Hello Batotoans, I am unsure how many of the readers here are concerned or even interested with the nuances of physics in this relatively hard sci-fi series and if that isn't you please save yourself the trouble and read no further. There has been an issue bothering me for some time now and I wanted to know what others thought of it, or if perhaps an explanation was given either within the manga or elsewhere in other media of which I am ignorant. And that is, how did the Large Mass Union Ship travel the 3 light-years to the Lem system is such apparently little time?
Now, throughout the comic there have been numerous fantastical physical occurrences and technologies for which "Higgs Tech" has served as a catchall explanation, and the Gauna themselves being biological Higgs engines, really there is no limit to what they can accomplish within this universe scenario. However, even for the Gauna there do seem to be limits to certain aspects and abilities, and many physical laws still must be obeyed (the guardians link to accelerate to a target and, midway, flip to decelerate to match the target's velocity).
My concern here is with the motions of the Large Mass Union Ship. At the tail end of Chapter 35 we are notified that the LMUS has begun to move.
http://vatoto.com/read/_/158102/sidonia-no-kishi_v7_ch35_by_illuminati-manga/21
Then in the opening pages of Chapter 36 we see the LMUS in the Lem system destroying the moon of Lem VII. There did not seem to be any appreciable amount of time between these events. Certainly insufficient time to warn the colonists who were caught completely unaware.
The question is then one of Gauna capabilites. The LMUS was under constant observation by Sidonia scanners at a distance of approximately 3 light-years. It was observed to begin its approach in coincidence with the destruction of the Ocarina. It arrived in Lem after very little time. How was this accomplished?
If the Sidonia's scanners operate in conventional radio and visible bands, then it is possible that the LMUS began accelerating 3 years ago, very rapidly attained a speed near the speed of light and very rapidly decelerated on approach thereby arriving in the Lem system shortly after the light it shed on it first move. This is unlikely unless the abilities of Gauna are much amplified by large unions. In the case of the very first Gauna we encountered we saw that after a direct hit by the heavy mass driver it still required several days to accelerate in Sidonia's direction. Given the short time between the notice and the arrival the LMUS would have only had several days to reach light- or near-light-speed (approximately 300,000 kM/sec) and an equivalent time to decelerate.
So along with the initial question, we face several others regarding what exactly Higgs tech can accomplish. The Sidonia's telemetry (scanners) and communications have been shown throughout the comic during battles and other missions to operate over great distances (hundreds of millions of kilometers) with no delay (1 AU is about 1.5 x 10^8 KM and 8 light-minutes). This suggests that Higgs tech enables faster than light comms and telemetry. If this is true, it would further allow the Sidonia to observe the LMUS in real-time. The fact that the LMUS's movement coincided with the destruction of the Ocarina further reinforces this and also suggests that the Gauna themselves possess a means of FTL communication and observation.
However, in the case of FTL observation, it would mean that the LMUS traversed that distance in a matter of days requiring the LMUS to be capable of FTL travel, a whole step above and beyond comms and telemetry. But most conspicuous here is that none of the characters make any mention of this peculiarity. While Tsumugi's superior acceleration and inertial-dampening abilities elicit numerous compliments and speculations as to their nature and the possibility of their reproduction, nowhere is FTL (which is a major technological barrier) mentioned in any capacity, not even astounded pilots or researchers wondering how the LMUS showed up so suddenly when its existence and distance seems to have been common knowledge among at least the pilots. Regardless of the absence of comment, if the LMUS, perhaps by virtue of so many true-body Higgs engines being concentrated in one structure (Izana did remark that the concentration was much higher than initially believed or previously encountered in other mass unions), is capable of warping space, entering hyperspace, or some form of matter transmission type teleportation (quantum tunneling, etc.) then covering that distance in such time remains very possible.
What does everyone think, a sinister sign of some greater, as yet unknown ability of the Gauna or an editorial gaff requiring a minor suspension of disbelief?
Edited by deusvult, 30 August 2014 - 02:30 AM.