Gate Repeater

Though Tein Gates allow matter to be transported across to the Mirror Plane and back, the same cannot be said for light, radio signals, or any other medium by which someone might wish to communicate over extended distances. The different systems of Human Space are physically separated by immense distances, and though the gap can be bridged, they remain isolated and bottlenecked by the gates themselves.

Thus, there is no internet across the entirety of Human Space, and communication between systems is at the mercy of gate activations. However, a solution has been devised to allow messages to be sent. Gate Repeaters are installed in every Tein Gate, placed so that they are transported with every activation. Relatively simple devices, the repeaters encode messages sent to them into their physical memory, wait for a gate activation, and then blast the messages out at their destination before wiping their memory. Files can thus be sent across human space, though receiving a response can take anywhere from minutes to hours. Gate repeater based messaging is fire-and-forget, and there is no real way to ensure that a message has reached its destination.

It is believed that the Vanir also have their own version of the repeater system.

Utility

The repeaters are critical for communications between systems, though secret or sensitive matters are usually transported using couriers rather than being sent on public airwaves by the repeaters. The repeaters are also used to spread news and other crucial information to the various parts of Human Space. Private citizens can also use repeaters, on much the same first-come-first-served system as the Tein Gates in general. However, repeater usage is costliest from and to Sol, as the birthplace of humanity still sees the most traffic of all the systems humans now inhabit.

Parent Technologies

• Tein Gates