I was looking for a way to avoid talking about my past, for example with a nice anecdote, when something showed up by itself at our doors! A Valkyrja bringing news from the North. It appears that the lovely monarch of Sied has managed to get some of the Golden Trails back online. For the first time in... well, quite a while, we'll be able to freely access the orbital facilities. This unexpected success illustrates how my « comrades » have made no effort to restore a semblance of normality to our lost world.

The entire system had been deactivated by the Murreans, in order to slow our invasion. To explain how it works, it... is... Yes Ishtar, very smart to bring up a question that requires some knowledge in Planar Cosmology. You love discussing transdimensional physics with neophytes. Let's simplify as much as possible. In short, all matters are a baroque assembly of folded dimensions, or 'Planes'. Space and time exist in a different shape than the one you imagine, both resulting from the various interactions between these Planes.

Depending on the interpretation you choose, there are 8, 16, 32 or 64 and... No. It's a bad idea to go on that way. Do you even know anything about quantum mechanics? Don't answer back. Understandable by a child, Ishtar, an illiterate one even... Let's go like this: it's not your body which is moving, the universe distorts itself to bring you closer to where you're going... well it's not... never mind, we can go on with that. It has been discovered that this 'distortion' can be altered in many ways.

The most well known is called « Plane Fold » and is a prerequisite for modern interstellar travel. We tamper with the effect some dimensions have on a vehicle, which pushes it outside of our reality, a place without proportion nor chronology. This « location » allows us to reassign an « address », where the craft will reappear almost by magic. The method proves so effective that one could materialize instantly anywhere. Theoretically. In practice, we are talking about a blind journey on a path that changes every yoctosecond.

Interstellar excursions thus consist in de-materializing « out of this world », vaguely entering a destination and hoping not to deviate too much from the goal. We repeat this horribly imprecise process until we reach our target. The technique allowed, before this damn war, to move from one end of the galaxy to the other in a month. Only Elohim can achieve this feat or, alternatively, a correctly engraved Ar'eloah catalyst. Mankind had to fall back on less reliable means... except when they had access to Golden and Silver Trails!

The « silver » one opens a tunnel in the cosmos, some kind of rift bright as a dying star, which extends into the distance between an entrance and an exit portal, named « routers ». What passes through sees its departure address transformed into the arrival one, with perfect accuracy. The Aprium maintains its own network of unparalleled density. It has existed for so many years that the whole empire can see it clearly simply by watching the sky! A web in the heavens, which gives this country its famous nickname: « the spider's empire ».

The « golden » one does the same on a more local scale. You put your feet on a bronze plaque, write down your target location and, miracle, here you are already! In a dense sector, the entire transportation system depends on it. Their reopening means that all continents are once again connected to transit stations. If I remember correctly, there should be nine large areas still available. The knights of Freyja have nicknamed this ravaged maze 'Yggdrasil', a tribute to the tree sculpture they use as a kingdom capital. Yes, Sied has a tree-shaped planet as a palace. It's far from being the weirdest.

Why am I surprised? Of course the queen approved such a name! She gives Xihe a hundred potted trees every year. What do the girls of the white kingdom have with woody plants? Anyway, back to the point. This reboot involves major changes in our little society. We are no longer going to be far away from each other. Enlil will be leaving for Kur in an hour. The old shelter had a supply of address plates, more than enough. Anu, Teutates and Thoth will configure the dispatchers.

Do I even want us to become one big family? Fortunately, my fellows will not mix as much as this opportunity allows. They will mostly be taking over the Murrean facilities. I imagine that Freyja might want to seize Edinu, her comrades would follow her and certainly restart the planetoid installations. Mû had no shortage of places designed to survive eons. Enki prefers that we keep our way of life. I agree. We have our routines. When humanity has evolved enough, we shall probably retreat to what is left of Nebiru.