Intergalactic Summit

I want everyone to imagine something with me for a moment. Imagine that each system in New Eden is a hollow sphere, such as one might find in a desktop Charisoco habitat.Imagine then that each stargate is a tube, connecting all the spheres together in their proper places. Now, you could actually do this physically and someone yet might, but for now just imagine it.

This is of course an effectively accurate representation of the areas of space we have access to, not to scale of course. Anoikis of course adds a complication to this, but then you are traveling at the whims of an effective unknown.

And that's just the point and the problem, its completely unknown. We as capsuleers are completely incapable of functionally navigating interstellar space. I believe the time has come to correct that imbalance in ability. If we are to survive the dialogues to come, then we will need to be much more prepared then we are now.

We must confront the realities of interstellar travel and astrogation. We have spent a decade getting our feet wet, but it is at last time for us to actually wade into the deeps. The war is coming, and when it arrives, if we don't have functional interstellar travel, we will die. We saw the damage that one man and his private army could do with such a method just a few years ago when Nation attacked. The Sisters of Eve also appear to have some manner of wormhole manipulation technology that allowed Thera to be discovered and colonized by them in the first place. If we wish to survive the coming conflicts, as a culture, as a civilisation, then we as a capsuleers, as a cohort, must master this ability. We must learn to navigation interstellar space, map interstellar space, we should have a clear imagine in our mind of what space looks like for a thousand light years in every direction. We are the pilots, the captains, the navigators, its on us.

We stand at the shores of a boundless universe, yet we bound ourselves within it. And as long as we are so bound, we may be destroyed with our habitat. What would happen if Caroline's Star played out somewhere in New Eden proper? Lets say, Amarr, where the drifters have been showing up lately. Even one such attack could have dire repercussions. If an enemy is capable of repeating the feat, then we could be wiped from existence with little effort. Save for Origin and other small colonies in wormhole space, humanity would die with New Eden in such an apocalyptic event.

Our warp drives have the speed to go anywhere, and yet presently take us no where. That is one target line that must be researched. Interstellar line of sight warping may already be being employed by the drifters. They wouldn't need to use our stargates, they could just fly directly to the exit gate in the next system.

And of course we really need to get designs for generating wormholes to specific destination. Its obvious that various organisations are aware of how to do this, and I think its time for them to start sharing, for the good of the human race.

We must prepare for a war unlike any we have seen before.

Ad Astra Per Aspera
Saede Riordan
Systems Coordinator, Alexylva Paradox

It is, indeed, time we admit that most of our ships are merely "system-ships" and not "star-ships" and advance to true star-ships.

Of those organizations already in possession of such capabilities, do you count them as truly human?

If our own stargate network were to be disabled, are you prepared to maintain your own organization in isolation?

Agreed.

Concepts of "war" and "territory" and "sovereignty" are fast becoming outdated. We have a whole galaxy at our fingertips, with unknown and uncounted riches. Why squabble over mere patches of dirt?

We've just found out that the places we've called home are, in most cases, not ours to call home. We've been renters. Placeholders.

We face a new race (or a new facet of an ancient race) that surpasses us technologically. Basic evolution teaches us that we must adapt or die.

The technology exists. We have that proof. Knowing that we can, we must now either invent or reverse-engineer our own methods of interstellar travel.

Capsuleers can't warp ships willy-nilly. Or open wormholes as they please.

But that doesn't mean that such things aren't possible.

And maybe, there's a reason why such things aren't possible by capsuleers.

Say, how about that time Nauplius opened a wormhole directly on Matar's surface, and the entire planet was extruded through the wormhole into the middle of nowhere. Wasn't that a jolly good prank.

I ... guess I sort of have to agree with Ms. Valate, here.

Even leaving out the possibilities for mischief, which Ms. Valate may ... somewhat overstate, our nav interfaces are very well configured for keeping us in our network of globes and tunnels. Breaking past that, to become capable of true interstellar exploration, would likely involve either breaking CONCORD's limitations on us (difficult and probably bad) or working around them.

A small fleet, bearing cyno generators, could easily trail along behind one or more small capsuleer vessels built for speed. Such a caravan could cross interstellar distances in ...

... um. A long time.

If I did the math right, positing a base speed of 6 km/second, it looks like that sort of caravan could maybe cover a light year in about half a million standard years.

Oh, dear.

I guess we really would have to circumvent our navigation systems to get this working properly. Or find a dreadfully convenient wormhole.

Say, how about that time someone crashed a Titan into the Caldari homeworld?

Say, how about that time your empress one-shotted a Minmatar fleet?

Say, how about that time that guy rammed a ship into a station full of civilians?

Say, how about that star they named after Caroline?

The largest reason the Drifters, Sansha, and the like are able to pose so great a threat to humanity as a whole is because we are so focused on fighting one another over - as been stated - patches of dirt. Every major capsuleer organization in New Eden wants to stake its claim somewhere and, to paraphrase an old holovid cliche, "this town ain't big enough for all of us."

It has been what, centuries since the last time a new stellar gate was erected? As dangerous as the obvious threats are, the biggest threat to humanity is our own infighting, which is caused by stagnation. Beyond the need to navigate between stars - and yes, I acknowledge that as a need, we need to seek new space. If coalitions cannot abide living next to one another, why should they have to?

When the current stargate network reached its current "finished" state there was no apparent reason to reach further. The major empires had no need for resources beyond those in our local cluster. But New Eden is getting crowded, which is completely needless given that it is a relatively tiny speck in this expansive galaxy. I would posit that if the wealthiest organizations in the cluster - capsuleer organizations (I'm looking at you, Goonswarm) - were given license to build their own gates beyond the New Eden cluster and expand to their content, those of us who remain would be able to focus on the more immediate dangers that can be solved using the resources otherwise devoted to fueling endless turf wars.