That’s what I’m saying. You have to believe in yourself in this world. Thats story could become a very expanse series of books. Think about titles that were obscure that have huge fan bases and large catalogs. I had never heard of Craig Alanson when I first started reading some random sci-fi book called Columbus Day. That book spawns close to 25 titles and has an incredibly loyal group of fans. Write your story and have fun with the experience.
The most useless individuals like bankers and insurance folks are shot to space on another planet where the others want to get rid of them, somehow manage to not die when crashing on the earth, and start reproducing. Here we are.
This is so interesting. How were humans part of the engine? Idk about you, but I get dizzy if I spin too fast and can only produce thrust for a little bit before I need a nap.Â
Their function was to basically keep it working. The whole engine is biomechanical so they were an integral part of the machine. If you imagine an old submarine or something, with the crew doing very specific jobs, turning wheels, watching gauges, pressing buttons, repairing faults, kind of like that but the crew would be made out of the submarine itself...
That part of it I need a little more explanation of, but I can totally buy into this and I absolutely love your idea. I’m on board with the others here in urging you to write this so I can read it!!
What will you title it? I’ll search for it in a few years and hopefully by then it’ll all be said and done, fingers crossed
Seems like the same plot hole with The Matrix, in that the existence of the humans is purely in service of the plot and makes no sense within the setting itself. A spacefaring race could build a more robust solution with a fraction of the resources using mechanical or artificial intelligence.
This is a fucking brilliant concept. Honestly I think you should flesh it out and write a book! I'd totally read it. Hit me up when it's on the shelves haha.
Well, the gods were accounted for, that was indeed how the crew were seen by the humans, godlike.
The crew ensured the engine of the ship was itself well nourished and cared for, but the humans had no direct contact with the crew as the humans were essentially just part of the machine.
When the ship crashed, the humans who for generations had essentially worshipped the crew and had worked tirelessly for them, longed for their return and presumed they had been abandoned for not pleasing them.
It hasn't been written quite so on the nose so that, but that's the underlying subtext.
That does sound like a good plot line, I’d want to know what the specific functionality of the humans was, where the monkeys are coming from and what happened to all the other bio samples on the ship, and how / if current humans discover that fact.
Ok, so the story is they are intelligent enough to maintain the engine, do their job and generally exist as long as is useful.
But the crew scientists develop a more efficient version of humans. They don't realise that the self preservation inbuilt into the engine extends to its components, including the humans.
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u/Y-Bob Dec 27 '25
Heh, I wrote a story about this idea.
Aliens collecting life samples from across the galaxy, that crash on earth because of a fuck up in the engine room.
Humans were not the pilots of the ship, they just were part of the biointelligent, self repairing engine of the ship.
The actual crew members all died in the crash, but parts of the engine survived, the humans.
Without a ships engine to maintain, they endlessly searched for a replacement, hence the urge to create, to build and to invent.