Wizard's Gate

 I am hereby claiming Wizard's Gate as a Series Title.  The series will comprise many varied stories from a fictional universe where science and wizardry coexist. In essence, the Wizard's Gate is a method of instantaineous interplanetary travel, and a main feature used to keep the Chalcydonian Empire in power. It will be the unifying feature for the series. 

Thus, 

The Wizard's Gate Series.

This is how it works.

The Wizards Gates, or just Gates, are passages between worlds. They are created and maintained by wizards, of course, and they take so much wizarding power to maintain that most wizards no longer do anything but create and maintain the gates. They no longer have time for old style wizardry of casting spells and scrying the future.

Meanwhile the Gates, as they are known for short,  have become so essential to trade, that the Empire has 'adopted' the Wizard's Guild to ensure that Gates are reliable and as permanent as possible.

One of the tools of Empire has been to establish teams of wizards on every planet to create and maintain the Gates. Most planets (not of the Empire) would only have temporary, purpose-built Gates. People (mostly businesses) would have to negotiate with the local Wizard's Guilds to create a temporary Gate to the planet they wanted to go to (or more likely ship to). The pricing was complicated and unpredictable, and often fraught with political consequences.

On Empire planets, all Wizard's Guilds are contracted entirely and directly to the Empire specifically for the creation and maintenance of permanent Gates.  The complicated and unpredictable costs were eliminated and tolls were set depending on how much was being moved and where, governed by a semi-independent government agency (kinda like the post office). The Empire decided where the Gates needed to be and which planet(s) they would connect to.

Each planet (in the Empire) has at least one Imperial Wizard's Gate to another planet. Some have two and Chalcydonia, aka The ICE. the Capitol Planet, has 12. (see Chalcydonia WG)

Gates don't need to be stationary, but when the Empire was consolidating the Wizard's Guilds into an Imperial Superhighway Division, the wizards  negotiated for permanent locations above Wizard's Halls, so that the teams could have the proper support and a permanent base.

Physical Aspects

The physical manifestation of a Gate appears as a vertical circle high in the sky (approx 20000 feet) with a 1-kilometer radius. The edge of the circle is defined by what looks from a distance like a giant twisty rope as if from a gargantuan ship. As you approach, the rope seems to be twisting or turning unevenly, but when you get close enough, it is seen to be a kind of roiling cloud of smoke, ash and debris. And forever moving around the circumference, maintaining the smoke trail, are 7 wizards.

They ride on levitating couches, or perhaps flying carpets, or elaborate sleds or carriages, sitting in lotus position, eyes closed, deep in trance, lips mumbling the necessary spells.

The number of wizards required to set up and maintain a Gate depends upon how big the Gate is and how constant it has to be.  A single Wizard can set up a Gate big enough for themselves and perhaps a companion with a couple of big suitcases to jump through, and it would only last a minute or so, (and has been used to enable many an elopement, some quite famous, and not an insignificant number of larcenies and murders over the centuries.)  A Wizard would be pretty winded after that, but could manage a hike carrying a load after a short rest. Working in tandem with other Wizards, gates of practically any size can be set up depending on how many wizards are available. After a bunch of experimentation and study, the Empire decided that a kilometer of diameter was sufficiently big for most shipping and passenger purposes while still being efficient enough that the number of Wizards required to maintain it permanently would be reasonable. 

At a minimum, 5 wizards could create a 1 km Gate, but they'd be working all out and would tire quickly. Adding two more wizards eased the load for each considerably, and then setting up a rotation system where each worked overlapping shifts meant that 42 wizards working 4 hour shifts could maintain a permanent 1 km Gate at a fixed location indefinitely.

And there were also a few independent GW organizations, mostly based outside the Empire but with branches within, who could be contracted to create special short-term gates for single-use purposes. They were not allowed to set up permanent gates, and customs inspectors still were supposed to be present. Such gates were very expensive on a per use basis, and the Empire encouraged all to use the Imperial Gates, even though that sometimes meant shipping up through three planets to ICE and then back down another three. 

In Chaluda's time, the main Imperial Gates have been in place for as long as 200 years on some planets, the last one added 75 years before her Reagency. Since then several of the secondary planets have been pushing for direct gates between them, and one planet even made some kind of complicated legal document/law thingie that said they were entitled to it due to a sub-paragraph of the 2nd addendum to the original Royal Charter, and set up their own, thus bypassing the Imperial Gates (and the Imperial Tariffs and Tolls). The might of the Imperial Legal System came down upon those responsible in due course and the gate was shut.  Since then there have been several proposals and petitions wending their way through the treacle that is the Imperial Senate. The current system put money not just in the Empire's pockets, but in the pockets of every town or city on every planet through which goods were shipped. The shortcuts would have been like a freeway, good for the shipper, but a loss of income for everyone else throughout the system. Sometimes the Empire was on the side of regular people, rather than big business.

For the Wizard Engineering Nerds:

Each added wizard to a Wizard Gate Gate increases the total power by an exponential number. Not just the sum of each wizard's power but the square of the total number. So two wizards can create a gate and the measure of their power to put into the gate is recorded as a "Four-Wizard Gate". Or 4wp for short meaning wizardpower (like horsepower).

5 wizards could create a 25wp Gate 1 kilometer in diameter for approximately 6 hours steady before they all collapsed and died.

However, 7 wizards makes a 49wp gate, and with that much power they could potentially create a 5 kilometer wide Gate. And maintain it for 6 hours and then collapse and die.

OR, the same 7 wizards could conserve their individual energies by making a 1 km wide gate, keeping the power output of each wizard within safety limits, cycling them all in and out alternately for plenty of rest between shifts, and maintain that gate indefinitely. 1km was plenty wide for all transport ships; as many as 4 of the largest could pass through at a time, going either direction.  This was the Empire's design and decree and even though many wizards grumbled about the monotony of the work, it was at least steady work and well rewarded with good medical benefits and a retirement fund. 

There were still a few itinerant wizards who'd make Gates on short term contract with mostly shady characters or government spies to get someone or something from someplace to another place without being seen.  And one wizard who makes his own Gate for himself every morning so he can purchase Mdms Wirolla's fresh sweet buns as they come out of the oven. He does it same time every day, so she always has some ready for him. He repays her with lucky charms and trinkets, and she has them hung all over the shop, and she's become quite a tourist attraction, with people showing up early just to see the wizard's gate open and the wizard get his order, and she's gotten quite wealthy with some smart investments in snogheart futures, so obviously the luck charms are working.