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Slipstream space: Difference between revisions
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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> | 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 [[Superluminal communications|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 name="c223"/> or when the ''[[Audacity]]'' traveled to the [[Large Magellanic Cloud]].<ref name="s60"/> The latter voyage demonstrates the nonlinear scaling of reconciliation: although physically shorter than the trip to the [[Ark]]s, for example, the other factors involved led to the journey being the most challenging one in the Forerunners' recent memory.<ref name="Catalog17"/> | ||
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> | 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> | ||
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Because the slipspace drive itself does not generate thrust (instead maintaining the ship's quantum field and transitioning it in and out of slipspace), a ship must still rely on acceleration provided by its conventional drive engines while in slipspace.<ref name="engines"/> As a result, ships which are faster in normal space due to their more powerful thruster engines and proportionally small mass, such as [[corvette]]s, usually travel faster in the Slipstream as well.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 187''</ref> The mechanics of the slipspace drive and the way it manipulates the slipspace field have an effect on the time it takes for a ship to cross distances, with more sophisticated drive technology allowing for various methods of crossing distances more efficiently.<ref name="fs86"/><ref name="tug"/> Frequent traffic, especially when moving objects of considerable mass, will also slow slipspace traffic down on a galactic scale, although this is only known to have occurred when the Forerunners moved the Halo installations across the galaxy.<ref name="cryp266"/> | Because the slipspace drive itself does not generate thrust (instead maintaining the ship's quantum field and transitioning it in and out of slipspace), a ship must still rely on acceleration provided by its conventional drive engines while in slipspace.<ref name="engines"/> As a result, ships which are faster in normal space due to their more powerful thruster engines and proportionally small mass, such as [[corvette]]s, usually travel faster in the Slipstream as well.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 187''</ref> The mechanics of the slipspace drive and the way it manipulates the slipspace field have an effect on the time it takes for a ship to cross distances, with more sophisticated drive technology allowing for various methods of crossing distances more efficiently.<ref name="fs86"/><ref name="tug"/> Frequent traffic, especially when moving objects of considerable mass, will also slow slipspace traffic down on a galactic scale, although this is only known to have occurred when the Forerunners moved the Halo installations across the galaxy.<ref name="cryp266"/> | ||
However fast it may appear, human faster-than-light travel is by no means instantaneous; "short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more for the crew. Certain UNSC ships are known to be able to travel at a speed of 2.625 light years per day,<ref group="note">In ''Halo: First Strike'', Lieutenant [[Wagner]]'s [[ | However fast it may appear, human faster-than-light travel is by no means instantaneous; "short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more for the crew. Certain UNSC ships are known to be able to travel at a speed of 2.625 light years per day,<ref group="note">In ''Halo: First Strike'', Lieutenant [[Wagner]]'s [[prowler]] traveled from [[Reach]] to [[Earth]]—a distance of 10.5 light years—in four days. Velocity=Distance/time (V=10.5 light years/4 days=2.625 l/d)</ref> while Covenant ships can reach 912 light years per day.<ref group="note">In ''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx'', the Covenant destroyer ''[[Bloodied Spirit]]'' travels from Earth to [[Onyx]] within a single day. The distance from [[Sol system|Sol]] to [[Zeta Doradus]] is 38 light years. Velocity=Distance/time (V=38 light years/1 hour=38 l/h or 912 l/d)</ref> After the end of the Human-Covenant War, the discovery and reverse-engineering of Forerunner technologies allowed humanity to achieve significantly greater velocities. By early [[2553]], the {{UNSCShip|Port Stanley}} and {{UNSCShip|Infinity}} had been equipped with upgraded drives which enabled them to cross interstellar distances in mere hours.<ref>''Halo: Glasslands''', ''page 68''</ref><ref name="ttw247"/> | ||
One example of the differences between speeds is comparing the Covenant cruiser ''[[Ascendant Justice]]'' with the UNSC [[Halcyon-class cruiser|''Halcyon''-class cruiser]] {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}}. It took several weeks for the ''Pillar of Autumn'' to get from [[Reach]] to [[Installation 04]], yet the ''Ascendant Justice'' could get from Installation 04 to Reach within thirteen hours from the occupants' frame of reference. However, this may have been due to the influence of the [[Forerunner crystal]], which simultaneously caused the ''Ascendant Justice'' to go back in time for several days as a result of its occupants being on an event path intersecting the crystal.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 247-248'' (2003 edition)</ref> | One example of the differences between speeds is comparing the Covenant cruiser ''[[Ascendant Justice]]'' with the UNSC [[Halcyon-class cruiser|''Halcyon''-class cruiser]] {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}}. It took several weeks for the ''Pillar of Autumn'' to get from [[Reach]] to [[Installation 04]], yet the ''Ascendant Justice'' could get from Installation 04 to Reach within thirteen hours from the occupants' frame of reference. However, this may have been due to the influence of the [[Forerunner crystal]], which simultaneously caused the ''Ascendant Justice'' to go back in time for several days as a result of its occupants being on an event path intersecting the crystal.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 247-248'' (2003 edition)</ref> | ||
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==Dangers and risks== | ==Dangers and risks== | ||
[[File:H2A | [[File:H2A - Solemn Penance jumping.jpg|thumb|250px|''[[Solemn Penance]]'' entering Slipspace over [[New Mombasa]].]] | ||
Direct exposure to the | Direct exposure to the slipstream is incredibly dangerous. Despite the presence of a quantum field which effectively keeps the ship within a "bubble" of normal space,<ref name="quantumfield"/> people traveling on a slipspace-capable craft can experience a range of symptoms, from nausea, to heart failure or even death. It is also known that some people react to slipspace jumps stronger than others.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''pages 84, 87''</ref> Even more uncommon, but still known to happen, is the total disappearance of a person while in the slipstream.<ref>'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''page 175''</ref> | ||
Slipspace travel is also dangerous due to the high level of [[radiation]] encountered during the trip, which can be extremely hazardous to the crew. This is negated by the use of [[lead foil]] in UNSC ships, which absorbs the radiation. Fissile materials also emit radiation, specifically [[Čerenkov radiation]], upon exiting | Slipspace travel is also dangerous due to the high level of [[radiation]] encountered during the trip, which can be extremely hazardous to the crew. This is negated by the use of [[lead foil]] in UNSC ships, which absorbs the radiation. Fissile materials also emit radiation, specifically [[Čerenkov radiation]], upon exiting slipspace; this is not harmful to humans, however it does make emerging from slipspace very noticeable. It is not known how the Covenant deal with radiation, but it is presumed that either they also utilize a shielding material, or with their improved slipspace technology and [[energy shielding]], it does not affect them at all.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 13''</ref> In addition, slipspace travel generates a great deal of static electricity on the ship's hull. To discharge the static energy, [[human]]s have developed a piezoelectric material known as [[polymerized lithium niobocene]].<ref>'''Dr. Halsey's personal journal''', ''July 30, 2511''</ref> | ||
Since the Slipstream is constantly shifting, and its laws of physics are different to our own, the magnetic coils of Slipspace drives drift out of phase when entering and leaving a Slipspace field, requiring constant maintenance. During the [[2490]]'s, technicians had to manually repair Slipspace drives, exposing themselves to the Slipstream and occasionally suffering injury, death or simply disappearing.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 146''</ref> Mechanical failures like [[Slip Termination, Preventable]], or STP, can also occur with Slipspace drives, usually resulting from poor maintenance.<ref>'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''page 24''</ref> An improperly mounted Slipspace drive can also result in catastrophic accidents, as was the case with a colony ship ''en route'' to the [[Cygnus system]] in the mid-2550's: as a result of a maintenance failure, the drive tore the ship apart, transporting half of it into an unknown location. During the [[Fall of Reach]], the UNSC intentionally recreated the conditions of this accident to destroy a [[Covenant supercarrier]].<ref>'''[[Halo: Reach]]''', campaign level ''[[Long Night of Solace (level)|Long Night of Solace]]''</ref> | Since the Slipstream is constantly shifting, and its laws of physics are different to our own, the magnetic coils of Slipspace drives drift out of phase when entering and leaving a Slipspace field, requiring constant maintenance. During the [[2490]]'s, technicians had to manually repair Slipspace drives, exposing themselves to the Slipstream and occasionally suffering injury, death or simply disappearing.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 146''</ref> Mechanical failures like [[Slip Termination, Preventable]], or STP, can also occur with Slipspace drives, usually resulting from poor maintenance.<ref>'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''page 24''</ref> An improperly mounted Slipspace drive can also result in catastrophic accidents, as was the case with a colony ship ''en route'' to the [[Cygnus system]] in the mid-2550's: as a result of a maintenance failure, the drive tore the ship apart, transporting half of it into an unknown location. During the [[Fall of Reach]], the UNSC intentionally recreated the conditions of this accident to destroy a [[Covenant supercarrier]].<ref>'''[[Halo: Reach]]''', campaign level ''[[Long Night of Solace (level)|Long Night of Solace]]''</ref> | ||