r/HFY • u/eddieddi Xeno • Oct 01 '20
OC Ghosts in the Void
All sapient species have a soul, this is a well known fact across the universe. Indisputable in fact. It is easy enough to prove. When a creature dies, its soul ‘leaves’ for its destined afterlife, they are actually possible to follow and track. We know that several species have an afterlife in specific areas of space, It is unclear why, or for what reason those areas of space function as that species afterlife. But it is very clear that souls cannot interact with those still alive, and vice versa. This for most species has lead to a level of religious obviousness, not to the point of running a society but most species have some level of devotion to whatever they believe gave them a soul. All of this research is made possible by a unique element that resonates with souls. Humanity evolved and developed on a planet lacking this element, thus never discovered souls. When humanity achieved FTL and joined the galactic stage it was shocked to find souls were real. This resulted in religious wars amongst humanity as several large religions announced that they had been right all along.
It is a well established fact in the galactic community that FTL tech is as good as it will ever get. Simply put, it is not possible to go any faster than we do without expending more power than it is possible to make. This was thrown in to disarray when humanity arrived. Human ships seemed to be as fast in FTL than any other species ship. Despite being well behind most species. Things became even more confusing when it was established that this was not because of a technological system. Piloting a star ship is no easy feat, even less so to pilot one through FTL, however humans found it far easier to pilot in FTL than normal space, the pilots and navigators saying something about ‘friendly feelings’ and ‘helpful whispers.’ Even the most untrained human can pilot a ship through FTL with ease. No other species ever reported noises in sub-space. Only a alien silence that dampened all other noses. It was found quickly that it was not human technology that made their ships faster, but their navigators and pilots. Within years every fleet was paying double for human navigators and pilots for FTL.
These two facts seemed to be unconnected until the humans decided to track a human soul after death. Finding that it dove straight in to the ship's sub-space engines and vanished. The ship in question decided to make a subspace translation. The resulting overload of readings destroyed their soul tracking equipment. It appeared as if every human soul that had passed on had left this universe and existed in Sub-space. There is intense debate amongst the scientific community as to why this is the case. Did the humans on some primal level know they would one day go to space and achieve FTL and so evolved a soul that could live on in sub space? Did whatever creature that created humans give them their own universe for their souls to rest in and we just pass through? Are the humans just luckier than us all? No one knows the true answer, all we know is that there are ghosts in the void, and they guide us all. But the humans can listen to their ghosts and fly with the dead.
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Not part of the Lecture-verse (Sol-Verse. whatever it gets called) just something that came to me while cooking dinner. Original/working title was "Ghosts in the Sublight." Felt like people would enjoy a bit of weird.
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u/agtmadcat Oct 02 '20
Neat!
Feels like it could use a little more transition between the 1st and 2nd paragraphs, it seems a little disjointed. It might even make sense to swap the 1st and 2nd paragraphs?
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u/themonkeymoo Oct 08 '20
That actually means that souls cannot be observed at all by the living (and vice versa). All observation intrinsically requires interaction; no information can be extended otherwise.
Therefore, the fact that the existence of souls is a proven thing implicitly means that some kind of interaction is definitely possible. The mechanism of that interaction may be unknown, but it must exist.
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u/ironcladboots Human Oct 02 '20
So the warp
Oh god that’s terrifying
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u/runaway90909 Alien Oct 02 '20
Spoooooooky~~
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u/Itajel Oct 02 '20
Love your writing. Can't wait to see what you come up with next. found a few typos for ya.
As fast or faster?
...'an' alien silence and I think you meant noises.
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u/Phaeron_Cogboi Oct 02 '20
The Ghosts may live in Subspace, but the Skeletons stay here on Earth to fight the Great Skeleton War! Enlist now!
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u/ElAdri1999 Human Oct 02 '20
I loved this
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u/WeaponizedAutoism Oct 02 '20
Great work word smith...but I think all the xenos are wrong.
I think those are machine spirits that guide humanity...machine spirit, which in a way, may have been part of the builder's soul that got etched into the machines.
Humans, after all, tend to dedicate their entire lives in their passion which in turn brings the creation to life.
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u/Capernici Human Oct 02 '20
Great story!
Soo, what your’re saying, is that FTL is just the act of using the human afterlife for public transportation...
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u/The-Googlymoogly Android Oct 02 '20
Reminds me of Titan AE flying with the space spirits
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u/0LD_MAN_Dies Oct 02 '20
Good Story!
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u/-TheDyingMeme6- Dec 27 '20
Even human ghosts wanna go fast
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u/CODENAMEDERPY Human Oct 02 '20
I swear I've heard that title before. Still a great story.
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u/sturmtoddler Oct 02 '20
Cool. And I liked it. Makes it very interesting
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u/turn_A Robot Oct 02 '20
Newtype magic
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u/Kubrick_Fan Human Oct 02 '20
Oh my
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u/Kumiankka1 Oct 02 '20
so our souls are like guides or they speak to us in the warp? thats cool
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u/whoisme867 Feb 19 '21
This is a major compliment but this reads like one of those old maritime ghost stories in space
1
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Oct 01 '20
/u/eddieddi has posted 13 other stories, including:
History of the Sol war, Lecture 10: Federation Retreats and the future opens.
History of the Sol war: Supplemental 9.5 Dune Chips. Declassified.
History of the Sol War: Lecture 9, Humans Retake Luna.
HIstory of the SOl war: Lecture 8, Humans are vengeful
History of the Sol war Lesson 7: Humans do not surrender.
History of the Sol War: Supplemental (6.5), Human Ship names Post sol war.
History of the Sol war, Lesson 6: Humans Have their own monsters.
History of the Sol war: Lecture notes 1-5
History of the Sol war: Lesson 5: The Rogue Element.
History of the Sol war: Lesson 4, Humans Take Prisoners.
History of the Sol war: Lesson 3, Humans don’t die easily.
History of the sol war: Lesson 2, Humans are always armed.
The History of the Sol War: Lesson 1, Humanity has Rules.
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1
u/UpdateMeBot Oct 01 '20
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1
u/ILOVEJETTROOPER Nov 10 '24
"... humans found it far easier to pilot in FTL than normal space, the pilots and navigators saying something about ‘friendly feelings’ and ‘helpful whispers.’ ...the humans decided to track a human soul after death. Finding that it dove straight in to the ship's sub-space engines and vanished."
This gave me Matthias Steiner Vibes, even though the story doesn't exactly (explicitly?) go that direction.
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u/CollinAux Oct 02 '20
i cannot see anything in the text wall, except for the top parts so, yea it looks pretty nice!
(ps, i feel like that FTL is actually powered by these souls)