Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[Keklas Rekobah]

(*Typo corrected)

The only references I have to "bug plot" involved Kafka's "Metamorphosis", some agricultural experiments, and a cheesy movie starring Ashley Judd.  Explain?

[gaerzi]

The bugs here are the Umiak.

Fireblade is seen as a potentially compromised asset, due to her stay in occupied Seren; and they're not entirely sure yet that Alex's claims of being from an independent "Humaniti" out there in the boonies is real, with his "lotai" and very-close-but-not-entirely-accurate resemblance to the Loroi, their first thought was of some Umiak infiltration scheme.

[inxsi]

This might also be an issue if the loroi discover Alex is detecting Fireblade's dreams/whatever is currently happening in the shuttle - it might make them wonder why the possible umiak-designed life form (Alex) is able to detect the sanzai of the possibly-Umiak influenced Fireblade. I wonder if he has not detected Tempo previously because she does not show off the strength of her sanzai?

[Krulle]

I hope for him that's it because of her strong telepathic signal.
Otherwise, Fireblade will also be in trouble.

(Good idea - I like the fear of the Loroi that the Umiak may have changed Fireblade's Sanzai resulting in her Sanzai being detectable by Alex.
That will lead to real internal issues with the Loroi.)

[Cthulhu]

I hope for him that's it because of her strong telepathic signal.
Otherwise, Fireblade will also be in trouble.

(Good idea - I like the fear of the Loroi that the Umiak may have changed Fireblade's Sanzai resulting in her Sanzai being detectable by Alex.
That will lead to real internal issues with the Loroi.)

My version is that she was simply strong enough to penetrate his Lotai, or she was the "spearhead" of the combined effort of the 3 Teidars. Now Alex' telepathy is leaking through the breach, and after he falls asleep, it shall awaken. Or maybe he is simply linked to Fireblade and is piggybacking on her telepathy. Anyway, we'll see once the new page is posted next Monday (I hope).

Actually, I wanted to ask a question about hyperspace.

The jump generator needs several minutes' worth of the ship's total output to power up. But once it projected the field, how long does it persist? Only for the moment of the jump itself, or does it also continue to work while the ship is in hyperspace? If not, what would happen if the field were to be active?
Also, what would happen if the generator is working, but the ship is not moving at all?

[GeoModder]

(Good idea - I like the fear of the Loroi that the Umiak may have changed Fireblade's Sanzai resulting in her Sanzai being detectable by Alex.
That will lead to real internal issues with the Loroi.)

I don't think I ever read that Fireblade at some point was imprisoned by the Umiak on Seren. So it should be unlikely the Umiak were ever able to change her telepathy.

[Krulle]

She was on a planet controlled by the Umiak.
Do you think she can PROVE the Umiak never laid claws on her?
Do you think the institutions entrusted with the role to find/prevent moles will believe her, because she might have forgotten she was a prisoner (under influence of drugs forcefully/freely administered / due to a PTSS / not having been awake when the shells experimented (caught while sleeping, sleep drug shot at her, ...), ... )

It may be deemed unlikely by now by the corresponding authorities, but still....
Don't underestimate the paranoia of defence intelligence.

[inxsi]

Those were basically my thoughts - at some level, the loroi have to consider everyone who was in a position for prolonged capture by the loroi to be suspect . Especially someone with Fireblade's mental abilities - I suppose the only way it could have been worse would be a mizol, since they might be viewed as better able to lie telepathically, though it has been a long time. I wonder if Tempo trusts Fireblade or trusts Tempo's ability to deal with Fireblade if she needs to? And is Stillstorm glad to get Fireblade off of her ship?

Another though - is the Historian construct aware of this and is that why he tells Alex to be paranoid?

[GeoModder]

Heh. Following this train of thought the members of our Highland gang will be forever suspect. Their shuttle was after all dragged into the hangar of an Umiak cruiser...
For the sake of story, at some point you have to loosen up on the paranoia, you know.

[Krulle]

Trust no one.

[inxsi]

Heh. Following this train of thought the members of our Highland gang will be forever suspect. Their shuttle was after all dragged into the hangar of an Umiak cruiser...
For the sake of story, at some point you have to loosen up on the paranoia, you know.

You are probably right. I do wonder if her experiences with being distrusted shaped her actions against Alex at the start of the webcomic. Someone on the forums planted the idea in my head (unfortunately I don't remember who or where) that Fireblade might be sympathetic to Alex's plight based on her history of being the sole survivor of loroi ships, so I wonder if this is another thing they have in common.

[Arioch]

The jump generator needs several minutes' worth of the ship's total output to power up. But once it projected the field, how long does it persist? Only for the moment of the jump itself, or does it also continue to work while the ship is in hyperspace? If not, what would happen if the field were to be active?
Also, what would happen if the generator is working, but the ship is not moving at all?

The jump field disrupts the "surface tension" of spacetime, allowing the ship to enter hyperspace. The field has no effect in hyperspace. It probably persists as an echo for a very short period from the location that the jumping ship left, and perhaps again upon reentry (as from the ship's point of view, very little time has passed), but this doesn't have any effect other than perhaps being part of what causes the flash of light that accompanies exit and reentry.

Everything is moving relative to something, but what matters here is the motion relative to the departure star. The jump field disrupts the boundaries of spacetime, but it doesn't give you the momentum that you need to leave spacetime; that's provided by the ship's motion relative to the star's gravity well. If you activate the field without sufficient outbound velocity, you will either not enter hyperspace at all, or else enter hyperspace but then be drawn back into the star.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Faster Than Light travel in Outsider is via "jump drive", which is a form of point-to-point hyperspace travel.  A starship activates its jump field generator while on a vector from one star to another, and the ship is propelled into hyperspace, through which it travels (nearly) instantaneously on a ballistic trajectory and re-enters realspace within the gravity well of the destination star...

By "nearly" instantaneous, do you mean that the vessel spends a measurable amount of time in hyperspace?  If so, then this may be more of a wormhole effect than a teleport (which would be instantaneous).

[Cthulhu]

The jump field disrupts the "surface tension" of spacetime, allowing the ship to enter hyperspace. The field has no effect in hyperspace. It probably persists as an echo for a very short period from the location that the jumping ship left, and perhaps again upon reentry (as from the ship's point of view, very little time has passed), but this doesn't have any effect other than perhaps being part of what causes the flash of light that accompanies exit and reentry.

I see, so this field does not need to work in order to shield the ship in a bubble of sorts for its journey through hyperspace or for a successful reentry.

Everything is moving relative to something, but what matters here is the motion relative to the departure star. The jump field disrupts the boundaries of spacetime, but it doesn't give you the momentum that you need to leave spacetime; that's provided by the ship's motion relative to the star's gravity well. If you activate the field without sufficient outbound velocity, you will either not enter hyperspace at all, or else enter hyperspace but then be drawn back into the star.

Yes, I meant relative to the star.

What would happen if the field were still active during a failed jump, where a ship fails to re-embed itself into realspace, "bouncing off" or "falling through" instead. Could it act as a flotation device of sorts, helping the ship to safely "re-surface" again?

I'm thinking about ideas for a different, smaller, fanfic and such a resurfacing ship could provide an interesting plot twist. Or am I overthinking this stuff way too much?

[Arioch]

Faster Than Light travel in Outsider is via "jump drive", which is a form of point-to-point hyperspace travel.  A starship activates its jump field generator while on a vector from one star to another, and the ship is propelled into hyperspace, through which it travels (nearly) instantaneously on a ballistic trajectory and re-enters realspace within the gravity well of the destination star...

By "nearly" instantaneous, do you mean that the vessel spends a measurable amount of time in hyperspace?  If so, then this may be more of a wormhole effect than a teleport (which would be instantaneous).

It's neither a worm hole nor a teleport. The ship follows a ballistic path through hyperspace depending on the geometry of hyperspace which is in turn affected by the mass in realspace. Time passes in hyperspace, but it's different from the passage of time in normal spacetime.

What would happen if the field were still active during a failed jump, where a ship fails to re-embed itself into realspace, "bouncing off" or "falling through" instead. Could it act as a flotation device of sorts, helping the ship to safely "re-surface" again?

No, the jump field has no effect in hyperspace.

It's theoretically possible that a technology exists that could allow maneuvering in hyperspace, but if so, this would have no relation to the jump field, which only exists within the confines of real spacetime.

[inxsi]

When loroi males are growing up, how much do they get to meet other males? Do they ever get to form friendships with other loroi males?

[Arioch]

When loroi males are growing up, how much do they get to meet other males? Do they ever get to form friendships with other loroi males?

Loroi boys are usually raised in creches with other boys (though sometimes the "class size" is very small), and they are usually educated in schools and universities with other boys. As adults, how much they will be around other males depends on their profession, but most of the time there are male colleagues around. So yes, they do get to form friendships with other males.

[Cthulhu]

Okay, I'll try a different approach. Two final questions:

1. Does a ship lose momentum in hyperspace? Which means, if it overshoots a target and flies off into hyperspace, does it have to be "pulled out" by a gravity well, or can it simply "fall out" into realspace if its speed drops below a certain threshold? Would the "slow" re-embedding be less catastrophic then?

2. Is the sensation of the jump typically long enough to feel its "distance"? Is there a perceivable difference between, for example, 2 or 10 LY jumps? Also, is the intensity of the jump sickness affected by the distance or by a deep/short jump in any way?

[Arioch]

1. Does a ship lose momentum in hyperspace? Which means, if it overshoots a target and flies off into hyperspace, does it have to be "pulled out" by a gravity well, or can it simply "fall out" into realspace if its speed drops below a certain threshold? Would the "slow" re-embedding be less catastrophic then?

The curvature of hyperspace is affected by mass in the spacetime plane, so masses in hyperspace will inevitably "fall" toward spacetime. If an object "bounces", some of its momentum is lost, so it will skip along the plane of spacetime (as in Fig III below) until it eventually either mass into a mass, re-embeds, or falls through into negative hyperspace.



This is the theory, but neither the humans nor any of the major combatants can test it out, because no ship that missed its jump has ever been heard from again. Even if the ship did successfully re-embed itself in spacetime at some distant star, it's unlikely that it would be close enough that it would ever be able to return to its point of origin.

2. Is the sensation of the jump typically long enough to feel its "distance"? Is there a perceivable difference between, for example, 2 or 10 LY jumps? Also, is the intensity of the jump sickness affected by the distance or by a deep/short jump in any way?

No and no.

[Bamax]

Hyperspace often is shown as a cloudy, glowy, swirling tunnel in medis scifi.

Is it possible for Loroi to take a snapshot nanosecond photo of hyperspace?

If so... how does hyperspace look?

I really do not have any issue at all there is no answer because you are working that out.

I know star control had a reddish fog space that was hyperspace.

Inasmuch hyperspace is total fiction, how it looks almost matters not.

It's author preference.

It could be black void... it could be blazing white, it could be a swirling fire tunnel.

It's up to the author.

It is ironic though that most visual scifi depicts hyperspace as a tunnel when the very name hyper-space implies 3-D movement in an open space.

Star Control 2 got thay right more or less... only with 2-D.

.