Pads

First drawings of a Pad, 1994

The almost ubiquitous Alliance technology. Seem to be most akin to the Stepping Disks from Larry Niven's Known Space universe, rather than the Star Trek teleporters.

History

Developed in 102 BA, just over a hundred years (101) after the Well drive, which was the technology on which the Pads were based.

Technology

They can be used to send people and material to a location that does not have a receiving Pad, but you have to have a Pad to go from the location.

Range is planetary, and orbital. I don't believe we've seen interplanetary distances done? Hypothetically pads can be chained between stations.

The Chatcaava have some equivalent of Pads, though it is unclear whether it has similar properties to the Alliance version.

Quotes

"Sascha appeared with the silhouette-liming flash of a Pad transfer" Rose Point (Fiction) location 1972 of 5307, 37%, Crew Pads down to Planet

"It (swords) is a hold-over from the first days of Pads, which reacted poorly to palmers" Laisrathera (Fiction) p104

""It was one thing to see someone appear over aPad, knowing that the Pad was doing the magic. It was another to watch a Tam-illee woman appear out of nowhere, without any device to reassure you that there were sound scientific principles associated with the sheer unlikeliness of her having melted out of the air." Laisrathera (Fiction) p109

References

And almost every story