Two boys, alone in space.
The Darkness Outside Us is a 2021 novel by Eliot Schrefer.
The year is 2472, and Earth has received a distress signal from its first settler on Titan. Earth's two remaining nations, Fédération and Dimokratía, assemble a joint mission to investigate, sending a single spacefarer each aboard the Coordinated Endeavor. For Fédération's pick, Ambrose Cusk, the mission is personal, as the settler is his sister Minerva. Ambrose, however, doesn't remember being told that it was a joint mission; moreover, he doesn't remember taking off. He and his reluctant partner, Kodiak Celius, continue noticing abnormalities over the course of the journey to Titan, and have to learn to work together to figure out just what's going on with this mission.
On February 12th, 2024, Schrefer announced on his Twitter
that a sequel, titled The Brightness Between Us would be released on October 1st of the same year.
This book includes examples of:
- Adam and Eve Plot: The true purpose of the Coordinated Endeavor's mission. Ambrose's mother realized that humanity was doomed, and sent a spacefarer each—or rather, several clones of them—from Fédération and Dimokratía with a gestation pod and thousands of zygotes to keep humanity alive. Notable for being an Adam and Eve plot with two men, and one that depended on being two men; if they sent a spacefarer who could become pregnant, they ran the risk of in-space pregnancies and all the complications that could arise from them.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Zigzagged. Ultimately OS is a Benevolent A.I., albeit a Well-Intentioned Extremist devoted to the secret mission of taking Ambrose and Kodiak far away to restart humanity. If they get too close to jeopardizing the mission—for example, trying to obstruct or subvert OS, or deliberately damaging or refusing to maintain the ship—it won't hesitate to kill them and move on to the next set of clones.
- Apocalyptic Log: Ambrose #13 keeps one for the last clone, updating once a year on the anniversary of his and Kodiak's destruction of the other clones ("Annihilation Day" as he calls it) for 23 years until his death.
- Artistic License – Military: In-Universe. Dimokratía's military is entirely men, but that doesn't mean that the themed porn of them is.
- Bottle Episode: The novel takes place entirely on the Coordinated Endeavor. Until the very end, when it finally crashes on Sagittarion Bb after thousands of years of travel.
- Burial in Space: Once a year, on the anniversary of their destruction of the other clones (which Ambrose dubs Annihilation Day), Ambrose and Kodiak #13 hold a ceremony where they send one of the bodies out into space.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Exploited by Ambrose and Kodiak's thirteenth clones in Part 5. With thousands of ship tasks outstanding, they kill seven of their eight remaining clone pairs, ensuring that OS will be forced to keep them alive as long as possible.
- Colony Drop: In the year 18301, Earth is struck by an asteroid and destroyed, leaving Kodiak and Ambrose the only surviving humans in the universe.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A lot. The clones get often flung into space, but some other of their fates includes Ambrose having his throat slashed by Rover, two of Kodiak's clones dying from cancer, and, by unclear means, Ambrose comitting suicide.
- Damsel in Distress: Minerva, whose distress call from Titan kickstarts the plot. It turns out to be a lie, though.
- Defrosting Ice King: Kodiak is a surly guy, fully resistant to working with Ambrose unless absolutely necessary...at first, that is. Ambrose's sheer determination to befriend him combined with the extenuating circumstances of their voyage work together to bring him around.
- Despair Event Horizon: When Kodiak and Ambrose kill almost all the clones, they note OS screaming as they do. It goes silent in the immediate aftermath, and in the subsequent years of their lives Ambrose describes it as docile, with the two of them no longer disposable.
- Distant Finale: Played with. Part 6 happens 12 thousand years after Part 5. As the final clones awake, they're finally in the new planet. The final parts of the story include a time skip of a year to when the first human zygote gets finally born.
- Driven to Suicide: Ambrose #13 after his Kodiak's death by cancer.Ambrose: The universe has no light in it anymore. I will join him tonight.
- Egopolis: The original Ambrose who remained on Earth suggests in a recording that the clones rename their new home exoplanet Cusk—"That's Mom's dream." Ambrose and especially Kodiak don't care for his suggestion.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: OS's default voiceskin is that of Chairperson Cusk, Ambrose's mother, but can be customized to the spacefarers' preference.
- Has a Type: Ambrose specifies that his type are fey-ish, androgynous people (both his previous lover and the actor in his go-to porno are also indicated to be non-binary). It's somewhat of a surprise to him he is attracted to Kodiak.
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Ambrose's paternal DNA comes from the reconstructed sperm of Alexander the Great. He dryly wonders if that's how his mother shows her love for him.
- Meaningful Rename: As the first settlers on Sagittarion Bb, it falls to Kodiak and Ambrose to give their new home a name. Kodiak suggests, and Ambrose agrees, to name it Minerva.
- Minimalist Cast: For the entire novel, the only three characters that appear are Ambrose, Kodiak, and OS. Albeit there are several of their clones that appear through the novel. Other characters like Sri and Ambrose's family members are mentioned but do not appear.
- Motivational Lie: Minerva's distress call is revealed to be one, meant to keep Ambrose and Kodiak focused on completing the ship's necessary maintenance, and ideally keep them from digging too deep into the truth of their situation.
- Ominously Cut Tether: OS cuts Kodiak's tether while he's on a spacewalk when he and Ambrose have learned too much of the truth about their mission.
- Settling the Frontier:
- Minerva is humanity's first settler on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Well, supposedly.
- Once they land on Sagittarion Bb, it falls to Ambrose and Kodiak to create humanity's new home.
- Scar Survey: Ambrose notices a scar on Kodiak's arm, and with some pressing, Kodiak admits it's from his Training from Hell in Dimokratía's space program.
- Show Within a Show: Ambrose shows Kodiak a 2459 remake of The Mummy (1932). It's worse than Ambrose remembers, but Kodiak is enthralled.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: OS's preferred way of disposing of clones.
- Together in Death: At least two clone pairs go out together.
- In one pair, Kodiak dies of radiation poisoning from continually manually navigating the ship in an unshielded room after they disable OS. Shortly thereafter, Ambrose reenables OS, who airlocks them, but not before Ambrose straps himself in bed with Kodiak.
- The penultimate clone pair goes similarly. At age 38, Kodiak dies of cancer, and in his final journal entry, Ambrose records that he will join him that night.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once the periodic maintenance the Endeavor requires is complete, or when Ambrose and Kodiak become too hostile to the true mission, OS disposes of them and waits until the next clones need to be awakened.
- Wham Shot: After finishing the final task, Kodiak gets blown into space by the ship and has his tether cut off. Meanwhile, Ambrose gets flung into space and dies. For anyone still thinking they were dealing with your average high-concept queer romance, this is the scene that completely changes the tone of the book.
