Illuminae

Ezra, as a Second Lieutenant, writes his After Action Report of the Copernicus incident. The fleet was on Kerenza’s moon to retrieve water when AIDAN instructed the Cyclone fighters Prophet, Dreadnought, Carlin, and Ezra to prepare their assault batteries and attack the Copernicus. When shuttles were spotted leaving the Copernicus, they repeatedly tried to reach General Torrence for confirmation. Without a reply, the weapons were launched at the Copernicus. AIDAN told the Cylcones to target the escape shuttles, and they questioned firing on the civilians they’ve been trying to protect. AIDAN urgently repeated a code red message that a class alpha zero pathogen was on board and stated they must destroy the Copernicus shuttle Osprey immediately.

The way Ezra describes the evolution of events shows how chaotic and overwhelming the moments leading up to the destruction of the Copernicus were. There was a total lack of communication that made motives, issues, and ethics not play a role. They could only listen to the AI’s horrifying commands. There is also use of space to convey the void in the word “silence,” which is siloed on its own page (49).