feel disheartened. They clearly know the achievements of women—Pei Zhen’s military uniform was even displayed at the Temple of Agriculture earlier this year for people to admire!
Equality is a righteous cause, but to face such opposition is shameless! Under such a regime of narrow-minded men, I can hardly see any reason to continue fighting. I might as well return home and live as a laywoman.”
The woman in military uniform sighed deeply. “Is there no room for change? Where should we go from here?”
Tang Xitao replied, “Yuan Weiting has always been against me, and now he’s becoming more audacious. Soon, he’ll show his true intentions. I will leave Beiping as soon as possible, and my top priority will be to establish newspapers and schools. Among 20 million women, if even one more can read or earn a living with a skill, our women’s movement will gain more strength. This strength will be independent, relying on no men. In this way, women’s rights will rise naturally.”
A woman with short hair shook her head. “The movement to establish girls’ schools has been around for some years now, and the students have even joined the cause, some of them even dedicating themselves to the battlefield. But, until the clause for gender equality is enshrined in law, the prosperity of women’s education could easily disappear in an instant.”
When this clause was deleted, it was due to the dirty political machinations behind the scene. If there had been influential women in positions of power within the cabinet, adding the clause would surely have been no difficult task. I will continue to negotiate and pursue this strategy.”
From then on, the Women’s Alliance completely disbanded.
Of course, for a long period, the women scattered across various regions continued to follow their own paths and persisted with their own women’s causes, but for the rest of their lives, they never encountered another opportunity to reunite.
The fourth station, the fifth station, the sixth station… up until the tenth station.
The tenth station, Old Era 4702.
The speaker had a gentle expression, but her words were sharp: “We are just one step away from the total objectification, alienation, and dehumanization of women. Shouldn’t we be alarmed by this?!
Do humans have the freedom to willingly become slaves? Do humans have the freedom to willingly sell their organs? If you answer no to these, then tell me, why do women have the freedom to sell their ‘sex’ and lease their wombs?!
We oppose the legalization of surrogacy. We oppose the legalization of the sex industry!”
She stood alone on the street, with indifferent passersby hurrying past her.
The voices of countless women echoed in my ears, and the figures of countless women appeared before my eyes, as if they were part of a massive, blood-stained cycle.
From dying alone to uniting amidst the vast sea of people, it turns out that until the end of the Old Era, women were still facing a solid, impenetrable, and constantly evolving iron wall—
But there are always those who are trying to overthrow it.
So, did their struggle ultimately succeed? These stations clearly follow a chronological order, and it seems they did achieve some victories—yet they do not seem complete.
In 4702, just five years before the arrival of the higher-dimensional civilization on Blue Star. From what we can deduce from the current situation on M5, the time point when Apollo initiated its learning still upheld the will of patriarchal power.
I stepped out of the holographic chamber and realized that, without noticing, tears had streamed down my face.
Greta looked at me with concern: “Edith, are you okay?”
I shook my head, desperately blinking my eyes to focus on the world before me. “I know what the key is.”
FEMINISTS.
I took a deep breath and entered the word. Greta was puzzled: “Is this… a meaningful word? I don’t recognize it.”
“This word certainly has meaning.
It represents the souls that even Apollo’s will could not assimilate.”
TN:
I don’t really get China’s aversion to surrogacy. There are also some disparaging comments about this on jjwxcI personally think it has helped a lot of women who want to be mothers fulfill their dreams.
Also: WATCH THE MOVIE SUFFRAGETTE. You will cry, you will feel incensed, gratified and vindicated but also depressed and heart-broken. But seeing those women go to those lengths to fight for their rights is an awe-inspiring experience. There are quotes that just give you chills: “What are you going to do? Lock us all up? We’re in every home, we’re half the human race! You can’t stop us all.” “We break windows, we burn things, coz war is the only language men listen to!”
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- Born Marie Gouze – French playwright and political activist. She is best known for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman published in response to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man challenging the practice of male authority and advocating for equal rights for women and of the Citizen, and of the Female Citizen and other writings on women’s rights and abolitionism. Her increasingly vehement writings, which attacked Maximilien Robespierre’s radical Montagnards and the Revolutionary government during the Reign of Terror, led to her eventual arrest and execution by guillotine in 1793. [↩]
- Emily Wilding Davison – An English suffragette who fought for votes for women in Britain in the early twentieth century. A member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a militant fighter for her cause[her tactics included breaking windows, throwing stones, setting fire to postboxes, planting bombs and, on three occasions, hiding overnight in the Palace of Westminster—including on the night of the 1911 census.], she was arrested on nine occasions, went on hunger strike seven times and was force-fed on forty-nine occasions. She died after being hit by King George V’s horse Anmer at the 1913 Derby when she walked onto the track during the race. A procession of 5,000 suffragettes and their supporters accompanied her coffin and 50,000 people lined the route through London; her coffin was then taken by train to the family plot in Morpeth, Northumberland. [↩]
- A suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner “Votes for Women”, fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragist (any person advocating for voting rights), in order to belittle the women advocating women’s suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.[↩]
- Tang Qunying, courtesy name Tang Xitao, was the first female member of the Tongmenghui (Chinese Revolutionary Alliance), a secret society and underground resistance movement founded in Tokyo, Japan by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren in 1905. She was chairwoman of the Women’s Suffrage Alliance, an organization created by the merger of the Nanjing Women’s Alliance, the Women’s Backup Society, the Women’s Martial Spirit Society, and the Women’s Suffrage Comrades’ Alliance in 1912. In 1913, she founded Women’s Rights Daily, Hunan’s first newspaper for women.[↩]
- Full palace courtyard.[↩]