Quantum Shift Drive

Overview

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 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 realspace. In terms of numbers, the Quantum Shift Drive enables travellers to journey across a galaxy like Charybdis, which spans 35 thousand light-years, in just a few hours or days, depending on a variety of parameters such as destination, place of entry, route, and Quantum Shift Drive class.

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.

A ship radiates Karidas Radiation whenever it enters or exits the Ascension Plane, which could be identified with specialized sensor systems termed as Ascension Sensors. Many populous worlds have a large number of these sensors to track and log ships entering and leaving the planet or moon. Militaries in the United Confederacy of Nations have also made use of these sensors, detecting enemy ships entering their vicinity. Long-range Ascension Senors, however, were made possible nearly a thousand years ago. These newer, long-range Ascension Sensors, can stretch within the vicinity of a whole star system.

Ascension Plane

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 realspace, with each unique place in realspace 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 seconds. As a result, the United Confederacy of Nations' galactic community, commerce and trade, politics, and conflict all rely on Ascension Plane travel.

When Ascension Plane is entered, the starship has left the conventional universe, or realspace. 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. 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.

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. Gravity 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.

The Ascension Plane is a deadly environment for all living beings beyond the confines of a ship's protection. Being blasted out of a ship's airlock while being in the Ascension Plane is a much more appropriate method of eliminating someone than exposing them to the vacuum of realspace. An individual could survive in an Ascension Plane-ejected escape pod, but reentry to realspace would be impossible if the capsule lacks its own Quantum Shift Drive.

Components

Dilation Shield

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 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 failure of the Dilation Shield was owing to this phenomenon.

A spacecraft is able to protect itself and it's crew from time dilation with a Dilation Shield, an advanced component part of every constructed Quantum Shift Drive. Dilation Shield uses advanced artificial particles to essentially remove the effects of time dilation in a specified area. As a failing Dilation Shield could have lethal consequences on it's crew, a functioning Quantum Shift Drive never actually turns on without a fully operational Dilation Shield.

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.