HFQ Official Snippet #12

AncientMariner wrote:

n7axw wrote:All of this is sounding horribly far fetched. RFC is not above killing off a major character. But he doesn't do it in job lots. Besides, there are elements of the story that would be interrupted if you guys' scenario were to play out and I see no way to retrieve them.

So count me very sketical...it's not gonna happen. The worst that I see here is that two lovely ladies get stuck in cryo.

Don

I totally agree with you Don. In order for this to work:

1) Get a pocket nuke. Considering that the last one was set off almost 1000 years before, I really doubt there were a lot of others hanging around, and that they would have passed down the SSK ranks to current date, waiting to be used.
2) Ninian, who I think it's safe to say has been an ally to Charis and Siddarmark from the beginning, would have to decide that Merlin is a threat. Then she assumes that he must have some base of operations. Then she has to arrange to get the pocket nuke (doubtful she'd be just carrying it around). Then, approach Merlin with the story we heard earlier, and plan to take the nuke with her and her second in command on a suicide mission (!) when Merlin takes them to his base.
3) Why?

If it goes down this way, I will eat my hat.

I doubt that a pocket nuke would work after 1000 years of non use.

ghost wrote:I doubt that a pocket nuke would work after 1000 years of non use.

It's certainly not going to work after any duration of use.

But, yeah. Absent stasis fields or similar handwavium, nothing is going to sit on a shelf for a thousand years and then work.

But, yeah. Absent stasis fields or similar handwavium, nothing is going to sit on a shelf for a thousand years and then work.

Well, I know of one PICA who would disagree...

Seriously though, Nimue's Cave was environmentally controlled, precisely so Nimue could wake up. I doubt a nuke just sitting on a shelf somewhere would be up to the same task.

Duckk wrote:

But, yeah. Absent stasis fields or similar handwavium, nothing is going to sit on a shelf for a thousand years and then work.

Well, I know of one PICA who would disagree...

Seriously though, Nimue's Cave was environmentally controlled, precisely so Nimue could wake up. I doubt a nuke just sitting on a shelf somewhere would be up to the same task.

Well, it would be interesting to get an explanation by RFC how e.g. the internal plant of Merlin survived that period. Actually, the nanites available to OWL (and within Merlin) were probably responsible for that particular feat.

As to the nukes: If these are really nukes (i.e. fission bombs), simple radioactive decay will render them inoperable. So far as I understand it, they might produce a ... fizzle, but not widespread destruction any more. And that's without looking at the chemical and material parts. So it's back to some handwavium. How about a small black hole on the same shelf?

n7axw wrote:

Charybdis wrote:"Prince Nahrman, I presume" said Nynian, tartly!
"Mostly" replied Nahrman, tersely.
Merlin quivered, tensely.

Nah,... doesn't work. Nahrman is never "terse" about anything.

Don

I disagree that Nahrman never gets nervous. The phrase that sets him on edge is Merlin saying "I'm just going to swap servers,you won't notice a thing".

Randomiser wrote:

Always supposing the next snippet doesn't shift to South March or the Temple!


BUT, but, but, I really want to go to the Temple. I wanna chortle at the Grand Fornicator's discomfort.
I know that's small of me- none the less...

Duckk wrote:

Seriously though, Nimue's Cave was environmentally controlled, precisely so Nimue could wake up. I doubt a nuke just sitting on a shelf somewhere would be up to the same task.

Nimue's cave was filled with nitrogen. I'm not sure that was so that the PICA could wake up, though.

The people from Nimue's time seem to have quite a lot of things that have extensive lifetimes. Recall Wylsyn's verifier and key, the altar under the Temple, nanites, the holographic projector (assuming it's separate from the verifier or the key). The only thing I can think of that was perishable was the anti-gerone treatments, and it's not known that those treatments definitely had gone bad.

As an engineer, I've always been leery of long-lived claims. I remember the boulder in Indiana Jones, and I've tried to think what precautions I would have to take to make sure that thing would work when needed. I think I would require quarterly testings to assure that the release mechanism would release when triggered. Not to mention the finely balanced trigger using rock and tree branches. And don't get me started on how to make a mechanism that would blow poison darts across the path! But I know that such efforts weren't expended because Forestall's corpse had time to decay so far. (It would take a stalwart maintenance team to do all the testing necessary, yet leave Forestall's body in situ.)

When I read the Safehold novels I apply a different standard, yet I still wonder how you keep things from breaking, or fix them in a timely fashion. Relevant here is the "purple plague." The purple plague is a failure mechanism of integrated circuits whereby they fail due to aluminum migration (which, much like coconuts, is, in fact, migratory). Even for technologically advanced peoples, my mind boggles at how you keep machines working when insufficient time has passed even to discover the failure mechanisms. I satisfy myself by postulating an advanced artificially intelligent repair mechanism, whose first priority is repairing the repair mechanisms.


Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? indeed.

~Tonto

IIRC, they pumped in nitrogen since it's mostly inert. Coupled with temperature and humidity controls, Nimue's Cave would be pretty good for storing something for centuries. As for how likely something like a PICA would be able to last, I just ignore as a concession to the setting.

dan92677 wrote:

dwileye13 wrote::twisted:

USMA74 wrote:Thank you for the snippet. It doesn't make up for a local high school team stealing the Chiefs' jerseys and playing last night, but it is close.

A totally satisfactory game . . . . . for a Broncos Fan

HEAR!!! HEAR!!![/quote]


Not if you are a diehard Seahawks fan(since 1977). In the last 2 years the Seahawks are 3-1 vs. the Broncos. As regards to SB48 the best part of the game for the Broncos was the opening kick-off.

runsforcelery wrote: “‘Nimue’s Cave,’?” she repeated with a quirked eyebrow. “That’s an odd name, even for a seijins’ training camp.

She is in for a shock. This training camp does not look much like a camp.
And the training facilitys are also not what she expects.

Merlin is playing a joke on her. And RFC is very good at painting this scene.
Can't wait for the next snippet.