I've been working on a WIP for awhile now and it is unabashedly space opera (military space opera at that), but I've come to the point where I feel I might need to describe the alien "machine" that allows ships to "jump" between star systems.
The "machine" itself is huge on the inside. It might even be a whole other universe "in there", but on the outside it is difficult (virtually impossible in fact) to detect with current technology (even 200 years in the future it can occasionally be difficult to detect even by someone who knows exactly where it is supposed to be).
It is semi-aware.
Its builders are millenia gone, but they left it in a sort of "locked" state where there's only a single pathway between most systems (but each entry point, in theory, has the potential to access any other potential point). There are no more than 5 people in the entire galaxy who know how the machine can really be operated and only 1 or 2 who have actually been "inside" it.
The "machine" lies at a constant 3 light hour distance from a primary star. It transmits energy directed through it as well as matter. Ships approaching it do not have to slow down or otherwise maneuver to enter it. All they have to do is send "the codes" to transit the jump point to the system it is programmed for in its current "locked" state.
But, what does it look like from this side?
Any suggestions?
<"All I can tell you right now is that The Machine that controls the jump points is big. Big enough for an entire world, maybe more than one. It could be an entire universe in there for all I know.">
The "machine" itself is huge on the inside. It might even be a whole other universe "in there", but on the outside it is difficult (virtually impossible in fact) to detect with current technology (even 200 years in the future it can occasionally be difficult to detect even by someone who knows exactly where it is supposed to be).
It is semi-aware.
Its builders are millenia gone, but they left it in a sort of "locked" state where there's only a single pathway between most systems (but each entry point, in theory, has the potential to access any other potential point). There are no more than 5 people in the entire galaxy who know how the machine can really be operated and only 1 or 2 who have actually been "inside" it.
The "machine" lies at a constant 3 light hour distance from a primary star. It transmits energy directed through it as well as matter. Ships approaching it do not have to slow down or otherwise maneuver to enter it. All they have to do is send "the codes" to transit the jump point to the system it is programmed for in its current "locked" state.
But, what does it look like from this side?
Any suggestions?
<"All I can tell you right now is that The Machine that controls the jump points is big. Big enough for an entire world, maybe more than one. It could be an entire universe in there for all I know.">
