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(Spoilers)Destiny's Loose End?

And Titan would be in the same galaxy as her homeworld.Meaning if the warp drive 'tosses a rod' they'll only need a few years to limp home,versus a few thousand millenia if the slipstream drive fails in another galaxy.

Err, no. Titan typically operates at least several hundred light-years from the Federation border, and has gotten as far out as maybe 1200-1500 ly. Without warp drive, it would take over a year to cover a single light-year (by the definition of the unit), and therefore it would take them hundreds or thousands of years to "limp home." Unless you're proposing they employ relativistic time-dilation like Columbia did in Destiny -- but it would still be centuries or millennia in the outside universe even if it was only a few years within the ship.

I stand corrected.The point I was making is that its at least in the realm of possibility that Titan can get home,relatavistic or otherwise.

Being stuck in the galactic void would be screwed with a capital S.
 
I was a bit puzzled by this "loose end" as well. I had the idea early into book 1 that the Caeliar would end up evolving into the Borg and that only became more likely as the series went on. All through book 3, I was expecting to see a flashback story sequence where the Borg attacked the Caelair world causing the Cataclysm and thus ensuring their own existence. I think the only problem with this would have been that it would have probably meant that the Borg knew of their origins from the Caeliar and humans which would surely have come up in one of their past encounters with humanity.

I'm also not too sure how I feel about one of the first two Borg ever created being a Canadian. :lol:

It seems odd that this 3rd Caeliar civilization would be mentioned without any intended follow-up... They've obviously also changed their values quite a bit from the original Caeliar if they're willing to attack a civilization to ensure their survival.

One last question - how do you pronounce "Caeliar". In my head, I've always been thinking "KAY-lee-aar" but also wondered about "kay-LIE-er".
 
OO, thanks!! I was trying to pronounce it Say-Lee-arr for some reason... lousy Cs as Ks... :p
 
It seems odd that this 3rd Caeliar civilization would be mentioned without any intended follow-up... They've obviously also changed their values quite a bit from the original Caeliar if they're willing to attack a civilization to ensure their survival.
I'm not sure you can read malovolent intent into their behavior in sending the feedback loop that destroyed Erigol.

Had they not done that, their entire galaxy would have been altered, from near the dawn of time until the present. That would have upset the flow of time in ways that couldn't be predicted. As we saw in Mere Mortals, the Caeliar of New Erigol monitored chronal energies to make sure that their emergence into the past hadn't disrupted time's flow. Their "cousins" in the Kardashev-III galaxy would undoubtedly have the same imperative; time's ordained flow was paramount, and their actions were governed by such.

Interestingly, something just occurred to me. It's possible that nearly all the Caeliar survived. Fourteen billion years is a long time to evolve, and they had the power of an entire galaxy (at the very least) at their disposal. It's possible that they would have had ways of "snatching" the Caeliar cities from Erigol before they were destroyed. The Caeliar of Axion, not being as advanced, might have believed the cities destroyed, when in fact they were drawn to the other side of the galaxy.
 
Plus, Picard saw that galaxy as it was now. However, we know that that galaxy was thrown back to the very early universe, when things were a lot more wild. There's no telling what might have existed in the primitive years.

Perhaps the Caeliar of that galaxy initially just attempted to harness the energy of their own big fat asses. In that case they would be a Kim Kardash-ev-ian civilization.
 
It seems odd that this 3rd Caeliar civilization would be mentioned without any intended follow-up... They've obviously also changed their values quite a bit from the original Caeliar if they're willing to attack a civilization to ensure their survival.
I'm not sure you can read malovolent intent into their behavior in sending the feedback loop that destroyed Erigol.

Had they not done that, their entire galaxy would have been altered, from near the dawn of time until the present. That would have upset the flow of time in ways that couldn't be predicted. As we saw in Mere Mortals, the Caeliar of New Erigol monitored chronal energies to make sure that their emergence into the past hadn't disrupted time's flow. Their "cousins" in the Kardashev-III galaxy would undoubtedly have the same imperative; time's ordained flow was paramount, and their actions were governed by such.
I don't think the logic behind this is entirely sound seeing as how they were the ones who initially caused the Cataclysm. It's kind of like if I discovered that I was actually Lee Harvey Oswald and that it was my destiny to travel back in time to kill JFK and using that as justification for doing so.
 
It seems odd that this 3rd Caeliar civilization would be mentioned without any intended follow-up... They've obviously also changed their values quite a bit from the original Caeliar if they're willing to attack a civilization to ensure their survival.
I'm not sure you can read malovolent intent into their behavior in sending the feedback loop that destroyed Erigol.

Had they not done that, their entire galaxy would have been altered, from near the dawn of time until the present. That would have upset the flow of time in ways that couldn't be predicted. As we saw in Mere Mortals, the Caeliar of New Erigol monitored chronal energies to make sure that their emergence into the past hadn't disrupted time's flow. Their "cousins" in the Kardashev-III galaxy would undoubtedly have the same imperative; time's ordained flow was paramount, and their actions were governed by such.
I don't think the logic behind this is entirely sound seeing as how they were the ones who initially caused the Cataclysm. It's kind of like if I discovered that I was actually Lee Harvey Oswald and that it was my destiny to travel back in time to kill JFK and using that as justification for doing so.

But you would have to, because if you didn't, it would throw time out of whack. (And, as we know from Doctor Who, cause giant bat monsters to appear and eat everyone. ;) )

They caused the Cataclysm because they had to to preserve the integrity of the timeline, not out of necessarily malevolent intent.
 
I don't think the logic behind this is entirely sound seeing as how they were the ones who initially caused the Cataclysm. It's kind of like if I discovered that I was actually Lee Harvey Oswald and that it was my destiny to travel back in time to kill JFK and using that as justification for doing so.

Or kind of like if you were Captain Kirk and you discovered that Edith Keeler had to die? You could hardly say that Kirk's or Spock's motives were malevolent.
 
Well, as medical ethics teaches, there is a moral difference between killing or letting someone die. Unfortunately there aren't any guidelines for what to do if you travel back in time and are expected to carry out a murder.

But really, since we don't know what the future would have held if JFK had lived, the argument that "the current timeline must be preserved" isn't exactly appropriate.
 
^^As I recall, the Caeliar did have ways of modeling the timeline in great detail. I don't recall if that included the ability to extrapolate the consequences of a changed timeline, but the far-advanced Caeliar descendants of that galaxy probably would have the ability to know what would've happened if they hadn't completed the time loop.

Heck, for all we know, maybe the inhabitants of that galaxy initially failed to complete the time loop, and a disastrous alternate timeline resulted, so they had no choice but to make sure they sent the pulse back after all to restore the original history. But since the timeline would've been restored, the characters in Destiny would've had no knowledge of that process.
 
Still, there would have needed to be a change in attitude. The Caeliar were willing to allow the MACOS to do as they wanted in order to avoid them harming themselves even though it would likely result in harm to the Caeliar. Guess they missed seeing that one coming.
 
Still, there would have needed to be a change in attitude. The Caeliar were willing to allow the MACOS to do as they wanted in order to avoid them harming themselves even though it would likely result in harm to the Caeliar. Guess they missed seeing that one coming.

The extent to which the MACOs managed to break Erigol and its sun was wholly unexpected to the humans, and--I suspect--barely imaginable to the Caeliar.
 
Because the other Caeliar had a big part in that as well. I don't understand why it should be so hard to believe that these other Caeliar may have evolved differently just like the future-Borg Caeliar. Does it contradict future stories or something? And didn't these Caeliar end up being sent even further back in time than the Borg-Caeliar did? Plenty of time for a race to change its priorities.
 
Because the other Caeliar had a big part in that as well. I don't understand why it should be so hard to believe that these other Caeliar may have evolved differently just like the future-Borg Caeliar. Does it contradict future stories or something? And didn't these Caeliar end up being sent even further back in time than the Borg-Caeliar did? Plenty of time for a race to change its priorities.

Sure, it's possible. It just doesn't seem probable. They would have had the full resources of a fully-inhabited entire Caeliar city-ship to build upon -- very unlike the unfortunate residents of Mantillis.
 
I think one of the wonders of storytelling is leaving out these small details for the "What If" stories. Loose ends tend to make the reader think more about the story where a fully completed novel tends to be finished and done with.
To an extent Destiny is the ultimate "What If" story as there are three upcoming novels dealing with the federation side of things. Who knows what the authors have planned for the future, including possibly a mirror universe look at the Caeliar.
 
Because the other Caeliar had a big part in that as well. I don't understand why it should be so hard to believe that these other Caeliar may have evolved differently just like the future-Borg Caeliar. Does it contradict future stories or something? And didn't these Caeliar end up being sent even further back in time than the Borg-Caeliar did? Plenty of time for a race to change its priorities.

Sure, it's possible. It just doesn't seem probable. They would have had the full resources of a fully-inhabited entire Caeliar city-ship to build upon -- very unlike the unfortunate residents of Mantillis.
Well, the Caeliar were never willing to kill to further their own interests before; the furthest they'd go is to relocate individuals who threatened to expose their existence.
 
Because the other Caeliar had a big part in that as well. I don't understand why it should be so hard to believe that these other Caeliar may have evolved differently just like the future-Borg Caeliar. Does it contradict future stories or something? And didn't these Caeliar end up being sent even further back in time than the Borg-Caeliar did? Plenty of time for a race to change its priorities.

Sure, it's possible. It just doesn't seem probable. They would have had the full resources of a fully-inhabited entire Caeliar city-ship to build upon -- very unlike the unfortunate residents of Mantillis.
Well, the Caeliar were never willing to kill to further their own interests before; the furthest they'd go is to relocate individuals who threatened to expose their existence.

Yeah, but what if a screw-up in the timeline threatened all of existence?
 
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