Stasis (fiction)

A stasis /ˈsteɪsɪs/ or stasis field, in science fiction, is a confined area of space in which time has been stopped or the contents have been rendered motionless.

Overview

A stasis field is imagined to be a region in which a stasis process is in effect. Stasis fields in fictional settings often have several common characteristics. These include infinite or nearly infinite rigidity, making them "unbreakable objects" and a perfect or nearly-perfect reflective surface. Most science fiction plots rely on a physical device to establish this region. When the device is deactivated, the stasis field collapses, and the stasis effect ends.

Time is often suspended in stasis fields. Such fields thus have the additional property of protecting non-living materials from deterioration. This time dilation can be, from an in-universe perspective, absolute; something thrown into the field, has the field triggered and then reactivated, would fly out as if nothing had happened. Storylines using such fields often have materials as well as living beings surviving thousands or millions of years beyond their normal lifetimes. The property also allows for such plot devices as booby traps, containing, for instance, a nuclear bomb.^[1] Once out of the stasis field, the trap is sprung. In such a situation, to avoid the protagonist from seeing what is in the field, the story line would not allow normal beings to see something protected by a stasis field.

One use of stasis fields is as a form of suspended animation: to let passengers and cargoes (normally of spacecraft or sleeper ships) avoid having to experience extremely long periods of time by "skipping over" large sections of it. They may also be used, such as in The Night's Dawn Trilogy, as protection against the effects of extreme acceleration.

There are real phenomena that cause time dilation similar that of a stasis field. Extremely high velocities approaching light speed or immensely powerful gravitational fields such as those existing near the event horizons of black holes will cause time to progress more slowly. However, there is no known theoretical way of causing such time dilation independently of such conditions.

Examples

• The Dune series of novels features "nullentropy" containers, where food is preserved indefinitely, as well as entropy-free "no-chambers" or "no-ships" which are undetectable to prescience.

• The noted science fiction author Larry Niven used the concept of stasis fields and stasis boxes throughout his many novels and short stories set in the Known Space series. Niven's stasis fields followed conductive surfaces when established, with the resulting frozen space being an invulnerable and reflective object. They were often used as emergency protective devices and to create a weapon called a variable sword: a length of extremely fine wire in a stasis field that enables it to cut through normal matter. For more information, see Slaver stasis field.

• A more limited form of stasis field is the "bobble", found in Vernor Vinge's Peace Authority setting. A bobble is perfectly spherical and exists for a fixed period of timeset when the bobble is first created. The duration of a bobble effect cannot be changed. Bobble generators were initially used as weapons, removing their targets from the field of combat.

• Another example of a stasis field exists in Joe Haldeman's The Forever War,^[1] where stasis field generators are carried by troops to create conditions where melee weapons become the only viable means of combat. Inside the field, no object can travel faster than 16.3 m/s, which includes electrons, photons, and the field itself. Soldiers inside the field wear suits with a special coating to prevent electrical activity within their body from stopping, which will kill them. In the novel, the main character defeats an enemy army, which has besieged a contingent of human troops on a moon, by arming a nuclear bomb inside the field and then moving the field away from the bomb. Once the bomb is revealed, its electrical activity resumes and it detonates, vaporizing the surrounding army and a large chunk of the ground beneath the field.

• In Peter F. Hamilton's The Night’s Dawn trilogy (1996-1999), “zero-tau pods” — powered containers inside which time halts — are an important narrative device.

• In the computer strategy game StarCraft, the Arbiter unit can use Protoss technology and the Arbiter's psionic power to create a stasis field that traps units in the affected area in blue "crystals" of stopped time, taking them out of the fight and rendering them invulnerable for 30 seconds.

• In the Dead Space series, the main character Isaac Clarke carries a wrist-mounted tachyon-based stasis module, which is used to slow enemy Necromorphs to a crawl for a duration. He adapted its use to fight Necromorphs; it was used previously by technicians to slow down malfunctioning equipment. Medical use of the technology is later seen in Dead Space 2, with stasis beds; the protagonist had also been kept in stasis between games.

• The game Mass Effect has a biotic power called "Stasis" that can trap an enemy in a stasis field, rendering them immobile and invincible to damage. The duration of this effect is usually dependent on the user's skill level.

• In the Star Wars RPG series Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi who follow the path of the light are able to use "Stasis" powers, using the force to alter time and freeze an enemy in place. Unlike true stasis, it allows external events to affect the victim. The original game also uses a similar effect, where Dark Jedi trap party members to engage the player in a duel.

• In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Cat and the Canary", Green Arrow uses a stunner to put himself into a form of stasis while fighting Wildcat in an attempt to end his cage fighting career by falsely convincing him he killed Green Arrow.

• In the Invader Zim episode "Walk For Your Lives", Zim creates a time stasis field and uses it on Dib as an experiment to show to the Tallest, causing him to move slowly. As well, it produces an explosion which occurs slowly; Zim throws Dib into it speed it up, causing it to move at normal speed.

• In the animated series, Generator Rex, the main antagonist, Van Kleiss, is transported back in time to Ancient Egypt during an accident. While there, he creates a stasis chamber and is awoken at multiple points throughout history before returning to the present in the episode "A History of Time".

• The Space themed MMO Eve Online features a weapon called a stasis webifier. When activated against an enemy ship, it reduces the target's speed. Multiple 'webs' can be used on a ship at once.

• In Half-Life, the protagonist Gordon Freeman is put into a state of Stasis after a brief discussion with the G-Man and is later awakened after approximately 20 years by the G-Man at the start of Half-Life 2 . A similar incidence happens to Adrian Shepherd at the end of Half Life: Opposing Force, when the G-Man puts him into a state of stasis "for further evaluation" as of 2024 his fate after being put into stasis in unknown.

• At the end of Portal, Chell is put in stasis for many years until she is awakened at the beginning of Portal 2.

• In Project Eden, one character is frozen in stasis for 15 years. Stasis can also be used offensively to slow down enemies.

• In the first episode of Red Dwarf, "The End", Dave Lister, third-class technician of the mining ship "Red Dwarf", is put into a stasis booth as punishment for breaking rules on the ship. However, during his time in stasis, lethal radiation leaks into the ship as a result of a malfunction, killing the crew. Lister is revived three million years later by the ship's computer, Holly, once the high radiation levels have subsided.

• In Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire books, the Skolians use quasis to freeze time during interstellar travel.

• The 2008 novel The Last Colony describes a "sapper field" technology which can be set to modify various energetic properties of objects, such as weapons.

• The 2012 Expanse series of novels describes a "slow zone" of outer space where no kinetic technological process is allowed to operate above a set speed. This allows organic life to operate normally, but instantaneously slows any over-speeding artifact or kinetic component down to that speed.

• In Amphibia, King Andrias puts Marcy Wu in a state of suspended animation after killing her in the season 2 finale "True Colors". She is then used as a host for Andrias's master, a multi-eyed artificial intelligence entity known as the Core, leading her to become an antagonist until she is freed from its control.

• In The 100, during season 5, a group of prisoners awakes from cryopreservation after a little more than 100 years. They were on penal labor on a ship mining asteroids, but were put into cryopreservation for this period when the Earth had become temporarily uninhabitable.

• In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the world of Aionios is in a state of constant stasis, referred to as "the endless now", as a result of Z taking control of Origin.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Stasis is one of the Runes Link can use. It allows him to freeze objects in suspended time and launch them by building up kinetic energy.

See also

• Force field (physics)
• Force field (technology)
• Tractor beam

References

1. Haldeman, Joe (1975). The Forever War. Eos (HarperCollins). ISBN 0-380-70821-3.