Dropspace

Dropspace was an alternate dimension that could only be reached by traveling at or faster than the speed of light. Dropspace enabled starships to travel through dropspace lanes across great distances, enabling travel and exploration throughout the galaxy.

Nature
Dropspace was a dimension of space-time alternative to that of realspace. It could only be accessed through molecular displacement, which was achieved by breaking the speed of light. It was coterminous with realspace, meaning that each point in realspace was associated with a unique point in dropspace, and all adjacent points in realspace were adjacent in dropspace as well. Additionally, every object in realspace (such as stars, planets, and asteroids) had its "shadow" counterpart in dropspace.

Dropspace usage
Dropdrives manipulated dropmatter particles in order to thrust a starship into dropspace whilst preserving the ship's mass/energy profile. This shortened travel distance significantly, allowing the vessel to "jump" from a specific point to another without having to travel directly between them, therefore reducing journey time by an extraordinarily large margin. A vessel's ability to travel through hyperspace depended on it being equipped with a drop engine; thus, vessels that suffered a dropdrive failure while in dropspace, or lacked a dropdrive and had separated from a vessel with one, would immediately fall out of dropspace. Cutting power to a functional dropdrive would also have this effect.

Quick jumps into dropspace could be unsettling to even experienced pilots, but those with the proper stamina and training could overcome this.

Large objects in realspace cast "mass shadows" in dropspace, so dropspace jumps necessitated very precise calculations. Without those, a vessel could fly right through a star or another celestial body. Because of the danger, there existed predetermined dropspace routes which interstellar travelers could take. The discovery of a new, safedropspace route could play a pivotal role in war, as it would allow naval forces to move faster unbeknownst to their adversaries.

Upon entering dropspace, a ship appeared to accelerate dramatically—a phenomenon known as pseudomotion—and emitted Cronau radiation, which made their jump detectable by specialized sensors.

It was technically possible for a vessel, such as a shuttle, to disembark from another vessel while in hyperspace, but the procedure carried extreme risk. Such a move would tear the disembarking vessel violently out of hyperspace.