HFQ Official Snippet #15 Merry Christmas!

Graydon wrote:We don't, though since it's a very large fly-in tunnel it'd be difficult to re-nitrogen it after every skimmer flight.

Not really necessary, as the skimmers are sealed environments and there is no need to de-nitrogen the tunnel for transits. It would just be necessary to introduce enough nitrogen overpressure to minimize/expel any oxygen contamination near the entrance or exit airlocks.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:I seem to recall that the access tunnel is normally kept full of nitrogen too. So you'd have to hold your breath, and that's quite a hike.

So yeah, who goes there, stays there.

I believe that is a reference to the fact that the cave was filled with nitrogen until Nimue awoke for the first time. I don't think we have any textev either way since that time.

Actually, Merlin didn't see any reason to pump in any oxygen until Sharleyan made her visit to the cave so the medical computer could make sure her pregnancy was going well.

“Anyway,” Merlin went on after a moment, his tone deliberately brighter, “after they tucked me away, they filled the entire complex with an inert atmosphere. Which means there wasn’t really anything down here that a flesh-and-blood human being could have breathed. But Owl’s got the environmental plant up and running, so there’s going to be plenty of air when we get there.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Sharleyan said dryly, wondering exactly what an “inert atmosphere” was.

There's certainly no reason to keep oxygen around, giving it the opportunity to oxidize anything it can nibble on, so I've always assumed that Merlin had OWL expel the oxygen from the cave after Sharley's visit, so it's had an inert atmosphere ever since. Granted, that's quite a lot of atmosphere to scrub given the size of the cave, but the equipment to do it is already there, so there's been no reason to maintain a breathable (and corrosive) atmosphere when there's no one there who needs it.

The tunnel is separated from the cave by airlocks on both ends. As far as we know the tunnel's atmosphere continues to have a nitrogen atmosphere, which is easy enough to maintain by having it over-pressurized.

I believe Sandaria and Nynian will be separated for a while. Sandy will be left with Owl and the Remotes to watch over her. One would hope she starts to work with Nahrman and Owl to dive into the Archives and the Snark Network. She is an Admin type SPY who could develop into a huge asset for the Inner Circle.

I expect the first thing she does in the Cave is to learn Spanish with Owl! She will then learn the truth (Sejin Kohdy's truth) from the Saint she serves. Off on a mission could be the cover story.

dwileye13 wrote:I believe Sandaria and Nynian will be separated for a while. Sandy will be left with Owl and the Remotes to watch over her. One would hope she starts to work with Nahrman and Owl to dive into the Archives and the Snark Network. She is an Admin type SPY who could develop into a huge asset for the Inner Circle.

I expect the first thing she does in the Cave is to learn Spanish with Owl! She will then learn the truth (Sejin Kohdy's truth) from the Saint she serves. Off on a mission could be the cover story.

Your characterization on Sandaria as an Admin type is interesting. She may be one of the Sisters who've been dropping Inquisitive bodies into the Bay. Her and Nynian's presence in Siddar City would seem to work against either doing final plans for any operations in Zion, or elsewhere outside of The Republic.
The one thing that would seem to be independent of location would be the administration of their resource base. She may turn out to be the current financial wizard which would create some interesting story possibilities. We don't know how large the Order is, or much else, like recruitment, or how they select, plan and execute missions.
Would male members of the Order be considered monks?
When she does come out of the Cave she's gonna be a major force in bringing the rest of the Order onboard, however many they decide to bring in.
Questions, questions, questions!!

fallsfromtrees wrote:The cave is 12 km under the peak of the mountain, but the entrance is not at the top, but somewhere in the side of the mountain. We don't know how far below the peak. And we don't know how slanted the passage way is, and we don't know how long it it, just that it is in the side of the mountain.

Side of A mountain, not necessarily Olympus. And I think it's probably NOT Olympus.

And MY point is that if the tunnel is slanted at anything less that 45 degrees, the actual tunnel LENGTH is probably longer than 12 km.

tootall wrote:I'm still wondering why Merlin -et al- allowed Sandaria Ghatfryd to come along.
It takes both Merlin AND Nimue out of play. ??? And depending on their reactions -someone will have to baby-sit one or both these folks for some time to come.
We lose one (in chess terms) or both our of our queens.
I am sure our esteemed author is aware of this "problem", but I can't see why he did it.

He didn't have much of an option: from snippet 11

Aivah had insisted upon being accompanied by Sandaria Ghatfryd,

I'm sure he could have refused, maybe citing seating limitations in the skimmer, but probably not the best way to establish trust as when Aivah saw all the equipment in the cave he might have had some explaining to do.

I think that the importance of baby sitters is not to keep the women from escaping. It is rather obvious they aren't going anywhere until Merlin is satisfied that they pose no danger.

I think it has more to do providing additional testimonials to truth. I still think Father Paityr would be especially helpful, given Sandaria and Nynian's connection with his family.

Don

EdThomas wrote:

dwileye13 wrote:I believe Sandaria and Nynian will be separated for a while. Sandy will be left with Owl and the Remotes to watch over her. One would hope she starts to work with Nahrman and Owl to dive into the Archives and the Snark Network. She is an Admin type SPY who could develop into a huge asset for the Inner Circle.

I expect the first thing she does in the Cave is to learn Spanish with Owl! She will then learn the truth (Sejin Kohdy's truth) from the Saint she serves. Off on a mission could be the cover story.

Your characterization on Sandaria as an Admin type is interesting. She may be one of the Sisters who've been dropping Inquisitive bodies into the Bay. Her and Nynian's presence in Siddar City would seem to work against either doing final plans for any operations in Zion, or elsewhere outside of The Republic.
The one thing that would seem to be independent of location would be the administration of their resource base. She may turn out to be the current financial wizard which would create some interesting story possibilities. We don't know how large the Order is, or much else, like recruitment, or how they select, plan and execute missions.
Would male members of the Order be considered monks?
When she does come out of the Cave she's gonna be a major force in bringing the rest of the Order onboard, however many they decide to bring in.
Questions, questions, questions!!

Probably a bad assumption of mine to catagorize Sandaria as Admin but she is a major support operative to Nynian. I think she will spend some time in the cave and as you say become a major force in the conversion of the SSK. I reiterate the fact she will learn Spanish and that will become the path to being released back into civilization. She will continue to be in Nynian's ear via a communicator and should get involved with day to day operations of the inner circle.

The advent of a shuttle/bus to ferry people around may start a bit of traffic into Nimue's cave. Recruiting and training an assault force for the Assault Shuttle would be a good idea!

dwileye13 wrote:The advent of a shuttle/bus to ferry people around may start a bit of traffic into Nimue's cave. Recruiting and training an assault force for the Assault Shuttle would be a good idea!

Considering how nervous Merlin is to fly his skimmer at high speeds, and that as far as he knows, the archangels didn't fly around in assault shuttles, that bit of hardware is likely to remain in Nimue's Cave until the Rakurai is taken out and the power sources under the temple are identified and neutralized if necessary.

After that Cayleb can have all the fun with the assault shuttle that he wants. It comes with 2 million rounds of ammunition and can hold 200 troops after all!

dwileye13 wrote:

The advent of a shuttle/bus to ferry people around may start a bit of traffic into Nimue's cave. Recruiting and training an assault force for the Assault Shuttle would be a good idea!

McGuiness replied:

Considering how nervous Merlin is to fly his skimmer at high speeds, and that as far as he knows, the archangels didn't fly around in assault shuttles, that bit of hardware is likely to remain in Nimue's Cave until the Rakurai is taken out and the power sources under the temple are identified and neutralized if necessary.

After that Cayleb can have all the fun with the assault shuttle that he wants. It comes with 2 million rounds of ammunition and can hold 200 troops after all!

The problem is having 200 troops who are effectively in the inner circle as far as knowledge is concerned. I think that most of even Charisian troops would have problems with learning to use high-tech assault rifles and be willing to ride in an assault shuttle.

I have thought for a while that getting a group of kids who were orphaned (maybe even young enough for implants) and training them in isolation would be a good idea. For example, a base hidden on Silverlode Island. Of course, that would require enough knowledgeable trainers, etc, etc. A non-trivial resource problem.

-- Bob G