Setting Book

Background terribly significantly during the period 725-1273 PD, although The first manned interstellar ship departed the Solar System the ability to pick suitable targets for colonization (courtesy of on September 30, 2103. Although no other ship followed for the FTL survey crews) improved enormously. almost fifty years, 2103 CE, became accepted as Year One of the Diaspora, and January 1 of that year became January 1,01 The best speed possible in hyper prior to 1273 PD was about PD for purposes of interstellar dating. fifty times light-speed, a major plus over light-speed vessels but still too slow to tie distant stars together into For over seven centuries after the Prometheus Figure 1 any sort of interstellar community. It was sufficient became the first manned starship, FTL movement to allow establishment of the oldest of the currently remained impossible, leaving generation ships Star Hyper existing interstellar polities, the Solarian League, (followed in the fourth century PD by the Type Limit consisting of the oldest colony worlds within development of practical cryogenic hibernation 0 49.60 LM approximately ninety light-years of Sol. vessels) as the only means of long-distance B 33.42 LM interstellar expansion.The original starships A 28.75 LM The major problem limiting hyper speeds was used fairly straightforward reaction drives with F0 26.42 LM that simply getting into hyper did not create a hydrogen catcher fields to sustain boost after the F1 25.98 LM propulsive effect. Indeed, the initial translation into initial onboard reaction mass was exhausted. Later F2 25.54 LM hyper was a complex energy transfer which reduced generations attempted more esoteric propulsion F3 25.1 OLM a starship's velocity by"bleeding off" momentum. systems, but though they graduated to fusion F4 24.66 LM In effect, a translating hypership lost approximately and photon drives, they remained locked into the F5 24.20 LM 92% of its normal-space velocity when entering sublight reaction principle until 725 PD, when F6 23.76 LM hyper.This had unfortunate consequences in the first crude hyper drive was tested in the Solar F7 23.32 LM terms of reaction mass requirements, particularly System. F8 22.88 LM since the fact that hydrogen catcher fields were F9 22.44 LM inoperable in hyper meant one could not replenish The interface between normal and hyper-space was GO 22.00 LM one's reaction mass underway. On the other hand, speed-critical, for if velocity at hyper translation G1 21.56 LM the velocity bleed effect applied equally regardless exceeded .3 c, the translating starship was G2 21.12 LM of the direction of the translation (that is, one lost destroyed. In addition, a hypership had to reach G3 20.68 LM 92% of one's velocity whether one was entering the hyper limit of a star's gravity well before it could G4 20.24 LM hyper-space from normal-space or normal-space enter hyper, and the hyper limit varies with the G5 19.80LM from hyper-space), which meant that leaving hyper spectral class of the star, as shown in Figure 1. G6 19.36LM automatically decelerated one's vessel to a normal- G7 18.92 LM space velocity only 08% of whatever its velocity had The original hyper drive was a man-killer. The G8 18.48LM been in hyper-space. This tremendously reduced the casualty figures over the first fifty years of hyper G9 18.04LM amount of deceleration required at the far end of a travel were daunting. Worse, vessels which were KO 17.60LM hyper voyage and so made reaction drives at least destroyed were lost with all hands, which left no K1 17.15 LM workable. record of their fates and thus offered no clue as to K2 16.72LM the causes of their destruction. Eventually, however, K3 16.28LM Since .3 c (approx. 89,907.6 km/sec) was the it was determined that most had probably been lost K4 15.84LM maximum velocity at which an "upward"translation to one of two phenomena, which became known as K5 15.40LM into hyper-space could be made, the maximum "grav shear"and "dimensional shear" (violent energy K7 14.52 LM initial velocity in hyper-space was .024 c (or 7,192.6 turbulence separating hyper bands from one K8 14.08 LM km/sec). Making translation at speeds as high as another). Once this was recognized and the higher K9 13.64 LM .3 c was a rough experience and not particularly hyper bands were declared off limits, losses due to MO 13.20LM safe. The loss rate at .3 c was over 10%; dropping dimensional shear ended, but grav shear remained M1 12.76 LM translation velocity to .23 c virtually eliminated ship a highly dangerous and essentially unpredictable M2 12.32 LM losses in initial translation, and, since the difference phenomenon for the next five centuries. Despite M3 11.88LM in initial hyper velocity was less than 1,700 KPS, that unpredictability and continuing (though M4 11.44LM most captains routinely made translation at the lower) loss rates, hyperships'FTL capabilities made M5 11.00 LM lower speed. Even today, only military commanders them the vessel of choice for survey duties and M6 10.56LM in emergency conditions will make upward other low-manpower requirement tasks. Crews M7 10.12 LM translation at .3 c. There is no safe upper speed of highly paid specialists willing to accept risky M8 09.68 LM on "downward"translations. That is, a ship may employment conditions were enlisted for survey M9 09.24 LM translate from hyper-space to normal-space at any work and for the early mail packets, but the loss R. Giant 05.64 LM hyper-space velocity without risking destruction. rate continued to make any sort of interstellar (Which is not to say that the crews enjoy the bulk commerce impractical and insured that most Multiply LM by 7.5 experience or that it does not impose enormous colonists still moved aboard the much slower but to get operational wear and tear on hyper generators.) Further, more survivable cryogenic ships. As a consequence, hexes. translation from one hyper band to a higher band the rate of advance of colonization did not increase (see below) may be made at any velocity up to and including .6 c. No vessel may exceed .6 c in hyper (.8 in normal- combining the input from extremely acute sensor systems space) because radiation and particle shields cannot protect with known power inputs to a vessel's own propulsive systems them or their passengers at higher velocities. and running a continuous back plot of gravity gradients passed through, the HL maintains a real-time "dead reckoning" Once a vessel enters hyper, it is placed in what might be position. Early HLs were accurate to within no more than 10 considered a compressed dimension which corresponds on LS per light-month, which meant that, in a voyage of 60 light- a point-by-point basis to "normal-space" but places those years, the HL position might be out by as much as two light- points in much closer congruity. Hyper-space consists of hours. Early hyper-space navigators thus had to be extremely multiple regions or layers—-called "bands"—of associated cautious and make generous allowances for error in plotting but discrete dimensions. Dr. Shigematsu Radhakrishnan their voyages, but current (1900 PD) HLs are accurate to within (who, after Adrienne Warshawski, is considered to have been .4 light-second per light-month (that is, the HL position at the humanity's greatest hyper-physicist) called the hyper bands end of a 60 light-year voyage would be off by no more than "the back-flash of creation,"for they might be considered 288 light-seconds or less than 5 light-minutes). echoes of normal-space, the consequence of the ultimate convergence of the mass of an entire normal-space universe. From the beginning of hyper travel, it was known that there Or, as Dr. Warshawski once put it, "Gravity folds normal-space were multiple hyper bands and that the"higher"the band, everywhere, by however small an amount, and hyper-space the closer the congruity between points in normal-space and may be considered the Inside'of all those little folds." thus the higher the apparent FTL speed, but their use was impractical for two major reasons. First, translation from band In practical terms, this meant that for a ship in hyper, the to band bleeds off velocity much as the initial translation. distance between normal-space points was "shorter," which The bleed-off for each higher band is approximately 92% of allowed the vessel to move between them using a standard the bleed-off for the next lowest one (that is, the alpha band reaction drive at sublight speeds to attain an effective FTL translation reduces velocity by 92%; the beta band bleed-off capability. Even in hyper, ships were not capable of true faster- is 84.64%; the velocity loss for the gamma band is 77.87%, than-light movement; the relatively closer proximity of points etc.) but it still had to be made up again after each translation, in normal-space simply gave the appearance of FTL travel, and this posed an insurmountable mass requirement for any which meant that as long as a vessel was dependent on its reaction drive. reaction drive and could not reach the higher hyper bands, its maximum apparent speed was limited to approximately sixty- The second problem was that the interfaces between any two times that which the same vessel could have attained in two hyper bands are regions of highly unstable and powerful normal-space.

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