Question about stargates

[NSC]

I'm reading through Secession 5 now and it's raised an issue in my mind. When Jason is explaining how the proposed hub of stargates at Terra will work, he mentions a command code that will be owned by individual governments to link/delink the gates as needed.

Since the stargate are all manufactured by the Imperium, what's to keep Dahnai and her bunch from having a "backdoor" command code in each and every stargate that would potentially allow them to take back command, lock in the link status, and then launch a military takeover?

Knowing how the Faey view conquest, this seems like a reasonable long-term plan for them.

[expedient]

This was just about the first thing I thought too.

However, since it takes hours to connect a stargate to another, the client races could insist that they should have a large military presence whenever the gates are opened or closed. If a gate is opened or closed without prior authorization they could simply destroy it.

The alternative is for the Karinnes to build the stargates.

I assume the gate set-up is such that there is one gate to each empire from the Terran system and that gate leads to another hub facility that has gates to all the interdicted worlds in that empire. All those hub worlds would become the main domestic trading port and center for foreign shipping. Meanwhile Terra becomes the center for all international trade.

[Fel]

Nothing, really, to be honest about it, except for the threat of the consequences that'll come down on Dahnai if that happens.

If she were to pull that stunt, then no empire in the entire galaxy would trust ANYTHING the Imperium would ever say ever again. The Moridon would probably jack up the interest on all their loans, and they'd be embroiled in a general war with EVERY empire in the Confederation.

Sk'Vrae would also see that as a violation of a sacred vow, and it would go right back to being a matter of blood...and the Collective is far too intertwined into the Imperium right now for Dahnai to risk turning Sk'Vrae against her.

Oh, and Jason would be utterly pissed off and he'd remove the interdictors from Imperium territory, leaving them open to attack while everyone ELSE would be sitting behind interdictors and be utterly untouchable.

Mind that Dahnai doesn't have the military firepower to attack every other empire in the Confederation simultaneously. She could probably hit the Alliance, Shio, and the Colonies all at once, OR hit the Collective and the Shio, OR the Skaa Republic, but she can't get EVERYONE, and she doesn't have the firepower no matter how she gathers it to attack the Skaa Empire even if she attacks them alone. And while Dahnai's building up her navies in preparation for the Benga, so is everyone else, so she has no advantage. If she broke the treaty and attacked, she'd surely conquer whoever she backstabbed, but then she'd be facing everyone else when all those mutual defense clauses in the treaties kicked in, and the entire Confederation declared war against the Imperium.

And for the love of all cute and fuzzy bunnies everywhere, NOBODY wants to get both the Skaa empires against them at the same time. That would be political and literal suicide. All those uncountable hordes of angry lizards out for blood would even make an atheist religious.

You're talking about hundreds of thousands of ships and billions of enemy troops against you.

BILLIONS.

Not even the Faey could stand up to THAT. The Imperium could fight a competitive war against the Skaa Empire, OR the Skaa Republic, but not both at the same time. They'd be overwhelmed by sheer, uncountable numbers...and remember, the Skaa DO have telepaths of their own.

[Fel]

However, since it takes hours to connect a stargate to another, the client races could insist that they should have a large military presence whenever the gates are opened or closed. If a gate is opened or closed without prior authorization they could simply destroy it.

The alternative is for the Karinnes to build the stargates.

I assume the gate set-up is such that there is one gate to each empire from the Terran system and that gate leads to another hub facility that has gates to all the interdicted worlds in that empire. All those hub worlds would become the main domestic trading port and center for foreign shipping. Meanwhile Terra becomes the center for all international trade.

You're more or less right on all points.

The way Jason envisions it is the way the Zyagya do it. They have their fleet parked at the Stargate to protect their territory on the other side. Every gate will have its own "entry station" for that government, so they can inspect everything coming in or out, and also their fleet is there to fend off any attempt by an enemy to use the gate to get in.

The gate system will be EXACTLY what you described. A gate from Terra to a hub system inside the government, then gates leading to all other interdicted systems.

And yes, the length of time it take to link gates is the protection the other governments would have from a surprise attack made by Dahnai linking two gates together to bypass Terra. It takes eight hours to link a gate, give or take, and you can VISUALLY see if a gate is linked, on hot standby, or delinked by the color of the actual spatial gate inside the Stargate. A linked gate has a different color than a delinked gate, and there IS no gate formed inside a Stargate actively trying to link to a different Stargate. The gate doesn't form until the linking process is complete. That gives the government in question several hours to detect the deception, then attack the Stargate to destroy it before it finishes the linking process.