Ik-tech-na Gate Ships

In relation to The Farstep Saga, The GODSEND Series, The Innocence Project Archives

The word for the living ships the size of planetoids is not translatable in most languages outside of insectoid species. The best translation the Coalition could settle on was "Gate Ships".
The gate ships vary in size though all are genetically identical. They are sent at sub light speed to their destination, typically near a large gravitational fixture such as a gas giant and establish synchronous orbit. The ship will then extend their enormous wings to form the gate; at which point the ship is, for all intents and purposes, no longer able to alter its state or location.
Gate ships, once established, allow passage between one another. Any gate ship can transport matter, unaltered and instantaneously, from the entrance of one established gate ship to the exit of any other established gate ship. Do to the instantaneous movement from one location in space to another it has been found that non Ik-tech-na species benefit from not observing the transition as it can induce nausea, vertigo and short or prolonged bouts of psychosis.
The ships are sentient and intelligent; they are able and designed to follow directions as to the desired destination. To enter a gate without conveying a desired destination will result in being expelled out of a random established gate exit point.
The worst case of this occurring was when a Lumz transport vessel was proven to have sent an insult rather than a destination request whereupon the gate they entered deposited them through its own exit. A team of Ik-tech-na were dispatched to calm the gate ship into releasing the Lumiz vessel from its perpetual motion.
Given that the Ik-tech-na were one of the founding members of the Coalition their use of gate ships and the vast expanse of their already established network was often one of the driving factors in recruiting new species.
Though new locations may take centuries to reach, once established a gate is nearly impossible to destroy without extreme measures. When a gate ship establishes itself it becomes a fixed point in space, moving it would result in harm to the entire network of gates and nearby matter.
In instances where a gate ship’s fixed location is problematic, such as was the case in the Sol system, the gate will deactivate itself. Effectively ending its own life and allowing its remains to decay. While such an action is not desirable it does less harm to the network than attempting to move the established ship.
Though many species call the Gate Ships and the network of transportation a biotechnological marvel the Ik-tech-na have, on occasion, reminded the Coalition that Gate Ships are a subset of their own species and therefor have citizenship making the Gate Ships one of the very few Coalition citizens that are classified as a species, technology, biological construct and transportation system.