A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)
- Thread starter TheGodBen
- Start date
Oh yes, Zathras! I caught the mention alright, I just decided not to bring it up because I'm fairly certain I wont be seeing Zathras at all in the future.
Well, it's all relative....
Actually he may see Zathras, but he'll not see Zathras... though Zathras is a possibility. Maybe.
I love his grave robber speech. "There's nothing more I hate than economic efficiency, nothing more I love than abandoning trillions of dollars worth of property to the dustbin of the universe! Salvage operations make me want to puke! Raagh!"
Well, in fairness, do you want people robbing your grave? The implications are understandably distasteful. Your grandmother's clothes might be secondhand now but the corpse doesn't really need them, and hey, a lot of life left in those teeth.
Though the opportunity to visit Markab as a rather important historical and cultural site has also been severed or at any rate made more difficult.
Though that spare Markab world woulda been handy during the whole Byron debacle.
Though in destroying the jumpgate, he didn't block the homeworld from a more legitimate operation-- like an archaeological group or valid salvage team. They would have the resources to go in with a jump-capable ship. All he blocked were small ships that were gate-reliant... and thus more likely to be the shadier side of "salvage".
Don't forget about Zathras.
(because I can't be arsed with tags, I'll keep this vague)
Three actually, they had 2 colony worlds, though no that wouldn't have made a difference. There's no real shortage of uninhabited, life supporting worlds, though mounting an colonising expedition is VERY expensive and if you just settle out on some random world without the protection of a treaty or defence contract you're on your own if you're attacked by some other race that wants the world for themselves or subject to Raiders.
While that particular group would hardly have been defenceless, there's not a lot they could do against even a small strike force, sufficiently equipped. What they wanted was a government sanctioned, politically recognised world.
Actually, by dusting the gate he'd take the beacon with it, which means no lock-on signal. On the other hand I suppose they might have had minor beacons away from the gate, like the ones at Earth and Mars, but as I understand it, a local beacon is only useful if you're already in-system. With the main beacon to the Septis gate gone, most races wouldn't have the ability to navigate to the area. The alternative would be to jump in at the nearest gate (probably Zagros VII) and travel the distance in normal space at relativistic speeds with the intent on setting a new beacon for the trip home and return trips, but that could takes years or decades. Of course if the ship can go fast enough, time dilation would mean it wouldn't seam so long to whatever crew you send, but it'd still be a very long time before any salvage operation saw a return on it's investment, so I can't see it happening.
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Well that's what happened for the Sol System. A Centauri ship arrived, made contact and sold us gate technology. How they got here is a little unclear, though in one of the Psi Corps books it's mentioned that at first it was thought they came from the Alpha Centauri system. Now I'm not sure if the author meant for that to supposed to explain our name for them or to indicated they jumped into a gate in the Alpha/Beta/Proxima Centauri system and made the rest of the way via normal space, probably the former. As for how they found the system at all I imagine it had something to do with the discovery of Tachyon communications attracting their attention. Or perhaps Sol is right between two beacons and it was just happen-stance, or the Centauri sent out an unmanned probe with a beacon years back so the manned ship could follow later. They were an expansionist Empire so it would make sense that they'd check out any potential colony world or conquerable race.
On the other hand, in the case of the Markab, it's also possible their system was one of those with an ancient gate. None of the existing younger races built the original gates, most of which are around 8000 years old. When races like the Minbari, Centauri and others first went out into space they found abandoned gates at the edge of their systems, eventually worked out how to work them and gradually began setting up tachyon beacons to navigate, an inch at a time at first but eventually building a whole network that eventually linked up with others.
As to who built them, I'd say the Vorlons are the prime suspects given that they're the only "first one" race that use the same kind of jump points as the gates, or for that matter use the gates at all.
Plus...
As for the why, I have a theory on that, but I digress...
On the other hand, in the case of the Markab, it's also possible their system was one of those with an ancient gate. None of the existing younger races built the original gates, most of which are around 8000 years old. When races like the Minbari, Centauri and others first went out into space they found abandoned gates at the edge of their systems, eventually worked out how to work them and gradually began setting up tachyon beacons to navigate, an inch at a time at first but eventually building a whole network that eventually linked up with others.
As to who built them, I'd say the Vorlons are the prime suspects given that they're the only "first one" race that use the same kind of jump points as the gates, or for that matter use the gates at all.
Plus...
They did build at least one gate we know of.
Of course you can get there without a beacon. Navigation in hyperspace is difficult, but more advanced races should not have a problem doing it.
Going to new systems without a gate and figuring out where to construct them was the purpose of the Explorer ships in the Earth Alliance (this was mentioned in "A Distant Star"). Those ships had jump engines. Likely the other races had something similar.
To a point. It's all about being able to amplify a signal and filter out all the chaotic noise of hyperspace. More advanced races can amplify much weaker signals, but you still need something to amplify in the first place. Even the Shadows use their own beacon system, as was explicitly shown in "A Distant Star".
I liken it to aircraft navigation today. Older aircraft used ground-based VORs (VHF Omnidirectional Range), flying along Victor Airways connecting two VORs. (This is assuming instrument flight rules---if you're flying visual, you can of course go wherever.) Off-airway navigation was difficult at best, although you could always fly direct to the nearest VOR without trouble.
I get the impression that hyperspace beacons aren't even that good. They're probably more akin to the even older NDBs (Nondirectional Beacons), which don't give you radial or distance information, only a direction to the station.
Newer aircraft can just use GPS, which makes things a lot easier.
I get the impression that hyperspace beacons aren't even that good. They're probably more akin to the even older NDBs (Nondirectional Beacons), which don't give you radial or distance information, only a direction to the station.
Newer aircraft can just use GPS, which makes things a lot easier.
Come to think of it, most systems probably have a backup hyperspace beacon. It wouldn't make sense to have only one; what if it goes down for maintenance? And as long as you've got a second one anyway, why attach it to the jumpgate? Stick it off in another part of the system to facilitate traffic flow of jump-capable vessels.
For some reason it all reminds me of my Dad, who learned to fly in 1936 when you just sort of pointed your nose and maybe checked the compass once in a while. One time he flew with his former boss in his boss' Beachcraft from Boston the NJ. The boss said "take the controls while I plot our course" and took out all sorts of electronic navigation aids. Meanwhile Dad aimed the nose where he figured Lincoln Park airport was (which he'd been flying out of for decades). 10 minutes later when the boss called out a heading, Dad looked at the compass and adjusted it for the half-degree he'd been off.
Oh, there's no denying that dead reckoning is a powerful tool, especially when you're flying visually.
IFR flight requires the radio navigation because half the time you're inside a cloud and have no visual references for navigation or terrain avoidance. You just follow the radio navaids (or GPS) and use the minimum altitudes specified for those routes on the chart.
IFR flight requires the radio navigation because half the time you're inside a cloud and have no visual references for navigation or terrain avoidance. You just follow the radio navaids (or GPS) and use the minimum altitudes specified for those routes on the chart.
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