History Main / CasualInterstellarTravel

In some SpeculativeFiction settings, interstellar travel is depicted as expensive and at least [[SpaceIsAnOcean moderately]] time-consuming, being mostly limited to governments and major commercial operations. But that's not here.

* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's two-part novel ''Literature/TheStarsAreColdToys'' is premised on humans discovering FTLTravel in the early 21st century, resulting in most countries having their own space programs and American space shuttles and Russian ''Buran'' spacecraft lifting off into space using the usual means and then activating the jumper device, which instantly sends a ship slightly over 12 light years in a given direction. The distance is always constant. By sheer coinsidence, the first interstellar jump results in humanity encountering the Conclave, a conglomerate of alien races ruling this part of the galaxy. Unfortunately, there is a strict hierarchy between the Strong and Weak races, and humanity is classified as the latter. The alien method of FTL travel are considerably slower, often taking months, although they still fit this trope. Then you have the [[spoiler:[[HumanAliens Geometers]]]], who have managed to combine both technologies into a highly-efficient method of interstellar travel to the point where moving entire star systems isn't that big a deal.

* The ''HumanxCommonwealth'' of Creator/AlanDeanFoster plays SpaceIsAnOcean fairly freely -- while interstellar travel isn't necessarily cheap {{canon}}ically, within the story most characters consider it to be no more inconvenient than a long plane trip would be to us. In perhaps the most over-the-top example, ''Mid-Flinx'' features a character who travels to a barely-documented planet, only to be followed by ''three other ships'' which are looking for him. This would seem far less improbable if he hadn't gotten there by pointing in a random direction and instructing his ship to take him "that way". Then again, Flinx is the ChosenOne of his particular universe, so it's quite likely his venture there was [[YouCantFightFate not entirely random]].

* Partially used in Dan Simmons' ''Literature/HyperionCantos'' books - during the first half (''Hyperion''), travel to any given point is quick, through a system of teleporter gates called Farcasters. The entire galaxy as melted together into one gigantic metropolis, since any given city is never further away than the nearest Farcaster. Particularly rich people have their houses divided over several planets, with Farcasters instead of ordinary doors. However, in ''Endymion'', [[spoiler:a major plot-twist at the end of ''Hyperion'' has destroyed this system, and interstellar travel is now only available to particularly powerful organizations and the enormously wealthy...]] In ''Endymion'' [[spoiler: the only remaining mode of instantaneous travel ''kills you'' when it is used.]] And then it turns out that [[spoiler: Aenea can teach people]] a way to teleport themselves to any planet in the universe that has life on it. Instant teleportation without needing a spaceship defines this trope.

* ''[[CommonwealthSaga Pandora's Star]]'' by PeterFHamilton starts off with this but then inverts it. Humanity develops wormhole technology that allows them to treat interstellar travel like an airport or a train station so they never really develop spaceship technology too much. When they finally do need to develop spaceships they do so by jury rigging the wormhole technology but it is very much an inconvenient form of interstellar travel.
** The ''Void Trilogy'', set 1500 years after ''Pandora's Star'', has a lot more spaceships. There are commercial spaceships, the Commonwealth Navy, and private spaceships. Think of them as [[SpaceIsanOcean like ships nowadays]]: the biggest and most efficient are company or government owned, but there is a significant number of leisure yachts.
** From the same author: In what is likely the most extreme example of this trope, the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Kiint]] from the ''[[NightsDawn Night's Dawn Trilogy]]'' have [[spoiler: the capability to teleport instantly [[UpToEleven across multiple]] ''galaxies'' at a moment's notice]]. In the same trilogy, regular space travel is available and people own private starships, but it's still difficult enough that it couldn't be used to effectively reduce the population pressure on Earth.
** Hamilton runs the gamut of this trope in his various novels. It's completely averted in ''FallenDragon'', where space travel takes months and is so costly that it has been nearly abandoned, and the only companies still doing it are just invading planets they own the rights to and stealing all their stuff to try to make a profit.

* ''TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' novels, while mainly focused on the military, make no secret that it's ridiculously easy for any private citizen to obtain a [=FTL=]-capable ship. Travel time can be anything from a few minutes to hours and days (no longer than that, usually), depending on how deep into [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Hypersphere]] a ship is capable and the pilot is willing to go (the deeper the faster). It gets to the ridiculous extent that a previously-unknown race of HumanAliens is able to purchase a battlefleet online along with enough HumongousMecha to wage a war on humanity.
* In SergeyLukyanenko's ''LineOfDelirium'' trilogy, being very loosely based on ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', this trope is played perfectly straight. HyperspaceOrSubspace travel is cheap, relatively, and accessible to almost anyone. It takes only days to get anywhere, weeks at most.
* In MikhailAkhmanov's ''ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series, this trope is played straight for some alien races, but not humans. In the first novel, humanity doesn't even have [=FTL=] drives. In subsequent books, only the military has [=FTL=]-capable starships. However, the rapid expansion of humanity makes it clear that humans will play this trope straight eventually. Contour drives require little energy and can transport a ship anywhere in the galaxy nearly instantly, although no one has ever tried such a long jump, as even small jumps require extremely precise calculations. Jumps are usually done in series.

* SergeyLukyanenko's two-part novel ''TheStarsAreColdToys'' is premised on humans discovering FTLTravel in the early 21st century, resulting in most countries having their own space programs and American space shuttles and Russian ''Buran'' spacecraft lifting off into space using the usual means and then activating the jumper device, which instantly sends a ship slightly over 12 light years in a given direction. The distance is always constant. By sheer coinsidence, the first interstellar jump results in humanity encountering the Conclave, a conglomerate of alien races ruling this part of the galaxy. Unfortunately, there is a strict hierarchy between the Strong and Weak races, and humanity is classified as the latter. The alien method of FTL travel are considerably slower, often taking months, although they still fit this trope. Then you have the [[spoiler:[[HumanAliens Geometers]]]], who have managed to combine both technologies into a highly-efficient method of interstellar travel to the point where moving entire star systems isn't that big a deal.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' is a good example. All three subtropes of FasterThanLightTravel are present; [[HandWave "Hetch Drive"]] is dirt cheap and available to everyone, [[TeleportersAndTransporters "Starburst"]] is available to [[LivingShip Leviathans]], but [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormholes]] - which act as a [[AllTheMyriadWays metadimensional]] PortalNetwork - can only be utilized with the assistance of {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s, which they [[YouAreNotReady don't give lightly]] for [[ApocalypseHow really]] [[WeaponOfMassDestruction good]] [[RealityBreakingParadox reasons]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Starslip}}'' subverts it with the 'Starslip Drive', which abuses [[AllTheMyriadWays alternate dimensions]]. As the original title (Starslip ''Crisis'') suggests, it isn't without consequences.

* In Mikhail Akhmanov's ''ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series, this trope is played straight for some alien races, but not humans. In the first novel, humanity doesn't even have [=FTL=] drives. In subsequent books, only the military has [=FTL=]-capable starships. However, the rapid expansion of humanity makes it clear that humans will play this trope straight eventually. Contour drives require little energy and can transport a ship anywhere in the galaxy nearly instantly, although no one has ever tried such a long jump, as even small jumps require extremely precise calculations. Jumps are usually done in series.
** Averted in Akhmanov and Christopher Gilmore's ''Captain French, or Looking for Paradise'', where interstellar travel is achieved via a relativistic drive that feels like a fraction of a second for anyone in the ship but takes decades in real time. While humanity has settled dozens of worlds, colonization is a costly venture that only governments on rich planets can afford, usually when overpopulation becomes an issue. The only people for whom space travel is routine are space traders, including the titular protagonist. Due to this, space traders are greeted on almost every populated world and treated as royalty. Without them, there would be no interaction between planets. Even interstellar communication is a rarity, as it requires large orbital transmitters and receivers to be set up and maintained, and any message would still take years to arrive. Even with this, a ship still has to travel for months under normal power in order to get away from deep gravity wells, as they mess up calculations. It is also risky, as a jump can deposit the ship near a star or inside a planet. There are, probably, no more than several hundred space traders in this 'verse.

* ''{{Alternity}}'''s ''[[StarDrive Star*Drive]]'' setting has relatively casual travel, thanks to the titular stardrive. A stardrive jump always lasts five days, though the distance covered depends on the power of the engine.

* Everything in the ''StargateVerse'', but especially the titular Stargate network.

** Inversely, outfitting a spaceworthy ship costs a few hundred million to a few billion ISK (Inter-Stellar Kredits, the de factor currency of the galaxy). It has been said that one single ISK is worth enough to allow you to live in comfort planetside for the rest of your life.

* With the addition of trading to ''SwordOfTheStars'', it's clear that this is the case with the case with the traders. Instead of assigning them to a specific system, they are instead assigned to a sector that includes one or more systems. They then travel from system to system, increasing the empire's revenue. It's not entirely clear how the [[BeePeople Hivers]] trade with systems not joined with their PortalNetwork, but the game just HandWaves this.
* {{Elite}} and its sequels treat the hyperdrive like this however [[GameplayAndStorySegregation there is nowhere near enough]] [[FridgeLogic space traffic as in universe sources would suggest.]]

* Likewise ''EscapeVelocity''. A basic cargo shuttle costs maybe ten to twenty grand.

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* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': They ''do'' have a form of [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL]] -- known as the [[FunWithAcronyms Dangerous And Very Expensive]] drive. All but the very rich[[hottip:*:the "Expensive" in the name isn't there just for acronym value]] are stuck with GenerationShips.

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* In ''The Essential SilverSurfer'' a villain wants to prove to Shalla Bal that Norrin Radd (the Surfer) is dead in order he can move in on her, so they pop across to Earth in his ship. Come to think of it, how did he even know where to go?

* ''StarWars'' is so completely based on this trope that it's really hard to come up with concrete examples. They're everywhere. Even the Death Star - large enough to be mistaken for a moon - goes traipsing around the galaxy freely. In the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, people have worked out the speeds of Hyperdrive travel based on evidence in the movies and the EU, and a good course in a fast ship will get you across ''the galaxy'' in ''a week''. In the films, cross-galactic travel is accomplished in mere hours (unless you think Obi-Wan and Luke spent days and weeks on the ''Millenium Falcon'' on the trip from Tatooine (Outer Rim) to Alderaan (Core World). There's also Padme's trip from Coruscant (Core World) to Mustafar (Outer Rim). Spaceships can be purchased at {{Honest Johns Dealership}}s, as in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear''. Planets with economies based on offworld tourism exist, famous for shopping, or beautiful scenery, gambling opportunities, super-friendly locals...

* This is very evident in ''Film/PitchBlack'' and ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', to the point that not only are criminals routinely shipped to penal planets in other star systems, it's possible to make a living as a bounty hunter even with having to schlep the prisoner to the prison planet yourself. It helps that their 'verse has developed a form of [[PullTheIV easy intravenous]] [[HumanPopsicle stasis]] technology - punch in your ship's course, stick the needle in your arm and you make the trip without consuming resources.

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* ''InvaderZim'' is a weird example: in the first episode, it takes Zim six months to travel from Conventia to Earth, but later episodes show him traveling to Irken or other planets in what one presumes is a relatively short time (Dib mentions Zim had been gone "three days" when he went to Foodcourtia). [[WildMassGuessing Perhaps the tallest put him on a cheap flight?]]
* ''{{Futurama}}'' does this a lot, primarily out of [[RuleOfFunny sheer comedic value]]. Not only does the Planet Express ship routinely make deliveries to distant planets as a matter of normal business, not only are there highway-like lines of other space ships waiting to travel similar distances, not only has the crew rocketed off to the edge of the universe and come right back to earth in a matter of a week, but Cubert and Dwight have once ''delivered newspapers'' to homes in a ''nearby asteroid belt'' (supposedly not our solar system's) using what amounts to a ''do-it-yourself bicycle-powered rocket''.
* In Ben10UltimateAlien the heroes get their own SpacePlane that can make good time anywhere the galaxy, though this may be justified by the fact they are part of the SpacePolice and would need such equipment. CIT seems to be common in the setting with even one of Ben's alien forms (Jetray) having the ability to travel at ''warp speed'' to catch up to the others when they take the space plane to another planet.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' is a good example. All three subtropes of FasterThanLightTravel are present; [[HandWave "Hetch Drive"]] is dirt cheap and available to everyone, [[TeleportersAndTransporters "Starburst"]] is available to [[LivingShip Leviathans]], but [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormholes]] - which act as a [[AllTheMyriadWays metadimensional]] PortalNetwork - can only be utilized with the assistance of {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s, which they [[YouAreNotReady don't give lightly]] for [[ApocalypseHow really]] [[WeaponOfMassDestruction good]] [[DivideByZero reasons]].

** Saying that Neelix managed to get his own ship.

* The first six ''PowerRangers'' seasons involved travel between ''galaxies'' in a time span ranging from seconds at the quickest (via teleportation) to a day or two via TransformingMecha spaceship thanks to alien technology. Season seven did it at a more... reasonable in-galaxy-only pace (except for a notable incident involving a wormhole) due to using a human-built ship, and later seasons involving aliens avoid mention of distances whenever possible. When they ''do'', its always something like "several galaxies away".

In many SpeculativeFiction settings, interstellar travel is depicted as expensive and at least [[SpaceIsAnOcean moderately]] time-consuming, being mostly limited to governments and major commercial operations.

Sometimes, however, interstellar travel appears to be about as trivially easy and quick as driving an automobile a few kilometers down a paved road is in modern society. Usually this takes the form of some kind of teleportation network, but there are quite a few settings where ships capable of traveling thousands or millions of times the speed of light are available to every Tom, Richard, and Harry.

This can happen when writers do not think things through and [[{{Planetville}} treat planets like towns]] and interstellar voyages like intercontinental flights or, at worst, [[SpaceIsAnOcean like crossing an ocean]] in a steamship. If the [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale Sci Fi Writers Have Any Sense Of Scale]], then the scale of civilization surpasses our one planet easily. And probably mocks the [[MundaneDogmatic Mundane Manifesto]] while it's at it.

It can also be done deliberately, in the [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness very softest SF]], where all sense of realism has long since been tossed out the window. For instance, the writer just may feel that [[ConvenientlyClosePlanet places in space are pretty close]] and just HandWave it.

Many find this trope relatively easy to swallow when applied to some form of PortalNetwork, but being able to walk into a seedy bar on a CrapsackWorld and hire a ship to take you to a planet of CrystalSpiresAndTogas requires prodigious application of the MST3kMantra.

** Averted when it comes to ''non''-relay FTL travel. Without the mass relays, the civilian ships make about 12 LY per day (military ships might be faster, but it's never specified). You also need an {{Unobtanium}} drive core. Plus, you have to discharge the drive regularly, which must be done on the surface of a planet or in a strong magnetic field. Otherwise, the core releases the gigawatt equivalent of a rub-your-shoes-on-the-carpet-and-touch-the=doorknob static discharge. This is invariably lethal.

* ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''. Starships had the Alderson Drive, which allowed instantaneous jumps from star to star. The setting had merchant starships, such as those owned by Horace Hussein Bury. The only limitation is that the relative positions and natures of stars determine where the jump-points lie, and one must still use ordinary reaction drives to move about in-system and between jump points.

* In the ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' Chronicles, the only mode of interstellar travel is through the Spacing Guild, which has a monopoly on interstellar travel. This is justified in-story by a religion-based ban on computers (justified in-universe), which means that only the Guild's Navigators (who live in tanks of concentrated spice and have been physically and mentally mutated by it to the point of being StarfishAliens) are capable of piloting a ship through hyperspace without it being destroyed. As such, more than a few characters complain about that monopoly and the high cost of that travel. However, by Heretics of ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', Ix has truly broken the monopoly by skirting around the Butlerian Jihad's conventions and producing machines that could substitute for the Guild's prescience.

* Partially used in Dan Simmons' ''Literature/HyperionCantos'' books - during the first half (''Hyperion''), travel to any given point is quick, through a system of teleporter gates. The entire galaxy as melted together into one gigantic metropolis, since any given city is never further away than the nearest jump-gate. Particularly rich people have their houses divided over several planets, with Gates instead of ordinary doors. However, in ''Endymion'', [[spoiler:a major plot-twist at the end of ''Hyperion'' has destroyed this system, and interstellar travel is now only available to particularly powerful organizations and the enormously wealthy...]] In ''Endymion'' [[spoiler: the only remaining mode of instantaneous travel ''kills you'' when it is used.]] And then it turns out that [[spoiler: Aenea can teach people]] a way to teleport themselves to any planet in the universe that has life on it. Instant teleportation without needing a spaceship defines this trope.