So I just finished reading this and I’m 
Who the hell sent out the “Hello, this is Bella Lind, for CNN” messages?
She did…during the initial interview they did before they caught up with Janus. Plus they kept sending data back as they were being pulled along. So the senator at the end basically found the data in their archives someplace and restored it so they could hear it. Sort of like discovering an old silent movie in someone’s attic and putting a lot of effort into making it playable again.
Yeah, what Atrael said.
Yeah, but they didn’t have any data to send. They were basically clueless thru-out up to and including when Svieta took off at the end.
Ugh…I had almost allowed myself to forget I’d read that doorstop.
Yeah, that’s basically how I’m feeling. Starts out ok, then two women fight for about 10,000 years, meet some aliens including stupid “Musk Dogs”, then one blasts off into the future, future (not the Benefactor, the grudge bitch one who basically destroyed their world) and then the story ends. HUH?
I quite liked it.
The “This is Bella Lind” message occurs early on in the journey when Bella is asked to do a short promo message as part of her interview with the automated news girl.
The key to understanding a lot of it is that time gets seriously out of wack because they’re travelling so fast.
No one blasts off into the future do they? Don’t some of them choose to escape via the hole and see what’s out there, but they’re no more going into the future than anyone else is.
Right, the key to remember is that even before they land and start making their lives livable on Janus, more time had passed on Earth than it had for them. They were constantly sending some data back, even if it wasn’t intentional anymore the radio signals would still have eventually reached earth. The senator touched on this in one of her talks will Bella. The fact that we (humanity) knew it was possible to do some of those technologically advanced feats meant that we looked for and found out how to do it.
Sort of like some of the “If you were dropped back in time, how long would it take you to get to present day technology” threads that we have on here from time to time. Sure it might take 100 years to figure out how to do something, but if you know it’s possible then it doesn’t seem like pointless work.
I enjoyed the book, it’s in my re-read pile fairly often.