Jump Gates

Written by Jackson Jewell

Introduction

While the invention of the Balfour Engine changed the course of human history, leading us up and away from the world upon which we were born, the Jump Gates, as they have come to be known, are the culmination of that change. The Concord Gate was opened in 1876, a date chosen for its significance as the centennial of the American War of Independence. Its construction redefined humanity's relationship with the wider universe, allowing us access to distant celestial bodies for the first time. Today there are five gate pairs in operation and two more under construction. The five in operation are the Concord Gate, owned by The United States of America, the Prince Alfred Gate, owned by The British Empire, the Romanov Gate, owned by The Russian Empire, the Shin-Tokaido-Mon, owned by the Japanese Empire, and the Germinal Gate, owned by the Third French Republic.

History

Early Advances

Throughout the early 1800s, the world had been swept by aeronautical technology. The Balfour Engine unlocked the secrets of flight, and a mad dash ensued to develop it further. These developments captured the minds of an entire generation, and by 1828 the Royal Society for the Advancement of Aeronautical Technology was founded in London. The Royal Society was responsible for many of the early advancements in the basic design of the Balfour Engine, as well as propulsion technology. The first large-scale culmination of this effort was the launching of the HMS Hecate in 1854. The Hecate was the first ship to safely leave the Earth’s atmosphere, rising to a height of just over 62 miles above the surface, and sustaining orbit there for a period of an hour, before descending and returning to the Royal Armory at Woolwich. This first foray into the aether had not yielded much in the way of scientific data but was important in that it proved the feasibility of flight. More significant than this however was that one of the aethernauts had brought with them a camera. Their picture of the planet from orbit was spread in newspapers around the world, resulting in a second wave of widespread enthusiasm for aethership development.

This photograph, taken by midshipman John Braddock, inspired in many the hope for a more united world. This hope was dispelled with the usage of aeronautical technology in the Italian Wars less than a year later. A second, more infamous photograph circulated, showing an Imperial Zeppelin dropping a payload of bombs on the fortress city of Pescara. With both civilian and military pressure to contend with, the Aether Race had begun. Nations around the globe began investing in the technology to an unprecedented degree. In 1858 a prototype vessel belonging to the United States Navy experienced a severe malfunction in its Balfour Engine circuitry, causing it to accelerate rapidly up and out of the atmosphere. It lingered in orbit for close to three hours before finally breaking out of the Earth’s gravity well. This was the first vessel to break out of orbit, but it did so with tragic results. The crew, though capable of rudimentary communicating with the surface, were not able to reassert control over the engine in time, and were not equipped with enough oxygen for sustained aether-travel. Over the next 24 hours, their supply slowly ran out. All hands were lost. The Mayport Affair, as it came to be known, was a serious setback, as many reacted in horror to the doomed aethernauts’ fate. Nonetheless, research persisted.

NEPA and the First Gate

In 1860 the American Congress passed a bill creating the National Extraplanetary Administration. Its purpose was to research and develop technology that would allow for travel to other planets, beginning with the moon. A popular notion in the press at the time was that the moon could be incorporated into the United States’ burgeoning empire as a colony, though the scientists involved disagreed vehemently. The project was initially headed by faculty from the Astronomical Department of the US Naval Academy, with Dr. Asaph Hall becoming the first director of the newly formed NEPA. Under Hall’s leadership, the administration built its first facilities and began research, though not initially on the jump gates. The administration experienced an existential threat within a year of its founding. The outbreak of war between the United States and The British Empire meant that the majority of their funding was diverted to the military, and large amounts of their equipment were transferred back to the Navy. Opponents of the administration’s creation were quick to jump on this opportunity, arguing that the nation did not need such a prestige project. Many major scientists and educators appeared before Congress to plead the case for scientific research. Despite their best efforts, a bill to abolish NEPA was passed only around a year after its founding. The organization was only saved after the bill was vetoed by President Sam Houston. The first appearance of jump theory was in NEPA’s scientific journal published in August of 1864. The author, Edwin Aalmers, was a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina. Though his name is now one of the most famous of the 19th century, early on his theories were looked on with heavy skepticism. His article described a secondary layer of the aether that could be breached into in order to shorten the amount of time necessary to travel between celestial objects. Though most disregarded his research, a chance conversation with Dr. Osmond Quincy, the head of propulsion development at NEPA led to the publication of the article. Three months later Aalmers received his doctorate and was given government funding to continue his research. The project was moved to a secure site near the city of Merida in Yucatán. The Hidalgo Project, as it came to be known, was one of the most closely guarded secrets the United States government has ever had.

In 1874 the plans were finalized for the construction of what would be dubbed the Jefferson Gate. After small-scale tests had confirmed the feasibility of the idea, funding was approved and material began to be shifted towards the construction site in Rockford, Illinois. Initial plans had been to construct the whole gate on Earth and then raise it into orbit, but these were scrapped following plans for a dramatic expansion of the US Navy’s aetherfleet, and the subsequent shortage of cavorite. Because of this, the plans were shrunk down, and the gate was instead built in sections and assembled in orbit. Construction of the Jefferson Gate was completed in 1876 in celebration of the centennial. The gate was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, the great-grandfather of the current President T. Jefferson Coolidge. The President evidently was displeased about this decision, as he believed that detracted from his humble but dignified demeanor. Unfortunately for him, the name was leaked to the press before it could be officially changed. They had been eagerly watching the construction for over a year after large sections of the gate began to be ferried up and away from the site. The plethora of articles that exploded across newspapers throughout the United States, and the world in general, gave rise to dozens of grand conspiracy theories. However, the activation of the gate and the official announcement of a journey to another world shocked even these inventive souls.

On the 6th of July 1876 this first gate, redubbed the Concord Gate in honor of the revolution, was unveiled and activated for the first time. A grand gala was held in Washington D.C. and attended by dignitaries from around the world, turning into a pseudo World Fair, but for only one piece of technology. Commodore James Merchant, an officer of the United States Navy who had served with distinction in the Anglo-American War of 1861, was chosen to command the first vessel through the gate. He set off on the 18th of July aboard the expedition’s flagship, the USS Antares. In total 8 aetherships were assigned to the journey. All were custom-built for the journey and labeled the “Starfarer” class. They carried a combined total of nearly a year’s worth of provisions, along with massive amounts of scientific equipment, water and oxygen recycling systems, and some limited manufacturing tools. All told between the crew of the ships, a complement of marines as well as civilian scientists and craftsmen, 283 men went through the gate.

The Merchant Expedition

The Merchant Expedition is largely remembered today as incredibly short-sighted and ill-prepared for their fate. This take can be primarily attributed to “Merchant of Death” a series of books and then films published in the 1910s depicting them as such, and Commodore Merchant himself as an uncaring monster throwing the lives of his crew away with wild abandon. This is far from the truth, but the expedition did indeed go poorly. This is hardly surprising given that this was humanity’s first contact with a world other than our own.

Upon arriving in what is now known as the Concord system, a critical flaw in the expedition’s plans became apparent. In the theorization for how the gates and thereby interplanetary travel could function, it was proposed that the lanes connecting systems together would be “perforated” by the activation of a gate or the exiting of a vessel, and thereby would stay open for a time, perhaps indefinitely, following this event. This was proven immediately false. After a month of jump travel, the Merchant expedition was deposited in the Concord system and watched the glow of their arrival dissipate almost immediately following their exit. This meant that they had no way to return to Earth, and eleven months before starvation set in. However, this possibility was considered, and precautions had been taken. Onboard the vessels were the materials and schematics to fabricate an astragram, a communication device built under the same principles as the gates themselves. Though incapable of transporting any physical objects, they can transmit a simple signal through the jump lane, allowing for crude communication using Morse code. This allowed the expedition to signal back to the gate of their dilemma.

In the meantime, the lack of a way back was hidden from the crew, and the exploration of the system was undertaken. Over the following months, they mapped Concord Minor, eventually building a small settlement in the Southern Hemisphere. Encounters with various biological elements of the new world claimed the lives of many of the expedition’s men, as did the catastrophic failure of the USS Taurus’ electro-pulse engines. Additionally, the USS Orion was lost in an attempt to breach the atmosphere of Concord Major, when it accidentally caught fire when passing through a volatile cloud. Ultimately, by the time the return gate was assembled in 1880, of the original 283 men, only 62 remained. Commodore Merchant died of Ogygian Fever three days before the first piece of the new gate arrived in system.

The return gate had been hastily constructed following the message of alarm arriving and is generally seen as a story of incredible perseverance and united humanity. The story of the Merchant expedition was highly followed, and the new gate became an international effort. The problem with building the return gate was that the first gate was built with minimal plans, essentially as a prototype, and had been preceded by years of preparation. Faced with building a second one, NEPA had been left flat-footed. The British Royal Society, French Academy of Science, and the Imperial Academy in Vienna collaborated heavily with the American NEPA to speed up the process of construction. In the end, however, the most influential assistance came from The Imperial Ostend Company, a chartered trading company that has since grown into a powerful multinational corporation. By providing the majority of the funding for the project, they secured powerful trade privileges for themselves once the gates were functioning. This eventually resulted in the leasing of the entirety of Causeria, the northernmost continent on Concord Minor, to the company.

Gate Proliferation

The overall result of this collaboration was that this new technology, so closely guarded only a few months prior, was almost immediately distributed throughout the world. This was followed by nearly every major empire beginning the construction of their own gate. The first to complete their own gate was The Russian Empire, with the Nikolovsk Gate. This caused a worldwide scandal, as the Russian state had refused to assist with the American efforts. The Nikolovsk Gate opened in December of 1879, three months before the pieces for the American return gate were launched. This soured relations greatly between the United States and the Russians, with Russian diplomats almost being expelled from Washington D.C. shortly thereafter.

In order to sort out the usage of the gates, a conference was held in New York City in 1880. Delegates attended from forty different nations and helped draft and sign the Interstellar Passage Treaty. This laid out three basic rules. One: gate technology cannot be patented, nor can it be privately owned. Two: Once a gate has been opened for a specific jump lane, no other nation may open another gate on that lane. Three: Gates may collect taxes and tariffs on passage through the gate, but cannot restrict travel to any nationality except during an emergency. This decided, and the race carried on.

The following decades saw the three other gates rise into orbit. Next came The British Empire’s Prince Albert Gate, named in honor of their late Prince Consort. It was activated in January of 1887 with grand fanfare, but it quickly turned to dismay as the gate suffered some sort of failure when the expedition left through it. An official explanation for the problem has never been offered, but the men who went through never returned. The gate was inactive for the next four months, at which point it was reactivated and has since functioned normally. The gate was seen as an outlet for the severely overpopulated British isles, but the exploration of Victoria II, the only habitable planet in the newly discovered system, revealed a mostly barren and water-covered world. The many islands dotted across the planet’s surface were generally considered undesirable and as such colonization efforts were slow.

After the death of Queen Victoria in 1888, a radical program of resettlement was announced. Following the completion of a mandated standardized test, all citizens of Ireland were sorted into a category, and those in the lowest levels were resettled on Victoria II. This was described by British governmental officials as a public health measure, to ensure that another famine would not happen again, however, the reality was that it was effectively ethnic displacement. With tests constructed in such a way that the majority of ethnic Irish citizens could not qualify for the non-deportation categories. Over the next five years over 80% of the island’s population was systematically shipped to the new planet. An additional 17% managed to secure passage to the United States or other friendly countries. This period was marked by intense fighting between Irish rebels and British military forces, and resulted in numerous massacres, occasionally with entire villages dying in resistance to their deportation. All told roughly twenty-one million people were settled on Victoria II during this time. This event, known as the Irish Displacement, was later used as inspiration for the United States’ Tribal Reallocation Act.

The fourth gate completed was the Japanese Shin-Tokaido-Mon. It is one of the most modern gates, having been completed in 1915, and features a much faster traverse time compared to the gates built in the 19th century. Due to its technological innovations, the completion of the Shin-Tokaido-Mon was seen by many in the western world as cementing Japan as a dominant political player. Its planet, Kyokoku, is rich in mineral wealth, though is mainly covered with exceptionally deep oceans. Kyokoku has only been undergoing colonization for around twenty years but has already built up a sizable mining industry.

The last gate to be completed was the French Empire’s Napoleon Gate, known today as the Germinal Gate following the New Revolution of 1928. It was activated in 1915, and is similar technologically to the Japanese Shin-Tokaido-Mon. Aesthetically, the gate bears similarities to the British Prince Albert Gate, this is because construction was originally started in the late 19th century. The plans were drafted by the lead architect of the British project, Preston Bennet. Due to a critically underfunded aether program, bureaucratic squabbling, and a general lack of organized effort, the construction was continually delayed. The opening of the Shin-Tokaido-Mon was a national embarrassment for the French people and was the kick needed to bring the project to completion.

The Napoleon Gate’s opening was special for two reasons. First, the construction of the Napolean Gate was only possible due to a combined effort of a myriad of international scholars who would later go on to found Versailles University, an international university not beholden to the laws and regulations of any government on the new French colonial world. Secondly, the construction of the Napoleon Gate revealed a treasure trove on the other side. There were multiple habitable planets, but the most important one was covered in rich, dark soil similar to Earth. Moreover, initial attempts at agriculture revealed just how fertile the planet truly is, with crop yields triple that of equivalent fields on Earth. What followed was a massive influx of colonists, as France offered citizenship to anyone who could establish a productive farmstead and speak basic French. Today Germinal has the greatest population of any of the colonies, with nearly four hundred million people settled on the world. It provides the world with tremendous amounts of food, as well as selling the soil from its vast plains as a natural fertilizer. During The Great Famine of 1920, many countries came to rely on grain from Germinal and contributed to its rapid population growth.

Usage

Over the sixty-two years since the gates opened, they have become a critical part of our civilization. They initiated mass migration due to new worlds, turned initially weak empires into powerful players, and fed the world in the midst of the Great Famine. In this section of the article, we’ll go over how these marvels of engineering are used in the modern day.

Initial gates, such as the original Concord Gate, took roughly a month to deliver passengers to the other side. Since then many improvements to the technology have occurred, and every gate has undergone extensive renovations and upgrades. Transit from the Solar system to the Concord system now takes between six and eight days. The exception to this rule is the Romanov Gate. Due to the strife suffered by The Russian Empire over the last few decades, the gate has not undergone significant renovations since 1905. Gates are, in theory, large ring-like structures. However, the reality is that most of them lost their ring appearance almost immediately. Due to the nature of transit, it was necessary for all of them to develop into large stations. When originally constructed all gates had a moderate crew complement in order to operate and maintain their mechanisms. This has since ballooned into many thousands of permanent residents. Corporate warehouses, scientific facilities, aethership repair stations, drydocks, housing, entertainment, and more can be found on all gates. The haphazard nature of these constructions has led to a somewhat thrown-together appearance. The gates can legitimately be considered the first human settlements in the aether, and almost all have grown into actual cities.

The gates themselves now comprise a relatively small portion of the bulk of the stations. They are, in appearance, a roughly circular honeycomb of compartments, each varying in size to accommodate differently sized ships. Were these bays to be removed the Gate’s transit field would be visible as a great glowing disc, but as it is a person may only glimpse a small portion of the field at a time. When a ship launches from one of these bays, it is taken on its route from the momentum of the launching alone, and as such does not use propulsion during this period at all. Because of this, many large freight haulers are equipped with relatively weak propulsion systems, as their only task is to jump from one gate to another system, make their way to the return gate, and come back. These jump lane-bound ships are affectionately referred to as “Gate Pigeons” as they always return home, similar to a carrier pigeon. This has the unintended consequence of many aethernauts spending the vast majority of their time idle, as they are simply carried to their destination. Because of this, these ships are typically drastically undercrewed, with the assumption that all maintenance and work will be performed on station.

When traveling from a gate, the view outside the vessel is of brilliant, dazzling light. Often compared to a kaleidoscope, the jump lanes are ever-shifting in appearance. A tendency has been observed in aethernauts who spend large amounts of time in the lanes to spend their free time simply staring at the patterns through their ship’s viewports. This phenomenon, known as Jump Madness or Gate Eyes, occasionally results in psychosis, but generally, most with it simply insist on going through the gates again as soon as possible. The most famous case resulted in a naval officer of The British Empire, Lt. Vincent Ward, lowering the exterior shields and venting himself and half of the HMS Friday while in transit. Allegedly he had just received orders to be transferred back to Earth. It is unclear if this incident was simply suicide that resulted in collateral damage, or if the death of the ship’s crew was intended. Either way, the HMS Friday arrived in system a dead ship, and its name has been struck from the registry of the Royal Navy, never to be used again.

In general, though, the Jump Gates are relatively safe. The aether is, of course, exceedingly dangerous, and so those risks carry over. Due to the lack of propulsion needed in transit though, ships rarely fail while in the lanes. There have been occasional reports of ships disappearing, but the number is small enough that it can be chalked up to a statistical error. There is still an element of uneasiness amongst large portions of humanity about the usage of what has been confirmed as alien constructions for our own use, but the most recent theories place the construction of the lanes as over 200 million years ago. Due to this, and excavations undertaken on various colonized planets, the general conclusion is that whatever civilization constructed them died out over a million years before the first human walked the Earth.