“The Black” is not a separate “dimension”, as Hummans seem fond of calling it. It is merely traveling through spacetime as it exists at superluminal speeds. I will presume you know the basics – radiation does not vector if the matter that would emit it is at a speed above it’s fastest propagation. Sound can propagate, most lower power chemical reactions can still happen, though Doppler effects may be severe if not planned for.

There is still interaction with subluminal matter, thus the use of mail relays to keep routes clear of interstellar hydrogen (Nickle? Yes, the balls used in relay are a nickle alloy. Intentionally magnetic.). The Pathlayer is build with these and slightly larger impacts in mind… yes, “vanishingly small atomic bombs” is the right scale, and significantly more at superluminal speeds.

There is a wake in spacetime displacement as the ship, or a relay being placed, makes its journey. Radiation locked space reacts at standard speeds – the wake or restabilizing spacetime behind the ship has nothing to crash into, the vessel has already moved on.

“Reintegration” at the end, where the vessel returns to subluminal speeds, is when effects are felt. Undirected radiation, mostly infrared if previous hydrogen clears went well, A gravitic snap-back over the route just taken that will make it look like the light is directed. The area of snapback is dependent on the mass moved – the drive always effectively outmasses the ship, as far as I’m aware. Gravity wells can disturb the pattern of reintegration, so you don’t point directly at stars, planets, asteroids – some wiggle room, as you put it. There are rumors that interaction deep in a planet or star’s gravity well might destroy them – more likely the ship, but it is extremely hard to recover a loose drive – and that can effect a body it comes into contact with.

Of course, most routes are multiple jumps, and most jumps end in interstellar space, but you still have to check there are no signs you are going to get punched though by a st— an asteroid en route. It takes a day or three after a new relay has been launched to process any received data about the trip, as well as optical survey.

Which all is to say, form the right angles, you can tell the general direction a jump is going – and still not be able to follow it, because the devil is in the calculation.



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