QuasiSpace

QuasiSpace portals transport The Flagship to predetermined locations in HyperSpace.

QuasiSpace (literally resembling or to some degree like Space) is one of the "higher dimensions" that forms a space-time analogue to TrueSpace, home to the Arilou Lalee'lay and only recently discovered by Humans during the events of the Second War. It is only accessible from HyperSpace, having an analogous relationship to HyperSpace similar to that which HyperSpace has to TrueSpace. HyperSpatial distances are enormously compressed in QuasiSpace; however, HyperSpatial relationships in QuasiSpace are even more distorted than TrueSpatial relationships in HyperSpace. Unlike the vortices between HyperSpace and TrueSpace, there appears to be no correlation between the access points connecting QuasiSpace to HyperSpace and any natural phenomena like gravity wells. QuasiSpace also provides access to Falayalaralfali (QuasiSpace coordinates 613.4 : 590.0), the home planet of the Arilou Lalee'lay, which they describe as kept in a giant TrueSpace pocket embedded within QuasiSpace.

The only Human to travel extensively in QuasiSpace was The Captain, who was given free passage through QuasiSpace during the War by the Arilou as part of their effort to assist the New Alliance of Free Stars in their struggle against the Ur-Quan. During that time a number of strange, seemingly inexplicable and self-contradictory observations were made about the properties of QuasiSpace.¹ Superficial observations of QuasiSpace show it to be similar to HyperSpace, a four-dimensional space-time in which time passed at the same standard rate as in HyperSpace. Unlike HyperSpace, QuasiSpace was filled with broadband radiation that peaks in the green wavelengths of the visible spectrum rather than the red. Against the green background were sudden bursts and explosions, similar to those observed in HyperSpace but appearing black instead of bright white. It is unknown if the dark and bright bursts of energy in QuasiSpace and HyperSpace are related, but the phenomena in HyperSpace are theorized to be manifestations of objects which are moving quickly between adjacent dimensions² such as HyperSpace and QuasiSpace. It is interesting to note that the color scheme of QuasiSpace, including these energetic bursts, is nearly the exact complement (according to Human visual perception) of HyperSpace's color scheme.

More bizarre than this was the behavior of The Flagship's own systems in QuasiSpace. The Flagship's systems appeared to respond exactly as they did in HyperSpace, engaging the engines to thrust through the QuasiSpace and being dragged to a halt relative to the QuasiSpatial absolute reference frame when thrust ceased. However, although the starship's engines appeared to be firing, The Flagship was consuming none of its fuel.

QuasiSpace Portals

The exact method of creating an artificial portal into QuasiSpace is primarily known by the Arilou. The interdimensional Orz may also have the knowledge but choose to stay away from Arilou dominated QuasiSpace. The Arilou mention that the method involves Dimensional Fatigue, which they caution is extremely dangerous and research into this field should not be attempted by the Human race. The only time that they have created a Portal Spawner for use by another race was their donation of one to The Captain during the Second War, which was subsequently destroyed along with the rest of The Flagship.

The local region of QuasiSpace features a tight cluster of naturally occuring one-way portals into HyperSpace. However, there is only one naturally occuring bidirectional portal between QuasiSpace and the Alliance region of the galaxy. This intermittent portal is located in the Chandrasekhar constellation and manifests as a large region of green-glowing space visible from HyperSpace and is mistaken for a variable star by the Spathi. This portal only appears for a period of about three Human days on a roughly thirty-day cycle, such that its open times occur two-thirds through each month on the Human calendar — a mnemonic The Captain's crew used to locate the natural portal in their first dealings with the Arilou.

This table shows the QuasiSpace locations and HyperSpace endpoints of the 15 unidirectional portals and the single bidirectional portal.

QS portal	HS endpoint	HS endpoint description
500.0 : 500.0	043.8 : 637.2	center of Arilou space; bi-directional; open monthly 17th - 20th
448.0 : 504.0	565.8 : 971.2	far north on the map, near Delta Lyncis
458.0 : 492.0	860.7 : 015.1	far southeast on the map
466.0 : 514.0	230.2 : 398.8	in the middle of Spathi space
468.0 : 464.0	921.1 : 610.4	far east on the map; near Arcturus
476.0 : 458.0	409.1 : 774.8	northwest edge of Ur-Quan space
476.0 : 496.0	611.7 : 413.1	south edge in Ur-Quan space
488.0 : 538.0	973.5 : 315.3	in the middle of Druuge space
492.0 : 492.0	005.0 : 164.7	in the middle of Ilwrath space
502.0 : 460.0	318.4 : 490.6	between Spathi and ZFP space
506.0 : 474.0	191.0 : 092.6	near Earth
516.0 : 466.0	567.3 : 120.7	between VUX, Mycon, and Yehat space
520.0 : 514.0	011.2 : 940.9	far northwest on the map, near the Slylandro
520.0 : 540.0	585.0 : 621.3	in the middle of Ur-Quan space
530.0 : 528.0	775.2 : 890.6	between Supox and Utwig space
544.0 : 532.0	036.8 : 633.2	in the middle of Arilou space

Notes and references

¹A few have interpreted the strange observations in QuasiSpace, certain references by the Arilou, and the name "QuasiSpace" itself to mean that QuasiSpace's appearance to the crew of The Flagship may have been some kind of illusion or falsely generated set of perceptions obscuring a more bizarre reality.

²Star Control II manual, pg. 34 (PC) or pg. 18 (3DO).