Nooo the explanation I invented in mah head is way cooler than computers simulating everything!
See, the "sectors" we see in Allegiance are actually closed bubbles of space-time, created by distortion in the very fabric of reality caused by the alephs themselves! These "bubbles" have some properties very different from outer space as we know it; amongst other things, they are filled with a thin atmosphere (which we call "luminiferous aether,") which is poisonous, but creates drag on ships and conducts sound! This is also why many ships look like they're designed to be aerodynamic - they were designed primarily to work in these space-time bubbles, not in open space, and here, drag makes a difference! It also affects sensors and visibility by distorting light and other radiation, allowing ships to hide more easily, and explaining why the "information warfare" aspect of Allegiance works!
And this is also why sectors have a "boundary" - as a ship approaches the edge of the space-time bubble, it starts to take damage, because the very fabric of reality is less stable there! Things simply start to fall apart.
Over time, debris and matter get drawn in through alephs from the outside universe, and end up becoming spread out throughout the chain of sectors, forming the resource-rich asteroids we find there today! Certain valuable materials and isotopes, like He3, uranium, etc., tend to actually be attracted to the alephs over time because of the interaction of their gravometric and magnetic fields, which is why the resources we find in the sectors tend to be rich and strategically important!
The space-time bubbles we call "sectors" appear whenever a lengthy chain of interconnected alephs exists, caused by the interaction of alephs' warping of space-time. Because especially distant points in our Galaxy are always connected by lengthy aleph chains, to get anywhere interesting in the Galaxy (like to your enemy faction's territory), you will always have to go through a whole network of sectors! This - and the resources the sectors contain - makes them strategically important, and is why almost all outer-space combat takes place in sectors, rather than just open space, and why ships are optimized for this!
This also explains the symmetry found in all "maps" - we find symmetry in many natural phenomena; here, it is caused by the interaction of the alephs, much like the symmetric field of force one can see existing between two poles of a magnet!
As for the alephs that lead "out" of the chain, and into "real" space, as opposed to other sectors - those aren't actually open all the time, but open and close intermittently, because of the complex interaction of the environments inside the sectors and outside, in space. One cannot actually see them during game-play, but such alephs briefly open in both "home sectors" of a map just before a game of Allegiance begins. That's how the initial miner(s), ships, and the garrison constructor get in! Because you can only send so much into the aleph chain before it closes to the outside world for a fairly long time (certainly longer than any game of Allegiance
), the minimal supplies necessary to set up an improved, powerful fleet are sent in, but the rest is left up to the fleet itself to sort out within the map itself.
And if you're wondering why the atmosphere within the sectors doesn't leak out into space while the main aleph is open, that's because the alephs don't allow the atmosphere to pass - in the same way they don't allow bullets or missiles to pass. Alephs only work for fairly large, massive, but distinct objects, like ships!
And that's how everything in Allegiance works! ^o^ Hey, it's one little sci-fi explanation that makes almost everything in the game make sense! That has to be good.
I nominate my explanation to be the official Allegiance hand-wave at every question about realism!
Man, they should have hired me to do the technobabble for that new Star Trek film, it would have been so much better!