Slip Stream Travel

"Time operates differently in slip space. It's handy for us but it also means a human wouldn't die immediately if lost there.. I've lost numerous colleagues and friends to that place. It keeps me up at night imagining what they're experiencing right now."

Slip stream technology allows humans to transport huge amounts of cargo vast distances in an instant. Unlike warp travel, slip stream travel requires mega-structures called slip stream conduits.

Discovery

Earthlings had a theoretical basis for this technology in their science fiction long before the nuclear war that forever changed their civilization. There were even scientists around the globe working to understand the nature of quantum entanglement and experimenting with a primitive version of this technology before their work was interrupted. Although useless in their time, these studies would be essential to the development of slip stream travel after the war. It wasn't until the discovery and implementation of GFM drives and fusion power that humans had the energy and material resources required to experiment with slip stream travel on a larger scale.
In the early days of slip stream technology there were numerous mishaps which led to the implementation of GFM shielding. Without this shielding there was no way to guarantee a ship would end up on the other side of a jump in one piece. Many scientists and engineers gave their lives testing the first prototypes of slip stream technology. Some would come out on the other side of a jump completely mangled or merged with pieces of their ship. Many more were lost in slip space never to be seen again.

Utility

For slipstream travel to work a minimum of two conduits are required. These conduits can be linked together to form a jump highway. Travel between points is virtually instantaneous, but there is a maximum distance one can travel in a single jump. The maximum jump distance is dependent on the class of GFM drive used in the conduits.

The conduits create a channel through a mysterious pocket dimension known as slip space. The starting point called the output, creates a quantum gravitational relationship with the receiving side called the input, this link creates such a focused gravitational field that it "pierces a hole" through space-time bringing two points together, allowing ships to enter and exit slip space like a portal. In one side out the other in nearly an instant.

Asteroid Base by Cristi Balanescu

The first completed slip stream link was established between Earth and the Abundance Mining Colony, originally named 16 Psyche.

Parent Technologies

• Gravitic Field Manipulation

Access & Availability

There are a total of five slip steam conduits in the solar system so far. The first and most advanced orbits Earth, the second Mars, and the last three in the Asteroid Belt. Each conduit is named after its adjacent landmark. The last three conduits are named Hilda, Greek, and Trojan due to the asteroid families they are closest to.