Uncharted Territory

By the 22nd century, Earth has begun exploring beyond the Solar System, settling other worlds, and making contact with alien civilizations. It all started with the discovery of an alien outpost in a cave on Mars. The tiny sample of technology and technical specs paved the way for the development of hyperspace engines and jumpgates and the construction of the UNS Carl Sagan, the first spacecraft to explore a nearby stellar system.   The civilizations in the galactic community Earth recently joined have existed for many thousands of years longer than humanity and its synthetic and bioengineered progeny, and therefore have already gone through their societal “growing pains.” The handful of species inhabiting much of the Orion Arm and a tiny part of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way are able to get along most of the time, with conflicts limited to the occasional skirmish here and there. The last time any of the spacefaring nations went to war was millennia ago. Most of them still maintain a military force in case they need to defend themselves from a new threat, but they’ve outgrown the urge to pick fights with someone else.   Humanity, however, ventured into the galaxy before they settled their differences among themselves. As a society, they tended to carry their baggage with them, and were usually the ones who caused trouble for everyone else. Fortunately, those civilizations who went through similar phases hundreds or thousands of years ago remember what they were once like, and are patient with the Terran Alliance.   One thing that certainly makes it easier for them is their technological superiority. They’ve traded “safe” technology with Terrans -- medical tech, improved propulsion systems, advanced information technology -- but no weapons. As a result, they have the edge in military might, though they generally don’t throw their weight around. Knowing that, for instance, the average mulathi heavy cruiser is more than a match for the most advanced Terran dreadnought is enough to curb the ambitions of the most expansionist among us.   The result is that while Terran propulsion systems and hyperspace technology is almost on par with everyone else’s, weapons systems are a different matter. The fleets of Earth and its colonies rely largely on railguns and coilguns and handheld projectile-throwing sidearms, though plasma rifles and similar guns have begun finding their way into human hands. Additionally, distant settlements are often so far away that help arrives too late when they’re attacked by pirates, and ship-mounted weapons systems have been falling into the hands of both those very same pirates and their intended victims. Corporations and other civilian operations have taken to arming themselves and the authorities look the other way more often than not. Those battles would be over before a military ship could arrive on the scene and laws against combat-ready civilian ships are too difficult to enforce for the same reasons.   Meanwhile, the mulathi, mekharans, shonari, and other species have been using directed-energy weapons for many centuries if not longer. And then there are the Atoners, who outclass everyone but tend not to interfere aside from offering medical aid and other non-combat assistance. But then, the Atoners were once very different from who they are now, and the resulting guilt complex is their main motivation for aiding and protecting others.   While this little corner of the galaxy is all that’s been explored, as far as the major alien governments are aware, there are mysteries from outside known space that have popped up now and then. Spacetime rifts have appeared and disappeared for centuries, occasionally swallowing up ships passing through the area and transporting them … somewhere else. These rifts have even appeared on planetary surfaces, allowing individual people to pass through them, and have popped up close enough to space stations to cause severe damage. The rifts are investigated whenever possible, but so far, no one has found out what causes them or whether they can be stopped.   Unknown spacecraft have also made the occasional appearance. This has begun to pique the curiosity of scientists and explorers who are beginning to put together small expeditions to venture outside explored space and attempt to find their points of origin. Exploration for the sake of finding new resources, as well as simple curiosity, has continued slowly for most of the known galactic civilizations, but sightings of these mysterious ships have begun to spark interest in even deeper exploration into … Uncharted Territory.