I've seen enumerable theories about sensor ghosts, but, so far, nobody's mentioned the one that seems most plausible to me: Sensor ghosts are the result of hyperspace being chronologically ambiguous, meaning that sensor readings of old fleets (or perhaps future fleets) can show up in the present day. In other words, the hyperspace ghosts are very much real fleets, but they aren't physically present in hyperspace at the same time as the player.
Lore Evidence:
* It's mentioned at some point that hyperspace relays occasionally pick up broadcasts dating back from the AI wars. This feels like a deliberate nod towards this theory - hyperspace sensors can pick up things that once were, but aren't there anymore.
* I believe it's also mentioned that time and space don't work the same way in hyperspace, and that "when" is not a suitable question. Don't recall the exact context, though.
Hyperspace Ghost Behavior:
* Most immediately, there are two kinds of ghosts that reveal a fleet that hasn't been mobile for a very, very long time. The Remnant ghost, and the derelict ship ghost. In both cases, you see the sensor readings of a mobile, active fleet, followed by a decades-old derelict once you get close enough to observe it. The "ghost" is the fleet's last maneuvers, carried out a long time before you encounter it.
Besides that, ghosts look a lot like normal fleets:
* There are ghosts that act like pirates, rushing towards the player and then fading out. Presumably, some pirate long ago or years from now has a story about spotting a promising-looking sensor signature, burning in, and watching it vanish into thin air.
* There are ghosts that fight each other with interdiction pulses - the color of their pulses resembles that of the Hegemony or the Path, IIRC. In the former case, these battles could have taken place during the AI wars.
* There are ghosts that keep their distance from the player, but track his movements - typically in the Core, where local governments might want to keep an eye on weird sensor readings.
* We see a ghost that resembles the Ziggurat lurking around the system where it was once being tested, after we've already captured the ship for ourselves (or escaped/destroyed it).
* We see ghosts that head towards systems with loot or past human activity, presumably echoes of either traders or salvagers.
There are some ghosts that exhibit behavior we haven't seen before, like the untold speed of the harassment/interdiction ghosts. These ghosts could be from the distant future, with capabilities that aren't yet possible to achieve.
Thoughts? I think they're much too different from each other to all be some special kind of alien, or anything of the kind, but their behavior seems to map pretty closely to 1:1 with the kinds of human fleets we know are around.
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Topic: Are sensor ghosts just displaced in time? (Read 109 times)