Say
Names: SaySecretary General Saythe secretary general
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 2 (Year 3, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 2Filipino UN Secretary General who presides over the Planetary Defense Council meeting and announces the Wallfacer candidates.
- Ch 2Say, the UN secretary general, answers each of Luo Ji's refusals with a calm 'You may.'
- Ch 2Say has no direct leadership over the PDC, which runs the Wallfacer Project.
- Ch 3Say admits the UN is baffled by Luo Ji's selection, calls it the greatest gamble in history, and says he has the fewest resources of the Wallfacers.
- Ch 3Say refuses to reveal the indirect reason Luo Ji was chosen, saying he will know when the time is right.
- Ch 4Say, reelected UN Secretary General, told Luo Ji that his family was in hibernation and the plan had been the PDC's from the start.
- Ch 4Say tells Luo Ji that the car crash that killed his girlfriend was an ETO assassination attempt meant for him.
- Ch 4Say pressures Luo Ji by appealing to his wife and child, and describes him as a cynical, failed scholar who does not care about humanity.
- Ch 6After her second term, Say launched the Human Memorial Project and kept working on it until dying at eighty-four.
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 5UN Secretary General who wanted to turn the UN into an independent political body able to direct Solar System defense construction.
- Ch 5She never considered the star auction a failure, calling it a political proclamation by the UN whose results matched her predictions.
Connections
- leadsUnited Nationssecretary general
- member ofPlanetary Defense Council
- createdHuman Memorial Project
- createdStars Our Destination Project
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 2Say announces the Wallfacer Project
At the UN, Secretary General Say explains the Wallfacer Project and names Tyler, Rey Diaz and Hines as Wallfacers, then reveals Luo Ji as the Fourth Wallfacer.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Luo Ji named Wallfacer and refuses
Frozen at the UN rostrum, Luo Ji is named a Wallfacer. Afterwards he tells Say he refuses the role and she replies he may.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Luo Ji understands his Wallfacer status
Meeting Say, Luo Ji grasps that Wallfacer status is inescapable and every action will be scrutinized. He learns he is a huge gamble with the fewest resources, then leaves despairing.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Zhuang Yan and Xia Xia taken
Luo Ji wakes to find his wife and child gone; Say reveals the PDC sent them into hibernation, and Luo Ji says he will join them at doomsday.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Say reveals Trisolaris wants Luo Ji dead
Say tells Luo Ji the car crash was an ETO assassination ordered by Trisolaris, concluding that Trisolaris fears him, and urges him to uncover why. Luo Ji resolves to wait for his family at doomsday.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Passing of the Golden Age generation
Over the following decades, key figures retire, die or enter hibernation, and the Golden Age generation vanishes from living memory.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Stars Our Destination Project launched and fails
Say proposed auctioning rights to distant stars to fund UN defense research. The PDC passed a limited version, but only seventeen stars sold at minimum price, raising about forty million dollars, and the project was forgotten.