--On 4/26/02 4:56 PM -0400 Kyhdin@aol.com wrote:
I don't understand? Is this interstellar capable craft expected to be
the enemy, or are they assuming the development of a human starship to
take the Christopher.
I'm not sure I follow you there.
The full paragraph is:
Those three hundred people would be taken to the Martian deserts and
subjected to the most grueling and demanding training the United
American Continents Marine Corps could dream up to turn out the hundred
seventy-five men and women who would crew the Saint Christopher. And
yet, in the back of everyone's mind, was the question; would it be
enough? In all likelihood, a roundevouz meant that the Christopher
would be meeting up with an interstellar capable craft that would take
them to where, if the background noise in the transmission was any
indication, a war was being fought. Was humanity really ready to get
caught up in an interstellar war?
Up to "would it be enough?" I under it fine. It was the part after that.
However, I was confused who they were supposed to rendezvous with. The
enemy? An ally?
This earlier passage:
However, they had discovered a series of mathematical symbols encoded
directly into the transmission itself. When decoded, the symbols spelled
out a date, time and the coordinates for the crossover point where Pluto
crossed Neptune's orbit to once more become the outermost planet. The
date was for two months after the arrival of the transmission.
...gives they have some coordinates to go to, and certainly they need to go
investigate it, but it seems a big leap to me to go from that to assuming a
friendly willing to give them an interstellar lift. <shrug>
Unless, of course, I just missed the clues. In which case, ignore me. :-)
Jim