Quantum Entanglement Communicators

QECs

One of the greatest achievements of the Golden Age was the ability to easily, efficiently and cheaply entangle particles. Entangling particles was the practice of pairing two particles such as electrons together in a quantum field. These two particles, entangled in such a matter, were referred to as an entangled pair and any change or effect applied to one particle instantly happened to the other particle regardless of the distance between the two.
The applications for entangled particles were virtually endless from improving the then contemporary method of quantum computing using superposition, to the driving technology behind the Jump Gates at the height of the Mandate. Perhaps the most profound and widely used application for entangled pairs was the creation and use of Quantum Entanglement Communicators.
QECs allowed instantaneous communication not just across sectors, but across the entire galaxy. It was the use of QECs that allowed everyone in the galaxy to know about the wave of meta-dimensional energy screaming across the galaxy that would prove to be the fall of the Mandate. QECs were a vital asset to the pretech infrastructure.
One shortcoming of QECs is that a particle can only be paired with a single other particle. This means that in order for a single QEC to communicate with more that one location, it will require multiple entangled pairs, one for each intended recipient. It was discovered early on however that through the use of traditional radio frequencies, QECs could effectively be chained together. During the height of the Golden Age Mandate flagships would have clusters of entangled pairs in their QEC: one connecting to each battlegroup leader under their command. Likewise battlegroup commanders would have one end of the entangled pair with their flagship, as well as one end for each ship in their battlegroup and so on. If needed, ships could contact their commanding officer and the message could be forwarded on, essentially using the other ships as repeaters.