The Quantum Particulate Network is a unique form of FTL travel devised by the Kajakali Nation, localised only to Manura's Drift in the centre of Eulciar. Providing a network of gateways connecting almost every system in the Kajakali Nation, the QPN is a revolutionary system.
Overview
The QPN is a method of FTL which is only used by the Kajakali of Eulciar. The method involves 'splitting', or 'activating' a infinitely small graviton that permeates all of reality, in a specific location. This requires a lot of energy to do, so that when the first graviton was activated it blacked out the entire of Vecroxmer for a few minutes. When the second one was activated, it required the output of a nuclear reactor for a few years. However, once they have been activated, they warp space-time around them to such an extent that any matter within a predetermined radius, determined by the amount of energy put into the graviton, will literally disappear, supposedly violating the conservation of energy and creating a black hole with no gravity. However, what has actually happened is the matter has fallen into a smaller 'pocket-dimension' with a lower energy state. The matter is then trapped inside of the new dimension.
The second step of the process is a ship entering the rift. Once inside, it would normally be destroyed by the different laws and complete absence of nature in the new dimension. However, protected by a Same-State Shield, which upholds the same laws of physics that it contained when it was activated, the ship may pass through the dimension. Inside of the new dimension, which is the same for every rift, one would find a vast cavity, only around one light-year across. Rifts back to the nominal universe line the outside of the bubble, with beacons on the nominal side to broadcast which gate they lead to. Traffic in this dimension is very high, but a peculiar trait is that one can never interact with any other nominal matter in this dimension, only the matter and energy with is supposedly 'created' when a new rift is constructed.
Function
The QPN is used widely throughout the Kajakali Nation, but absent everywhere else in Cosmoria. In fact, the process is so energy costly that it is only economically feasible to build a network like this once a civilization has already developed into a Type II civilization. The Kajakali are unique in that they put their need for expansion and discovery ahead of their economy, which crashed severely after the first two rifts were linked.
Construction
Typically, a graviton is activated using the energy provided by a nearby anti-matter reactor, or a dyson swarm. The larger the rift, the more energy is required to activate the graviton. For the largest gate, which serves Capitolis, it required the output of ten dyson spheres, not swarms, for ten days. And that gate was only ten thousand kilometres across.
Surprisingly, for such an advanced technology, the method of construction is actually rather simple. All one needs to do is build a sub-atomic particle-perfect parabola, which focuses all energy shined upon it into a point in space. There will always be a graviton there, no matter where you focus it. Keep the energy focused for long enough, and once you release the energy, a rift will form.
Users
Currently, there is only one user of the QPN, the Kajakali Nation, but in the past there was one more. The Utopia used the QPN to connect their vast civilization across numerous galaxies. In their time they called it the Rift Network, but there is no difference, except that they connected to slightly different dimensions, so that the Utopia did not have to use a Same-State Shield.