An investigative committee of specialists was formed to determine the cause of the energy deficit. Its divisions examined the structure of the wormhole network, unknown particles, changes in the vacuum, and other possibilities. No single cause could explain both the photons that had disappeared from the cavities of Photon Conservation Standards and the energy deficits occurring in passages. Deficits in black-hole power networks were also included in the investigation, but no identifiable cause was found. One feature, however, appeared in every measurement: the missing amount was always recorded in the same direction. A research report stated that the phenomenon appeared to have a consistent destination. The report explicitly noted that the phrase was metaphorical. The media used the first half of the sentence as a headline: “Someone is stealing the light of the galaxy.” The sensational headline was interpreted in ways favorable to each group’s position. Citizens who held recovery bonds and mileage felt reassured by the possibility that there might be someone from whom the energy could be recovered. Some physicists felt ashamed that they had briefly doubted the laws of the universe. Markets immediately adjusted the discount rates on the bonds and bundled them into new financial products. Whether “someone” actually existed was not important to them. That was a problem for the Central Union government.
Based on the committee’s report, galactic civilization began further investigation into the possibility of extraterrestrial intervention. With an enormous budget, it established the Extraterrestrial Intervention Investigation Committee, composed of astronomers, military strategists, passage engineers, historians, and specialists from other fields. Its first report stated that current observational data contained no trace of an extraterrestrial technological civilization. No artificial signals, megastructures, or traces of unknown propulsion systems were found. The opposing view argued that the absence of evidence could not be treated as decisive disproof. A civilization capable of taking energy from the galaxy, it reasoned, might also be capable of avoiding human detection. The committee recorded separately the possibility that an extraterrestrial civilization existed and the possibility that such a civilization had caused the deficit. In public debate, the two possibilities were often treated as one.
The politician who declared the theory of extraterrestrial intervention was Asel Ron, head of the Energy Committee. After holding several senior positions in the Central Union government, he had proposed, upon becoming chair, that the passage network be reduced and energy consumption restrained. The proposal, however, would have required simultaneous restrictions on the right to connection, the rights of return-eligible persons, and the Third Passage Mandate Act. Opposition was strong, and a policy requiring citizens to cut back on their way of life before the cause of the deficit had even been identified could not be approved. Asel Ron argued that, apart from determining the cause of the photon deficit, a common defense against “someone” was necessary. If the unidentified phenomenon was the result of external intelligent action, the entire galaxy would bear the consequences of failing to prepare a response. The Central Union, the stellar alliances, energy companies, and research institutions agreed on a common response to that risk. The Declaration of Extraterrestrial Intervention established three main principles: under the principle of the common survival of galactic civilization, the possibility that the photon deficit resulted from an unknown intelligent action would be investigated thoroughly; even an unconfirmed threat would be managed as a risk to common survival; and until the nature of the threat was determined, the Central Union government would share observational data and defense facilities. The declaration did not confirm the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization. The public, however, understood the common-defense provisions as preparation for war. The media and the public called the hypothetical agent the “External Collector.” It had not even been established whether the agent was a single species or whether any act of taking energy was actually occurring, but the name entered documents for extraterrestrial-defense planning and educational materials used in schools. Children were taught to move to life-support facilities located away from wormholes when alarms sounded. The drills also reduced casualties in actual passage accidents.
The new defense network adopted delayed judgment as a principle. Whether an attack had occurred was to be verified by devices in different regions. The facilities recorded observed signals but found no attacker. Deficits continued to appear not only at passage entrances but also in starlight and in energy transmissions from power plants. As the scope of surveillance expanded, demands arose to monitor every transfer and conversion of energy. The surveillance devices consumed power, and their data were transmitted through the passage network. Increasing the number of measurements did not reveal the cause of the deficit, but leaving any region unexamined also violated defense regulations. Defense expenditures and deficit amounts were recorded in the accounts of different institutions. A report showing at a glance that increasing the defense budget consumed more energy, some of which was then recorded as unexplained loss, was produced only much later. After the declaration, data exchange increased even between stellar alliances that had previously been hostile to one another. Internal disputes disappeared while they investigated the common danger. Whether or not the External Collector existed, the declaration created cooperation among humans. What that cooperation should be used for was a separate question. Some alliances believed more energy should be spent on observation and defense, while others believed it was dangerous to increase energy flows without knowing the route by which energy was escaping. Both sides cited the declaration’s principle of common survival.