The Killing Star

infobox Book |
name = The Killing Star
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Techno-Thriller
publisher = William Morrow & Co
pub_date = 1995
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 340 pp
isbn = 0688139892

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.

Plot Summary

The late 21st century seems like a good time to be alive. Earth is at peace. Humans now command self-replicating machines to create engineering marvels on enormous scales. Artificial habitats dot the solar system. Anti-matter driven Valkyrie 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 so fast that each hits 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 [http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3x.html#rbomb 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 insterstellar 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 the 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 too dangerous a neighbor to have around.

Plot Threads

The following is an overview of the various survival stories listed according to their location.

Sun - A single Valkyrie rocket 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 erruption which destroys the alien pursuers. Several years later, at the book's end, this band makes the sun to 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 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's 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 planetoid 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 tranmissions. 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 to make self-replicating nanomachines. These "grey goo" nanobots 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 interstellar space. There they hope to rebuild human civilization and eventually strike back at the alien murderers.

Triton - Some humans hide below the frozen crust Neptune's moon, Triton. They send a scout ship to Neptune to see about establishing a deep ocean base. The captain, however, has a mental breakdown and decends until vessel implodes. The book does not indicate the fate of Triton's other survivors.

Deep Space - Several interplanetary vessels and a few Valkyries returning from interstellar missions are destroyed early on. A few ships are even silenced by human ordinance. This necessary measure prevents them from betraying the location of resistance pockets by trying to find safe harbor with them. Although it is unconfirmed in the book, a few Valkyrie ships in nearby star systems may have escaped the attack.

Story Premise Discussion

As quoted from the book, "The Killing Star" assumes the following about alien behavior:

1. THEIR SURVIVAL WILL BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR SURVIVAL.
If an alien species has to choose between them and us, they won't choose us. It is difficult to imagine a contrary case; species don't survive by being self-sacrificing.

2. WIMPS DON'T BECOME TOP DOGS.
No species makes it to the top by being passive. The species in charge of any given planet will be highly intelligent, alert, aggressive, and ruthless when necessary.

3. THEY WILL ASSUME THAT THE FIRST TWO LAWS APPLY TO US.

These statements, while probably valid, lead to a puzzling mystery. If alien civilizations fear competition, we would expect them to a) expand as quickly as possible in order to b) watch for intelligent life wherever it might arise so that they can c) control or exterminate it.

So why haven't they killed us yet? Unless sentient species are extremely rare, there has been plenty of time for older races to arise, grow, and dominate the galaxy. In other words, they should be here already. So if aliens exist and are near enough to detect us, the answer to why we are still alive probably depends on the alien's value system. It certainly wouldn't be any great investment of resources for a galaxy-spanning people to cull one little world of upstart bipeds.

For more on this discussion, see Fermi's Paradox and [http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3aa.html#killingstar Atomic Rockets: Aliens] .

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 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 wave for insidious virus programs. The aliens chose the song in part because for one day in the 1980's it was the strongest radio broadcast from earth. It also signaled to the universe the disturbing notion that humanity was 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 an example of human fantasy reflecting our desire to be dominant over other species.

Titanic - One of the survivors on earth spends an inordinate amount of time ducking the pressures of survival in a virtual reality simulation of the Titanc. He tinkers with the program until, without knowing it, he makes it sentient. Since the artificial intelligence is a representation of his mother, the mother AI convinces him to delete her so he can get back to the business of surviving.

Jurassic Park - Dinosaurs, ancient flora, and even historical figures are cloned in the novel.

References

* Naeye, Robert. "The Killing Star Scenario." Mercury 32.6 (Nov. 2003): 24-24.
* Berry, Adrian. "The younger you are, the safer." Spectator 278.8797 (08 Mar. 1997): 17.
* Green, Roland. "Adult books: Fiction." Booklist 91.16 (15 Apr. 1995): 1484.
* Gerald Jonas. "Science Fiction." New York Times Book Review (14 May 1995): 24.
* Feeley, Gregory. "Science fiction and fantasy." Washington Post News Feed 118.202 (25 June 1995): 8