The droplet, which had taken several hours to all but destroy the two lines of defence Hawke had placed at ε Eri a and ε Eri b, did no damage of its own.
Now, it had crossed the asteroid belt and was charging towards the inner planets.
In fact, if it had gone straight to ε Eri a, Hawk would not have been able to resist or escape, and he could not find any way except to wait for death.
However, since the other side had the intention of catching a mouse, Hawke had a chance of survival, although it was still very slim.
Hawke was competing with death for time.
At the initial point, a proton had been launched. It would undergo a fifteen-minute acceleration within a tube of more than 200 million kilometres, where more than 200,000 fusion reactors would accelerate it to extremely close to the speed of light, giving it an extremely high energy level.
At the muzzle, the high-powered laser cannon was fired, and a high-energy laser, invisible to the naked eye, was launched across a distance of billions of kilometres, directly onto the water droplets.
The result was, as Hawke had expected, that the laser had no effect on the droplet. The water droplet did not react to this, its shell was strong enough to reflect any wavelength, any frequency of the laser. It continued to maintain its trajectory and speed as it rushed towards Hawke.
Although the laser had no effect on the drop, the section between the collider's gun and the drop was cleared by the laser to create a vacuum. There is no remaining material in this zone. The proton would then be able to safely cross the distance and hit the drop.
Watching the water droplet approach, Hawke was anxious but did not dare to be careless, still steadily manipulating the robot and installing the micro-engine for the collider.
The proton had already travelled half way from its initial point of departure. Hawke, with seven minutes to finish his work.
Hundreds and thousands of robots were busy at the gun ports, Hawke had developed his power of precise command to the extreme, and these robots refused to waste even a millisecond as they did the job at hand, as quickly as Hawke had commanded.
Finally, a minute before the proton arrived, the robots installed the last of the miniature engines.
"Finally, it's done." Hawke sighed, not able to rejoice, and immediately began the next process.
The ubiquitous detection satellites in the midst of the ε Eri star system star system were providing Hawke with the real-time location of the water droplets at all times. This information was transmitted to Hawke in no time at all via the over-the-horizon communication instruments.
Hawke immediately calculated the orbit, thousands of micro engines started to fire, and the guns began to move slowly, aiming at the droplets.
At the moment, the drop was still 5.4 million kilometres away. At its speed, it would arrive in thirty minutes. If the drop got close, Hawke would have no chance.
Hawke started the countdown.
The proton, which carried Hawke's hopes, was still hurtling within the accelerator. With twenty seconds to go, it was about to burst out of the cannon.
It had been accelerated to a speed extremely close to the speed of light, and that speed would give it an unparalleled energy level that would threaten to shatter the shell of the water drop in one fell swoop.
"Ten, nine, eight ... two, one, zero." A series of numbers flashed through Hawke's mind.
The firing of the laser cannon kept up, paving the way for the proton to advance. A split second before the proton reached the muzzle, the laser cannon stopped firing.
The proton, which will follow in the footsteps of the laser, heads straight for the water droplet.
The highly sensitive instruments mounted at the muzzle of the cannon detected a trace of radiation that Hawke knew was emitted by the proton under high speed movement. This meant that the protons had flown out of the collider and into cosmic space.
The muzzle of the gun was only five and a half million kilometres away from the water droplet. With the speed of the proton, it would take less than eighteen seconds to come to it.
"Eighteen, seventeen ...," Hawke began another countdown.
As the countdown proceeded to six, when the proton was less than two million kilometres away from the water droplet, Hawke's satellites placed in space detected a very small burst of gamma rays.
Hawke's heart, at once, turned cold.
A gamma ray burst at this time would mean that a black hole had died. And this dead black hole could only have been created by a proton impact. That is, the proton didn't hit the top of the water droplet, but on its way, it hit some other particle, creating a miniature black hole, but the black hole evaporated instantly and died.
The high-powered laser cannon had cleared a path for the proton as best it could, but the moment the laser cannon stopped, some other particle still took advantage of the situation and got right in the way of the proton's advance.
Hawke had two chances in all. This failed one was the first.
Hawke had no time to be distressed, and after a five-minute cool-down period, Hawke immediately manoeuvred the particle collider and fired the second proton. At the same time, the large laser cannon began to fire.
Water droplets, which would arrive here in twenty-five minutes. The proton, will be ready to be launched in fifteen minutes. If this one proton failed again, Hawke would not be able to fire the third proton in time, which would mean that Hawke would completely lose the means to deal with the water droplet.
The outcome would, without a doubt, be death.
A proton, carrying the hope of Hawke's survival.
This proton begins its own journey of acceleration. More than 200,000 fusion reactors give it their energy, granting it unparalleled speed.
It embarks on a long journey that will take it fifteen minutes or so to travel the 200 million kilometres around the Epsilon Eri system and then, towards the water droplets.
The droplet is approaching at speed.
Fifteen minutes later, the proton reached the gun. Hawke immediately stopped the firing of the laser cannon.
The proton, following the path its dead predecessor had taken, set off once more on its journey.
This time, the water droplet was only a million and eighty thousand kilometres away. The proton will take six seconds to cross this distance.
The moment the proton flew out of the cannon's mouth, Hawke cut himself off from the outside world.
All that had to be done, was done. All that could be done, was done. Hawke, indeed, had done his best.
The rest was left to fate to decide.
In this moment of life and death, Hawke remembered many irrelevant things.
"I wonder if the mythical hell exists or not? In this state, after I die, I wonder if I'm still qualified to go to hell? Let's hope there is. Alone, it's just too lonely. In hell, at least there are so many people to keep me company."
Hawke thought of his glory above the earth and remembered many things, including ... Ellie.
Hawke took a fraction of a millisecond to traverse his memories, recalling all the moments he and Ellie had spent together.
There had never been a moment like this, where the image of Ellie was so clear in Hawke's mind.
"The last moments, I want to spend with you." Hawke said silently, manipulating the three-dimensional projector and projecting Ellie's image within the ship he was inhabiting.
She was still smiling carefree, the corners of her mouth playfully turned up, her long soft hair draped behind her head, and she looked at Hawke with eyes full of tenderness.
"I knew you'd find a way." Ellie said gently.
"I have a way ... I have a way. But I don't know if my way, if it will work. I don't know, I don't know ... Ellie, if I'm going to die, in my last moments, I want to be with you."
"But you weren't with me when I died." Ellie still smiled faintly and said gently.
Ellie was only an image, not a physical entity. Even the words were manipulated by Hawke to come out of her mouth.
But at this moment, Hawke's mind, which had not fluctuated for thousands of years after the end of humanity and the end of the world, felt "pain" for the first time.
"Forgive me for being selfish, I was not with you when you died, please be with me when I die." Hawke's spirit began to tremble slightly.
Time, thirty seconds had passed. The big picture had been decided. If the proton had failed, by this time, the water drops would be on their way here.
In another nine and a half minutes, the droplet would have destroyed the Large Particle Collider of the Ring ε Eri galaxy, and after that, in another hundred minutes, the droplet would have come to ε Eri a orbit.
Hawke had forgotten all about it. Hawke waited in silence, dying, or ... continuing to live.
Time slipped away slowly. One minute, two minutes, ten minutes, one hundred minutes, one hundred and ten minutes ...
At the speed of the water droplet, by this time, if it still existed, it would have begun the killing of the ε Eri a ship.
One hundred and thirty minutes. If the water droplet still existed, the water droplet would have slaughtered all the ships.
But Hawke was still alive. Hawke knew that he was still alive.
"Hasn't death ... come?" Hawke thought with some trembling, and under the gaze of Ellie's gentle gaze, reconnected with the outside world.
The satellite system, spread across the star system of the ε Eri system, sent a picture to Hawke.
Hawke saw a magical sight.
In space, more than a million and seven hundred thousand kilometres from the particle collider, there was a drop of water suspended in space, motionless.
It was in a state of relative stasis with Hawke.
It still had its 100 per cent reflective shell, which was still polished and free of any dust or scratches. It was as beautiful as it had been when it first appeared, like a perfect artifact, as powerful as a god of death from hell.
But the next moment Hawke looked at it, a crack suddenly appeared in its shell, a crack like glass being broken.
It was as if Hawke had heard that sound, a click, as if something had shattered.