Relativity

[Viking64]

Let me start by saying that Fel is writing fiction and since we really have no idea what hyper space is like, he can make up any rules that he wants regarding relativity there.

What I want to talk about is relativity in normal Einstein space and the term real time. For example, you have a ship travelling at half the speed of light to Alpha Centauri (about 4.4 light years away). At that speed it will take the ship 8.8 years to get there. As far as the universe is concerned, that is real time. Now, where relativity comes in, or more accurately, time dilation, is for anyone or anything aboard that ship. For them less time will actually pass. 6.6 years if I did the math right. So to say that the time that the crew experiences is real time is inaccurate as the universe is going to plod along regardless of how people move in it. For the 6.6 years to be considered real time as far as the universe is concerned, the ship would actually have to be travelling at 2/3 the speed of light vs. 1/2. In which case, you get even more time dilation. Another way to look at it is if you go fast enough, you have a one way time machine to the future.

How I would explain what happens regarding the Karine, Kimdori and Consortium ships vs. the rest of the empires is that the former travel in a different layer of hyper space that is both much faster and has no time dilation compared to the hyperspace layer that all the other ships travel in. Bigger brains than mine, guys with PHD's in astrophysics, might say that isn't how hyperspace works but as far as I know, no one really knows and Fel can write it any way he wants.