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.
@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…
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)
@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.