Official Safehold Speculation Thread

Didn't Merlin reminisce that the TF had developed weapons that could take out the Gbaba but that they just ran out of time to make enough and deploy them to save the day?

dan92677 wrote:Didn't Merlin reminisce that the TF had developed weapons that could take out the Gbaba but that they just ran out of time to make enough and deploy them to save the day?

Not so much that as the TF had developed the tech base that would enable them to survive against the Gbaba. Weapons are included in that, of course. But also included would be more advanced warships, etc.

So your statement is true, but not quite broad enough.

Don

I'm curious who everyone thinks will get added to the Inner Circle next. It is pretty obvious from text in LaMA that Earl Coris and Hanth will both be added soon. Who will be the next people added to the circle from outside the Empire? I think it would be interesting to get Stohnar added; but I'm not sure it is worth the risk.

AnalystJohnny wrote:I'm curious who everyone thinks will get added to the Inner Circle next. It is pretty obvious from text in LaMA that Earl Coris and Hanth will both be added soon. Who will be the next people added to the circle from outside the Empire? I think it would be interesting to get Stohnar added; but I'm not sure it is worth the risk.

Stohnar would be the most obvious one, wouldn't he. But I'm with you. I'm not certain he would be a good risk...although if it worked, the payoff would be high.

Welcome to the forums, by the way. Belly up to the virtual bar and enjoy a virtual drink of your choice. It's on the house.

Don

dan92677 wrote:Didn't Merlin reminisce that the TF had developed weapons that could take out the Gbaba but that they just ran out of time to make enough and deploy them to save the day?

No. The Federation had not developed weapons that could take out the Gbaba. But they were fairly confident that they could have developed weapons to take out the Gbaba with another fifty years of dedicated research.

The original plan called for Safehold to get back to Federation technology after five hundred years, and then start working on new stuff.

Here's a bit of speculation: Langhorne was right.

Well, not "right" as in keeping humanity in perfect medieval stasis. More in that if Operation Ark had kept to its original schedule, humanity would have gotten back into space TOO SOON and attracted the attention of Gbaba search party that was passing nearby.

With the delay imparted by Langhorne's Plan, humanity's return to the stars is delayed long enough that the Gbaba search passes over Safehold without noticing it.

Will something go wrong with the Inner Circle?

"Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead".

They don't all have the same goals. They're being subjected to pressures that have driven people mad. Besides all the usual reasons people lose secrets, there's the unique one that any of them might want to shout it from the rooftops out of sheer anger (and if someone does it's certainly been foreshadowed).

Merlin himself is a couple of steps down the road to insanity. Having Nimue to talk to may help no end, of course.

n7axw wrote:

dan92677 wrote:Didn't Merlin reminisce that the TF had developed weapons that could take out the Gbaba but that they just ran out of time to make enough and deploy them to save the day?

Not so much that as the TF had developed the tech base that would enable them to survive against the Gbaba. Weapons are included in that, of course. But also included would be more advanced warships, etc.

So your statement is true, but not quite broad enough.

Don

Quoting Admiral Pei just before the execution of Operation Ark: "You know," he said, turning away from the display to face Lieutenant Commander Alban and Captain Joseph Thiessen, his chief of staff, "we came so close to kicking these people's asses. Another fifty years—seventy-five at the outside—and we could have taken them, 'star-spanning empire' or no."
"I think that's probably a little over-optimistic, Sir," Thiessen replied after a moment. "We never did find out how big their empire actually is, you know."
"It wouldn't have mattered." Pei shook his head sharply. "We're in a virtual dead heat with them technologically right now, Joe. Right now."

So yes, if the TF hadn't been down to just Earth and whatever parts of the solar system it still controlled at that point, humanity might indeed have driven back the Gbaba, and given 50 years as a rough guess based only on the manufacturing capability of the solar system, could probably have produced ships and weapons that could have eventually wiped out the Gbaba, since the difference in their technological curves would have grown larger and larger in favor of the TF.

Unfortunately, there just weren't enough ships left to defend Sol, and whatever the cost - which I imagine was immense, the Gbaba presumably destroyed the Earth and every human in the entire solar system. (Though how they'd have found and dug out all the humans who might have been hiding in asteroids or deep inside ice planets in the Oort Cloud or best yet, floating in the seas of Europa is beyond me!) A solar system is a very big place, but unfortunately the Gbaba are a very patient race, so I suspect they occupied every TF system for centuries after the genocide was over. They may still be patrolling all those system.

Which doesn't mean there might not be some surviving humans scattered among the shattered remains of the solar system and the TF colony systems, buried deeply in asteroids or planetary bodies. They simply aren't in a position to do anything but survive, so any help for them will have to come from Safehold - and with the life extension nannites and medications, help should arrive while some of them are still alive, and certainly during their children's lifetimes.

It would be incredibly ironic if the Safehold Space Nay (SSN) arrived at Earth and found incredibly advanced humans living there, with fleets that had long since wiped out the Gbaba! (Which the textev does not say isn't possible!) So unless RFC said in the Pearls somewhere or in a post that Safehold is the last vestige of humanity, the death of Terra is only "presumed," which RFC does say in the text of one of the novels.

However, given the plot it's a pretty safe bet that the humans on Safehold are the only ones who still exist.

McGuiness wrote:Unfortunately, there just weren't enough ships left to defend Sol, and whatever the cost - which I imagine was immense, the Gbaba presumably destroyed the Earth and every human in the entire solar system. (Though how they'd have found and dug out all the humans who might have been hiding in asteroids or deep inside ice planets in the Oort Cloud or best yet, floating in the seas of Europa is beyond me!)

If TF really did give them a run for their money, they may've decided it'd be safer to nuke all the planets into glass spheres and blow up everything small enough to be blown up. They do seem rather thorough, after all.

They simply aren't in a position to do anything but survive, so any help for them will have to come from Safehold - and with the life extension nannites and medications, help should arrive while some of them are still alive, and certainly during their children's lifetimes.

I'm certainly adding this to my 'so want to see this!' list. Maybe there's not much RFC could do with such survivors plot-wise, but just imagine Merlin's and Nimue's elation at finding out other survivors. The culture clash may be interesting to read about, too, and if there'd be anyone left doubting the true origins of humanity, ta-da! - the proof!

So yeah, a speculation: there do exist other TF survivors and Safeholdians will meet them one day.

Hi Kakai

I believe RFC has ruled out anyone still alive in the Terran system in posts commenting on this and similar themed threads, including his own.

L

Kakai wrote:

McGuiness wrote:Unfortunately, there just weren't enough ships left to defend Sol, and whatever the cost - which I imagine was immense, the Gbaba presumably destroyed the Earth and every human in the entire solar system. (Though how they'd have found and dug out all the humans who might have been hiding in asteroids or deep inside ice planets in the Oort Cloud or best yet, floating in the seas of Europa is beyond me!)

If TF really did give them a run for their money, they may've decided it'd be safer to nuke all the planets into glass spheres and blow up everything small enough to be blown up. They do seem rather thorough, after all.

They simply aren't in a position to do anything but survive, so any help for them will have to come from Safehold - and with the life extension nannites and medications, help should arrive while some of them are still alive, and certainly during their children's lifetimes.

I'm certainly adding this to my 'so want to see this!' list. Maybe there's not much RFC could do with such survivors plot-wise, but just imagine Merlin's and Nimue's elation at finding out other survivors. The culture clash may be interesting to read about, too, and if there'd be anyone left doubting the true origins of humanity, ta-da! - the proof!

So yeah, a speculation: there do exist other TF survivors and Safeholdians will meet them one day.