#wormholes

Portal to a different dimension or just the Einstein-Rosen Bridge?

Otherwise known as wormholes, they are a theoretical structure formed when a black hole conjoins with another theoretical structure called a 'white hole' to create a tunnel that bends spacetime, which potentially allows us to travel between distant parts of the universe or entire universes as a whole.

Popularized by science fiction as a passageway to parallel universesand alternate dimensions, wormholes remain one of the most intriguing theories in modern physics.

She stayed at the church hostel. She signed her name "Jane Terry". She tried to use a name that was meaningful, that reminded her of what she'd lost- but not a surname that could connect her to the families that had cared for her. They'd been though enough.

She kept her head down. She needed money. The possibilities raced through her head. She could share her athletic and gymnastic abilities at the local school. She could apply and expand upon her wound-dressing skills if she applied at the hospital. But... she needed to disappear. Her manner with people, especially difficult people, would make her stand out. The person who helped her understand other people the most was not there, and never would be again.

The hostel did a good enough soup at dinner time, but it wasn't enough. Her stomach growled. She tried not to steal; getting into trouble with the police would attract unwanted attention. It would have been easy to raid bins under the cover of darkness, but the hostel doors locked at 8pm. Still, occasionally, with a pointed stare, she'd knock over a roll cage or a supermarket display. She'd help the harried and grateful shop assistant put everything back, while slipping a couple of things into her coat. Protein bars. Beef jerky. Eggos were difficult because the box was huge, but if the box was broken... well. When everyone was asleep, she'd pick the pocket fluff out of the pastry crevices, close her eyes, and think about being small, in a blanket fort hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

One day, she walked past the library. There was a "Help Wanted" sign. She felt a spark of hope. She went in. The elderly librarian was preparing to retire, and needed to train someone up. Jane could tell that the librarian noticed that she was not like other people, but being a librarian, neither was she. She accepted Jane as she was, taking notice of the dark circles under her eyes and cheekbones that looked as if they weren't used to showing quite so much. She often "accidentally" made too much food and sent Jane back to the shelter with full Tupperwares.

In the weeks and months that followed, Jane relished the quiet order of the library. After her chaotic early life in laboratories, woods, basements, other people's homes, hiding, not hiding, hiding again, being on her guard 24/7, the pure logic of the Dewey Decimal System was a thing of beauty. She became an avid reader. She excelled in helping customers find not only what they were looking for, but other things that might take their interest. She channelled the friend she had lost when she read stories to the childrens' groups, who beheld her with wonder instead of fear.

Jane finally earned enough to put a deposit down on a small cabin. It was just what she needed. No bath, just a shower cubicle. She never wanted to look at a bathtub again. It was an hour's walk to the library, or a shorter run. She had enough money for some training gear, and she could always change at work. In a place of her own, she felt safe. Safe enough to sleep more deeply. Sometimes she woke in a cold sweat after nightmares about a tall man with white hair, hazmat suits, a handsome blonde young orderly, and faceless creatures with too many teeth. Sometimes she dreamed about the stubborn punk-ass who raised her, the friends she left behind- particularly an awkward, gangly, black-haired storyteller. The dreams were worse.

The librarian finally retired, trusting Jane to take over in her stead. She, along with her daughter and grandchildren, visited Jane regularly. She taught Jane to cook simple meals and helped her get into a cleaning routine- somehow, without Jane even realising she was being helped. It was obvious to her that Jane had spent a lot of time living rough, but had a fierce independence that was also brittle and fragile. The last thing she wanted was to push Jane away and have her back on the streets.

After a few months running the library on her own, Jane realised she could compile a couple of the store rooms. She completely cleared one out. With her own money, she bought an AV radio with all the gadgets. She made a poster for the AV room and hung them around the library. She phoned the local schools and asked if she could distribute the posters there. She gave some to students and asked them to take them to school with them. Eventually, they trickled in. She heard them howling with laughter, talking with people all over the world.

Sometimes, after she'd locked up, she sat in the AV room. She tried to tune in manually, but eventually she would give up and stare at it until her brain waves danced in time with the radio waves. She would listen to her four friends in their respective colleges, talking about their classes. How their friends and siblings were doing. The DnD campaigns they were planning for Spring Break. How much they missed Jane. She made sure to unplug the microphone so they couldn't hear her laughing. Or crying.

She would change into her sports gear and run back home, tears drying in the wind. She would shower, relishing every drop of water hitting her body instead of feeling water envelop her. She would put on the warmest, fluffiest pyjamas and light a fire in her log burner. Wrapped in a blanket, the heat filling the room relaxed her body, memories of hiding between trees in the snow melting away. Every night, she looked through photographs she had on her, and a few she managed to steal when she escaped Hawkins.

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Okay so the "nexus" technically refers to the system of wormholes itself, which was created at the formation of the universe, yes. They are wormholes being stabilised by cosmic strings. They're very old and exist in a pre-determined configuration which is why there are areas of the galaxy the gate system can't get to. It's why until this point, The Ophelia has been travelling using the meridians and space folds. There are no gates or wormholes nearby.

So the wormhole nexus itself was created at the formation of the universe and was made up of very tiny tunnels in the cosmic soup that grew massive in size due to inflation (even the universe can't escape inflation, guys) and then galaxies sort of formed around them so there are all these tunnels just boring through the galaxy basically. There are natural entrances and exits into the nexus as well. But normally if you tried to just go inside one with your ship, it would destabilise the wormhole and probably destroy your ship too. Hence...the gate system.

The term "nexus" and "gate system" are used almost interchangeably because the two things are connected...but they're not the same thing.

The gate system is the system of artificially constructed gates that stabilise the entrances and allow ships to enter and traverse the nexus safely by "resonating" with cosmic strings, thus not destabilising them. (The term 'resonate' truly pulls a lot of weight in Sci-fi.) There is a part of the engine called the "gate resonance manifold" that specifically interfaces with the gates to get you in and out of the nexus safely.

So the nexus is a natural formation and the gate system is technology that allows people to interact with it safely.

The gate system has been around for ages and no one knows who built the first gates but gate technology is very well understood and everyone helps with the upkeep of the gates. It's not some mysterious technology they found but don't really know how it works. Different races claim to have been the first ones to construct a gate but no one really knows the origins. The reigning theory is that the nexus was likely discovered by multiple races at around the same time, and they all established gate technology independently. But eventually it merged into one system that everyone uses and is protected by treaties and such.

That's why there are rumours of abandoned gates off in the depths (aka the boonies of deep space) that were built by someone far in the past and forgotten about. This is why the nexus guild is and has been sending out survey ships to see what they can find. And they have successfully found a few but they're very rare.

The nexus is collapsing both because it's old and because it gets used a lot. No matter how well you care for something, overtime it accrues wear and tear. The smaller capillaries - the smaller wormholes - have started collapsing and some of the bigger ones are starting to get a little bumpy. Some have become so treacherous that the gates have been closed because they're no longer safe and no one is quite sure when they'll suffer a catastrophic collapse. But you don't want a ship in that branch when it happens.