History of Hyperspace
-348 YC (Year Ch'ork-nten, after the great Agillian politican.)
Hehk-ch-ten of the Agilian, a physicist, causes a light beam to seemingly go
out of existance. At first, Hehk-ch-ten was riddiculed as a crank, the
Agilian having known for centuries about the conservation of energy. Later,
however, his experiment was reproduced. Koralrian EcKu'j-nerial'ch, the
preeminent theoriest of the day, hypothesized that the photons had not been
somehow eliminated, but were instead moved along another, previously unknown
physical dimension. There was a flurry of interest as it was speculated
that this dimension was, in fact, time. 

-342 YC
The dimension discovered by Agilian is proven not to be time in the famous
EcKu'j-nerial'ch Causality experiment. (Note: the results of the experiment
are not universally accepted. A very small minority (comparable to the number
of Flat-Earthers in our world and time) think that it is, indeed, time.)

-336 YC
Suffecent repeatability is achived in Hehk-ch-ten Aparatus (as any hyperspatial
transferance engine was then known) to allow a radio signal to be transmitted
via hyperspace. (This was first done by J-konen Akren, a researcher who
doggedly pursued this goal despite years of failure caused by inaccurate
aparatus. Akren is considered the father of the eponymous Akren Configuration
which is still used in hyperspatial communciations gear today, as it is much
simpler than the designs which can transmit particles with mass.)
This was an amazing breakthrough, because it established
conclusivley the EcKu'j-nerial'ch hypothesis that the disappearing photons
where going somewhere, not ceasing to exist. 
Several very curious things were discovered as Agilian scientists scrambled
to the field of Transdimensional Communications. First, it was discovered that
most hyperspatial dimensions are only ittermitantly sutable for
communications. (This is now known to be a result of the masses of iron in
these universes and the movement of the same relative to our own universe.)
Although physicists of the time were divieded as to weither this proved the
existance of some matter in the other universes, there was another, important,
discovery. It is usually considered the most important discovery of the
Late Terherian civilization of the Agilian...
-332 YC
An Agilian graduate student (in human terms), U-sh-shu'ch, was studying 
photonics. She became interested in hyperspatial transmisions on the
side. U-sh-shu'ch set up a demonstration of a laser beam passing through one 
Hehk-ch-ten Aparatus and out another.  This demonstration was not considered
at all unusual. However, while adjusting the hyperspatial value of the
aparatus, she observed that in one instance the beam did not instantly appear
from the other side of the setup, but took about three seconds - far longer
than it took for the system to stabilize. Thankfully, she did not dismiss this
occurance, and investigated. A more careful experiment showed that two beams,
one traveling through open space and one through a pair of Hehk-ch-ten
Aparata, almost never reached the end point at the same time. U-sh-shu'ch
divised another experiment with the aid of J-konen Akren, who's attention was
attracted to the matter when he visited the univserity where U-sh-shu'ch was
studying. First, to eliminate the possibility that the delays in transmission
were caused by the periodic interruptions of hyperspace (now known to be
caused by the iron "moving" relative to our universe), a data stream was
encoded in the laser. Second, a much larger distance was used for the
experiment. The results of the U-sh-shu'ch-Akren experiment were very
significant. It showed that not only could light travel slower in hyperspace
than in realspace, it could travel faster. What had become a matter primarily
of interest only to scientists was now of practical use...
-328 YC
A rapid surge of interest in hyperspace following the U-sh-shu'ch-Akren 
experiment leads to the discovery of several facts about hyperspace:
(1) Light in hyperspace can effectivley move at speeds faster or slower than
light in realspace for two distinct reasons: hyperspace and realspace can move
relative to one another, and hyperspace can be smaller or larger than
realspace. Both ideas were revolutionary to Agillian physics.
(2) Some hyperspatial values are rarely occulded and are hence more useful for
communication.

-320 YC
The practical field was rapidly advancing. Although the Agillians had only
colonized a single habitable planet apart from their own, the ability of
hyperspace transmissions to travel through the matter in realspace that would
block radio waves was very useful. Hyperspace began to have military
significance.

-310 YC
A team of Agillian physicists transmit particles with mass into hyperspace.
They fail to get them out intact at the other end, but their work leads to the
discovery that hyperspaces are not generally linearly mapped to realspace.

-309 YC
J-konen Akren, now quite old, divises a varriation on the Hehk-ch-ten Aparatus
that uses a jet of gas through two linked hyperspace transferance engines and
a sensitive detector at the other end. The purpose of this device is to
measure the movment and local linearity of hyperspace. As the results of his
experiments and those of others with the Akren aparatus, it is determined that
there are indeed some areas of hyperspace that are linearly mapped, and some
hyperspatial universes move roughly in the same way as our galaxy.
Many people think that Providence was smiling on the Agilian physicists of yore,
because of their good fortune in discovering a hyperspace that was almost
static with respect to their homeworld for much of a year. People studying
hyperspace became virtual nomads, as they flocked to areas corisponding to
large open areas in hyperspace to perform their investigations. Some ventured
to places such as deep mines, performed experiments in submarines, and on top
of mountains. 

-289 YC
Discovery of a large linearity many meters across prompts Agilian
researchers to insert an automatic insturment package into hyperspace, and
then returning it. (Note that it is possible to pull something from hyperspace
as well as push yourself into it, with the correct device.)
The package and its rapidly-built successors provide an enourmous amount of
information about the hyperspatial enviroment.

-280 YC
The first transportation of an object from one linearity to another takes
place. A robot with a Akren aparatus and computer departs one linearity,
mineuvers to a nearby linearity it detected, and appears in the high
atmosphere of Agilla. Its radio signal was detected and its position
determined, but of course it ended up making a large crater in the Agillian
desert half a planet away. 
About this time, space travel has become common for the Agillian civlization
and more and more hyperspace research is being performed there, because it is
possible to follow (to some degree) linearites.

-272 YC
The ability to detect linearites is vastly improved by the invention of the
Gwi'ch-zu'Jurl Spatial Probe. This allows linearites to be effectivley
detected without requiring the observer to be on top of them. The range at
which linearites can be detected is dependant on the probe, but is quite large
and suffecent to scan an spherical area 0.5 AU in diameter from one point, if
time permits. The drawback is that it cannot detect well on a planet and only
practically works in space, in a microgravity enviroment. 

-260 YC
Agillian Fr'n Jurl, son of the inventor of the above spatial probe, becomes
the first person to enter and return from hyperspace safely. He makes this
journey in a small, orbital spacecraft, transporting beyond the Agillian solar
system and back in a few minutes. Fr'n quickly becomes famous overnight, and
the Agillian politicans seize the new practicality of space travel, even to
distant worlds. 

-255 YC
The Agillian World Goverment begins a great expansion and colonization. A
great economic and technological boom propels Agillaian civilization foreward
quite rapidly as superluminal travel and communications revolutionize their
society. 

-250 YC
First contact between the Agillians and an alien life-form. It is not sentient
but is nonetheless sensational news. Agillians have started to colonize two
habitable planets in star systems near their homeworld. Practical development
of hyperdrives has advanced to the point that their range allows movement to
any of several hyperspatial planes with favorable properties, improving
navigation considerably. (Note - a hyperdrive's range refers to the distance
it can move from this universe, not around it.)

-220 YC
Humans encountered by Agillians. They have just discovered superluminal
communications in the same method as the Agillians, but have no ability
to transfer matter intact.

-210 YC
Human terrorists bomb an Agillian ship at a time of territorial tension.
Human-Agillian war begins. The human homeworld is invaded, but humans steal
hyperdrive technology and retrofit it to their own ships. The Agillian
advantage is greatly reduced, as human weapons were already quite better
developed. (Humans being a warlike species, whereas the Agillians were fairly
peaceful.)

-202 YC
Human-Agillian war concluded. The humans now have hyperdrive technology
comparable to the Agillians, and the Agillians gained nothing from the war
apart from some plunder carried off during the invasion of the human
homeworld, which was not nearly as valuble as the resources expended on the
invasion. The Agillains focus on development of space weapons in case of
future need.

-200 YC
Humans establish a military base station in hyperspace, guarding important
linearites.

-180 YC 
Saltarians, an offshoot of the Agilians, draw the attention of
the humans. 

-172 YC
Human-Saltarian war. Saltaris invaded by humans and conquered.


-168 YC
Second Human-Agillian war. ("War to end Human Imperialism", according to
Agillians, "War to Defend Against Agillian Agression", according to humans.)
Agillian scientists have since developed hyperspatial teleportation technology
that can transport things from space to a planet instantly. This is used
mainly to transport bombs without the opportunity to intercept them. Agillians
bombard the human homeworld until humans agree to give Saltaris to the
Agillians "to protect it from exploitation".

-161 YC
Korerith and Humans meet for the first time, and get off to a good start, forming
the Human-Korerith confederation.

-155 YC
Xine homeworld invaded and assimilated by increasingly militaristic Agilla.

-152 YC
The Great Galactic War. Danak-Human confederation invades Xineek III to
"Liberate the Xine from Agillian mismanagement and cruelty", war ensues.

-150 YC
Humans encounter O'Z'or!, a gas-giant dwelling species. They are primitive and
effectivley enslaved by humans to make otherwise useless gas-giants useful.

-143 YC
The Great Galactic War conculded with the Treaty of Danak. Millions are dead,
but all major species have reached technological parity. Self-rule for the
Saltarians returns, but because of their animosity towards the Agillian lack
of concern for them in the last war, they join the Stellar Confederation, 
an institution dominated by humans, rather than the Agillian Leauge.

-137 YC
Hyperspace technology has become quite common even on intra-system craft, but
the Agillian teleportation technology proves to be a dead end for transporting
living cargos. There are rumors of a conspiracy supressing it, as it the
technology is quietly forbidden and found to be "impractical".

-48 YC


Superluminal transportation is accomplished by means of Hyperspace in the
Starfire universe. (No other method is known - although research into
teleportation is ongoing, it ultimatly depends on hyperspatial communications
technology.) Hyperspace can be conceptualized by imagining a fifth dimension.
(This is not strictly accurate, some hyperspaceologists cringe at this analogy)
So, in the same way that there are infinatly many numbers between n and n+e,
there are infinatley many hyperspatial realms. (Each a "point" on the fifth
dimension, if you will.) In common speech, the term "universe" and "dimension"
are used interchangably, which also makes hyperspaceologists cringe. (Compare
to the confusion of the terms "power" and "energy")
Starfire's universe - like our own - is a very different place from the
majority of universes. It is mostly empty, and has planets, life, light, and
so on. There are, of course, infinatley many such universes. However, to make
a numerical analogy, you could compare them to the integers. There are
infinatley many integers, but between any two of them there are infinate other
numbers. (This analogy breaks down slightly when we get to Gradularity.)
The most common universe, at least in the vicinity of Starfire's realspace, is
one that is mostly filled with iron and mostly near absolute zero. (What
little molecular motion exists is thought to be caused by the ships that have
traveled it for the last few centuries, as the temperature of hyperspace has
been rising detectably along space lanes in the time it has been recorded.)
These masses of iron occupies much of the hyperspatial realms, in contrast to
our universe, which is mostly empty space. It is not known why the matter
remains in the shape it does. From what explorers have seen from hyperspace,
it is rather like a vast cave, with tiny tunnels, larger chambers, etc. The
largest known tunnels are a few hundred miles wide. Most are much smaller, on
the order of a few hundred metres wide. Even smaller ones exist, and in fact
Hyperspace appears materialy organized in a rougly fractal manner.
Experments with boring through hyperspatial matter have been done, and seem to
indicate that hyperspace is a vast convoluted mess of tunnels and chambers of
many sizes. Some hyperspatial dimensions are less densly filled with matter,
but none have yet been discovered that would allow straight-line paths between
stars more than a few dozen light-years apart. There are also hyperspatial
dimensions that are mobile and contain shifting moving masses. They have not
been extensivley studied because navigating them would be suicidal. In fact,
some alledge that they do not exist, as the only reports come from ships that
accedently entered them. (There are about eight reports that are original.)

There is no air in hyperspace, or other matter apart from the iron, except in
trace ammounts. (Which hyperspatologists think came from the ships that are
now flying around in it.) The tempature of hyperspace is uniformly a tiny
ammount above absolute zero. When ships pass through, of course, they radiate
heat which is detectable, but is eventually conducted away and disapates into
the background. This is a method of tracing a ship through hyperspace, absent a
better method. As implied by the lack of any useful energy, hyperspace is
totally dark. Ships use radar to navigate. (One could use light, but it
wouldn't work nearly as well for the distances involved.)

Apart from the iron, hyperspace has no useful resources whatsoever. It is
known to have a few thousand semi-perminate inhabitants on science stations, and
bases guarding key areas. 

It is quite possible to land in hyperspace, get out in your space suit, move
around, etc. There are local gravitatic varriations, but it is a microgravity
enviroment for the most part. Some have suggested that hyperspace must be
infinate, otherwise the iron would condense into a ball under its own gravity.
Others disagree.

Smaller ships, which can fly through smaller tunnels, can get to their
destinations faster because they are more likely to find a strighter path from
the start and end points. Sometimes, tunnels are widened to accomidate larger
ships. This is expensive, and fairly uncommon, but not considered an
exceptionally impressive hyperspatial engineering accomplishment.

There are hypersptial engineers, and there are hyperspatial drive
engineers. The former engineer hyperspace, the latter engineer ways of getting
there and back.

It is belived that for every point in hyperspace, there is one in realspace.
However, hyperspace is not linearly mapped to realspace. For one thing, it is
"smaller", that is, if a ship travels a six thousand kilometers in hyperspace,
it might be a parsec away from its starting point when in returns to normal
space. Secondly, this "scale factor" is not constant throughout hyperspace. In
some areas, in fact, hyperspace is "bigger" than the universe.
This would cause dire problems for things moving between realms. And object
occupying a couple inches of hyperspace might have its subatomic particles
spread out over a few AUs of realspace!
Thus, entry and exit from hyperspace can't be made at arbirary points for
material objects. (For photons making up signals, this is not as much of a 
problem,  but hyperspatial topology must still be taken into accout because
iron blocks radio transmissions rather well.)

There are, however, fairly rare areas of aproximatly linear mapping. These
spots, called "linearites" in hyperspatial jargon, are areas where it is safe
for a ship to transition between real and hyperspace.
These linearites varry in size. Most are just meters wide. There will be
millions of these in an average solar system. There will usually be a few larger 
linearites, large enough to admit a modest-sized starship of a few hundred
meters, in a system. There are less than fourteen known linearites larger than
two square kilometers in size. linearites are irregularly shaped.
Even if a linearity is large and regular, it may still corrispond to an area
that is inside solid iron or a maze of tiny tunnels in hyperspace. Usually, a
good linearity is well worth the effort of clearing and making a path to a
nearby tunnel that is larger. In fact, this hyperspatial engineering operation
is much more common than tunnel enhancement.
The reverse problem, of something in realspace blocking a good linearity, is
possible but unlikely to be a serios issue as things in realspace (e.g. planets)
tend to move about enough that it is a problem for only a short and
perdictable period each year.
Also, finding linearites in hyperspace is pretty easy. They take up,
proportionally, much more area than nonlinear areas. In hyperspace, one might
step between two linearites a meter apart and the non-linear space one stepped
over might be countless miles in realspace.

Because even stars move around quite a bit, hyperspatial navigation is a very
dynamic art. As the stars, planets, etc move, they can drift away from
linearties and good tunnels and chambers in hyperspace. Hyperspace remains
roughly stable with respect to the galaxy as a whole. Why? Because this
hyperspace is one of an infinate number of similar dimensions all moving in
different directions. The ones that are commonly used move in the
same direction and speed (roughly) as the galaxy. Ending up in the wrong 
hyperspace can result in being seperated from your starting point by
lightyears in nanoseconds in an unknown hyperspatial dimension with no mapped
tunnels on linearites. This occasionally happens. No one is known to have ever
made it back to known space, although it is possible that one of the ships
lost in hyperspace will eventually make its way back.
(Not likely, though, most probably end up embedded in a sponge of iron tunnels
and whisked away from the galaxy.)
The fact that stars and planets move relative to hyperspace means that
eventually, linearites that were once useful and economically important to
their star systems drift out until they are too far to be reached in a
resonable amount of time using reaction engines. Long term hyperspatial study
is thus important to selection of a colony site, some otherwise promissing
worlds are not inhabited because their starsystems do not have good linearity
situations. (That is, they are moving away from the ones they were discovered
with, and no new navigable linearites are approaching.) Early colonies were
sometimes lost because of poor understanding of these phenomina. (Actually,
this is known to have happened only twice historically, and in both cases the
only colonists left on the planet were perfectly aware of their impending
situation and had opted out of offers to relocate when their linearites were
still less than six months from their planets. Nonetheless, the whole idea of
lost ships, colonies, stations, and so on is the stuff of ledgend, and rumors
abound.)


Interestingly, since hyperspaces are moving in all sorts of directions,
a novel form of drive can be made which "moves" the ship by holding still
in an approprate hyperspace and transporting back at the right time. 
While promissing, it is not generally used because of the difficulty in 
finding an appropreate hyperspace. Plus, one has to wait for a
linearity with a clear area to accomidate the ship. In pricipal, however, this
method is theoretically superior because the speed at which you travel is
dependant only on how long you look. (There are infinate hyperspatial realms
as surely as their are infinate numbers between 1 and 2. Thankfully, moving to
hyperspace does not require infinate percision because the hyperspatial
dimensions exhibit a behavior hyperspaceologists call gradularity. In layman's
terms, hyperspace 1.0000 is a lot like 1.0001, and is in fact fairly perdictably
different in small ways. Or, hyperspace 1.0 is a lot different than hyperspace
2.0, but 1.5 is somewhat similar to both of them.) The property of
hyperspatial gradularity is also what makes this method of travel anything but
a shot in the dark. (Gradularity also applies to the movement of hyperspace
relative to realspace.) A contriversial hyperspatial theory indicates that in
addition to infinate hyperspatial dimensions like the ones that are used in
navigation, there are realspace-like realms with inhabitants, perfectly empty
vaccums that are smaller than realspace but linearly mapped in a way that
would revolutionize superluminal travel, and basically everything that could
exist. No one sane wants to get lost in hyperspace trying to find them.

An interesting question is raised - when a ship returns to realspace, how does
it know it got back to the universe it left, and not one that is just really
similar because it is so close? In short, it isn't known conclusivley.
Some scientists though that habitable universes have some sort of "pull" on 
matter that originally came from them, as if the matter remained somehow
connected.
Things returning to their original universes "Snap" back. as it were, which is
why this theory is called the Snap Theory. A later, more generalized theory
was proposed that suggested that although there may be infinate universes in
hyperspace analogous to the numbers in a number line or points in space, there
is some sort of fixed increment in which hyperdrives move about, which is
perfectly unvarrying. Recycling our integer illustration in a slightly
different form, imagine that all the realms we can visit have "distances" that
are rational numbers. This is the Bresten-Xo'Zxaju Theory of Hyperspatial
Steps. It was a major leap forward in hyperspaceology, accomplished
about a hundred years after hyperspace was discovered. Bresten and
Xo'Zxaju's seminal text on the subject is to hyperspaceology what Euclid's
Elements is to geometry.

Another hypothesis is that ships _don't_ come back to the universe they left! In
almost all probablity (the odds are one in infinity that it is the same),
the ship that comes back is one that left a very similar universe. Freaky.
Some philosophers don't think it matters. Others don't travel via hyperspace.
("Either I, or someone extreemly similar to me, will meet you on Rigel 7
tomarrow...") There are indeed stories (unsubstiatated for obvious reasons) of
ships that were lost in hellish varritations of realspace. At one point,
scientists placed ten terabytes of random data generated by a hardware RNG on
a ship, had it travel on a hyperspatial excursion, and then return. The data
was compared to copies stored on the planet. Not one bit was found to dfffer,
suggesting (to the writers of the ensuing paper) that if the ship that
returned was not the one that departed with a copy of the data, it was really,
really, similar. In a later experiment, automated crafts with purposley
inaccurate hyperdrives was used to carry the data, and all either came back
unchanged, or failed to come back at all. Still, there is the well-known urban
legend of a traveler who left her home world on a hyperspace ship, and
returned to find that no-one knew of her or recognized her, even her family.)
Some hold-outs for the Unpleasant Theory (the general term for any theory that
suggests that things don't return to the right dimension) suggest that there
is a methodological flaw in the exterments apparently suggesting the Steps
theory. Unpleasant Theory supporters tend to suggest that the theory isn't so
unpleasant afterall, and that worrying about it is as silly as worrying about
the progression of time making you a different person. :)

Ships also get lost or stuck in the correct hyperspatial dimension sometimes,
too. This situation is less dire by many orders of magnatude, because someone
may hear your distress call - if you used a known linearity, along hypernet
routes, etc. Hyperspace is a huge and yet claustrophobic place with almost no
energy or air. It is not a good place to retire.

Once making a voyage using reaction engines to a navigable linearity, the ship
engages its hyperspatial drive and goes into hyperspace. Scientists are unsure
if this (1) disproves the law of conservation of matter, (2) does not violate
it and causes hyperspatial matter to appear somewhere in the universe, or (3)
the law of convervation of matter applies accross dimensional boundries. (The
third is the majority opinion. The first is considered the province of cranks.)
Then, in hyperspace, the ship navigates (using mainly thrusters, although in
large tunnels it may activate its main engines) through the maze of hyperspace
until it reaches a linearity near where it wants to go. Then it exits
hyperspace, and flies to its destination.

People who design hyperdrives are called hyperspatial drive engineers and
should not be confused with hyperspace engineers. 
Hyperspatial drive engineers are very smart people who can do very complicated 
math. Hyperspace engineers blow holes in iron so that ships can fit through 
them and do simpler math to confirm that the new hole won't be useless in a
year because the assocated linearity is now five hundred AUs away.


Hyperdrives are very well built and subject to very rigourous design with many
redundancies. (And are usually very well armored and, again, at the center of
the ship.) There are also subject to lots of regulations, inspections,
paperwork, etc; and its even worse if you want to build or design them.
This is because hyperspace accedents are very tragic and rarely recoverable.
(We regret to inform you that your relative is now spread accross two parsecs
in a distant part of intergalactic space...)
Despite the expense, large vessels - especially passenger liners - sometimes
have redundant hyperdrives.

Because the size of linearties naturally favors small ships, some large
vessels (e.g. warships, superfrieghters) are modular and can split into
peices to pass through linearites smaller than could accomodate the whole
ship. There is a design tradeoff between the cost of multiple hyperdrives
(which are less effecent in terms of cost than one large one) and the abilty
to get through smaller linearites, which is affected by how fast the ship
needs to get where it is going.

Another system, where a large ship has just two hyperdrives and transports one
back and forth for the use of the other modules, is very technically complex
and practical only on gigantic ships - which are uncommon because of the fact
that far fewer hyperspace tunnels can accomodate them. Fleets of small ships,
some with specialized functions, are more practical (and thus common) than
super-ships of great size.


Hyperspace is considered a mature technology, no major new advancement in at
is expected. However, expiditions are still searching for an empty
hyperspatial dimension (one mostly devoid of matter) static with respect to
the galaxy, or one that is completly linearly mapped and nearly static. 
Either would be a terrific boon to intersteller travel, especially if normal 
hyperdrives could reach it. (Scientists belive that there are many of both types,
but many more that don't have the required properties; its just a matter of
finding a good one.)


There are, of course, hyperspace explorers. Hyperspace law of leading powers
grants a five year "patent" on newly discoved linearites, about a quarter of
their typical useful lifespan. (Time in which they are close enough to
something interesting.) And, to make a new linearity useful, courses between
it and major throufares must be determined (and constructed, if nessicary) by
explorers as well. Hyperspace explorers come in many varieties; some are
goverment sponsored, others are indepedant "prospectors", still others have
corporate backing. They generally use special ships with advanced sensors and
fast engines. The rights to a linearity that turns up near a major route and
is near a significant point in realspace are very, very valuble. The
propreitary rights to a major new linearity, eight-hundred meteres in
diameter, that was discovered near the Confederation capital world, were sold
for over 10,000 Wml. It made a number of investors in the start-up Gribsen
Astrogation very wealthy overnight.


Hyperspace is analyzed from realspace with a number of sensing devices. They
are quite complicated because they must by nessesity include a hyperdrive-like
device to link between the universes. Again, their operation is handwavium
based. There are two main sensors found in every ship: The mass detector, used
to make sure that the other side of a linearity is clear of obsticles (e.g.
other ships or solid iron), and the photon gate. The photon gate enables radio
signals to cross between hyper and real space, allowing faster-than-light
communications. Realspace-to-hyperspace communication is easy, the reverse is
more challenging. Both are accomplished only with many relay stations in
hyperspace (in fact, there are now physical cables laying in hyperspace now)
because iron blocks transmissions.

There also exist linearity detectors that can determine not just if there is a
local linearity, but if there are any linearites nearby. These are essential
as tools to find linearites in space.

There are great barriers in hyperspace, belived to be many miles thick, which
block off parts of the galaxy from contact with others via hyperspace.