Jumpgate

A Jumpgate

Jumpgates are large spacebourne structures made up of three or four separate but aligned struts that generate a spatial vortex, or Jump point into Hyperspace allowing any ship to travel interstellar distances. They require an enormous amount of power and cannot simply be shut down. In fact it takes at least two days to safely power down a gate and another four or five to power up again. To attempt otherwise would result in a massive explosion of energy, destroying the gate and anything else in range.

History

Jumpgate activated for incoming traffic

Its unknown exactly who invented the technology as no trace of the original jumpgate builders has ever been found and all that can be determined by examining the gates themselves is that the aliens had been highly advanced, and extraordinary engineers. The first gates may have been built as early as 4700 BCE (seven thousand years before the Third Age), and had apparently spread across interstellar space as a flourishing civilization for some four to five thousand years hence. After that they seam to have completely vanished, leaving behind no trace of their civilization has ever been found beyond the gates themselves. Some of the younger alien races such as the Minbari and the Centauri discovered the gates while exploring the outer edges of their own solar systems in their early, primitive sub-light ships.

Once they had unlocked the complex codes required to activate the jump gate sequence, they began to explore hyperspace in an attempt to map the jumpgate network. However, as later generations know all to well, travel in hyperspace is extremely hazardous and many ships were destroyed or lost forever. The ones that made it back discovered just how difficult hyperspace navigation was and as a result they established a series of beacons to help ships locate and activate the gates within the chaotic nightmare of hyperspace. It's unknown exactly how the original alien builders had navigated through their own network of gates, but they didn’t seem to use any recognizable beacons. It is because of this that finding all the old original gates could take millennia since there's no dependable means for doing so other than blind luck.

Jumpgate opening a Jump point

After it was determined how to open a gate, the next step was to determine how they worked so the technology could be duplicated and new gates be built. This required large amounts of Quantium 40 a rare radioactive material that due to its essential nature in jumpgate construction has become the most valuable substance in the galaxy. Since not all inhabited system had an ancient gate of their own, some races such as the Centauri saw an opportunity for business and profit by seeking out isolated worlds and selling or renting access to their own gate network to trade with other worlds, or if the area was of sufficient value to annex the territory and conquer any inhabited world, as they did Narn. Earth was one of the former, having no military or strategic value the Centauri eagerly sold the Earth Alliance time on their own jumpgates to allow trade with other worlds, though before long humanity figured out how to construct their own gates and ships with jump-point generators, eventually joining the interstellar community as equal participants. The Sol System's gate was originally built in Earth orbit but was later moved to what became known as the Transfer point off Io, amid security concerns that an invading force could arrive practically on Earth's doorstep with little warning. In it's new location it was several days journey from humanities population centres on Earth and the then small colony on Mars and the natural radiation belt around Jupiter offered the gate sufficient protection from long range targeting.

Jumpgate Use

Jumpgates are at the centre of interstellar commerce and trade, they record the signature of every ship that passes through, and allowing the race that currently controls it to toll the travellers for its use and services. This is usually something arranged between governments by treaty, setting tolling rates and rights to use certain trade routes in exchange for the security codes necessary for opening the gates. The gates also feature beacons that guide ships in hyperspace to a safe exit point. Even ships equipped with Jump Engines often use jumpgates in order to save energy and are often required to do so as a matter of book keeping to log their travels. It's possible to enlarge the size of a jump-point simply by moving the struts further apart, though it's not known what the upper limit of this capability is it most likely requires an increasing amount of energy the larger the vortex becomes.

Such is the nature of jump point physics that if one attempts to use a jump-drive to open a jump point within an already active jumpgate the massive release of energy would destroy the gate and most likely the ship that opened the point as well. Earth experimented with this tactic during the Earth-Minbari War, dubbed the "Bonehead Maneuver" it was found that no Earthforce ship was fast enough to open the point and clear the blast radius before being destroyed. In 2259 the White Star 1 became the first and only know ship to survive this maneuver.

The destruction of jumpgates in interstellar warfare is considered against the rules of combat as it jeopardises the entire beacon system and is ultimately self defeating as all races use and need the jumpgates, whoever may win or lose a conflict, the network must go on.

It is however common practice in wartime for belligerent powers to program their jump gates to deny access to certain frequencies, thus preventing an enemy from using friendly gates and forcing them to open their own jump points. This was done by Earth during the Minbari War, though given the degree of Minbari technical superiority, it offered little in the way of a tactical advantage.

Some gates, particularly those built by surveyor corporations utilise encrypted beacons that make it impossible for someone without the correct cipher to determine the gate's location in normal space.

New gates are being constructed all the time by various worlds (depending on the availability of Quantium-40) opening up access to new, previously inaccessible areas of space, most for the purpose of finding yet more sources of Quantium-40 to build or repair even more gates. Although occasionally long range probes do discover "new" ancient gates, most still function despite being many thousands of years old though some of the older ones have proven to be "a little quirky" sometimes resulting in a somewhat rough transition in and out of normal space.

Notes

• It has been speculated that the original builders of the Jumpgate network may have been the Vorlons, as among all the other First Ones they are the only ones to have used jumpgates and the type of Jump points used by the younger races. All the other first ones use their own distinct method of entering and leaving hyperspace; the Shadows seam to phase in and out of hyperspace, the Walkers of Sigma-957 use a what looks like very large vortex of crackling energy while the others use a variety of singularities and phasing methods.
• The Vorlons have been know to have constructed at least one type of gate, that being the Thirdspace Gate, built and jettisoned into hyperspace some one million years ago.