The planar universe (heimen-uchuu, fadh) is a key concept in the scientific side of "Crest of the Stars". Spaceships of Abh, as well as other interstellar nations, are able to shuttle between it and the ordinary universe. That means they can travel faster than the speed of light in the ordinary universe via the planar universe. Consequently most of the battle between them take place here.

As the name indicates, the planar universe consists of two space dimensions and one time dimension. Three dimensional objects, such as human beings and their ships, can only exist there within a space-time bubble (jikuu-hou, flasath). The bubble is a closed independent universe, in which the third space dimension is degenerated.

A space-time bubble in the planar universe behaves like an elementary particle in the ordinary universe and assumes either of two possible states. Imagine the bubble is spinning (like the "spin" of the elementary particles). If its axis of rotation is perpendicular to the plane, it doesn't change its position. On the other hand, if the axis is parallel to the plane, it moves (or rolls) on the plane. The former is called the stationary state (teishi-joutai, scobrtamh) while the latter is called the mobile state (idou-joutai, noctamh). The maximum velocity of a moving bubble solely depends on its mass and is inversely proportional to its square-root although the direction of movement can be set arbitrarily. The bubble can slow down by switching between the two states in a certain ratio.

Interstellar ships of Abh and other nations carry a system (flathatia) to create a space-time bubble around itself. When two bubbles come very close to each other, they eventually merge into one. This is called space-time merging (jikuu-yuugou, gor ptarhoth). Battles between ships can only happen after this has happened. It is worth noting that, because bubbles are "spinning" even in their stationary state as mentioned above, it requires energy to maintain the bubble in the planar universe. When a ship runs out of energy, the bubble disappears and its content, including the ship, collapses. By the way, cutting off one's bubble from a bigger one is called space-time separation (jikuu-bunri, gor rytcosec).

Apart from the bubbles, space-time particles (kikuu-ryuushi, spuflasath) and gravity waves are the only things that can propagate in the planar universe. Thus communication methods between bubbles are very limited. It is apparently possible to communicate directly by inter-bubble communication (houkan-tsuushin, droch flactaider). However, limitations in range and capacity mean, when there is a need to exchange large amounts of information, one has to rely on the very primitive method of communication ships (renraku-tei, pairriac). These are small ships that can create the space-time bubble and, thanks to their relatively small mass, can travel the planar universe much faster than their mother ships. Of course, once the bubble of a communication ship merges with that of the recipient of the information, they can use ordinary communication through electro-magnetic waves.

The planar universe exists almost independently from the ordinary universe (tsuujou-uchuu, dadh), where we live. The two universes are connected only through the "gates" (mon, saudec), which are spread over the galaxy. As you can imagine, the gates are strategically very important.

In the ordinary universe, these gates assume one of the two possible states. An open gates look like a sphere emitting dim light and can be used as the gateway to and from the planar universe. On the other hand a closed gates looks like a particle releasing a large amount of energy. The closed gates used to be called Uanon and were used as the energy source of interstellar ships but, after their use as a gate was discovered, this became rare. As some of you may have noticed, the fact above means a closed gate is transportable. The distance between two gates across the ordinary universe is independent from that in the planar universe. So two gates which are very far from each other in the ordinary universe may be very close together in the planar universe.

The state of a gate is not fixed. A closed gate can be opened by putting an excess amount of energy into it. On the other hand, if an open gate is left alone without any supply of energy, it will decay back into its closed form with a half-life of 12 years.

In contrast to the dynamic nature of the gates in the ordinary universe, the gates are unchanged in the planar universe and look like a distorted spiral. Also it seems no one has succeeded in moving gates in the planar universe.

It should be noted that, when a ship goes into a gate, it doesn't know which part of the gate it will come out of in the other universe. That is, even if two ships go in side-by-side, there is no guarantee that they will come out of the gate side-by-side.

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