Opener of Ways

The formal name for a machine that can create doors, or, mostly permanent passages of the Paths of the Dead from one planet to another. Two Openers of Ways have been constructed, and a third is under construction:

• The Opener of Ways (Earth), the first one, first tests in 2120, first door opened in 2122, destroyed in 2205. The Opener was built in Kalgoorlie on the continent of Australia. (Initially called "the Coolgardie Folly".)
• The Opener of Ways (Izmat), the second one, first door opened in 2199; last used in 2205
• The Maker of Ways (Discordia), the third one, under construction since 2398 on a moon of Weeper's Pit

The Opener of Ways (Earth)

The Indian Ocean University offered Jasmin Haddar Wayn the infrastructure needed for doorway experiments at Kalgoorlie, on the continent of Australia, and the first tests were performed there in 2120. These showed that her theories were correct, but the necessary amounts of energy were much greater than had been expected. In particular, Mars could not be reached. This made continued support for the project much less certain, but it was continued, despite widespread local mockery. As more and more energy was poured into the expanding Opener, it became clear there was an additional problem: it could be aimed, but the coordinates used were essentially meaningless, having no relation to any stellar coordinates humanity knew. Thus much hung on the first attempts to actually open a door: and in 2122, the first actual doorway opened to Syrdarya, which while harsh was amenable to human life.
After this, enthusiasm and funding for the project was endless. Millions steamed to Kalgoorlie to move to new worlds, either to escape Earth's ruin or their tedium. (Wayn herself moved to Wayn's Rose in 2127, finding its ruins more interesting than the finer details of her invention.)
In 2133, eleven years into operation, the Opener worked open a doorway into a hot, acidic world that seemed to offer no interest except geological observations. Some 36 hours into observation, as an armored survey unit was grumbling its treaded way into the world's ashy, rocky plainsland, communications were cut off. Minutes later, a spear of volcanic material and immense heat rushed out of the doorway to Earth, screaming out for thirty excruciating seconds before the newborn portal collapsed on itself, driven to extinction by emergency expenditure of energy reserved for the next portals to be opened. The plume of heat and the toxic ash and rocks it carried caused great damage; it was aimed right at one of the camps surrounding the Opener Fields where those who had chosen to move to new worlds gathered for training and quarantine. Thousands died. A boulder thrown through hit a suburb of Perth, killing seventy people.
Later investigation supposed the world, named The Flare, has unstable volcanic activity, and the doorway had happened to open right on top of one such event. The survey unit was assumed lost, as the violence of the event would surely have been instantly deadly on the other side.
Investigation also found the catastrophe had been correctly contained, and was easy to contain: the doorway was quickly minimized and closed, and future such occurrences could be dealt with similarly. Even so, it was recommended that new portals be spread out, and opened in "canyons" that would minimize the fallout from such events, and direct it away from the delicate machinery operating the doorway and storing the energies necessary for its opening and possible closure.
Even so, there was a pause. No new doors were opened from 2133 to 2140; there was great debate over the risks and the possibilities. In the meanwhile, millions and millions streamed through the already opened doorways to new worlds.
The next doorway was opened in 2140, detached from the Opener to a location deeper in the Great Australian Desert. It was not a success. This place was to be named The World of Death; that is s fair enough indication. There is debate over the reason, but this location was filled with radioactivity; as soon as the doorway opened, tons of vile black radioactive sludge poured through, instantly dooming all within a kilometer to an agonizing death. Three missions were hastily organized to reach and operate the shutdown mechanisms, with hopes they still functioned. They did, but all on the missions were lost. The door closed, leaving its site a glowing, dead wasteland.
As can be easily understood, this led to a cessation of making new doorways. The old arguments began again; hadn't enough been discovered already, enough for humanity? But was it possible to stop, even if there was a cost? The most ardent partisans of the second opinion managed, without proper scrutiny, spin up the machines for one more time in 2149, opening a door to a pleasant and unhazardous world named Vormahault after the password of their little conspiracy, and minutes before they were caught, the Opener punched through a sub-door from Vormahault to a second world, Ichacrane, a pleasant sea world; a feat that had so far been purely theoretical, This discovery did not help the discussion either way, but stricter security measures were put in place to prevent its reoccurrence. The ones behind the act quickly and voluntarily fled to Vormahault, correctly assuming this "exile" would be seen as a sufficient punishment for their actions, in addition to being the sort of a reward they desired in the first place.
Vormahault and Ichacrane are considered the end of the "First Phase" of planetary discovery. While the opening of more doors was paused after them, the much less risky creation of sub-doors, based on the Vormahault-Ichacrane model, went on in the form of webbing existing doorway endpoints together, so that and all colonized worlds were connected at least to Izmat, if not to all others, as far as was practicable.

The Opener of Ways (Izmat)

The Izmat Opener of Ways was built in reaction to the continued inoperation of the one on Earth. The political situation on Izmat was different, and as it was a different world, it was enough for Izmat to look after itself, instead of worrying over the safety of a population as immense as that of Earth. Additionally, Izmat was the most pleasant world discovered, a New Earth, and it was not strange they would like to make that title more prominent by becoming a more central place of discovery and emigration.
Even so, the new Opener was built on Izmoor, the fourth and smallest of Izmat's continents, and one so far left most unpeopled because of its deserts. (The doorway opened from Earth was on Havadat, the second and most consistently pleasant continent.) On Izmoor, it was located in the Valdevra Valley, naturally suited to shield the surrounding world from any accidents.
The Opener was activated in 2199, and opened its first door the next year. Instead of destruction, the moderately pleasant world of Ellisvere showed through. Even so, there was a certain shyness in Izmarines' forays into this new world; one further enforced by their small population (around 34M at the time) and the discord on Earth over whether this should be supported. And those of Earth's multitudes that supported the idea, had already gotten a closed outlet for it, as Earth's own Opener had resumed operations around this time. Thus Ellisvere was, through no fault of its own not officially inhabited until 2205, six years later, during which time events intervened to retard its growth for a time.
first door opened in 2199; last used in 2205

In 2199, [[Izmat]] activated its own [[Opener of Ways]], after much protest because of the destruction the Flare and World of Death disasters had cause on Earth. The Izmat Opener had supposed safety features.

Through Izmat:

• Ellisvere 2200/2205
• Orchamon 2201/2222
• Juddrafordamoon 2201/2230
• Incha's World 2202/2254
• Taint 2202/---
• Disappointment 2203/---
• Guudrun 2203/2232
• Hollix 2204/2295
• Neyd Gara 2204/2311 --- Earth's Opener also contacted Neyd Gara a month after Izmat did. This was a cause of great excitement since this meant there were now two independent sets of coordinates for Neyd Gara; this raised hopes the indecipherable "coordinate system" of the Openers could be unravelled, and doors opened to anywhere one wanted.
• Lafahey 2205/2278

The Izmat Opener also used the coordinate data from Earth to open doors to worlds discovered through Earth's Opener. There were exceptions to this, mostly Izmat II which was too close to Izmat, being in the same star system.

The Maker of Ways (Discordia)

TBD!