Most science fiction gets around the obvious problem of interstellar distance by fudging things. In many cases they go to great lengths to develop some science-baloney about "jump" or "warp" or "hyperspace" drives or other nonsense. Some even go as far as coming up with an entire alchemy of subspace, or warp space or hyperspace to explain how their engines work. Other sci-fi simply ignores the problem and pretends the stars are within walking distance of each other. In this author’s humble opinion these attempts are mere cop-outs, for those who do not want to make the effort to consider what space actually is, and simply write fiction with some fancy technical jargon thrown in. The reality of space travel is much more interesting, and presents creative, novel, and even bizarre plot elements, background or structure to what I would otherwise call generic fiction.

Two common misconceptions; 1, sublight travel is very slow; 2, space is empty. To address the first issue, when an object travels close to the speed of light, time warps around it, so that a few seconds to the traveler might by weeks or even years to everyone else. As far as the traveler is concerned, a journey of 10-20 light years may only take a few days, or even hours. There is no need for cyro-preservation, sleep-chambers or any of that nonsense when traveling at near light speed (NLS). The only problem is that of acceleration. However getting a ship to NLS is not that difficult, light speed is about 17987 hexes per turn. A ship with ADF3 would take around 40-50 days to accelerate to NLS, and a like amount of time to decelerate, while a ship with an ADF of 4 would need 30 days. Even at ADF1, it would only take 125 days (250 days round trip) which is not impossible (maybe we should use the cryo-freezer after all). The amount of time spent at NLS is very short in the frame of the traveler, however it would be years or decades (about 1.1 years per light year) in the frame of the home and target worlds.

The second misconception is more problematic. Space is full of junk, or more specifically atoms. While these are not a problem at low speeds (even hundreds of hexes per turn), they do present a problem for NLS ships. This necessitates the development of deflector shields of some kind. The simplest (proposed by A. C. Clark) is simply putting a huge block of ice in front of the ship and having it absorb all the incoming particles. A more elegant way would be to have a strong EM field which deflects all of the charged particles, and a thick nose armor to absorb the neutral particles. Also reducing the cross-sectional area would help, so most starships would look needleshaped with very little sticking out. Probably the first hundred meters of ship would be a nose shield, which was then discarded (or recycled) upon arriving at the target world. In addition, if one knew the path and position of an incoming fleet, one might try laying larger objects (say small rocks of 1-5cm diameter) in their way to try to destroy them while they are in NLS transit. Of course one would have to know exactly where they would be, which is difficult as they are traveling at nearly the same speed as any information from the home world, one would have a few months advance notice at best.

That brings up the next problem, that of communication. Ships at NLS are traveling at around 99% the speed of light. Communication between worlds travels only slightly faster. It still takes years if not decades to get a message to a target world. How would administration work across that distance? How would commerce work? It costs lots of energy to send a ship to another world, what profit is in it? What cargo could a ship carry that would be valuable years or decades later, and would justify the expense and time needed to receive it.

A species which is spreading out across the galaxy is fulfilling its primary biological role… to propagate itself. I think that basic drive is going to be common to most organisms (as it is kind of required for natural selection and evolution). Even our governments, with all their civilized trimmings are simply fulfilling that primary purpose. Some would even argue that there is no higher purpose in life than to simply exist and propagate oneself (however I will leave that philosophical argument to others). To the traveler, this represents a new chance, and a way to get away from the tyranny (real or perceived) of the home world. However it is very unlikely that a few individuals would be able to afford such transport. In addition, it is not exactly in the best interest of the home world to have its best and brightest heading to another star never to return. None the less, many if not most species will happily jump at the chance to populate other worlds, even if the colonies will not have significant ties to the mother world. Administration will be of necessity a very local affair. A colony system will have remarkable autonomy, it’s ruler will pay 20 year delayed lip service to the parent world at best. However there are some ways of making colonization of other worlds pay off for the mother world.

In this empire, there is a hierarchical chain of authority. It began when the prime world (first mother world) sent out a fleet to a nearby star system. Over the next decades, a large colony was build, and the resources of that system were being extracted. The colony had to pay 20% of its haul of certain precious element resources (like the heavier metals and uranium), and hand over all of the information generated by its scientists. The cargo was packaged into giant ingots (100 tones each) and fired by rocket at the home world in 1 week intervals. After a few years, the cargo began to arrive, and the mother-world raked in the profit. In return, the colony would receive regular transmissions including news updates (a few years old), and carefully screened scientific advances. The object was to ensure that the colony never got ahead of the mother world. If the colony ever reneged on its tithe, a large battlefleet would be sent to the colony to remove the current government and ensure the proper flow of tithe. In addition, every so often another ship full of colonists (and imperial spies) would be sent to the colony to help populate the world, and to keep an eye on the accuracy of colonial book keeping. This venture was so profitable, the mother world soon began to establish colonies in other systems under the same conditions. The older colonies were eventually allowed to fund their own colonization expeditions, and soon created a chain of tithes. As the empire expands, it begins to take on a spherical shape, with the outer colonies paying tithe into the next inner tier, and those colonies paying a fraction to colonies further in, until the amount of tithe reaching the prime world was enormous, and its people had little in the way of material wants.

This expansion was not without problems. Several times colony worlds would convince themselves they could beat the imperial navy, and declared their independence. Other colonies tried to send less and less tithe until only a trickle was sent. In each case, the empire (or the superior colony world) would have to form a navy, and send it to the rebellious subordinate. On several notable occasions, entire groups of worlds conspired to break free of the tithe chain. However the low rate of communication and time delays seriously hamper any attempt at conspiracy between worlds. Quite often far flung subordinate worlds would go to war to make changes in the flow of the tithe. That is, a representative of world A (who normally pays tithe to world B) would instead solicit world C (a higher up world) as a superior, and the reversal of the AB tithe. This was accompanied by hefty bribes, and a few murders. Finally world C made it clear that if world A won a war with world B, it would accept the change in the tithe system.

The final problem occurred when the expanding empire came across another empire of similar design, but alien species. Rather than a few provincial affairs, the entire imperial fleet was embroiled in defending its colony worlds on the intersection with this alien empire. Fleet engagements of battleships numbering in the hundreds were soon commonplace as both empires struggled to commit to total war. This was a matter of survival of the fittest after all.

(aka The Third Imperium or a Class II galactic empire)

Little needs to be changed from the unfolding saga of the Traveller universe. The Third Imperium is (was) a typical class II galactic empire, one based on nobility and subenfeudination. This type of empire is similar to the type I, but is based on military responsibility rather than tithe. The Emperor is the supreme commander of a vast military, through which the empire is protected from its external enemies (the Zhodani, Solamani, the Aslan, Vargr and others). Each sector (roughly 1000 star systems) is ruled by a duke, while each subsector is ruled by a count, who in turn rules over barons. A single system may be under the military authority of a baron, or baronette. However the system itself has its own local government (which can be of any type). The military ruler is responsible for system defenses, and receives a budget from the civilian government. From this budget, salaries are paid, the local infrastructure (bases, listening posts, mines) are kept up, and ships are bought and maintained. A baron is also required to send a certain number of ships to serve in the subsector navy, which is a larger force that responds to trouble within the subsector. Counts in turn send ships to serve in the Sector navy, which responds to larger threats as they appear. Quite often a small war can be settled by the sector navy alone. However the emperor can redirect any or all ships down to the baronial level to serve in the grand imperial navy (usually a token force in peacetime) which is sent in response to events which threaten the entire empire. Since it can take decades or even centuries for far flung systems to respond to such a call to arms these threats are usually along the lines which endanger the entire imperial system or even their species. In the 1000 year history of the third imperium, a total call to arms has only been issued four times, the last time during the final war. However, various emperors have called upon their dukes to increase or decrease the peacetime size of the grand imperial fleet to suit their personal agenda. This system of military obligation serves as the basis for the empire.

Trade is usually only in luxury goods and information, and is carried out by various trade guilds and private companies. Quite often a trade company will go bankrupt and sell off all of its assets, including ships in transit. Sometimes a cargo or even a ship in transit will be bought and sold several times before it arrives. Colonization is also handled by companies and guilds. Most successful colonizations however are conducted by larger organizations which may span several systems. These organizations select volunteers either from within the organization, or by careful selection of applicants from outside. Organizations can be either philanthropic, philosophical, religious, corporate, or even a few systems hold lotteries which bring in enough money to afford the transport.

Exploration of unknown space is usually a scientific venture funded by a government, a pre-colonization check by an organization, or a corporate venture. Most systems are self sufficient however, and there are only a few items which are worth the cost of transport. One such item is information. The most valuable form of information is genetic code from inhabited worlds. In the far future era, finding solutions to problems, both medical, technological and industrial is of paramount importance. Quite often a breakthrough biotechnological discovery can be made by simply sending a few geneticists to a distant world to gather DNA from all the local life forms, and transmit it back home, along with reports on gene function and how the local organisms have evolved to solve problems.

Right off of the bat I am going to make some assumptions. The frontier is a colonial relic of an old type 1 galactic empire. However this empire was not very good at terraforming (altering worlds to their environmental needs), so they instead altered, modified or even de novo synthesized new organisms which would thrive on these worlds and keep the tithe flowing. This ancient empire, probably the Tetrarchs, has long since collapsed, but some of their subordinate races survive. The first worlds colonized in this quadrant were probably those of the Clickk and the Eorna. These races then followed in Tetrarch tradition by modifying or making new races on the local homeworlds. The Clickk made the Sathar, and maybe the Vrusk, while the Eorna were probably responsible for the Dralasites, the Yazirians, and probably the Humans. Even today the last surviving Eorna are still at work on volturnous making new subject races (whom they view as children). War, disease, decay, or who-knows-what destroyed the Tetrarchs. The Clickk vanished as well, and the Eorna are all but extinct. In other sectors of the old empire, a few subject race worlds may exist, but many of these have forgotten how to build starships, or were never taught for fear that they would grow too powerful. The Sathar and Vrusk were the first to rediscover starship technology, but they took different approaches. Sathar conquered or colonized worlds exterminating all local life forms to replace them with their own. Vrusk instead allied themselves with the other sentient races, and formed the UPF, which is kind of an interstellar military alliance, combined with an interstellar police force (the Star Law) which enforces commerce and trade.

It still takes years and decades to travel from world to world. This has generated two classes of people, spacers and system dwellers. It is very difficult for spacers to connect with a place or a world psychologically, as they have decade long absences in which they do not age (due to the time warp). Friends quickly become old and die, companies fold, investments collapse, all kinds of problems. Spacers appear to be immortal, as their names seem to recur throughout history. Some spacers appear to be hundreds of years old, having spent so much time in time warp, yet they are only about 60. The decade or two between investment and payoff means that only the largest and most stable companies can afford to do interstellar business. Thus the formation of Megacorperations, with operating budgets similar to gross national products. Exploration of new worlds is either done by a world government or a Megacorp seeking to extract a new resource or plant a new colony. So far a Megacorp has not made a corporate star system, but that day is coming.