Paratravel

Located within every star is a stargate, including Earth's sun. Stargates provide passage to other parallels as well as other solar systems within a shared galaxy.

Customs and Border Patrol agents of Interstellar Security are stationed at all stars, even though stargates boast obvious inherent security features. Only a limited variety of ships can withstand the heat and pressure. Once in a blue moon, an inchoate ship attempts to traverse a stargate with disastrous results.

This most palpable means of paratravel is the preferred vehicle for government officials, scientists, researchers, accredited businessors, and aristocratic tourists. It's wildly expensive to secure admission to another parallel or solar system. For civilians, it can take decades to obtain a Para-passport or a Travel-X Permit, customarily valid for only a specified Parallel with a precise timetable.

Galactic ports in every galaxy implement strict inspections by Interpara Border Enforcement to all approaching cargo vessels to prevent the smuggling of strange animals, slaves, exotic foods, skins, furs, technology, harvested organs, plants, drugs, rare minerals, purloined relics, blueprints, and maps.

Authorized ships are given a parallel-specific, complex, one-time-use key-code with a short expiry to pass through the firewalls.

Once inside the firewall, the long-hauling freighter ships are received by regional cargo ships called feeders and ropers on local bases. The bases are usually on nearby moons or planets. The freighters, obligated to remain concealed from populated planets, sneak in and out of solar systems virtually unnoticed. The feeders and ropers are much smaller and agile, supporting an expedient dispatch.

To travel to another parallel on the same planet, freighter ships must exit the solar system, return to the galactic port for reinspection, and reenter through the firewall with a new code to access the different parallel. There are heavy taxes and tolls levied for each visit to a galactic port. Dominion laws protect planets from double-dealers that take too many resources without replacing the total mass from multiple parallels on one planet.

Depending on the exports, the electromagnetic field of the planet can also be affected. Such changes can alter the planet's axis and climate. Worlds must also take into account the elements utilized for space exploration and satellites. Interstellar Security works with global leadership to monitor and cap exports.

Naturally occurring portals, aka anomalies, are the safest means of para-travel. Anomaly detectors, such as para-compasses, galthers, and jojospects, can detect anomalies, but they are rare and inconsistently accurate.

Anomalies allow animals to come and go through parallels. Commonplace animals are native to all paras, so their para-travels go unnoticed. Once in a while, an anomaly connects to a parallel with rare creatures, like Big Foot and Nessie, that make occasional appearances. There have also been instances of repopulation of previously extinct animals, the most recent being the coelacanth.

Ocean and lake anomalies are more typical than on land. The conditions have to be perfect, and they are usually most potent at tween times – dusk, dawn, solstices, equinoxes, and eclipses.

Some parallels harbor dangerous creatures with mythical status. Dinosaurs, dragons, chimeras, hydras, and the like, along with their innocuous counterparts, such as unicorns, al-mi'raj, griffons, and phoenixes, inhabit limited paras. These creatures once lived throughout the universe until the great Magus Wars where fought, when terrible evil worked to destroy all magic, as seen by the destruction of the planet Tiamat between Mars and Jupiter that now forms the asteroid belt. The few surviving "magic creatures" on Earth remain protected in the 12th paradomas.

Soon after the war ended, the Monsters vs. Civilization case was presented before the Universal Supreme Court, wresting a near-unanimous decision in favor of the creatures being confined, but not removed. When the Multiverse was installed, Interstellar Security responded by establishing the Delta Arcanus Unit, a specialized security team organized to ensure the creatures assigned to the 12^th paradomas don't wander into a neighbor's para.

Of course, there have been some humans, known as parafools, that unwittingly wandered into an anomaly. Named after the first tarot card in the major arcana, the Fool signifies a blind, naive initial step into the unknown, heralding a new adventure. Disoriented oblivious parafools display extreme confusion, delirium, or amnesia. Since most people are not aware the multiverse exists, it is rare that parafools find their way home. Trapped forever in a strange land, they are often cold-cased as missing people in their native parallel.

Nature portals, or manufactured portals using natural elements, are not to be mistaken for naturally occurring portals referred to as anomalies. A beautiful example of a nature portal is the Devil's Bridge in Germany, currently out of commission due to tighter para-security since 2017.

Nature portals harness an auspicious environment's high-frequency electromagnetic field that coincides with a charged planetary meridian point. These optimally receptive locations are enhanced and stabilized by natural elements, creating a gateway. Such fortuitous places might open only at certain times of the year at transitional tween times, just as the anomalies. Many ancient locations in the world once offered a window to our para-neighbors, but most are no longer active. Among the most famous are Stonehenge, the Nabta Playa Stones, the Lake Michigan Stonehenge, the Wurdi Youang, the Arkaim, and the Karahunj.