The conditions aboard the
Ulfberht are cramped and awkward as the ship is not designed for comfort nor for so many passengers. The trip to the jumpgate only takes six days, but as Oddmund tells you, that is the safe part. Space is big and running across other ships in transit is unusual. It is only when you have to hold position awaiting the opening of a jumpgate that you are at the mercy of whatever is coming through or whatever else is waiting to get out.
After five days flight, the
Ulfberht finally arrives at the Leminkainen jumpgate. This gate has connections to three worlds: Aylon, Byzantium Secundus, and Hargard. Oddmund maneuvers the ship over to the Hargard queue, where several other ships are waiting to travel. A single Hornet class frigate defends the jumpgate, although a Griffin class destroyer and a further two Hornets are on maneuvers only an AU from the Leminkainen gate. That does not deter raiders if the prize is juicy enough, however.
Oddmund opens a link to the senior Charioteer in the queue and requests clearance. After transmitting a snippet of his jumpkey data for verification, the ship is assigned a line in the queue, and you prepare to wait. After about two hours, the lead Charioteer contacts the convey that the jumpgate is opening.
As the gate activates, there is a tangible hum of energy and the crackle of light running around the hoops of the gate. The space in between the hoop ripples and shimmers like an oily film, and the image inside it changes. In these moments, a holographic image of the Hargard system on the other side of the gate appears, as last seen when the connecting gate opened this jumproute.
The lead Charioteer gives the signal, and you enter the gate. The actual jump is over in a heartbeat. The experience itself is always different: some feel a sudden dull pain that ends as soon as it began, many feel all the hairs on their body stand on end, others see different colored lights flash before their eyes, while yet others hear strange sounds sometimes described as whale song and soft thunder played backwards at various speeds. There are as many different ways to experience a jump as there are people. It is even possible to experience no particular sensation at all when one’s ship enters a jumpgate and exits another.
As you pass through the gate, you leave behind the dull red light of Leminkainen’s star and enter the bright yellow radiance of Hargard’s sun. A quick sensor search of surrounding space discovers nothing untoward; you can relax a little.
The journey in system to Hargard will take five days; space traffic is light in this system, much lighter than in the Empire. The comms that is normally filled with the chatter of pilots coming and going is almost silent and those voices that are heard speak in deep foreign dialects.
