Bio-weapon in stasis?

We’ve got characters who are thousands of years real-time older than the weapon that doomed the fourth Empire who are well within their first century of life, or less than 15% of their in-universe life expectancy. Why? Stasis.

Presumably things were put into stasis before the infection was noted. All it would take would be one infected stasis stored item, and the fifth empire would be as dead as the 4th one, with the achultani sending a follow up to their great visit and the sense to never have any contact with their victims beyond dropping really big rocks on them.

So basically the 5th empire is living on borrowed time.

If the bio-weapon itself was put in stasis, then either it's very well labeled or the Fourth Empire's scientists were complete idiots. Even if it was labeled under a file name (sample UXR-29348-VE or something like that), the Fifth Imperium's survey teams know what killed the 4E. They'll look up what's in that stasis pod before cracking the seal ... or they're complete idiots.

Could a victim of the bio-weapon have been popped into stasis? I don't recall anything about how long it took to kill, so it's possible. However, the only reason to do that is in hopes that the victim could be treated and saved, and in that situation you need to leave detailed medical files so the hypothetical future doctor knows what she's treating.

I honestly don't expect a return of the bio-weapon. Humans have done lots of stupid things in the past, and I don't expect that to change in the future, but the level of stupidity re-releasing the bio-weapon would take is a bit much given the brainpower of the characters we've seen on-page.

There's also the fact that, particularly without maintenance, stasis units don't last forever, or even a few tens of millenia. Whence the large bites taken out of various planetoids' magazines as warheads were dumped into hyper as a failsafe.

Julia Minor wrote:If the bio-weapon itself was put in stasis, then either it's very well labeled or the Fourth Empire's scientists were complete idiots. Even if it was labeled under a file name (sample UXR-29348-VE or something like that), the Fifth Imperium's survey teams know what killed the 4E. They'll look up what's in that stasis pod before cracking the seal ... or they're complete idiots.

Could a victim of the bio-weapon have been popped into stasis? I don't recall anything about how long it took to kill, so it's possible. However, the only reason to do that is in hopes that the victim could be treated and saved, and in that situation you need to leave detailed medical files so the hypothetical future doctor knows what she's treating.

I honestly don't expect a return of the bio-weapon. Humans have done lots of stupid things in the past, and I don't expect that to change in the future, but the level of stupidity re-releasing the bio-weapon would take is a bit much given the brainpower of the characters we've seen on-page.

We’ve seen that at least some facilities can last that long, particularly when they’re military and provided with sufficient power. I just kind of envision a scenario where someone from the 4th empire pulls a Pestilence from Supernatural and slobbers all over something right before tossing it into stasis, and that facility surviving to present day.
Like so: (skip to the 55 second mark)
https://youtu.be/7E2aQKYEsUw

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:We’ve seen that at least some facilities can last that long, particularly when they’re military and provided with sufficient power. I just kind of envision a scenario where someone from the 4th empire pulls a Pestilence from Supernatural and slobbers all over something right before tossing it into stasis, and that facility surviving to present day.
Like so: (skip to the 55 second mark)
https://youtu.be/7E2aQKYEsUw

The systems that were found in "working condition" were usually found to have had mech support and even then were very limited in their level of "working".

Pardal never had the weapon, Earth never had the weapon OR the mechs and nobody on Birhat would not have used stasis systems since it was ground zero for the weapon.
For this to be a problem someone will have to find a yet unexplored solar system with active systems.

Chapter 2 of Heirs of Empire mentions bio-scanners being incorporated into every mat-trans installation to prevent its transmission.

It would be nice to find out

jchilds wrote:Chapter 2 of Heirs of Empire mentions bio-scanners being incorporated into every mat-trans installation to prevent its transmission.

Exactly. If the weapon were to get loose somehow the world is a goner but the people can safely mat-trans out.

Loren Pechtel wrote:

jchilds wrote:Chapter 2 of Heirs of Empire mentions bio-scanners being incorporated into every mat-trans installation to prevent its transmission.

Exactly. If the weapon were to get loose somehow the world is a goner but the people can safely mat-trans out.

IF they're not infected.

(And if they trust the scanners.)

FriarBob wrote:

jchilds wrote:Chapter 2 of Heirs of Empire mentions bio-scanners being incorporated into every mat-trans installation to prevent its transmission.

Loren Pechtel wrote:
Exactly. If the weapon were to get loose somehow the world is a goner but the people can safely mat-trans out.

IF they're not infected.

(And if they trust the scanners.)

The infectious agent is deleted from any matter transmission. Whether it's in a body or not shouldn't matter--this should be a cure.

(Note that the same thing applies to any known infectious disease--the biofilter/matter transmitter should be a standard means of treating infection.)