Homestead Gate
A Door With Only One Side
"What I have seen on the other side I cannot shake from my thoughts. They need our help, our own mistakes be damned!" - Yurr Calloway
There are fewer things in Churrian culture with as much significance as that of the Homestead Gate. Considered equally a savior of their people and an uncertain step into the future, the Homestead Gates allow the Sanguar Institute to travel to new regions within Refuge with the hope of spreading the Churrian's humanitarian vision to those who need their help.
Though it is lauded as a technological marvel allowing for continued support to new facilities, the system is far from perfect and each pass through the Gate's open door is an immense sacrifice towards embracing the unfamiliar. However, for the Churrians, it's just another pawstep towards redemption.
Utility
Used primarily as a means to locate new regions that require humanitarian aid, therefore prompting the set up of new Sanguar Institute branch facilities within them. Because this trip is one-way, the efforts required to mobilize a new facility are considered sacrificial in nature and massive in scale to ensure the greatest possibility of success.
While the Homestead Gates could be considered a means of mass escape from dramatic situations, the Sanguar Institute declines their use in this manner for safety and ethical reasons. Including but not limited to the idea that abandonment of a facility could result in important technology falling into the hands of bad actors, traveling to stable locations may place undue strain on seeded facilities which may cause a collapsing chain reaction, and finally, turning away from those that need their help is to turn their back on their oaths and the very reason for the Sanguar Institute to exist.
Social Impact
Considered a spark of hope during a time of great distress, the Homestead Gate Project allowed for the Churrian's complete cultural transformation. Originally war-like and territorial, the Churrians saw a chance to change themselves from a species committed to self-extermination into humanitarians capable of helping a great many others from suffering their fate. This is because what they saw through that initial gate, and which was broadcasted throughout the Churrian homeworld upon realizing its significance, was a scale of suffering equal to if not greater than their own.
So they became doctors, counselors, scientists, mechanics, laborers, and peacekeepers as they traveled to this new world not really sure what to expect with the heavy memories of their dying world behind them.
While new generations of Churrians have now come and the older generations have passed on, the hope of helping others still burns strong in the Churrian people. With every gate crossed, they look towards a brighter future not only for the sins of their past, but also for their hope of surviving in a world that needs their help.
Access & Availability
While the Homestead Gates are a well-known secret amongst the Churrian and the Sanguar Institute, the technology is heavily restricted. While it could prove useful as a domestic product, barring its relatively extensive power demands, the consequences should it fall into the palms of those who would abuse it within Refuge proved too great a risk. As such, each Homestead Gate is crafted under tight security with each working team member only having access to a part of the information necessary to build one.
That said, each centralized Sanguar Institute facility will have access to a Homestead Gate for one purpose. Should the facility grow and prosper, it will eventually become their responsibility to seed new regions with further humanitarian aid. Thus continuing the cycle that defines the Churrians and the Sanguar Institute as a whole within Refuge.
Complexity
While the machinery making up the Homestead Gates are undoubtedly complex, there is one central component that is necessary for each one. Only able to stay open for brief periods of time, the Homestead Gates require strong and stable power sources in order to appropriately function. Where this power comes from matters little, only that it is siphoned through the machine's intertwining circuits and wires to allow the gate to maintain focus.
It is because of this complexity that each gate also has a unique weakness. Each gate can only open up to a singular endpoint. As such, it is possible that immense efforts may be raised only for the final goal to be rendered useless by sheer chance. To help minimize this, each portal is extensively tested for viability using volunteers and drones such as the EX-Vuun V7.9 ARU.
Discovery
The threat of extinction, as it turns out, is a powerful motivator.
As the Churrians came to realize that their homeworld was doomed to a sudden and terrible fate due to their negligence, they scrambled to find a way to either pass on their legacy or somehow escape their dying world.
The Homestead Gate as it turns out, allowed them to do both. Discovered by Tuulam: Yurr Calloway while working for a fledgling Sanguar Institute, the technology was quickly recognized as a stable means of transporting people and goods to an entirely new place of existence. However, it came at the cost that those who went through would not be able to go back through the same portal. Looking at a one-way trip and with extinction baying at their heels, the Churrians were pressured to make a decision. Yet, in the end, it wasn't their fate that ended up making the final choice.
Related Species
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