NationStates Jolt Archive

Axis. In Bryn Shander, the name meant isolation. Soon, that would change. Soon, the Project Hermes hyperspace gate system would be built, and Axis would be the hub. The first prototype gate ships had already been completed, and the real things were not far off. Near the asteroid, orbiting opposite the massive colony laser defending the colonies, construction of the automated customs facility for the Axis gate was beginning.

In orbit of all New Haven worlds, utility cruisers began to break up the orbital hyperspace gates that had made New Haven a Mecca of FTL Transportation. Recycling ships belonging to New Haven State Industries began to break the gates down to their basic elements.

Nearby, in the shipyard sector of Upsilon Andromedae, cruiser-sized hulls were laid that resembled nothing in the New Haven Fleet. New Haven had the confidence to go forward with the new design, since it had been using hyperspace gates since it first started branching out to the stars. Now, it would be expanding its network to the local stellar network and beyond. Rumors even had it an emergency gate capable of standard operation would be built that could create a hyperspace window powerful enough to send a ship to one of the local nearby galaxies if New Haven were ever overrun, but it was still just a rumor.

Months had passed since construction of the customs facilities began, and the facilities were almost finished. At Axis, Mathilde, and Side 3, Halladi and Bryn Shanderan workers were carefully welding piecing together the external walls and internal scanner and shielding systems. Likewise, in New Havenic space, Halladi and New Havenic workers were mirroring the events in Sol. In a few more weeks, the facilities should be finished, and the final tests would be run. The scanning systems would be fine tuned to ensure that anything that was not supposed to pass through the gates could sneak in, and the shields would be tested with full military weapons to ensure that ships carrying contraband could break through forcefully. Any ships found with contraband on board would obviously be boarded and searched by hand if possible, or if the crews failed to cooperate, destroyed by automated guns.

In shipyards throughout New Haven and Bryn Shander, the gate ships were entering final production. The low arches that were the cruiser sized hulls were being painted on the outside, while the reactors and gate projectors were installed on the inside. Thousands of gallons of navy blue paint electrostaticly attached it's self to the cold metal hulls as soon as the fine mist left the nozzles of the paint guns the workers wielded. On the port and starboard sides, circles of a lighter blue were painted over the barely dry paint, and as soon as that was dry, crimson starbursts were painted over that. When the crimson dried, black symbols of the Olympic god Hermes were superimposed onto the starburst, and outlined in white. Likewise, the symbol of the Hermes Alliance was painted on the center of the dorsal deck, on top of the ship's bridge/control room. Hundreds of times over, the process repeated it's self since the first gate ships were ordered.

Back at Axis, the seventy two already completed ships that would make up the two gates in the asteroid belt were carefully moored together in groups of six, floating freely in the space around the massive rock. Likewise, the ships that would make up the outbound gate at Mathilde, and half of the inbound gate, were moored together as the asteroid made it's lazy orbit around the Red Planet. At Side 3, most of the ships had yet to arrive, but that would change in a few days. In New Havenic space, still more ships were moored together near the customs facilities that marked the locations of the gates.

In less than a month, the gates would be christened and opened to the public in a large ceremony at the Hermes Alliance headquarters inside the asteroid Axis. If all went well, the Hermes Transportation and Construction Corporation (HTCC) could be contacted to expand the network to star systems owned by other nations.

Hard times in Hallad were being reversed. After the move to their new homeland, the Halladis were a bit confused and a large ammount of unemployment followed. But the Hermes gate fixed this, putting over three million Halladis to work. Another fifty thousand were being trained with augmented space suits and mechs, learning skills never before used in Hallad. There was no doubt, in the mind of the Halladi government, that this would serve Hallads economic development in the future.

Now with Halladi factories diverting anywhere from one third to a quarter of their production toward the Hermes Gate project, consumer production were at an all time low. While people on the planet Hallad were earning anywhere between 50,000 and 200,000 Utopes (10,000 and 40,000 dollars), the nearly one billion Halladis still living on the Earth mainland were still earning 75,000 to 500,000 Utopes (15,000 to 100,000 dollars).

Motherships hung over their patron worlds, finishing up the hyperspace gates orbiting high above. The customs centers in New Haven had been completed and were operating within optimal perimeters.

The Hermes gates were on the drawing board, the key to the whole operation. Originally planned back in the days of the Concordat, the Hermes Gates would conduct the first transgalactic hyperspace jump capable of transporting an entire fleet within seconds to the far edge of the galaxy. However, their primary travelers would be trading vessels and construction vessels. The Hermes Gate would also provide the gate network with non-stop jumps from any normal gate in the network, across the galaxy, to another normal gate on the other side.

With the final 'cornerstone' module of the New Havenic normal hyperspace gates completed, the gates were fueled and spun up for a series of tests to make sure they were operational.

"All New Havenic Gates, this is Hermes Regional Control. Standby for tests. The first test will use the onboard computers to find another gate using its hyperspace beacon." The HRC computer, communicating to the gates over a seperate FTL diagnostic line, brought up three seperate screens depicting the New Havenic Imperium and its star systems. On each screen, the gates began to find each other, lighting up each system with a yellow circle with the Hermes Symbol next to it.

"Locator beacons and IFF systems are operational. Next, we will turn the beacons onto passive mode and allow the computers to ping the gates based on their most probable location." The gate signatures went dead as the gates began homing in seperately on the other gates, pinpointing their locations before sending a pulse FTL communique to the other gates. The other gates received the communique and sent back a response, lighting the gates up again.

"Backup location system is operational. FTL communications are running at optimal levels. The next test will open a hyperspace window between the various gates to make sure emitters are operational." The emitters kicked into high gear as the gate segments reached optimal spacing. The hyperspace windows phased into existance, made it to maximum effective dynamics and then phased out.

"Gate emitters operational. All reactor and gate control functions are working properly. For the final test, a probe will send an automated call-up sequence to the gates. When it reaches the other side, it will turn around and attempt to use military authorization to fast-open the gates."

"Local Gate Control, this is Automated Test Probe Zero-One-Niner. We wish to travel to the Asherton System from New Haven and the automatic fee payment has been sent."

"Probe Zero-One-Niner, please hold position for customs inspections."

"Roger that Local Gate Control, standing by." The advanced scanners from both the gates and the customs facilities scanned the ship, detecting no contraband.

"Probe Zero-One-Niner, you are clear to proceed to the New Haven System. Have a nice day." The hyperspace gate opened, the probe shot through, and the gate closed. The probe shot out the other side instantaneously and looked back.

"Local Gate Control, this is Automated Probe Zero-One-Niner requesting transit to the Asherton System, military overrides being transmitted!"

"Military overrides confirmed, good hunting Probe Zero-One-Niner." The gate on the other side opened again, allowing the probe through and closing as soon as the probe safely transitted.

"Regional Gate Control, this is Automated Probe Zero-One-Niner sending diagnostic data. All systems are operational, connection strength is optimal and hyperspace fields are well within tolerance. Returning to base."

Now that had to be done was a repeat construction in the Red Hammer System, as the Upsilon Andromedae System was just finishing up producing its hyperspace gate from its shipyards. The Red Hammer System would be easy to finish, seeing as Upsilon Andromedae could finish a gate within three weeks and send it immediately.

New Haven would be open for business as soon as the non-New Havenic gates were finished.