Orsdxy

Let me explain: I'm writing a game where the Earth gets a massive biological attack from an alien race in the close future, and only a small part of the planet's life survived (few dozens of humans and animals).

The explanations for those events are discovered by the player during the game, and are:

1) The alien race is a type III civilization, and eliminates all the intelligent life in the universe that achieves quantum supremacy

2) This happens because the only possible way to detect life that is several light years in distance is thought quantum disturbance events that are caused by quantum processors, and can be captured by the type III civilization in the other side of the universe instantly

3) The biological attack is a viral/bacterial weapon, and the reason why there are a few survivors is because their bodies achieved symbiosis.

The main goal is that the plot is the "solution" to the Fermi paradox. Humans does not find any aliens that are close because all the life in the universe is constantly wiped out by the first race that achieved type III, to protect it's monopoly, and they detect a rising intelligent race when it innocently creates quantum computers.

Avoiding plot holes and trying to explain everything to avoid being a "generic alien invasion" is the goal with all that sci-fi, and I think that I can't balance it correctly, because I want to hit a broader audience.

This question relates a lot to my feeling, but the solution does not satisfies me.

My main concern is with the explanation 2. I feel that I need to give the viewer the reason why "only today" the invasion happened and why, and I can't find a better excuse to that. It seems solid, but a bit narrow and forced in my opinion.

I'm open to change the plot as much as necessary.

I don't find anything wrong with your explanation per se. You have a range of options as how to best present it, and what works depends on your aims:

• Don't explain it at all: This is a legitimate choice, especially if you're sticking close to the POV of the humans, and they (we) never figure it out.




• Give it a brief, non technical explanation: ("Great Scott! It's as though our computers were a beacon signalling them. It was like blood in the water to a shark!") Less is often more. Think how much more convincing the Force was in the the Star Wars original trilogy, where it was barely explained, than in the prequel trilogy, where it was over-explained.




• Include a scene from the alien POV: ("Commander! There's a new light on the charts. A previously unknown species must have achieved quantum computing!")

I don't think any of these approaches overly burdens even a non-technical audience. And if it does, SF may not be their genre to begin with. You can't please everyone.

You have another problem, if you solve that, you solve this.

How did we figure out it was quantum computer activity that signaled them?

If this is told omnisciently or from the alien POV, you have no problem:

Alien #1: "A sustained trans-universe anomaly in sector 37. Quantum computing detected. Exceeding 100 qubits in total."

Alien #2: "Verified. I've scheduled an extermination bot. I have a transfer reservation on portal seven, it should open in [thirty minutes]."

If it is told from a human point of view, they either won't know why it happened now, or you arrange the plot so they find out.

The smart quantum physicist that figures it out (say he is on vacation in the wilderness when it happens) is bothered by what caused it for some time in the book.

He finally learns that the device that released the biological agent arrived at time X:Y, less than one hour after the minute this massive quantum computer was turned on for its first test run, a project that had taken three years and billions of dollars to complete.

Heck, maybe he even finds the expended drone they sent; no reason for the aliens to retrieve it; and in analyzing it figures out it was a quantum computing device too, but centuries ahead of anything humans could have done. Thus alien. And his own theories of quantum physics and alien life finish the conjecture.

You need to know your audience.

Some people love hard sf. These people would love nothing more than pages of extrapolations of modern physics to explain the phenomenon in your books. This is kind of like pornography. When readers pick up this specific genera they expect great detail and time spent on this particular detail of the work. Here is the problem, to write good hard sf you really need to know your stuff. Judging by your explanation in the question it seems that you have only passing knowledge of the topics. This is not a science exchange but here are the red flags that went up in my head. Not really understanding that quantum event's can't pass information faster than FTL. Assuming that quantum events in a computer would somehow be visible above the background noise of the universe. Worrying about quantum speeds, but still giving the aliens a way to arrive and attack instantly.

So for someone without a phd or at least access to someone who does, I would recommend sticking to soft sf or even science fantasy. Here your job is to just quickly explain what you want in a sentence or two and then get back to the real themes of your work. Your story is about characters, plot, themes, and morals. Not about teaching someone physics.

Since this is a game, you can have your cake and eat it too: put the detailed explanations in sidequests or optional logs. The main plot presented to the player doesn't need to include anything but the basic rules of how the aliens are scary and evil. The side material can go into more detail about the nature of the aliens, the details of the invasion, and such. Now your boring exposition has become immersive world-building, and you can be the next Dark Souls (or Metroid Prime, or Majora's Mask, or Myst. This sort of story presentation goes way back.)

I am a sci-fi guy, and I find this whole concept a little boring... it would be like if Robert Kirkman comes up with this explanation for the Walking Dead, would anyone in the audience really care?

Does it even matter?

People may not like this observation.. But there is a reason why the explanation of an apocalypse is NOT very important to the survivors. And there is a reason why most TV shows, games, comics and novels about a post apocalyptic world don't really address the HOW.

The HOW, as Captain Adama pointed out in the aftermath of the cylon all out sneak attack, "does not matter"

The only situations where the cause of the apocalypse matters are:
1. There is a way to stop it. (Terminator)
2. There is a way to move forward knowing about it (Nausicaa)