Starship drives in historical order.

FTL Drive.

The gravity compression generator was the first practical interstellar drive. This operated at the first level of what was to be later known as 'Field' technology and was an adaptation of the grid aerials that had just been developed for terraforming the two new worlds around Barnard's Star and Alpha Centauri.

Gravity waves were generated to match the free waves and focused in a narrow cone ahead of the ship. The body of the ship was enveloped in a secondary gravity field to provide a 'well' and then the first wave was then oscillated to alter the value of 'C'. The result was a re-positioning in space along the direction of the cone. This system was limited in range and the average 'Jump' was calculated in light-weeks.

Hyper Shunt.

The logical development of ftl drives would obviously be developments of the gravity generators. This was accomplished when the Matter/Anti-matter cycle was broken into at the lapse point between real-time matter; gravity generators were modified to provide a close-coupled field, the frequency of which was a factor of the ships mass. When the gravity frequency was matched to the Hyperbolic Tangent of the electron, (a slight variable due to the accuracy of estimating mass) the ship relocated a distance in time and space. This was known as the Hyper Shunt and was instantaneous.

Direction was always along the axis of the gravity field; distance was a function of entry speed, local mass interference and speed of light variation. In practice, it was common for half- to one light year distances to be covered, although navigation was critical as the accuracy of the drive decreased over distance and planetary systems were approached at sub-light speed from at least one AU out.

Slide variation.

Variations in the frequency rates between two or more generators allowed an uncompleted gravity envelope to develop, one closely coupled to the Hyperbolic Tangent, but without the true harmonic balance required to achieve a Hyper Shunt. By 'bouncing' the individual rates against the Tangent, a micro-jump could be affected. Several of these in rapid sequence would form a tiny bubble of space-time displacement within the envelope, a bubble that 'slid' through the envelope.

Ships using this advanced technique could operate very close to planetary masses, the nearest stable harmonic balance of which became the Slide Point. The technique also allowed for rapid movement out of the system to the Jump point as several slides could be strung together in a sequence of slide and reality; an analogy would be a stone skimmed across water, the splashes being the reality, the gaps between being the slides.

World Grid.

Phase one: This is the first true appearance of Field Technology and is the building of a grid around a world using buried 'aerials' to direct that worlds' magnetic field into a geometric device. All lines of gravity are aligned true with the magnetic poles and a line of zero dip exists at the equator.

Major aerials, called Grid Poles, are implanted at the junctions of Great Circles. Each circle, and consequently each junction, is plotted to conform to one of several significant positions: e.g. numerically harmonic relationships to the speed of light, mass, gravity, acceleration, and time. These positions are harmonically balanced to the magnetic field and positioned against the field so that each major position fulfills a part of the whole. The grid is built to increase the values of light, gravity, acceleration and time.

One of the Major Aerials ( Key Stone ) must be configured to give a radian value of 1.314232921 or 99.97 percent of pi. The figure 99.97 is the average mass relationship of the nucleus in every atom. As a result of this, each world can be 'gridded' back from this last position and the harmonic resonance of a complete world can be achieved.

To what value? If any world can be brought into a known set of manipulable magnetic parameters, then serious terra-forming can take place.

Field Technology, Stage 2.

Small craft can be constructed to take advantage of the energy available along the world grid. The harmonic relationships of the grid are built into the shape of the craft ( in later developments the size is built into ship-generated fields ) which resonate and displace themselves in the time/space continuum. Craft built to accommodate the harmonic values will vibrate at a new wave amplitude and move in a space/time continuum that is at a higher level than the planet.

Low field amplitude would bring the craft in line with the visible world, but higher amplitude would take the craft out of sight and it would be able to translate or move to any desired position relative to the world-grid.

These systems are limited to orbit to ground duties, but are perfect for established worlds with a grid network in place and provide a very cost effective solution to transport considerations.

Field Ships, Stage 1

The reich ships to be built with the Field drive were made during the Dog War. A Unified Field was generated by a fusion mill; this was a powerful engine and could keep the Field balanced in the cusp of the Hyperbolic tangent. Variations of the harmonic ( and reciprocal ) values and frequencies, ie mass, gravity, speed of light and acceleration would translate the ship to any point in space/time at real time, instantaneously, although there was a limit on distance due to the power drain required to drive and fight such a ship. Distances were in the six to eight light year range.

Field Ships, Stage 2.

The secondary stage of development was with the realisation that the Hyperbolic tangent was merely the interface between the Matter and Anti-matter phase of the electron. Once it was demonstrated that a field could be modulated to exist within the Anti-matter side of the cycle, ( B side ) a new phase of star-ship was developed. One that, theoretically, knew no boundaries, no limits. The ship could be 'flown' through the 'anti-' side of reality where energy demands were in reciprocal inverse proportions and the Field was used to protect human 'matter' from the 'anti-matter' without.

While the 'anti-universe' flashed by at a negative rate of time it was counteracted by the positive time within the Field; this was required for computers ( AI units ) to be given sufficient time to perform calculations. The passage of real time in full-Field drives was very small.

Field Ships, Stage 3.

The tertiary stage of development was with the realisation that the Hyperbolic tangent was merely the interface between the Matter and Anti-matter phase of the electron. Once it was demonstrated that a field could be modulated to exist within the Anti-matter side of the cycle, (B side) a new phase of star-ship was developed. One that, theoretically, knew no boundaries; no limits. The ship could be 'flown' through the 'anti-' side of reality where energy demands were in reciprocal inverse proportions and the Field was used to protect human 'matter' from the 'anti-matter' without. While the 'anti-universe' flashed by at a negative rate of time it was counteracted by the positive time within the Field; this was required for computers ( AI units ) to be given sufficient time to perform calculations. The passage of real time in full-Field drives was very small.

Ships could not fight in the anti-universe, nor could they in the Hyper point, or hyperspace as it was known.

Com-Worlds.

The penultimate development of Field technology was arrived at when the huge Computer Worlds were built to administer the affairs of the reich. These Moon-sized artificial worlds were constructed to house Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) and they became the mainstay of reichlaw and military order for millennia. AI units were bio-crystalline structures that grew in replication of the human brain. Human DNA was a control factor in their early development.

Com-world to Com-world communication was via an 'anti-matter portal'. Dyson Nets around each Com-worlds' star powered communications portals that were permanently aligned in both the Matter and Anti-matter universes to other com-world portals; this provided a network of interlocked, and permanent routes, where information could be streamed instantaneously. This network was held beyond the Hyperbolic tangent and all information was converted at transmission into anti-matter via the swapping of matter between the M/A-M universes and recovered the same way.

Stage three field ships could also access the routes, although not instantaneously. The harmonic values between the ships fields and the portals was never perfect and resulted in a small increase of the positive time harmonics inside the A/M universe. This effect became known colloquially as "drag".

The first portal was between The Magellanic Cloud and The Milky Way, a distance of approximately one hundred and fifty thousand light years, and stage three ships could complete the portal in three weeks.

Ways.

The pinnacle of Field technology. These developed from the trans-mat grids that were themselves a variation of the M/A-M portals.

The values of the harmonic equations between two points in time and space were accelerated to such a degree that all points in between ceased to exist and the two points became, in effect, one. This allowed transmission of matter, sapient or inert, between the two points in no more time than it took to step across a threshold.

The final version was, in effect, a window where the other point could be seen.