Big Empty

The Big Empty is an astrographic feature lying within Aldebaran Sector.

• It is a rift area of low stellar density.

Description (Specifications)

The Big Empty is an area of lower stellar density lying spinward-rimward quadrant of Aldebaran Sector.

• The region measures around 8 parsecs coreward-rimward by an average of about 4 parsecs spinward-trailing.
• It is named for its size and lack of stars.
• It is a significant obstacle to interstellar trade and commerce.

Aldebaran Sector Rifts

A basic map showing the Big Empty.

(Image sourced from Traveller Map)

Nature of Rifts

Locally at least, a rift is an astrographic concept based purely on Jump Drive performance.

Rift regions generally relate to regular commercial traffic and the way it travels between destinations. Merchant vessels with jump-4 drives or better are fairly rare because of the higher costs involved in operating the vessel, the lower revenue generated by the reduced cargo space due to the need for large fuel tanks, and the relative paucity of technologically advanced maintenance facilities within the region. As a result, the vast majority of merchant vessels are capable of jump-3 or less.

In order to qualify as a rift, the region must have ten or more contiguous hexes. Many areas have minor void regions that are too small to qualify as a true rift, but are still significant enough to seriously hamper and channel interstellar travel.

• Large areas that cannot be crossed by Jump-3-capable vessels are denoted as rifts.
• The nature and borders of a rift may be determined by other criteria in different regions.

Military vessels and specialist ships such as couriers are often only marginally affected by the presence of smaller rifts. Larger rift regions have a greater significance, requiring lengthy detours or complex refueling operations or creating bottlenecks that even the longest range vessels are forced to travel through.

• Large rifts within the region form a key part of Solomani Confederation defense strategies, serving to channel prospective attackers towards defensive "hardpoints".

History & Background (Dossier)

The Big Empty contains no stars or stellar scale bodies.

• It is likely to contain a number of dark, frozen, starless rogue worlds and wandering icy planetoids within its depths, but none have ever been officially charted or catalogued.

Jump Bridges

Some have suggested that one or more Jump Bridges may lie within the Big Empty.

Jump Bridges are locations within empty hexes that contain caches of fuel and supplies. They allow lower jump rating vessels to bridge gaps between distant worlds by providing a halfway point. The hexes these caches lie within are truly vast, and without exact coordinates to jump to within it a vessel could end up with empty tanks in empty wilderness, perhaps light-years away from any hope of rescue. Where they do exist, Jump Bridges are heavily guarded and access is not generally granted to those without the correct credentials.

• No commercial jump bridges are known to exist within the rift.
• It has long been rumored that the Confederation maintains covert jump bridge facilities allowing vessels to cross the region, but no reliable proof of this has ever been provided.

SolSec discourages talk of such things.

Worlds & Sectors (Astrography)

This astrographic feature is found in the following areas:

Charted Space – Solomani Confederation:

• Aldebaran Sector
  • Carcosa Subsector
  • The Barrens Subsector

World Listing

Comprehensive Second Survey data for all worlds that are associated with the Big Empty is available.

• The primary source material for all data is Traveller Map.
• Other sources may differ: some elements of the data may be contradictory or incorrect.
• Data is occasionally updated as new information becomes available.

AAB library archives contain expanded data about the following systems:

No world articles for Big Empty

Note that some Second Survey data, though only 40 years old, may already be out of date.

• Scouting missions gathering reliable, verified data can receive substantial payment.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS