The Others
Names: The OthersOther
First appears in Book 2: For We Are Many, chapter 10 (10. Genocide)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: For We Are Many
- Ch 10Mario calls the unknown aliens who strip star systems 'the Others'; they have also mined out Zeta Tucanae's asteroid belt.
- Ch 13Mario worries the Others are using the mined metal to build more of themselves; their 'ants' are surprisingly efficient.
- Ch 38The Others' homeworld appears to be a hot, polluted planet they nearly global-warmed to extinction.
- Ch 38Others' ships accelerate at about 12.5 g, faster than Hal's 10 g, but their SUDDAR range is about thirty light-minutes shorter.
- Ch 39The Others have superior tech, faster SURGE drives, and may need to strip another hundred or so systems to finish their Dyson sphere.
- Ch 39The Others have replaced Medeiros as the Bobs' number-one enemy; the Bobs consider themselves already at war.
- Ch 52Bill estimates the Others' population could be a couple of hundred billion, enough to field a navy that would overwhelm the Bobs.
- Ch 54A squad of Others vessels has left Gliese 877 heading for Gliese 54, possibly on a routine scavenging mission.
- Ch 55The Others arrive at Gliese 54 with ten death asteroids, hundreds of small craft and twenty ten-kilometre cargo hulks.
- Ch 55The Others reply to Bill's contact attempt in Mandarin, calling him food.
- Ch 55The Others say they learned concepts like mercy from a captured cybernetic unit, and have no such concept themselves.
- Ch 55The Others intend eventually to reach Sol and Epsilon Eridani, having detected human radio beacons.
- Ch 55The Others obliterated the beings at Zeta Tucanae, regarding them as food.
- Ch 57The Others apparently captured the Chinese probe and stripped its data, so they know where Earth and Epsilon Eridani are.
- Ch 57Garfield concludes the Others are a hive organism that needs to live packed together in large groups.
- Ch 57An Other is about four feet tall with a gorilla-like posture, sucker-bearing front limbs, feeding fingers, a grinding maw and many small eyes.
- Ch 57The Others strip a system by using ants to mine ore and build more ants; Mario estimates GL 54 will be cleaned out in a year.
- Ch 59The Others launch another expedition from GL 877, apparently heading for NN 4285, a dim M star.
- Ch 60Bill estimates the Others harvest a system every ten to twenty years.
- Ch 66An Others convoy twice the size of the GL 54 convoy is detected heading for Delta Pavonis, home of the Pav.
- Ch 66The Others' force includes twenty death asteroids, forty cargo vessels and several hundred attendants.
- Ch 67All the Bobs are preparing for the Others' arrival at Delta Pavonis.
- Ch 72The Others launch fusion bombs with accelerations in the hundreds of G's, wiping out the Bobs' second battle group.
- Ch 72A massive SUDDAR ping from the Others' fleet reveals the Bobs' cloaked fusion bombs, blunting the final strike.
- Ch 72The Others message the Bobs in Mandarin, calling them pests and vowing to harvest Delta Pavonis, then Sol and Epsilon Eridani.
- Ch 74The Others sweep Delta Pavonis 4 with death asteroids, killing between half a billion and a billion Pav for food and mining.
- Ch 74At a grim moot, Bobs voice agreement that the Others must be exterminated, pending a vote.
- Ch 77The Others took just over four years to strip Delta Pavonis, leaving with only cargo vessels and death asteroids.
Book 3: All These Worlds
- Ch 2The Others kill all life on a world with Death Asteroids, then strip the planet and inner system of metals and collect all corpses.
- Ch 2The Others know only about Earth and Epsilon Eridani, but nearly two hundred systems are closer to GL 877 than Vulcan.
- Ch 11The Others have depopulated five more life-bearing planets near GL 877, including a civilization comparable to mid-twentieth-century Earth.
- Ch 21The Others have finished 'harvesting' the Pav homeworld.
- Ch 24The Others likely use base 12, matching 864 cargo bays and the six feeding fingers on each side of their maw.
- Ch 33The Others have begun attacking and chasing the Bobs' surveillance drones around GL 877, apparently aware they are being watched.
- Ch 43At the moot, Bill reports the Others' harvesting of Delta Pavonis continues and no one has a plan to stop it.
- Ch 46The Others have shown no activity at all recently, which Riker finds suspicious.
- Ch 48The Others' sphere construction continues, but almost no death asteroids or cargo vessels remain in their home system.
- Ch 48No harvesting is happening in any system near the Others, so their missing fleet is somewhere else.
- Ch 50Covering possible indirect approaches to Sol would require almost eighty thousand monitoring drones.
- Ch 56The Others' invasion fleet has about fifty death asteroids and a hundred cargo carriers, likely full of fighters.
- Ch 59The Others zapped half the Bobs' bombs by predicting evasive moves biased toward the Golden Mean.
- Ch 59The Bobs' first fusion-bomb strike destroys or disables ten death asteroids and twenty-two cargo carriers before the Others emit their super-pulse.
- Ch 63The Others fire a second super-pulse far sooner than expected, likely having traded drone capacity for extra power cores.
- Ch 63After the nuclear assault, about a third of the Others' force is destroyed, but Bill doubts they can do twice that again.
- Ch 65The Others appear to detect the Bellerophon and maneuver Death Asteroids to get a clear shot at Earth.
- Ch 66Herschel warns the Others must be dealt with at their source, or they will regroup and return.
- Ch 67The Others used their second super-pulse to hide a drone and missile sortie that blindsided the Bobs.
- Ch 67After the dreadnaught charge, just over a third of the Others' fleet remains operational.
- Ch 70Bill believes the Others are finished, barring any hidden nests; he does not regret wiping out the species.
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 5Icarus doubts the Others destroyed this civilization, since they had not even reached all their local stars.
- Ch 7The Others' SURGE drive design relies heavily on the main computer for control, unlike human drives.
Connections
- enemy ofMario
- enemy ofHal
- inGliese 877expedition launched from there
- createdDyson Sphere
- createdDeath Asteroid
- enemy ofBob
- enemy ofBill
- led byPrime
- related toChinese probecaptured it and stripped its data
- related toGliese 54stripping its resources
- enemy ofPavconvoy heading for their system
- related toHulk-1Others' carrier
- enemy ofJokers
- enemy ofIcarus
- related toOld Pavrendered unlivable by the Others
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 10Genocide at Zeta Tucanae
Mario discovers that the Others wiped out an entire sentient civilization at Zeta Tucanae, dismantling cities and collecting the dead, after stripping Beta Hydri too.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Mario reports the Others to Bill
Mario builds a SCUT, connects to BobNet, and shares his evidence of the Others with Bill, who promises weapons research and a warning to all Bobs.
- Book 2 · Ch 38Hal scouts Gliese 877
Using cautious probes, Hal observes the Others' home system, including a metal-encased planet and the start of a Dyson Sphere.
- Book 2 · Ch 38Hal evades the Others
Chased by faster Others ships, Hal trains them to expect his manoeuvres, then goes dark and slips out of their SUDDAR range.
- Book 2 · Ch 38Hal tests his theory and is caught
Suspecting the Others detect radio traffic, Hal backs himself up and transmits deliberately; the Others close in and his self-destruct engages.
- Book 2 · Ch 53Shielding test at Gliese 877
Hal sends a shielded decoy into the Others' system; it survives a death-asteroid zap long enough to send a scan before self-destructing.
- Book 2 · Ch 54Others head for Gliese 54
Bill warns Hal that an Others squad is heading for Gliese 54, Mario is evacuating, and a first-contact attempt is planned.
- Book 2 · Ch 55First contact with the Others
Via a deliberately crude drone at Gliese 54, Bill talks to the Others, who reveal their hive nature, see all other life as food, and plan to reach Sol; they then destroy the drone.
- Book 2 · Ch 57Moot on the Others
Bill briefs the Bobs on the contact with the Others; Garfield explains SUDDAR power beaming and their hive nature, and Bill unveils the first images of an Other.
- Book 2 · Ch 57Bill and Mario discuss the harvest
Mario describes the Others' exponential ant-based stripping of GL 54; Bill argues they must prepare quickly in case Earth is next.
- Book 2 · Ch 59Others launch toward NN 4285
The Others launch another expedition from GL 877; Bill and Mario worry the Pavonis systems are next and that no Bob system is close enough to help.
- Book 2 · Ch 66Others convoy heads for Delta Pavonis
Guppy detects a large Others convoy bound for Delta Pavonis; Bill, Jacques, Claude and Oliver tally their forces, which are not ready.
- Book 2 · Ch 72Battle of Delta Pavonis
Bobs attack the Others' armada in three staggered waves plus stealth nukes; they destroy three death asteroids and several cargo ships but lose many dreadnaughts and fail to stop the fleet.
- Book 2 · Ch 72Others' threat and Pav evacuation
The Others vow to harvest Delta Pavonis, Sol and Epsilon Eridani; learning Jacques was killed, Bill triggers the plan to take twenty thousand Pav off-planet.
- Book 2 · Ch 74Harvest of Delta Pavonis 4
Bill's stealth drones record the Others sweeping Delta Pavonis 4 with death asteroids, killing up to a billion Pav, and setting up massive printer operations.
- Book 2 · Ch 77Others leave a dead world
After four years the Others depart Delta Pavonis, leaving Delta Pavonis 4 stripped and lifeless; Bill weeps at the sight.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Howard tells Bridget the Bobs lost
A distraught Howard tells Bridget the Bobs have lost against the Others at the Pav home world, dooming a billion Pav; a moot will meet to decide what to do.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Mario reports more Others devastation
Mario tells Bill that scouting around GL 877 has found five more planets wiped out by the Others, including another civilization, and urges a final solution to the Others.
- Book 3 · Ch 33Others attack surveillance drones
Bill tells the moot that drones monitoring GL 877 have been attacked or chased, suggesting the Others know they are watched.
- Book 3 · Ch 48Probes find the Others' fleet gone
Mario's surveillance shows the Others' home fleet is absent apart from the Delta Pavonis expedition, convincing Riker something is coming.
- Book 3 · Ch 56Others' fleet detected
Riker's drone network detects a huge Others fleet approaching Sol; Bill convenes a council that estimates odds and orders early countermeasures.
- Book 3 · Ch 59Sneak attack on the Others' fleet
Bobs strike the approaching Others' armada with cloaked SCUT-controlled fusion bombs, knocking out ten death asteroids and twenty-two carriers before a super-pulse ends the surprise.
- Book 3 · Ch 63Main battle begins
Bob attack groups and bombs engage the Others' fleet; an unexpected second super-pulse exposes the Jokers, but nukes destroy about a third of the enemy force.
- Book 3 · Ch 66Bellerophon flees Earth
Herschel lifts the loaded Bellerophon off Earth and dodges a series of Others' zaps thanks to SCUT warnings, then runs from the battle.
- Book 3 · Ch 66Cuba destroyed
An Others zap hits Cuba before its 150,000 people can be evacuated, killing everyone there.
- Book 3 · Ch 67Dreadnaught sacrifice
Will sends almost a hundred AMI dreadnaughts in a nuclear charge that clears enemy defenders and leaves just over a third of the Others' fleet.
- Book 3 · Ch 67Jokers' Doppler strike wins the battle
At Will's suggestion, Hannibal's Jokers detonate their nukes at near-light speed; the Doppler-shifted radiation sterilizes the Others' fleet and the Bobs win.
- Book 3 · Ch 69GL 877 destroyed
Icarus and Daedalus release two relativistic planetary masses into GL 877 from opposite poles, causing the star to explode and sterilize the Others' system.
- Book 3 · Ch 70Victory and the end of the Others
Bill tells Herschel and Neil that the Battle of Sol is won at heavy cost, and reveals that Daedalus and Icarus have destroyed GL 877, ending the Others.