Drive

So, this might be some to-be-explained plot point, but I'm amazingly confused about a few things.

1) Exactly why the hell is there a war between the Continuum and the Empire?

2) What was the point of that run with the Maker who made a robot, and ran off? (I'm assuming he's the one who ended up getting plunked way back in the beginning of the comic and led to his ship hitting earth to give them the Drive, but other than that...)

3) What was with that plot point of the Continuum ship that met with a human ship and didn't attack?

4) And a new puzzler- why the hell did the continuum abduct the ships?

I like the comic but I'm genuinely getting more and more confused as it goes!

1. The war is because the continuum feels that the drive technology is theirs and should not be used by humanity.

2. I am not sure it's been fully explained yet. I also thought, though, that it was one of the rebels who had his ship discovered by the Family.

3. I thought it was not a human ship but the race of the little guys who can steer the ships while they are jumping around objects.

4. What?

4) at the end, where the Continuum blew the hell out of the Tesskan homeworld, they mention 'the last of their ships are aboard." Why?

1. I don't think the Continuum is angry about the drive technology. The newborn maker who left on the shuttle, died, and was found by the humans was carrying a Spirit of some kind, given to him by the rogue Maker. THAT is what the Continuum wants.

2. He is not the one who got plunked in the beginning. That was his offspring. He had run off with a Spirit, which at this point is a MacGuffin, meaning we don't know what it is. The humans might not even know they have it, since they don't know what it is the Continuum is asking them to return. His significance to the plot is to tell us why there's a war (it's his fault) and also to give us insight into the society of the Makers.

3. They didn't meet a human ship, they met a Veetan ship. The humans had believed that the Continuum is universally, and meaninglessly, aggressive. However, the fact that they did not attack the Veetan ship shows us that that's not true. The Continuum specifically is attacking human ships.

4. Who knows? We will probably find out in, like, a year. This is an unhurried plot, made even slower by its once-a-week update schedule.

Hope that helps! I think it might be a good idea for Dave to write an ongoing summary of the plot. Months go by between related plot points, and lots of us just don't have the memories for that. It's a shame that subtle things (and important things) get lost in the passage of time.

Whoops - we do know what the stolen spirit is, I think. It's the android-like faux Maker, or at least, it's his schematics (or SIM card, or something - it fits in a shoebox). The Continuum want it because it's an abomination to them. I think it's safe to say the humans have no idea what it is, or they would be using it already to pilot their ships and so on.

http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/110422.html

Not sure I can break this up into the points you made so here:

The Continuum wants the Empire to "RETURN return RETurn" the 'spirit' they believe the Empire is in posession of. The spirit is an A.I. of the Continuum. The last time we saw this AI was with the rebel maker telling the AI to download itself into the ship. Currently the Empire can duplicate the ship and make it run, but don't understand the concepts behind it. This means they could be duplicating the AI and not know it. This AI could be asleep, could be what La Familia comunicates in the drive chamber, - we don't know, but we do know it was damaged when the spawn died. The story of the rebel maker, was to explain why the continuum is at war. 1. He becomes a maker 2. Makes AI (continuum see as abomination) 3. escapes tries to save spirit from continuum 4. Commands AI to download itself 5. Spawns offspring and gives him a command to get spirit away (weapon is misleading, the spirit is the ship) 6. Spawn leaves in ship, dies in ship, ship coasts to earth. Next, the ship the continuum didn't attack was a Veetan ship, not human. It's a big point, showing the Continuum isn't inherently hostile (just to humans). Spec - the reason the continuum abducted the ships was to destroy all the AI (they thought these were human ships).

Hopefully this explains it all and doesn't ramble too much.

kemystrie, I love the idea of that being one of the secrets in the ring. I kinda doubt it though, cause Nando didn't exactly seem impressed by what he sees in there. But what do I know. However now I think I missed something, When did the rouge maker command the AI to download itself into the computer? I don't remember that at all.

http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/110320.html

The AI is told to 'pour his mind into the ship'. The AI in later strips reproduces the wound and continues on other tasks, so it's safe to assume it was a download, but a copy of the AI's consiousness put into the ship.

I also don't think the Empire knows what it's dealing with, in concerns of the AI in the ship. We know it was damaged pretty heavily, barely able to make a landing. The Empire just copies the damage. It will be extremely interesting if they happen upon someone able to repair that damage.