NEXUS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

 
 

The Nexus is the primary communications network that links all of its deep space and near space nodes into a cohesive virtual reality communications platform. There are private, public, and military versions in operation. It allows near to real time contact from any point in Terran space.

The network not only provides a means for communication, it is the control center of a virtual universe which serves as a duplicate of the current one. For example, if someone living on the planet Mars wanted to visit the planet Kunlan without actually going there physically, they could use the Nexus. It is done by logging in as an avatar and becoming part of the the Kunlan archive. Here, the user can interact with other avatars that are visiting the the same archive. One of the greatest advantages of travelling like this is the lack of risk. If an avatar is exposed to the vaccum of space or the molten lava of an erupting volcano no harm will come. Many people use this not only to travel, but to shop and visit family on other worlds.

The Nexus also provides the Virtual Shopping Network, which is the merchants ultimate marketplace. The VSN controls all monetary transactions conducted in the Nexus and keeps records of everything that happens here. Anyone wanting to buy or sell must attain a VSN membership implant in order to gain access to the system. This implant serves as protection against fraud and theft as it allows the VSN to track its members activities. It works the same as the Nexus in allowing the user to enter a virtual universe. This one is alot smaller, because it only contains the millions of shops and showrooms that are scattered accross space. A consumer's avatar would shop here and upon purchase conclude its business with a merchant avatar. The merchant avatars are ussually automated and linked directly with the merchant's primary node.

The government also conducts a number of tasks here. For example, all elections, appointments, trials, and auctions are done in the Nexus. People that are linked in participate in a real time voting system that lasts for twelve hours on the designated days. It is a system that has been adopted by most interstellar governments. Many judicial systems also use this platform to conduct trials.

Several militaries also employ this technology. It was realized early on, there was a need for a high speed communications network to defend the vast stretches of space and the Nexus technology network provided that. These versions are closed off to the civilian networks and require sophisticated biometric authorizations to utilize.