Once the Sollies and Mesan Alignment are taken care of, which will be a couple more books (at least), there really isn't a plausible HUMAN foe in sight.
Exploring space, and new wormholes and new wormhole physics suggests interesting possibilities. EVENTUALLY, the boundaries of human space are going expand further, and with a Grand Alliance kind of Interstellar compact covering large portions of known space, and available to act a policemen, the expansion is likely to be less hardscrabble, and more planned. IMO.
All this will (or might) eventually lead to an encounter with an Alien civilization half way across the Galaxy.
Just where IS Bolthole, anyway. I'll bet it's out of civilized space at the end of a wormhole.
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New physics:
Manticore has massively enhanced the ENGINEERING of gravitics; but Mesa has developed new theory. The Streak drive apparently requires some new physics, the Spider drive probably even more. The Torch/Darius wormhole is stated to be 'weird' enough that it can't be explained by current theory, IIRC. Which suggests new physics. (possibly the same new physics Mesa got).
All of that suggests very interesting future developments for human interaction in space. If Mesa has courier boats with Streak drive, what do you bet Manticore can engineer them down to fit into warships (first) and maybe even freighters eventually.
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While I don't expect it to show up, the fact of the matter is that ever since 1905 it has been clearly established that FTL travel is equivalent to time travel (any FTL travel in your reference frame is time travel in a different, appropriately chosen, reference frame).
simality wrote:I've been reading this forum for about an hour now. The thread about War With the League is awesome. But somewhere between the posts about battle plans and naval buildup I got to wondering about what will happen when there is no more war to be fought.
The Star Kingdom/Empire has been fighting for its life almost nonstop for over twenty years. Unless there is some sort of Hiroshima/Nagasaki type event, the current war with the Sollies/Mesan Allignment will have to last at least two years and probably closer to five.
Being at war has become a way of life for Manticore. So I'm wondering will happen once the shooting stops and the peace treaties are signed? Can Manticore really go back to being just another Star Nation?