Stargate

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Stargates, also termed interstellar tunnels, use massive amounts of solar power to warp spacetime in order to literally reduce the distance between two such devices. While similar in concept to a wormhole, they do not bypass any intervening spacetime, and the gates are forced to remain nearly at rest with respect to one another. The only motion they undergo is modification to accommodate changes in distance and vector between two stars.

Like hyperspace points, in order to function, they need to be 'anchored' to a large mass - about a third of that needed for a hyperspacial anchor, or a little over half a solar mass. The first such gates had a maximum reach of a bit over four parsecs when formed, though later, more refined models can stretch close to twelve. Once so anchored, and the necessary energy densities established, a proper stargate will become a stable feature of the stars it binds. It will expand and contract to accommodate true velocity between the two, and actually work slightly to retard this motion.

Physically, the tunnel itself is exceedingly tiny when viewed from the outside - smaller than an atom, it is actually possible for ships to fly through it. The inside, on the other hand, is several kilometers in diameter, though the actual depth is only a few millimeters. The physical hulls of each gate are joined together on the inside, to help prevent collisions and to maintain the field.

A hemispherical cap covers each mouth, maintaining the 'spacial bleed' region surrounding each, which performs the reverse of what the stargate does - increasing the volume of space in a region between the gate and its host star. Thus, in order to make a superluminal transit between two stars, a ship cannot fly straight through, but must instead weave through in an s-pattern.

Once established, a well-built gate will use its altering of spacetime geometry to reinforce it - making them extremely difficult to destroy as immense tidal forces rip apart kinetic projectiles and redshift light to 'safer' values. Most stargates are not destroyed in combat, but rather by stellar motion bringing the path of two stargates to cross each other. This creates a violent reaction similar to a matter-antimatter one, releasing the immense energies used in their construction. Because of this, engineers are rarely too zealous about making the web of stargates 'too thick'.

Pre-Purge Gates

Only two sorts of hyperspace jump points can be considered permanent - those anchored to a large neutron star or quark star, and those anchored to a black hole. For the renlai and soronen, this was no big deal - the former built the system and the latter eventually figured out how to exploit it.

For the Three Empires, this meant that their growth was entirely dependent on what the First cared to provide to them, which was usually a set of stargates crossing several thousand star systems, along with access to several jump points so that they could coordinate assaults on newborn cerevate races should they find them. While extremely generous of them, they never properly understood how these mechanisms worked, and, once established, an empire was doomed to a slow decay, often to be discarded in favor of a younger, more malleable race.

Humans began constructing their stargates in waves:

First Wave

The first wave went to the nearest eight 'major' stars, of around .6 Solar masses and higher. 


 Currently, seven exist inside the Solar System, each reaching nearby major star systems, and two more fully active pairs reside in the Sirian system, connecting Sirius to Procyon and Alpha Centauri.  Eighteen additional pairs are currently under construction, and will eventually link humanity to ten additional star systems.  Of those around Sol, these giant megastructures reside some distance outside Neptune's orbit, providing (relatively) rapid transportation to nearby stars.

The massive energy required for these hundred-thousand kilometer behemoths makes it nearly impossible to use them around a red dwarf star, as even with the aid of mobius patterns, these seven gates require well over half of the sun's energy.

The First Gate Pairs

The seven gates inside the Solar System lead to the following star systems:

  • Alpha Centauri (4.36) - The first gate constructed, activated in 2212 by the Centaurus Mission. It is sometimes called the Centaurus Gate. Alpha Centauri is host to the first gate not linked to the Solar System, connecting the system directly to Sirius.
    • Alpha Centauri has one further gate under construction to Epsilon Indi.
  • Sirius (8.58) - The second gate constructed, fully active in 2216 through the Sirius Mission. Sirius has both fully active gates not linked to Sol - to Procyon, activated in 2219, and Alpha Centauri, activated in 2221.
    • Other gates are under construction to reach Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti, and Omicron Eridani. A number of further gates are planned.
  • Epsilon Eridani (10.32) - Activated in 2218, by the Eridanus Mission.
    • This system has four further gates under construction. These plan to reach 82 Eridani, Omicron Eridani, Procyon, and another to Sirius.
  • Procyon (11.40) - Host to the Procyon Concord, this gate was actually completed and fully active in 2216, before Epsilon Eridani's was. It currently has only one additional gate active, giving the system direct access to Sirius.
    • Additional gates are under construction to Omicron Eridani, Groombridge 1618, and Epsilon Eridani.
  • 61 Cygni (11.40) - Activated in 2220, by the Cygnus Mission.
  • Epsilon Indi (11.82) - Fully on-line in 2221, by the Indus Mission.
    • This system has three further gates under construction, to Alpha Centauri, Gliese 783, and Delta Pavonis. Materials are also in place for the construction of a gate to Tau Ceti, but barring a significant increase in gate efficiency, its completion will not come any time soon - the other four gates will drain nearly all of this star's light.
  • Tau Ceti (11.88) - On-line in 2221, by the Ceti Mission.
    • Additional gate under construction will link this system to Epsilon Eridani, Omicron Eridani, and Sirius. Additional materials are set aside for a potential gate to Epsilon Indi but this will require a breakthrough in research.

Three further gate pairs are currently under development:

Structure

Each of these will remain the seven largest megastructures created by human hands for some time, at least in terms of raw dimensions. When initially constructed, they are massive, silvery rings over a hundred thousand kilometers in diameter, seeming featureless from afar. The intense quantities of starlight directed at them visibly flouresces the interplanetary medium, looking like twelve great - if dim - pillars of light reaching them from the host Dyson swarm. This is considered a safety feature - anything wandering into the pillars is going to experience several yottawatts of light focused on a point about a single square meter in area.

When activation begins, a bubble of darkness reaches out from behind the gate, rushing towards its companion at the speed of light. The length and terminal properties of this artificial void are very specifically controlled, usually to allow one host star to compensate for the lack of energy production in its partner.

The amount of energy required increases dramatically with distance - gates linking more than two parsecs are generally considered infeasible. This limits the rate of human expansion, though carriers alleviate this burden.

Once fully active, from the outside, it is as if a great darkness passes between the gates, with a notable Einstein line surrounding it - a silhouette of those stars the line would normally hide visible in a concentrated form on either side, clearly marking the dangerous event horizon to travellers.

Viewing from the inside of an activated ring is quite the opposite - several light years of starlight is focussed into several kilometers, causing the edge of the interior to glow brilliantly. Since matter still crosses the event horizon from the outside, the edge is filled with rarified gas - largely hydrogen and helium, acting as a faint atmosphere. This exits the ring on either side in a phenomenon called gate wind.

Safely crossing the edge of this wormhole is not typically possible. By design, crossing the horizon from the outside compresses dimensions by a factor of ten trillion to one - even from interstellar gas, this causes a detectable neutron flux as protons are fused with their electrons. Any sort of macroscopic structure is crushed under the force of the fabric of space itself. Crossing in the other direction is somewhat more difficult - atoms resist such violent tearing more than they do compression,


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