FTL Communications

FTL communications can be achieved in a number of ways, which all have similar effects but each come with their own set of quirks.

The most commonly used method within the Commonwealth is the wormhole particle stream communicator. Essentially, this device is a miniaturized wormhole generator built into the ship. Due to the limitations of the technology, no wormhole generator can allow for the transit of an object more massive than the generator itself, making it impossible to install a generator on a ship capable of generating a wormhole large enough for that same ship to travel through. However, smaller generators installed on the ship can allow for a much smaller wormhole - one only a few microns across - to be created and linked to a receiver in another nearby pre-targeted location within the range of the onboard generator. Pulses of energy can then be sent through the micro-wormhole, allowing it to be used for communications. This is most often used to send a ship's current location to a nearby wormhole station and make a request to have a ship-scale wormhole to be sent to them so they can return to a travel nexus system.

Other nations use expensive arrays of entangled particles. While this technology has the advantage of theoretically unlimited range and comparatively low power requirements, it has the drawback of being strictly point-to-point. Each entanglement array has only a very limited set of other arrays that it can contact, and setting up a new contact requires an overhaul of the system at a shipyard. As a result of this, command structures in civilizations which use entanglement arrays tend to be very rigid, and there are entire branches of their military structure devoted to making sure that there are enough redundancies in place that the destruction of a single comm array won't cripple their military's ability to coordinate. Due to the expense and limitations of this technology, most civilian vessels in areas of the galaxy that use it choose to simply forego FTL communication entirely, and only communicate via more traditional laser communications or radio broadcast.

The third method, subspace comms, has been observed among the most ancient and advanced civilizations in the galaxy, and evidence in ruins suggests that many forerunner civilizations had access to it as well. Using similar technological principles to the ones that subspace sensors run on, it allows for nearly-instantaneous communication between any pair of vessels or locations, but its power requirements are simply enormous, and the methods used to construct subspace comm arrays are beyond the expertise of Commonwealth scientists.

A fourth and final method of FTL communication was made available to the Commonwealth after the discovery of the psionic beacons, and then of the Crystal Pyramid on Redamon Prime. This method, psionic bonding, is very unorthodox, but also extremely useful if used correctly. It involves a pair of psionically gifted individuals who have met in person and formed a "bond," a link similar to those used by subspace comms. Once both individuals have agreed to form one, these bonds take only seconds to form, with both psychics attuning themselves to the thought patterns of the other. After a pair of psychics has bonded this way, they can communicate across vast distances with a thought. This form of communication has the advantages of entanglement arrays but without the cost of installation or the limits in the number of contactable locations (a single psychic can be attuned to upwards of two dozen other individuals at a time, and the attunement process requires no special equipment.) It is also almost untraceable given that it runs entirely on the metabolism of the psychics themselves and emits almost no electromagnetic or gravimetric signature. Even with specialized subspace sensor arrays it's difficult to filter the signature of the conversation out from the background noise unless you know exactly what you're looking for. As a result of all this, along with their other abilities to a lessar extent, psychics are highly sought-after within the Commonwealth military, especially as special forces operatives who have to operate unnoticed behind enemy lines.