Path to Darius (Spoilers)

SYED wrote:For some reason, they named the habitable planet Gamma.

They named it Gamma because Alpha and Beta were already taken by the two inner planets of the system.

n7axw wrote:Just a comment to the notion that Darius might not be habitable...

I believe that the population is 2+ billion which makes the notion of the planet not being habitable seem unlikely.

Don

Two billion Masan decendants. They are willing to do much more in the way of genetic engineering than literally anybody else. A planet that would kill an unmodified human could be made perfectly comfortable with the right modifications. Kind of like Masa was, IIRC.

crewdude48 wrote:

n7axw wrote:Just a comment to the notion that Darius might not be habitable...

I believe that the population is 2+ billion which makes the notion of the planet not being habitable seem unlikely.

Don

Two billion Masan decendants. They are willing to do much more in the way of genetic engineering than literally anybody else. A planet that would kill an unmodified human could be made perfectly comfortable with the right modifications. Kind of like Masa was, IIRC.

Roughly two billion star line Mesans and roughly two billion genetic slaves live on Darius.

However, that doesn't say much about the habitability of the planet, as Grayson with all its toxicity(and bloody wars) has more than three billion according to HoS. At the same time, the Manticoran Binary System with all its real estate, also has about three billion, although it had only been settled for half as long and had access to immigration.

I suspect the Alignment wouldn't want an extremely hostile world like Grayson, though. It would heighten the risk of introducting unwanted mutations into their perfectly engineered double helixes.

Darius was discovered 200 years ago, but was settled only 100 years ago. There could have been 100 years of terraforming on the planet before it was settled. The planet may have been quite marginal before terraforming.

And it really struck me now--4 billion in 100 years. That really goes to show how massively Mesa used cloning and artificial wombs to build a population fast. That's an amazing achievement by itself.

SWM wrote:Darius was discovered 200 years ago, but was settled only 100 years ago. There could have been 100 years of terraforming on the planet before it was settled. The planet may have been quite marginal before terraforming.

And it really struck me now--4 billion in 100 years. That really goes to show how massively Mesa used cloning and artificial wombs to build a population fast. That's an amazing achievement by itself.

Yep. I think RFC alluded to that somewhere. It was actually settled early on, but they didn't start building the population until 100 years in. That could have been spent terraforming, working out genetic adaptations, building infrastructure or some combination of the above.

If they had to either terraform or create new genetic adaptations, it could be a known planet that was passed over because it was uninhabitable.

Brigade XO wrote:At this point nobody in the GA (or mostly anywhere) has any idea there is a Darius or that it is on the end of a wormhole from a secret system of wormholes let alone that Felix has a wormhole.

They are looking for the Alignment and where their ships are comming from. Perhaps there is something like Bolthole but perhaps there is a system where the Alignment is in control and is building ships (hidden in the system away from traffic like the yards buiding ships near Spinx from Wayland or out at Blackbird).

They have no reason to suspect that Mannheim is hiding a wormhole terminus even if anybody in ONI of Manticore (or anybody else) knows that Mannheim is essentially conducting endless "maneuvers" at a star system they really do want to do something with.

That people have been dissapeared from Mesa is probably going to come up. Likely from the capture of McBride or someone else being moved by Houdini since at least Torch activly going after slaver bases and could stumble on a "package". It is also likely that someone will figure out that the massive wave of attacks, with the equally massive death toll, just happens to appear to include way too many people who are or might be attached to the Alignment or at least the bits and pieces of Manpower and support industry/systems. Tracking those who got off planet (as opposed to died) and then the resulting odd twists and turns of the ship movements are going to be interesting.

With regards to your post I have two points.

In response to your last point about someone figuring out about the disappearances Zilwicki had already figured it out when it was just starting & Cachat supported his analysis. Also the staff of that slaver station, especially the person in charge had already figured it out independently & he is quite likely to spill it to his interrogators from Torch at some point. The evidence is already there & they have already started to put the pieces together.

With regards to your third point, whilst nobody in the GA knows about Mannerheim, they do know that some systems must be fronting for them. In A Rising Thunder Elizabeth explicitly refers to that when she is talking to Eloise just before they shake hands.

One other point about the Grand Alliance is that they are MOTIVATED. As Victor Cachat says both Haven & Manticore are holding a grudge... & that does not even include the Graysons either who are no slouches themselves in the scary people department. They are going to be focussing all of their efforts on finding even the slightest trace of the Mesan Alignment & there is just too much evidence for it to remain completely secret. Whilst the Onion WAS intended to keep the Mesan Alignment secret it was only intended to maintain it from a Galaxy who did not even suspect it existed. They knew that eventually the secret would come out but they expected it to come out much later. Now they are scrambling to adjust & in that situation even the best people make mistakes.

You know what gets paranoid motivated people in trouble? People who are perfect suspects. So yeah, If I was the MA I'd be setting up some perfectly innocent system as a fall-guy, so as to reinforce the whole bully image in SL space.

kzt wrote:You know what gets paranoid motivated people in trouble? People who are perfect suspects. So yeah, If I was the MA I'd be setting up some perfectly innocent system as a fall-guy, so as to reinforce the whole bully image in SL space.

Interesting idea. Do they have the time, with the emergency evacuation ongoing and the rest of their plan falling apart around their ears?