saber964 wrote:
No, according to textev the MWJ was discovered in 1585 PD when the survey ship Pathfinder made transit to Beowulf. Between 1585 and 1590 PD the discovery's of (in order) Beowulf Trevor's Star and Hennsey took place. Also most of the termani are inhabited with nearby star systems.
Beowulf inhabited
Trevor's Star inhabited
Hennsey inhabited
Matapan uninhabited
Gregor A inhabited Gregor B
Basilisk inhabited
Lynx B uninhabited 4LY Lynx A inhabited
Reviving this thread: I'd guess that Travis has to be connected with the wormhole somehow, because not only is he neatly placed in time just before its discovery, but he's been helpfully provided with training in maintaining and interpreting gravitics equipment, followed by postgrad work in astrophysics. He's a gravity expert - and wormholes are found by gravitic anomalies.
Alexrod, of course, are going to go down in history as the official discoverers - but it might well be Travis who has the initial crazy idea that they've found a
junction. That this wormhole is so strange because they've not found one bridge at all, but three.
He's not remembered outside the navy because he's the ideas man, not the developer. He functions best as part of a team, and it's the team who ends up with the credit.
As to it taking thirty or forty years before the first transit, I imagine that the science of wormhole transits is in its infancy and that Axelrod were thinking very long term. Plus the likely massive Manticorian turf wars over building and paying for a survey ship for a wormhole that may initially look very strange (and thus probably useless). Given that Elizabeth II, who is older than Travis, is still alive when the wormhole transit occurs, there's nothing to prevent Travis being heavily involved.
Incidentally, the other thing that didn't hit me right off is that Travis' mother is so disinterested in her son because she's probably been traumatised by so many deaths. The plague years, her parents, possibly siblings - then both her husbands. She's either scared to show that she cares, or has shut down because of the trauma.