The Slow Empire was an empire established in the distant past by a humanoid race.
The founders of the empire designed a method of travel known as transference. They sent out probe ships carrying, in stasis, condemned psychopaths who had been lobotomised and "cyberdynically" implanted with controls. On arrival on a habitable planet, they would set up transference engines and then die on the spot. This expanded the empire across a vast space. (PROSE: The Slow Empire)