Empress Wave Resources

[Nathan Brazil]

Since I did the original wiki chart (at light soeed) I might as well extend it. Going backwards in time further....
Year is the year the Wave enters the sector. At an average of 1 pc/year, this is the breakdown. The differences in year and position for Beauniture (Caesillian 0914) could simply be the eddys and blockages written of before.

X Y Year Sector Name
-7 -21 403 Nevlieri <<<<<Current Position of Caesillian Sector
-7 -20 443 Tatlnjaie
-7 -19 483 Bliatsiebl
-7 -18 523 Favkranish
-7 -17 563 Zhenzhbrivtlo
-7 -16 603 Vikrvidrria
-7 -15 643 Pontarbli
-7 -14 683 Azhpliabl
-7 -13 723 Prinjobliedl
-7 -12 763 Ia
-7 -11 803 Zietssha
-7 -10 843 Proanz
-7 -9 883 Tsebntsiatldlants
-7 -8 923 Chterabl
-7 -7 963 ??
-7 -6 1003 ??
-7 -5 1043 Zhiensh
-7 -4 1083 Driasera
-7 -3 1123 Zdiedeiant
-7 -2 1163 Zhodane

 

[Ackehece]

Well Marc could scare us all yet.

The Empress wave was Lightspeed, now it is FTL, next It's only a jump hop and a skip away from everything....
The wave is accelerating!
When the Zhodani first saw it it was strictly FTL and gave them millennia to deal with it.
The next time it was faster, now hundreds of years...
the next time... it's arriving

It's not failure to plan but failure to expect a phenomena to suddenly travel faster than light. and one that is accelerating on a impossible to derive schedule.
No where is safe, but wonders appear in it's wake.

 

[mike wightman]

That's a retcon and a half.

Dave Nilsen states it was a lightspeed wave.

Later retcons give it an FTL component (mistake IMHO since it breaks one of Marc's cardinal rules, no FTL comms ever - unless he's changed his mind).

 

[tjoneslo]

That's a recon and a half.

Dave Nilsen states it was a lightspeed wave.

Later retcons give it an FTL component (mistake IMHO since it breaks one of Marc's cardinal rules, no FTL comms ever - unless he's changed his mind).

It has always been a psionic effect. Depending on how you read which source it is partly or fully psionic. In addition to the light-speed vs FLT effect, there is the violation of the inverse square law. A real world effect would weaken as it traveled outward. So if it strong enough to cause the zombie apocalypse at the edge of charted space, it should only an annoyance effect by the time of hitting the Spinward Marches.

Since Psi is the magic of the Traveller Universe, you can use it as a convenient excuse to explain any physics violating effect you want.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

My estimates assume that propagation of the wave occurs at a constant, consistent speed. As has been noted, psionics is the magic of Traveller. But you work with what you got.

Until Marc says it is something else. That should become an Internet meme.

:rofl:

 

[Grav_Moped]

Nerfable, but not without impact or cost

The Wave doesn't have to wreck Zhodani civilization, and it shouldn't.

I can envision them building a massive fleet of starships containing kits for building hundreds or thousands of city-sized (or at least modular and scalable) psionic shield "bunkers", enough to protect the populations of at least medium-pop worlds. These bunkers would not be shielded internally -- just against the outside -- so the Joes could still mind-control their serfs while the populace was protected from the effects of the Wave. The fleets might also carry emergency rations for the hunkered-down populations. The Zhodani "official story" for this may or may not accurately describe the reasons for taking shelter (or its extent) to their citizens.

Once the Wave passes, the bunkers get dismantled and loaded back onto the ships, which then Jump ahead of the Wave and set up on the next world in line to get Waved. At current canon speed, they'd have a minimum of three years to dismantle the shelters on one world and then set them up on the next one.

They'd still have to deal with the consequences of the temporary loss of central control. Only trusted elites would be issued shield helmets for outside work during the Wave's passage, and those helmets would need to be strictly accounted for and either returned or destroyed when no longer needed.

The fleets themselves would be high-value targets, and obviously, well-defended.
Worlds "hunkered down" for the Wave would be vulnerable to outside attack, as the Zhodani would not have the advantage of their psionic abilities.

[The following is an end-run around canon through exploiting the possibility of an unreliable narrator:]
1. The Zhodani know exactly what the Wave is.
2. The later Core Expeditions were hoaxes.
3. The resources that were ostensibly meant for them were redirected into building the Wave Bunker Fleet as described above.
4. This has been concealed from from Zhodani public knowledge (and the Core Expedition participants were reprogrammed with false memories).

And:
5. The Imperium knows about the core expedition hoax from their Longbow scans. It suits their purposes to play along with it.

 

[Murph]

Or better find the edge, and jump back to the worlds it has already passed over since it is one of the things that really pissed me off about Aftermath/Zombie Apacolypse in space. It was stupid back then, and it is just as stupid deus ex machina now. As sign that people have run out of ideas, sort of like Star Trek and 99% of Hollywierd these days.

The Wave doesn't have to wreck Zhodani civilization, and it shouldn't.

I can envision them building a massive fleet of starships containing kits for building hundreds or thousands of city-sized (or at least modular and scalable) psionic shield "bunkers", enough to protect the populations of at least medium-pop worlds. These bunkers would not be shielded internally -- just against the outside -- so the Joes could still mind-control their serfs while the populace was protected from the effects of the Wave. The fleets might also carry emergency rations for the hunkered-down populations. The Zhodani "official story" for this may or may not accurately describe the reasons for taking shelter (or its extent) to their citizens.

Once the Wave passes, the bunkers get dismantled and loaded back onto the ships, which then Jump ahead of the Wave and set up on the next world in line to get Waved. At current canon speed, they'd have a minimum of three years to dismantle the shelters on one world and then set them up on the next one.

They'd still have to deal with the consequences of the temporary loss of central control. Only trusted elites would be issued shield helmets for outside work during the Wave's passage, and those helmets would need to be strictly accounted for and either returned or destroyed when no longer needed.

The fleets themselves would be high-value targets, and obviously, well-defended.
Worlds "hunkered down" for the Wave would be vulnerable to outside attack, as the Zhodani would not have the advantage of their psionic abilities.

[The following is an end-run around canon through exploiting the possibility of an unreliable narrator:]
1. The Zhodani know exactly what the Wave is.
2. The later Core Expeditions were hoaxes.
3. The resources that were ostensibly meant for them were redirected into building the Wave Bunker Fleet as described above.
4. This has been concealed from from Zhodani public knowledge (and the Core Expedition participants were reprogrammed with false memories).

And:
5. The Imperium knows about the core expedition hoax from their Longbow scans. It suits their purposes to play along with it.

 

[Hyphen]

The Wave doesn't have to wreck Zhodani civilization, and it shouldn't.

Only problem I can see is this: can you imagine evacuating the ENTIRE POPULATION OF TODAY'S EARTH and moving them a "mere" 1 jump away?

First you have to find everyone, then persuade them to go ... etc etc.

Logistical impossibility, even for the Zhos who supposedly have an ordered society.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Only problem I can see is this: can you imagine evacuating the ENTIRE POPULATION OF TODAY'S EARTH and moving them a "mere" 1 jump away?

First you have to find everyone, then persuade them to go ... etc etc.

Logistical impossibility, even for the Zhos who supposedly have an ordered society.

But you're not counting on the rumours of an Enormous Mutant Star Goat. That alone should get about a third of them onto the Ark.

Seriously though, propaganda for the need to take shelter will be remarkably effective. Remember, in OTU they don't just have an ordered society, they've got one that's managed by psionic control. The people who don't accept the official story will be found and will be "guided" into correct beliefs. Yeah, it's creepy.

But imagine if FEMA* had a magic wand they could wave before a Category 5 hurricane made landfall to absolutely convince everyone in its path that they really were going to die if they didn't evacuate, no ifs ands or buts, regardless of any excuses they might have. The Zhodani have that magic wand.



*U.S.-centric reference: Federal Emergency Management Agency

 

[aramis]

If any group could coordinate to move a population, the Zho's can... except for the simple problem of "There are not enough ships to move a major population across the wavefront"...

Simply put, no matter how well organized, moving the required 4 parsecs means needing about 4 tons of ship per person. (note that that's 4 to a stateroom... because the needed supporting tonnage — drives, fuel, controls, crew SR — is about 3.5x the tonnage of the payload.)

In theory, you could pack them in to twice that... but that's still a lot more ships — and crews — than the Zho's have.

 

[Grav_Moped]

If any group could coordinate to move a population, the Zho's can... except for the simple problem of "There are not enough ships to move a major population across the wavefront"...

Simply put, no matter how well organized, moving the required 4 parsecs means needing about 4 tons of ship per person. (note that that's 4 to a stateroom... because the needed supporting tonnage — drives, fuel, controls, crew SR — is about 3.5x the tonnage of the payload.)

In theory, you could pack them in to twice that... but that's still a lot more ships — and crews — than the Zho's have.

Ok, I didn't realize it was a 3+ parsec-deep wavefront. This means that a shelter-in-place would require keeping everyone shielded for 10-13 years! Still might be easier than shipping them to another world, though.
"Pack[ing] them in to twice that" means low berths or fast drug, right?

Fast drug could also be used to reduce the apparent time sheltered to a couple of years, and/or large portions of the population could be put into cold sleep in psionically-shielded low berths (and either left in place or shipped offworld).

Actually, cold-sleeping everyone in shielded low-berths would be how you'd do it. Start the process years ahead of time, so you can move everyone with a smaller fleet over a longer period of time. Deliver them to a world that's in the trailing edge of the Wave using shielded J-2 mega-freighters (after securing a big enough safe zone from any remaining crazies) and only wake them up after the Wave passes. Ideally, the last batch of refugees arrive just as the Wave finishes passing through and can be reawakened immediately upon arrival.

As refugees are reawakened in batches, load their low berths onto the freighters for delivery to the next world to be evacuated. (Or, perhaps, to a depot for overhaul before sending them on to where they're needed next.)

One implication of this is that the Zhodani will effectively perfect Low Berth technology, having had billions of data points for controlled tests of the process. They might only have it correct for pure Zhodani though...

Another is that there will be a band of abandoned worlds within the Wave, prime for looting. Hmmn, is there a canon way to forcibly disable psionic shielding from a distance, other than just shooting a hole in it? (I'm thinking something along the lines of nuclear dampers, but for Psi fields.) 'Cause that'd be an amazing planetary defense for worlds inside the Wave... and just the rumor of such a weapon might keep raiders at bay. Otherwise, there will still be patrols and system defenses, but the Zhodani won't have their usual advantages since they'll be blocked behind psi-shields.

 

[mike wightman]

So you load up your brightest and your best and move them.

The doomed majority (not really doomed since the wave will actually benefit the proles) find out about it and civil unrest of a sort the Zhodani have never had to contend with kicks off.

Which is sort of what was happening during the Rebellion era (except the reason then was going to be the baddies from the core) and definitely what happened with the Zhodani exodus to the Regency.

I wonder what happened to all of those Zho worlds where the proles were lifted to operancey by the wave effects, while the majority of any intendants or nobles left behind go mad or die (or are taken over as conduits for extradimensional metaconscious entities).

 

[kilemall]

i haven't read any of the original Wave material so keep that in mind with my comment here but....

Wouldn't the Wave utterly destroy biomes?

If it monkeys with human brains, it's got to hammer animal brains, kind of an EM rabies hitting them all at once. Without the animal component, I would expect most plants would die to lack of pollination, seeds spread around, fertilization activity above microbes and fire, etc.

And possibly the big one, atmospheric change.

No carbon exuding animals, eventually the plants oxygenate to the max, have no carbon input besides fires volcanos and the like, and you have an atmosphere that may be hostile to at least the larger plant forms.

 

[mike wightman]

No - you need to go and read up on the Empress Wave.

It only affects those with psionics - trained or untrained.

Most plants (by biomass) do not require animal pollination here on earth since they are aquatic and asexual.

 

[kilemall]

No - you need to go and read up on the Empress Wave.

It only affects those with psionics - trained or untrained.

Most plants (by biomass) do not require animal pollination here on earth since they are aquatic and asexual.

I know what algae is, big assumption there is an analogue in all those other worlds. But lord help me, I didn't write it down.

Really cheeses me around here sometimes, having to write a doctoral dissertation to precisely delineate every nuance of a thought without getting a 'you're a science idiot boy' correction.

What is the level of psionics of animals? Perhaps they tend to use it more and we 'evolved' out of it with our problem solving intelligence and information retention education?

Ya i don't know about the Empress Wave, and have little interest in the topic at all, just occurred that it should have wide ranging effects to higher order neurological systems.

 

[jcrocker]

What is the level of psionics of animals?

Cats think they have a high level of psionics, they have that 'mind control stare' thing they do.

Dogs have a wider spectrum - little yippy dogs, no way. Border Collies, those things can be spooky some times.

I think Lassie must have been very psionic, how else would she always be around when little Timmy fell down that well? Clairvoyant-9 perhaps?

But yeah, it's been tweaked between MT & MgT, so I don't know if any further changes would matter at this point, one world could be sterilized and the next system untouched and that written off to 'local fluctuations in the wavefront' or some such handwavium.

 

[mike wightman]

Now that is an interesting question - how psionic are plants and animals.

We know from Traveller canon that there are psionic plants and animals but they are very rare.

How did some plants and some animals on some planets express psionic abilities while on the vast majority of worlds there is no evidence they do.

Are there psionic viruses?

 

[Hyphen]

No - you need to go and read up on the Empress Wave.

It only affects those with psionics - trained or untrained.

Most plants (by biomass) do not require animal pollination here on earth since they are aquatic and asexual.

Spoiler:

In _Agent of the Imperium_, Marc has the plants and animals behaving erratically after the Wave passes.

 

[mike wightman]

There are psionic plants and animals - established traveller fact. And remember Marc didn't write the Empress Wave but it is now his to explain.

 

[The Pakkrat]

A little clarification please because I am receiving two conflicting views. How long after the Empress Wave passes a world are its effects still felt given there is a count of psionic people present? One thought said up to three years after the passing of the Wave. A second said that it took up to eleven years for a world to normalize.

Next, there is a mottled opinion base of how much personal and structural (planetside vaults, bulk hauler starships with psi-shielding, etc.), protection psionics sophonts need to weather the Wave.

I saw on the wiki a reference of utilizing CABAl technology on succeptible starship traveller. Thoughts? Obviously not every world threatened by the Empress Wave will have access to such tech.

Lastly, since the Zhodani are aware of the Empress Wave, how far is the Tavrchedl' willing to go to "enhance everyone's calm" even for the suspicious races outside the Consulate? Cover-up anyone?

Side dish for thought from Net-7 News, this is the Pakkrat on location.