[Maxwell]

Having valid excuses would be good if one character is trying to rationalize the whole thing. He might be delaying the eeriness for a chapter or two, building up to some more unsettling scenario.

If your on a boat and the radio goes dead you still don't wake up the entire crew (mainly because the night watch would be rather pissed at you).
You sooner think to yourself "well maybe the radios gone bad"
*check radio, it works fine*
"or maybe theres some interference"
*scan channels, nothing else broadcasting*
"or maybe..."  *gets near harbor, sees mushroom cloud rising from city* "...yea, that might be it"

[Colonol Dekker]

Did you ever play silent hill 2, Radios are EEEVIL !!

[jr2]

No.  Why are they evil?  (Use spoiler tags if you must, but I'm prolly not gonna watch this movie, so tell me plz.)

[Black Wolf]

Do you even need an excuse? After all, if Earth suddenly stopped talking to them halfway through the voyage, it's not as if they can turn around and go home, since waking all the people early would, as you stated, put too much of a strain on the ship's systems, so having contact suddenly stop for no apparent reason would just add to the eeriness of it. I suppose it depends on 'what happens' and whether it is something that could justify going from 'normal communication' to 'silence' in the space of a single broadcast.

Well, they catch up with Earth later. Logically, the first thing they would ask would be "Why did you stop talking to us?"

[Colonol Dekker]

No.  Why are they evil?  (Use spoiler tags if you must, but I'm prolly not gonna watch this movie, so tell me plz.)

No, the game i meanz

[jr2]

Hmmm.... I'll have to look for it.  You could still tell me, though..

[bizzybody]

Techno-luddites (perhaps the Wahabbi Islamo-fascist terrorists who currently make many speeches about how they're gonna take over the world- dragging it back to the 17th century, except *they* will still have modern shiznit like weapons and mini-puckups to shoot from and RPGs) manage to do what they want and in the process use anti-satellite missiles to take out the orbiting laser communications platforms. (What's the best way to destroy a single use weapon? Fire it at the infidels or infidels' stuff- like those nasty infidel comm satellites!)

*poof* Contact with the sleeper ship- lost!

Once civilization comes back and pounds the Wahabbists into the sand (possibly including turing many hectares of said sand into glass), rational people get with the program and invent your FTL drive in time to greet the sleeper ship at its destination.

[TrashMan]

Solar flare or micro-meteorite storm could also do the trick..*POOOf* ..no more comm sattellitle..and it would take som time to get a replacement

[Colonol Dekker]

Who mentioned HAL and the AE unit?

[jr2]

Well there's always this old, proven option...

Onboard computer: I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours.

[Black Wolf]

Techno-luddites (perhaps the Wahabbi Islamo-fascist terrorists who currently make many speeches about how they're gonna take over the world- dragging it back to the 17th century, except *they* will still have modern shiznit like weapons and mini-puckups to shoot from and RPGs) manage to do what they want and in the process use anti-satellite missiles to take out the orbiting laser communications platforms. (What's the best way to destroy a single use weapon? Fire it at the infidels or infidels' stuff- like those nasty infidel comm satellites!)

*poof* Contact with the sleeper ship- lost!

Once civilization comes back and pounds the Wahabbists into the sand (possibly including turing many hectares of said sand into glass), rational people get with the program and invent your FTL drive in time to greet the sleeper ship at its destination.

That is really, really good. It fits perfectly into what I want to do with Earth . Congratulations, sir... you've just justified my plot device

[Colonol Dekker]

We have a winner !


So how long til yu release a beta?

[Mefustae]

That is really, really good. It fits perfectly into what I want to do with Earth . Congratulations, sir... you've just justified my plot device

Aww, you mean we've all been spoilered about your story? Dang nabbit.