Minimal Presence of Starships

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Do gates need to be paired

The writeup speaks of "hacking" gates to receive undesirable shipments (like invading troops), so I'd assume not.

I'm not seeing how they maintain their mysteriousness when they have to travel like everyone else.

Suppose they don't allow travel to their systems, and maintain their own layover facilities in ports, rarely associating with others. Little is known about their internal political structure or goals. Traders are usually making money for imports (if any) by shrewd dealing and information advantage in the outside economy, rather than by exporting their own products, so economic intelligence is also largely guesswork. That would make them "enigmatic" even with the same tech.