by Cixin Liu
And then, at the beginning of November in Year 208 of the Crisis Era, all radio transmissions from Earth ceased. Every frequency fell silent, as though the Earth was a lamp that had been suddenly shut off.
Excerpt from A Past Outside of Time Nyctohylophobia
When humanity finally learned that the universe was a dark forest in which everyone hunted everyone else, the child who had once cried out for contact by the bright campfire put out the fire and shivered in the darkness. Even a spark terrified him.
During the first few days, even mobile phone use was forbidden, and antennas around the world were forcibly shut down. Such a move, which would have once caused riots in the streets, was widely supported by the populace.
Gradually, as reason was restored, so were the mobile networks, but severe restrictions regarding electromagnetic radiation were put in place. All radio communications had to operate at minimum power, and any violators risked being tried for crimes against humanity.
Most people surely understood that these reactions were excessive and meaningless. The peak of the Earth’s projection of electromagnetic signals into space had occurred during the age of analog signals, when television and radio transmission towers operated at high power levels. But as digital communication became prevalent, most information was transmitted via wires and optical cables, and even radio transmissions for digital signals required far less power than analog signals. The amount of electromagnetic radiation spilling into space from the Earth had fallen so much that some pre-Crisis scholars had fretted that the Earth would become impossible to discover by friendly aliens.
Electromagnetic waves are, moreover, the most primitive and least power-efficient method of transmitting information in the universe. Radio waves attenuate and degrade rapidly in the vastness of space, and most electromagnetic signals spilling from the Earth could not be received beyond two light-years. Only something like the transmission by Ye Wenjie, which relied on the power of the sun as an antenna, could be intercepted by listeners among the stars.
As humanity’s technology advanced, two far more efficient methods of signaling became available: neutrinos and gravitational waves. The latter was the main method of deterrence that humanity later deployed against Trisolaris.
The dark forest theory had a profound impact on human civilization. That child sitting by the ashes of the campfire turned from optimism to isolation and paranoia, a loner in the universe.
Deterrence Era, Year 12 Bronze Age
Most of the crew aboard Bronze Age attributed the sudden cessation of all signals from the Earth to the complete conquest of the Solar System by Trisolaris. Bronze Age accelerated and headed for a star with terrestrial planets twenty-six light-years away.
But ten days later, Bronze Age received a radio transmission from Fleet Command. The transmission had been sent simultaneously to Bronze Age and Blue Space, which was at the other end of the Solar System. The transmission gave a brief account of what had happened on Earth and notified them of the successful creation of a deterrence system to defend against Trisolaris. The two ships were ordered to return to Earth immediately. Moreover, Earth had taken great risks to send out this message to the lost ships; it would not be repeated.
At first, Bronze Age dared not trust this message—wasn’t it possible that it was a trap set by those who had conquered the Solar System? The warship stopped accelerating and repeatedly queried Earth for confirmation. No reply ever came, as Earth maintained radio silence.
Just as Bronze Age was about to begin accelerating away from home again, the unimaginable happened: A sophon unfolded into low dimensions on the ship, establishing a quantum communication channel with Earth. Finally, the crew received confirmation of all that had occurred.
The crew found that, as some of the only survivors of the holocaust suffered by the combined space forces of Earth, they were now heroes of the human race. The whole world awaited their return with bated breath. Fleet Command awarded all members of the crew with the highest military honors.
Bronze Age began its return voyage. It was currently in outer space, about twenty-three hundred AU from the Earth, far beyond the Kuiper Belt but still some distance from the Oort Cloud. As it was cruising near maximum speed, deceleration consumed most of its fusion fuel. Its journey toward the Earth had to be conducted at a low cruising speed, and took eleven years.
As they finally neared Earth, a small white dot appeared ahead of them and quickly grew. It was Gravity, the warship that had been dispatched to welcome Bronze Age.
Gravity was the first stellar-class warship built after the Doomsday Battle. Deterrence-Era spaceships were no longer constructed along fixed body plans. Rather, most large spaceships were constructed out of multiple modules that could be assembled into various configurations. But Gravity was an exception. It was a white cylinder, so regular that it seemed unreal, like a basic shape dropped into space by mathematical modeling software, a platonic ideal rather than reality.
If the crew of Bronze Age had seen the gravitational wave antennas on the Earth, they would have recognized Gravity as an almost perfect replica of them. Indeed, the entire hull of Gravity was a large gravitational wave antenna. Like its twins on the Earth’s surface, the ship was capable of broadcasting gravitational wave messages toward all corners of the universe at a moment’s notice. These gravitational wave antennas on Earth and in space comprised humanity’s dark forest deterrence system against Trisolaris.
After another day of coasting, Bronze Age, escorted by Gravity, entered geosynchronous orbit and slowly sailed into the orbital spaceport. Bronze Age’s crew could see dense crowds filling the broad expanse of the habitat sector of the spaceport like the opening ceremony of the Olympics or the Hajj in Mecca. The warship drifted through a colorful snowstorm of bouquets. The crew looked through the crowd for their loved ones. Everyone seemed to have tears in their eyes, crying out in joy.
With a final tremor, Bronze Age came to a complete stop. The captain gave a status report to Fleet Command and declared his intent to leave a skeleton crew behind on the ship. Fleet Command replied that the priority was to quickly reunite all members of the crew with their loved ones. There was no need to leave anyone behind on the ship. Another captain from the fleet boarded the ship with a small duty team who greeted everyone they encountered with tearful embraces.
It was unclear from the duty team’s uniforms which of the three space fleets they belonged to, but they explained to those aboard the ship that the new Solar System Fleet was a single, unified force, and all those who had been part of the Doomsday Battle—including all the men and women aboard Bronze Age—would be key figures in the new fleet.
“In our lifetimes, we will conquer Trisolaris and open up a second solar system for human colonization!” the fleet captain said.
Someone replied that they found space too terrifying and they would rather remain on the Earth. The fleet captain said that was perfectly acceptable. As heroes of humanity, they were free to choose their own paths in life. However, after a bit of R&R, they might change their minds. He, for one, hoped to see this famed warship in action again.
The crew of Bronze Age began to disembark. Everyone entered the habitable region of the spaceport through a long passageway. Open space stretched around the crew. In contrast to the air on the ship, the air here smelled fresh and sweet, like after a rainstorm. Against the background of the spinning blue globe that was the Earth, the joyous shouts of the welcoming crowd filled the expansive area.
Per a request from the fleet captain, the captain of Bronze Age conducted a roll call. At the fleet captain’s insistence, the roll call was repeated, to confirm that every member of the crew had disembarked and was present and accounted for.
Then there was silence.
Although the celebrating crowd around them continued to dance and wave their arms, they made no sound. All that anyone from Bronze Age could hear was the fleet captain’s voice. His face still bore a kind smile, but in that eerie silen
ce, his voice sounded as sharp as the edge of a sword.
“You’re hereby informed that you have been dishonorably discharged. You are no longer members of the Solar System Fleet. But the stain you have brought upon the fleet can never be erased! You will never see your loved ones again, because they have no wish to see you. Your parents are ashamed of you, and most of your spouses have long ago divorced you. Even though society has not discriminated against your children, they spent the past decade growing up in the shadow of your disgrace. They despise you!
“You are hereby transferred to Fleet International’s justice system.”
The fleet captain left with his team. Simultaneously, the celebratory crowd disappeared and was replaced by darkness. A few roving spotlights revealed the ranks of fully armed military police surrounding the crew of Bronze Age. Standing on platforms around the broad square, they aimed their guns at the crew.
Some members of the crew turned around and saw that the bouquets of flowers floating around Bronze Age were real, not holographic mirages. But now they made the warship seem like a giant coffin about to be buried.
Power to the magnetic boots worn by the crew was cut off, and they floated up in free fall, like a bunch of helpless target dummies.
A cold voice spoke to them from somewhere. “All armed crew members must immediately relinquish your weapons. If you do not cooperate, we cannot guarantee your safety. You’re under arrest for murder in the first degree and crimes against humanity.”
Deterrence Era, Year 13 Trial
The Bronze Age case was tried by a Solar System Fleet court-martial. Although Fleet International’s main facilities were located near the orbit of Mars, the asteroid belt, and the orbit of Jupiter, due to the intense interest in the case from Earth International, the trial was held at the fleet base in geosynchronous orbit.
To accommodate the numerous observers from Earth, the base spun to generate artificial gravity. Outside the broad windows of the courtroom, blue Earth, bright Sun, and the silvery brilliance of the stars appeared in succession, a cosmic metaphor for the contest of values. The trial lasted a month under these shifting lights and shadows. Excerpts from the trial transcript follow.
Neil Scott, male, 45, captain, commanding officer of Bronze Age
JUDGE: Let’s return to the events leading up to the decision to attack Quantum.
SCOTT: I repeat: The attack was my decision and I gave the order. I didn’t discuss it ahead of time with any other officer aboard Bronze Age.
JUDGE: You’ve been consistently trying to claim all responsibility. However, this is not, in fact, a wise course of action for either you or those you’re trying to protect.
PROSECUTION: We have already confirmed that a vote by the full crew was taken prior to the attack.
SCOTT: As I’ve explained, of the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five crew members, only fifty-nine supported an attack. The vote was not the cause or basis for my decision to attack.
JUDGE: Can you produce a list of those fifty-nine names?
SCOTT: The vote was conducted anonymously over the ship’s internal network. You can examine the cruise and battle logs to confirm this.
PROSECUTION: More lies. We have ample evidence that the vote was not anonymous. Moreover, the result was nothing like your description. You falsified the logs afterwards.
JUDGE: We need you to produce the true record of the vote.
SCOTT: I don’t have what you want. The result I recited is the truth.
JUDGE: Mr. Neil Scott, let me remind you: If you continue to obstruct this tribunal’s investigation, you will harm the innocent members of your crew. Some members did vote against the attack, but without the evidence that only you can provide, we cannot exonerate them, and must declare all officers, noncommissioned officers, and enlisted men and women of Bronze Age guilty as charged.
SCOTT: What are you talking about? Are you a real judge? Is this a real court of law? What about the presumption of innocence?
JUDGE: The presumption of innocence does not apply to crimes against humanity. This is a principle of international law established at the start of the Crisis Era. It’s intended to ensure that traitors against humankind do not escape punishment.
SCOTT: We’re not traitors against humanity! Where were you when we fought for Earth?
PROSECUTION: You are absolutely traitors! While the ETO from two centuries ago only betrayed the interests of humanity, today, you betray our most basic moral principles, a far worse crime.
SCOTT: [silence]
JUDGE: I want you to understand the consequences of fabricating evidence. At the commencement of this trial, you read a statement on behalf of all the accused expressing your remorse over the deaths of the one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven men and women aboard Quantum. It is now time to show that remorse.
SCOTT: [after a long silence] All right. I will produce the true results. You can recover the vote tally from an encrypted entry in the logs aboard Bronze Age.
PROSECUTION: We will work on recovering those immediately. Can you give me an estimate of how many voted to attack Quantum?
SCOTT: One thousand six hundred and seventy. That’s ninety-four percent of the crew.
JUDGE: Order! Order in the court! I must remind members of the public to maintain silence during the proceedings.
SCOTT: But it wouldn’t have mattered. Even if less than fifty percent had voted yes, I would have attacked anyway. The final decision was mine.
PROSECUTION: Nice try. But Bronze Age was not like the newer ships at the other end of the Solar System, such as Natural Selection. Your ship’s AI systems were primitive. Without the cooperation of those under your command, you could not have carried out the attack alone.
Sebastian Schneider, male, 31, lieutenant commander, in charge of targeting systems and attack patterns aboard Bronze Age
PROSECUTION: Other than the captain, you’re the only officer with the system authorization to prevent or terminate an attack.
SCHNEIDER: Correct.
JUDGE: And you didn’t.
SCHNEIDER: I did not.
JUDGE: What went through your mind at that time?
SCHNEIDER: At that moment—not the moment of the attack, but the moment when I realized that Bronze Age would never return home, when the ship would be my entire world—I changed. There was no process; I was simply transformed from head to toe. It was like the legendary mental seal.
JUDGE: Do you really think that’s a possibility? That your ship was equipped with mental seals?
SCHNEIDER: Of course not. I was talking metaphorically. Space itself is a kind of mental seal.... In that moment, I gave up my individual self. My existence would be meaningful only if the collective survived.... I can’t explain it better than that. I don’t expect you to understand, Your Honor. Even if you boarded Bronze Age and sailed twenty thousand AU from the Solar System, or even farther, you still wouldn’t understand.
JUDGE: Why?
SCHNEIDER: Because you’d know that you could come back! Your soul would have remained on Earth. Only if the space behind the ship turned into a bottomless abyss—only if the Sun, the Earth, and everything else were swallowed by emptiness—would you have a chance of understanding the transformation that I went through.
I’m from California. In 1967, under the old calendar, a high school teacher in my hometown, Ron Jones, did something interesting—please don’t interrupt me. Thank you.
In order to help his students understand Nazism and totalitarianism, he tried to create a simulation of a totalitarian society with his students. It took only five days for him to succeed and his class to become a miniature fascist state. Every student willingly gave up the self and freedom, became one with the supreme collective, and pursued the collective’s goals with religious zeal. In the end, this teaching experiment that began as a harmless game almost spun out of control. The Germans made a film based on Jones’s experiment, and Jones himself wrote a book about it: The Third Wave. When t
hose of us aboard Bronze Age found out that we were doomed to wander space forever, we formed a totalitarian state as well. Do you know how long it took?
Five minutes.
That’s right. Five minutes into the all-hands meeting, the fundamental values of this totalitarian society had received the support of the vast majority of the crew. So, let me tell you, when humans are lost in space, it takes only five minutes to reach totalitarianism.
Boris Rovinski, male, 36, commander, executive officer of Bronze Age
JUDGE: You led the first boarding party onto Quantum after the attack?
ROVINSKI: Yes.
JUDGE: Were there any survivors?
ROVINSKI: None.
JUDGE: Can you describe the scene?
ROVINSKI: The individuals aboard died from the infrasonic waves generated by Quantum’s hull as it was struck by the electromagnetic pulses of the H-bomb detonation. The bodies were well preserved, showing no external signs of damage.
JUDGE: What did you do with the bodies?
ROVINSKI: We built a monument to them, like Blue Space did.
JUDGE: You mean, you left the bodies in the monument?
ROVINSKI: No. I doubt that the monument built by Blue Space had any bodies in it, either.
JUDGE: You haven’t answered my question. I asked what you did with the bodies.
ROVINSKI: We refilled the food stores on Bronze Age with them.
JUDGE: All of them?
ROVINSKI: All of them.
JUDGE: Who made the decision to turn the bodies into food?
ROVINSKI: I... really can’t remember. It seemed a completely natural thing to do at the time. I was responsible for logistics and support aboard the ship, and I directed the storage and distribution of the bodies.
JUDGE: How were the bodies consumed?
ROVINSKI: Nothing special was done. They were mixed up with the vegetables and meats in the bio-recycling system and then cooked.
JUDGE: Who ate this food?