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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.

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+{{LocalUniverse}}{{Infobox Device
-{{Infobox_Technology|image1=Quantumshiftdrive.jpg|major_producers=* [[Quantum Ascension Corporation]]
+|image1=Unknown.png
-* [[Kalian Company]]|function_summary=Accelerates a spacecraft to faster-than-light speeds.|caption1=A Class-2 Quantum Shift Drive inside a small freighter.|inventor=* Khizen Vaniden Tess|invention_date=72,705 CE|concept_creation_date=72,502 CE|average_price=260,500,000 [[Azinos]]}}
+|manufacturer=Most nations in [[Florathel]] and satellites
-== '''Overview''' ==
+|design_year=First use believed to be ~6 million years ago by the [[Providence Union]]
-The '''Quantum Shift Drive,''' abbreviated as '''QSD''' and oftentimes called '''Hyperdrive''', is a cutting-edge faster-than-light propulsion engine used primarily by the [[Singularitia]] and [[Humans|Human]] nations of the [[Palioxis Starfield]] for effective interstellar travel. The Quantum Shift Drive allows a starship to attain lightspeed and travel through the gap between stars in the [[Quantum Shift Drive#Ascension Plane|Ascension Plane]], a higher plane of reality. As an outcome, the Quantum Shift Drive has played a crucial role in shaping the society, trade, politics, and war of the Palioxis Starfield.
+|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.
-The Quantum Shift Drive operates by propelling a spacecraft into the Ascension Plane using the fuel of Quantum Photonic Hypermatter 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 Palioxis Starfield. The Quantum Shift Drive can only be used in the Palioxis Starfield since the Ascension Plane, a subplane of the Palioxis Starfield, can only be accessed in it's parent plane of Palioxis Starfield.
+== 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.
-== '''Ascension Plane''' ==
+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.
-=== '''Overview''' ===
+==Operation==
-[[File:Ascension Plane Inside.jpg|left|thumb|260x260px|The multicolored tunnels of the Ascension Plane.]]
+[[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.
-The '''Ascension Plane''', alternatively called '''Hyperspace''' is an alternate plane of space-time that can only be accessible through deeply altering [[Phantom energy]], causing ripples in space-time. This process can be achieved with the Quantum Shift Drive. The Ascension Plane is, is some ways, identical to the Palioxis Starfield, with each unique place in the Palioxis Starfield providing a distinct point on the Ascension Plane. 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 even seconds. As a result, the galactic community, commerce and trade, politics, and conflict of the Palioxis Starfield all rely on Ascension Plane travel.
-=== '''Usage''' ===
-[[File:Ascension Plane Entering.png|thumb|260x260px|An image taken when entering the Ascension Plane.]]
-The Ascension Plane is primarily utilized for short-term travel between the vast distances between stars. The spacecraft would travel to the direction that matched the path indicated in the [[Common Technology in Local Universe#Navigational Computer|Navigational Computer]] and engage the Quantum Shift Drive. During the leap to the Ascension Plane, the spacecraft appears to speed so quickly that people on board may see the stars spread out in parallel lines. A ship leaping to the Ascension Plane would appear to suffer a sudden, tremendous burst of speed and disappear from the physical world, and this apparent acceleration is also visible from outside the vessel.
+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 routes are frequently plotted using the mass of an average-sized planet as a backstop, with the Quantum Shift Drive's safety mechanisms halting the vessel when it approaches the furthest point of feasible passage. [[Common Technology in Local Universe#Gravitational Field Generator|Gravitational Field Generators]] can be used to create an artificial interdiction field that hinders Ascension Plane travel inside a specific area by replicating the outer edges of a celestial body's gravitational attraction, which is useful for both pulling ships out of Ascension Plane en route and preventing enemies from jumping during combat.
+==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.
-=== '''Nature''' ===
+[[Category:Technology]]
-When Ascension Plane is entered, the starship has left the Palioxis Starfield. The whole visible universe seems to be a multicolored tunnel of mottled high-speed blur, reflecting the plane's other-dimensional existence. A ship is effectively blocked off from all regular scanning and detecting procedures in the Ascension Plane.
-Surprisingly, the Ascension Plane parallels Palioxis Starfield in several aspects. The reason for this is that a point in the Ascension Plane and a point in Palioxis Starfield are identical. In the Ascension Plane, this results in mass shadows of existing objects. If a spaceship approaches too closely, mass shadows can block Ascension Plane jumps and potentially drag a ship out of the Ascension Plane. Mass shadows, by their very nature, can put a ship in danger of colliding. Navigational Computers integrated with Quantum Shift Drives are designed to compute paths that purposefully avoid such occurrences. Natural mass shadows are created by the gravity wells of massive celestial bodies like planets, stars, and gas giants. Smaller bodies, such as comets, might potentially be to blame, albeit they appear to have little influence on the ship.
-=== '''Hazards''' ===
-There are numerous hazards while traveling at velocities far exceeding the speed of light. While any collision or disturbance at this point may well be catastrophic, the effects of gravitational influence on a spacecraft could be particularly damaging, therefore a trajectory must be plotted outside of the "mass shadow" or gravity well of huge celestial bodies. Strangely, collision with the shadows of small-mass bodies that are under a hundred kilometers in size do not seem to affect the travelling ship in any way, as if they were not there.
-The Ascension Plane is a deadly environment for all living beings beyond the confines of a ship's protection. Absolutely any living organism subjected to the environment of Ascension Plane without protection will begin to show signs of various mental issues such as extreme schizophrenia. An individual could survive in an Ascension Plane-ejected escape pod, but reentry to Palioxis Starfield would be impossible if the capsule lacks its own quantum shift drive. Matter from Palioxis Starfield will also start to deteriorate after extended stays of over 2 hours in the Ascension Plane.
-== '''Fuel''' ==
-=== '''Quantum Photonic Hypermatter''' ===
-=='''Operation'''==
-=== '''Ascension Plane Travel''' ===
-To enter the Ascension Plane, a starship pilot would have to select a logged world with the use of the [[Common Technology in Local Universe#Navigational Computer|Navigational Computer]]. This on-board computer would then-on automatically input the coordinates into the Quantum Shift Drive. In some cases, the pilot has to manually input coordinates throughout the Navigational Computer, as to reach uncharted worlds or a highly specific point in space.
-When coordinates are processed, a Quantum Shift Drive-integrated [[Warp Drive|Warp drive]] starts to engage, and accelerates the spacecraft to a speed of twice the speed of light to escape the gravity well of a large celestial body. This process can be skipped entirely if the pilot is far enough from a large gravity well.
-After reaching outside the gravity of a large celestial body, the process of an Ascension Plane jump would begin with the small amounts Phantom Energy being collected be collected with the use of the numerous [[Quantum Shift Drive#Phantom Collector|Phantom Collectors]]. Then on, the [[Quantum Shift Drive#Quantum Motivator|Quantum Motivator]] would use many kilometers of charge planes, effect channels, or looping superconducting wire deep within the spaceship to alter the gathered energy in a fusion generator. This process also requires a specific fuel named [[Quantum Shift Drive#Quantum Photonic Hypermatter|Quantum Photonic Hypermatter]] to help modify the energy. The Quantum Shift Drive's [[Quantum Shift Drive#Ascension Initiator|Ascension Initiators]] would supply energy to the motivator's energization chamber to spark ignition, which would unleash the energy via the engines. The energy discharge would produce disturbances in the space-time continuum, allowing the ship to thrust itself into the Ascension Plane by riding on these generated ripples.
-A starship is only able to stay in the Ascension Plane for two hours, before automatically pulling the ship out of the Ascension Plane by the Quantum Shift Drive's safety systems. The reason for that is the heavy damage matter from Palioxis Starfield can suffer from, if exposed to the environment of Ascension Plane. This makes longer journeys need multiple jumps to complete the voyage.
-=== '''Neutron Supercharging''' ===
-The practice of flying into one of a neutron star's or white dwarf's high-energy relativistic jets using a Quantum Shift Drive is known as Neutron Supercharging. This enables a spacecraft to take in exotic particles that interface with its Quantum Shift Drive to boost its top speed. Neutron Supercharging from a white dwarf increases speed by 50%, whereas doing it from a neutron star increases speed by 100%, virtually doubling a ship's speed in a single trip.
-The ship's Quantum Shift Drive will be harmed by Neutron Supercharging, thus it is not encouraged. Approaching the jet will make it more difficult to manage the spacecraft since the jet's magnetic forces will gradually push on it. Larger ships with more mass are more resistant to the magnetic forces of the jet and might be easier to control throughout the process.
-Neutron Highways, which are mapped independently, may be utilized to travel long distances at high speeds. These routes generally entail using the supercharge gained at one neutron star to jump immediately to another system with a neutron star or close to one, and then chaining supercharged leaps practically forever until the target is reached, assuming the pilot's Quantum Shift Drive is kept repaired.
-=== '''Safety Mechanisms''' ===
-The ship, crew, and cargo are all shielded from being squashed by the enormous velocity of the initial jump by the central [[Common Technology in Local Universe#Gravitational Field Generator|Gravitational Field Generator]]. An [[Quantum Shift Drive#Ascension Field Stabilizer|Ascension Field Stabilizer]] helps stabilize the vessel in Ascension Plane and prevents it from prematurely emerging from the alternate plane, which can happen without one. All Quantum Shift Drives include [[Quantum Shift Drive#Dilation Shielding|Dilation Shielding]] to protect them from the severe effects of time dilation on the Ascension Plane. Quantum Shift Drives employ an overheat failsafe device to avoid overheating.
-A Quantum Shift Drive can only initiate a jump into the Ascension Plane after it is out of the gravitational influence of a large astronomical body. Small Warp Drives implanted within the spaceship are used to relieve the starship from a body's gravitational attraction before it can leap. Quantum Shift Drives include an integrated protection system that cuts out the drive when a gravity well is detected on the navigational path. Engineers have utilized the safeguard system to create artificial gravity wells to either draw starships out of the Ascension Plane or prevent them from withdrawing into the Ascension Plane, avoiding a crash in the event of a navigational failure. This approach, of course, necessitates either knowledge of a starship's travel schedule or proximity to a well-traveled Ascension Plane route. The failsafe can be circumvented in some Quantum Shift Drive models, although this has been known to result in disastrous results.
-== '''Components''' ==
-=== '''Dilation Shielding''' ===
-While entering the Ascension Plane, a spaceship would be be traveling at such high speeds that time dilation will be noticeable. Furthermore, time dilation is much more severe in the Ascension Plane, with a hour in the Ascension Plane without Dilation Shielding potentially taking a thousand years in the real universe. The [[VMC Void Beam]], for instance, traversed five thousand years into the future in only two hours. The sabotage and removal of the Dilation Shield was owing to this strange phenomenon.
-A spacecraft is able to protect itself and it's crew from time dilation with a Dilation Shield, an advanced component of every constructed Quantum Shift Drive. A Dilation Shield effectively utilizes various advanced and artificially produced particles to stop the curvature in a way for time dilation to have no effect while gravitational attraction still takes place. As the space-time fabric of Ascension Plane is fairly similar to that of Palioxis Starfield, Dilation Shields have the ability to operate within this mysterious plane of existence.
-Travel with a faulty Dilation Shield is plausible, with minimal to no time dilation actually happening with a moderately faulty Dilation Shield. Only a nonexistent or a near-broken Dilation Shield could have serious time dilation. The ship's onboard computers would automatically disengage the Quantum Shift Drive if the Dilation Shield was operating below 25% capacity.
-=== '''Mass Gravity Sensor''' ===
-=== '''Phantom Collector''' ===
-=== '''Quantum Motivator''' ===
-=== '''Ascension Initiator''' ===
-=== '''Ascension Field Stabilizer''' ===
-== '''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 4 Quantum Shift Drive takes fourfold the base time to travel a given route, while a more expensive Class 2.0 takes only twice 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. A prominent example of this is the [[Phantom Dragonfly]], a [[Venixen]] model starfighter owned by the famous [[Humans|Human]] mercenary of [[Tybus Corell]]. The Phantom Dragonfly reached a rating of Class 0.4 after several illegal modifications have been made to it's Quantum Shift Drive.
-==  '''History''' ==
 [[Category:Superluminal Technology]]
-[[Category:Technology]]
+[[Category:Author:_The_Minmus_Derp]]
-[[Category:TheStellarExplorer's articles]]
+[[Category:Florathel]][[Category: Active Development]]