Battleshift
What is Hyperspace?

It is generally understood that all matter and force in the universe can be described as the vibrations and interactions of ten dimensional strings . These create the subatomic particles and energies that bind and repulse them, and thus create the natural laws that govern the universe – gravity, electromagnetism, nuclear forces, chemistry, and everything that derives from those fundamentals.

However, the story does not end there. Though our universe functions in frequencies of those ten dimensions, the strings can exist in many more vibration modes. Hyperspace is a different universe, where strings functions on 12 vibrational levels. The two universes have no vibrations in common, so no matter or force in one has a presence in the other. The two universes apparently occupy the same space, but essentially pass through each other.

It is possible to alter the vibrations of strings, adding and subtracting vibrational dimensions. Matter and energy can be transferred to hyperspace by flattening its vibrations in "natural" dimensions, and forcing them to vibrate in the hyperspatial dimensions. However, such matter still has ten resonances, not twelve, so it isn't really hyperspatial matter. While it maintains those ten vibrations, "natural" matter retains all the critical electrochemical and nuclear properties to allow it function almost normally. However, this matter is deficient in hyperspace - it lacks the two extra vibrational dimensions. Over time, the strings will "decay" to pick up the extra vibrations, causing them to no longer function as "natural" matter. This process accelerates over time, eventually causing the former natural matter to become true hyperspatial matter. The more hyperspatial strings that interact with "natural" matter existing in its universe, the faster this decay occurs.

Hyperspatial matter and energy is almost a complete mystery. Natural matter doesn't interact with it properly, even when it is given the ten hyperspatial dimensions, so there are no detectors made in this universe that can understand what normally goes on in hyperspace.

There are natural examples of anomalies in natural space where the strings become altered in vibrations. This creates zones without gravity, or with massive repulsive fields, or that absorb light with no matter. Most of these appear to be tied to supermassive blackholes regurgitating altered matter and energy from their cores, possibly partially in hyperspace as well. Some of these zones have boundaries where the altered frequencies decay back to the natural ten dimensions, creating a field of "new" energy and matter from what seems to be empty space.

Some weapons function by setting up new vibrations on levels beyond the "natural" ten, disrupting the rules of matter and energy in a target. The most common of these are the "disruptor" style weapons, which cause matter to fall apart at the subatomic level.

Hyperspatial drives function at the extreme edges of string science. They are really two different devices – one to phase matter and energy out of the natural universe, and the other a propulsion system that functions in hyperspace. The former is essentially a ten dimensional resonator, which completely flattens the vibrations of strings in the "natural" dimensions. This forces the strings to vibrate in a completely different set of dimensions, effectively shifting the entire mass of the starship into hyperpace. Rules about relativity, inertia, and gravity do not apply in the same way, though nuclear and chemical rules are almost identical for the matter that is transfered. This allows ships travel the equivalent of light years in minutes with no limitation by relativity, and then phase back into the known universe by "flattening" the hyperspacial string vibrations back to natural frequencies. However, they cannot stay in hyperspace for long, or too much of its mass and energy will be lost to hyperspace decay and the ship will be unable to function properly.

In practical terms, this means ships can spend no more than six hours in hyperspace before they begin losing significant portions of their mass and energy; 0.01% is generally considered the maximum safe limit. Ships staying longer than nine hours can return, but usually with severe damage and non-functional crew (though most crewmen can heal from the lost mass and converted atoms, often the memory loss is so severe that they have no idea who they are or what they can do). Twelve hours will kill most crewmen, and often the ship will no longer be able to return to natural space.

The fastest ships can travel 200 light years per hour in hyperspace, or roughly the entire distance across the galaxy in roughly 19 days with minimal time spent in natural space. In practice, there are enough hazardous areas in hyperspace to navigate (and natural space – watch where you try to reappear!) that multiphase trips are generally longer. The fastest time set from the tip of the Sagittarius arm to the tip of the Cygnus arm has stood at 22 days, 14 hours for over a century. It is believed the dare devil achieving this record went directly through the extremely dangerous galactic core, where the backwash from black holes makes hyperspace and real space equally dangerous. At least 250 ships have been lost trying to beat this record – it will likely stand until a new hyperspatial drive technology or hyperspace detectors are developed.

Andromeda, the nearest galaxy, is 2.2 million light years away. Though no public attempts to reach it have been made, it is assumed that many governments have made secret attempts. Technically, it should only take 3 years or so of continuous phasing to reach Andromeda and return, and there are no apparent reasons why such an attempt would fail.

It is also considered odd that there is no known record of Andromedans reaching our galaxy – with parallel galactic evolution, it is assumed that they would have evolved life forms capable of equal scientific achievements.

 

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Thane's Games