From: "Doug Freyburger" 

Henrik Herranen wrote:
> Doug Freyburger writes:
> > smler...{at}gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > So I can't help but put this into the B5 universe. Epsilon Eridani is
> > > only 10.5 light years away from Earth. This is in neutral space,
> > > though. [...]
>
> > The shape of hyperspace is supposed to be very different from the
> > shape of regular space in the B5 universe.  One of the early episodes
> > had a ship come in from Earth across those 10 light years and it
> > travelled over a century and picked up a shadow client species
> > warrior on the way.
>
> That particular ship did, however, travel in normal space,
> didn't it? When the ship was sent a century ago (The Long
> Dark), hyperspace was still unknown to mankind.

Yes, and in normal space 10-25 LY is a short interstellar trip.

> It was only
> after sending the first three missions in the mid-22th
> century that the Centauri contacted us and gave/sold us
> hyperspace capability.

But the distance between Earth and B5 is long compared to
some other hyperspace trips.

The reason is the bizzare shape of hyperspace relative to
normal space.  A lot of story time is put into ships getting
lost in hyperspace by moving too far from navigational
beacons and the Vorlons being able to navigate in hyperspace
as easily in normal space.

But the bizzare mapping is not a problem for ships able to
make their own jump points - All they need do is transfer
from hyperspace to normal space, use their telescopes to
map the brighter stars in the sky, get their location in the
galaxy, and return to hyperspace knowing where they are.
It's also the task of explorer ships to do exactly that
repeatedly and leave stationed in hyperspace new navigational
beacons.

On the series taking place in a small part of the galaxy - To
me that's a result of misundertanding this bizzare mapping
between hyperspace and normal space.  Sometimes places
nearby in normal space are distant in hyperspace, sometimes
places that are nearby in hyperspace are distant in normal
space.  There are times when the entire galaxy is displayed
and vast sections of it are shown to be within the domains
of the various spacefaring empires, yet Earth and B5 are
close in normal space but distant in hyperspace.

Doug Freyburger  moderator soc.religion.asatru


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