Thread: 1248 Empress Wave Question

OK, so. I'm working on a side project that might or might not see the light of day here, and I have a question I can't recall the answer to. I remember that in MJD's late and lamented 1248 setting, the Empress Wave was discovered to be a psionic call for help from an unknown human race way far Coreward, a call the Star Vikings ended up leaving known space to answer. What I can't recall for the life of me are two salient facts:

1) How far away from Charted Space were they and
2) What, exactly, was the danger they were asking for help confronting?

Unfortunately, while I still have the Freedom League book my copy of Out of the Darkness bit it in my last computer crash, so I can't look it up myself even though I did own the book once upon a time, and shelling out $35 for a CD doesn't exactly appeal. Can someone enlighten me on those two points, on list or off?

Thanks.

And if that subject line doesn't start a flame war, I don't know what will. Might have to throw in some female Aslan pir- ah, hell, too easy. ;)

-JTD

"There is a thin line between genius and insanity" - Anonymous

"I walk the line." - Johnny Cash

Dave: Please don't read this. Seriously, just delete this message right now.
Anyone else who wants to see it, feel free to scroll down.

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Without digging everything out, the answers to the two questions are:

1) They were really, really, really far away. Basically, they were pretty
much as close to the Core as you could get and still have habitable systems.

2) They had the mother of all supernovas. I think it might have been
cascading, too.

Putting it together, they were an extremely advanced human race that was
psionically powerful, and were pretty extensive. When a major star went
supernova, it produced a shockwave that pretty much annihilated everything
in its ever expanding path. The society realized it was doomed and organized
as many refugee fleets as possible. Of course, that still mean the vast
majority would die when the wave hit them. The remainder figured that the
refugees would run until their equipment stopped working, then settle
wherever they landed and build a new society. Since that was guaranteed to
eventually be destroyed, too, they remaining people sent out a psionic
impulse (I am not doing it justice; just go with me here) that would serve
as a reminder to any survivors to keep fleeing the coming wave of
destruction.

That's the basic idea.

The psionic wave kept propagating out into space along with the physical
wave. By the time it made it into charted space, the physical wave was
mostly irrelevant (high radiation that could be shielded against and could
not penetrate any real planetary atmosphere), but the psionic wave was still
present. To non-psionics it would produce a weird feeling that would pass.
To psionics, it would mess them up for a bit, but most would then recover.
To the Zhodani, however, it was completely devastating. The problem was that
the Zhodani non-psionic population was, as a whole, conditioned to psionic
suggestion. When the psionic impulse to flee hit the Zhodani, the
non-psionic population received the "flee" impulse even though they did not
understand it. And, since the psions at that point were pretty messed up,
things would get completely out of hand. Only a small portion truly followed
the "flee" component far enough to leave their world (which still meant
millions and millions fleeing), but the rest still had their psionic
conditioning fall apart. So, all of the condition that kept the Zhodani
proles as happy mind-conditioned sheep fell apart. As a consequence, Zhodani
interstellar society fell apart.

The people of charted space knew that there had to be many surviving
refugees out there, probably needing help. So, the Star Vikings left to go
find them and help them. I can't remember for sure, but I think that if the
psionic message was fully decoded, it provided some clues as to where to
look for the refugees. So, it wasn't just a totally blind search; there were
hints as to where to start looking. Since the "story" ended as the Star
Vikings left on their new mission, there is no more information about them
after they left.

Mike West



From: []
On Behalf Of Jeff Dougherty
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 9:09 PM
To:
Subject: [Traveller_TNE] 1248 Empress Wave Question

1) How far away from Charted Space were they and
2) What, exactly, was the danger they were asking for help confronting?

Thanks, Mike.

I read Jeff's question but realized it wasn't for me, and almost skipped
this one but hadn't heard from you in a while.

I appreciate your pushing the spoiler down the page.

> Dave: Please don't read this. Seriously, just delete this message right
> now.
> Anyone else who wants to see it, feel free to scroll down.