the Paths of the Dead

Ways of moving instantly from one place to another, created by an Opener of Ways.

Rules

The following are commonly accepted as the scientific laws governing the Pathways:

• Such paths are from gravity to gravity: ideally from planet surface to planet surface; connections between gravities of equal strength are easier so no star has ever been connected to.
• The connection requires great amount of energy and equipment to create, but once created is instantly stable and very difficult to close; though the equipment if surviving can minimize the created door into something very small.
• Once an Opener at A has opened doors to B and C, it can create a secondary permanent door directly from B to C, which is maintained separately from the originals. The same rules apply: even though Earth had doorways to both Izmat and Izmat II, no secondary door from Izmat to Izmat II was created as that distance was so small, and thus too expensive.
• The doors' positions are fixed in the coordinate system of the Opener that formed them; as it moves through the Universe so do they. Since the Opener is on a planet surface, so are the doors.
• There is a connection between distance linked, and energy expended. Connections within a single planet are so costly as to be impossible; connections within a single solar system have never been done. There is some strange radial pattern governing costs at other distances, but generally speaking they are cheaper.
• Creating a Pathway is hard: a lot of energy and specialized equipment is needed; for this reason humanity has only made two such things, both called an Opener of Ways; a third, the Maker of Ways, is under construction.
• Maintaining an already opened Pathway is easier; they are almost stable on their own, and once an Opener knows the required coordinates and parameters, the Pathway can be restored with some accuracy. (That involves enough stellar observations to know the location of the target planet, but generally speaking achieving a relink to the same planet is not hard.)
• Even in the absence of equipment, a Pathway will remain open for months or more, though its size and position may fluctuate. The maintaining equipment does not need to be present on both sides of the Pathway, but it usually is, for safety. Forcefully closing a Pathway is energy-expensive, and it is usually cheaper to resize it into a pinhole. Both have been done.
• The Opener of Ways anchors the Pathway ends it has created: in its absence they will drift with increasing rapidity, not maintaining their position on a planetary surface. Their removal from a position of roughly similar gravity will dramatically add to the energy cost of their maintenance, and unmaintained they will soon close.

When Pathway endpoints were chosen, they were placed at some distance from each other. This was partly a question of safety, as the interactions of multiple Pathways were not yet understood; and partly a sop to local pride.

Other names

• Stable instantaneous dislocation apertures (SIDAs) --- [[Jasmin Haddar Wayn]]'s original academic name; quickly abandoned
• doors, portals --- colloquial names
• pathway, pathways --- more formal names