Hey there! Fae back again with another Void Dreaming crosspost from before the Itch page went live!

Last time we took a look at the formation of the Galactic Authority, some of its earliest and biggest roadblocks, and the state of the galaxy post-ascension for the children of Terra. Today though we delve into something more important than the peoples of the galaxy give credit for: the Astrogation Guild itself, and what role it, and crews like Zuberi’s, has in shaping the greater galaxy.

Scaling Problems

Space is big. Really big. But you all knew that already, I have no doubt. Our galaxy is, end to end, over a hundred thousand light years in size. And given the volume covered by even one light year, that should give you an idea of just exactly how massive space is. There’s a lot to see and chart, but the reality is that faster than light travel really tends to reduce a lot of that distance. After all, most of space is very, very empty. Well… sort of empty. We’ll get to that.

Early on in the ascent of the children of Terra to the stars, every species had their own mechanisms to explore the black. This would eventually coalesce into the Astrogation Guild; a loose outfit that was dedicated to stellar cartography, exploration, and the establishment of safe, efficient transit between worlds. Nominally a non-corporate entity but still separate from all governmental bodies, the Astrogation Guild was considered a public good, funded by various governments and allowed to retain a certain degree of autonomy as long as its discoveries were freely available to everyone. Truly, the Astrogation Guild is, right to the modern day, one of the last bastions of altruistic operation in the whole galaxy… for better and worse.

However, while charting worlds and surveying the depths of space are its stated goals, the reality is that the Astrogation Guild’s most common operations are, effectively, weather forecasting. To explain that however, we need to move away from the organization for a moment and talk about extradimensional space and the extrusion of warp envelopes in conjunction with causal anchors to allow… you know what? I can see your eyes glazing over from here. Let’s just start with warpspace itself.

They Should Have Sent A Poet

Warpspace is a parallel region of spacetime that exists concurrently with the physical universe, commonly referred to as realspace (or meatspace, for those who prefer the vulgar). The two interact in fundamental ways through certain bridging forces, such as gravity, and under normal conditions never the twain shall meet. Warpspace is a tempestuous thing by four-dimensional reasoning, but its laws can be learned, known, and manipulated even from the point of view of our limited fleshy bodies and brains. There are many applications that tap warpspace, from FTL travel to instantaneous communication across vast distances, to even short-range displacement tech. When distances need to be covered in one form or another, warpspace is the shortcut.

Warpspace is hostile, but that hostility can be easily managed with the technology available to the ascended. Simple shield arrays are able to keep the harsh and exotic radiation from breaching hull and shredding organic matter, while also maintaining the warp envelope that the ship traversing warpspace sits within. So long as the warp core is powered and the envelope maintained, a starship is propelled through warpspace at speeds not possible in realspace. Of course these power requirements are enormous, but most modern starships are powered by tachyon fusion reactors that are capable of power generation orders of magnitude greater than merely enormous.

While warpspace itself is completely imperceptible to the average person, viewing it through a warp envelope reveals a kaleidoscopic array of shifting colorrs, changing and twisting seemingly at random. To the enlightened, there’s a pattern within the depths of warpspace; a governing force that eludes comprehension by the ascended. But they know it’s there, tantalizingly at the edge of their comprehension of transdimensional physics. If nothing else, warpspace traversal is very pretty.

But it is something else, too. It’s more dangerous than most realize.

Category Five

I mentioned above that warpspace can be tempestuous, and that’s entirely accurate. Its currents and densities shift and change in often predictable ways, but this can also result in pockets of excited activity commonly referred to as warpstorms. While these warpstorms have no effect on realspace, the area in which a warpstorm occurs disrupts and destabilizes warpspace. This disruption can have catastrophic effects on starships which traverse the disrupted warpspace within the storm, can lead to temporary communications outages while GalNet routes are recalculated through different relays, and even at their most mild are capable of significantly slowing warpspace travel.

All of warpspace carries a hint of distortion, according to a scale first developed by the Astrogation Guild. This scale goes from zero to one, with either extreme being only theoretically modeled. Lower values represent limited warpspace distortion, and higher values represent significantly higher. Most civilian starships in the galaxy are rated to a warpspace distortion of point three. Particularly specialized ships can push to point four. Milgrade ships in use by various navies require warpcores capable of pushing them through point five.

The Dreamer can push point five two. Zuberi does not skimp on his baby.

Many mundane elements can cause warpspace distortion, of course. Incorrectly harmonized warp shielding can result in a starship’s warp envelope destabilizing warpspace in its wake. If this happens in highly-traveled space, the distortion can have a knock-on effect, cascading rapidly as more and more ships traverse the disrupted space. It can also happen when people deliberately deharmonize their warp shielding, as this also makes their warplines harder to track and follow. Pirates, smugglers, and other ne’er-do-wells are more than happy to sacrifice the jump range they lose with deharmonized shielding in order to make their trajectory harder to follow.

This, ultimately, is the primary purpose of the Astrogation Guild. Far from the exciting star explorers in the holos, most AG platforms, ships, and staff are stationed at key monitoring sites all over the galaxy. Their job is observance and analysis of warpspace data, so as to ensure that galactic travel doesn’t come to a grinding halt. The average person doesn’t realize just how much they rely on the analysts of the AG to keep them safe, because even in the core the threat of improperly traversed warpspace is surprisingly prevalent. It doesn’t take much to turn a safe travel route into a nightmare of delays at best, and destruction at worst.

After all, not every ship that makes its hyperlaunch arrives at its destination. Not every ship returns to the real when they leave it.

We Brave Few

However, there is one branch of the Astrogation Guild that’s far less boring… though still, often, pretty dull. The Deep Space Survey Division of the guild is where we find Zuberi, the Void Dreamer, and in short order Rael himself. The captains of the DSSD are usually volunteers willing to risk their lives and their ships by traversing fringe space - that region at the edge of inhabited space beyond which has yet to be discovered - and launching into the great unknown.

You might think that the AG would supply their own craft, but because of their “galactic service” role, the Astrogation Guild doesn’t usually have the allocated funds to do so. Instead, they organize tours of fringe space with those captains that have met their rigorous standards, and arrange the training of personnel to the end of ensuring that they are capable of serving in the capacity required of them.

There are, of course, many reasons why a captain would do this. While it puts their own ship on the line, galactic law is relaxed for the operation of sanctioned AG vessels. This means that restrictions on the quality (and lethality) of ship components are lifted, and private ownership and operation of even military-grade starships can be made legal as long as the ship is a registered and licensed Astrogation Guild survey vessel. It proves necessary all too often; the dangers of fringe space are seldom exaggerated.

Hence, many would-be thrill-seekers and starship enthusiasts tend to gravitate toward the Astrogation Guild as a means by which they can push their ships to the absolute limits. The thrill-seekers are swiftly disappointed by the mundanity of deep-space survey duties, but starship enthusiasts find all too often much to love about taking their ships out far beyond the fringe. And some, like Zuberi, love the peace and solitude that comes with being self-sufficient out in the black.

As for what else comes with the job of a deep-space surveyor? Well, you’ll have to read Void Dreaming to find out, won’t you?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at the Astrogation Guild! Next time, we’re going to dive into an aspect of fringe society that Rael can be all too familiar with, and that the Dreamer for certain has dealt with from time to time. We’re going to talk star pirates, from their organizations to their goals and to how and why there even could be star pirates in a setting like this!

Until then, stars guide you.

 - Faora