Natural Selection
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 7 (Year 205, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 7Flagship of the Asian Fleet's third squadron, with a disc-shaped body and separate cylindrical engine; fusion drive reaches 15 percent of light speed.
- Ch 7Its four-way weapons system (gamma-ray lasers, railguns, particle beams, stellar torpedoes) could obliterate the surface of an Earth-sized planet; its hull is mirror-smooth.
- Ch 7Has about two thousand officers and soldiers, and a spherical fighter hangar the size of a soccer field with a pressurized opening directly into space.
- Ch 7The giant warship has no bridge or specialized compartments; identical spherical cabins can each host a full command console, including the captain's interface, via data gloves and permissions.
- Ch 7Its operation is fully automatic and the captain's displays show only general parameters; lower-ranking officers monitor more detailed operational status.
- Ch 7Maximum acceleration, Ahead Four, reaches 120 gs and proceeds only if the system detects all passengers in a deep-sea state; no other fleet ship can catch it.
- Ch 7Setting the ship to remote control skips the passenger check, because it assumes nobody is aboard; this setting is part of the captain's permissions.
- Ch 7Natural Selection is a stellar-class warship with over two thousand crew, accelerated to 1% light speed with only one-fifth of its fusion fuel.
- Ch 7Its fuel state means it cannot return to the Solar System under its own power.
- Ch 7The ship has only a fifth of its fuel and is certain to be caught by a pursuing force 1.2 million km away.
- Ch 8Coasting at 1 percent light speed, its fuel is below return capacity; Zhang Beihai wanted it kept from becoming a powerless ship.
- Ch 8Every spherical cabin can fully control the ship, so Zhang Beihai sees the ship, and perhaps civilization and the universe, as holographic.
- Ch 8Its crew is two thousand people; with the four pursuing ships the fleet totals about 5,500 crew.
Connections
- led byDongfang Yanxucaptain
- part ofAsian Fleet
- led byZhang Beihaiacting captain who seizes the ship
- has memberLevinfirst vice-captain
- has memberAkira Inouesecond vice-captain
- related toZhang Beihaihijacked the ship
- has memberDongfang Yanxu
- part ofStarship Earth
- enemy ofUltimateUltimate Law attacked Natural Selection with infrasonic H-bombs
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai arrives on Natural Selection
Learning of fleet rivalry over the probe interception, Zhang Beihai boards Natural Selection and is met by captain Dongfang Yanxu, who offers him a pistol as a challenge.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai's first onboard lesson
Dongfang Yanxu shows Zhang Beihai in simulation how to put Natural Selection into navigation mode and how an Imprinted hijacker might flee, then they talk of family and he warns he may have to kill her.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Zhang Beihai hijacks Natural Selection
After the permissions handover, Zhang Beihai locks out the captain, cuts communications and orders deep-sea state. Dongfang Yanxu complies, and he launches the ship at Ahead Four from Jupiter.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Standoff aboard Natural Selection
Dongfang Yanxu urges Zhang Beihai to surrender, but he keeps writing his account while pursuers close in.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai hands over Natural Selection
Zhang Beihai transfers captain's privileges to Dongfang Yanxu on condition that the ship not decelerate; she agrees and asks him to stay in his cabin.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai takes command
Zhang Beihai wakes and finds Natural Selection's crew and the four pursuing ships' officers assembled. They present him with command of the five remaining stellar-class warships rather than treating him as a defector.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Silent meeting of the captain and vice-captains
In the fighter hangar, Dongfang Yanxu, Levine and Akira Inoue communicate through their eyes, concluding fuel and parts are insufficient, some must die, and considering infrasonic H-bombs.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhang Beihai's attack on the four ships
Zhang Beihai locks targets and arms infrasonic H-bombs against four pursuing ships, but hesitates; Ultimate Law strikes first and wipes out all aboard Natural Selection, including Zhang Beihai.