Faster-than-light travel remains a practical impossibility, but the Precursors avoided paradox by travelling between universes. Their gate network remains accessible to modern sophonts, and conveniently links systems with (mostly) habitable planets.

It takes about a week (five days in jumpspace plus a couple days getting to and from a safe distance from a planet) to get from one system to another.

A jump drive produces a jump field or jump bubble, which serves several purposes: when charged with exoplasm it will shift its contents into jumpspace, and once in jumpspace it will shield the matter of the ship (and its occupants!) from hungry voidlife.

TBA: Starships, Cargo cans