Moraes Conjecture
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Moraes Conjecture
Principle
The Confederacy has been forced to conclude that the Sa'arm are at a minimum telepathic but are more likely melded into a single mind spanning however many individuals are available. In this, their hive-mind or 'gestalt' can be likened to a natural brain composed of millions of neurons. Evidence for this conclusion is overwhelming.
The Moraes Conjecture states that this hive-mind or gestalt is limited to a single planet or at most a single system. The separate gestalts in neighboring systems do not compete or attack each other, but neither will they assist each other. They act somewhat like independent kingdoms. Evidence for this is circumstantial, but what little we can find fits the theory.
Implications for the War
For defense: If each Sa'arm system acts alone, then it follows that no Confederacy system needs fear a combined attack by several Sa'arm systems. It needs fear an overwhelming attack by a single Sa'arm system, and it may occasionally happen that two Sa'arm systems will simultaneously attack the same Confederacy system, but there will be no Sa'arm "combined fleet".
For offense: Any single Sa'arm system can be attacked by combined Confederacy forces, because we do cooperate at the system level and above, without fear of a massive relief effort from the surrounding Sa'arm-held systems.
History
The Moraes Conjecture was first proposed, approximately nine years after Earth first learned of the Sa'arm, by then-Lieutenant Eduardo Moraes while he was stationed in Beerat System, as a method of explaining the disjoint series of attacks the system had received from the Sa'arm. At each presentation, he states that the basic concept came to him when he was studying his hobby of pre-Columbian Latin American History. He was a native Brazilian, and it occurred to him that, to the natives, the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English Conquistadores all looked alike, all acted alike, and if you didn't speak any of their languages they all sounded alike, and a native under attack had no way of knowing that the "Europeans" were divided into several groups. His theory did not win universal acceptance at first.
Lt Moraes was sent to Brak, Beerat's District Headquarters, to give a presentation for the District Commander, who expressed the view that it would be nice if true but could not be accepted without more evidence. He then gave the Lt the chance to obtain more, either pro or con, by assigning him to the District Intelligence Office with complete access to all Sa'arm incursion records.
All evidence found was circumstantial, but it all appeared to back him up. Lt Moraes was promoted to Major, transferred from his fleet tactical specialty to Intelligence, and sent on a tour of the various districts to amass more evidence and present his theory to all who would listen.
As of this writing LtCol Moraes is commonly accepted out in the colonies as being right, although his theory does not yet have full buy-in at Central Command in Sol System.
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