Page 91

[GeoModder]

I'd say the Historians would find a broad spectrum receiving array to their benefit. After all, they're supposed to be the ones trying to discover&research everything/one and their pets within range.

[NOMAD]

I'd say the Historians would find a broad spectrum receiving array to their benefit. After all, they're supposed to be the ones trying to discover&research everything/one and their pets within range.

could very well be, it would be really interesting to see the database of such a receiving system ( if the Historians are the Soia) you could possibly have a near complete history of all the races

[Grayhome]

Do we have confirmation that Loroi can read human minds through cloth? Or does it have to be through direct skin to skin contact by several powerful telepathic Loroi?

[Trantor]

Do we have confirmation that Loroi can read human minds through cloth? Or does it have to be through direct skin to skin contact by several powerful telepathic Loroi?

They can´t read Alex at all.

[fredgiblet]

Do we have confirmation that Loroi can read human minds through cloth? Or does it have to be through direct skin to skin contact by several powerful telepathic Loroi?

Every indication is that they are unable to read him. However it's also possible that the attempt got cut off early as we don't know what happened after he blacked out.

[Sprawl63]

Do we have confirmation that Loroi can read human minds through cloth? Or does it have to be through direct skin to skin contact by several powerful telepathic Loroi?

Every indication is that they are unable to read him. However it's also possible that the attempt got cut off early as we don't know what happened after he blacked out.

Tempo said that their Farseer couldn't even detect him on the bridge. They also asked him about the mental "shield" he had. I think that if they got anything out of him, it was nothing of consequence. Perhaps they are limited to only brief flashes or surface thoughts, if that. I take the stance that he's immune or nearly so.

[GeoModder]

I guess we'll find out if Alex (and humans in general) have a lotai once Strike Group 51 jumps out of the Naam system. The Umiak telepathy inhibitor (or whatever the device is called) shouldn't then be effective anymore.

[javcs]

They should have been detected long before entering Naam, as it's sort of in the middle of no-man's (no-xeno's?) land.

SG51 (and the other Loroi) haven't just been sitting around in Naam the entire time that the Bellarmine was traversing (laterally) the Steppes. Sure, it's "only" a small amount of minds, but they're going laterally through the Steppes from places unknown - the Loroi would not have ignored Bell had they spotted her crew.

[Cy83r]

They should have been detected long before entering Naam, as it's sort of in the middle of no-man's (no-xeno's?) land.

SG51 (and the other Loroi) haven't just been sitting around in Naam the entire time that the Bellarmine was traversing (laterally) the Steppes. Sure, it's "only" a small amount of minds, but they're going laterally through the Steppes from places unknown - the Loroi would not have ignored Bell had they spotted her crew.

So then we can surmise that Kiki made a very educated bluff and, perhaps, Still Storm's reaction added points to the possibility that she knew enough in order to call the bluff.

I wouldn't be surprised if he/it had formulated a dozen or more hypotheses as to what was causing the Loroi force's abnormal behavior and simply pursued the most likely avenue of probability to the supposition that something was jamming their Farsensing ability. I mean, look at the mechanics of Umiak language, it's practically built for proficiency in engineering a thirty xanatos pileup.

I hope this Umiak becomes a major antagonist and we get to see roughly how many gambits he can run at once.

[javcs]

They should have been detected long before entering Naam, as it's sort of in the middle of no-man's (no-xeno's?) land.

SG51 (and the other Loroi) haven't just been sitting around in Naam the entire time that the Bellarmine was traversing (laterally) the Steppes. Sure, it's "only" a small amount of minds, but they're going laterally through the Steppes from places unknown - the Loroi would not have ignored Bell had they spotted her crew.

So then we can surmise that Kiki made a very educated bluff and, perhaps, Still Storm's reaction added points to the possibility that she knew enough in order to call the bluff.

I wouldn't be surprised if he/it had formulated a dozen or more hypotheses as to what was causing the Loroi force's abnormal behavior and simply pursued the most likely avenue of probability to the supposition that something was jamming their Farsensing ability. I mean, look at the mechanics of Umiak language, it's practically built for proficiency in engineering a thirty xanatos pileup.

I hope this Umiak becomes a major antagonist and we get to see roughly how many gambits he can run at once.

No, it's still possible that -27 is telling a half-truth - there could be an Umiak psi-jammer project that he's testing, or he could be testing something else out - but we don't have enough information to tell what the Umiak are really up to (yet).

[Mjolnir]

I guess we'll find out if Alex (and humans in general) have a lotai once Strike Group 51 jumps out of the Naam system. The Umiak telepathy inhibitor (or whatever the device is called) shouldn't then be effective anymore.

If the Umiak "countermeasure" was responsible for their inability to detect a human standing right in front of them, you've got to explain why they don't have any problems with telepathic contact with each other. The human lotai is likely completely unrelated to the Umiak countermeasure.

The nature of the difficulty was described as unreliability in judging the strength of forces, not outright invisibility. Perhaps the Umiak haven't done anything to hide their crew, but have deployed extensive robotics or drone ships to allow a major reduction in crew. Or they've finally figured out what parts of the brain they can shut down and have a crewmember with little psi signature that's still reasonably functional, but with some number of unmodified crew needed to direct the others. Or perhaps they've simply been increasing the crew complement of their ships beyond what's necessary, stuffing extra brains into their fleets so when the time came, they could send out a large fleet with minimal crews and give the Loroi a nasty surprise.

[Fotiadis_110]

I keep thinking that the reason that the manoeuvres in the dust-cloud are difficult to anticipate their size and strength is due to the latest class of fleet being more and more automated rather than relying upon sentients.
You do not need a sentient to identify or prioritise target acquisition, a team for navigation or even in point defence settings, thus the Umiak may have reduced their crew compliment by up to a third... maybe more if they forgo ship security forces to prevent Loroi boarding actions (after all, it's far easier to just blow up your own ship than it is to try to repel someone as dangerous as Fireblade... and you never know, maybe you can take them all down with it!?!)
If you recall that Umiak tend to send older ships with the newer, you could use old ships with little automation as one strike force, seemingly (to a farseer) the 'main strike force' with most of the minds on board, while a newer and more advanced task force with far less minds may have far more ships and more new firepower than the loroi would anticipate. Lets not forget the Umiak commander in question is known for unusual tactics and behaviours...

If he noticed the new ships with more computation and less people on board were more or less unexpected by the loroi as major assaults, then he just gained valuable intel upon the Loroi and probably realised this during the first few strike force groups of the 51st, and thus chose to attempt to bluff that he knew the inability to detect, and should he return to Umiak territory he may offer insights and thus lead to a new generation of starships that the loroi cannot anticipate... for instance, sending in a couple colony ships in an effort to distract and or 'jam' farsensing in as much as giving them a large number of false positives.

Of course i do suspect that our Umiak don't listen to the suggestions of simple officers in their fleet regarding starship design, after all the race is not known for its creativity nor its adaptability or willingness to listen to individuals.

After all, how would the Umiak who have no Loroi prisoners (due to the serious danger any Loroi presents with her mind attacks) discover this fact?
Well while military Loroi might be unwilling to work with them, if you kidnap children young enough, and raise them among your own with lies and deceit (regarding their past anyway), you can learn far more about their abilities than if you simply try to test with unwilling adults.
It's a bit like something that was done in Australia, in an effort to 'civilise' the native population
Even the Umiak will understand this concept, raise them as your own and gain an understanding of the opponents you face sounds a worthwhile tactic.
Particularly when the entire lot of the opponents race displays powers you cannot contain, control or even understand.

I dare say i wouldn't put it past the Umiak to learn that Loroi can sense MINDS rather than using some kind of tech to achieve their long range detection. Although i don't have any idea how wide they would spread this news among their offensive forces, it really is incredibly important intel.

[Sprawl63]

I guess we'll find out if Alex (and humans in general) have a lotai once Strike Group 51 jumps out of the Naam system. The Umiak telepathy inhibitor (or whatever the device is called) shouldn't then be effective anymore.

If the Umiak "countermeasure" was responsible for their inability to detect a human standing right in front of them, you've got to explain why they don't have any problems with telepathic contact with each other. The human lotai is likely completely unrelated to the Umiak countermeasure.

The nature of the difficulty was described as unreliability in judging the strength of forces, not outright invisibility. Perhaps the Umiak haven't done anything to hide their crew, but have deployed extensive robotics or drone ships to allow a major reduction in crew. Or they've finally figured out what parts of the brain they can shut down and have a crewmember with little psi signature that's still reasonably functional, but with some number of unmodified crew needed to direct the others. Or perhaps they've simply been increasing the crew complement of their ships beyond what's necessary, stuffing extra brains into their fleets so when the time came, they could send out a large fleet with minimal crews and give the Loroi a nasty surprise.

I don't think it has such a wide range as to include the Loroi fleet. The Barsam vessel in the area before the battle would have also been enveloped in this field and it was never noted that the Loroi couldn't detect them.

[GeoModder]

If the Umiak "countermeasure" was responsible for their inability to detect a human standing right in front of them, you've got to explain why they don't have any problems with telepathic contact with each other. The human lotai is likely completely unrelated to the Umiak countermeasure.

I don't think it has such a wide range as to include the Loroi fleet. The Barsam vessel in the area before the battle would have also been enveloped in this field and it was never noted that the Loroi couldn't detect them.

For all we know the Umiak countermeasure is "calibrated" to exclude non-Soia-Liron races from its effect. Whether the effect is complete masking or diminishing the amount of sentients from specific races scanned for. It might also be possible that the countermeasure is psionic in nature and affects attention-related stuff. For instance, the farseer onboard Tempest is probably tuned/concentrated to scan for Umiak, not a species it never encountered and hasn't the first idea of what kind of signature to look for (at least, I assume the onboard farseer hasn't been allowed to take a close look at Alexander yet).

Point of matter is we simply don't know, and have to await Chapter 2 in a non-Naam setting for confirmation.

[icekatze]

hi hi

On a different note, I was looking over the page again today and I felt obliged to point out how awesome the poses are on this page... or at least that second to last panel where they're walking out of the bridge. The footwork is especially fantastic.

[Arioch]

On a different note, I was looking over the page again today and I felt obliged to point out how awesome the poses are on this page... or at least that second to last panel where they're walking out of the bridge. The footwork is especially fantastic.

Thanks, I was rather pleased with it myself.

[Quazel]

It just occurred to me that page 90 was the first time we saw Alex sing in front of his captors. Well use sing-spongy voice anyhow. Could the reaction have something to do with that? Or was it the enemies reaction when it noticed Alex?

[Voitan]

I recall us discussing what the Umiak could do with captive psychics, and most of us merely concluded they would have killed them.

But what if torture, and surgical operations could bend them to the wills of the Umiak?

Could they have turned them against the Loroi to create this screen against psychic detection?

[Karst45]

Or was it the enemies reaction when it noticed Alex?

It was stated by Arioch that the enemies could not hear nor see Alex. That is if it not another "Talon fact" (yeah we wont leave you alone with this one Arioch )

[fredgiblet]

Could they have turned them against the Loroi to create this screen against psychic detection?

That's actually part of a fanfic idea I've had rolling in my head for a bit.