Just a random thought on the return

There is a lot of speculation about the return in twenty years. What if it really is one of the archangels, either via VR recording or by cryogenic chamber? Since Nimue was originally part of the command crew to settle Safehold and transferred to the fleet, I imagine everyone on the colonization fleet knew her, particularly the command crew which she was a part of. So imagine their surprise when the encounter Nimue:

"Lt Commander, how are you here!? Did the fleet survive!?"

Well, remember that Nimue PICA 1 is now a male and Nimue PICA 2 is shorter than the original Nimue.

So anybody who knew the original Nimue won't recognize Merlin (Nimue PICA 1) and would think Nimue PICA 2 has "shrunk in the wash".

Hildum wrote:There is a lot of speculation about the return in twenty years. What if it really is one of the archangels, either via VR recording or by cryogenic chamber? Since Nimue was originally part of the command crew to settle Safehold and transferred to the fleet, I imagine everyone on the colonization fleet knew her, particularly the command crew which she was a part of. So imagine their surprise when the encounter Nimue:

"Lt Commander, how are you here!? Did the fleet survive!?"

If it is one or more archangels (in whatever form), it may be hard for them to remember Nimue.

Recall that Nimue was just a mid-level naval officer. She was nothing special. She got transferred away from the colony ships very early in the cruise, and died. That was before the colony administrators spent decades in transit to Safehold, and decades more terraforming the planet, and hundreds of years living on Safehold. Even if the returned archangel is merely a recording, it will presumably be a recording from late in the archangel's life. Is that person going to remember some minor person who died hundreds of years ago in subjective memory?

Now, the memory might be jogged if Nimue exhibits Federation tech. But I doubt that just the face would trigger a memory, unless it was someone Nimue worked closely with. Nimue has an advantage--her subjective memory of seeing the colony administrators is only a few years old.

SWM wrote:If it is one or more archangels (in whatever form), it may be hard for them to remember Nimue.

Recall that Nimue was just a mid-level naval officer. She was nothing special. She got transferred away from the colony ships very early in the cruise, and died. That was before the colony administrators spent decades in transit to Safehold, and decades more terraforming the planet, and hundreds of years living on Safehold. Even if the returned archangel is merely a recording, it will presumably be a recording from late in the archangel's life. Is that person going to remember some minor person who died hundreds of years ago in subjective memory?

Now, the memory might be jogged if Nimue exhibits Federation tech. But I doubt that just the face would trigger a memory, unless it was someone Nimue worked closely with. Nimue has an advantage--her subjective memory of seeing the colony administrators is only a few years old.

She's surely in the files. And I bet the files exist.

IMO SWM's point is still valid. Why would they check the records?

jgnfld wrote:

SWM wrote:If it is one or more archangels (in whatever form), it may be hard for them to remember Nimue.

Recall that Nimue was just a mid-level naval officer. She was nothing special. She got transferred away from the colony ships very early in the cruise, and died. That was before the colony administrators spent decades in transit to Safehold, and decades more terraforming the planet, and hundreds of years living on Safehold. Even if the returned archangel is merely a recording, it will presumably be a recording from late in the archangel's life. Is that person going to remember some minor person who died hundreds of years ago in subjective memory?

Now, the memory might be jogged if Nimue exhibits Federation tech. But I doubt that just the face would trigger a memory, unless it was someone Nimue worked closely with. Nimue has an advantage--her subjective memory of seeing the colony administrators is only a few years old.

She's surely in the files. And I bet the files exist.

To see who it is that is causing all the trouble. Finding out she was closely associated with Pei, for example, would provide strong hints that she was left with resources that need to be found and destroyed.

Translating from the Welsh would provide more clues too.

DrakBibliophile wrote:IMO SWM's point is still valid. Why would they check the records?...

jgnfld wrote:To see who it is that is causing all the trouble. Finding out she was closely associated with Pei, for example, would provide strong hints that she was left with resources that need to be found and destroyed.

Translating from the Welsh would provide more clues too.

DrakBibliophile wrote:IMO SWM's point is still valid. Why would they check the records?...

But what would make them check the records of people who died on the distraction fleet? Sure, they'll check the records of the last few years, to see what has been going on. But unless they have some clue that Nimue has access to Federation tech, there's no reason to look at records a thousand years old.

The original post was asking about an archangel recognizing Nimue. I'm just saying that they probably won't remember her. Nimue knew hardly any of the colony administrators. She didn't even know Langhorne, personally.

Not arguing the original post. Just arguing that a competent member of the command crew would use the clues available to ID Nimue pretty quickly in the files. Nimue really isn't doing much to hide what she is doing from eyes competent to see what she is doing.

DrakBibliophile wrote:IMO SWM's point is still valid. Why would they check the records?...

jgnfld wrote:Not arguing the original post. Just arguing that a competent member of the command crew would use the clues available to ID Nimue pretty quickly in the files. Nimue really isn't doing much to hide what she is doing from eyes competent to see what she is doing.

DrakBibliophile wrote:IMO SWM's point is still valid. Why would they check the records?...

If someone from the command crew is still alive their first suspect would be a surviving member of an opposing faction from WatF, not a PICA of a person that died fighting the Gbaba before the colony was founded.

True enough. But when it became clear that a PICA or 2 must be involved--and it would be clear to a Federation citizen/AI pretty quickly upon examination of events, I would think a query to the records re. PICAs would be in order. Unless the person was totally incompetent.