First question - What exactly is a system?
Since they're named for the star in them, I made the assumption that it referred to the system of planets orbiting that star. But then I realized that these planets have less importance than the subspace nodes, and subspace in general. So what I've begun to think is that a system is more accurately the area in which intrasystem jumps can occur. Comments?
Second Question - If we assume that the above is correct, then what would the border between a system and a non system be like? I see four possibilities. The first is that the border is an immutable line - Here jumps are possible, a micron over there, they are not. I doubt this is the case, but ti is a possibility.
The second is that it is a line, but it's exact position in space is not set, and that it's location changes due to fluctuations in the star (which is the source of gravity which creates subspace in the first place). This seems more plausible than the above, but still unlikely.
The third is that systems end gradually. Over thousands of kilometers the subspace effect begins to decrease as you go farther from the star, and you require more engine power the further along this band you go, until you reach levels of required power too great for standard subspace drives to use (this also suggests that subspace (like gravity) occurs and can be entered everywhere, not just near stars, but it requires massive amounts of power). This seems reasonable to me as it would mean subspace behaves like gravity, and gravity causes it.
The fourth and most likely scenario is a fusion of the above two ideas. Subspace fades out over thousands, or even millions of kilometers, but this band of weakening subspace moves according to fluctuations in the makeup of the star.
Again, comments?
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"What you egg!" Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 2, Line 80
"Young fry of treachery!" Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 2, Line 81
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