Up, but not Out? Discussing the lack of exploration fics.

[Threepony]

One thing I was thinking about is reverse-engineering the very basic principles of the gates and building tiny short-range versions that could go maybe 7-1/2 ly. A bit of salvaging Mal's idea without breaking the setting.

Maybe two way, but dedicated linked gates requiring gate stations and expeditions in order to extend out the network to allow longer ranged trips.

What kind of stories would this enable...

except for "gatebuilding" ones?

Makes it possible for most of the setting authors to have a wilderness roadtrip. Instead of having an all-out starship, theoretically an RV could fly out to Pluto and gate through to Alpha Centauri and on to a catalogued world, only to accidentally get lost camping. Or some dane country deciding to bum-rush colonize an M-class planet now that it's not insane to reach. Basic lowering of the threshhold in order to get extra-solar, without making it too easy. We could think up a few restrictions, if need be.