Bad Wormholes?

JohnRoth wrote:Not true. The idea that it's a killer wormhole is only one possibility. Enemy action is another. So are several others. The key point here is that they don't know which it is, and sending another ship through would undoubtedly be fatal in either case. Simply assuming that it's a "killer" wormhole is very poor intelligence work, and we're assured that the intelligence people on Torch are quite intelligent.

The discussion about how to get a scouting force through in the face of an enemy task force sealing the other end is a separate issue from the analysis.

kzt wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:Not true. The idea that it's a killer wormhole is only one possibility. Enemy action is another. So are several others. The key point here is that they don't know which it is, and sending another ship through would undoubtedly be fatal in either case. Simply assuming that it's a "killer" wormhole is very poor intelligence work, and we're assured that the intelligence people on Torch are quite intelligent.

The discussion about how to get a scouting force through in the face of an enemy task force sealing the other end is a separate issue from the analysis.

It's almost certain that whoever went though the WH is dead. If not they would have returned.

You know that there exists another WH that has killed everyone sent into it. How many people are you willing to send into this one in the hopes that it doesn't emerge inside a star or some other otherwise totally unsurvivable situation?

Assume the other side is as defended as the Manticore WHJ. How many ships would you need to send into that you have one survive the several minutes it takes to exit the area where you have no wedge or sidewall, then can get into hyper and outrun the people with STREAK DRIVES who will chase you?

Tim wrote:One can not Assume everyone is dead. After reentry the Harvest Joy may not have been able to find the correct entry vector to the wormhole. The wormhole terminus could be many hundreds of light-years away from known space and a return to Torch space.

The Torch wormhole first off is strange because it is deep inside the star system. The distance between termini could be unusual as well by be over the one thousand light-year maximum distance seen from known wormholes. How many months or years will it take for them to travel n-space to make it home?

kzt wrote:

Tim wrote:One can not Assume everyone is dead. After reentry the Harvest Joy may not have been able to find the correct entry vector to the wormhole. The wormhole terminus could be many hundreds of light-years away from known space and a return to Torch space.

The Torch wormhole first off is strange because it is deep inside the star system. The distance between termini could be unusual as well by be over the one thousand light-year maximum distance seen from known wormholes. How many months or years will it take for them to travel n-space to make it home?

How long has it been?

IIRC, easily long enough.

Randomiser wrote:'We've lost one ship for reasons unknown, we can never send another one through' may sound like good logic but it's pretty timid. Developing a usable wormhole link would mean lots of money and economic development for Torch. There are lots of reasons the Harvest Joy may have been lost, including catastrophic ship failure and pilot or navigator error. Reasons that needn't be repeated. I think someone will be going back through sometime, don't know just when though.

Randomiser wrote:'We've lost one ship for reasons unknown, we can never send another one through' may sound like good logic but it's pretty timid. Developing a usable wormhole link would mean lots of money and economic development for Torch. There are lots of reasons the Harvest Joy may have been lost, including catastrophic ship failure and pilot or navigator error. Reasons that needn't be repeated. I think someone will be going back through sometime, don't know just when though.

JohnRoth wrote:

dreamrider wrote:In regard to "How many wormholes", accepted implied canon, based primarily on other bits of the text surrounding the Shadow of Freedom/Harvest Joy drama, is that there are either ~100 or ~200 known hyperspace wormhole connections.

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It means that, until some other means is found to locate the far end of a wormhole that ships do not return from, that wormhole MUST be considered a killer anomaly, and NO OTHER SHIPS WILL EVER BE SENT THROUGH from the known end. It means that NOTHING is known about the far end of that hyper link EXCEPT THAT IT EATS SHIPS THAT TRANSIT. And modern hyper physics CANNOT map / understand conditions of the far end of new hyperlink WITHOUT a successful transit.

...

dreamrider

Not true. The idea that it's a killer wormhole is only one possibility. Enemy action is another. So are several others. The key point here is that they don't know which it is, and sending another ship through would undoubtedly be fatal in either case. Simply assuming that it's a "killer" wormhole is very poor intelligence work, and we're assured that the intelligence people on Torch are quite intelligent.

The discussion about how to get a scouting force through in the face of an enemy task force sealing the other end is a separate issue from the analysis.

Theemile wrote:

Randomiser wrote:'We've lost one ship for reasons unknown, we can never send another one through' may sound like good logic but it's pretty timid. Developing a usable wormhole link would mean lots of money and economic development for Torch. There are lots of reasons the Harvest Joy may have been lost, including catastrophic ship failure and pilot or navigator error. Reasons that needn't be repeated. I think someone will be going back through sometime, don't know just when though.

Actually, the text never mentions NEVER sending another ship through, but that they would intensely study the wormhole again and more throughly than the original survey to see if there was something they hadn't seen before they considered attempting a transit again. And the originally observed random "kick" would be the subject of much research and observation.