Jumpgates
Jumpgates are an amplifier for Jumpdrives that enable them to move much faster between systems than they would otherwise be able to. Jumpgates are so effective that trips that would take a week in normal jump take a day within a Jumpgate lane as well as halving the amount of fuel needed for the trip. Where Jumpgates are present, they radically increase the speed at which trade and communication can take place, making them an invaluable economic and strategic asset. However, they are dificult to build and maintain limiting the reach of these devices to within the bounds of civilized space.
Utility
Jumpgates are extremely important economic and strategic assets. They speed up the speed of travel through Jumpspace by a factor of as much as seven in regular conditions and even more in places with slow moving Jumpspace currents, and they reduce fuel consumption by half. This reduces the burden of maintaining interstellar travel by a considerable degree and allows even comparatively far flung systems to remain in fairly timely contact. It was this element that allowed the Transolar Union to tighten its grip on Human space, and what enabled the sprawl of the Stellar League, and even in an era of fragmentation, the presence of Jumpgates can make the difference between a developed, high tech world, and a quiet backwater, it is the presence or absence of the Jumpgate network that is used by the Guild to demarcate the difference between a sector Civilized Space, or a sector in Frontier space.
Manufacturing
The process of building Jumpgates is intensive. Two very large constructions, generally in the shape of enormous rings capable of surrounding a capital ship, are constructed within two systems that the builder wishes to link together. These constructions are virtually impossible to build with a single ship, and are often manufactured in pieces on industrialized planets, before being moved into place for final assembly by fleets of ships. After the two anchoring points are in place, another fleet of large, independent vessels must jump into interstellar space, building and laying out the beacon network. These vessels, operating for years at a time, with experienced and frequently rotated crews are usually served by fleets of smaller support craft bringing in minerals, supplies, and the odd advanced component that couldn't be manufactured on the ship. The process of building a new jump link takes about five years per parsec of distance. Realignment is a constant process and has taken up a growing amount of the Guild's time over building new links in the network.
Social Impact
The advent of the original Jumpgate network was a significant achievement that heralded the rapid expansion of interstellar civilization, and the continuing capability of a central government from Earth to maintain some amount of control over its ever expanding holdings. In the modern era, Jumpgates are no less important, the significant increase in speed of communication between linked worlds has allowed new interstellar states to arise more easily along the network and has greatly improved the economy of most worlds linked to them. The Guild has also profited immensely from their near complete control over the network, to the point where they have become almost as powerful as most states, and their currency, exchanged for access to the network, the G-Credit has become the defacto reserve currency of nearly the entire galaxy.
Access & Availability
Jump Gates were historically much more common, with the Stellar League spreading them in lanes throughout nearly all of charted space. However, the Jred Scourge destroyed a great many Jump Gates, and the Great Cataclysm overloaded the network and damaged or destroyed nearly all of those that had survived the scourge. Though the Galactic Surveyor's Guild managed to preserve the schematics from destruction, and has since dedicated a considerable amount of its resources to rebuilding this network in order to facilitate the recreation of a network of communication and commerce that can function properly. It has even shared the technology with other interstellar states and encouraged the independent development of local Jumpgate networks in order to reduce the burden on themselves. However, building and maintaining Jumpgate networks is a difficult process, and so far only a handful of states have managed to join the Guild in building Jumpgates leaving the Guild in a near monopoly of the technology in most of Civilized Space. It charges handomely for access to Jumpgates which are then used to help pay for their maintenance.
Complexity
Jumpgates are, in essence, a network of beacons that project some sort of energy into Jumpspace this network stretches between known points in space, generally larger constructions in select star systems. These networks are vast and must constantly be realigned with the spin of the galaxy in order to maintain the link between two connected points. As a result the Jumpgate network is extremely complex and extremely difficult and resource intensive to maintain. This is indeed why rebuilding the Jumpgate network has fallen heavily on the Guild alone, and why the task of its reconstruction has been so slow and difficult to achieve with the absence of a major unifying political entity that could carry out massive astral engineering projects with comparative ease.
Discovery
The original discovery of Jumpgate technology is credited with a scientific team headed by Hector Ganz who encountered a wafers containing schematics for Jumpgates within Pardian ruins in what is now known as the Vanguardia system. The Ganz exploration team, turned the wafer over to Superliminal Solutions, the company which had employed them on this expedition. A scientific team under Sublight's employ decrpyted and translated the wafer over the course of ten years, when the decryption was complete Nadia Arano was credited with leading the project. In one of the more contentious moves of the Transolar Union at the time, the project was seized by the state almost immediately, which was led, eventually to the growing corporate disaffection leading into the Third Great Human Civil War.
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