ISP connection to the forums was playing silly buggers last night, so I didn’t try and post. Most of this has been at least touched upon already, but I needed to get it out of my head.
The main reason the Fen haven’t gone a-traipsing across the Galaxy is most of the characters have settled down into their lives in the Solar System. They have their own lives now (which was why most of them went up).
To get them moving, there would have to be a Need. Or moving would have to be easier. Probably both.
Let’s start with Needs shall we?
1) Adventure:
This is the original driving force for eth Fen, and it’ll still be there now things have settled down in the Solar System. There WILL be people who want to be the First on a planet, to go places because they’re there.
Then there are the Mysteries, of which we have a metric crap tonne of to choose from.
2) Unintended Consequences
Think about what the Fen have achieved in the post Boskone War period, and what having the Whole Fenspace Catalog publicly available will do. Workable, reasonably cheap Fusion power has solved the possible energy crisis on Earth, as well as knocked any number of climate issues on the head. Huge medical advancements have taken longstanding assumptions of health and tossed them in the shredder. All the life support technology in use by the Fen can help keep all those little villages clean and healthy. Recycling technology can clean up the planet. Growth mediums to vat grow meat and vegetables will cut land use by farms drastically.
We’re not talking population explosion; we’re talking population NOVA.
We don’t have anywhere to PUT these future people at the moment, and building all those homes and infrastructure will take time. Space habitats won’t cut it due to the extras needed (atmosphere, gravity, space safety systems) slowing them down. Then there are all the people who’d be complaining about losing all that land just to build homes.
But look! All those empty planets that you don’t need to terraform (too much). Wouldn’t they be easier targets?
And that’s just one possibility.
3) Resources
There are plenty of resources not found in the Solar System in practical amounts, or at all. Alien technologies are also a resource, but the Gate metals are probably the ones everyone wants.
In Candle in the Dark, Elerium could be used to make Battletech-style Jump Drives of insane utility (33 ly every 33 mins, and fits in a standard Space Shuttle’s payload bay), replacing germanium. What could the other Gate metal Skuldium do? After all, the Gates were likely built on site, so these elements must exist in relative abundance nearby.
4) External Events
When M Fnord detailed the Soviet’s lives and changes to 2024, he signed off with ‘Then the Fire Nation attacked’. What if it DID? Depending on the capabilities of an attacking force, many may try to run from a Solar System at war.
Solar weather may threaten Earth and Fenspace. We can only protect so much, why not go elsewhere?
A cloud of Dark Matter has been found approaching the Solar System. The gravitational effects will disrupt space travel for decades. We have some time to get people out-system before we’re practically cut off.
All of the above events are purely theoretical.
OK, that’s Needs. What about making travel easier?
How about Hades Station releasing a new drive system that could make all Wave-based ships travel at 0.2C in-system? Or the Feds/Soviets releasing a new drive that can move far more than the 500C of normal interstellar travel? Or someone else getting a drive system from the WFC working that beats what is commonly available? Limit Break or not?
Or we could try moving one of the Gates to Sol…
These are all just suggestions.
The main reason the Fen haven’t gone a-traipsing across the Galaxy is most of the characters have settled down into their lives in the Solar System. They have their own lives now (which was why most of them went up).
To get them moving, there would have to be a Need. Or moving would have to be easier. Probably both.
Let’s start with Needs shall we?
1) Adventure:
This is the original driving force for eth Fen, and it’ll still be there now things have settled down in the Solar System. There WILL be people who want to be the First on a planet, to go places because they’re there.
Then there are the Mysteries, of which we have a metric crap tonne of to choose from.
2) Unintended Consequences
Think about what the Fen have achieved in the post Boskone War period, and what having the Whole Fenspace Catalog publicly available will do. Workable, reasonably cheap Fusion power has solved the possible energy crisis on Earth, as well as knocked any number of climate issues on the head. Huge medical advancements have taken longstanding assumptions of health and tossed them in the shredder. All the life support technology in use by the Fen can help keep all those little villages clean and healthy. Recycling technology can clean up the planet. Growth mediums to vat grow meat and vegetables will cut land use by farms drastically.
We’re not talking population explosion; we’re talking population NOVA.
We don’t have anywhere to PUT these future people at the moment, and building all those homes and infrastructure will take time. Space habitats won’t cut it due to the extras needed (atmosphere, gravity, space safety systems) slowing them down. Then there are all the people who’d be complaining about losing all that land just to build homes.
But look! All those empty planets that you don’t need to terraform (too much). Wouldn’t they be easier targets?
And that’s just one possibility.
3) Resources
There are plenty of resources not found in the Solar System in practical amounts, or at all. Alien technologies are also a resource, but the Gate metals are probably the ones everyone wants.
In Candle in the Dark, Elerium could be used to make Battletech-style Jump Drives of insane utility (33 ly every 33 mins, and fits in a standard Space Shuttle’s payload bay), replacing germanium. What could the other Gate metal Skuldium do? After all, the Gates were likely built on site, so these elements must exist in relative abundance nearby.
4) External Events
When M Fnord detailed the Soviet’s lives and changes to 2024, he signed off with ‘Then the Fire Nation attacked’. What if it DID? Depending on the capabilities of an attacking force, many may try to run from a Solar System at war.
Solar weather may threaten Earth and Fenspace. We can only protect so much, why not go elsewhere?
A cloud of Dark Matter has been found approaching the Solar System. The gravitational effects will disrupt space travel for decades. We have some time to get people out-system before we’re practically cut off.
All of the above events are purely theoretical.
OK, that’s Needs. What about making travel easier?
How about Hades Station releasing a new drive system that could make all Wave-based ships travel at 0.2C in-system? Or the Feds/Soviets releasing a new drive that can move far more than the 500C of normal interstellar travel? Or someone else getting a drive system from the WFC working that beats what is commonly available? Limit Break or not?
Or we could try moving one of the Gates to Sol…
These are all just suggestions.