Astrolabe Rebirth

**Astrolabe Rebirth** (星盘重启, *Xīngpán Chóngqǐ*), also translated as **Nirvana Rebirth**, is a dystopian sci-fi novel originally serialized in late 2013 on the magazine 天漫·蓝色, and mirrored on jjwxc, comprising of 19 chapters in total.

Astrolabe Rebirth follows A-Ka, a human born in the Ant's Nest and raised to be a mechanic to serve Father and his mechanical servants, as he is accidentally swept up in the rebellion plot started by the clones. A-Ka himself has had rebellious thoughts despite the authoritarian rule of Father, having created a mech, K, with the hopes of one day escaping. One day, while checking up on K, A-Ka stumbled upon a washed-up sleeping pod, within which was a man from thousands of years ago.

## Synopsis

In the tides of time, humans have lost their status as the sole intelligent species among tens of thousands.

What they gained in exchange was a city of steel that rose in the eastern part of China, and a man-made god they called “Father”.

Regimes run by machines have taken over the world. On this astrological petri dish left behind by an ancient creator, the young human slave, A-Ka, picked up a black-haired man on the beach of a lonely, deserted ocean…

The astrolabe world will be once again reborn. And as for the humans, clones, and machines, what paths will they tread towards the future?

## Characters

### A-Ka

*For the character page, see: A-Ka*

A human born in the Ant's Nest, fated to be slave to the steel lifeforms that controlled the landmass. He is a newly-certified maintenance mechanic, having been trained for the job for years.

### Heishi

*For the character page, see: Heishi*

A person A-Ka found from a sleeping pod he dragged to shore. The name Heishi is one given to him by A-Ka, who had assumed that the text on the sleeping pod was that of his name.

### Feiluo

An android who helped A-Ka and Heishi go to the Phoenix City, and the adoptive father of Percy. He is also the Lieutenant Colonel of the Rebel Army.

### Percy

A small human child whose parents died in the revolution. Blind and is said to have prophetic powers, he was later adopted by Feiluo.

## Plot

Set in the year 10,073, the story follows the main character A-Ka, a 16 year old maintenance technician working for the clones and androids. Intending to escape the city by way of the mech he had built, A-Ka steals a chip from a clone to use on K, only to find that the chip had records of the planned revolution spearheaded by the clones. While at the beach where he kept K, A-Ka stumbles upon a sleeping pod washed ashore, and dragged it to land. Inside was a man, still alive, though on the pod the year mentioned was 7,210. As the man seemed amnesiac, A-Ka called him with the "name" written on the sleeping pod, Heishi.

Together they both get out from the Steel city, find the rebel army, who wanted to start a revolution to destroy father. And it happened successfully, but father revived and started to repair himself as well as the steel city, while the remaining mechs begin to search for the escaped humans. Many androids ran away, one of them was Feiluo, who met A-Ka and Heishi on their journey with other humans. At that time, Feiluo was being beaten by the humans who were in a team led by their leader.

A-Ka and Heishi travelled through the snowy mountains, suffered many injuries and hardships. But together, with their hard work, and team work, they supported each other and had success.

## Setting

The story is set in the 10 thousandth century in the future. Follows the life in the Steel city where the mechs are the highest rank, androids the second, and humans the lowest rank. Humans are taught from the beginning to work for the mechs. In short, humans are the slaves of mech and androids. The setting of the story is set into the far away future, where humanity is being destroyed from their own creations. The one who controls the Steel city is Father, a man-made god, who also has the ability to destroy humans.

## Notes and Trivia

* Though both fan translations of the novel went with "Heishi" for his name, it is later emphasized that Heishi 黑石, or Blackstone, is the name of the laboratory that manufactured the sleeping pod, not unlike a brand name put on items.

## Gallery

1. ↑ https://www.boluobiji.com/3515.html