Prologue from Humanity's Final Frontier, Second Edition (2501) by Dr. J. Malmström, Ph.D.
There were two series of papers- seven in all- that changed everything by two theoretical physicists- Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa.
The first set was the five "Slipspace" papers, published sequentially in 2291 and 2292. The first two outlined a premise for slipspace. The third detailed objects with mass would move through it. The fourth described how a 'resonance field' could be used to peek into slipspace. The fifth and final one was an experiment proposal for breaching this very fabric of our reality.
The first successful experiment into slipspace happened on a station in Earth's orbit in 2310. The Resonance Field Breaching, or ReFiB, experiment was the first to generate a resonance field, opening a small portal into slipspace for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Still, it was enough to verify the Slipspace papers' changes to the Kerr equation, earned both Shaw and Fujikawa a nobel prize each, and changed humanity forever. Wallace Fujikawa, already 95 years old, was said to have remarked, "I now know why I have lived as long as I have- to have seen this day."
The second set of reality-changing papers contained just two. The first of the two, published in the early days of November in 2317, days before Tobias Shaw passed away, proposed the theory of "Wavespace," a massless equivalent to slipspace. The second, published posthumously a year later, examined super-luminal antennae equations and a massless equivalent to the 'resonance field.'
The first successful successful superluminal communications experiment occurred in 2320, when a group at the University of Munich in Germany on Earth sent a message to the University of New Manila in Katagalugan on Mars. It merely said 'Greetings, from Earth.' At their closest, Earth and Mars are 54.6 million kilometers away. It took at least 3 minutes for light- and communication- to travel from the cradle of Humanity to its second colony, and then another three and change minutes back. In 2320, that time was shortened to a fraction of a second.
The Translight Drive has made the unfathomable vastness of space into a short trip away. Traveling from Earth to Taixiang takes less time than it took people a thousand years ago to travel across a single ocean. Food, materials, goods, and people travel freely between worlds as though it were nothing more exciting than walking out of an apartment to buy groceries.
If the Translight Drive is our gateway to the stars, then the Translight Network is our gateway to each other. In the 1990s, the "Internet" ushered in a new era of cooperation between the peoples of Earth. Boundaries between countries and nationalities evaporated as thoughts and ideas flowed like water. The Network is the modern-day equivalent. From Earth, to Reach, to Domain, to Harvest, we can talk from one end of space to the other with only a few seconds of delay. Just as essential to civilization as food, materials, and goods are our thoughts and ideas.
Could anyone reading this imagine what our galaxy would be like without the network? Would we become fractured? Would there have been an interstellar civil war? How would we push the boundaries of science and culture? How would we send our thoughts and love to family a hundred light-years away?
It is said that Humanity stands on the shoulders of giants. None are larger than Shaw Fujikawa and Tobias Fleming Shaw.
"Title: Resonance Fields and High-Dimensional Antennae for Massless Particles"
"Authors: W. Fujikawa and T. Shaw"
"Date of Publication: 2318/June/01"
"Abstract: We build upon the findings from Shaw and Fujikawa 2317[1] by deriving resonance field for massless particles for a massless slipspace, dubbed "Wavespace," by generalizing the Kerr-Shaw-Fujikawa equation in Fujikawa and Shaw, 2291[2] to remove the mass-dependence and expanding the resultant pole to second-order. Additionally, we use our results from this equation to derive formulae for an ideal and spherical antennae in all 11 slipspace dimensions."
Author's notes:
My other story has hit some bad writer's block. This little guy is really a way for me to periodically experiment with different writing styles in a familiar setting. These chapters are going to be excerpts from publications, reports, or dialogue overlooking humanity up through First Contact with the Covenant.