Gates 101
GATE MECHANICS
A gate is type of small wormhole that connects two distant points in space. Gates result from a quirk of hyperdimensional geometry where the presence of a gravity well in an area affects certain particles in quantum entanglement, causing the higher-dimensional space between them to fold in on itself (for the details of why this happens, wait 2500 years for Markus Tannhauser to publish his book on the subject). Like any waveform, spacetime can be added and subtracted from itself, and in certain cases the foldspace phenomenon ends up being subtracted enough to bring the two consanguineous entangled particles close enough to each other in higher-dimensional space to cause a noticeable spacial discontinuity at either end.
A gatredrive works by bombarding a gate with high-energy particles (antimatter is the most effective), altering the potential energy state above a threshold that draws together the two consanguineous points, temporarily turning them into the same location in foldspace. A ship can then pass through the created region of foldspace and emerge on the other side of it in realspace. The higher above the threshold the altered energy state is, the larger the foldspace intersection (the gate aperture) becomes. This effect is relative to the initial opening threshold, so gates that require more energy to open are also harder to enlarge the aperture of. When the particle bombardment ceases the gate bleeds off the additional energy, slowly reducing the aperture in size before closing.
The spherical region where foldspace intersects with realspace is known as the “gate aperture”. The diameter of a gate aperture is extremely important, as a ship exceeding it that tries to enter will be “gutted” as the interior of the ship passes through foldspace without the hull, guaranteeing an extremely painful demise for anyone onboard. This is normally not a problem with most gates when using second-gen drives or better, but is vital when dealing with microgates.
Microgates are named as such not because they are physically smaller (all gates are infinitesimally small in their inactive form), but because the high energy requirement severely limits the width of the gate aperture. Ordinarily subatomic in size, even a mighty Tortoise-class gateships can only enlarge a microgate to the point where it can fit a small frigate. This makes microgates essentially useless for the strategic movement of fleets as the gateship itself cannot enter foldspace, meaning any travel will be limited to single jump. They are devastatingly effective for short-range raids, though.
Since activating a gate in foldspace definitionally turns two consanguineous points of realspace into the same point for the duration the aperture is open, it is perfectly possible for a vessel to cross through the far side of an open gate out through the end the gateship is currently projecting into (indeed, this is exact principle though which FTL communication through open gates operates). Historically this was almost never done, as the large number of ships passing through an open gate would mean a collision was highly likely for the whole duration, and even then the jump would need to be timed perfectly in order to enter the gate during the short period where the aperture was big enough to allow passage but the transiting ship wouldn’t be immediately obliterated by the particle beam upon exiting. With the advent of third-gen drives, though, it became a necessary maneuver for ships using microgates to return to their system of origin.
GATEDRIVES AND GATESHIPS
1st-Gen Drives were bulky, power-hungry, and ineffective. Light gate drives were almost useless, and medium ones were severely limited. Heavy gateships were more useful, but incredibly expensive to build. Early gateships were built entirely around the drive system and were notoriously prone to malfunctions. Almost all of them were scrapped upon the invention of the 2nd-Gen Drives, with a small handful remaining as museum ships.
2nd-Gen Drives would remain the standard for the majority of the Concordat period. Lighter and more efficient, the power and space savings meant that light gateships were capable of opening most of the major gates, and medium gateships could open any of them. Gateship design advanced considerably, allowing 2nd-Gen ships to be future-proofed by making their drive sections modular, meaning they could be swapped out for more advanced ones were they to become available. Since medium 2nd-Gen drives could open all detectable gates, heavy gateships were considered an obsolete concept. Only one was ever built.
3rd-Gen Drives are an extremely recent discovery, having been developed independently on multiple planets. The sheer amount of power they can output allows for the effective opening of microgates to a usable size, opening up entirely new routes of interstellar travel. Microgates are inherently unstable, and activating one that leads to an area of heavy gravity (such as the infamous Eden M1 gate, which leads to a neutron star) will lead to a high level of gravimetric “noise” interference that, unless the energy beam is extremely precisely modulated, will cause the gate to collapse and generate a devastating gravitational shockwave, as both the Edenites and CEF learned the hard way. The potential utility of microgate travel is usually considered to outweigh these risks, though. A 3rd-Gen heavy gateship might even be able to open a microgate wide enough to send a light gateship through, though since none yet exist (except maybe on Jotenheim) this theory is unknown.
Gatedrones are automated gateships built around lower-quality gatedrives. These “low-spec” drives emit large quantities of harmful radiation in use and have a tendency to burn themselves out after a handful of jumps, making them unsuitable for true gateships but acceptable for probes. Much of the Concordat’s gate exploration was done by gatedrone, but the expense of even constructing a low-spec gatedrive meant they fell out of use after the Colonial Wars. Their only known current user is the CEF, which has a policy of sending gatedrones into every detected gate in a newly entered system (which ultimately resulted in the Eden M1 gate disaster).
