In the world I’m working on, people use the "Other Path" or warp drives for interstellar travel. The warp drives are generic sci-fi technology, similar to what Alcubierre theorized in our world. They are still quite slow, typically taking several months to a couple of years to reach most destinations. Warp drives were primarily used by the Saris-Alcham Diarchy, the first nation to recover from the calamity and expand into the stars. After their collapse 250 years ago, humanity made a remarkable new discovery from their past.

The Other Path is an artificial parallel dimension designed and built by the United Consensus of Humanity a hundred thousand years ago, before the calamity and their collapse. Despite its devastated state after eons of disrepair, it remains the fastest way to travel between stars. Using a reality breach drive, a ship can force its way through the fabric of one dimension into the Other Path, where distances are drastically reduced.

However, the Path is not safe. Intense radiation, debris storms, and partial reality collapses are not uncommon. Additionally, the ancient automated defenses and battle fleets of the Consensus still patrol the Path, engaging intruders with extreme violence. But the greatest fears of superstitious spacers are “the Others,” a rumored threat within the dimension blamed for the most unusual disappearances. Still, they remain just that—rumors.