Ersetu Jumpgates

Jumpgates are massive structures that connect locations within Ersetu space and allow non FTL capable ships to travel between two points by way of opening a portal, temporary stable wormhole, between two paired gates. These massive structures are constructed in pairs, like two ends of a tunnel and are permanently tied with and only able to connect to their partner and no other gate. This means that to have multiple destinations requires multiple gates. The jumpgate structures are immense and massively expensive to build and operate and so, as of the current year, the Ersetu only operate a limited number of the gates, requiring non FTL capable ships to traverse through multiple systems to reach their destination sometimes.

With their immense power needs, the jumpgates can only be operated for a limited time before requiring shutdown and recharge. The safe jump window for ships to traverse the gate before shutdown is fifteen minutes. After this time, the portal will be shut down and the gates will recharge their capacitor banks for two hours before being able to open a new portal. While the gates are capable of maintaining their portal for up to thirty minutes, it's found that after fifteen, when capacitor levels drop below 50%, the portal begins to become unstable, which could threaten critical collapse of the portal and damage the gates, or even cause a devastating shock wave to ripple across space on both ends of the portal that could severely damage or destroy ships traveling by sail for billions of miles around.

This is not an untested theory. The first gate between Kuangirru and Dunnain was destroyed on both sides when the portal destabilized and imploded. The resulting explosion and shock wave ripped the gate asunder and is known to have caused the destruction of over a hundred ships and damaged hundreds more collectively in both systems.

Even though transit between gates is bi-directional, only single direction travel is permitted, due to the danger of having ships traversing the gates limited travel space in multiple directions. So gate travel direction alternates each cycle.

The gate structures themselves are immense complexes. The portal aperture is two miles wide. A collection of rings that house the massive generators and projectors that create, focus and stabilize the portal and bridge the paired gates makes up the center of the complex. This is surrounded by thousands of capacitor banks that store the power needed to keep the portal open for just fifteen minutes. Feeding these are hundreds of fusion reactors. Small by comparison, the complex is topped by a command and control section, habitation, cargo and supply docks and storage facilities for supporting the operating crew.

Jumpgates are kept away from the plane of their system due to the massive amount of disturbances they create to the subspace winds used by Ersetian ship's sails, clustered in the vast emptiness above or below the plane of the ecliptic and are always protected by multiple orbital defense fortresses and a picket fleet.

Traver between gates is nearly instantaneous. A ship entering the portal, crosses the event horizon and exits the portal's other side in the destination system. In theory an unlimited number of ships can traverse the gate while the portal is open. This is limited though by two factors. The gate only has enough power to operate for fifteen minutes and, due to the distortion caused by the gate portal, ships must approach, traverse and withdraw from the gate under thrusters. The sails used by Ersetian ships are not able to function safely four thousands of kilometers around the gate without suffering catastrophic damage.

Ships wishing to traverse the gates are cued up in an approach line while the gate is recharging. These ships are often subjected to costumes inspections before being allowed to join the cue. When the gate is activated and the portal safely established, the ships will proceed forward under guidance from gate control and pass through. On the other side, the arriving ships are directed to an exit line, away from the cuing ships for the other direction, where they may again be inspected again before release.

As the fifteen minute mark closes, gate travel will be suspended, any ships not able to traverse during the safety window will remain at the head of the line for the next window, and the portal will be shut down for recharge before reopening for traffic from the other direction.

While it is possible to operate the gates continuously in this fashion for some time, the gates are taken completely offline for inspection and maintenance every two days to ensure the systems do not degrade.

The Ersetu operate dozens upon dozens of jumpgates within their space. Since each gate is permanently paired with it's partner, there is the requirement to have multiple gates in each system to facilitate gate travel between multiple other systems. Due to this, a great many gates are built in large clusters, which allows for more centralized traffic control as well as better defensibly, as these jumpgate clusters are always protected by a squadron of warships and a perimeter of space defense fortresses.

Two new pairs of gates are under construction, the first linking Turaan and Baile Caenn and second set linking Baile Caenn and Baile Areleen, which would add all of the deep space colonies to the gate network, but these complexes may not be completed for another three to four hundred years.

Gunsight1 created this article.