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Grave to cradle: continues "Gone with the Sun" a rational [Mass Effect] [FF] [RT][HSF] - third arc of eight.
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Author: u/None *
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Score: 1
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Created: 2015-07-22T13:04:40
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u/SCarinae [+1] (33 minutes later)
The next ME apparently involves an N7 operating in Andromeda.
The last Mass Effect came out some time back, following which I wrote a 'rationalist' novel exploring the aftermath - posted for the canonical year and a day. It explored consequences of ME3's 'red flash' from the point of view of certain characters.
The link is to arc 4 of that story, dealing with development of teams and systems. At the end of the story appears a pointer to the next arc.
As it happens, the closing lines of the last arc had survivors heading for Andromeda. Imagine my shock when the recent E3 2015 trailer, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" was issued, showing an N7 in Andromeda, obviously not Shepard but still.
Hence the excerpting of the final scene as a prologue. The remaining seven story arcs follow as separate books.
Those not interested in the Andromeda mention should immediately skip to the next chapter. Indeed, since the first book/arc ("Eternity") recapitulates the fog of war around the Red Flash, many will wish to skip to the second book, "Queen's Gambit" (under s/11382885/1/) which as the name indicates is the real opening move.
My protagonists' Andromeda-bound asteroid requires at least 490 years. Probably a lot more given that it would be laying conduit relays as it went; when finished there would be a chain of ninety relays enabling frigates to pass through in days – and so on.
The fanfic novel as originally posted was named "After Dark", and it received flattering reviews, but it turned out that title was already taken by a rather conventional romance-based fanfic. After deposting this novel, it was reworked as "Gone with the Sun," presented here. Not that there was no romance therein, but an emphasis on the consequences of real and in-game science looked more entertaining. Notably:
Homeworlds become isolated for decades if not centuries - a consequences of the known FTL speeds and the huge distances. The original thrust of the first draft - which became the first of seven story arcs - was to fill in the gaps of the storyline given what is known of game physics and real physics. The developers didn't always communicate well among themselves, but it's clear both forms of FTL in the game (relays and ship drives) were inspired by real-world hypothetical wormholes and eg. the Alcubierre drive. So in particular:
Mass relays have all the characteristics of the idea of 'wormholes' discussed in relativistic physics. See for example the discussion in Misner, Thorne, & Wheeler of how exotic materials can be used to generate such wormholes - but note that initially the wormhole diameter would be about that of a human hair, and to enlarge it would require a lot of exotic matter.
Eezo is 'real'. Bear in mind also that to a physicist "exotic matter" often has 'atomic' number zero, like neutrons or things like pentaquarks (no longer hypothetical, CERN published finding them yesterday). Hydrogen has atomic number one; exotic matter would be atomic number zero. That is why "element zero" is to be found in some versions of the periodic table, symbol "n" for neutrons. A lot of people seem to think "eezo" or "element zero" is an invention of the game developers. It is not; such ideas have been "in the air" of physics for decades.
The mass relays were "severely damaged" to use Hackett's phrase. In fact from the post-game cutscenes it's clear that the damage to the Citadel and relays was quite catastrophic, which means it will take a long time - perhaps an asari lifetime - for repairs.
Furthermore, there is a galaxy-wide comm blackout - except for quantum entanglement communicators (QEC). Since the comm buoys supporting the extranet themselves contained mass relays (see the codex description), they're history.
The distances involved cause another plot issue: the islands of civilization (Palaven, Sur'Kesh, Thessia, Earth...) are effectively isolated for decades or centuries to come. It's twenty-six thousand light years from the Earth to the Galactic Centre, for example. A mass relay would take you there in short order, but ship FTL at fourteen light years per day (proper time) would mean a subjective travel time of nearly five years. Even more time's needed to get from Earth to Thessia (say), given the scale of the galactic map on the Normandy. Ilos to the Widow would be about forty thousand light years, for example - about a nine year journey by space drive FTL.
The situation is worst for poor Tali trying to get to Rannoch, or the Salarians with short lives trying to get to Sur'Kesh. (Forget it, folks, life's over before you get there.)
Such issues were addressed by assuming the fleeing component fleets ran for home just before all the relays exploded. Asari fleets to Thessia, for example, except for some units like the Destiny Ascension which were given to Hackett who probably fled to the closest starbase (Arcturus). Leaders left behind might still be able to use QEC to stay in touch with home planets, but actually travelling there is out of the question.
As to reconstruction, I began by observing that the ME1 relay transit used the Prothean "conduit" which did not operate on the same principle as the Reaper relays (no obvious range limitation, negligible endpoint drift, no permanent glowing core in the gimbal rings, etc.) It would make sense for the Protheans to use their own tech for that; and the devices were on a comparatively small scale, something Hackett's engineers could build. So, a lot of the early discussion is on the implications of gradually extending chains of "conduit" style relays to other galactic centres.
As to romances for our absconded hero: this runs perilously close to another impossibility - and dammit we're already at the limit of one impossibility (FTL) for hard sci-fi. Developers took pains to ensure that Shepard could not have offspring by his known associates or paramours. Clearly, alien biochemistry realistically prevents reproduction; in-game human partners are dead after the red flash, infertile, or professional soldiers with contraception (compare the bromides said to have been issued to British servicemen last century); and even the special case of Liara has deniable fertility (she's a maiden at 109 and asari reach the matron stage at around 300).
This creates interesting dramatic tensions. It also severely restricts romance options, and there must be romance for effective drama, at least from mediocre writers. A rational/technical tour de force would make a really dry tale according to classical rules of drama. This novel attempts to make lemonade by treating these bitter fruits as a problem in traditional science-fiction fashion. It should be clear that not everyone will agree with my presumption, but such plot devices are at least defensible.
One more thing: I took a leaf out of other science fiction writers and adapted a classical myth. See if you can spot which. Beware the red herrings.