Hyperspace

An Ed Islandian cruiser entering Slipspace

Hyperspace (Also known as Slipspace, FTL Space, or The Void) is a collective term for the eleven non-visible dimensions used for faster-than-light travel. Several large space vessels used by multiple countries utilize Hyperspace to travel between planets and star systems. Hyperdrives remain the single most expensive objects ever created by penguinkind, causing many nations to be blocked from hyperspace from the sheer financial investment in an FTL drive. For countries that do not (and cannot) produce hyperdrives at a reduced cost, they can be priced hundreds of billions of coins per unit, easily throwing a country into bankruptcy. As of now, only the USA, Shops Island, Snowzerland and Ed Island produce hyperdrives and slipspace drives, though only Antarctican and Ed Island drives can operate efficiently.

Background[edit]

Hyperspace is a specific set of eleven dimensions existing in a very small bundle. While these dimensions are present in normal space, they do not have an effect on the physics of normal space. By moving matter from the three 'normal' space dimensions to Hyperspace, one effectively changes the laws of physics for that piece of matter. This allows faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects i.e., the occupants do not "warp" time, despite their superluminal speed.

History[edit]

While the theory of Hyperspace existed prior to 2010, in that year, Tobias Shaw (an Antarctican scientist) and Wallace Fujikawa (a Japalandese physicist) were the first to successfully implement a device that could transition normal matter into slipstream space, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. While the earliest variants of this device could not break the speed of light, they could consistently travel at or just below lightspeed. This "hyperdrive" as it later became known as, was later adapted by both the USA and Snowzerland in the Race to Mars.

While Hyperspace travel was well-known after its invention, no Hyperspace travels outside of the Solar System were attempted (due to calculation errors created by Oort Cloud disturbances), until the first extrasolar Hyperspace jump in late 2018, when an Ed Islandian expedition to Tribute had occurred.

As of 2016, very few countries operate hyperspace drives due to their costly nature. Most space programs operate ion drives utilizing Magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters in order to reach high, subluminal speeds, as the cost is a small fraction of that of a faster-than-light drive.

Mechanics[edit]

A Slipspace drive used by the EIAC

Hyperspace is a tangle of intertwined spatial dimensions, comparably similar to a wadded up piece of paper, which lie underneath the three conventional spatial dimensions of the universe; rather like taking the classic "flat sheet" used to represent gravity and crumpling it up into a ball, thereby creating extra dimensions and shorter spaces between points. Slipspace can be thought of as the detectable universe, (which, technically, it is), but with a greater number of dimensions. Our plane of existence is thought to have four dimensions (up-down, front-back, side-to-side, and time), but slipspace is an eleven-dimensional spacetime.

The slipstream also possesses different laws of physics than our "normal" universe (having been called "impossible" by some), although some basic ones, such as energy transfer and momentum, remain the same. Due to the different laws of physics in the slipstream, times, masses, positions or velocities in slipspace are impossible to accurately measure based on the standards of normal space.

Hyperspace is not completely empty; clouds of primordial atomic hydrogen are relatively frequent. Occasionally, even comets and other astronomical objects are known to somehow find their way into slipstream. Objects close to one another such as fleets often group together in mass Hyperspace transit and may appear to sensors as a large, singular object. An object in Hyperspace can pass through a mass, such as a planet, without causing a collision in normal space; such an event may often go completely unnoticed. However, there may be risks involved if a ship is still early in slipstream transit and passes through a large object, such as another ship.

Hyperspace appears in a multitude of ways, depending on the speed and power of the Hyperdrive powering it. Some have noted Hyperspace as resembling a purplish nebulae, bluish-white tunnel of lines and quadrilateral figures, a multicolored expanse, or simply solid blackness. This effect does not seem to be tied to any physical properties of the drive, though faster ships tend to see Hyperspace as an empty void.

The appearance of Hyperspace from a slower FTL ship

Accuracy[edit]

In addition to having to deal with temporal anomalies, Hyperdrives are not able to jump with exact precision. A ship may transition back to normal space millions of kilometers from its intended destination. As a result, ships often transition in and out of hyperspace far from any gravity wells of celestial bodies. In-system jumps are also generally considered impractical, even dangerous, due to this lack of precision.

Slipspace[edit]

While the term Slipspace can be used interchangeably with Hyperspace, it also can refer to a different method of FTL travel. Unlike Hyperdrives, which simply tears a hole into Hyperspace using brute force, slipspace drives cut a very fine hole in the fabric of space-time and "slips" into Hyperspace with precision, much like a scalpel compared to a butcher knife. This method is more exact than Hyperspace, but requires much more calculating. Rather than simply appearing to accelerate past the speed of light like a hyperdrive, a Slipspace drive opens a massive portal in front of the ship, which closes after said ship passes through. To date, only Ed Island has successfully created a slipspace drive.

While Hyperdrives are only accurate to a degree, slipspace drives are notably more accurate. The means that slipspace drives use to make the transition are more sophisticated than those used by hyperdrives, as evidenced by their markedly faster journeys from point to point. Due to Ed Island's advancements in artificial intelligence, these jumps can be calculated much quicker, allowing journeys to be done faster and more efficient. Ed Islandian ships have reportedly been able to conduct precise slipspace jumps to within just kilometers of their intended destination, as well as jumping within a planet's orbit.

Gravitational Effects[edit]

Although they are not present as tangible objects within slipspace, the gravitational pull of large masses, such as stars, affects the geometric trajectory of objects traveling in Hyperspace much like it would in normal space. This effect typically distorts and scatters clouds of dust drifting in the Slipstream.

It is extremely dangerous for weaponry to be fired in Hyperspace. Energy weapons will be horribly misdirected, and their shots will pop in and out of existence seemingly at random, causing them to be just as dangerous to the shooter as they are to the target.

Additionally, a hyperdrive does not actually "accelerate" a spacecraft through the slipstream; this is performed by the ship's conventional reaction thrusters. Thus, ships with more powerful conventional engines are also faster within Hyperspace.

Applications[edit]

Hyperspace has been observed to carry many advantages with it that normal space physically could not achieve, leading scientists to develop advanced usages of it other than transport.

Puffles[edit]

Puffles use a subdimension of hyperspace (or as they sometimes call it, Hammerspace) to store their belongings as an alternative to inventories, as the BOF does not grant them to puffles. This subdimension is not able to be used as a method of transportation by itself, but is theorized to be one of the eleven dimensions present in hyperspace.

Communications[edit]

In addition to navigational hazards, there was also the difficulty inherent in communicating with a starship while traveling at hyperspeed. Since ships in hyperspace do not exist, in a conventional sense, they are largely cut off from conventional radio or subspace communication, since wavelengths of any signal would be massively distorted even if they reached the vessel. Superlumial communication has been achieved to an extent by utilizing constantly-active Hyperspace probes, which relay a message through the slipstream.

Artificial Intelligence[edit]

An application of Hyperspace used by Ed Island in particular is the use of its eleven-dimensional spacetime as a platform for abstract fractal housing and processing structures for "smart" artificial intelligence constructs. The extra dimensions grant AIs faster-than-light processing speeds but more importantly, it would give unlimited room for extended neural linkages—by extension, making the AI virtually immortal, free from the limitations of a matrix which normally cause a smart AI to descend to rampancy. As of now, only the AI Myria is housed within Hyperspace.