In the Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns by Gregory Benford
"In the Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns" is a science fiction narrative that explores humanity's encounters with various extraterrestrial civilizations through the experiences of astronaut Nigel Walmsley. The first part, "In the Ocean of Night," begins in 1999 when Walmsley leads a mission to the comet Icarus, initially intending to destroy it to prevent a collision with Earth. However, he discovers that Icarus is a derelict alien craft and postpones the detonation to study it. The story jumps to 2014, revealing that Icarus was obliterated, but a new probe, Snark, is detected, leading Walmsley to navigate bureaucratic challenges to make contact. This probe, a product of long-gone organic beings, departs after gathering data on humanity.
The sequel, "Across the Sea of Suns," takes place in 2056 aboard the spacecraft Lancer as it investigates a planetary system. By this time, Earth has been affected by two alien aquatic species, the Swarmers and the Skimmers, which have disrupted oceanic and international trade. As Walmsley continues his quest for understanding, he uncovers the existence of sentient electromagnetic beings and the destructive influence of orbital satelites known as Watchers that monitor planets with sentient life. The story culminates in Walmsley theorizing about a galactic threat, leaving readers with a sense of impending challenges as the narrative explores themes of survival, communication, and the complexities of interstellar existence.
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In the Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns
First published:In the Ocean of Night (1977; portions published in Worlds of If, 1972, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1973, and Threads of Time, 1974, edited by Robert Silverberg) and Across the Sea of Suns (1984)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Science fiction—artificial intelligence
Time of work: 1999-2019 and 2056-2064
Locale: Earth, near-Earth space, aboard the Terran spacecraft Lancer in deep space, and nearby planetary systems
The Plot
In the Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns present the story of Earth’s contact with several extraterrestrial civilizations. The story is told primarily through the character of astronaut Nigel Walmsley. In the Ocean of Night begins in 1999, with Walmsley heading a mission to the comet Icarus. The purpose is to plant and then set off a nuclear device, thus preventing the comets predicted collision with Earth. Walmsley discovers upon reaching the comet that it is in fact the remains of a ship and refuses to set off the device until further study can be made of the craft.
The book then cuts abruptly to 2014. It is revealed that Icarus was indeed obliterated and that objects removed from the ship have revealed very little about its origins. In the intervening time, another spacecraft has been detected somewhere between Earth and Jupiter. Walmsley struggles against bureaucracy and anti-intellectual religious revivalism to contact this new alien probe, the Snark. Walmsley manages to make contact with the vessel and learns that it is a machine created by other machines, themselves the descendants of organic beings long gone.
Snark is unaware of its age or purpose, knowing only that it responded to a signal given off by Icarus before its destruction. Snark gathers as much information as it can about the peoples of Earth and then leaves the solar system. A second alien craft, wrecked long ago, then is found on the Moon. Walmsley and Nikka Amajhi manage to decode the decayed information in the ships data banks and learn that the craft was destroyed while protecting Earth from some type of attack.
The novel ends in 2019 with a series of supernovas occurring in a small area of the sky. The timing of these, soon after contact with Snark and the recovery of information from the crashed ship, leads Walmsley to suspect that they are a preemptive strike by Snark’s makers on other organic beings who they may fear will someday challenge them for the right of existence and control of the galaxy.
Across the Sea of Suns begins in 2056 aboard Lancer, as that Earth craft approaches the planetary system of Ra. Once again, Walmsley and Amajhi attempt to overcome human bureaucracy and make sense both of what is occurring and of what already has occurred in the galaxy. It is revealed that in 2021, Earth received radio communications from Ra; the Lancer mission was launched to investigate.
The novel cuts away from the Lancer mission to Earth in 2061. The oceans of Earth have been seeded by two groups of extraterrestrial aquatic life, the Swarmers and the Skimmers. Ocean traffic effectively has ceased because of attacks from these beings, and as a consequence, international trade has collapsed. Moving back to the Lancer mission in 2056, satellites are found in orbit around Ra, and a sentient species of electromagnetic emitters, the EMs, are found to be the sources of the radio message received by Earth. Lancer then moves toward the Ross system to investigate further this area of the galaxy.
Back on Earth, a survivor of a Swarmer-caused wreck is guided by Skimmers to the safety of an island. Warren, the survivor, manages to communicate with the Skimmers and learns that the Swarmers are their offspring, genetically tampered with by whomever, or whatever, brought them from their native world to Earth.
Once again, the novel returns to the Lancer mission, now in deep space between the two star systems of Ra and Ross. A message is received from the EMs that tells of their being attacked and nearly eradicated by the satellites, now known as the Watchers. In order to prevent total destruction, the species that would become the EMs genetically altered themselves to become organic machines, thus escaping the Watcher’s destruction of all and any nonorganic technology. These revelations lead Walmsley to posit Walmsley’s Rule, that any star system that the mission locates with sentient life or the possibility of sentient life will have a Watcher in orbit around it, guaranteeing that organic life cannot and will not go out into the universe.
Lancer reaches Ross and receives a message, sent from Earth in 2056, that destruction of the nations of Earth has occurred as a consequence of the Swarmers leaving the oceans and attacking dry land. Lancer moves on to Pocks, another planetary system, and locates a Watcher in orbit. A message states that a Watcher now is orbiting Earth as well. Inspection of Pocks reveals that the original species that progenerated the EMs lives inside the planet, sheltered from the Watcher but unable to leave the planetary habitat. Walmsley suspects that there is something occurring at the galactic center. The novel ends with Lancer leaving for that region of the galaxy.