"Earth should be about HERE..."

[Demarquis]

"Exit from jump is a very "noisy" event... the energy from the spacetime disruption is released as a bright, characteristic flash of light. Anyone in the system (who's not preoccupied with fighting) will notice it, and any inhabited system will have detectors looking specifically for this signature."

Ah, information I didn't have. Earth's decision makes more sense in that case. That has certain interesting military implications, vis a vis the value of reconnaissance, and the relative advantage of offense and defense. The Loroi farseers may not be as much of a game changer as I thought they were.

As for Loroi telepathy, I don't know that the humans knew about that before they went looking. Alex certainly seemed surprised.

[Arioch]

The Orgus were vague about Loroi telepathic abilities, since they didn't have firsthand knowledge, so I don't think it's fair to say that humanity knew for sure about the Loroi Farsensing Device.

[SVlad]

That has certain interesting military implications, vis a vis the value of reconnaissance, and the relative advantage of offense and defense. The Loroi farseers may not be as much of a game changer as I thought they were.

In outsiderverse everyone sees everyone in the same star system. As there is no invisibility in space. Excluding corner cases like dust and debris fields.
But you can't just jump to inhabited Loroi worlds as they protected by multilayer defense of fleets and starbases in neighbor empty systems.

But Loroi farseers can see fleets in neighbor systems so they can have less patrol fleets and always be prepared for attack.

[Demarquis]

Frankly, if the enemy is within practical jumping range, you should be doing that anyway.

[Sweforce]

The Orgus were vague about Loroi telepathic abilities, since they didn't have firsthand knowledge, so I don't think it's fair to say that humanity knew for sure about the Loroi Farsensing Device.

Looking at Star Trek telepathy ranges from rhe extreme over lightyears apart down to Vulcans that require physical contact. Other may only work within their own species. I can also imagine variants that require attunement limiting telepathy to friends, families and colleagues. Simply put, especially with Orgus at best second hand accounts indeed little can actually be known in advanced.

[Sweforce]

That has certain interesting military implications, vis a vis the value of reconnaissance, and the relative advantage of offense and defense. The Loroi farseers may not be as much of a game changer as I thought they were.

In outsiderverse everyone sees everyone in the same star system. As there is no invisibility in space. Excluding corner cases like dust and debris fields.
But you can't just jump to inhabited Loroi worlds as they protected by multilayer defense of fleets and starbases in neighbor empty systems.

But Loroi farseers can see fleets in neighbor systems so they can have less patrol fleets and always be prepared for attack.

The introduction of radar during WW2 was indeed a game changer here. The ability to know when the enemy are comming and roughly where are invaluable. You do not want to send your interceptors on a goose chase. Sometimes entire bomber fleets where sent out empty to lure away fighters from targets attacked by other bombers. By the time the decoys returned to base the interceptor fighters where spent, in need of refueling and with exhaused pilots, making them unable to deal with the real targets.

[Jeremy]

However, once the decision was made to make contact, attempting to establish diplomatic relations while somehow keeping your nation's location a secret doesn't make any sense to me. That's going to be pretty much the first question they ask, and if you refuse to answer it, I don't see negotiations going much farther than that.

I don't see the point of negotiating at all for either the Loroi or Umiak. Humans are a low-tech species with a small territory, no outstanding resources, and a pitifully small military that could be taken down by a token force (if that). They overpower humanity so completely that the humans have no leverage and nothing substantial to offer. Why would they bother even humoring us?

If Humanity was so powerful that Alex could just roll up, flash his HFY card and everyone bowed to him, then that wouldn't make for much of an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome. (Though in that case, Humanity probably wouldn't need to come begging for an alliance in the first place.)

If you're talking about the decision to send the contact mission: the decision-makers for Humanity didn't know much detail about the tech advantage or the size advantage of the combatants; they just knew is was "higher" and "bigger." Hence Alex's dismay on seeing how large SG51 was.

Allright, you win. Humanity was completely sensible, and Alex is and always will be right.

[Demarquis]

Nah. It's Arioch's story, and I respect and enjoy that, but more realistically humanity would want to conceal the location of their homeworld, to the extent that that's possible, and the Loroi would be intensely curious regarding these pink Loroi looking aliens who are telepathically invisible. I don't know how much actual leverage Alex might have if he were to push it, but probably not much more than he has already asserted. Tempo seems to value him to some extent, but Stillstorm didn't, so were I he, I would tread very carefully.

The Historian's avatar's advice seems best, so long as one applies it also to the Historians!