A Guide to the Authority II: Fundamental Technology

1. Graviton Manipulation: Much of the Authority’s technology is dependent on the ability to manipulate gravity on an incredibly precise level. The direct manipulation of gravitons is caused by controlled forces interacting with closed strings (that are not bound to branes and are therefore movable), effectively netting them together and allowing the physical movement of space-time. Everything from human flight to delicate surgery to the construction of enormous structures that would otherwise collapse under their own weight are aided one way or another by graviton manipulation. The most basic (usually the oldest) graviton manipulation devices come in the form of great surfaces or ‘plates’ that change the gravity for whoever or whatever is standing on them. More modern devices are self-contained units that can affect any source of gravity within a certain radius.

 

2. Mass Cores: These incredibly simple constructions are little more than balls of heavily compacted matter used as stable sources of gravity in areas that otherwise have no gravity to manipulate. They are found predominantly inside star ships as a means to provide counter gravity against the acceleration of said vehicle whilst in the depths of space, and are made from all manner of materials including (but not limited to) the junk matter produced by Higgs Engines, mass producible synthetic plastics, and space debris. Notable mass cores include the centre of Lelantos and the artificial moons in orbit around Hephaestus.

 

3. Matter Conversion Stations: In order to facilitate interstellar travel matter conversion is employed as a means to convert particles with mass into massless particles capable of travelling at c, specifically photons in the case of MCSs. The process is ancient, and though not widely understood is assumed to be a similar (if not identical but reversed) process to how matter is conjured using a Higgs Engine. Every system has a Matter Conversion Station and a multitude of conversion conduits that are perfectly aligned with conduits in their sister stations. A ship wishing to travel from one system to another enters a conduit where every atom is analysed, logged, and the blueprint beamed ahead of time to the sister station via photon lance. The ship itself is then converted into photons or ‘photonised’, and ‘shone’ into the sister station’s conduit at the speed of light in a vacuum (or c). At the other side the photons are reconstructed into matter using the information sent via photon lance.

 

4. Higgs Engines: By manipulating the Higgs field a Higgs Engine can convert massless particles into particles with mass that in turn produce their own gravitons. These particles are crushed together to form the Authority’s larger mass cores such as the ones used in large ships, space stations and artificial worlds. The matter that is produced is referred to as ‘junk matter’ as it has very little utility beyond being a source of gravity.

 

5. Interplanetary space travel: Within a celestial body’s gravitational influence ships use graviton manipulation to provide buoyancy and pull themselves around, but in the depths of space the alternative method of electromagnetic vibration is necessary. When cooled to absolute zero electromagnets displays the peculiar behaviour of vibrating in excess of 400,000 times per second. By fitting said magnets to the rear and outside rims of interplanetary ships these vibrations can be directed in a way that produces forwards momentum and steering respectively. The fastest ships can reach speeds of 10,500,000kph (or 1% c) using this method.

 

6. Terraformation: Many different technologies are involved in the process of terraformation, many of which may well be unique to the individual planet being terraformed. If necessary a planet’s temperature, surface chemical composition or even orbit (in the case of Hephaestus) can be altered to accommodate human life though said procedures are constantly ongoing. Even Mars (which is reasonably Earthlike compared to planets like Cronus and Libertas) is not fully terraformed after over 1,700 continuous years. Said terraforming procedures are performed by purpose built machines or mega structures constructed on demand inside each system’s respective arkship. Plants and animals are often bioengineered in order to survive in comparatively extreme conditions, and on the older worlds many have rapidly adapted and evolved into almost entirely new species.

 

7. Synthetic Life: [This will have its own topic]