Introduction

When we first became involved in the Earth Assembly funded study of hyperspace, there is doubt that neither of us realised what the next 30 years would be like. The details of hyperspace and hyperspatial travel provided by the Mogensen in the early part of the last century were sketchy and incomplete at best, sufficient to facilitate relatively easy interstellar travel. Mankind was reaching for the stars and the initial calls for restraint and research fell largely unheeded, it was only in the mid 2220s that the gaze of scientific enquiry was turned again to the unknowns of hyperspace. Why the Mogensen had not embarked on studies of their own was evident immediately after the first experiments were attempted. In the worst tragedies to affect the scientific community since the Korhonen war, nearly 50 scientists died aboard the GA-Archimedes during a Vortex experiment and another 20 aboard the GA-Intrepid died of hyperspatial exposure. As experts in the emerging field of Hyperspatial Physics, we were chosen by the Earth Assembly Science Commission to lead an extended study of Hyperspace. Over the next 30 years we spent over 5000 days in hyperspace, with more close calls that we'd care to remember, the culmination of which was this book. Whether the reader is a research scientist or a ship navigator, we hope that this study will be a stimulating and absorbing exploration of the greatest enigma known to science.

Michael Branney & Simon Girvin
Hyperspace, Galaxy of Fire (2250 edition)
Jacksons of New London

Hyperspace Preface

Next Section