The Gate Turmoil

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The Gate Turmoil

Post by Historical Archives »

Discovery of the gate immediately began to cause turmoil. Theorists immediately recognized it as a gate for travel, based on science, theory and some amount of science fiction, but it was on a scale so massive it boggled the mind!

Deep Star Creations made an initial claim for the gate since it was their scientific drones that had discovered it, but they were quickly over-ruled.

Every group on earth that was able to send a vessel to the gate area did so. Nations sent armed vessels to “protect their interest”, though no one was quite sure what that might turn out to be.

There were occasional incidents where fleets actually entered into hostilities and fired on other vessels but these were relatively rare for fear of damaging the gate.

Space ‘chicken’ became the rage where each fleet would head toward one another on a collision course to see which one would turn away first. There were numerous accidents before Earth's governments, with Mars, decided to create the Gate Defense Force. They borrowed heavily from the Earth Defense Force for men and ships.

After an attack was launched by the Alliance For Mankind against the gate a “No Fly Zone” was established ½ AU (about 125 million km) from the gate and a “Restriction Zone” buffer extended another full AU. Any vessel entering the Restriction Zone was stopped and interrogated. Those authorized to travel further were given a transponder code.

Any vessel entering the No Fly Zone without a transponder code was targeted and destroyed.

Eventually each nation “donated” a portion of their forces toward the Gate Defense Force.

Finally the scientists discovered how to activate the gate. They were somewhat dismayed to learn that after activation, everything was automatic!

Scientists were in awe as well! It didn’t matter what angle you entered the gate at, you exited at a right angle to the gate. No matter what speed you entered the gate, you exited at 100 km/s.

After discovering that travel through the gate posed no danger of collision between vessels, travel was pretty much unrestricted. Inbound vessels were always at risk of being boarded and searched and to begin with it was fairly common.

As a precaution “alien” life-forms were not allowed from the Sphere into the Core however processed foods and products were. The trade boom between the Sphere and the Core was robust but short lived.

One-hundred fifty years after the gate was discovered, the governments of Earth determined that Sol population was at an equilibrium and began to throttle back on the exodus. Individuals wishing to depart to the Sphere were screened. Many individuals possessing technical and scientific skills were denied permission to depart.

Around the same time it was determined that travel back to Sol from the Sphere would be restricted to “prevent the introduction of individuals who were not compatible with a regulated population”.

Within a few years the ban became total and permanent. The Gate Defense Force became a blockade. Any vessel arriving from the sphere was targeted and destroyed.

Two hundred fifty years ago the Sphere was officially annexed from the Core.


The Sphere barely noticed the restriction and after a few generations, there were no known living relatives to look in on. With over 600 planets to choose from and the potential to pursue whatever you wanted to do, why would you want to go anywhere else?
Dana Dawson
Data Recovery Tech
Historical Archives Division
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