Astral gate
An astral gate is a man-made shortcut that has two ends that function as both an entrance and an exit. Essentially an astral gate is a tunnel using a dimensional vortex to get from one end to the other in a predetermined path.
Astral gates are important for traveling throughout the universe(s). Without these shortcuts, many civilizations would essentially be stranded from any other contact. Many astral gates can be configured to receive other astral gates' incoming transfers. It does not necessarily mean that astral gates can only be paired, however, that is also possible if the need arises.
Astral gates are typically numbered. For instance, if there were three astral gates in the atmosphere of Earth, they would be numbered as such: Earth Astral Gate 1; Earth Astral Gate 2; Earth Astral Gate 3. Short-form would be Earth AG1, Earth AG2, Earth AG3.
When multiple routes are associated with a particular gate, a letter is added to the end to signify the route, rather than the actual gate itself, as such: Earth Astral Gate 1A (Earth AG1A); Earth Astral Gate 1B (Earth AG1B); Earth Astral Gate 1C (Earth AG1C)
If only one route is associated with an astral gate, the route would still be called Earth AG1A. Typically astral gates and their routes are numbered in order of age, or when they are established.
Multiple astral gate transfers are prevented by a safety system that only allows one route to be active to any particular astral gate at a time, and reserves a space of 30 seconds before and after a transfer occurs for that particular route.
An astral gate also automatically logs all transfers that go through its particular astral gate, with information regarding: date, time, and identification. Astral gates can only be activated by ships that are equipped with astral gate permissions. Ships that do not have these can potentially "manually" activate an astral gate by being recognized by an astral gate and sending it information on what route you want to use. This protocol is implemented to prevent ships from being stranded if their astral gate permission functions are not working.
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