Fold point gate

The construction of ring-like structures at the entrances to fold point corridors began in the late first millenium, Interstellar, and continued through the Second Interstellar War. Unarmed and designed as both emergency shelters and automated control towers, these rings were largely ignored by both sides of the conflict and, inexplicably, by the AI swarms that followed.

When the Federal Fleet refused to submit to the authority of a government other than the Federation and moved their ships into dark space, the gates became their final foothold in human-controlled space. Any residents were either assimilated into the Fleet's civilian population or evacuated before the gates were declared off-limits.

Few things are known about the current function of gates, but a few can be hypothesized by observation. First, only worlds with both a gate and a Fleet administrative office are given access to the galactic stock and commodity exchange as well as the mercenary boards. Second, Fleet ships have been noted to exit gates they were not seen to enter from the other side. Third, a transit through a gateless fold corridor requires less energy, although it is more prone to disruption by repeated passages. Lastly, any interference with a gate is met with unequivocal force, leading many to believe that the gates play a vital role in the Fleet's ability to intervene on a galactic scale in spite of what many suspect is a small overall population.