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Quantum Shift Drives are a high-speed Faster-than-light propulsion system primarily used in Florathel in which a spacecraft appears to "jump" instantly from one point to another. After the jump, the ship arrives at a precise destination up to 7,500 light-years away, beyond which accuracy rapidly decays. Utilizing very powerful computers fitted to a ship to calibrate the drive for each jump, the drive is among the fastest in the universe and can be fitted on individual civilian ships with recent improvements in energy storage.

Initially used by the Providence Union and other concurrent civilizations, the Shift Drive remains in use to this day. It is essential for interstellar trade, and many nations spend decent fractions of their budget on improving it further.

History

The first known examples of use of the Quantum Shift Drive was by the Providence Union, over 6 million years ago, although presumably other civilizations developed similar drives in the Elder Days. Over the intervening years, fairly rudimentary alternate forms were developed independently by other civilizations.

After Glanadi was discovered amongst the maze of stars in the Providence Cluster and the people of Florathel gained access to its archives, a very efficient prototype of the Quantum Shift Drive under development by the Union at its fall was uncovered. This form, which doubled the maximum effective jump range to 6,000 light-years, was quickly adopted by most nations across Florathel and its satellites. It was used to great effect in the War of Saiheran Succession, with great fleets abruptly materializing near targets before anything could be done to stop them.

The formation of the United Nations of the Florathel made it very easy for scientists to communicate across borders. This sped up the development of many technologies, but particularly the Quantum Shift Drive, which was refined to its present state, halving its energy use and improving external energy storage enough to allow placement on small civilian craft. Today, the Quantum Shift Drive can jump up to 7,500 light-years with virtually no positional errors. In intergalactic space, where exact positioning matters little, this range increases to 80,000 light-years before the craft starts going in completely the wrong direction.

Operation

The Quantum Shift Drive charging after calibration, heard from within the craft. The sound at the end is the actual jump.

The Quantum Shift Drive relies on a key facet of quantum mechanics, the fact that every possible event has a nonzero probability of occurring. The drive essentially takes the event of the ship changing position to the target and magnifies its probability through exceedingly complicated mechanisms that require 20 textbooks to explain.

This concept has been applied to other events such as the creation of new substances, but that requires far more computing power and energy to cause atoms to teleport across large distances from disparate locations into a new arrangement than to cause a group of atoms to teleport to the same location and remain in the same configuration.

Dangers

One potential danger in a hasty jump is that of rematerializing within a solid object. This causes the atoms of the craft to be bonded with those of the object, rendering the parts of the craft thus merged to be rendered immobile. This primarily occurs during hasty jumps or jumps to unknown regions of space, as the computer's calculations account for known objects and ensure that a ship does not impact anything as it rematerializes. This is still very unlikely, even neglecting calculations to avoid it, as space is famously very empty.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{LocalUniverse}}{{Infobox Device
-{{Infobox_Technology|image1=Ascension Plane Inside.jpg|major_producers=* [[Quantum Ascension Corporation]]
+|image1=Unknown.png
-* [[Kalian Company]]|function_summary=Accelerates a craft to faster-than-light speeds.|caption1=An image taken inside Ascension Plane.}}
+|manufacturer=Most nations in [[Florathel]] and satellites
+|design_year=First use believed to be ~6 million years ago by the [[Providence Union]]
+|source_of_power=Anything that has enough, usually antimatter
+|ftl_range=Effectively infinite, 7,500 ly per jump within a galaxy, 80,000 ly per jump in intergalactic space
+}}Quantum Shift Drives are a high-speed Faster-than-light propulsion system primarily used in [[Florathel]] in which a spacecraft appears to "jump" instantly from one point to another. After the jump, the ship arrives at a precise destination up to 7,500 light-years away, beyond which accuracy rapidly decays. Utilizing very powerful computers fitted to a ship to calibrate the drive for each jump, the drive is among the fastest in the universe and can be fitted on individual civilian ships with recent improvements in energy storage.
+Initially used by the [[Providence Union]] and other concurrent civilizations, the Shift Drive remains in use to this day. It is essential for interstellar trade, and many nations spend decent fractions of their budget on improving it further.
-== '''Overview''' ==
+== History ==
-The '''Quantum Shift Drive''', abbreviated as '''QSD''', is a cutting-edge propulsion engine used by the [[United Confederacy of Nations]], that allows a starship to attain lightspeed and travel through the gap between stars in the Ascension Plane, a higher plane of reality. As an outcome, the Quantum Shift Drive has played a crucial role in shaping the galactic society, trade, politics, and war of the United Confederacy of Nations.
+The first known examples of use of the Quantum Shift Drive was by the [[Providence Union]], over 6 million years ago, although presumably other civilizations developed similar drives in the Elder Days. Over the intervening years, fairly rudimentary alternate forms were developed independently by other civilizations.
+After [[Glanadi]] was discovered amongst the maze of stars in the Providence Cluster and the people of Florathel gained access to its archives, a very efficient prototype of the Quantum Shift Drive under development by the Union at its fall was uncovered. This form, which doubled the maximum effective jump range to 6,000 light-years, was quickly adopted by most nations across [[Florathel]] and its satellites. It was used to great effect in the [[War of Saiheran Succession]], with great fleets abruptly materializing near targets before anything could be done to stop them.
-The Quantum Shift Drive operates by propelling a spacecraft into the Ascension Plane using artificial Ascension Particles while maintaining the vessel's mass and energy profile. The spaceship then travels along a manually or automatically set trajectory until it reaches its target and returns to normal space.
+The formation of the [[United Nations of the Florathel]] made it very easy for scientists to communicate across borders. This sped up the development of many technologies, but particularly the Quantum Shift Drive, which was refined to its present state, halving its energy use and improving external energy storage enough to allow placement on small civilian craft. Today, the Quantum Shift Drive can jump up to 7,500 light-years with virtually no positional errors. In intergalactic space, where exact positioning matters little, this range increases to 80,000 light-years before the craft starts going in completely the wrong direction.
-Because Ascension Particles are only produced in Charybdis, Quantum Shift Drives would only be used in that galaxy. Small Quantum Shift Drive imports have been made in recent years, but there are currently no plans to deliver this sophisticated warp engine to extragalactic societies on a widespread scale.
+==Operation==
+[[File:QSDCharge.mp3|thumb|The Quantum Shift Drive charging after calibration, heard from within the craft. The sound at the end is the actual jump.|left]]The Quantum Shift Drive relies on a key facet of quantum mechanics, the fact that every possible event has a nonzero probability of occurring. The drive essentially takes the event of the ship changing position to the target and magnifies its probability through exceedingly complicated mechanisms that require 20 textbooks to explain.
+This concept has been applied to other events such as the creation of new substances, but that requires far more computing power and energy to cause atoms to teleport across large distances from disparate locations into a new arrangement than to cause a group of atoms to teleport to the same location and remain in the same configuration.
-=== '''Ascension Plane''' ===
+==Dangers==
-The Ascension Plane is an alternate plane of space-time that can only be accessible through intricate interactions between various artificial and natural particles. It is identical to normal space, with each unique place in normal space providing a distinct point on the Ascension Plane.
+One potential danger in a hasty jump is that of rematerializing within a solid object. This causes the atoms of the craft to be bonded with those of the object, rendering the parts of the craft thus merged to be rendered immobile. This primarily occurs during hasty jumps or jumps to unknown regions of space, as the computer's calculations account for known objects and ensure that a ship does not impact anything as it rematerializes. This is still very unlikely, even neglecting calculations to avoid it, as space is famously very empty.
+[[Category:Technology]]
-While several aspects of the Ascension Plane remain a mystery to astrophysicists and navigation experts, it is clear that it decreases travel times, allowing starships equipped with Quantum Shift Drives to travel light-years in minutes or seconds. As a result, the United Confederacy of Nations' galactic community, commerce and trade, politics, and conflict all rely on Ascension Plane travel.
-=== '''Ascension Particles''' ===
-== '''Operation''' ==
-=== '''Entering Ascension Plane''' ===
-=== '''Safety Mechanisms''' ===
-== '''Classification''' ==
-A Quantum Shift Drive's superluminal speed is measured on a reverse scale: the faster the Quantum Shift Drive, the lower the rating. These classifications, referred to as "Classes," provide a fast, albeit sometimes inaccurate, estimate of a ship's Quantum Shift Drive speed. For a given base travel time of 10 ly/s, the Quantum Shift Drive class serves as a multiplier. Thus, a Class 2 Quantum Shift Drive takes twice the base time to travel a given route, while a more expensive Class 0.5 takes only half the base time.
-Currently, most militaries in the United Confederacy of Nations equip their spacecraft with Class 1 or Class 2 Quantum Shift Drives. Quantum Shift Drives of Class 2 or 3 are commonplace on industrial freighters and haulers, while civilian starships have Class 3 or higher. Many ships possess backup Quantum Shift Drives that are significantly less powerful than their primary Quantum Shift Drives.
-Although tampering with the generally stable technology of a Quantum Shift Drive is considered a risky and dangerous activity, some starships have undergone black market modifications to achieve ratings that are below Class 1.
-== '''History''' ==
-<br />
 [[Category:Superluminal Technology]]
-[[Category:Technology]]
+[[Category:Author:_The_Minmus_Derp]]
-[[Category:Charybdis Galaxy]]
+[[Category:Florathel]][[Category: Active Development]]
-[[Category:TheStellarExplorer's articles]]