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This was an idea for a flashback as I pick up my story around 100 trillions years from now at the point where star formation is ceasing and the red dwarf and stellar remnant era begins. Now living in an era where abundant stellar energy is decreasing my characters in an almost comedy moment look back at memorable times in the past including the time nearly the whole galaxy co-ordinated their stars to fire beams together in one overpowered attack at a galactic threat.

I want to have an over showy moment where nearly a whole super galaxies worth of stars are turned to Nicoll-Dyson beams to fire at an immensely massive treat.

The advanced civilization will set time in the future to launch all beams, as the speed of light limitations wouldn't allow communication without some locations needing to wait thousands of years for an update and for this question we can ignore why a target would be in the right place in around a billion years for all beams to strike around the same time period (I am currently thinking of an intergalactic war an the enemy has sent a giant, close to invincible void creature)

Further out stars would have to shoot their beam a few thousand years before stars that are closer to the target but I am unsure of the other elements needed for the formation.

Is it possible for a galaxies worth of beams to strike a single target or will momentum, interstellar/galactic medium, or other physics or technical reasons make this a difficult or impossible task?

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    $\begingroup$ "we can ignore why a target would be in the right place in around a billion years for all beams to strike" Seems like you have assumed away the most difficult part of the problem. With this kind of KIII-level control and power, you could also just accelerate the galaxy away from the monster...or make peace with the other galaxy. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    May 24, 2020 at 15:59
  • $\begingroup$ @user535733 thats true, it would be opinion-based to ask why something would be in a known location, we can assume its just target practice from a bored galactic overlord and they want to see if 90% of their galaxies stars can hit the same target In a few hundreds or at most thousand years, $\endgroup$
    – user69935
    May 24, 2020 at 16:03
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    $\begingroup$ Sure, you just want to acknowledge it in your question so some know-it-all doesn't start frame-challenging in the comments. Personally, I would move the galaxy. Imagine the puzzled void-monster: Traveled for hundreds of millions of years with no entertainment except Laverne & Shirley reruns, and nothing to eat at the end of the trip. I'd want to turn around and go consume the morons who sent me! $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    May 24, 2020 at 16:35
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    $\begingroup$ @user535733 lol yeah thats why it is a comedy flashback I don't want it to be a major plot point, I can flesh out the details if it is scientifically possible, lol the monster turning back is a great idea tho. $\endgroup$
    – user69935
    May 24, 2020 at 16:39
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    $\begingroup$ Using the beams themself to hit something over huge distances is problematic. Use them to accelerate projectiles, optimally fusion torch rockets. You can stagger the projectiles and steer them into the target, oven if it moves a bit. $\endgroup$
    – TheDyingOfLight
    May 25, 2020 at 13:09

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I can only think of one threat that might justify such an attack: The red dwarf and stellar remnant era!

This could be an attempt to squeeze a few more billion years out of their corner of the universe. Not only is the end of time an enemy worth such an undertaking, but there is no moving target to worry about; so, timing out your attack over a long period of time is okay. Whether they are all targeting the black hole at the center of a dead galaxy to ummm... "lift" it with extreme prejudice, or an empty pocket of space where they plan to give the false vacuum a swift kick to shake loose a new burst of matter, they are not worried about their target trying to dodge the attack.

This offers a second positive to your situation which is a lack of an immediate threat. Because you can see the end of time coming so far in advance, it's okay if to spend a few hundred thousand years to get everything synchronized just right.

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  • $\begingroup$ Interesting idea thanks, ill have to give more thought on what so much power could be used for. $\endgroup$
    – user69935
    May 27, 2020 at 0:29
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I do not believe you can deliver the energy well enough. Your beams aren't perfectly aligned (there is no such thing as a perfectly aligned beam), over that kind of range they will diverge far too much to be a useful weapon.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thats a good point, how far would you think is too far that beams would disperse too much? $\endgroup$
    – user69935
    May 27, 2020 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ @RandySavage Way beyond my level. $\endgroup$
    – Loren Pechtel
    May 27, 2020 at 2:07
  • $\begingroup$ This is a type III civilization; so, it would be strange for them not to have a certain amount of clark teck at thier disposal to make these ranges more plausible than our own understanding of science would allow. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    May 27, 2020 at 14:18
  • $\begingroup$ @Nosajimiki-ReinstateMonica im slowly allowing more clark teck into the story when staying within the laws is hindering the imagination, any suggestions on the specifics of aligning beams and their range? laser relays are part of my story so I could concentrate beams. $\endgroup$
    – user69935
    May 27, 2020 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ Particle beams and lasers not the same thing. A particle beam looks and acts much like a laser, but instead of being photons, they fire a stream of matter accelerated to relativistic speeds. Because particle beams are made out of matter, they can have any of the properties of matter including cohesion (the property of matter to attract like matter). So, one solution would be to fire a beam of charged particles at .99C which will be attracted to each other preventing dispersion as they travel through space. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    May 27, 2020 at 16:01

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