Tannhauser Gate
A Tannhauser Gate is a spatial discontinuity, a tiny point in space like a miniature black hole, only with a gravity field hundreds of times more powerful than its size should allow. This gravity field bends space to the degree that it folds back upon itself, creating a consanguinity between two distant points. Normally, an object entering the event horizon of the discontinuity would be crushed by the tidal stresses and ripped apart as it crossed the discontinuity and existed in two places at the same time.
The SIS experiment, however, proved that it was possible to safely “cross over” by supplying a catalyst, a specially modulated beam of antimatter and exotic particles, to raise the energy level of the Gate to the “Opening Threshold.” The resulting matter/antimatter reaction alters the consanguinity so that the farther point becomes the only one for an infinitesimally small fraction of a second and creates a region of foldspace. An object close enough to the discontinuity’s event horizon will be sucked in by a momentary surge in the gravity field and transfered to the far point.
Most of the process is extremely spectacular, due to the huge amount of energy invested in it. The appearance of the Gate itself resembles a quivering water-like pool with delicate reflections along its outer edges. The Gate itself is largely invisible; most of the light emitted does not come from it, but from the interaction of the affected region with normal space. What observers see is merely the bleed out energy. This “friction” rapidly depletes the Gate’s energy and lower its threshold, which will cause the opening to collapse unless supplied with additional energy in the appropriate form and frequencies.
The trip through the Gate lasts only a short while, but the experience is very unsettling to unprepared travelers. In his report, Captain Elido Carlomagnes, the Keldysh’s commander, described the experience as being somewhat akin to hearing odors, seeing sounds and tasting colors while having a headache in his big toe. Although there were no lasting physical effects, the crew found the experience extremely perturbing; most described it as “mildly unpleasant.” Later star travelers would avoid the problem by spending most of the voyage in suspended animation. Indeed, what the astronauts called mildly unpleasant was definitely intolerable to untrained colonists. Automated vehicles are obviously unaffected by Gate sickness.
The discovery & usage of the Tannhauser gates allowed mankind to cross fully into the era of Colonization.