Part 1 ? The Advent of Interstellar Trade
The first recorded interplanetary trade began 862 years ago between the neighboring planets of Taygeta, also know as 19 Tau. Fifty-three years later the first interstellar (trade between planets of different star systems) trade began between Taygeta, Celaeno, and Electra (16 Tau, 17 Tau, and 19 Tau). Within the next three centuries, interplanetary and interstellar travel, along with the accompanying trade, began to be recorded in different sectors and sub-sectors of the galaxy.
In spite of the arrival of lightspeed travel, over the next 300 years interstellar trade was limited to small clusters of trading systems that were within approximately 4 parsecs of each other. It was realized that more opportunities for wealth and knowledge could only be obtained if one could travel further and far more quickly. The advent of Hyperlight travel was made on the Quad IV planet of Taygeta through a number of serendipitous discoveries. The Taygetans, who always had an affinity for the technical aspects of space travel, became The Shipping Guild. They destroyed their own planet to keep their discovery secret, and now maintain a limited society upon an artificial planet that never remains very long in any one particular coordinate of the galaxy.
The Guild ship?s Hyperlight travel would get you to your destination in an interval of time that couldn?t be measured. Traveling great distances through space was no longer a problem. It was really just a matter of folding space by traveling at Hyperlight speeds, and you cannot fold space without also folding time. It?s like sticking a needle through a fold in fabric. The needle will exit in a locale that can be millimeters to meters away from the entrance point depending upon how large the fold is. Until fairly recently, folding space more than 20 light years was inaccurate to 5 light-years in 20; and if you folded space to 400 light years, the inaccuracy in space-time was plus or minus 100 light-years - not very useful at all.
Then Julius Cronin invented the "Cronin Lens" which was like putting a scope on a rifle to allow you to compensate for distance to far away targets. Suddenly you could "set your sights" and go through great distances in space with a reasonable amount of precision. With the refinements that came over the years, the hyperlight trading ships could travel a thousand light-years with accuracy to one part in that thousand.
The only problem in navigating space in such a way is when you have something major in the way ? like a planet. Try pushing a needle through a fold in fabric and hitting a button. It stops you rather suddenly. Many trading vessels were lost that way, and it was nearly impossible get the pilots to fly any unproven trade route when there?s a potential sudden stop into a planet. It?s just too risky.
Part -2 Dangers, Failures and Crime
The postulate that crime follows whenever there?s great wealth to be made was never more blatantly evident than what was witnessed during the last 200 years of space trade. This crime could be divided into three major groups: space pirates, planetary politics, and trade organizations.
Space Pirates: Wherever there?s trade, there?s piracy, but interstellar trade was particularly prone to such crime, and it?s not difficult to understand why. It didn?t take long to realize that it was much easier to disable a trade ship and steal its cargo then it was to actually travel to another star system and negotiate the trade and make the return trip. This type of piracy was almost totally limited to ?near-type? interstellar trade that was outside the services of the Shipping Guild. Space pirates often developed their own organizations, and the most famous of these was Longden?s Space Pirates, the criminal predecessor of S.E.C.T.O.R.
Planetary Crime: Planetary rulers were not above their own corruption. Ships bringing trade commodities were often unloaded, and then the crew murdered and the ship destroyed. The cause of the missing vessels was usually blamed on crashes, pirates, or on simply being lost in the vastness of space.
Trading Companies: These companies, driven by greed and the huge sums of money that could be made, were always fighting each other for trade routes and exclusive planetary trading contracts. Planetary rulers would be forced to take the significant bribes for these exclusive contracts or be killed. Smaller trading companies would be bought out by the larger ones. Large trading companies were those who often found themselves in the right place at the right time. Trading companies would flourish or perish upon the outcome of negotiations, and planets would either become powerful or completely destroyed based simply upon their proximity to interstellar trade lanes. Then there were the few mega trading companies - those whose ruthless leadership or incredible luck allowed them to control such a large market share of the interplanetary trade, that the companies became an overwhelming political, economic, and military power. They could literally hold planets and governments hostage based solely upon the trade deals that they would create or destroy at the whim of their leaders. The two largest trade organizations are S.E.C.T.O.R. (Space Equipment and Commodity Trading ORganization), and Space Freight.
Part 3 ? Trade Lanes
The Shipping Guild had limited resources and Trade Lanes were enormously expensive to establish. The following factors were critical for the consideration of a Trade Lane:
a. Sufficient Trade: It must be shown that there would be enough long-term and profitable trade to support the establishment of the Trade Lane. With only one exception (made due to Shipping Guild self-interests) a Trade Lane was never based upon the wealth and trade of just one planet. No single planet could sustain the cost of a Trade Route. However, each Trade Route would have at least one and often more than one PTP (Prime Trade Point), a planet with considerable wealth and trade to make the route financially possible. There would also be several STP?s (Secondary Trade Point?s) along the route. The Guild ships would stop at only these points, but usually not at every STP on every trip. Note: The terms PTP and STP refer to the planetary systems. The place where the Shipping Guild ship actually docks to conduct trade is called the HTS or Hyperspace Trading Station. This could be relatively near the trading planet(s) or in orbit far outside the planetary orbital zone.
b. Stability of the region ? because of the huge investment required to establish a trade lane, it was critically important that each PTP and STP stellar system would have political stability, peace, and be reasonable free of space pirates, etc. The I.I.S.C. would patrol and maintain the stability, but they didn?t want to deliberately take on ?projects? that would require the extensive expenditure of resources.
c. Trade Lane Integrity ? Because of the nature of Guild Hyperspace travel, there is a critical requirement for there to be a clear, straight line path connecting all the PTP?s and STP?s. One might expect that this shouldn?t be a problem considering the vast distances between bodies in space. This assumption would be true were it not for the fact that a trade route purposely tried to connect as many trading stellar systems as possible, minimizing the distance that lightspeed and sub-lightspeed vessels had to travel to transport trade and personnel to and from the HTS. Stellar and planetary radial and velocities and orbital parameters were precisely determined.
Whenever an object (planet, moon, rogue star, asteroid, etc) was a potential block to an otherwise valid trade route, it would be determined if the celestial body was expendable. If it was deemed so, a Decimator Class ship was commissioned to destroy the body that was blocking the trade route. If the celestial body was determined to be non-expendable (i.e. containing living organisms), the trade route would be denied.
d. Resources ? Trade Lanes didn?t just happen. Once it was determined that a trade lane met the requirements of a) and b), and I.I.S.C. approval was granted, the Shipping Guild would have to build and allocate a Hyperspace ship and crew. This could take several years. Every PTP and STP would need to have an HTS constructed in the precise location with the participation and financial support of the particular planetary system. It would take a minimum of two years from the time of the decision of the I.I.S.C. Trading Council until the first trade commenced. Often this time period would be five to ten years, and occasionally as much as twenty years depending on the wealth of the planets and location of
The first recorded interplanetary trade began 862 years ago between the neighboring planets of Taygeta, also know as 19 Tau. Fifty-three years later the first interstellar (trade between planets of different star systems) trade began between Taygeta, Celaeno, and Electra (16 Tau, 17 Tau, and 19 Tau). Within the next three centuries, interplanetary and interstellar travel, along with the accompanying trade, began to be recorded in different sectors and sub-sectors of the galaxy.
In spite of the arrival of lightspeed travel, over the next 300 years interstellar trade was limited to small clusters of trading systems that were within approximately 4 parsecs of each other. It was realized that more opportunities for wealth and knowledge could only be obtained if one could travel further and far more quickly. The advent of Hyperlight travel was made on the Quad IV planet of Taygeta through a number of serendipitous discoveries. The Taygetans, who always had an affinity for the technical aspects of space travel, became The Shipping Guild. They destroyed their own planet to keep their discovery secret, and now maintain a limited society upon an artificial planet that never remains very long in any one particular coordinate of the galaxy.
The Guild ship?s Hyperlight travel would get you to your destination in an interval of time that couldn?t be measured. Traveling great distances through space was no longer a problem. It was really just a matter of folding space by traveling at Hyperlight speeds, and you cannot fold space without also folding time. It?s like sticking a needle through a fold in fabric. The needle will exit in a locale that can be millimeters to meters away from the entrance point depending upon how large the fold is. Until fairly recently, folding space more than 20 light years was inaccurate to 5 light-years in 20; and if you folded space to 400 light years, the inaccuracy in space-time was plus or minus 100 light-years - not very useful at all.
Then Julius Cronin invented the "Cronin Lens" which was like putting a scope on a rifle to allow you to compensate for distance to far away targets. Suddenly you could "set your sights" and go through great distances in space with a reasonable amount of precision. With the refinements that came over the years, the hyperlight trading ships could travel a thousand light-years with accuracy to one part in that thousand.
The only problem in navigating space in such a way is when you have something major in the way ? like a planet. Try pushing a needle through a fold in fabric and hitting a button. It stops you rather suddenly. Many trading vessels were lost that way, and it was nearly impossible get the pilots to fly any unproven trade route when there?s a potential sudden stop into a planet. It?s just too risky.
Part -2 Dangers, Failures and Crime
The postulate that crime follows whenever there?s great wealth to be made was never more blatantly evident than what was witnessed during the last 200 years of space trade. This crime could be divided into three major groups: space pirates, planetary politics, and trade organizations.
Space Pirates: Wherever there?s trade, there?s piracy, but interstellar trade was particularly prone to such crime, and it?s not difficult to understand why. It didn?t take long to realize that it was much easier to disable a trade ship and steal its cargo then it was to actually travel to another star system and negotiate the trade and make the return trip. This type of piracy was almost totally limited to ?near-type? interstellar trade that was outside the services of the Shipping Guild. Space pirates often developed their own organizations, and the most famous of these was Longden?s Space Pirates, the criminal predecessor of S.E.C.T.O.R.
Planetary Crime: Planetary rulers were not above their own corruption. Ships bringing trade commodities were often unloaded, and then the crew murdered and the ship destroyed. The cause of the missing vessels was usually blamed on crashes, pirates, or on simply being lost in the vastness of space.
Trading Companies: These companies, driven by greed and the huge sums of money that could be made, were always fighting each other for trade routes and exclusive planetary trading contracts. Planetary rulers would be forced to take the significant bribes for these exclusive contracts or be killed. Smaller trading companies would be bought out by the larger ones. Large trading companies were those who often found themselves in the right place at the right time. Trading companies would flourish or perish upon the outcome of negotiations, and planets would either become powerful or completely destroyed based simply upon their proximity to interstellar trade lanes. Then there were the few mega trading companies - those whose ruthless leadership or incredible luck allowed them to control such a large market share of the interplanetary trade, that the companies became an overwhelming political, economic, and military power. They could literally hold planets and governments hostage based solely upon the trade deals that they would create or destroy at the whim of their leaders. The two largest trade organizations are S.E.C.T.O.R. (Space Equipment and Commodity Trading ORganization), and Space Freight.
Part 3 ? Trade Lanes
The Shipping Guild had limited resources and Trade Lanes were enormously expensive to establish. The following factors were critical for the consideration of a Trade Lane:
a. Sufficient Trade: It must be shown that there would be enough long-term and profitable trade to support the establishment of the Trade Lane. With only one exception (made due to Shipping Guild self-interests) a Trade Lane was never based upon the wealth and trade of just one planet. No single planet could sustain the cost of a Trade Route. However, each Trade Route would have at least one and often more than one PTP (Prime Trade Point), a planet with considerable wealth and trade to make the route financially possible. There would also be several STP?s (Secondary Trade Point?s) along the route. The Guild ships would stop at only these points, but usually not at every STP on every trip. Note: The terms PTP and STP refer to the planetary systems. The place where the Shipping Guild ship actually docks to conduct trade is called the HTS or Hyperspace Trading Station. This could be relatively near the trading planet(s) or in orbit far outside the planetary orbital zone.
b. Stability of the region ? because of the huge investment required to establish a trade lane, it was critically important that each PTP and STP stellar system would have political stability, peace, and be reasonable free of space pirates, etc. The I.I.S.C. would patrol and maintain the stability, but they didn?t want to deliberately take on ?projects? that would require the extensive expenditure of resources.
c. Trade Lane Integrity ? Because of the nature of Guild Hyperspace travel, there is a critical requirement for there to be a clear, straight line path connecting all the PTP?s and STP?s. One might expect that this shouldn?t be a problem considering the vast distances between bodies in space. This assumption would be true were it not for the fact that a trade route purposely tried to connect as many trading stellar systems as possible, minimizing the distance that lightspeed and sub-lightspeed vessels had to travel to transport trade and personnel to and from the HTS. Stellar and planetary radial and velocities and orbital parameters were precisely determined.
Whenever an object (planet, moon, rogue star, asteroid, etc) was a potential block to an otherwise valid trade route, it would be determined if the celestial body was expendable. If it was deemed so, a Decimator Class ship was commissioned to destroy the body that was blocking the trade route. If the celestial body was determined to be non-expendable (i.e. containing living organisms), the trade route would be denied.
d. Resources ? Trade Lanes didn?t just happen. Once it was determined that a trade lane met the requirements of a) and b), and I.I.S.C. approval was granted, the Shipping Guild would have to build and allocate a Hyperspace ship and crew. This could take several years. Every PTP and STP would need to have an HTS constructed in the precise location with the participation and financial support of the particular planetary system. It would take a minimum of two years from the time of the decision of the I.I.S.C. Trading Council until the first trade commenced. Often this time period would be five to ten years, and occasionally as much as twenty years depending on the wealth of the planets and location of