Krulle wrote:Nice, well done.
Heste'Blec... I reead that name before... Was it in WtdwJ?
Yes, lol. The plot lines inch together.
Regarding the Loroi ruin, my original story idea of Nathan making the trip was a direct lift from The Dungeon. Essentially, a capable (if relatively ignorant) protagonist is directly transported via a grey mist from known Earth to very much unknown alien territory. In The Dungeon, it was an 1800s British explorer looking for his brother in Africa. In New Frontiers, it's a (very) young 1700s frontiersman looking for firewood.
When we had to flesh it out, I think about 8 or so pages back in this thread, I postulated that a Soia ruin was the best fit for an explanation. If the Soia wanted to have a ground facility on Earth that would remain unmolested back in the time of early
homo sapiens, North America would be the best place to put it. My headcanon is that a Soia ruin, already impossibly old, was brought online by the kinetic energy of a meteor strike (the loud boom Nathan's family thought was a tree falling). The original purpose of the ruin was to transport a viable seed population to the Soia's advanced labs on Deinar once suitable modifications were made on Earth. The ruin performed its automated function one final time before crumbling to dust.
Why would the Deinar ruin still be around today unlike it's Earth counterpart? I'd say because it was a reception point rather than a sending device, requiring far less energy throughput and wear-and-tear. Also, it was likely maintained for far longer than the Earth facility. In this scenario, the Soia would have abandoned Earth once they had their seed population; they likely maintained Deinar right up until the fall.
Also, regarding the Loroi assessment of humanity's view on other stars in the late 1700s... as far as my knowledge goes, the scientific community would have accepted the fact that the sun is just another star by Nathan's time, though Nathan's personal education likely wouldn't have gone into it. He might know that the sun is a star, but to him it's a relatively meaningless fact. The stars are useful for navigation and pretty to look at, but otherwise don't have an impact on his life.