Portable Stargates

[Tom Kalbfus]

These are stargates you carry on board a starship. Characters can step through them, and they replace the jump drives of a normal starship. Conservation of mass energy is observed at all times, if you send 100 kg of mass-energy through the gate in one direction, and equivalent amount of mass energy has to be sent in he other direction through the gate to allow the transfer to take place. So if a 100 kg character were to step through the gate, then 100 kg of matter or its energy equivalent has to be sent in the other direction so the spaceship neither gains or loses mass by this transfer. The ships travel through normal space, the jump fuel requirement instead goes to fuel the power plant, which allows the craft to accelerate to a higher sublight velocity. Time dialation causes the traveling end of the stargate to move faster into the future than the stationary end.

What effect would this have on a campaign, assuming there was no other form of FTL travel?

 

[-Daniel-]

These are stargates you carry on board a starship. Characters can step through them, and they replace the jump drives of a normal starship. Conservation of mass energy is observed at all times, if you send 100 kg of mass-energy through the gate in one direction, and equivalent amount of mass energy has to be sent in he other direction through the gate to allow the transfer to take place. So if a 100 kg character were to step through the gate, then 100 kg of matter or its energy equivalent has to be sent in the other direction so the spaceship neither gains or loses mass by this transfer. The ships travel through normal space, the jump fuel requirement instead goes to fuel the power plant, which allows the craft to accelerate to a higher sublight velocity. Time dialation causes the traveling end of the stargate to move faster into the future than the stationary end.

What effect would this have on a campaign, assuming there was no other form of FTL travel?

Not sure I see the point of having this on a space ship if it is the only option for FTL travel. Why wouldn't they just start the trip from the "jump station". Why get in a ship, go to space, then walk through?

 

[Reynard]

Sounds like what Abrams did in the second Star Trek movie, transporters small enough to fit on a small craft able to teleport a person 60 parsecs.

It sounds like two points must have facilities to cross transfer objects so starships are initially needed to establish bases for such facilities. There must be a means to plant stargates. You didn't say what the range is. I would have to assume more than one or two parsecs or there will be big gaps in where a network can go. Next, are these instantaneous? If a person can transit vast distances I would hope they aren't spending large amounts of time hanging in limbo. You use the word 'stargate' and it sounds like we should imagine instant travel. That would kill the concept of communication at the speed of a starship.

 

[-Daniel-]

It sounds like two points must have facilities to cross transfer objects so starships are initially needed to establish bases for such facilities.

In the old RPG Justifiers they made it so a transport point could shoot you out but a) it was one way, and b) very dangerous. So the Justifiers were folks who would head out, survey the new location and build a transport point. If anything went wrong, point didn't work, people killed, etc then the Justifier team was out of luck. No ship needed, just people willing to roll the dice for the chance of a major payout.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

These are stargates you carry on board a starship. Characters can step through them, and they replace the jump drives of a normal starship. Conservation of mass energy is observed at all times, if you send 100 kg of mass-energy through the gate in one direction, and equivalent amount of mass energy has to be sent in he other direction through the gate to allow the transfer to take place. So if a 100 kg character were to step through the gate, then 100 kg of matter or its energy equivalent has to be sent in the other direction so the spaceship neither gains or loses mass by this transfer. The ships travel through normal space, the jump fuel requirement instead goes to fuel the power plant, which allows the craft to accelerate to a higher sublight velocity. Time dialation causes the traveling end of the stargate to move faster into the future than the stationary end.

What effect would this have on a campaign, assuming there was no other form of FTL travel?

Not sure I see the point of having this on a space ship if it is the only option for FTL travel. Why wouldn't they just start the trip from the "jump station". Why get in a ship, go to space, then walk through?

The ship carries the stargate, the ship doesn't need a crew onboard the starship, it can be controlled from the other side of the stargate, remotely.
Lets suppose the stargates aren't of human origin, suppose they were invented on Venus, when Venus was a garden world, about 2.5 billion years ago, imagine that life developed on Venus, getting a much earlier start than on Earth, which at this time is barren, has a thick carbon-dioxide/nitrogen atmosphere. Intelligent life evolves on Venus, they have an industrial revolution and expand into space, the only problem is they haven't developed an FTL drive, instead they have stargates, which are artificial wormholes, they have ships with artificial gravity and maneuver drives, but they just didn't develop the Jump Drive, so they send starships to distant galaxies, and some of those ships return to Venus, only to find the planet as we see it today, but they notice that Earth has become a garden World. With a stargate, its possible to step back into the past when Venus was a garden World, and from there to step forward into their future to explore Earth, at this time, Earth is undergoing the Cambrian explosion of life, they why the ships in circles to explore the future developments of life on Earth until they reach our time.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Wasn't this gate idea of time travel (or not time travel) an idea from the Stephen Baxter novel, Tmelike Infinity?

How would you posit your gates being different from the central concept/gimmick in the novel?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Wasn't this gate idea of time travel (or not time travel) an idea from the Stephen Baxter novel, Tmelike Infinity?

How would you posit your gates being different from the central concept/gimmick in the novel?

Well I haven't read that novel, so its hard to say. Once concept that is clear though, most theoretical time machines can't transport you to a time before they were turned on. You can't go back in time to a time before your time machine was built. This idea that Venus may have had life for billions of years before is succumbed to its runway greenhouse effect is very convenient. You can then posit an ancient civilization on Venus that could then built these stargates, from their point of view in the past, they could influence evolution on Earth, the stargates can transport them into their future, which is actually our past, they could decide which Earth species survive and which go extinct, and if they do this for a long enough time, they could influence Earth's evolution to create human beings, and then they could influence our history, so you have a sort of Time Cops going on. Now if humans get a hold of some of these Venusian Stargates, they could travel in our history, and if they do something the Venusians don't like, such as attempt to change history, the Venusians come out to stop them, because it would undermine their plans for how they want Earth's history to evolve.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The time travel possibilities sound just like the the 1992 novel. So with that in mind:

Question 1: What are the limitations of building gates and linking them during initial creation?
Situation - Say the first pair are created on Venus: Gate A and Gate B. I move Gate B (at just under c) eventually to Alpha Centauri and it has a habitable planet, lets call it Tirane. The time difference between A and B is around 4 years.
Can I build Gate C on Venus and Gate D on Tirane and link them together? If I can what is the initial time dilation?
If not, why not? What are the physics of the universe constraints? if a proximity issue what are the minimum distance to create the gate/wormhole link, what is the maximum distance?

I know that I can move materials between Gate A and Gate B. Is there a limitation on materials? If so, what are the limitations? If the materials are on Tirane, can it be done? Surely Venusians can go across the Gate?
Is it infrastructure? I understand that one can make all sorts of reasoning/excuses on infrastructure not available like the Venusians cannot on Tirane long-term, but that is a limitation on the species, not the physics of the universe.

All of these questions are geared towards determining the structure of this gate campaign. Knowing the limits of gate creation determines things like extent of said network.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Question 2:
The Solar System is ~5 billion years old.
Planets formed about ~4.5 billion years ago.
If these are truly Venusians, then likely they did not exist before their planet formed.


How long ago was the first gate built?
This determines the maximum time travel/maximum distance possible between any gate. if they as species formed immediately at planet creation and get a set of gates off at close to light speed immediately, you can can get to the suburbs of 2.25 billion light years.
MINUS
They had to evolve to the point to build space travel and the first gate.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The time travel possibilities sound just like the the 1992 novel. So with that in mind:

Question 1: What are the limitations of building gates and linking them during initial creation?
Situation - Say the first pair are created on Venus: Gate A and Gate B. I move Gate B (at just under c) eventually to Alpha Centauri and it has a habitable planet, lets call it Tirane. The time difference between A and B is around 4 years.
Can I build Gate C on Venus and Gate D on Tirane and link them together? If I can what is the initial time dilation?
If not, why not? What are the physics of the universe constraints? if a proximity issue what are the minimum distance to create the gate/wormhole link, what is the maximum distance?

I know that I can move materials between Gate A and Gate B. Is there a limitation on materials? If so, what are the limitations? If the materials are on Tirane, can it be done? Surely Venusians can go across the Gate?
Is it infrastructure? I understand that one can make all sorts of reasoning/excuses on infrastructure not available like the Venusians cannot on Tirane long-term, but that is a limitation on the species, not the physics of the universe.

All of these questions are geared towards determining the structure of this gate campaign. Knowing the limits of gate creation determines things like extent of said network.

The initial distance between the gates is the same distance for going through the gate, lets just say this distance is very small. When you separate these gates from each other, the distance through the gat remains unchanged, you can accelerate one end near the speed of light and the time difference as measured outside the gate will increase, but the time difference through the gate will not change, thus the gate becomes a gateway into the future, now depending on how you handle time travel, this could mean a number of things. One way is simply to split the Universe whenever a time paradox occurs, in that case the stargate ends up connecting two universes, one where the change has occurred and the other where it hasn't. The one where it hasn't is at the future end of the stargate, that is the original timeline, it is in the past end of the stargate where changes to history, as established by the future gate, can occur. Lets say the Venusians send a stargate into the future using time dialation, the Venusians can send it to Earth and visit us, we can travel through their gate and visit Venus in the past, we can change things in the past there, but it will not affect our own history, by our doing this, we are no longer in the Venusian's future, though some version of those Venusians existed in our past to send that gate to us, those Venusians are not the ones we meet when we go through that gate into a parallel Universe version of the past, a past which may or may not lead to us, most likely not, as there are too many random dice to roll to get to us.

The Venusians through their control of the gate, can push the future end rapidly into the future while they stay at home, nice and comfortable on their planet, they can manipulate events of a future history, making a stop off at Earth every now and then, and making a few adjustments, they can create the human race and make it look like evolution did it, they can even create the human race in their own image if they want. So we could have humanoid Venusians, their biology would be different from ours because of the different conditions on Venus. For example, Venusians might never have seen water ice on their planet outside of a freezer, their bodies might be perfectly adapted to 60 degree Celsius temperatures, and ours not! They would find out Earth, even in the Summer to be very cold! They may have engineered us to look like them, but we are not them! That is just one possibility for instance.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Question 2:
The Solar System is ~5 billion years old.
Planets formed about ~4.5 billion years ago.
If these are truly Venusians, then likely they did not exist before their planet formed.


How long ago was the first gate built?
This determines the maximum time travel/maximum distance possible between any gate. if they as species formed immediately at planet creation and get a set of gates off at close to light speed immediately, you can can get to the suburbs of 2.25 billion light years.
MINUS
They had to evolve to the point to build space travel and the first gate.

2.25 billion years is enough time to do this. Complex life on Earth developed only within the last billion years of Earth's existence, for the first 3.5 billion years, the Earth was barren, its oceans contained only primitive plankton which slowly converted carbon-dioxide to oxygen this was limited by the fact that if they did this too much the Earth would freeze due to the reduced greenhouse effect they would create, so the percentage of carbon-dioxide remained high until the Sun got warmer. Venus started out warmer, so it could end up with a higher percentage of oxygen in its atmosphere than the Earth, its plankton oxygenated its atmosphere first, and complex life could have developed earlier on Venus, while Earth remained relatively lifeless. Venusians could visit our Earth of course, its gravity would be slightly uncomfortable for them, since it is greater than theirs. Anything they did on Earth would get mostly erased by natural processes, so we would have no idea that they ever been to our planet. The Venusians developed the stargate, so they lose interest in actually making the journey across the stars except though a stargate, and that stargate leads to a future in a parallel Universe. Eventually in our own timeline Venus becomes uninhabitable, and the Venusians evacuated through their stargates never to be seen again. The Venusians we do see, come through a stargate, that those previous Venusians left behind. we can step through he stargate and visit a parallel past, which because of changes made, will never become our own.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Question 3: Can your gate ends be reconfigurable, yes or no?

The previous answered implied no you cannot build gates far away. So say Gate A and Gate B were built on Venus with Gate B moved to Tirane and now a 4 year difference. Gate C and Gate D are built on Tirane. Gate D is moved to Venus at close to c with Gate C and Gate D having a 4 year difference.

To get from Gate A to Gate D do I have to

• Enter Gate A
  Exit Gate B
  Travel through normal means to Gate C
  Enter Gate C
  Exit Gate D
  Time Difference = 8 years

Or is it Thru the physics of your universe to get from Gate A directly to Gate D I can

• Know the wormhole or configuration characteristics of Gate A and Gate D
  Reprogram Gate A or Gate D or both as appropriate prior to trip initiation
  Enter Gate A
  Exit Gate D
  Time Difference = ???
  Do settings revert after trip automatically or only change when reconfigured again.

This also determines utility of network. A reconfigurable network with time differences can set up a universe like Asimov's The End of Eternity
Non-configurable less so. Also non-configurable means each and every gate is a chokepoint of access between each A and B. ("Hold the Gate. None shall pass!")

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The stargates connect in pairs, the stargate, at the moment of creation exists in two places at once, gates A and B are part of the same object, that object has 4 special dimensions, but we can perceive only three of those dimensions as the gates of the wormhole intersects our universe. Each wormhole is a choke point.

Here is a diagram of a stargate network, the red dot in the center is in the past, the green dots are in the present, the blue dots are in the future. People can travel from red dot to green dot to blue dot or from blue dot to green dot to red dot, each of these places are further away from each other in light years than they are in years in time, thus the whole set up exists in one reality, it is only when you star spawning stargates and moving the other ends toward the center, that you end up creating a time machine where you can alter the past, but so long as things are set up as this diagram indicates, you can travel to he past or the future, but the distance in light years between the dots is greater, so its not possible to alter one's own history. If you go from red to green you may have travelled forward in time by 4 years, but light that goes from red to green outside of the stargates takes 5 years to get there. You can a beam of light through the stargate from A to B, and if you send a beam of light outside the stargate through B to A, the entire journey will take 9 years. If a beam of light goes from green to red, it would take -4 years to travel through the stargatem and then +5 years to make the journey back to green, from the point of view of Green, the round trip takes 1 year. From the point of view of red a round trip through the stargate and then back along the outside takes 9 years, no time paradox is possible with this arrangement of stargates. So long as yo spawn stargates in the direction away from the center of the network, you are not making a time machine, but if you spawn stargates toward the center, then paradoxes may become possible. If you don't want this to happen, You can rule that so long as the light path outside takes longer than the light path inside, things work fine but ifthe light path outside equals the light path inside, then a single photon can make a round trip and arrive exactly where it started when it started and then make the journey again and again and again, creating a feedback loop which then build up in energy to the exact amount required to destroy the stargate, and thus prevent a time paradox from happening!

If you want to allow time travel, you can rule that paradoxes create separate parallel universes that are different by the change in the timeline that the paradox creates, each dot therefore represents a separate timeline either in the past or the future, if you set it up so paradoxes can occur.

 

[fusor]

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The Orion's Arm setting has wormhole networks like this, except the author has imposed a speed limit on the wormhole spreaders, they are not allowed to go faster than 71% of the speed of light, at that speed time dilation equals the number of light years crossed, from the ship's point of view stationary light years are crossed in a number of years equal to the light distance, that way from this ship's point of view, a light year is crossed in a ship's year, that way time dialation doesn't built to the point to allow time travel.

You see when you set up a network like this, you have t make sure there are no other networks with another centerpoint nearby, as the combination of the two networks can be used as a time machine, or their could be ancient artifact stargates that are still functioning, and thus either a time paradox occurs of the gates explode due to a photonic feedback loop.