Jump Conduits

A creation of the Anciene Republik at TL 19 (K), jump conduits allow many parsecs to be traversed just as a normal jump drive would be used for a jump of one to six parsecs. Conduits were developed as a collaboration between Republic scientists and alien scientists from the world Elda, a planet not far (100 -parsecs) from Earth in the Saggitarius-Carina Arm of the galaxy. The Eldarans have a penchant for multi-dimensional mathematics, and the humans had a knack for translating such work into applications. The first Eldaran-Human cooperation was the jump conduit, with a maximum range of 1296 parsecs. No conduit has been built since in over 5,000 years, however.

In general, the method for creating a conduit is well remembered. One uses two jump-1 drives (mounted on a frame equal in size to a 100-ton ship is all that is required, but really, any size will do), and, accounting for variances in general relativity, simultaneously activating the jump circuitry at two locations. About a week later, the conduit is created. Depending upon the distance between the endpoints of the jump conduit, a ship with sufficient jump drive is required to successfully enter and traverse the conduit. A jump-1 ship can use conduits of six parsecs or less in length, and this relationship increases by factors of six (jump-2 can use a conduit up to thirty-six parsecs in length, called Jump-6 2, and so on). In theory, a conduit could nearly cross the galaxy from an edge on a straight line through the center, to the opposite edge (46,656 parsecs).

Fuel requirements are the normal consumption for the jump used (for the size of the conduit). If the conduit used is between six and thirty-six parsecs in length, a jump-2 drive and fuel for a normal jump of two parsecs is all that is required for traversal of the conduit. For reasons not well understood, no conduits were made that only require a jump-1 drive to navigate. This may explain why there are no (known) jump-6 or jump-66 conduits. However, some have suggested that these conduits may have been classified. The explanation that is given for the lack of these longer ranges, or even those in the Jump-6' to jump-6' conduit range, is that the longer the range, the shorter the amount of time that they will function without required maintenance.

This is the best the Eldarans can tell us today, but no human has been born during the time of the latter Anciene Republik with enough insight into jump mechanics to be able to fully recreate the technology. One attempt came close—but, resulted in the creation of a pair of quantum singularities at each endpoint (a deadly end-result).

An entire subculture of governmentalists has arisen charging that the Anciene Republik is actually run, and coordinated by, some secret and unknown agency using still-functioning, jump-61 and jump-66 conduits. An extremist branch of these people believe that the secret to the longest jump conduits was lost with the last Emperor. They maintain that the Imperial family's genetic code was imprinted with the solution. No concrete proof has ever been given by any of these people, yet they continue to believe their conspiracy theories.

On the factual side of the matter, one Eldaran research paper published over 3000 years ago contends that a jump-66 conduit would only be stable long enough for a ship(s) to make a jump mere minutes after the formation of the conduit. Another Eldaran paper with a different research approach, holds that Jump-61 conduits are impossible due to the timing issues for simultaneity of firing the jump drives at the endpoints. It is possible that both papers are correct, or that neither one is right.

Information travels at the speed of jump. However, the jump conduits of the Anciene Republik, in many instances, are still functioning allowing as many as 48 parsecs, in rare cases further, to be traversed in a single week (one jump). The jump conduit "net" once covered much of the galaxy. The longer range conduits had formed the backbone of that net, and now that they are gone, the conduits are only of use in their proximate locations.