Transpatial or Interspatial Links

A Description of Interspatial Links
[Updated 12/26/2012] 

Over 200,000 years ago, Ionian scientific experts proved that the structure of the universe was, as had long been suspected, extremely intricately interfolded into multiple additional dimensions, with points of contact, of varying size and relative stability, creating connections between extremely distant points in the universe. These points, or more properly, spatial bubbles, of contact, are referred to as interspatial or transpatial links (or sometimes just “spatial” links or just “links”). Soon after their initial discovery, the Ionians found that they are related in a complicated way to most common gravitational concentrations (i.e., massive objects), mainly stars, above a certain threshold of mass, and including other dense objects like black holes and neutron stars. There is a practical lower limit of the associated masses of approximately .65 solar masses, beneath which the associated links are either unstable, nonexistent, or too small to be of any real use. Links large enough and stable enough to permit transportation from one region of space to another very distant region are referred to as Class I Links; other, either unstable or smaller links, are referred to as Class II, or sometimes as “inutile” links.

Spatial Links are found to remain in place, not to orbit their associated stars. The Links generally track the orbital motion of their associated stars, as the stars themselves orbit around the centers of galaxies. Thus, the fact that the links orbit in tandem with the stars around galactic centers is an essential element of their existence. Very little is understood, at least by human scientists, of the mechanism of this remarkable association. Very small (dwarf) galaxies (such as the Fornax or Sculptor dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way) generally lack usable links entirely. Galaxies on the order of the Small Magellanic Cloud will have them, although not quite as many as larger galaxies like the Milky Way, M33 or M31, where they are abundant. Above a threshold of something on the order of 50 billion solar masses, the population of links is not found to be correlated further with the masses of galaxies. In other words, the existence of links requires a certain minimum mass of galaxy, but beyond a certain mass, their prevalence is correlated only with the stellar population itself.

Links can be thought of as “gateways,” or portals, through which objects, including spaceships, can pass. Passage is more or less instantaneous, and can occur in either direction. After passing through the portal, the object emerges in a specific, and extremely distant, location. The link, in effect, pairs two extremely remote stars with one another. The other associated star will usually be roughly similar in mass and age to the other star associated with the link, but this is not exact. The detailed physics behind the associations and locked locations of the portals aren't understood by Zubonian scientists, although there are some theories. Ionians have their own theories and certain knowledge, some of which is shared with humans, and some not. (Which is typical of Ionian scientific knowledge in general).

The typical sunlike star in a spiral galaxy will have as few as two or as many as twenty or so macroscopic links to other places in the universe, of which as few as none or as many as all of them will be stable and large enough for transit. Most stars have at least one usable interspatial link to another, extremely remote, star. Distances from the central star (or center of mass of binaries) is in rough inverse proportion to the mass of the system, but for a typical sunlike star is on the order of 2 to 5 billion kilometers.

The links are not obvious; they typically don't emit radiation to any extent, and are so small that their occulting of objects “behind” them is difficult to detect (a region of the space of the associated star is often, but not always, visible through the portal). For a typical sunlike star, a typical link will have an opening about quarter of a kilometer in diameter, but some are as small as 50 meters, and a few are a little larger. Very rarely there will exist a larger portal. The largest known to Zubonian scientists is the Etulmon Link, which is over .5 km. in diameter, and links the system containing the Ionian orbital[1] Etulmon with another star in Ionian space, interdicted to humans.

It is thought that there is a natural limit of about .6 km that is never exceeded. Larger links are always pretty stable, but sometimes fluctuate in size so their practical “pass through” diameter may be as little as 40% than their maximum diameter. Links smaller than about 50m in diameter are generally considered too risky to use for transit, as below this level there is a tendency to fluctuate or simply “wink out” for variable periods of time. Thus, the 5o m. threshold is the cut-off between Class I and the Class II or “inutile” links.

Class I links have a unique and apparently invariant property. They link the star with a part of the universe which is outside the “light cone” of that location with respect to the linked location. In other words, light, or information of any kind, other than what passes through the link, can never be exchanged with the linked location, because it is too distant; the distance in light years between any two linked locations is always significantly greater than the age of the universe, and no matter how many links are followed in sequence, you can never arrive at a location closer than the minimum distance (age of the universe in light years) from any of the other places in the sequence. The fundamental reason for this is assumed to be the law of causality: although the link makes it possible, in effect, to travel far, far faster than light, reaching enormously distant locations in the universe in minute periods of time, there is no other connection through normal space (such as visible light) between these two locations, and never will be. The only actual hints of the distances involved are that in a minute quantity of cases, it's possible to see from the linked locations very distant galaxies or structures that are also visible, from “the other side,” from the other linked location. From data from these small numbers of cases, Ionians long ago concluded that the minimum separation between linked locations is approximately 13.9 billion light years (i.e., approximately the age of the Universe), and the more typical separation is probably more like 20 to 100 billion light years. The web of connections is such, and the universe is large enough, that no location is causally connected, even after a string of connections is made, to any other. Research into what would happen if this hypothesis were pushed to an extreme; by voyaging through hundreds of links, was inconclusive; apparently it just doesn't happen. The extent of the universe beyond the light horizon is simply immense beyond imagination; it is possible to go link to link for uncountable connections and still not run up against a natural limit.

It's a little mind boggling to think that you can travel just to the “edge” of the Solar System, then pass through a “hole in space” and emerge billions of light years away, in a galaxy that will never be visible from Earth, at the edge of another star system (because that's where the links always are), which may be similar to where you left in many respects (or not so much), but is impossibly far away. Yet, in a sense, this becomes a new paradigm of “proximity.” Alpha Centauri may be “only” 4.3 light years from the Sun, but its planets are realistically permanently inaccessible. That system, however, almost certainly has its own links to other extremely remote locations, which are equally unreachable from the locations to which our Solar System links.

Thus, the universe is made of a vast number of intricately interwoven networks of mutually exclusive connections between very remote locations, with travel to much closer locations in normal space effectively impossible due to normal space distance being far too great. The locations which are practicably connected to Ionus (and, as it happens, to Earth) are collectively referred to as Connected Space. Via what turns out to be costly and difficult, but nonetheless practical, sequential-link travel, there are a large number of habitable (and even some inhabited) worlds, and an even larger number of systems containing artificial habitats and/or resources, accessible to space travel. The number, in fact, is more or less only limited by the exploration and previous mapping of links, and the number of transits you're prepared to make. Fast Ionian ships can cross from one typical link to another in a from a few days to a few weeks, so travel from Ionian inhabited worlds to literally thousands of star systems is a reality and has been for many millennia for Ionian civilization, and to a lesser extent for several thousand years in the part of Connected Space inhabited by human beings.

The world systems inhabited by humans are often referred to as "Human Space." Just at the eve of the historical period which includes the Recontact, Human Space consisted of the star systems of nine worlds, (Zubos and the Eight Daughter Worlds, two of which share the same star system (Pirobos and Tularit)), plus another 30 or so star systems lacking habitable planets, which contain interconnecting links (some with artificial habitations, some without). Ionian Connected Space is of unknown extent, but is believed to encompass or at least touch on several thousand habitable worlds and many thousands of other systems, plus at least five or six connections to entirely separately-evolved alien civilizations. However, given the propensities of Ionians for both security and secrecy, the details of those connections are virtually entirely unknown to humans and will presumably remain so indefinitely.  

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[1] An orbital, or Banks Orbital, after Iain M. Banks, who describes the general concept in his fiction works, is an artificial habitat built from the debris of a star system, often one containing no habitable planet. Typical habitable area of such a habitat is on the order of hundreds to thousands of times the area of a natural planet.