The Killing Star
Encyclopedia
The Killing Star is a hard science fiction
novel by Charles R. Pellegrino
and George Zebrowski
, published in April, 1995. It covers several familiar speculative fiction ideas such as sublight interstellar travel, genetic cloning, virtual reality, advanced robotics, alien contact, and interstellar war.
rockets carry explorers to the stars at nearly the speed of light. All seems well.
Then, from the uncaring black of space come swarms of relativistic missiles
. Though they are merely boulder-sized hunks of metal, they move fast enough to hit with the force of many nuclear arsenals. They are impossible to track and impossible to stop. Humanity is all but wiped out by the horrific bombardment. (To read a discussion of relativistic weapons and an excerpt of the attack, see Atomic Rockets: Relativistic Weapons).
A handful of survivors desperately struggle to escape the alien
mop-up fleet. They hide close to the sun, inside asteroids, beneath the crusts of moons, within ice rings, and in the fathomless depths of interstellar space. But most are hunted down and slaughtered.
The last man and woman on Earth are captured as zoo specimens. In the belly of an alien starship, a squid-like being relates to them the pitiless logic behind human-kind's execution: the moment we learned to travel at relativistic speeds was the moment we had the power to do to them what they did to us first. The attack was nothing personal. Humanity was simply a too dangerous neighbor to have around.
Sun - A single spacecraft grazes the Sun while playing a game of cat and mouse with an intruder starship. The humans use negative energy
bombs to cause a massive solar eruption which destroys the alien pursuers. Several years later, at the book's end, this band makes the Sun go nova
, thus cleansing the solar system of the intruders.
Earth - The last people alive on Earth are a man and woman in a submersible. The relativistic missiles hit while they are surveying the RMS Titanic. One of the characters finds respite in a virtual reality program of the Titanic. Eventually the couple goes ashore at New York City where the only evidence they find that humankind ever existed is the plumbing for a swimming pool buried deep beneath the mud. The pair regularly send out distress calls which the aliens home in on. The two survivors are captured as zoo specimens.
Ceres - Colonists living within the dwarf planet Ceres escape the initial attack unnoticed. Unfortunately, the waste heat from normal colony operations, plus the colony's cavern excavations, have produced an unmistakable corona of dust and infrared emissions. The colonists know they will likely draw the aliens' attention sooner or later, but have no choice but to try to hide. They drop power usage to near zero and cut all radio transmissions. The aliens, however, broadcast a virus program which one of the Ceres robots picks up. The virus tells the robot to send out a beacon and make self-replicating nanomachines. These "Grey goo
" nanobots (the book describes them as self-replicating molecules that raise the melting point of ceramic and metal compounds) disassemble the Ceres habitat, killing all the colonists.
Saturn - A clone of what some believe to be the historical Jesus leads his flock away from Saturn's rings. This group's plan is to hide around the energy rich brown dwarfs in the interstellar medium
. There they hope to rebuild human civilization and eventually strike back at the alien murderers.
Neptune - Some humans hiding below the frozen crust of Neptune's moon, Triton
take their ship to Neptune to see about establishing a deep ocean base. The captain, however, has a mental breakdown and descends until the vessel implodes.
Deep Space - Several interplanetary vessels and a few Valkyries returning from interstellar missions are destroyed early on. A few ships are even shot down by human ordnance to prevent them from accidentally betraying the location of resistance pockets that they might otherwise try to reach. Although it is unconfirmed in the book, a handful of Valkyrie ships in nearby star systems may have escaped the attack.
We Are the World
by Michael Jackson
and Lionel Richie
- Six alien ships patrolling through the post-attack solar system continually broadcasted this song. It served both as a taunt to the pathetic survivors and as a carrier for computer viruses. The aliens chose this song partly because one day in the 1980s it was the strongest radio broadcast from Earth. Also, it conveyed the disturbing impression that humanity might become a unified force to reckon with.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The aliens used footage of a borg cube exploding in the ST:TNG episode "Best of Both Worlds, Part II" as an example of our fiction reflecting a deep rooted desire to dominate all other species.
Titanic - One of the survivors on Earth spent an inordinate amount of time in a virtual reality simulation of the Titanic. He tinkered with the program until, without knowing it, he made it sentient. Since the artificial intelligence was a representation of his mother, the AI convinced him to delete her so that he could get back to the business of living.
Jurassic Park - Dinosaurs, ancient flora, and even historical figures were cloned in the novel.
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
novel by Charles R. Pellegrino
Charles R. Pellegrino
Charles R. Pellegrino is the controversial author of several books relating to science and archaeology, including Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Ghosts of the Titanic, Unearthing Atlantis and Ghosts of Vesuvius....
and George Zebrowski
George Zebrowski
George Zebrowski is a science fiction author and editor who has written and edited a number of books. He lives with author Pamela Sargent, with whom he has co-written a number of novels, including Star Trek novels.Zebrowski won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1999 for his novel Brute Orbits...
, published in April, 1995. It covers several familiar speculative fiction ideas such as sublight interstellar travel, genetic cloning, virtual reality, advanced robotics, alien contact, and interstellar war.
Plot summary
The late 21st century seems like a good time to be alive. Earth is at peace. Humans now command self-replicating machines that create engineering marvels on enormous scales. Artificial habitats dot the solar system. Anti-matter driven ValkyrieProject Valkyrie
The Valkyrie is a theoretical spacecraft designed by Charles Pellegrino and Jim Powell . The Valkyrie is theoretically able to accelerate to 92% the speed of light and decelerate afterward, carrying a small human crew to another star system.-Design:The Valkyrie's high performance is attributable to...
rockets carry explorers to the stars at nearly the speed of light. All seems well.
Then, from the uncaring black of space come swarms of relativistic missiles
Relativistic kill vehicle
A relativistic kill vehicle or relativistic bomb is a hypothetical weapon system sometimes found in science fiction. The details of such systems vary widely, but the key common feature is the use of a massive impactor traveling at a significant fraction of light speed to strike the target...
. Though they are merely boulder-sized hunks of metal, they move fast enough to hit with the force of many nuclear arsenals. They are impossible to track and impossible to stop. Humanity is all but wiped out by the horrific bombardment. (To read a discussion of relativistic weapons and an excerpt of the attack, see Atomic Rockets: Relativistic Weapons).
A handful of survivors desperately struggle to escape the alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
mop-up fleet. They hide close to the sun, inside asteroids, beneath the crusts of moons, within ice rings, and in the fathomless depths of interstellar space. But most are hunted down and slaughtered.
The last man and woman on Earth are captured as zoo specimens. In the belly of an alien starship, a squid-like being relates to them the pitiless logic behind human-kind's execution: the moment we learned to travel at relativistic speeds was the moment we had the power to do to them what they did to us first. The attack was nothing personal. Humanity was simply a too dangerous neighbor to have around.
Plot Threads
The following is an overview of the various survival stories listed according to their location.Sun - A single spacecraft grazes the Sun while playing a game of cat and mouse with an intruder starship. The humans use negative energy
Exotic matter
In physics, exotic matter is a term which refers to matter which would somehow deviate from the norm and have "exotic" properties. There are several uses of the term....
bombs to cause a massive solar eruption which destroys the alien pursuers. Several years later, at the book's end, this band makes the Sun go nova
Nova
A nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in a star caused by the accretion of hydrogen on to the surface of a white dwarf star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner...
, thus cleansing the solar system of the intruders.
Earth - The last people alive on Earth are a man and woman in a submersible. The relativistic missiles hit while they are surveying the RMS Titanic. One of the characters finds respite in a virtual reality program of the Titanic. Eventually the couple goes ashore at New York City where the only evidence they find that humankind ever existed is the plumbing for a swimming pool buried deep beneath the mud. The pair regularly send out distress calls which the aliens home in on. The two survivors are captured as zoo specimens.
Ceres - Colonists living within the dwarf planet Ceres escape the initial attack unnoticed. Unfortunately, the waste heat from normal colony operations, plus the colony's cavern excavations, have produced an unmistakable corona of dust and infrared emissions. The colonists know they will likely draw the aliens' attention sooner or later, but have no choice but to try to hide. They drop power usage to near zero and cut all radio transmissions. The aliens, however, broadcast a virus program which one of the Ceres robots picks up. The virus tells the robot to send out a beacon and make self-replicating nanomachines. These "Grey goo
Grey goo
Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario known as ecophagy .Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally...
" nanobots (the book describes them as self-replicating molecules that raise the melting point of ceramic and metal compounds) disassemble the Ceres habitat, killing all the colonists.
Saturn - A clone of what some believe to be the historical Jesus leads his flock away from Saturn's rings. This group's plan is to hide around the energy rich brown dwarfs in the interstellar medium
Interstellar medium
In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, dust, and cosmic rays. It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space...
. There they hope to rebuild human civilization and eventually strike back at the alien murderers.
Neptune - Some humans hiding below the frozen crust of Neptune's moon, Triton
Triton (moon)
Triton is the largest moon of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846, by English astronomer William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. At 2,700 km in diameter, it is...
take their ship to Neptune to see about establishing a deep ocean base. The captain, however, has a mental breakdown and descends until the vessel implodes.
Deep Space - Several interplanetary vessels and a few Valkyries returning from interstellar missions are destroyed early on. A few ships are even shot down by human ordnance to prevent them from accidentally betraying the location of resistance pockets that they might otherwise try to reach. Although it is unconfirmed in the book, a handful of Valkyrie ships in nearby star systems may have escaped the attack.
Contemporary and Historical References
The Killing Star makes several references to historic and contemporary people, places, and things. A few notables include the following:We Are the World
We Are the World
"We Are the World" is a song and charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World...
by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
and Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
- Six alien ships patrolling through the post-attack solar system continually broadcasted this song. It served both as a taunt to the pathetic survivors and as a carrier for computer viruses. The aliens chose this song partly because one day in the 1980s it was the strongest radio broadcast from Earth. Also, it conveyed the disturbing impression that humanity might become a unified force to reckon with.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The aliens used footage of a borg cube exploding in the ST:TNG episode "Best of Both Worlds, Part II" as an example of our fiction reflecting a deep rooted desire to dominate all other species.
Titanic - One of the survivors on Earth spent an inordinate amount of time in a virtual reality simulation of the Titanic. He tinkered with the program until, without knowing it, he made it sentient. Since the artificial intelligence was a representation of his mother, the AI convinced him to delete her so that he could get back to the business of living.
Jurassic Park - Dinosaurs, ancient flora, and even historical figures were cloned in the novel.