Wormholes

**Wormholes**, or **Einstein-Rosen Bridges** (also called **ribbon holes** by the Deneans) are tunnels in space-time, which exist between two tears in space. These tears allow nearly instantaneous travel between two separate places in space or time. Some theorists suggest that wormholes are formed when two stars of the proper size collapse in distinct parts of the universe -- without creating a true singularity point. However, as wormholes have been known to appear and disappear, this theory is questionable. As wormholes collapse, they grow smaller eventually becoming micro-wormholes.

There are no known stable natural wormholes -- the Barzan Wormhole was believed to be the first known example of one until it was discovered that only one end of the wormhole was constant.

It should be noted that wormhole is a very generic term for a widely varied phenomenon and there are many different types of wormholes.

## Artificial Wormholes

Wormholes were first discovered by humans in the 20th century. It was a wormhole that transported the IASA astronaut John Crichton from the Earth into the Delta Quadrant. This wormhole may have been created by a unique set of circumstances -- Crichton was performing an experimental slingshot maneuver in the specially designed *Farscape*-1 module in Earth's atmosphere during a solar flare. Attempts to recreate these circumstances, however, never exactly duplicated the wormhole. Efforts to recreate this on Dam-Ba-Da led to an extremely unstable wormhole.

No species has truly understood wormholes to the level of the Ancients, who were able to manipulate wormholes well enough to use them to cross between universes and dimensions. They recognized that this technology was incredibly dangerous, and vowed to bestow it only upon a worthy mind. John Crichton, they determined, was worthy -- and yet, to protect such knowledge from falling into the wrong hangs, they buried it deep within his subconscious.

Scorpius sought to manipulate wormholes into devastating weaponry to use against the Scarran Empire. Such weaponry has only been deployed a handful of times in the history of the galaxy. On one occasion, a weapon was created that opened a wormhole to the center of a star and siphoned a flare into a Scarran dreadnought. John Crichton used similar technology to construct a weapon that created a black hole to devastating effect, which brought about the ceasefire that ended the Peacekeeper/Scarran War.

The most stable wormhole in the galaxy, the Bajoran Wormhole, allows for travel between the Bajor System in the Alpha Quadrant and the Idran System in the Gamma Quadrant. The wormhole is stable enough that the revered Prophets, responsible for its creation, live within the wormhole.

Despite the dangers of wormholes, exposed to Earth by John Crichton and espoused even into the 34th century by reputable humans like Captain Jean-Luc Picard and historian Berlinghoff Rasmussen, the United Federation of Planets spent a great deal of effort on the study of artificial wormholes. The Trill Science Ministry's Dr. Lenara Kahn eventually developed a theory in the creation of wormholes, though the theory failed to produce a stable enough wormhole to travel through.

On another occasion, the Mutara Interdimensional Deep Space Array System was able to create a micro-wormhole that allowed the Federation to briefly regain contact with the U.S.S. *Voyager* while the ship was lost in the Delta Quadrant.

## Wormhole Travel

Wormhole travel is extremely difficult, although if done correctly it allows one to travel almost instantly to different points in time and space. However, navigating wormholes can be extraordinarily difficult due to their fluidic and often unstable nature. Navigating a wormhole improperly, however, can lead the traveler to alternate or unrealized realities, or even into other points in time. Time travel through a wormhole is very delicate, and can cause reality to fracture unless the traveler returns through the wormhole before too much damage is inflicted to the timeline.

The fluidic, unstable nature of most wormholes makes them incredibly difficult to navigate. If a wormhole is large enough and stable enough, a spaceship can pass through -- however, without proper knowledge of wormholes or proper shielding, those inside the spaceship are likely to be liquefied. This was the fate of all of the Prowler pilots of Scorpius' wormhole project.

## Source

Wormholes are derived from *Farscape* and *Star Trek*. For canon information, please visit:

* The Farscape Encyclopedia Project
* Memory Alpha