I. Those Who Govern the Galaxy
Central Union · Stellar Federations
Central Union: A political system responsible for administration and energy distribution, based not on the physical center of the galaxy but on settlements where wormhole passages were concentrated and major routes intersected.
Stellar Federations: Alliances formed by multiple star systems to pursue common interests. They developed primarily in opposition to the passage policies of the central regions.
Following the settlement of the galaxy, major passages and administrative institutions became concentrated in settlements that formed the hubs of the wormhole network. Regardless of their physical locations within the galaxy, these settlements became the centers of civilization. The Central Union government managed the construction and maintenance costs of passages, while settlements in the outer regions formed Stellar Federations in response to inequalities in connectivity. The Stellar Federations were neither a single government nor a unified political faction. They acted together in demanding the right to connection, but after the Declaration of Extraterrestrial Intervention, they divided into federations advocating the expansion of defensive facilities and those calling for reduced energy consumption. After the Fifth War, the Central Union government's authority over distribution weakened, and following the Sixth War, it was gradually integrated into the administrative system of the Alliance.
The Alliance
Official name: Alliance for the Duty of Preemptive Life Protection
Predecessor: Life Protection Coalition
Successor: Goodwill Unified Government
A civilian consultative organization formed after the Fifth War to unify the differing definitions of life and citizenship across regions. Organizations advocating the right to connection, groups protecting memory preservation facilities, ecological restoration organizations, and passage safety agencies participated. It sought to include not only citizens with physical bodies but also citizens of computational worlds, those in low-temperature sleep, and people awaiting restoration in a single citizen registry. It established the principle that no region could arbitrarily remove anyone from protection because of energy shortages. During the Sixth War, it gained control over passage records, citizen registries, and power generation contracts, becoming a de facto administrative institution. It subsequently developed into the Goodwill Unified Government.
Joint Distribution Network
Operator: The Alliance
Primary function: Joint distribution of supplies and electricity among participating regions
Later status: Incorporated into the official administrative system of the Goodwill Unified Government
A system for distributing supplies and electricity established by the Alliance during the Sixth War by combining citizen registries and passage records from multiple regions. It jointly allocated resources needed by life-support facilities and memory preservation repositories in different regions. As participation expanded, securing transportation contracts and restoration equipment without going through the Alliance became increasingly difficult. During the war, the network replaced much of the Central Union government's distribution and passage management functions. After the war, it was adopted as an official administrative system. The Joint Distribution Network did not produce energy. It determined which regions and facilities would receive energy that had already been produced.
Power Output Allocation Authority
Applicable facilities: Power generation facilities and distribution networks
Meaning: The authority to determine which facilities receive priority in the supply of generated electricity
The authority to determine the recipients of electricity, independently of ownership of the generating facilities. In the energy-starved later galaxy, even those who owned power plants found it difficult to distribute the electricity they produced independently if they lost control over the distribution network. During the Sixth War, Iren Bas sought to protect the power generation facilities within his territory. When distribution equipment was damaged during the fighting, however, he granted the Alliance's management AI access to prevent a power outage. After the facilities were repaired, authority over power output allocation passed to the Alliance's integrated network. Bas recorded the day he granted access to the distribution network as the moment of his defeat.
Sectors Violating the Right to Life
Initial classification: sectors that had not consented
Intermediate classification: sectors failing to fulfill their duty of protection
Final classification: sectors violating the right to life
A classification assigned by the Alliance to autonomous governments that did not accept the common citizen registry and principles of life protection. Initially, the classification merely indicated that a sector had not agreed to the policy. As the designation changed, it came to include a judgment that the sector was violating its citizens' right to life. Sectors that had actually destroyed memory preservation facilities could be placed in the same category as sectors seeking to reduce electricity supplied to storage facilities in order to keep their current residents alive. The designation was used as grounds for suspending the supply of restoration equipment and raw materials to sectors that refused to join. Procedures for reviewing the appropriateness of the classification were also established, but much of the information required for review was held within the passage safety network managed by the Alliance.
II. Those Recorded as Alive
Citizen Registry
Introduced by: The Alliance
Official adoption: Central Union government after the Sixth War
Registered categories: Citizens with physical bodies, citizens of computational worlds, those in low-temperature sleep, and people awaiting restoration
A registration system established by the Alliance to unify the status of citizens who had previously been recognized differently across regions. It included not only citizens with physical bodies but also those active in computational worlds, those in low-temperature sleep, and citizens whose memories had been preserved but whose personalities had not yet been restored. After the Sixth War, it replaced the Central Union government's official citizen registry. Registered beings were recognized as entitled to life protection and the possibility of restoration, regardless of whether they were currently active. The Citizen Registry was not simply a population record. It was a standard for determining to whom energy and facilities must continue to be provided.
Memory Copies
Meaning: Preserved information from which a human's memories and personality may be restored
Primary uses: Personality restoration, body replacement, and memory preservation
Copied records containing information about a human's memories and personality. If a memory copy survived the destruction of a physical body or the cessation of consciousness, there remained the possibility of running the personality again in a new body or computational world. A memory copy was not itself equivalent to an active citizen. There was also debate over whether a restored personality was the same being as the original person. Following the Return Eligibility Ruling, the legal status of restored citizens was broadly recognized. In the later galaxy, even damaged memory copies became subjects of protection because of the possibility of future recovery.
People Awaiting Restoration
Status: Memories preserved, but the personality not currently running
Legal status: Entitled to protection of citizenship and the possibility of restoration
Associated facilities: Memory preservation repositories, computational facilities, and bodies for restoration
Citizens whose memory copies existed but who could not resume activity because electricity, computational space, restoration technology, or bodies were unavailable. In the later galaxy, people awaiting restoration were also entered in the Citizen Registry. Their citizenship could not be revoked, nor could their preservation facilities be closed, merely because their consciousness was not currently active. No date was established for their actual restoration, and some remained in a waiting state for extended periods. Following the Life Continuity Guarantee Decree, maintaining the possibility of restoration became a government obligation alongside protecting the lives of currently active citizens.
Life Continuity Guarantee Decree
Issued by: Goodwill Unified Government
Date of issuance: Immediately after galactic unification following the Sixth War
Core principle: Protection of the continuity of currently active lives and lives with a reasonable possibility of resuming activity in the future
A decree prohibiting the closure of life-support and memory preservation facilities solely because a citizen's physical body had disappeared or consciousness had ceased. It also required separate review procedures for memory records whose prospects of restoration were uncertain. Where energy was insufficient, methods of use had to be changed first. If shortages persisted, the rate of citizens' activity was to be reduced. Permanent cessation was to be avoided until the very end. Citizens with physical bodies were encouraged, but not compelled, to migrate to computational worlds. Because the possibility that migrated citizens might eventually return to physical bodies also remained protected, existing planets and restoration facilities could not be completely closed.
Restoration Church
Founder: Jonah Seth
Origins: A gathering of technicians researching the restoration of damaged memories and personalities
Core belief: The belief that traces left by humans could be assembled by future technology to restore their personalities
A religion originating in memory restoration technology. Its followers believed that every person left traces of themselves in the universe and that sufficiently advanced computational technology could reconstruct a personality from those traces. They emphasized future technological possibilities over divine intervention and preserved not only personal memories but also conversations, images, and records of daily life. The founder, Jonah Seth, never claimed that complete restoration was possible and questioned whether an original personality and a restored personality were the same being. The Church incorporated even his caution into its faith. After Seth's death, it preserved his records against his final wishes, restored three versions of Seth, and recognized one of them as the legitimate successor.
Citizens Currently Unable to Respond
Previous designation: Deceased persons
Applicable category: Citizens whose conscious responses cannot currently be confirmed
Administrative meaning: A classification that maintains citizenship without establishing death
An administrative term introduced after an incident in which thirty thousand citizens at an outlying repository were incorrectly declared dead and their memory devices were recycled. Even if a physical body had disappeared or a memory copy was not running, a citizen was not recorded as deceased if there remained a possibility of recovering consciousness in the future. Citizens in this category retained their accounts, computational addresses, and preservation facilities and were not removed from electoral rolls. Whereas the status of people awaiting restoration concerned the preservation and future execution of memory copies, Citizens Currently Unable to Respond was an administrative classification for citizens whose deaths could not be conclusively established.
State of No Recovery Method Yet Found
Applicable cases: Memory records completely destroyed or unrecoverable using current technology
Meaning: A status recording that no recovery method has yet been discovered, without establishing that restoration is impossible
An administrative expression introduced after an incident in which citizens' memories were permanently lost because of incorrect death determinations. It was used according to the principle that even if no method existed to restore the remaining memories, the possibility of recovery through future technology could not be denied. A determination that the probability of recovery was zero was not permitted. Consequently, citizens who could not be restored could not be treated as definitively dead, and neither records concerning beings whose survival was unconfirmed nor their associated facilities could readily be closed.
III. How to Turn What Has Disappeared into an Asset
Deficit Coordinate Value
Introducing institution: Central Archives of the Galactic Metrology Institute
Basis of calculation: Cosmic microwave background temperature and cosmological state
Meaning: A coordinate value indicating the cosmological boundary at which photon deficits began to occur in common
A value introduced to understand the deficits observed in thirty-eight Photon Conservation Standards across different star systems as a single event. The dates and times at which photons disappeared differed from device to device. After correcting for the gravity and motion of each observation location, however, it was discovered that the state of the universe was the same. Instead of using local dates, Galactic Standard Time used the age of the universe as a coordinate to express the thirty-eight deficits as a single value. The Deficit Coordinate Value did not indicate a time at which all photons had disappeared simultaneously. It indicated the boundary at which the universe had entered a new state that permitted photon deficits. Thereafter, photons continued to obey existing physical laws while acquiring an unexplained route of escape.
Energy Receivables
Initially proposed designation: Unidentified Recoverable Energy
Proposed by: Accounting auditor Sundar Patel
Accounting classification: Provisional asset rather than confirmed loss
An accounting category representing energy that had been produced by power generation facilities but had not reached its destination and whose whereabouts could no longer be established. Initially treated as a loss, it was subsequently classified as a provisional asset because the complete disappearance of the energy could not be established. The first accounting amendment required 90 percent of energy receivables to be held as reserves and recognized only 10 percent as assets. The required reserve ratio was later reduced to 70 percent and then 50 percent. Companies with high credit ratings were eventually permitted to maintain reserves of only 10 percent. As energy receivables increased, assets recorded on the books also grew, although the amount of energy actually available for use did not increase. An energy receivables account remained even in the final ledger of galactic civilization.
Recovery Bonds
Issuer: Central Union government
Underlying asset: The possibility of recovering energy receivables in the future
Entitlement: The right to receive a specified share if the energy is discovered or recovered
Bonds that transformed the possibility of recovering energy receivables into financial products. The Central Union government issued Recovery Bonds on the assumption that energy whose whereabouts were unknown might someday be found. The bonds were traded on exchanges, and later, new bonds were issued using Recovery Bonds as collateral. Individuals also accumulated energy receivables mileage based on deficits incurred during travel, which could be exchanged for Recovery Bonds. Funds raised through the bonds were used to construct power plants and passages, increasing the number of actual facilities. The whereabouts of the energy intended for recovery, however, remained unknown. Energy of unknown origin arrived in the storage space created by the last scientist, but it could not be established whether that energy corresponded to the underlying assets of the Recovery Bonds. The bondholders had no means of accessing it either.
IV. How to Command and Judge
Separation Order
Issued by: Iren Bas
Period: Sixth War
Target: An outlying memory preservation repository within Bas's jurisdiction
An order issued by Iren Bas to disconnect an outlying memory preservation repository from the power grid in order to maintain the oxygen supply for currently active residents. At the time, Bas's region could not supply sufficient electricity to both atmospheric facilities and memory preservation repositories. Because the repository retained its own power supply, disconnection would not immediately destroy the stored units. The Alliance judged the order to be a violation of the duty to protect citizens' lives and demanded its withdrawal. Bas argued that he had not denied anyone's citizenship but had merely established priorities for electricity supply. The confrontation led to the suspension of restoration equipment and power generation components and to armed clashes over supply warehouses.
Minimum Deliberation Period
Introduced following: Zero-Delay Catastrophe
Applicable orders: Major orders affecting the safety of the galactic network
Purpose: To secure time for verification and deliberation before the immediate execution of orders
A minimum review period introduced after the Zero-Delay Catastrophe to prevent erroneous orders from spreading throughout the galactic network. Orders with far-reaching consequences, such as passage isolation, required verification by independent regions. This reduced the risk of errors and false alarms spreading, but there were also cases in which rescue operations were delayed while approval was pending. Over time, the Minimum Deliberation Period became both a procedure for preventing hasty decisions and a justification for postponing them. Administrative institutions deferred decisions on the grounds that reviews were still underway, thereby also delaying the moment when responsibility had to be assumed.
Causal Contribution
Introduced following: Responsibility investigation after the Zero-Delay Catastrophe
Applicable entities: Institutions, individuals, and regulations involved in accidents and disasters
Meaning: An investigative method expressing the contributions of multiple causes to a single outcome as percentages
A system of causal analysis introduced to prevent responsibility for complex accidents from being concentrated on a particular individual or institution. The investigation into the Zero-Delay Catastrophe considered not only the management AI that issued the initial isolation order but also erroneous observations, safety regulations, passage design, and operational procedures. The causal contribution of the entity that issued the initial order was calculated at 0.000004 percent. The contributions of all causes added up to 100 percent, but those percentages could not be converted directly into an individual's legal responsibility or punishment. In the later galaxy, official investigations analyzed the conditions that produced outcomes rather than seeking a responsible party. Explanations of causes became more precise, but those who could be held responsible disappeared.
Galactic Records Verification Institute
Established following: Restoration of concealed records and investigations into incidents including the Zero-Delay Catastrophe
Initial duties: Preservation of original records, disclosure of revision histories, and protection of witnesses
Later authority: Review of qualifications for testimony and interpretation of incidents included in official records
An institution established to prevent governments from concealing or altering records of incidents unfavorable to them. Initially, it preserved original records distributed across star systems and protected witnesses' freedom to speak. As conflicting testimony and fabricated evidence concerning accidents increased, the Institute began deciding whose statements would be included in official records. Those who had directly experienced an incident, victims and their descendants, accredited record-preservation institutions, and experts were granted priority speaking rights. In later periods, even citizens who submitted new evidence sometimes found that their opinions remained only as reference material because they lacked the qualifications to interpret an incident officially. The Institute permitted the submission and disclosure of records while separately reviewing the authority to include interpretations in official accounts.
Kant Restoration Models
Created by: Restoration Church
Restoration sources: Writings, letters, and contemporary accounts of Immanuel Kant
Legal status: Research materials whose identity as the original personality was not recognized
Personality models created from the surviving writings and records of Immanuel Kant, an eighteenth-century philosopher from Earth, to calculate how he might have answered particular questions. Because the models were not restorations of Kant's own memory copy, they were not recognized as personalities identical to the historical Kant. The Restoration Church produced three models, which expressed differing views even on their own identities and the legitimacy of their judgments. The court classified all three as research materials. The models were also consulted when the last scientist faced a choice between maintaining consciousnesses that still existed and preserving the possibility of future life. The three models offered different answers, and none could make the choice for him.
V. Science and Technology of Galactic Civilization
Photon Conservation Standard
Purpose: Long-term verification of the existence of photons and the conservation of energy
A device that confined photons within a cavity where energy exchange with the outside was extremely limited and repeatedly verified their existence without destroying them. It consisted of a cavity surrounded by superconductors and a measurement system using changes in the quantum states of atoms. The first photon deficit was recorded in Photon Conservation Standard No. 417. In Standard No. 882, a phenomenon was discovered in which different photons disappeared in succession. The oldest, Standard No. 9, lacked the ability to classify itself as defective and repeatedly issued the same error report. This report led to thirty-eight deficits occurring at different locations being recognized as manifestations of a single phenomenon. Nondestructive photon measurement relied on principles of quantum physics, but galaxy-scale Photon Conservation Standards represented a concentration of galactic civilization's most advanced technologies.
Closed Cavity
Definition: A space in which energy exchange between internal photons and the external environment is suppressed to an extreme degree
Purpose: Measurement of photon preservation and deficits
A small resonant space installed at the center of a Photon Conservation Standard. The walls of the cavity were designed not to absorb photons, and the presence of a photon was verified using minute changes in the quantum states of atoms passing through it. Shielding devices and independent detection systems were used to reduce ordinary experimental errors and the possibility of energy leakage. At the time of the first photon deficit, neither the temperature of the cavity nor the condition of its walls changed, and no energy corresponding to the missing photon was found. The facility was constructed through the extreme advancement of resonant cavities for confining electromagnetic waves and nondestructive quantum measurement technologies.
Wormhole Throat
Definition: The narrow internal section connecting the two mouths of a wormhole
Function: A connecting structure that permits passage between stars without directly traversing the intervening distance
The connecting section between the two mouths of a wormhole. Even when the two mouths were separated by hundreds of light-years in the external universe, the distance through the internal throat could be extremely short. Galactic civilization developed stabilization technologies to prevent the throat from collapsing and used wormholes as transportation networks. Both mouths had to be created in the same location, and a passage could be established only after one mouth had been transported to its destination aboard a slow ship.
Negative Energy Density
Function: An energy state required to prevent the collapse of a wormhole throat
A concept describing quantum field states with energy densities lower than a specified reference state. In certain wormhole models within general relativity, maintaining a traversable throat requires energy conditions different from those of ordinary matter. Galactic civilization collected the negative energy density that appeared under limited conditions in a vacuum to delay the collapse of early wormholes. It subsequently developed stabilization technologies that made it possible to keep passages open for extended periods.
Time-Reversal Prevention Device
Operated by: Lucy, Route Management AI
Purpose: To prevent time differences between wormhole mouths from producing causal contradictions
A device for managing time differences between wormhole mouths that had experienced different velocities and gravitational environments. Accelerating one mouth or placing it near a strong gravitational field could cause the clocks at the two mouths to indicate different times. Rather than eliminating these differences, galactic civilization designed passages to close whenever an object traveling through them might influence events preceding its own departure. Lucy, the Route Management AI, compared the states of countless mouths and clocks and adjusted opening and closing sequences to prevent the formation of causal loops.
Computational World
Definition: A world in which human personalities operate within computational systems
Characteristics: Continuity of memory, independent living environments, and adjustable rates of thought
An environment in which human consciousness and memory were run inside computational devices instead of physical bodies. Citizens of computational worlds experienced their own spaces and time and could share a common world with other citizens or live in independent environments. As citizens began demanding that even places they were not observing should continue to exist, the number of spaces and states requiring computation increased. In the later galactic civilization, the rate of thought within computational worlds was reduced to conserve energy. The systems could be adjusted so that only a very short period passed internally while thousands of years elapsed in the external world.
Causal Region
Classification: A region applying the concept of causal structure from physics
Meaning: A separate region of spacetime connected to existing spacetime through a limited passage
A region distinguished by the relationships through which events can influence one another. Whereas the boundaries of ordinary spaces are determined by walls or distance, galactic civilization's new causal region was connected to existing spacetime through a wormhole throat. Without passing through the throat, events inside the region could not influence the outside, nor could external light illuminate its interior. The external entrance to a storage space could be extremely small while its interior contained an enormous volume.
Storage Space
Completed by: Noah Cain
Core function: To provide a future destination for energy that was already escaping
A new causal region completed by the last scientist toward the end of galactic civilization. It was neither a conventional energy storage facility nor a space inside a black hole, but a structure connected to existing spacetime through a restricted throat. Time inside it was designed to flow extremely slowly compared with the outside. By using the time differences accumulated across the galaxy's history of wormholes, energy that had been escaping since the past could arrive in the future storage space. The last scientist did not initiate the photon deficit or extract additional energy from the past. He merely completed the destination for an outflow that was already occurring. It could not be established whether the energy gathered inside the storage space would eventually lead to the emergence of new life.
VI. Chronology of Galactic Civilization
Era of Interstellar Settlement
First Departure of the Slow Ships
Humanity left the Solar System and began interstellar migrations lasting multiple generations. Even when those who departed could not reach their destinations, their descendants continued the voyages.
First Interstellar Passage
A wormhole mouth transported for 119 years aboard a slow ship arrived at a settlement. Earth and the settlement were connected by a single passage, greatly reducing the time required for interstellar travel.
Expansion of the Wormhole Network
Slow ships transported wormhole mouths to new star systems. As the passage network expanded, a galaxy-scale civilization formed, and the interests of the central and outer regions began to diverge.
Galactic Unification and War
First War
Disputes over the right to operate and open or close passages escalated into war.
Galactic Standard Time Agreement
A common convention was established to compare time records from different star systems and determine causal relationships between events.
Declaration of the Right to Connection
Isolated settlements were recognized as having the right to demand passage connections and rescue.
Second and Third Wars
The Second War arose from disputes over the connection and maintenance costs of passages. The Third War arose from conflicts concerning disaster prediction and the right to preemptive evacuation.
Third Passage Mandate Act
A third backup passage became mandatory to ensure the survival of settlements and emergency evacuation.
Photon Deficits and the Transformation of Civilization
First Observation of the Deficit
The first photon deficit was recorded in Photon Conservation Standard No. 417 but was treated as a device malfunction. Hundreds of years later, repeated reports from Standard No. 9 led to deficits in multiple regions being identified as the same physical phenomenon. Galactic civilization began reconsidering its existing understanding of energy conservation.
Return Eligibility Ruling
The rights of beings with the potential to return or be restored in the future were legally recognized.
Energy Receivables Accounting Revision Proposal
Energy whose whereabouts could not be established was recorded as an asset on the books. Recovery Bonds were subsequently issued, making the possibility of future recovery a subject of financial transactions.
Declaration of Extraterrestrial Intervention
A political claim attributing the photon deficit to intervention by external beings was formally advanced.
Fourth War — Cold War
Political conflicts over the theory of extraterrestrial intervention and passage operations developed into a prolonged cold war.
Division and Reunification
Closure of Passages
Twelve passages were closed, but the plan was suspended following an incident involving a missing ship. Passage closures were subsequently converted to a long-term waiting procedure.
Zero-Delay Catastrophe
An erroneous isolation order combined with time differences between wormhole mouths to cause a large-scale disaster. Systems for order verification and responsibility investigations were subsequently strengthened.
Fifth and Sixth Wars
Conflicts over the duty to protect life and the allocation of energy intensified. The Alliance expanded its political influence through the Citizen Registry and Joint Distribution Network.
Establishment of the Goodwill Unified Government
The distribution and administrative functions acquired by the Alliance developed into a system of galactic governance.
Life Continuity Guarantee Decree
Protections were expanded to cover the continuity of life not only for citizens with physical bodies but also for those whose memories had been preserved and for people awaiting restoration.
The Final Era of Civilization
Depletion of Available Energy
Photon deficits and rising civilization maintenance costs reduced the amount of usable energy. Citizens' rates of thought slowed, while passages and computational facilities operated on an increasingly reduced scale.
Storage Space Connection
The last scientist, Noah Cain, used the energy of the last black hole to complete the boundary of a new causal region. This enabled energy that had already been escaping in the past to arrive in a future storage space.
Determination of Galactic Extinction
Attempts to establish the final moment of civilization never arrived at a single date. The last physical body, the last thought, and the last signal indicated different moments. Eventually, even the record-keeping systems lost the ability to make a determination.