11,048
edits
Slipstream space: Difference between revisions
Sorry about the mess. I had three minutes to type this before leaving for work this morning; I never even got to preview my changes.
(Sorry about the mess. I had three minutes to type this before leaving for work this morning; I never even got to preview my changes.) |
|||
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
[[File:Seperatist_fleet_ark.jpg|250px|thumb|The [[Covenant | [[File:Seperatist_fleet_ark.jpg|250px|thumb|The [[Thel 'Vadam's Covenant faction|Covenant]] [[Fleet of Retribution]] coming out of slipspace over [[Installation 00]]]] | ||
Slipstream space is a specific set of eleven "nondimensions" existing in a very small bundle.<ref name="eleven"/><ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 186''</ref><ref name="journal">'''Halo: Reach''', ''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]''</ref> By moving matter from the three space dimensions and one time dimension of normal space to slipstream space, one effectively changes the laws of physics for that piece of matter. This allows faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects i.e., the occupants do not "warp" time, despite their superluminal speed. | Slipstream space is a specific set of eleven "nondimensions" existing in a very small bundle.<ref name="eleven"/><ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 186''</ref><ref name="journal">'''Halo: Reach''', ''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]''</ref> By moving matter from the three space dimensions and one time dimension of normal space to slipstream space, one effectively changes the laws of physics for that piece of matter. This allows faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects i.e., the occupants do not "warp" time, despite their superluminal speed. | ||
| Line 21: | Line 21: | ||
Slipspace is not completely empty; clouds of primordial atomic [[hydrogen]] are relatively frequent. Occasionally, even comets are known to somehow find their way into slipspace.<ref name="tfor136"/> Objects close to one another such as [[fleet]]s often group together in mass slipspace transit and may appear to sensors as a large, singular object.<ref name="tfor137">'''Halo: the Fall of Reach''', ''page 137''</ref> Objects in normal space are intangible in slipspace: an object in slipspace can pass through a mass, such as a planet, without causing a collision in normal space; such an event may often go completely unnoticed.<ref name="tfor137"/> However, there may be risks involved if a ship is still early in slipspace transit and passes through a large object, such as another ship.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 99''</ref> | Slipspace is not completely empty; clouds of primordial atomic [[hydrogen]] are relatively frequent. Occasionally, even comets are known to somehow find their way into slipspace.<ref name="tfor136"/> Objects close to one another such as [[fleet]]s often group together in mass slipspace transit and may appear to sensors as a large, singular object.<ref name="tfor137">'''Halo: the Fall of Reach''', ''page 137''</ref> Objects in normal space are intangible in slipspace: an object in slipspace can pass through a mass, such as a planet, without causing a collision in normal space; such an event may often go completely unnoticed.<ref name="tfor137"/> However, there may be risks involved if a ship is still early in slipspace transit and passes through a large object, such as another ship.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 99''</ref> | ||
Slipspace itself is nonvisible to the human eye, as there is nothing in the visible spectrum to see. To observers aboard spacecraft traveling through slipspace, this means that alternate domain appears pitch black.<ref name="for15"/><ref name="GoODark">'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 288''</ref><ref group="note">''Halo Wars: Genesis'' depicts slipspace as resembling purplish nebulae. ''Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp'' depicts it as a bluish-white tunnel of lines and quadrilateral figures. ''Halo 4'' depicts it as a | Slipspace itself is nonvisible to the human eye, as there is nothing in the visible spectrum to see. To observers aboard spacecraft traveling through slipspace, this means that alternate domain appears pitch black.<ref name="for15"/><ref name="GoODark">'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 288''</ref><ref group="note">''Halo Wars: Genesis'' depicts slipspace as resembling purplish nebulae. ''Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp'' depicts it as a bluish-white tunnel of lines and quadrilateral figures. ''Halo 4'' depicts it as a prismatic, though largely blue-shifted expanse. These are artistic liberties for the sake of presentation.</ref> Slipspace-associated phenomena in normal space, such as the radiation from a slipspace transition, are most commonly luminous blue. In some cases (most prominently in [[slipspace translocation|teleportation]]) these effects may also appear yellow and orange.<ref>'''Halo: Combat Evolved''', campaign level ''[[Two Betrayals]]''</ref><ref>'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''[[Midnight]]''</ref> | ||
===Reconciliation=== | ===Reconciliation=== | ||
| Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
While faster-than-light travel is bound to generate chronological and causal paradoxes by nature, ships traveling through slipspace rely on a self-healing effect of space-time called reconciliation,<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 62''</ref> more formally known as causal reconciliation<ref name="cryp322">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 322''</ref> or particle reconciliation,<ref name="cryp135">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 135''</ref> to eliminate any paradoxes that may otherwise occur. The Forerunners were forced to place significant importance on this phenomenon due to their routine galactic-scale travel. For example, reconciliation has a limited range and time dilation effects may occur if a ship performs a very long jump.<ref name="cryp135"/> The Forerunners prevented this by completing unusually long slipspace journeys in a number of individual jumps, allowing reconciliation to take effect between each.<ref name="s60">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 60-61''</ref> Despite the limitations it placed on them, the Forerunners could also control reconciliation to an extent, enabling them to use its effects against their enemies, hampering and even cutting off their channels of slipspace travel.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 240''</ref> Early on in their history, the Forerunners used [[probability mirror|time-phased mirrors]] to reconcile space-time on a large scale.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 110-111''</ref> | While faster-than-light travel is bound to generate chronological and causal paradoxes by nature, ships traveling through slipspace rely on a self-healing effect of space-time called reconciliation,<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 62''</ref> more formally known as causal reconciliation<ref name="cryp322">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 322''</ref> or particle reconciliation,<ref name="cryp135">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 135''</ref> to eliminate any paradoxes that may otherwise occur. The Forerunners were forced to place significant importance on this phenomenon due to their routine galactic-scale travel. For example, reconciliation has a limited range and time dilation effects may occur if a ship performs a very long jump.<ref name="cryp135"/> The Forerunners prevented this by completing unusually long slipspace journeys in a number of individual jumps, allowing reconciliation to take effect between each.<ref name="s60">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 60-61''</ref> Despite the limitations it placed on them, the Forerunners could also control reconciliation to an extent, enabling them to use its effects against their enemies, hampering and even cutting off their channels of slipspace travel.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 240''</ref> Early on in their history, the Forerunners used [[probability mirror|time-phased mirrors]] to reconcile space-time on a large scale.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 110-111''</ref> | ||
Reconciliation has a "budget" | Reconciliation has a "budget" — extensive slipspace travel exerts strain on space-time on a large scale as causal paradoxes accrue a "debt". When these aftereffects build up, it can impede with, or in extreme cases, entirely halt other superluminal traffic and communication. Slipspace returns to its normal state as reconciliations are allowed to take effect, gradually causing the space-time debt to disappear into the quantum background.<ref name="s60"/> This effect is noticeable if large amounts of mass are transported over long distances frequently, slowing down slipspace travel throughout the galaxy and requiring ships to perform more individual jumps during a journey.<ref name="cryp266">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 266''</ref> This was seen when [[Master Builder]] [[Faber]] used slipspace portals to transport the Halos,<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 223''</ref> or when the ''[[Audacity]]'' traveled to the satellite galaxy of [[Path Kethona]].<ref name="s60"/> However, this effect works both forward ''and'' backward in the linear time of our universe: by the final weeks of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]], slipspace had already stabilized almost completely due to the galaxy-wide cessation of slipspace travel which would shortly follow with the activation of the Halo Array.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 301''</ref> | ||
Reconciliation is briefly experienced once a ship returns to normal space, and manifests as a shimmering blue glow radiating out of the ship<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 312''</ref> and static electricity building up in the occupants' bodies;<ref name="cryp322"/> on extremely long jumps or in strained slipspace, the effects experienced by the occupants may by significantly more severe.<ref name="cryp322"/> With Forerunner ships, the effects of reconciliation are clearly noticeable for several seconds after a ship exits slipspace.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''pages 100, 135, 266''</ref> | Reconciliation is briefly experienced once a ship returns to normal space, and manifests as a shimmering blue glow radiating out of the ship<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 312''</ref> and static electricity building up in the occupants' bodies;<ref name="cryp322"/> on extremely long jumps or in strained slipspace, the effects experienced by the occupants may by significantly more severe.<ref name="cryp322"/> With Forerunner ships, the effects of reconciliation are clearly noticeable for several seconds after a ship exits slipspace.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''pages 100, 135, 266''</ref><ref group="note">Pre-''Halo 4'' media do not depict the telltale shimmer and distortion surrounding ships undergoing particle reconciliation. While the Doylist explanation is simply that the concept had not been added to the setting at the time, this may also have canonical implications. One may infer that reconciliation debt became a comparative non-issue after the time of the Forerunners; to wit, the spacefaring civilizations of the 26th century have fewer slipspace-capable vessels and other constructs than the Forerunners by several orders of magnitude. Despite this, several Covenant [[CRS-class light cruiser|light cruisers]] are seen experiencing causal reconciliation in ''Halo 4''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s campaign as they enter [[Requiem]]'s core; later, the [[Mantle's Approach|Didact's flagship]] is seen experiencing reconciliation, as are the Covenant dropships that have been traveling through slipspace under the larger ship's power. Strangely, {{UNSCship|Infinity}} is never seen experiencing this effect in ''Halo 4'' or in any subsequent works, despite greatly outmassing all known human and Covenant vessels with perhaps [[CSO-class supercarrier|one exception]].</ref> | ||
Because of modern-day humanity's inferior grasp of reconciliation technology, the time slipspace travel takes to normal-space observers varies substantially; one cannot depend on the same amount of time passing in slipstream space and normal space. With human slipspace travel, there is generally a five- to ten-percent variance in travel times between stars. A fleet that transitions to slipstream space at the same time may or may not transition back to normal space at the same time. Furthermore, if ship 'A' and ship 'B' both were to enter slipstream space at the same time and exit at the same time, the crew on ship 'A' could have experienced a longer journey subjectively, and the crew of ship 'A' could be a week older than that of ship 'B' despite appearances in normal space. Though no human scientist is sure why travel time between stars is not constant, many theorize that there are "eddies" or "currents" within the slipstream. This temporal inconsistency has given military tacticians and strategists fits, hampering an uncounted number of coordinated attacks.<ref name="timeline">'''Halo.Xbox.com''' - ''Halo Timeline''</ref> | Because of modern-day humanity's inferior grasp of reconciliation technology, the time slipspace travel takes to normal-space observers varies substantially; one cannot depend on the same amount of time passing in slipstream space and normal space. With human slipspace travel, there is generally a five- to ten-percent variance in travel times between stars. A fleet that transitions to slipstream space at the same time may or may not transition back to normal space at the same time. Furthermore, if ship 'A' and ship 'B' both were to enter slipstream space at the same time and exit at the same time, the crew on ship 'A' could have experienced a longer journey subjectively, and the crew of ship 'A' could be a week older than that of ship 'B' despite appearances in normal space. Though no human scientist is sure why travel time between stars is not constant, many theorize that there are "eddies" or "currents" within the slipstream. This temporal inconsistency has given military tacticians and strategists fits, hampering an uncounted number of coordinated attacks.<ref name="timeline">'''Halo.Xbox.com''' - ''Halo Timeline''</ref> | ||