A new universe

[webberg]

With apologies (but with thanks in advance for any contributions), I've been tinkering with a few ideas.

Most of the very best sci-fi writers have created entire universes in which to set their books. Some have invented more than one.

Steven King in his Dark Tower series has a set of characters able to move between alternate time lines.

Iain Banks had his "culture". Azimov had his robots and the foundation series (a sort of reverse seeding idea). Niven had Ringworld. EE Doc Smith his lensmen. David Brin and Alistair Reynolds have fabulously detailed universe spanning empires. Pratchett and Baxter have their long war series.

Most of them rely upon some for of faster than light travel (Reynolds perhaps an exception as he uses hibernation of crew). Many have the ability to move into different dimensions or times.

Many are based on earlier writings. Most of Pullmans stuff is a reworking of Paradise Lost. Dan Simmons has a universe based largely on Hyperion - an unfinished Keats poem. Most of Azimov is the rise and fall of Rome.

So, I'm jealous because I want my own universe as well. A space universe.

Part of that is deciding whether people/beings can transit relatively quickly from one side to another. In other words a FTL universe or dimensional. A slow universe is one that needs perhaps 20+ years to move across which brings its own ideas and possibilities.

My first foray into this is a "fast" universe which has the concept that space is a ball and that our usual place in it (N(ormal) Space) sees us travel over the surface of the ball. My ships and pilots however have the ability to travel into the ball rather than around it, travel along the plane they find themselves on and then resurface at/near a destination.

The ratio of travel between the surface and the level at which progress toward the destination is made, I have not decided. Obviously the circumference of a globe is diameter x pie. My issue is whether my pilots or universe knows the "d" of the universe. I'm happy to let that be undecided and come up with a random (or story line convenient) ratio. For instance three years of "surface" travel can be done in say 12 hours at level "O Space". (I have nominally named the reachable levels of the ball of space as going up from N-Space, so O-Space, P-Space, Q-Space etc.

I have further said that there are entry and exit points along the surface of the ball and they lead to either a "dash" - nominally more than 12 hours of travel at that depth - and "dot" which is less than 12 hours. I therefore have my star maps looking like a piece of morse code. (Working title is .../.--./.-/-.-./. which is SPACE in Morse).

My pilots are all female, all young and limited in number (no more than perhaps two per billion of population). In order to bring some pace, my pilots come into maturity around 18 years of age but lose their abilities to "see" the entry and exit points over time and are fated to know the time of their death. (I'm also playing with the idea that they may be compelled by whatever force allows them to see the path ahead, to find a successor before they die).

For now, any thoughts on my ball of space?