Some more thoughts: EHJ (or lack thereof) as a means of social control.
One of the things I got thinking about was what abut the vilani would make this aversion to EHJs -and thanks for the suggestions from the thread. Two main ones stand out: a Hindenburg event followed by an imperial rescript; an excessive focus on the risk/cost issue. While both of these are really good, and work together, the last piece for me is this. Given that the information about EHJ exists, those are just proscriptions -ie, we know we can do it, we just won't. So, then, given the risks of the later Terran wars, and the brilliant tactics of the third, why wouldnt the Vilanii, in extremis, or at least one vilanii (such as the petty emperor of the 3rd war) break ranks and use and EHJ to zap terra.
And if they were known of, even as an ancient folly, presumably the terrans knew that they existed by that time. And so, given that we know that they used J3 routes later with J3 to drygulch the Vilanii, why not risk one EHJ to get exactly the same effect ? And the stakes were MUCH higher for Terra.
So again. in extremis, why not ? The key is that the vilanii were obsessive archivers; so all else being equal, lots of unused technology probably exists-unless it was supressed.
So if the V actively suppressed the tech of EHJs (and this includes putting plausible lies into the record) the terrans might not have discovered it until well after it was an issue.
But why suppress it ? Answer: the same reason they fought the consolidation wars. Control of space. Control of the empire. Control of communication.
Assume that the Vilanii , as they were engineering their entire society for consistency and stability also suppressed the knowledge that one could cross the gaps without a J2 drive, so as to retain ultimate control of trade and communications- the J2 was a very closely controlled monopoly, but it was bound to spread. So, the vilanii build in a layer of obfuscation to limit its effectiveness to any....improper use, such as rebellion or even....independent trade. So.... Astronomy could be shaped and limited to prevent the issue being discussed;( Jump research was obviously suppressed already); the history of exploration similarly rewritten fictional jump stations are recorded, brown dwarves invented...Cost benefit analyses are produced to validate the new reality, a Hindenburg event is written into history, all to buttress the idea that an EHJ is either impossible or far too risky.
The secret is only known at the highest levels, and as time passes becomes more and more obscure; not lost, but possibly known only to the beureaux heads and the emperor. We know that the core paid little attention to the rim until the end -they may never have felt that the threat (probably vastly overblown, along with the resistance to breaking tradition )was worth letting the cat out of the bag. And so.......they lose. The Terrans eventually (once they have access to the vilani archives and archivists) figure out the fiddle, and voila ! Even explains where the vilani waystations went, and how they discovered brown dwarves whenever they neded the. They lied. To themselves, and everyone else. And it worked. brilliantly. Until they lost.
Well. That was fun. Now, lightspeed rocks and jump torpedo weapons invented by Aslan females in sensible shoes.
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