Andromeda Ascendant trapped in the event horizon of a black hole because of a freak interaction involving an AG field.
Overview[]
Time Dilation is a phenomenon that occurs when an object is traveling at a high percentage of lightspeed. Because the object is traveling so fast, Einstein's law of relativity states that time must move at the same pace that the object is moving. Therefore, an object moving at a good fraction of the speed of light will experience the illusion of a normal passing of time, but will actually experience time at a slower pace than the rest of the universe. Dilation is not often experienced or witnessed by many vessels because of the advent of Slipstream by the Vedrans. Most of the civilized races in the galaxy encountered the Vedrans before said races had comprehensive space programs, and as a result many did not send out vessels that would have experienced time dilation. However, some species, such as the Human race, did manage to send off some vessels when they thought they were alone in the universe that did experience time dilation.
One such ship is the Bellerophon, which was sent by humanity when they were still pre-contact with the Vedrans. It was launched into space as an exploration vessel, and it had an engine which provided enough power to make them experience relativistic effects. They used this effect to their advantage, using the dilation to traverse great distances across the universe while powering down the engine when they needed supplies or fuel.
Passage of time within Slipstream[]
Although similar, time dilation does not occur within the Slipstream. If a pilot on a vessel in slipstream makes the wrong choice at a decision point, a voyage that would have taken minutes or hours will take several weeks. This is not time dilation because time flows normally within Slipstream just as it does in normal space, even if a wrong decision is made.