Hello Sci-fi fans and writers, I hope that this here is the correct spot to ask this question regarding a conundrum I have come about during my work on a sci-fi short Story.
Outline
In said Short Story, I have some people (Agents) chasing after some other people (Heroes). The heroes stumbled upon some critical information that could damage the faction (Bad Guy) that employs the chasing party. The information got intercepted in time, but to make sure that the information wouldn’t be leaked again, they would need to silence the heroes.
Technology
In space there are two modes of flight: conventional reaction based propulsion and a higher speed propulsion which uses a so-called jump drive which flings the spaceship along a predetermined trajectory at high sub-light speeds (max speeds would be 0.5c). There is near instantaneous communications, but you would need to be in coverage of the network itself, which is flaky at best.
Conundrum
So how would agents be able to intercept / interdict the heroes in a plausible fashion? Would it be reasonable to have a micro wormhole generator or some other way to deploy gravimetric wells, which would destabilize the entire star system? Would it be anticlimactic to just have the agents wait for the heroes to finish their jump, as they would know where they would drop out?
I would love to hear opinions and suggestions from you.
I am honored! I’ll take a look on your document.
And yeah gravimetric wells are a bit overkill.
Another user suggested, as the travel sequence is on rails, that sending projectiles or other kind of weaponry toward them from the other side would be a suitable idea.
I started following @nyrath on Google+, and followed him as a refugee to Twitter. I lost track of him when I abandoned Twitter (mostly) after the Muskageddon. I escaped Reddit recently and happened to find him again.
Now I have this idea for space settlers jumping from one corporate colony to another as their once-visionary founders turn to squeezing profit from their tenants.
Nice. I also recently (2 weeks ago) moved away from Reddit, as I don’t agree with the self-proclaimed King.
That’s actually sounding like a great plot :)
But what is the analogue to the Fediverse in this metphor?
Some sort of space raft where a bunch of new small habitats glom together like a 3D shanty town?
There’s probably a Project Rho page about this specific thing, but I haven’t been able to find it.
@swope @DmMacniel
Aha! I was wrong. I do have a section about shanty towns
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/colonysite.php#refugee
I don’t where I got that from, but how about a megastructure made out of several dozens/hundreds of smaller crafts that docked together. Everyone is free to leave on their own and be independent, but together they are forming several reachable communities.
@swope @DmMacniel
(My website needs an index)
Or like a boomtown? (Scroll down to BOOMTOWN 2)
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/colonysite.php#wikiboom
Boomtown would certainly be a more optimistic metaphor, but are people mainly pushed or pulled to boomtowns?
Fediverse seems to be mostly people who were repelled by something, and the people who are drawn to it aren’t really hoping to make a fortune off being here.
@swope @nyrath @DmMacniel Collapsing corporate space colonies seems really underexplored, but very cyberpunk, theme
@simonbp @swope @DmMacniel
A quote from @cerebrate
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacecolony.php#segboss
@simonbp @swope @DmMacniel
There is actually a real world analog to that…
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/colonysite.php#shanty1
What was the purpose of parking near each other? It doesn’t seem like the crews could cross over to the other ships.
@simonbp @swope @nyrath @DmMacniel
Story concepts:
Giganaire buys space colony and cuts costs, killing himself and everyone on the colony because he used air filters made from toilet paper.
Giganaire buys space colony and fires 3/4 of the maintenance staff, claiming they weren’t doing a good enough job, but does not replace them.
Hey, this is fun!
@darrelplant @simonbp @swope @DmMacniel
The stories almost write themselves, don’t they?
@DmMacniel @simonbp @swope @nyrath
Strains credulity even for speculative fiction.
@darrelplant @DmMacniel @simonbp @swope
Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense
@DmMacniel @nyrath If smaller vehicles can move faster in jump, the bad guys could simple shoot a missile at them. They could watch as it slowly but inexorably closed the distance…
@michaelgemar @DmMacniel
I think it would be more dramatically interesting if we could figure out some situation that made the pursuit more like a James Bond 007 automobile chase.
Yeah, another trick to creating a self-consistent spaceflight framework for storytelling is somehow keeping humans in the mix.
Indeed, sure some would find it interesting when faceless ships fight each other in excruciating technical details, but showing the people on those ships gives those fights way more gravitas. Daniel Orrett over at Spacedock gave some great analysis regarding this in their video “how to write a Space Battle”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3jzNHwJ0Nc (1:38)