No route through space, through the interstellar void, is unowned. You don’t have the extravagance of road maps, or summarily routed through the air.
A short jump dive needs a destination to calculate. And, of course, there are sublight rockets and ships, but its a difference between years and months, and the penalties of time dilation. Even if the occupants of the rocket don’t experience 100 light years as 100 lived years, those outside will. This is not good for trade.
The next destination is mailed by the relay system upon request – you send current conditions and observations, the route administrator eventually sends your next destination. The crew eats and sleeps, they check the ship for repairs. One may receive the next 3 jump destinations, one may receive one. Sometimes one is moved backwards in the shuffle of ships, or consigned to another authorities network, sometimes they are simply told to wait as others make their way through the network.
At port, merchants compare notes. Try to figure out the state of the network as an exercise, gaming provisions versus cargo. You will be fined if you request a rush routing.
Governments have their own secret routes. Companies are some times right enough to hire somthing like a pathlayer to set up a route, but those always switch to government administration or disrepair after too long.
There are pirates as well. Spoofing trade ship registrations, jumping with guessed coordinates. Its said military stealth ships will wait for a month at intentionally quiet relays, waiting for someone to pop in that shouldn’t. Though it just may be relay maintenance & replacement. Rumors among those kept in the dark.
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