Chương 39: Chapter 40: Subspace relay points

The International Space Station, a station created and used by the joint effort of many different nations on Earth. Onboard the station, many different experiments that required outer spaces zero g were being conducted. One astronaut had just finished his latest experiment and was taking a break when he noticed something out of one of the station's windows. As he looked towards Earth, he saw something leaving the atmosphere and heading in their direction.

"Were there any nations planning a launch today?" The astronaut asked.

"Not that I know of, why?" Another replied.

"Because something is just leaving Earth's atmosphere and heading in our general direction."

"What?" The other astronauts looked surprised before they came to take a look, and what they saw left them speechless. What could only be described as a large spaceship was heading there way, its shape was a cross between a triangle and the letter T, with the front of the ship being the narrowest part and getting wider as you went further back until its body suddenly expanded and looked like it had wings.

It was mostly dark grey in colour; however, there were small areas that were black with the occasional blue edging. It had a mixture of elegant and sharp curves and contours, giving it a stealth feel. It wasn't very tall, but that only added to its stealthy appearance. As the ship passed the station, the station crew admired its appearance and wondered how it was moving when it didn't appear to have any sort of thrusters.

"Someone contact NASA, they need to know about this." 💫💫💫 [SciFifanboy (Earth): THAT'S SO SCIFI.] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): That is one sexy looking ship.] [Whostolemyduck (Earth): Agreed, it definitely has the whole stealth aspect going on.] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): Wow, what a beautiful-looking craft.] [Superhearofangirl (Earth): Agreed, though I don't see any weapons on its hull.] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): Why's it so small?] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): What do you mean?] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): I mean that a ship that size shouldn't have a Neutron reactor and subspace drive. First off, a Neutron reactor power core is usually found on ships no smaller than a capital class. As for the subspace drive, it simply shouldn't fit; they're too big to fit in a ship of this size classification.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): True, it looks like this starship would be classified as medium class.] [Whostolemyduck (Earth): I'm guessing a subspace drive allows a ship to travel through subspace, but how's that different to his star drive?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): A medium-class ship like that normally has two engines, the sunlight engine and an FTL engine. While ships of the capital class and above can also fit a subspace drive engine.] [StealthAssassin9 (Earth): FTL???] [SciFifanboy (Earth): Faster than light, bro, have you never watched any SciFi before?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): A star drive is generally used for FTL travel within the same galaxy.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): While a subspace drive is used to cross galaxies and is the main form of propulsion used for long-distance travel around the universe.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): That's one of the reasons why you will generally only see large ships of capital class or above exploring the unknown reaches of the universe. Or why long-distance transport ships are all large ships.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Subspace drives allow for much faster travel over long distances, but because of how they work, they are not really usable for travel within a galaxy. Though I'm not an expert, is there anyone here who can explain better?] [Handsome3horns (Vinox 2): Bro, you seriously think someone who understands subspace engineering will be sitting in a channel watching a stream? They're like some of the smartest people in the universe.] [Superior4horns (Vinox 3): I'm no expert either; all I know is it has something to do with folding subspace to shorten the distance between two points; however, even by doing that, it does not eliminate the travel time, only reduces it.] You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): Also, there is apparently a minimum distance of travel required to use a subspace drive, which is why they're no good for travelling within the same galaxy.] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): I believe it has something to do with mass; the minimum jump distance and speed travelled through subspace increase with the mass of the ship. Unlike data, which has no mass and is able to be transferred almost instantaneously, which is why we can watch this stream so seamlessly.] [Handsome3horns (Vinox 2): … How do you all know this?] [Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): Because we paid attention in school, I told you not to sleep through class; this was all explained in the basics of space flight class.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Still, I have never heard of a ship this size having a subspace drive. If they want to travel to another galaxy, they normally need to use jump gates.] [Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): Jump gates?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): As their name describes, they are large circular gates that have been built, allowing for long-distance travel of smaller ships or convoys. The gates connect to each other through a subspace network, and you can choose your destination from each gate.] 💫💫💫"We are in orbit, captain."

"Understood, so what's our destination? You said something about wanting to find out the time difference?" Adam asked.

"Affirmative, the most efficient way to do that is to find the closest subspace relay point and access it."

"Subspace relay point?"

"Subspace relay points are needed for the more secure subspace transmissions, such as credit transfers or bounty posts. At present, we only have a very basic connection to subspace since subspace is everywhere space is; however, the majority of subspace activity needs a subspace authentication ID, which we do not have."

"To acquire one, we need to visit a subspace relay. This will not only allow me to check the time differential between Earth and the Universal calendars but also allow us more access to the subspace network." [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): That explains it.] [DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): Hmmm, I did wonder why and now it makes sense.] [Superhearofangirl (Earth): What do you mean?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): The reason why we can not retrieve any data on Earth and also why we can not do things such as donate to the streamer or give him missions is because they do not have a subspace authentication ID and are out of range of a subspace relay.] [DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): There are normally one or two subspace relays in each galaxy, and they are all interconnected via the subspace network. The reason the subspace relay ID exists is to prevent pirates and other criminals from using it to transfer credits or other files, while they can still use it to communicate. Unfortunately since we can only limit the usage of the subspace network so much since it exists everywhere.] [Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): I did wonder why I could not donate to the streamer. I figured they had that function disabled, but then why would they do that when they can get easy money? This reason makes much more sense.]"Scanning subspace network to find the closest subspace relay."

"Subspace relay located. Location is the Sandanar Galaxy." [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): What!] [Beczontop (Imperial Down): What!] [Gunlovergirl (Earth): What?] [DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): Hahaha, it seems our little Terran friends are in luck. The Sandanar Galaxy is the home galaxy of the Terran Empire.] [Beczontop (Imperial Down): Oi streamer, you better come say hi IRL when you get here.]"Estimated time to the Sandanar Galaxy in hyperspace is two years, nine months and eleven days.] [Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): Damn, two years, nine months and eleven days in hyperspace, Earth is a long way away. No wonder we have never heard of it.]"What am I supposed to do for over two years alone on a starship?" Adam asked. [Puntanghunter69 (Earth): Pump that wood, son.] [Gunlovergirl (Earth): Ah fuck he's back.] [Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): Gross.] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): What does pump that wood mean?] [Forever1stCommenter (Earth): …] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): …] [Whostolemyduck (Earth): …] [SciFifanboy (Earth): …] [1000yearsofdeath (Earth): …] [Sparesomechangebro (Earth): …] [StealthAssassin9 (Earth): …] [Superhearofangirl (Earth): …] [AlamoMatador4thewin (Earth): …] [Justiceistruth: (Earth): …] [Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): …] [Gunlovergirl (Earth): Trust me, girlfriend, just don't ask, you don't want to know.] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): Errr ok.]"You will spend your time in stasis where your body will barely age and time will pass so slowly for you that while over two years will pass, it will seem like nothing."

"I see."

"Waiting on your order to enter subspace."

"Go ahead," Adam replied. [SciFifanboy (Earth): Lame, look, bro, if you're going to be the captain of a starship, you need a cool catchphrase for when you enter FTL.] [Sparesomechangebro (Earth): Instead of thinking up cool catchphrases, how about you spare a bro some change before you leave.] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): He already left Earth, bro.] [Sparesomechangebro (Earth): Damn it. Crying emoji.] [Generating artificial subspace gate.] [Entering subspace in 3] [2] [1] As Spector was counting down, the stream view switched to an external shot of the ship, and the viewers, as well as the people on the ISS, could see that the space in front of the starship was distorting slightly before it seemed to split open, revealing a dark hole that had lightning flashing around the edges.

[0] As Spector reached zero, she entered the artificial subspace gate, and as it entered, it disappeared until it was completely gone, and the gate collapsed back into normal space. [Ending Stream]