Art by a friend on Discord! Big thanks to them for drawing this!

I remember when this machine was built, you know. Five years after the start of Gateway, after this site was selected, they began work on research for certain technologies needed for Crosser. Crosser and runner both use antimatter. A lot of antimatter. Antimatter powered probes have been sent between the stars before, but they were always small and simple. The longest containment of a useable quantity of antimatter achieved before Crosser was 40 years with one kilogram. Crosser needed to carry much, much more than that for more than 200 years. Runner needed to carry even more, but only for a short time during the boost phase of flight. This machine was built to test and analyze the options we had at our disposal to store that antimatter. The rails would move in a containment pod, and the rings would work to stabilize it. The backplates are the channels the antimatter would flow in and out of. Antimatter could be moved from one side of the machine to the other. If you didn’t know, the entire chamber behind this window is hard vacuum. Maybe 250 particles per cubic meter, optimally even fewer. It’s a wonderful piece of engineering, but it’s been unused for over 40 years now.

Once they began shifting from proving theory to designing implementation, they needed a larger, more capable machine. Once they completed that, this machine slowly saw less and less use until it was finally turned off for the last time. Crosser leaves tomorrow, and I’ll be going with it. Take care of this place for me, I have fond memories of my work here.