Page "A Fire Upon the Deep" Paragraph 6

The Blight attacks Relay and Old One.

Old One gives Pham the information necessary to activate the Blight Countermeasure while dying ( a process known as godshatter ), and Pham and Ravna escape Relay's destruction in the Out of Band II.

After arriving at the Tines homeworld and allying with Woodcarver to defeat Steel, Pham initiates the Countermeasure, which extends the " Slow Zone " – the inner region of the galaxy where the highest technologies, such as artificial intelligence and superluminal travel, are impossible – by thousands of light-years to enclose the Blight.

This ends the threat of the Blight at the cost of wrecking thousands of uninvolved civilizations, causing trillions of deaths and potentially the extinction of several galactic races.

The process also kills Pham and strands the other humans on the Tines world, now in the depths of the " Slow Zone " where rescue by an advanced civilization is impossible.