PS Power Books • Forum

I just reread the YA series and at the part where Tor reads some of the Textbooks with things nobody got to work yet he stumbles over that theory about teleportation. So what I'm wondering now is why don't they build, well, let's call it permanent gates that allow instant travel from point A to point B?
After all, they kind of transport messages between the magic cell phones in a way that shouldn't be too different. From that point to a gate it shouldn't be too far fetched, I think.
It certainly would help with their transportation trouble between colonies and the moon and such because they still lack ships, but also for long distance jumps with ships, when the human eye just isn't enough. That could mean a huge tactical advantage when that alien fleet arrives, too, if they could make a whole fleet of ships just appear in one place and then withdraw to some other place and close the door behind them.
Speaking of...why don't they give soldiers jump-shields? Or portable portals for instant withdrawal, with a point A set up in a ship or something and an amulet that can be connected to that point for the soldiers to carry around? Kind of a gate that has an off button only on the safe end.

Well, just a couple thoughts that jumped into my head while reading.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if that's the next Big Thing to come about. I would look to see it when Tor and company get back to earth from Tor's latest pupils.

It certainly seems to be the next logical step. Tiera said she borrowed Tim's hand held design to make her jump ship, which is really just teleportation. And, for the most part, any thing that magic does, Tor has been able to do by direct effect. So personal teleportation should be possible. Unless Dale says otherwise.

I never considered Tor using direct effect for travel. I get this vision of him in his personal shields zipping around the solar system on a whim, then coming to the conclusion, likely after exhausting himself to near death, of cutting out the middle jumps and teleporting.

I wonder what would happen if he ever lets it all go to his head and becomes a monster (would probably happen to Tim or Tiera first). He can change his field however he chooses (so he could become stronger/faster than Tiera if he wanted), can create nuclear explosions, craft a shield, fly, fight, and possibly teleport. Since it's all direct effect, Tiera's trick of turning off amulets wouldn't apply. How would they combat such a beast? Group effort? Could Taman talk him down? Let him work himself to exhaustion?

My best guess would be trickery, betrayal, maybe something like what Trice or Sara were supposed to do.Taman could probably get it done. But I don't think it will ever come to that at least not to the death of Tor.

I was thinking of more star gate portals. Having fixed points has got to add a huge safety margin. A portal from the capital to the moon or any of the planets is the next step to me. I am also wondering how they don't get lost jumping back and forth from Mars. Austra computers most likely.

Tiera got the jump ship idea from the communication devices so that network structure design should be able to be used for star gates.

I think you got it right, John. In the jump ships they were navigating by line of sight. But in open space there is a lot of ... uh... space. So if you can't see your target you can't get there. At least not directly. Jump Windows or doors have to be the answer.

They need to come up with a navigation system and an autopilot too to help with future exploration. LOS doesn't work too well when your standard distance is an AU or a light year.

Which kind of bothered me. Using LOS, you can't really see smaller objects that may be present in your landing area when you'd jump. We haven't seen any space debris end up imbedded in or inside a jump ship so far, so I imagine there is a reason for that. It just hasn't been given. That could be a bit detrimental for a person jumping or teleporting into uncontrolled space. But that was mentioned in the Very Good Man series. The teleporters in that series had to know where they were going quite well before they went or use LOS at small distances to get there. Maybe that's how they do it?

I think the avoiding the space detritus can be explained in a couple of ways:
1) Since it's far in the future it would be safe to assume much of the man-made space junk has since fallen to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.
2) The Blues, having space access, have created/maintained automated systems to keep Earth clear of space junk to avoid damage to their equipment.

Of course, there's a 3rd option: we could just not worry about it as it's a technical detail that doesn't really impact the overall story.