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Hyperdrive (30/07/99 )
Faster-than-light travel is achieved by creating a pocket of altered space around a vessel, in which the “universal speed limit” enforced by relativity does not hold. A highly focused, precisely frequency-tuned stream of energy is projected at a point in space directly in front of a ship traveling at sublight speeds, disrupting realspace there. A “bubble” of hyperspace blooms outward from that point, wrapping around the ship; while within this bubble, the ship can accelerate to speeds multiplying that of light.
The bubbles produced by a hyperdrive are extremely fragile. Debris, intense bursts of radiation, gravitational fields, or other hazards in the path of travel will cause the bubble to collapse, forcing the ship to slow immediately to sublight speeds. For this reason, astrogation is an extremely demanding task for human and computer alike, requiring a great deal of 3-d spatial sense and navigational calculations. This is also why interstellar nations are much smaller than one would expect with such high-speed travel, since it takes years to find hyperspace paths across great distances. Such paths are classed by the size of the ship; a larger bubble means more volume that must be free of obstacles, so paths for very large ships are difficult to find and often very convoluted.
Hyperspace has certain side effects on its travelers. Telepaths report a sort of psychic “snow” that blocks all mental communication during hyperspace travel and causes headaches (brainaches? Oolorae have no cranium as such). Kalai become extremely nauseous when hyperspace travel is combined with zero-gravity conditions—probably a combination of their race’s psionic potential and their fine-tuned sense of balance. Exiting hyperspace suddenly also causes lightheadedness and disorientation in members of all races, the effects lasting between 30 minutes for most humans to two or three hours for sensitive Kalai. Disengaging hyperdrive without a bubble collapse (in which case the bubble fades out and the ship phases into realspace over the course of several seconds) usually causes only mild symptoms, if any.
Capital starships, transports, and certain expensive models of skimmers have hyperdrives. Meks do not carry them.
| Hyperdrive (SabreCat ) - 30/07/99 |
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