View source for Logistical Mysteries

==Faster-than-light (FTL) travel==
Spaceships travel faster than light using “manifold collapse”, which creates a tunnel from one point in space to another. It takes a lot of time and energy to create these tunnels, which can only be used once per trip. Ships that have manifold collapse drives are rare, and most FTL travel across the Alliance is between space stations in orbit around key planets.

Manifold collapse takes longer for larger objects and across wider distances, but it is always faster than conventional space travel.

The manifold collapse drive on the Ardent is a state-of-the-art model, run by a dedicated onboard AI (T/OM) and powered by devoted reactors. This makes the Ardent the fastest and largest FTL craft built by the Alliance thus far: it is uniquely efficient, and the peak of Alliance craft in this regard. Even so, it can take several weeks to travel between assignments in different star systems – and if the Ardent wanted to return to Alliance space, a direct trip would take months.

Manned FTL travel to places outside of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is almost entirely unknown. Probes and drones have been launched beyond the Belt of Tiamat, but the distances involved mean reports from those experiments are few and far between.

==Teleportation==
The Alliance uses manifold collapse for teleportation. Personal “relocators”, like those issued to Ardent staff, can transport one individual along with their possessions, while larger stationary teleporters can move groups and cargo.

Teleportation is considered to be “short-range” if it is between adjacent spaceships, a ship in orbit and the surface of the planet it is orbiting, or between two points on the same planet. The accuracy and safety of teleportation dwindles rapidly beyond these ranges, and so is avoided. Teleportation is extremely reliable – when it’s done properly.

Energy fields can be set up to prevent teleportation into the area within the field, like a building or a spacecraft. It is much more difficult to prevent teleportation out of a specific area.

The matter that emerges from a teleporter is verifiably the same matter that entered it in the same configuration, merely displaced in space through a wormhole. There is no duplication of minds or bodies involved.

==Communications==
Interstellar messaging takes place via manifold collapse – data packets can be sent faster than light to information relays in Alliance-controlled space, which pass the data on by conventional local means. Messages can be blocked and intercepted at the relay end.

The Ardent “pings” its location and status back to the Alliance at the start of each day aboard, along with a report on any vital mission updates. The Alliance reciprocates with updates from home: these may include news from Alliance planets, scientific reports, specific information requests, and/or messages from the crew’s loved ones.

Contact with the Alliance is limited to emergencies, essentials and the daily bulletin(s), so to conserve time and energy – sending data by manifold takes a fraction of the power needed to send a ship, but it is still an intensive process for the ship’s computer. 

==Universal translators==
The Alliance uses universal translation software, which is installed on an internal cybernetic implant or an unobtrusive device attached to one’s clothing. The software translates what is spoken and what is heard simultaneously and in real time, allowing for different species to communicate through natural language.

The highly advanced computer systems of the Alliance can decipher newly encountered languages by using universal concepts and context clues as a reference. The preparations for any first contact scenario include the uploading of language samples to the Ardent’s database prior to any face-to-face meeting, so that both parties can understand each other.

While translators are highly resilient to electronic interference, they can fail or be jammed by energy fields, electromagnetic anomalies and certain neurological symptoms. They cannot translate encoded language or the vocalisations of non-sentient beings.

==Energy and resources==
The most advanced Alliance technology is powered by “mutual annihilation reactors”, which are fuelled by antimatter. Nuclear fusion is used for bulk energy generation and storage. “Power cells” are compact antimatter batteries, which can provide the short bursts of energy demanded by certain advanced tools.

FABREP, “fabrication-replication” technology, can be used to create a wide variety of simple substances and forms – everything from food and water to housing and clothing can be created in a FABREP machine at the push of a button, allowing the Alliance to shelter and support so many citizens across its planets.

Complex and exotic materials – especially those used in spacecraft – are in high demand, as they cannot be reproduced by FABREP and must be extracted or manufactured by other means. These include, but are not limited to: animal byproducts, living tissue, radioactive materials, and the RC (“Reactive Chamber”) gas that itself fills FABREP machines and facilitates their processes.

==Environmental consciousness==
Not all technology is clean or sustainable, but the Alliance has a strong preference for environmental consciousness and renewable tech. The potential harms of polluting practices and unsustainable technologies are closely monitored, but there are exemptions under Alliance law for protected cultural practices, cases of overwhelming benefit to a population, or emergencies.

If the harm to a planet or ecosystem is judged to be negligible and/or manageable, the Alliance will sanction the use of less sustainable technologies. For example, the extractive gas-mining processes of Marzion IX are permitted because the gas giant does not support life, and in any case is so massive that it would take thousands of years of extraction for any impact to become apparent.