Interstellar portal system used by the
Clavers to connect
their space.
Design
Presumably an evolution of the
wormhole technology used by Starweb civilization, the modal starbridge takes the shape of a cube about 1.2 kilometers on a side, with each face leading to another on a different cube elsewhere. They emit no light and have no color, only being distinguishable from space by the view of whatever is on the other side of each face. Instruments may detect different gravitational forces on the other sides of the bridge, but will not show the bridge itself as having mass or being a material object. What exactly is inside a starbridge, or if there even is an inside, remains a mystery.
Function
The primary purpose of starbridges is to serve as portals in place of conventional long-range space travel, enabling discontinuous transit across arbitrary distances. With each cube able to connect to six different destinations, a large network can be constructed which is traversible without going through an excessive number of nodes. To use a starbridge, an approaching spacecraft lines up with the face corresponding to its destination and simply flies through. There are no spatial distortions or other side-effects of passage, it is like passing through an open window.
Anything colliding with an edge or corner will be sheared apart from gravitational stresses, with each piece likely ending up at a different destination. This makes close circumvention of a starbridge hazardous as it can be hard to tell where exactly the edges are.
History
Starbridges were deployed by the Clavers' first interstellar civilization as it developed more advanced metric-engineering technologies, supplanting a wormhole network similar to the one used in modern
Stellar Compact space. When
human expansion reached the outer rim of Claver territory during the Second Interstellar Period, explorers, treasure hunters, and fanatics alike began diving through the starbridge network in search of any valuable
paleotechnology the ancient Clavers left behind. Some never returned. Regardless, expeditions continue to be mounted into the present day, though the secrets of starbridges themselves remain as inscrutable as ever.
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