Jet Castilian
When an interstellar ship arrives at a planet, we don’t go straight there. Instead, we come into designated deceleration zones like Sol-1, which is a little inside the orbit of Mars. Here’s why.
A side-effect of Alçubierre Drive is that its warp bubble captures not just the ship itself, but also any other space dust it happens to shoot through on its journey. Space is almost completely empty but not quite, so over a travel path hundreds of light years long, the ethereal bits are swept along with the rest of the craft.
When the ship stops, the accumulated debris flushes out in a spray ahead of it like crumbs in front of a broom. The stuff is called space talus. It’s only dust—countable in molecules or atoms per cubic kilometer—but it is moving very, very fast, and in space that makes it dangerous. Deceleration zones are a sort of dumping ground for space talus. Arriving Alçubierre ships slow to sub-light speed there, then fly normally to their planet, moon, or other final destination. All other ships, including departing Alçubierres, avoid decel zones like the plague.
DOUG WALKER WRITES 