“She points up at Halley’s Comet. From here, it doesn’t look so dangerous.”
This novel is a story about how human beings might react to an existential threat capable of wiping out the entire species. At the same time it is also a story about how the greatest threat to the future of humanity may be its own inability to foresee threats and take steps to ensure survival. This quote occurs very early in the story and without any contextual information explaining why Petra may consider a comet dangerous. Comets are an astronomical phenomenon which are one of the most dependably predictable in the entire universe. Halley’s Comet, for instance, makes an appearance in the skies over our planet roughly every 75 years. Thus there is no reason why it should be feared as dangerous even to the slightest degree. This time around, however, its appearance coincides with another astronomic event which succeeds in nudging the comet out its path just slightly enough to ensure a cataclysmic collision with earth. The predictability of Halley’s Comet being unexpectedly interfered with to thwart the entire continuing evolution of humanity is used here to foreshadow the central plot mechanics of the novel in which the carefully calculated plan to resettle the species on a distant planet it interfered with by the inability of the planners to foresee certain unexpected dangers.
“This century has seen many trials. Soon, there will be more. Imagine a world where humans could reach a consensus. With collective unity, we can avoid conflict. With no conflict, no war. Without the cost of wars, no starvation. Without differences in culture, in appearance, knowledge. Inconsistency and inequality are what have led us to such unrest and unhappiness. This collective effort ensures survival.”
The speaker of this quote is not identified by name. That is purposeful. He is the spokesman for a group calling itself the Collective and these words are basically an expression of their fundamental ideological philosophy. The Collective is a subversive group that seeks to manipulate the settling of a new planetary home for the human race. This expression of ideas embodies their argument that unless humans can avoid the same conditions that led to never-ending conflict and strife on earth, any resettlement will just be merely a repetition of the failures of civilization. The conflict within the novel stems from the reality that this philosophical outline actually does make logical sense on a surface level. The irony is that in order to actually implement theory into practice, the Collective must engage in equally genocidal extreme measures to enforce and maintain conformity.
“Without the politicians, the president…Ben, this is an opportunity to start over. A consensus. From this moment on, we can create a new history.”
The trip to the nearest planet on which humans will resettle will take hundreds of earth-years. This means that most of the passengers will be put into a state of suspended animation. This creates the need for conscious caretakers called Monitors. The Monitors, in turn, become the means by which Collective brainwashes the unconscious travelers through a sophisticated education system which downloads information into the brain. The Collective hacks this process for the purpose of either purging the memories of human history from their minds or, failing that, exterminating them. This is the essential task required for putting their ideological philosophy into practice. They must first ensure that everybody shares the same history, which is a false one implanted into the collective consciousness of the passengers. Starting humanity over again on a new location means nothing if all the same flaws and failures of civilization migrate with as well. The words of the Lead Monitor are overheard by Petra on whom the brainwashing process has failed. The words will continue to haunt her as she comes to realize that she alone awakens from the suspended animation with the actual history of humanity fully intact.
