The Inquisition Reformed. (SPOILER/SPECULATION)

HamsterDesTodes wrote:

n7axw wrote:
[snip]

So far as we know, the Ghaba do not go looking for races to extiminate. That's from RFC in the Pearls, I think. What happens is that they respond to intruders in what they regard as their sphere of interest. So if the ark expedition got away clean, there would be no pursuit. However, to be on the safe side, the colonists were to "go bush" for 500 years to be sure that if there were any scout ships looking for the escapees, they would have time to pass Safehold and then to return home without detecting any emissions. The argument amongst the command crew was that Langhorne wanted to bury the colonists in deepest hole possible and stay buried. The proscriptions were to ensure that humanity never developed the tech necessary to return to space. Shan-wei and her followers, on the other hand, felt that no matter how deeply the Safehold colony was buried, that eventually the pattern imposed by Langhorne would deteriorate and humanity would return to space. Far better that the colonists be forewarned about the Ghaba and the level of tech required to survive against them than to once again be caught without adequate preparation. Thus the recovery of tech was to begin at the 500 year mark, assisted by those enclaves where it had been preserved. That was in accord with the original mission plan. Accordingly, Pei Kauyung set the timer on the awakening of Nimue's PICA at the 750 year mark to provide an additional 250 year safety margin against discovery by the Ghaba. So at this point, humanity should be able to redevelop its tech and return to space without undue concern about the Ghaba, provided reasonable caution is exercised. That is the theory Merlin is operating on anyway.

Don

I checked the pearls and didnt find anything about the Gbaba except in passing. Certainly not that they didnt go looking for victims. Do you have a Weber quote somewhere? Because IMHO the idea of passive Gbaba flies in the face of most of the in-book information.

C. O. Thompson wrote:Not sure I can agree fully with the thought that the Ghaba do not go looking for races to exterminate. In the first reference to them in "Off Armageddon Reef" it points out the humans dismay that the ruins they found were of a race that had advanced to the point that they were extracting minerals from asteroids but I had the impression that these 'people' had not reached interstellar travel.

I have been wrong before and likely will be again but this tends to hold up as there was no reference that humans had found any systems occupied by the Ghaba before the first human system was attacked.

Just my two cents

Charlie

JeffEngel wrote:

C. O. Thompson wrote:Not sure I can agree fully with the thought that the Ghaba do not go looking for races to exterminate. In the first reference to them in "Off Armageddon Reef" it points out the humans dismay that the ruins they found were of a race that had advanced to the point that they were extracting minerals from asteroids but I had the impression that these 'people' had not reached interstellar travel.

I have been wrong before and likely will be again but this tends to hold up as there was no reference that humans had found any systems occupied by the Ghaba before the first human system was attacked.

Just my two cents

Charlie

1- Operation Ark assumed that a human colony a sufficient distance from known space, away from the Gbaba, would indefinitely be safe from them unless/until that colony's emissions or representatives reached the Gbaba. This assumption would be obviously wrong if the Gbaba explored on their own.

2 - OAR, p. 18 (hardcover) - The Gbaba were expected to settle back down "until the next poor dumb suckers come stumbling into them" (emphasis added). This also assumes the Gbaba do settle down and do not go exploring.

3 - The first known Gbaba victims were described as "advanced" and "capable of fully developing and exploiting the resources of its home star system" (OAR, p. 12). While they may or may not have been exploring outside their home system, that would strongly suggest a lot of emissions at least, for decades or more likely centuries, reaching out and drawing Gbaba attention. Thus, there isn't reason on that basis to suppose that the Gbaba had to go looking in order to find those victims. They just have to listen they go off to get the victims, and presumably the Terran colonies fell to the same sort of detection.

dwileye13 wrote:
I believe RFC made the connection (in parallel universes) that the Ghaba and the Kanga were one and the same, if that would give further insights into their motivations

n7axw wrote:

dwileye13 wrote:
I believe RFC made the connection (in parallel universes) that the Ghaba and the Kanga were one and the same, if that would give further insights into their motivations

If indeed RFC made this parallel, that would imply that the Gbaba are indeed looking for races to cide... The Kanga certainly were.

Don

n7axw wrote:

dwileye13 wrote:
I believe RFC made the connection (in parallel universes) that the Ghaba and the Kanga were one and the same, if that would give further insights into their motivations

If indeed RFC made this parallel, that would imply that the Gbaba are indeed looking for races to cide... The Kanga certainly were.

Don

C. O. Thompson wrote:Ecclesiastes 1:10
Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

Call it variation on a theme. Yes, the Kanga and the Gbaba have similarities, as do the church leaders in Heirs of Empire with those in Zion. In addition to that, Prince Rodger in the Empire of Man series and Admiral Simpsons in 1633 deal with the same kind of issues faced by Cayleb and Merlin but they are not identical. Rather the story we are following represents an evolution in the theme.
We can compare and contrast, discuss and debate these differences indefinitely and still not guess exactly where David Weber is going to take us next. Isn’t that why we read everything he publishes? For my entertainment budget, I continue to buy this series and re-read this and other works while I try to wait patiently, I feel like a junkie who cannot find his connection. <Or so I believe from my research>

Now I hear that I have to wait until October… ‘Oh Bother’… either I will make it or I will not.

Anyone have any suggestions for something else?

Charlie

n7axw wrote:Ecclesiastes 3:1ff

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."

Right now is the time for faithful Weber fans to speculate about how he's going deal with all of the balls he's tossed into the air...

Don

chrisd wrote:

n7axw wrote:Ecclesiastes 3:1ff

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."

Right now is the time for faithful Weber fans to speculate about how he's going deal with all of the balls he's tossed into the air...

Don

"Right now is the time for faithful Weber fans to" develop a metaphysical scrotum to retain "all of the balls he's has tossed into the air . . ."