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Exactly what he said, a friend hacked the transporter console and he woke up on Earth.

It was actually someone no one ever heard of that promised this and Alice was wrong about the Praeses.

The Praeses are playing dumb and Laridia is just there to convince them they had nothing to do with Ardent going to Earth.

There's actually a rogue element among the Praeses in cahoots with a mysterious 3rd party.

Nothing.  Spookybot will wake up suddenly and realize this was all just a nightmare.

[BenRG]

What ending would I like? An epilogue page starting with the caption "Two Years Later".

'Mayor Alice' is leading the celebration of yet another town opening formal relationships with her town (the original town from the start of the story). We see the town doctor marvelling over Sedna's regenerated arm; she and Alice exchange a wink that suggests that there is still more to tell about their past and present. An annoyed Alice chases Jack off of Gavia, with whom he's getting a bit too familiar and the post-Scarcity virtual girl has a sufficiently permissive view of sex (Culture-like, basically) to not warn him off. "It's for his own good," Alice tells her foster daughter. "Folk in this town have a more... restrained attitude towards these things."

Finally, Alice catches up with Ardent and Cora (who are now married because of said restrained attitude and a lack of nanotech contraception in Ms Goodwell) as well as their cute daughter, who only looks baseline. Ardent is using a string-puppet horse to amuse her. The ~15-month old toddler excitedly reaches out to touch the puppet and it vanishes in a flash of white light to be replaced with a dog-sized robo-pony.

The last panel is Alice and Ardent looking 'down' out of the panel with astonished (Ardent) and grave (Alice) expressions. "It's begun." Alice announces.

[WareWolf]

I just want to know what was up with the Nightwalker.

[USS Martenclaire]

I just want to know what was up with the Nightwalker.

If I had to guess, it's tied in with this whole dormant tech thing and that when MegaBird shot the moon, it was a signal for the dormant tech to start distributing itself more widely.

[dutchrvl]

Hmm, in http://www.alicegrove.com/page/143 Alice implied that part of humanity was in orbit right after the blink. That implies that the praeses were already there during the war between the 2 factions. In addition, Alice and Sedna clearly knew a lot about the praeses, what they were doing and Alice thought initially that Ardent was sent down by the Praeses so that they could [bold]reclaim[/bold] the earth.
In addition, she basically said that she knew exactly what happened to part of earth's inhabitants, who 'looked down from their new homes in orbit' after the Blink.

Thus, the praeses at some point were to some extent in charge of the world, or at least situated ON earth instead of in orbit. Alice has previously implied that the praeses were forced in orbit and would like to come back to the surface, but from what we've learnt so far about the praeses being alien and simply simulating life (or having uploaded the consciousnesses of earth's inhabitants), that hardly makes sense at this point.

Frankly, based on everything Alice has talked about before, it doesn't make sense at all that the praeses are a third entity completely separate from the biological and AI factions.

Another question that likely will be left unanswered: what happened between Alice and Sedna 300 years ago? Alice mentioned that Sedna had still not move on after 300 years, which implies that something bad happened that caused Sedna to hat Alice...

Ugh, too many questions...

[brasca]

So Ardent was presumably engineered to be so randy!  He was an update dispersal mechanism*.

* I most often use that term in the sentence: "My dog is a couch-grass seed dispersal mechanism".

Even if all of the Ardents and possibly a few Gavias were spreading this sexually I think this discontinuity is getting spread the same way the old world diseases were spread to new, simply by breathing.  Although this may work out better for everyone involved. 

[Storel]

Hmm, in http://www.alicegrove.com/page/143 Alice implied that part of humanity was in orbit right after the blink. That implies that the praeses were already there during the war between the 2 factions.

To me, it seems to suggest that "the Blink" lasted a lot longer than the name would imply -- as if humanity was in some kind of stasis or time-stop field for a few centuries while the environment was repaired. The Praeses could have arrived and set up shop during that time.

In addition, Alice and Sedna clearly knew a lot about the praeses, what they were doing and Alice thought initially that Ardent was sent down by the Praeses so that they could reclaim the earth.

Hmm, she did use the word "reclaim". Intriguing. Maybe the Praeses were around before the war ended... perhaps created by the ultra-biology side, except for their claim to be aliens who just happened upon earth.

On the other hand, Alice says that after the blink "What was left of humanity looked up to see thousands of new stars in the night sky. Or looked down from their new homes in orbit..." [emphasis added]

The new stars and new homes in orbit have to be the Praeses habitats, and the fact that they are new to the inhabitants of Earth means that they were not present before the Blink.

Edit:

So Ardent was presumably engineered to be so randy!  He was an update dispersal mechanism*.

* I most often use that term in the sentence: "My dog is a couch-grass seed dispersal mechanism".

Sorry, what is couch-grass? 

[LKR1009]

Sea level rise did a number on Madagascar!

(Edited to remove my geology derp)

[TheEvilDog]

although sea level rise did a number on Madagascar.

That's just revenge for all those games of Pandemic ruined by Madagascar's remoteness.

[nipchee]

Nice to see plate tectonics has basically stopped, although sea level rise did a number on Madagascar.

I don't think 5,000 years is quite enough time to see much of a difference in terms of continental drift.

[Thrudd]

Nice to see plate tectonics has basically stopped, although sea level rise did a number on Madagascar.

I don't think 5,000 years is quite enough time to see much of a difference in terms of continental drift.

We also don't know if some of the major stresses in the crust were mitigated before the war broke out or if the rezoning by the war took care of all that.
I wonder if the Yellowstone eruption ever happened?

[Skewbrow]

More importantly, has Betelgeuze blown up?

[Method of Madness]

Important to note: Blink was 5,000 years before the comic, but we have no idea how far in the future the Blink itself happened.

[retrosteve]

* Agreed, Jeph is wrapping this up way too fast with too much exposition and not enough plot.
* Note: the plot Laridia just revealed is essentially the one Alice said she feared here
http://www.alicegrove.com/post/125949754619/please-slow-down-and-explain-what-youre-talking
http://www.alicegrove.com/post/126112043354/at-last-the-central-conflict-of-alice-grove-is

The only differences are:
1. It is likely to happen much faster than Alice feared
2. The Prases claim they're not responsible, and they're very curious who is. It's not Alice or Pate either. Again, a new party seems most likely.

I gotta admit that this new party is really late on the scene arriving. If it arrives within the last week, the story looks too pat. If they don't, then somebody is seriously lying.

[pwhodges]

Sorry, what is couch-grass? 

Sorry, I mistyped.  Couch (pronounced "cooch") grass is an invasive grass that spreads by rhizomes, not seeds.  I meant Goosegrass, whose seeds have hooks and catch onto passing dogs for transport (like the larger teazles); it's a right pain removing them all before taking the dog back home!  These "burrs" (name for seed cases with hooks on, whatever size) must be removed not only to prevent the plant being spread to your garden, but to prevent them getting the dog's hair seriously matted.

[Tova]

Alice killed Pate and almost killed Ardent to prevent them from bootstrapping humanity.

And it's happening anyway.

[TheEvilDog]

Alice killed Pate and almost killed Ardent to prevent them from bootstrapping humanity.

And it's happening anyway.

Pretty much what I though since Alice almost flattened Ardent's head.

[Kugai]

The sleeper must awaken

[Welu]

A time jump/epilogue style thing might be a meeting in the middle of exposition dump and dynamic ending. It could also be used to see threads that could be continued on if that's the intention.

[Is it cold in here?]

Nice to see plate tectonics has basically stopped, although sea level rise did a number on Madagascar.

I don't think 5,000 years is quite enough time to see much of a difference in terms of continental drift.

Welcome, new person with accurate information!

[TheEvilDog]

The sleeper must awaken

The sleeper wants to stay in bed for another five millennia.

[brasca]

As much as I'd like this series to continue so far I'm satisfied with the resolution.  Even with the now rapid pace of storytelling I'm still getting more answers than I did in the last season of Lost.  So far we've gotten a lot of answers and the only questions I have is what was the purpose of the Nightwalker and did the Praeses arrive at the end of the great war and everyone was too busy killing each other to notice? 

My theory about the Nightwalker is it might have been left behind as a guardian to prevent this kind of discontinuity infection, but after enough pairs of habitat dwellers were attacked and stripped of their nanotech the Nightwalkers burned out completely.

Alice can't stop what she feared most from happening now.  Not unless she wants to go on an endless murder spree and she doesn't.  However everything that has happened seems like it's for the best because Alice can guide and if necessary control the people with this discontinuity without any opposition.  If Pate were alive and still on Earth with Church he could quickly gather together the affected people and bend them to his will.  At best Alice could create a rival group that could keep Pate's minions in check, but it would be very similar to the last great war with it's two great factions. 

It's funny that Alice says that if you spread enough trees you create a forest or grove hence the title, Alice Grove.   

[BenRG]

@brasca,

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that will be the Praeses parting words to Alice - That Earth has become her grove to cultivate and care for just as the virtual spaceborne are for the Praeses. From now on, the planet below will be known as 'Alice Grove'.

[Tova]

I'd be perfectly happy with an ending like that. Even though you've now spoiled it, if so!    

[JimC]

Laughing? -> crying?  ??

Not excessive exposition in this one...

[BenRG]

More than five thousand years old, a survivor of the war that ended human civilisation, which left her hands dribbling with innocent blood and someone who has been effectively alone for longer than most contemporary civilisations have existed. Now, at long last, with the news that the world she fought to maintain for so long is now doomed in a way that she can't fight, Alice has finally found what her last straw seems to be.

Or, as Jack Napier... The Joker... once put it:

You know what you and I have in common, Batty? We've both read the punchline and we've both realised that it isn't funny.

[moriastar]

I honestly feel bad for Alice. In her mind humanity has not progressed enough mentally and emotionally to handle that level of tech. Pate proved that to her by being willing to murder needlessly. A few years is not enough time to prepare the world. And in the meantime some towns will start fighting for the tech provided by the changers. Or be fighting for the changers themselves.
What concerns me is the world around her is turning white. If she can break the rules, is she about to cause another blink and not realize it? For that matter is breaking the rules causing other side effects... like the universe itself is trying to reset things to the way they were?

[BenRG]

@moristar,

I'll say this much: I'm certain that, in the next couple of strips, we're going to find out just who Alice really is, what she has done and why, in five thousand years, she has been unable to forgive herself.

[pwhodges]

Well, with only three-odd strips to go, we'd better!  Even so, this ending seems to me to be heading for something with the subtlety of "rocks fall, everybody dies".  I think the best we can hope for now is some hint of what the full planned story might have been if Jeph hadn't decided to do an emergency wrap-up to clear his desk.

[TheEvilDog]

I think you're missing the bigger picture.

Alice has failed.

She has failed her mission.

She wanted to keep a delicate balance, to prevent another war.

Only that balance has been screwed up by beings with perhaps the best of intentions. And now her future is leading leading down to hell, a path paved by those good intentions.

So much effort, so much time and its all for nothing. And its the realisation of how easily she slipped into her old ways that finally broke her.

(click to show/hide)

Perhaps this whole world, this whole existence of Alice Grove have been the last cruel moments of a dying soldier, bleeding out as a war wages around her with only a fantasy to ease her suffering. And now that fantasy is broken.

[derech]

Laughing because Pate just could have waited, done nothing, and still likely gotten what he wanted.  Even if it took longer than he'd live to actually see the full results.  Rather almost 2112 protagonist-ic-ish, but kind of backwards-like.  Not giving up but forcing his own demise through attempting to get something already apparently well in motion. 

Crying because she thinks humanity lost and the AI won.   Or at least because this whole sequence appears unhaltable.       

Still, she could be wrong about either the short-term or long-term results of this.   

Maybe we'll find out.

[Is it cold in here?]

A being with Alice's powers having a psychological breakdown.

What could possibly go wrong?

And this just when humanity desperately needs the wisest leadership of its history.

[dutchrvl]

Hmm, she did use the word "reclaim". Intriguing. Maybe the Praeses were around before the war ended... perhaps created by the ultra-biology side, except for their claim to be aliens who just happened upon earth.

On the other hand, Alice says that after the blink "What was left of humanity looked up to see thousands of new stars in the night sky. Or looked down from their new homes in orbit..." [emphasis added]

The new stars and new homes in orbit have to be the Praeses habitats, and the fact that they are new to the inhabitants of Earth means that they were not present before the Blink.

Yeah, the preases may have been alien, but they clearly were on earth (or even controlled it) before the Blink. That would also explain how Alice and Sedna could possibly know so much about the Praeses and their systems.

So, was the war really just between the 2 factions, or did the praeses also play a role? Was the Blink in part meant to force the Praeses off of earth?

Are the praeses the ones that enabled humanity to make the rapid progress (AI/biology/both) that it made pre-war?
Did the AI faction go someplace else, or did they simply 'place/hide' themselves inside the Praeses' realities, biding their time until they could sent all the embodied messengers?

 

[dutchrvl]

So far we've gotten a lot of answers and the only questions I have is what was the purpose of the Nightwalker and did the Praeses arrive at the end of the great war and everyone was too busy killing each other to notice? 

My theory about the Nightwalker is it might have been left behind as a guardian to prevent this kind of discontinuity infection, but after enough pairs of habitat dwellers were attacked and stripped of their nanotech the Nightwalkers burned out completely. 

Well, base on Alice talking about the Praeses wanting to 'reclaim' earth, they were clearly already on earth well before the war ended and presumably before it even started. That'd also explain how Alice/Sedna know so much about the Praeses.

I have many more questions, including:
1) The Blink seems to have moved the Praeses from earth to orbit, and Alice thinks they want to come back to earth. What has prevented the Praeses from coming to earth all this time?
2) Was the Blink indeed caused by the AI, and was it meant to get rid of the Praeses from earth?
3) What was the function of the nightwalker? My theory is also that it was left behind as some sort of emergency system (i.e. get rid of nanotech from earth). But were they left by the AI in case the Praeses indeed wanted to come back to reclaim earth, or somebody else? My thoughts are that they were left by the AI to remove Praeses-based nanotech, since they got rid of Gavia's tech and left Ardent with his pico-tech alone.
4) Are the Praeses benevolent/harmless aliens, as they seem to claim, or are they evil, do they want to take over/control earth? Did they simply 'simulate' realities, or did they upload the consciousnesses of actual humans in their networks, removing them from earth?
   

[brasca]

Apocalyptic tragedy plus 5000 years equals comedy. 

Maybe this was the AIs form of reparations, but for Alice the AIs might as well have a holographic Nelson Muntz appear and laugh at her.

[USS Martenclaire]

Poor Alice. She's essentially about to watch history repeat itself.

[starkruzr]

Poor Alice. She's essentially about to watch history repeat itself.

Or, not. She probably THINKS that's the case. But there's no hope in Alice's ideology, no room for growth. The AIs apparently disagree.

[Kugai]

Reminds me of Avon at the end of Blake's Seven

[SubaruStephen]

A being with Alice's powers having a psychological breakdown.

What could possibly go wrong?

Powers (season 2)

[brasca]

There's still so much we don't know about the war and at the rate things are going any speculation could be quickly proven wrong, but here goes. 

The war was between a faction of humanity that believed in the advancement of artificial intelligence and another that believed in genetic engineering.  I think it's safe to say Alice was a part of the latter.  Now the AI faction would have been a mix of AIs and their human supporters which is why this AI that Alice suspects is behind all of this did this as a form of reparations.  They didn't want to forsake the humans that supported them, but probably realized that humanity was on the brink of extinction whereas they could just download their consciousness to one chassis after another.  Sure a few might be destroyed here and there, but by and large they'd live to fight another day.  Now perhaps at some point when it seemed like the genetically engineered faction was on the verge of victory because the AI faction was just feigning imminent defeat as a holding action as Alice speculates is when infighting began.  Why else would Alice be facing down Church 5,000 years ago?  Perhaps the genetically engineered faction splintered and started fighting among themselves.  Meanwhile the AI faction secretly made contact with the praeses who were just passing through our solar system and likely to keep on going when they saw what Earth had become.  The AIs wanted to leave, but they didn't want to abandon their human allies and probably realized that editing Earth would starve millions so they made a deal with the Praeses.  They edited Earth and deposited the consciousness of their human allies with the Praeses.  They probably knew how to do that since they are largely a conscious entity and figured out how to replicate the process.  Meanwhile the genetically engineered faction was left behind on a rejuvenated Earth, but had to start all over without any advanced technology.  Fortunately, the number of humans left on Earth was a manageable number so there wasn't massive starvation.  The AIs also might've considered it fitting since this was the faction that tried to exterminate them.  However, after 5 millennia they wanted to pay back the descendants of their allies and perhaps let bygones be bygones with the Earth dwellers by starting the restoration of humanity. 

Now it remains to be seen what the plan is or if any of what I wrote will come true, but perhaps Pate and Church were the real target all along.  There may be more people like Pate on Earth, but I would hope Church is one of a kind and if he can be permanently incapacitated then any other Pates who subvert the seedlings can be easily dealt with by Alice.  Although she's having a breakdown over the terrible possibilities of all this she is in a position she never had before.  She can serve humanity by leading it.  It's something she doesn't want to do, but will feel obligated to atone for all those she killed and prevent the mistakes of the past from repeating.   

[dutchrvl]

There's still so much we don't know about the war and at the rate things are going any speculation could be quickly proven wrong, but here goes. 

The war was between a faction of humanity that believed in the advancement of artificial intelligence and another that believed in genetic engineering.  I think it's safe to say Alice was a part of the latter.  Now the AI faction would have been a mix of AIs and their human supporters which is why this AI that Alice suspects is behind all of this did this as a form of reparations.  They didn't want to forsake the humans that supported them, but probably realized that humanity was on the brink of extinction whereas they could just download their consciousness to one chassis after another.  Sure a few might be destroyed here and there, but by and large they'd live to fight another day.  Now perhaps at some point when it seemed like the genetically engineered faction was on the verge of victory because the AI faction was just feigning imminent defeat as a holding action as Alice speculates is when infighting began.  Why else would Alice be facing down Church 5,000 years ago?  Perhaps the genetically engineered faction splintered and started fighting among themselves.  Meanwhile the AI faction secretly made contact with the praeses who were just passing through our solar system and likely to keep on going when they saw what Earth had become.  The AIs wanted to leave, but they didn't want to abandon their human allies and probably realized that editing Earth would starve millions so they made a deal with the Praeses.  They edited Earth and deposited the consciousness of their human allies with the Praeses.  They probably knew how to do that since they are largely a conscious entity and figured out how to replicate the process.  Meanwhile the genetically engineered faction was left behind on a rejuvenated Earth, but had to start all over without any advanced technology.  Fortunately, the number of humans left on Earth was a manageable number so there wasn't massive starvation.  The AIs also might've considered it fitting since this was the faction that tried to exterminate them.  However, after 5 millennia they wanted to pay back the descendants of their allies and perhaps let bygones be bygones with the Earth dwellers by starting the restoration of humanity. 

Now it remains to be seen what the plan is or if any of what I wrote will come true, but perhaps Pate and Church were the real target all along.  There may be more people like Pate on Earth, but I would hope Church is one of a kind and if he can be permanently incapacitated then any other Pates who subvert the seedlings can be easily dealt with by Alice.  Although she's having a breakdown over the terrible possibilities of all this she is in a position she never had before.  She can serve humanity by leading it.  It's something she doesn't want to do, but will feel obligated to atone for all those she killed and prevent the mistakes of the past from repeating.

I was thinking along the same lines as your story, and frankly, it is more or less the only one that kinda makes sense. It still leaves some questions unanswered of course regarding the nightwalker and how Alice/Sedna know so much about the Praeses, but the story as a whole is pretty decent using this explanation.

Curious to see how Jeph wraps things up though!

[FunkyTuba]

Paraphrasing The Incredibles: When everyone is Alice, no one will be.

[TheEvilDog]

Comic's up.

And while all this is going on, Alice is in a corner, rocking back and forth, quietly whimpering.

[BenRG]

Exactly. I can almost hear Sedna muttering something like: "Ah, she gets like this every now and then; you'll get used to it!"

Possible weird explanation: Because she won't play ball, Alice has just been edited out of reality or has been absorbed into one of the simulations to keep her out of the way. Because of this, none of the others realise that she should be there but isn't anymore.

[dutchrvl]

Exactly. I can almost hear Sedna muttering something like: "Ah, she gets like this every now and then; you'll get used to it!"

Possible weird explanation: Because she won't play ball, Alice has just been edited out of reality or has been absorbed into one of the simulations to keep her out of the way.

Other weird explanation: Alice is the only one currently NOT in the simulated reality....

[JimC]

An interesting aspect of the internal reality is that it appears Gavia and Ardent cannot be transferred their without their pico/nano machines coming along, which suggests to me that the internal reality is something somehow physical, not a mere emulation in software.

[brasca]

So it's confirmed that some things like limbs can't grow back.

At least everyone involved are handling everything better than Alice.

[sitnspin]

An interesting aspect of the internal reality is that it appears Gavia and Ardent cannot be transferred their without their pico/nano machines coming along, which suggests to me that the internal reality is something somehow physical, not a mere emulation in software.

I assumed this from the beginning. When Laridia said the other realities, she specifically said they were not simulations. I think they actually create alternate realities.

So it's confirmed that some things like limbs can't grow back.

Or she just really wants a plant arm. Seems unlikely given everything else they can do that they can't regrow limbs. They can literally alter reality around them at will.

[TheEvilDog]

So it's confirmed that some things like limbs can't grow back.

Considering that Church is still on the ground with a humerus shiv in his neck, its clearly apparent that regeneration wasn't in the Super Soldier agenda.

Why? Who knows. Maybe developing it was resource intensive and they just didn't have them to spare. Maybe its a failsafe, if a Super Soldier went rogue then you would want to bring one down without worrying about them coming back. Maybe they're so loaded with modifications that loading them with regeneration was ultimately too much, after all, how would you fuel that regeneration? Or it could be that regeneration takes more then 5 minutes?

[sitnspin]

They are powered by black holes.

[TheEvilDog]

They are powered by black holes.

And yet Church is down, Sedna had to get nano treatment before she bled out.

Being fuelled by black holes might explain what they can do, but evidently there are still limitations. These aren't gods, but merely empowered individuals.