obvious noob questions from a writer

[Drashner1]

By the time this point arrives we're into the nano wars, the rise of GAIA, the dark ages. And maintaining these freezers would have gotten to be the purview of an AI quite early. (I'll call this AI "Charon", the ferryman of the underworld, for the sake of simplicity.)

Hm. Up to this point, you're probably fine within OA canon, as we've been discussing. The next section starts running into a problem, I'm afraid. Please see below...

When all the unpleasantness happens on Earth - the nano wars and subsequent Expulsion and dark ages - Charon's got a problem: he's got a duty to fulfill (perpetual care, and eventually resurrection) and needs to do something with these deaders. Which means that even though Charon now has the tech to resurrect the dead, Sol is a mess, and obviously the sleepers have got to go elsewhere. The abandoned relic megastructures (left when the Xi Geminorum AI-1 civ that had populated the Hyades transcended), are his solution. My thinking is that the Xi Geminorum themselves, before they transcended, built a megastructure called "Purgatory" as a new home for these revived deaders as fulfillment of some sort of trust. (The Xi Geminorum AI-1 civ might even be descended from Charon in some fashion.)

And this is the problematic bit. The Taurus Nexus civ wasn't detected by Sol/the First Federation until 1558 AT. But the Nanodisaster started in 540AT followed by the Great Expulsion and about 400yrs of Dark Age before the Federation got going. So basically, the Nexus wasn't discovered until something like 1000yrs after the Nanodisaster and Great Expulsion took place. So it would be basically impossible for Charon to have been in contact with them since they would have been either still en route to the Hyades themselves or only just getting started when the major stuff went down at Sol.

On a semi-related note (and a bit we need to tweak in the current EGs anyway), in current canon it takes a minimum of a Third Singularity mind to create even a crude wormhole. So the first TN civ would have needed some of its members to get up to this level to create their gates. Singularities and ascension/transcension are also kind of different in OA, so if you need any further explanation on how these work for us, please let me know and I can give you the 25c tour

Can I make it somewhat happier ending? Dunno. This story is dark. The viewpoint character is a former serial killer from Earth who is in control of some seriously potent godtech weaponry. (He's also got a dissembler bomb strapped to his chest, and lives 99% of his life sequestered in VR, because the rest of the crew does not exactly trust him...after all, he's a psychopath with enough firepower to obliterate a continent.)

Still...might be an interesting reversal if this guy were to somehow save some people, as opposed to just summarily nuking them all...

Hmm. In OA (and after much discussion) we've more or less determined that nanotech doesn't make the best weapon in most cases. But we can certainly fit your guy out with something suitably pyrotechnic.

In terms of a happy ending - it's certainly not required, just a thought I had based on my personal preference for at least semi-happy endings. OA definitely has some dark elements to it. Read the Queen of Pain (Yes, Jolonah, There is a Hell and Initiation) stories by Darren Ryding sometime. Or Bunny Love Has No Limits by Daniel Boese for a rather sexier (but creepier if you think about it) take on things.

Getting back to the main points, there are certainly ways that we can resolve the issues mentioned, just need to discuss more.

Hope this helps,

Todd