Inter-real Travel
The technology by which the Fleet travels between islands of reality. A mix of modern Artemisian machinery and psionic power, inter-real travel was invented as a means to traverse the void that flooded the world and split Artemisia into isolated patches of habitable reality.
(Note: Inter-real travel evolves over time in Artemisia, and this article focuses on its early stages, which is what the characters deal with for the bulk of the novel. For inter-real travel in Artemisia's near future, see Possible Future Inter-real Travel).
Inter-real travel takes place in vessels that few in the Fleet know all of the ins and outs of, though everyone knows that they are only partly constructed of real-world parts (mainly Neurals and similar machines that do things no one understands). Power of the sort that the psions possessed creates the rest of the environment and holds the ships together. Perhaps because of the heavy involvement of mind magic--and the fact that the pilots are telepaths whose own magic is grafted into them--each ship has its own personality and even exhibits something like moods. For more information on the ships and the act of piloting them, see Inter-real Vessels
Though time aboard a vessel does not work normally, travel appears to those aboard the ship to take days or even weeks, so there are full living accommodations for the crew and the passengers.
Complexity
As one of the particularly sarcastic pilots, Deverick, told a person encountering the technology for the first time:
"It's actually super simple, you see. All you need are the contents of Charl's brain...Charl? Oh, they're the psion guy, I'm sure you've heard of them. Mutated those guys into psions? Tragedy. Anyway, you need their know-how, and then you need a bunch of high-tech neurals, probably not legal ones, so you'll need some criminal connections to get those. Then you need to get your telepath best friend, and convince him that he wants to spend weeks at a time doped up on psio-meds and merged with some eldritch artifact that will rip half his dragon* out if they're separated, with the lives of countless other people depending on his ability to not lose his mind or enough blood to fuck up the mind magic holding your ship together. Oh, and yeah, you'll need buckets of psio-meds, just like, buckets, for your telepath friend to maintain the course and not drop you into the dreaming void like soap in the shower. So, you know, simple. Anybody could do it."
Most people never ask Deverick simple questions twice. Unless they enjoy the fireworks, in which case they'll pester him on purpose, because he finds it difficult to stop himself once the sarcasm starts.
*Artemisians use the term "dragon" in cases like this to refer to a concept similar to a soul: someone's innermost self, the seat of their creativity and--in a telepath's case--their magic. Needless to say, having this ripped out like Deverick is talking about would be agonizing and fatal.
Utility
Different parts of the Fleet use inter-real travel for different purposes, the main ones being:
- Inter-real travel gives the main characters the ability to transport goods and give passage to people who need to be on a different patch of Artemisia than that which they currently inhabit. The arm of the Fleet that primarily handles this--and sometimes uses it to procure needed resources from people who will pay them for their services--is generally known as "The Element" (with the word "criminal" unspoken yet deafening), a disparaging term that they have embraced like a Marine posting a video of himself with crayons in his mouth as he does one-handed push-ups for days. In terms of moral alignment, this arm of the Fleet contains some good characters, but begins the story as a fairly neutral organization.
- Another major arm of the Fleet, known as The Sanctuary, is more focused on the void itself, and spends its resources traveling through it, looking for an exit point that will drop them near the epicenter of whatever event brought about the cataclysm, ideally at a point in time that could allow them to prevent or remedy it. In theory, they also are working to defend Artemisia from hazards emerging from the void. They have ossified somewhat since the beginning of their voyage, so their alignment tends to be Lawful Frustrating.
- Another arm of the Fleet is primarily involved in rescuing telepaths from the post-cataclysm insanity before they can be harmed or killed. This arm is mostly in the background of the novel, just quietly moving people around and getting them onto ships or into settlements the Fleet is building in parts of the void adjacent to the islands.
- Charl Wikhtori has their own small shuttle, in which they divide their time between fixing breakdowns on the Fleet and working on projects to ease the effects of the cataclysm. They sometimes do practical missions with the Element--say, to restore communication between an island and the mainland, or to try and figure out ways of bridging the void so that people on a troubled island can regain access to the rest of Artemisia. They sometimes venture into the void or remote corners of Artemisia on their other, more personal mission--trying in various ways to set things right with the psions.
Though the Fleet has every reason to believe that it should be operating alone in the void, it does eventually become apparent that their tech must have gotten out somewhere. Some of their contacts begin mentioning visits by another vessel, crewed by people that might, in retrospect, have had nothing to do with the Fleet after all.
Almost always mentioned is a man that it's said smashed the wall of a building just by looking at it, who is described by witnesses as having an enormous, glowing, and extremely noticeable cross-hatched dragon outline stretching its neck and face up parts of his neck and face. (Some observed a faint glow-sticks-behind-his-shirt effect and think that the body of the same dragon is etched over a lot of his body as well).
Needless to say, no one aboard the Fleet has been spotted sporting a giant, possibly psionic body modification, and the ship is not theirs. They're not thrilled--especially not some of the telepaths at the Sanctuary who suspect the dragon man of being a psion and thus an abomination against nature--but they do not have enough information about what the rogue ship is doing to gauge its crew's intentions or moral alignment.
Inter-real travel was a closely-guarded secret when it was first developed and put into practice. It was only known by those who were:
- Already a part of the Fleet, or being recruited to assist on a permanent basis
- Someone the Fleet directly assisted in a way that could not be explained away with literally anything else
- People with needed resources that were offered travel/transport services by the arm of the Fleet in charge of procuring said resources
- Emergency medical personnel, or literally any random stranger whose help they required in a pinch
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