Hyperspace Corridors

[rust]

Well, I finally grew tired of mostly predictable interstellar exploration
and decided to try something more interesting: Hyperspace corridors,
rare and poorly understood hyperspace phenomena which enable star-
ships with hyperspace drives to travel along them.

Hyperspace corridors can begin and end almost everywhere. Each hy-
perspace corridor is different, with a specific length, direction and tra-
vel time. For example, Corridor 1 can take a ship 9 light years in two
months from the Sol System towards the galactic core, while the Cor-
ridor 2 begins there and takes the ship 247 light years in four weeks
towards the galactic rim. The only way to find out the destination of
a corridor and the travel time is to enter the corridor, a very high risk
mission.

Because of the nature of the hyperspace corridors there is no well defi-
ned "known space", the human colonies and outposts are at very diffe-
rent distances from Earth and in very different regions of the galaxy.
Each of them can be reached from Earth, but there are few known cor-
ridors which connect distant colonies and outposts directly. The search
for such corridors can make scouts filthy rich, but it can also make them
disappear, for example when their ship enters a corridor with a travel
time of a few decades.

 

[dragoner]

Sounds exactly like David Weber/Starfire.

 

[Infojunky]

Go fore it, it is a common mem in SF.

 

[locarno24]

Go fore it, it is a common mem in SF.

Because it's a narratively useful one. System-to-system wormholes provide a means of FTL without actually having FTL drives, but also therefore mean that humanity doesn't have to actually fully understand the physics of their operation before using them - which can lead to all sorts of fun later on.

It also gives a good reason for interesting discrepencies of development: most of your worlds have been new colonies in a (very dispersed) set of new colonies, vast distances from anywhere that matters, and with a classic sphere (ish) spreading out from Earth. Here, you'll get natural junction points which will lead to worlds gaining importance out of all proportion to their population and resources - which means you'll get fledgling colonies as with other settings, but some of them may have the spacecraft equivelent of Heathrow Airport and Rotterdam Harbour being built overhead as they do. By comparison, being at the arse end of nowhere (or at least 'less accessible than other worlds') can cripple development.

An important question for the setting is how humanity actually found corridor 1 and the subsequent corridors - because as well as being an important element of background, that also gives you an idea how hard it is to find the mouth of a corridor (quite aside from how long it'll take you to traverse), and how likely it is for a theoretically 'charted' system to actually contain an unmapped corridor terminus.

Also, are corridors one way or not?

 

[rust]

In the setting I am working on the first hyperspace corridor
was discovered during a physics experiment in space. More
experiments resulted in the development of a "corridor sen-
sor" able to detect a nearby hyperspace corridor. Unfortuna-
tely the sensor has a rather short range, and a star system
is really big, so discovering a previously unknown corridor re-
quires both patience and luck.

Once the position and proper movement of a hyperspace cor-
ridor are known, it is easy to enter the corridor, one only has
to travel to the corridor's current position and activate the
hyperspace drive. Leaving the corridor before its destination
seems impossible, at least no ship ever reported a success.
Hyperspace corridors are two way, the voyage takes the sa-
me time in both directions.

The plan to use robot ships to explore newly discovered hy-
perspace corridors did not work, the robots proved unable to
properly locate and enter the corridor at its destination for a
return voyage, so right now all exploration of newly discove-
red corridors has still to be done by humans.

 

[locarno24]

Ah, yes. Missed that first time around. So there is still Hyperspace FTL drives, but not as good when not using a corridor, or is the Hyperspace Drive just the corridor key?

If the corridor is so easy to use, it seems wierd that a robot probe couldn't find it again; especially since it presumably must be dumped out at the terminus if it's a two-way access point.

If the job of opening a terminus is more complex* - something that requires several days/weeks of lab time fiddling with a hyper generator to get the correct energy signature - then that explains why you need to send through a ship with a small lab team.

It also gives you an additional narrative feature, because not every hyperspace drive will be able to duplicate every required signature - some may require particularly extreme frequencies (meaning ships could only do that if they've been specifically refitted for using them and generally speaking only newer ships can use it) or extremely high power (again, refits, but generally speaking only bigger ships can use it)


* At least the first time. One assumes the same navigational chart which shows the terminus would also include the 'terminus key' data if known.

 

[rust]

The hyperspace drive only moves the ship into hyperspace at the
entry point of a hyperspace corridor, then the ship "falls along the
corridor" without the need for a drive, the speed depending on the
"slope" of the corridor. The entire movement through hyperspace
seems to be caused by hyperspace topology, without any need for
additional energy input. Overall, it is pretty much unknown what
exactly happens, only the results are well observed.

If the corridor is so easy to use, it seems wierd that a robot probe couldn't find it again; especially since it presumably must be dumped out at the terminus if it's a two-way access point.

Yep, but I wanted to describe the hyperspace corridors as weird and
difficult to understand, and the fact that human explorers cannot be
replaced by robotic ones of course also fits well into the setting. :wink:

 

[locarno24]

Agreed. And it's an important part of the setting that you can't just fire a remote into the corridor.

I was trying to come up with a reason why not, though. I can't see how the probe wouldn't be able to find the corridor at the other end, because that will be the spot it was dropped back into real space. Therefore the problem has to be with opening it at the other end - hence my waffling comment about energy signatures and lab teams....

 

[rust]

I was trying to come up with a reason why not, though.

Well, I was tempted to do that, too.

But then I realized that the entire hyperspace corridor thing is
only some background colour for a setting which once more has
its focus on a certain colony at the end of a hyperspace corridor,
and that there will most probably be no spacers among the play-
er characters, so keeping the information about the corridors va-
gue would fit in well with the characters' limited knowledge about
space travel:

"To get from Earth to Tashara our ship will take the Agarty Cor-
ridor to the Agarty System, two months, no habitable planet the-
re, and then the Valence Corridor to the Valence System, another
month, so arrival at Tashara Downport in three months. What el-
se do you dirtsiders need to know ?

No, no other known corridor in Valence System, the Danetti Expe-
dition disappeared while searching for one, so no more scouts wil-
ling to test their luck in a system with a potential killer corridor.
If you colonists want another corridor, you will have to find one
on your own."

 

[Nathan Brazil]

This sounds similar to The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle.

On detection:
Are there telltale sensor indicators to show something is using the Corridor or not?
If it is not possible, some policies might have to set in place like make sure you ship moves away from the Corridor quick because you never know when something will come thru.
If so, what is is the nature of the detection?
Can sensors on most ships detect use or does it have to be finely calibrated really expensive and/or sensitive equipment?

Which leads to combat issues:
If the Corridor is the most useful travel method of travel, combat and bases would be set up by the Corridor endpoint. Depending on whether detection is possible or not will determine combat doctrines when a Corridor is used.

 

[rust]

Detection is not possible, but the corridors are rather wide and
starships are somewhat rare, so an accident involving two star-
ships using the same corridor at the same time is possible, but
extremely unlikely - think of being hit by lightning while holding
the winning ticket of a lottery.

The setting has no armed starships, and therefore also no space
combat.

 

[locarno24]

To an extent, I'm not sure how much it will affect matters, then. If you're only two jumps from Sol, then even if it's three months, you'll only ever go there and back - it takes a month to get to Agarty and (presumably) another month or so to get anywhere else even if there are multiple corridors leading from Agarty.

As a result, why go anywhere other than the homeworld with all the tech, population and industrial capacity you could want?

Unless you find another corridor connecting to another colony system with less than a two month round trip, I can't see things being much different to your other colonial settings...

 

[rust]

Unless you find another corridor connecting to another colony system with less than a two month round trip, I can't see things being much different to your other colonial settings...

There will be not much difference at the beginning of the campaign,
but just imagine that something (or someone ...) exists at the other
end of a hyperspace corridor that is only accessible from the colony's
system, turning the colony into the only location where a contact is
possible ... or unavoidable ...

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

As a result, why go anywhere other than the homeworld with all the tech, population and industrial capacity you could want?\

That way leads to Matrioshka Brains and eventually death to fleshy bodies as they are recycled for elements... desire for bandwidth and latency leads to inertia as intelligences try to remain within the "high-capacity" info zone. No desire to explore, just stay with the contact area defined by band-width.

 

[locarno24]

Hardly. I'm not recommending not colonising the Tashara system - just making the point that there is no reason to have any interaction with any other colony, if the only other accessible system is Agarty.

There will be not much difference at the beginning of the campaign, but just imagine that something (or someone ...) exists at the other end of a hyperspace corridor that is only accessible from the colony's system, turning the colony into the only location where a contact is
possible ... or unavoidable ...

Oh, I understand. But the key thing there is not overplaying how nigh on impossible it is to find more corridors, because then the players (presumably acting as colonial leaders again?) probably won't spend too much time looking, on the grounds they'll have no shortage of planetary problems to deal with

 

[rust]

Oh, I understand. But the key thing there is not overplaying how nigh on impossible it is to find more corridors, because then the players (presumably acting as colonial leaders again?) probably won't spend too much time looking, on the grounds they'll have no shortage of planetary problems to deal with

True, but as the referee I have a certain leeway, so if the characters
fail to show any interest in searching for more hyperspace corridors,
I can always let someone on the other side discover a corridor and
visit the colony's system ... :twisted: