IMSC survey office
Document IMSC so 348e7

The Breakout Wormhole

The wormhole is a tear in the fabric of space, it connects two points whilst
curcumventing the intervening distance (in this case a point in the Gateway
system in the Milky Way and a point in the Breakout system in the Greater
Magellanic Cloud). Travelling through the wormhole requires accurate
navigation and fairly advanced sensors to avoid the various "eddies" and
"currents" that exist within it. However the navigation is a relatively
simple task for any competant astrogator and the requisite sensors are
available at tech level 12. The actual of transit the wormhole takes between
38 and 42 hours. The real danger lies in the act of crossing the boundary
between normal space and the wormhole (and vice versa).

The interface between the wormhole and normal space creates powerful spatial
and temporal annomolies. These are termed Wormhole Interface Events (or
WIE's). Any ship crossing the boundary during a WIE will almost certainly be
destroyed (there has been no recorded instance of one surviving). Normally
these WIE's can be predicted at least 5 days in advance by the increase in
emissions of certain subatomic particles from the interface zone. However it
would also appear that a large physical object (such as a starship) crossing
the boundary can precipitate a WIE. This is termed the Dkaral Effect. It has
been estimated that approximately 1 in 12 ships attempting to cross the
wormhole was lost to the Dkaral Effect before the introduction of the
Yumacaza Gates.

The Yumacaza Gates act to moderate and regulate the Dkaral Effect. Perfected
by Professor Jane Yumacaza in 511T, these gates greatly increased the safety
of ships transiting the wormhole. The first generation of Gates reduced the
loss rate to less than 1 in 7,500. With the introduction of the second
generation in 527T the loss rate dropped to under 1 in 60,000,000. Since the
Dkaral Effect can be triggered either entering or exiting the wormhole, for
the Yumacaza Gates to be effective, there has to be one at both ends of the
wormhole. In 1272T the Gate at the Milky Way end collapsed; and since that
time there have been no attempts to cross the wormhole. The Breakout Gate
remains fully functional, but has not been engaged since 1311T.
