Voidspace

Voidspace
Aliases
Inter-dimensional Index	Dimension-Loc:2.D79RedLeader0/3/103.0
Dimensional Information
Primary Type	Locational
Multiverse	Baseline Reality
Dimensional Form	Space-Time
Locational Sub-Type	Sub-Dimension
Parent Dimension	Timeline-002
Average Reality Stability	85ξ
Topographical Information
Unique Properties	Allows usage of FTL Travel
Environment	For most it appears as a chaotic swirling mess of energy, though if 'focused' appears as a 'dark mirror' of baseline reality.
Hazards	Straying off course. Failed exits/entrances Void Creatures
Demographic Information
Native Species	Voidspace Creatures Voidspacers
Immigrated Species	Unknown
Political Information
Controlled By	None
Navigational Information
Discovered in	103 CE (By Humanity)
Interconnectivity Variable (To Yata's Dimension)	9.5/10

Voidspace is a semi-interdimensional medium which allows for objects, typically spacecrafts, to travel from place-to-place at speeds surpassing the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s) which otherwise acts as the barrier of fastest possible speed anything within the universe can reach. This capability and the relative simplicity compared to achieving alternative FTL Travel methods has made Voidspace by far the most common method of surpassing the speed of light, allowing for cohesive interstellar civilizations spanning multiple-star systems to exist.

Topography

For most who enter it for its FTL Travel capabilities, Voidspace manifests as a chaotic swirling mess of Void Energy that behaves strangely and erratically, allowing for 'strange' forces to affect ships that travel through it. The consistency of voidspace in this state can be best compared to a kind of supercritical fluid which is just light-enough as to allow a ship to easily cleave through it but just dense enough that its forces can affect travellers in the forms of turbulence and currents which may pull them astray if not fought against. Within this chaos one may occasionally see "Void Creatures", strange semi-permeable entities born out of the Void Energy present within the dimension, though they are luckily quite harmless

Despite being quite clearly distinct from reality, objects within reality still affect Voidspace even when they are not within it as one still must stay clear of where planetary bodies would be in reality, with their gravities seemingly permeating into Voidspace to the point that collisions are possible if not careful, often necessitating the use of 'Voidspace Lanes' which are known to be free of debris either naturally or due to extensive realspace cleaning efforts. None of these strange crossdimensional effects are visible within Voidspace at first glace, but if one were to view it with equipment utilizing specialized 'Void Matter Lenses' the entirety of Voidspace appears to take on a remarkably different form, deviating from its usual dark-purple and black swirls to now resemble a kind-of 'mirror version' of reality where each object maintains its place but is significantly warped and altered in a more colourful manner. Little to no documented exploration of these 'places' have occurred as it would require somehow entering Voidspace without spacefaring speeds and being able to directly perceive thru Void Lenses rather than thru an external camera containing them, though some details such as these locations being topographically quite inconsistent (such as being much larger on the inside than the outside and having certain traits of Liminal Spaces such as non-euclidean geometry) and possibly being home to their own 'life' (with these hypothetic beings being named 'Voidspacers' unofficially).

Whe navigating through Voidspace there typically isn't much need for worry as long as one is travelling through a properly mapped out area, as the most common obstacles would be Voidspace mirrors of massive realspace objects such as planets, stars, and rarely more hazardous objects such as black holes. A very rare yet poorly understood phenomena within Voidspace are 'Voidspace Anomalies', regions where travel is effectively impossible without any discernible reason. These anomalies typically lack any real space counterparts which would cast mirrors preventing travel, especially as many anomalies even encircle several star systems at a time. The only way to navigate past Anomalies is to either circumnavigate around them, utilise an alternative FTL Travel method, or travel thru them with Sub-FTL Travel .

FTL Applications

Voidspace can be accessed via a controlled collapse of an object (usually a spacecraft) via careful manipulation of Void Matter, transporting it into Voidspace with the same momentum and heading that it had prior to entering, which are then amplified by the chaotic forces within the dimension to allow for FTL speeds to be achieved. To exit Voidspace a simple controlled antimatter explosion is typically enough to expel the object, with specific destinations being reached by timing the exit-point based on the entry velocity and heading. Navigating within Voidspace beyond ones initial heading is quite difficult and only possible via energy-intensive non-propulsive methods such as gravity-manipulating drives, momentum engines, and void-energy conductors.

Sourcing the actual energy for voidspace travel comes from the initial velocity of the object. In realspace, the limit of speed is c (299792458 m/s); an object of 100,000 kg mass would theoretically possess 8.99 x 10^21 J of energy. The energy required to physically enter and exit voidspace is proportional to 2(m^3) where m is the mass, whereas the rest of the object's energy is stored as degeneracy pressure that prevents the object from exiting voidspace involuntarily. The time taken to travel mostly reflects the stored degeneracy pressure, discounting other factors such as turbulence or anomalies, however the theoretical maximum distance is unknown. The required degeneracy pressure increases with real distance as an object travels through voidspace - under normal circumstances, the energy input required for voidspace travel is proportional to the square of the intended distance. This means that energy requirements scale exponentially (or more accurately, logarithmically) rather than linearly, making longer distances significantly more energy intensive to achieve. Theoretically this also means that energy can be saved by making several jumps - for example, ten small jumps would only cost 1% of the energy of one long jump. This is called voidspace skipping, and is incredibly risky even on the second consecutive jump. Risks include catastrophic damage to a ships voidspace drive, or even becoming trapped within voidspace. This can be circumvented by waiting between jumps, usually a few hours or sometimes days depending on the distance. For a ten-jump journey, this is the difference of a few hours of travel as opposed to a week or two. However, using one long jump is mostly preferred to avoid long waits when energy is readily available.

While Voidspace may be generally easy to travel thru, Void Matter and fuel reserves are limited regardless of if one is in realspace or Voidspace, therefore running out of fuel or dimension-transferring vectors can lead to one being stranded, additionally making its usage as a way to send out colony ships from galaxy-to-galaxy largely unfeasible.

The x axis represents d, whereas the y axis represents E. Note that this graph scales logarithmically. Purple line marks d = 1.

The Voidspace equation

${\textstyle E={\Bigl (}3.596\times 10^{14}{\Bigr )}\times d^{2}}$

The voidspace equation is used by navigators to calculate the energy requirement to travel a distance, or conversely the distance that can be covered with known energy reserves.

• E refers to the energy in joules.
• (3.596 x 10^14) is the voidspace constant - a function of energy equivalent degeneracy pressure. This can be alternatively represented as $V_{e}$.
• d is the distance travelled, in light years.

Using the table below:

• The energy required to travel 1 light year is 3.596x10^14 J.
• 10 light years is 3.596x10^16 J, demonstrating the logarithmic nature of energy requirements.
• 23,576 light years would use 2x10^23 J. Note how approximarly 2,500x the distance demands 5,500,000x the energy.
• 1 joule of energy used for travel in voidspace would yield a total distance of 500,000 km in realspace. This is impractical however, due to the entry/exit energy.

Note that this only covers the actual travel into voidspace and does not account for entry/exit energy demands, which follows the more simple formula of:

${\textstyle E=2m^{3}}$

...where E refers to the energy in joules and m refers to the mass of the object in kilograms. Note that it is strictly 2m^3 as this incorporates both the energy required to enter and exit later.

• For an object of mass 10,000,000 kg, entry/exit energy would be approximately 2x10^21 J, which is equivalent to 2,400 light years of voidspace travel in a singular jump. This means that, if a spaceship were to plan to travel this distance, the entry/exit requirements would make up 50% of the total energy budget.

Theoretical limits

As mentioned previously, voidspace travel energy requirements are proportional to 2(m^3) for entry and exit, and to d^2 for distance travelled. On maximum energy (one jump), typical 10000-ton spaceships such as the Starlight Serenity can travel halfway across the Milky Way Galaxy; roughly 0.1% of energy is used to actually facilitate entry into voidspace. Conversely, a object with a mass of 10,000,000 tons cannot sustain themselves in voidspace, as the energy required to enter it exceeds the energy equivalent degeneracy pressure to maintain voidspace travel. As a result, fifty-thousand light years is the commonly observed distance limit of one voidspace jump. This may not be the theoretical limit however, as other hypothetical mediums (or "other voidspaces" researched by various civilization) may have differing energy parameters - a lower voidspace constant would permit travel over larger distances. Interestingly, there is no evidence to suggest that the voidspace constant is a universal constant, but rather an arbitrary threshold unique to the known voidspace medium.