In the ocean of the night

In the ocean of the night (original title: In the Ocean off Night ) is a novel of Science-fiction of the American author Gregory Benford published in 1978.

Synopsis

The minor planet Icare emits in 1997 a gas trail which makes it deviate of its orbit. According to calculations of the scientists, this asteroid could enter in collision with the Earth and destroy part of the sub-continent indien.
In 1999, the astronaut Nigel Walmsley and his fellow-member Len McAuley have the role of destroying the asteroid by depositing a nuclear load there. But, when it approaches some, Nigel realizes that, contrary to what was envisaged, it is not of a methane and frozen water ball but about a perfect nickel and iron sphere. After having landed with its module, it decides to leave in exploration and discovers that it is about an extraterrestrial vessel damaged and deserted.

Presentation of work

In the ocean of the night is a novel of Science-fiction of the American author Gregory Benford composed of six parts, an epilog, and divided into forty seven chapters. The novel tells the life and the experiments of an astronaut, Nigel Wamsley, over one twenty years period, between 1999 and 2019. Each part of the novel is devoted to one period different from the life of the main character, in the chronological order of the events.

This account is the first shutter of a cycle of novels entitled the Galactic Center .

Kind

In the ocean of the night is classified in the sub-genus of the Hard science fiction by the attention paid by the author with the probability of all the technical data used in the account. Gregory Benford is indeed, at the sides of authors such as Greg Bear or Robert Forward, one of the most important representatives of this particular current of the kind which subjects the science fiction to the rigor of science.

Complete summary

Universe of the novel

The universe of the novel is not thématisé as such, but rather painted by small keys, sometimes just not suggested by some romantic details delivered to the wire of the intrigue. XXIe century, the United States has an economy in bankruptcy, the company American Airlines is on the way to be repurchased by a Brazilian company, oil is almost exhausted, water drastiquement rarefied. The inhabitants must pay drive out-of water with the unit. Food is mainly synthetic. Nobody has any more individual vehicle, except fortunate people. Everyone moves in the collective bus. The most widespread fuel is the alcohol-fuel produced in Brazil. Pollution reached levels very dangerous record for the human health. Privately held companies propose to intervene on the genetic inheritance of the newborns. The United States reinforces their economic protectionism to avoid the collapse of their economy dying woman. The emergent countries are Brazil, China, Australia. Economic precariousness gave again dash with mysticism and XXIe sees being born a new syncretic movement, the Nouveaux Children . An international great project works with the construction of two cylindrical space cities. People do not look at any more the TV, but the Trione. One drive out-of water costs 35 cts. Brazil sets up a great project where people can rent their brain to extend the capacity of calculation of the computers. Genetically modified chimpanzees do the work of development. contemporary art: icebergs carved with the laser and sculpture of clouds. Government project of deterioration of the DNA for the babies test-tubes. etiolation of the vegetation in Pakistan, dramatic rarefaction of water in Europe.

Main characters

Nikka Amajhi , astronaut in function on the lunar basis Hipparque;
Alexandra Ascencio , boyfriend of Nigel Walmsley, attack of a grave disease, the érythémateux Lupus ;
Evers , predicts of Commex, the " Joint Committee exécutive" in load of the problem of the vessel alien in 2014, adviser of the President of the United States;
Dave Fowles , person in charge of the first space mission of 1999, since the center of NASA to Houston;
Jacques Fresnel , French who makes studies of sociology on the New Children in the United States;
Serious Peter , billionaire impassioned by the mysteries;
Doceur Hufman , attending physician of Alexandra;
Mr. Ichino , engineer of Japanese origin, cryptologist, friend of Nigel Walmsley;
Mr. Kardensky , biologist to whom Nigel sends his data since the lunar base;
Kevin Lubkin , coordinator of mission to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ;
Len McAuley , fellow-member of Nigel Walmsley at the time of the mission of 1999;
Sanges , engineer on mission on the Moon, member of the New Children;
Mr. Valiera , person in charge of the mission of exploration of the space wreck on the Moon;
Nigel Walmsley , shining British astronaut of origin installed in the United States;
John Williams , cryptologist, assistant of Ichino for the transfer of the data to the extraterrestrial artificial intelligences;

Chronology of the events

First part, 1999 . The minor planet Icare emits in 1997 a gas trail which makes it deviate of its orbit. According to calculations of the scientists, this asteroid could enter in collusion with the Earth and destroy part of the Indian sub-continent. In 1999, the astronaut Nigel Walmsley, accompanied by his fellow-member Len McAuley , has the role of destroying the asteroid by depositing a nuclear load there. But when it approaches some, Nigel discovers that it is of a perfect iron and nickel sphere and not about a methane and frozen water ball, as it expected it. While going down with its module to deposit the nuclear load, it decides to leave in exploration and discovers that it is acted in fact of a damaged extraterrestrial vessel. Nigel then engages a sharp debate with Dave Fowles , the person in charge of the mission, in order to find the best solution to preserve intact this very first proof of an extraterrestrial life. Nigel proposes to push back the one week explosion, time to bring back various artefacts and to explore the spacecraft alien. Dave Fowles recalls to the astronaut the dangers implied by this delay and the threat which weighs on the land population. Heading and recluse, Nigel cuts the communication with Houston and starts to explore the spacecraft during one week before making it jump. In spite of the artefacts brought back by Nigel, the American press breaks out then against the astronaut who made take a considerable risk with the land population by trangressant his orders. The American Congress requires exemplary custodial sentences against the two astronauts, but NASA finally succeeds in alleviating the political tensions and Nigel is transferred to Pasadena, with the J.P.L. ( Jet Propulsion Laboratory ).

Second part, 2014 . Nigel lives in Pasadena with Alexandra Ascencio and they form a " communion élargie" with Shirley, a psychologist. When Nigel arrives on its work place, its department head, Kevin Lubkin , teaches him that the monitor-J orbits about it around the planet Jupiter receives a radio operator echo of all its transmissions. During this time, an extraterrestrial vessel ordered by several artificial intelligences explores the solar system in the search of new civilizations. Persuaded that the radio operator echo comes from an external source and not from a dysfunction of the artificial satellite, Nigel sets up an inspection network of space around the satellite after having calculated the hypothetical origin of the radio reverberation. Nigel is then called on the telephone by the doctor Hufman : his/her Alexandra friend is reached of a terminal illness due to pollution. Some time later, Nigel obtains finally a photograph of the source of the radio operator echoes: a spaceship which leaves the trace of the radiation of its torch with thermonuclear fusion. Nigel is then persuaded to be able to come into contact with this extraterrestrial intelligence and invests from now on all its time in the calculation of the probable trajectory of the space engine. During this time, the health condition of Alexandra is degraded and Nigel takes little by little conscience of the terrible reality of its disease. With the J.P.L., Nigel learns that the presence of the vessel in the solar system must be held secret and that the extraterrestrial spacecraft would be destroyed if it had suddenly approached the Earth. Nigel does not include/understand the purely defensive and military reaction of the government. Following the evolution of the disease, Doctor Hufman establishes in Alexandra an electronic system directly connected to his nervous system in order to prevent any brain hemorrhage. Nigel is also seen establishing an acoustic transducer in the ear, directly connected to that of Alexandra. Nigel and Alexandra go then to the evening organized by Kevin Lubkin. Nigel become acquainted there with the engineer of Japanese origin, Mr. Ichino and of the French sociologist, Jacques Fresnel with which it has a dispute. A few days later, Nigel and Alexandra leave on a journey and make the round the world tour. With Kyoto, Alexandra is victim of a brain hemorrhage and Nigel returns with it to California. Whereas the J.P.L is ready to come into radio operator contact with the extraterrestrial machine, Nigel enters the message sent to the vessel a code of transmission directly connected to its acoustic implant. When the answer of the vessel arrives, Nigel disappears under the effect of a discharge in its implant. At the same time, Alexandra, however clinically dead, awakes, persuaded to be contacted by Immanence révérée by the new religion of the New Children. Doctor Hufman reveals to him that Alexandra is maintained in life by a source which penetrates in it by its cerebral implant. It is then taken along on a wheelchair by the followers of the sect and révérée like holy, it does the one of the newspapers and the audio-visual press.

Third part, 2014 . Nigel Walmsley is guided in the Mexican desert by a will external with his, a will which comes to him from the extraterrestrial vessel by its acoustic transducer. The artificial intelligence alien discovers the Earth by its eyes, whereas Alexandra died.

Fourth part, 2015 . The contact with the artificial intelligence of the extraterrestrial vessel was maintained and the intelligence alien request with the men to provide him information on their civilization. They are the cryptologists Ichino and John Williams which is charged to supervise the transfers of information. Thus are transmitted to the vessel alien mathematical formulas, accounts of legends, poetry, digitalizations of tables of famous artists, other than any scientific data and strategic. But when the vessel announces that it wishes to approach the Earth, Commex directed by Evers sets up a strategy to prevent that the spacecraft does not approach planet and proposes to him a lunar orbit. Ichino, which attends the crisis meeting, includes/understands whereas the Commission for a long time envisaged to destroy the vessel with a nuclear load and leaves the room nauseated, ready to resign. Ichino then finds Nigel which convinces it to continue its work, whereas itself wishes to be registered among the astronauts candidates with the mission of approach of the vessel alien. After a long conversation with Mr. Evers, Nigel receives the downstream of its superior to take part in the mission of contact with the vessel alien and flies away some time later for the lunar base of Hipparque. The Artificial intelligence of the vessel comes into contact with Nigel and explains to him to be built by other machines which populate from now on the galaxy after the extinction of their creators. She admires the laughter of human which enables them during a few seconds to escape time and convinces Nigel that the condition of mortal is the genuine pepper of the existence. When Evers finally orders to him to release the nuclear load, Nigel refuses, but Houston takes again the remote controls and releases the bomb. The extraterrestrial IA called to Nigel that it cannot stop the nuclear load, because it would destroy it in same time. The vessel then leaves quickly the lunar orbit to join to it fine bottom of the galaxy.

Fifth part, 2018 . On the moon, at the time of a mission of exploration, the module of Nikka Amajhi , a young Japanese astronaut, undergoes a damage of unknown origin and must be posed in catastrophe on the Mare Marginis far from the Hipparque base. During this time, on Earth, the religion of the New Children took importance at the political level more and more, interpreting the resurrection of Alexandra like a miracle and the arrival of the extraterrestrial vessel like a sign of the transcendence. During these three years, Nigel and Ichino never lost the hope to renew contact with the vessel of 2015, but their efforts remained vain. But this year, in Wasco in the Oregon, a nuclear explosion shakes America. On the moon, Nikka discovers on the place of the crash landing a sphere with half-inserted in the lunar ground, protected by a strong magnetic field, which seems to defend its air perimeter. Nikka communicates its observations at the base then. On Earth, Nigel meets Ichino and both evoke the past and the future. Nigel, which has just been recruited to take part in the mission of exploration of the extraterrestrial sphere failed on the Moon, convinces Ichino to carry out a survey into the mysterious nuclear explosion of Wasco, because it is persuaded that the two facts are dependant. Ichino agrees to spend a few months of research in the forests of the North of Oregon, while Nigel flies away for the Moon.

Sixth part, 2018 . On the Moon, Nigel Walmsley makes team with Nikka Amajhi to exploit the computer data contained in the immense computing memories of the extraterrestrial vessel failed Mare Marginis . While Nikka threads in the étrois bowels of communication of the rooms of the vessel, Nigel records the data from its office at the base. During this time, Ichino settles in a cottage in full forest with two hundred kilometers of the site of the explosion of Wasco. A few days after his arrival, Mr. Ichino collects a seriously wounded man, Peter Graves , at the side and looks after it. On the Moon, Nigel and Nikka view graphic hundreds of data, not having succeeded in deciphering the language of the intelligence alien. The graphs show geometrical forms, modelings of molecules and some images of another planet creatures. But the data which send Nigel to the Earth are partly lost and the astronaut suspects little by little Sanges , the follower of the New Children, to sabotage the transmissions for religious and political reasons, refusing the idea that there exists in the universe of the intelligences higher than that of the man. Nigel learns on this subject that the mission was mainly financed by the sect. In the forest of Oregon, Ichino studies the documents which it found in the backpack of Peter Graves and there discovers that the former business man carried out personal research to clear up the mystery of the explosion of Wasco and found a bond with the Big Foot, these large legendary Hominides that the Indians of America called already the Sasquatch . Ichino also discovers in the businesses of the billionaire a tubular object of unknown origin. At the same time, on the Moon, Nigel discovers in the data of the vessel alien a photograph which he thinks of being taken on the Earth: a large monkey accompanied by an extraterrestrial being in a large forest. But Nigel learns that the National Foundation of Sciences made the decision nothing to reveal with the public, from fear of the emotional effects on the population. After having discovered the molecule of the Physiostigmine in the database alien, Nigel Walmsley inoculated gene of the creativity is convinced that an extraterrestrial race intervened on the genetic inheritance of the primitive man and inculcated the community life to him, the breeding, in short to him. And the vessel failed on the Moon would have been placed there by these same intelligences aliens to defend the Earth of a possible galactic attack. On Earth, Peter Graves awoke finally and tells his history with Ichino. With its guide, they have surprised a group of Big Foot adoring a conical object. They intervened to seize the object, but the guide was killed and the business man seriously wounded by the artefact handled by a large male. The business man however succeeds in stealing it and fleeing. Ichino makes the assumption then that Big Foot live in an underground and strengthened labyrinth built by the extraterrestrial ones at the origin of the artefact. Some time later, in front of the cottage, of Big Foot gathered and waits. Ichino leaves to their meeting and returns to them the artefact in order to let them live their mysterious life in the forest of Oregon. During this time, Nigel and Nikka transmit their data to the Earth by shorting-circuit the system supervised by the New Children, but are finally surprised by Sanges.

Epilog, 2019 . Nigel, Nikka and Ichino are found in the cottage of Oregon. Nigel exposes its vision of the things. Extraterrestrial the, originating ones in the constellation of Aquila, came on Earth to transmit something of their civilization. The intermediaries between the extraterrestrial ones and the men were Big Foot. They would have creates a nuclear fortification on Earth to mitigate the attack of an enemy faction. Soon, a helicopter approaches with on its board Peter Graves and an assistant. They lead the three scientists in the forest under the threat of a weapon. Serious asks Ichino to return the artefact to him that it flew to him, but Ichino explains to him why it does not have it any more. Whereas the things enveniment, Big Foot return with their artefact and destroy the apparatus and the two criminals.

Comments

A hero alone vis-a-vis the system

The hero of Gregory Benford is a deeply rebellious man, obstinately anti-monk and anticlerical, defending the science against all the mystifications, but which can also extremely well make profitable all possibilities of handling which offers to him an administrative system and as complex and significant policy as that of NASA. It is the type even of the solitary hero and dispenser of justice who forgotten his child's dream forever: to enter one day in contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. In a seizing contrast, the author forces the feature by describing the political circle of his novel like basically anxious and quarrelsome, seeing dangers to humanity where the hero perceives only the promises of a better life and knowing to use only the language of the nuclear weapons. Gregory Benford takes again the usual topic of the knight superman who fights as a recluse against the modern monster of the administration and the policy American.

Topics approached

The topics approached by Gregory Benford at the court of the novel are varied:

exploitation of the topic of the " link manquant" in did the evolution of the man (How the men pass from the wild state to the social organization? How they finally controlled fire?) ;
topic of the condition of mortal like genuine pepper of the existence;
handling and various censures induced by the influence of a religion on the political decisions of a nation;
need for the population for retisser for the Community and spiritual bonds when the economy crumbles;
evocation of the evil being and the traumatism of Buzz Aldrin after its stay on the the Moon;
Game theory and Algorithm MinMax used by the military strategists;
difference of attitude and culture between Americans and British (igel Walmsley is Britannique in the novel);
religion which refuses the idea of the intervention of an extraterrestrial race on the development of humanity;
potential part played by the Big Foot in the history of humanity;
presentation of American football like antiquated atavism: a socialized memory of the primitive scenes of hunting.

French editions

Editions in two volumes:

Gregory Benford, In the ocean of the night , Volume 1, translated from American by William Desmond, Denoël, coll “Presence of the future”, 1985;
Gregory Benford, In the ocean of the night , Volume 2, translated from American by William Desmond, Denoël, coll “Presence of the future”, 1985;

Editions in a volume:

Gregory Benford, In the ocean of the night , translated from American by William Desmond, Denoël, coll “the Moon of ink”, 2001;
Gregory Benford, In the ocean of the night , translated from American by William Desmond, French General Bookstore, coll “the Book of pocket”, n° 7245,2002.

Quotations

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