This possibility of time travel may come into account with a test ship using the jump drive with a full size ZPED. The fields in the jump drive may interact differently with the dimensional travel with so much increased power... just a thought... 🙂
Yep, I am sitting here bored, waiting for the next rock of crack. 🙂
It seems there would be a psychological power over having Earth, Humanity's birthplace, in your empire.
As to what was lost, it seems it would be more severe on lesser-populated worlds. Less survivors to teach their subject knowledge to the next generation. It would be spotty, though, depending on who survived. Some planets might remember more about genetics, some remember more about energy and physics. Some might remember more about agriculture, which would have given them an advantage in the "after-times".
My first thought is that David is right about the Pentaurus Cluster being more advanced, but my second thought is "Why would they happen to be the MOST advanced group of humanity?" Why not another group, 1000 light years in a different direction? Or one that ran into Aliens? 😉
With respect to Time Travel, I think that is easily explainable. The equations that the Jump Drive use includes a TIME variable. Since normally they use the system time from the ship, it's normally a constant. This is why when they jump, it's "Instantaneous". However, that doesn't mean that it has to be. Time can be adjusted so that the ship can jump to a point in space before they left. This also means that they can travel in time at will.
Just my 2 Cents.
Eric H
Oooh. That sounds fine, but wouldn't the paradox then step in? You know, go back and kill Nathan's grandpa, and he never gets out there to command the ship that goes back to kill the grandpa?
Oooh. That sounds fine, but wouldn’t the paradox then step in? You know, go back and kill Nathan’s grandpa, and he never gets out there to command the ship that goes back to kill the grandpa?
Not necessarily, I'm thinking that the first time will be an accident. Even if it was "meant to be...". That a Glitch in the system's time will transport them back (or forward) in time. The Jump Engineers will have to figure out why that happened and fix it. At that time, they notice that time can be a variable enough that they can move not only through space but in time as well given the proper manipulation of the time variable.
It could also happen where the falcon is badly damaged and they hop back in time to start the legend of Na-Ton.
I think the fabric of space/time is a lot more flexible then to allow for killing a distant relative while journeying in one's own past.
also, as some say, since it did happen, it will happen... Time travel gives me a headache 🙂
2Cents
Eric H
There was a great short story where a Professor is lecturing on the paradox theory of time travel using the Grandfather example, when all of a sudden a young man who looks vaguely like the professor appears in the room and tries to shoot him. The assailant misses, then disappears. A few minutes later he re-appears and tries to use a bow and arrow, and again fails and disappears. Next he appears and tries to knife the Professor. He gets foiled again, and then the Professor pauses, thinks, and then says "Ok, I have solved this. I will never have children."
Since the information data ark has not been fully discovered, I see the possibility of some type of AI technology being uncovered. This tech could have been the precursor to the data virus itself. Sooner or later the data ark will reveal information on the times and tech leading up to the virus.
Would be nice if they could develop some reflective or refractive armor to negate some of the energy weapon damage from the jung but perhaps that would be too lopsided 😉
Just a rant on time travel: if, in say 1000 years someone develops backward time travel, for the remaining years for humanity, say 200,000 years or so (just for a number), people would be traveling back in time... Even if it were able to be controlled initially, there would be many governments, factions, etc that would eventually prevent control of the tech. Therefore someone would eventually screw up, travel back for profit, revenge, whatever, and we would know about it. Therefore I don't believe it will ever be invented or we would see the result.
My $0.02 is that Time Travel for matter will not happen, but time travel for energy just might work. Think of it as radio. If we build a receiver we might gain knowledge or understanding from the future, but of course there is no way to know if the other end is a prankster. "Drain the Indian Ocean right away or you'll all be dead!" "Wow, you believed me?"
I was thinking the other day how Josh was subjected to so much temporal radiation - perhaps he will develop a sensitivity to jumping: being able to control it at will (either a ships field or jumping himself using a field?), "seeing" during a jump (time dilation?) or maybe "steering" during a jump.
Perhaps he will be able to see forward in time when in proximity to a jump field.... Ryk's mind could come up with something a lot better to be sure.
Sounds a bit like ST:TOS "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Josh would become a minor god if he had vision beyond time... 🙂
What about aliens. I know that this has been mentioned before and can be deemed too common in Sci Fi arenas, but with the jump drive you would think that this would eventually lead to the discovery or draw the attention of a other than human life form. There could be a back story that some of the technologies in the Data Core actually came from extraterrestrial life. The Bio-Plague could have been part of a scheme from a group of extraterrestrials that believed that Humans were not ready for the advanced technology that could bring them to distant galaxies. That they take notice of Capt Scott uniting human civilization across the stars and Capt Scott has to convince a alien galactic empire not to send them back the stone age again. Thoughts?
Sure, why not? 🙂
The Milky Way is some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter, and which contains 100–400 billion stars.
The scale of a whole galaxy makes the unimaginable common place. 100 light years from the Pentaurus Cluster was a massive distance for them to cross, and yet it is such a small portion of the Milky Way, and that is just cross-wise. Add in the 3-dimensionality of the width of the galaxy, well, you get a lot of life-bearing planets... and some of that life is bound to be pissed off.
The only thing that would seem to stop us from tripping over intelligent life everywhere we turn is the scale of time. How long will we stay around as a species? 100,000 years? A Million years? The Earth is roughly 4,300 MILLION years old. We could be the sixth major intelligent lifeforms to arise here, and we wouldn't even know it. If we go out into space there may yet be a chance of not finding anyone to talk to merely because of the scale of time problem.
I can understand the whole time and distance aspects if it. Especially when you include a 3-dimensional curve ball to it. But you could also imagine with the rate of evolution involved with Homo Sapiens, you would think that it was equally possible in another galaxy. If you think about all the other species that have lived on earth prior to humans, it is a weird quirk that we evolved so quickly and radically.
Now in reference to distance, once the alliance figures out the abilities of the new power source, you can imagine that distance will not be the limiting factor. There could be an investigation into the original power surge that happened when the anti-matter reactor was destroyed in the first episode. I don't know why they never fully looked into how that effected the jump drive in the first place. Obviously this leaves the playing field wide open for expansion and variances in the story line.
Just how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go.
How about this:
Nathan and crew jump into an unknown system. They are shot at by missiles of incredible speed, and just barely escape destruction. They decide to get closer, because, hey, Nathan is brave. 🙂
As they get closer to the planet that fired the missiles, they discover an icy world, encircled by rings of frost. The entire planet is very cold, and yet, there is an extensive industrial base going at full speed. The factories are belching enormous amounts of waste products into the air, and are fueled by incredibly advanced fusion reactors. Launching some high-speed recon passes, they discover a few inhabitants on the surface. They are roughly human (bipedal) but small, perhaps 1 meter tall.
On long range scans they detect one of those super-high speed missiles coming towards the planet, and they take evasive action. They just barely jump out of the way as the missile comes directly at them (and the planet). From a short distance they watch in horror as it looks like the missile will surely destroy the planet, when all of a sudden the missile decelerates and lands. Nathan decides to do the whole heroic thing and land on the planet with a shuttle. He takes Josh and Loki and flies down to the same landing pad where the missile landed.
As they land, they notice traces of primitive surface transportation pulled by local beasts. They emerge from the shuttle and are greeted by one of the natives wearing a very warm-looking green cape. Surprisingly, he speaks Anglic. "Greetings, Na-Tan. Please follow me to the Master." They follow as the short little fellow leads them out of the cold and into a warm, electric-furnace heated interior. The walls are hewn from native timbers, and look thick.
They pass through corridor after corridor. Everywhere Josh looks, the locals are busily scurrying to and fro. Josh decodes to speak. "Your people look busy. Are they always like this?"
The greeter looked dismissively back over his shoulder. "It is always a holiday SOMEwhere."
Eventually they reached an enormous center courtyard, which was wide enough to have parked two Auroras end to end. They pass around the side of the hall until they reach a quiet alcove with a large doorway. "The Master is inside," announced their guide. He opens the door and waved them inside. They enter the warm, comforting room. The carpeting is soft and squishy, and the walls are covered in tapestries of greens and subtle red. At a large, wooden desk, sits an enormous native. He is so much taller and larger than the others that he could easily be mistaken for a human. He glances up from his touch screen computer and welcomes them.
"Hello, and welcome! Always glad to see some of my children!" he announces in a loud and booming voice. Even while speaking, he seems to have a smile dancing about his lips. His bright red cloak shimmers in the glow of the artificial fireplace. His white hair encircles his face with a happy glow that somehow makes him even more appealing. Loki can't understand why, but he trusts this person immediately.
Nathan, never at a loss for words, is still not the first person to speak. Josh stammers "Father Klaus?" Nathan looks sideways at Josh, trying to see if Josh is making a joke. Josh looks intently serious. The man across the desk just laughs.
"Some have called me that," he chuckled. "But let's get down to business. I want your Jump Drive technology, and I'm willing to pay for it." His smile never left his mouth, and yet the seriousness in his voice could not be doubted.
Nathan spoke up. "How do you know about our technology?" He slipped naturally into one of the guest chairs in front of the old Elf's desk.
The old man laughed and said, "Surely you know about my surveillance technologies? The NSA hasn't got anything compared to me! I know when you have been bad or good, when you sleep or when you wake. Surely you would not hold anything back from me?"
Nathan steepled his fingers. "Well, when you put it that way... Loki, Let's see what we need to finish outfitting the Celestia."
The Master clapped his hands and laughed. "Fantastic! I'll have the elves bring some hot grog!" He knew these people were going to have a good Christmas this year, and he smiled at the thought.
Eric,
That was funny. Merry Christmas and Hammy New Year!
