Post by D'Kmal on Jan 10, 2016 11:48:35 GMT
Coaxial
Universe
Manipulating
Propulsive
Incremental
Enhancer
The Coaxial Jump Drive is a piece of technology both ancient and alien in technology. It is not entirely understood how it was meant to work in it's original configuration, but plasma pathway testing has revealed it has heuristic, or "learning" circuitry that has enabled the drive to adapt itself to Federation technology.
Originally, the drive would be paired with a tailored exotic particle emitter aboard a ship - these exotic particles annihilate all space and subspace, matter, quarks, neutrons, anything and everything in front of the ship for a period of time creating a micro-wormhole, allowing the ship to jump through. However, these drives were very unstable and required constant maintenance to keep safely operational; this is what lead to the tragic loss of the U.S.S. Corax's original crew - attempting to activate an old, unmaintained drive found in our universe after radiation from a binary pulsar interfered with the jump co-ordinates moving it to our universe. When they attempted to activate this drive on the ship of the long dead alien crew, it created a huge wormhole that pulled through both the alien ship and the Corax, causing severe damage to both. It appears the last actions of the Corax's crew was to attempt to integrate the jump drive into their systems, a task only finished by Master Chief D'Kmal when the runabout Chelmer accidentally ventured through the universal rift whilst at warp.
On a Federation ship, or indeed any ship without the designated exotic particle emitter, the drive modifies the main deflector to use small pockets of antimatter and other exotic particles to clear space in front of the ship in a very minute area. The standard warp drive's ability to create a subspace field1 is then used to hold open this vacuum, as the drive can only be active very briefly due to it's inherent incompatibility with Federation EPS power grids.
These micro-wormholes are only open for a few nanoseconds, barely enough for subspace matter diffusion to pull the ship more than a few kilometres - however, the drive doesn't need a cool-down period after each jump, only after many successive jumps - this is what leads to the "incremental" in the drive, as the ship generates thousands upon millions of micro-wormholes that can propel the ship multiple light-years in a brief period of time. However, after this the drive needs at least a 30 minute cool-down - a bit of a tactical disadvantage if you jump into enemy territory. Luckily, the drive's adaptations of both the deflector and warp drives vastly improves the efficiency of both, meaning a form of escape is still available.
The internals of the drive aren't really understood all that well - after the tragedy that befell the Corax's original crew, understandably no-one has been particularly keen to experiment with the drive; the Daystrom Institute, the ASDB, Starfleet Engineering and Science, and Starfleet Intelligence Technical Division have claimed it is too unstable and too damaged to warrant further experimentation upon. The Chief managed to find a lot of information about the heuristic adapter however, and it's amazing capability to receive, manipulate, and use new external data, as well as to patch into other ship's systems (even if this does constitute a security threat).
However, it is impossible to ignore that the heuristic adapter is a severed head in a jar, with the biological brain being utilised to control the drive.
After the Corax's return to the prime universe, the ship immediately set course to the nearest safe haven - the Phoenix Station. Whilst there, the drive was dismantled and entrusted into Master Chief D'Kmal's care, as the only person with the vaguest understanding of the drive and the only person who was insane enough to travel with the thing in his runabout generously repaired/reconstructed by the Phoenix station, claiming that "recently I learned, death isn't really a problem to me anymore", before undocking straight to full impulse and ignoring the dock controller's instructions. The drive was given to Starfleet Intelligence, and a brief search of his vessel revealed no copies of the drive's specifications had been made, though Starfleet Intelligence seriously doubts no attempts weren't made, especially after how willingly D'Kmal and Epsilon turned over the drive and it's specifications. Notably, the Chief was late on his return to Phoenix Station, returning from the wrong approach vector, saying he took the opportunity to "repay a few debts".
No further information on the drive is available, and as Starfleet are not willing to spend scarce resources on exhuming another drive from the parallel universe, adopting a new cross-universe clause to the Prime Directive after the large amounts of universe and timeline incursions recorded in the last century, it is unlikely any more information will be learnt soon.
1(see "Warp Field Mechanics and Subspace Manipulation" by Montgomery Scott for more info, available in Memory Alpha Federation Public Library)
## REPORT AMENDED BY ORDER OF STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE ##
Universe
Manipulating
Propulsive
Incremental
Enhancer
The Coaxial Jump Drive is a piece of technology both ancient and alien in technology. It is not entirely understood how it was meant to work in it's original configuration, but plasma pathway testing has revealed it has heuristic, or "learning" circuitry that has enabled the drive to adapt itself to Federation technology.
Originally, the drive would be paired with a tailored exotic particle emitter aboard a ship - these exotic particles annihilate all space and subspace, matter, quarks, neutrons, anything and everything in front of the ship for a period of time creating a micro-wormhole, allowing the ship to jump through. However, these drives were very unstable and required constant maintenance to keep safely operational; this is what lead to the tragic loss of the U.S.S. Corax's original crew - attempting to activate an old, unmaintained drive found in our universe after radiation from a binary pulsar interfered with the jump co-ordinates moving it to our universe. When they attempted to activate this drive on the ship of the long dead alien crew, it created a huge wormhole that pulled through both the alien ship and the Corax, causing severe damage to both. It appears the last actions of the Corax's crew was to attempt to integrate the jump drive into their systems, a task only finished by Master Chief D'Kmal when the runabout Chelmer accidentally ventured through the universal rift whilst at warp.
On a Federation ship, or indeed any ship without the designated exotic particle emitter, the drive modifies the main deflector to use small pockets of antimatter and other exotic particles to clear space in front of the ship in a very minute area. The standard warp drive's ability to create a subspace field1 is then used to hold open this vacuum, as the drive can only be active very briefly due to it's inherent incompatibility with Federation EPS power grids.
These micro-wormholes are only open for a few nanoseconds, barely enough for subspace matter diffusion to pull the ship more than a few kilometres - however, the drive doesn't need a cool-down period after each jump, only after many successive jumps - this is what leads to the "incremental" in the drive, as the ship generates thousands upon millions of micro-wormholes that can propel the ship multiple light-years in a brief period of time. However, after this the drive needs at least a 30 minute cool-down - a bit of a tactical disadvantage if you jump into enemy territory. Luckily, the drive's adaptations of both the deflector and warp drives vastly improves the efficiency of both, meaning a form of escape is still available.
The internals of the drive aren't really understood all that well - after the tragedy that befell the Corax's original crew, understandably no-one has been particularly keen to experiment with the drive; the Daystrom Institute, the ASDB, Starfleet Engineering and Science, and Starfleet Intelligence Technical Division have claimed it is too unstable and too damaged to warrant further experimentation upon. The Chief managed to find a lot of information about the heuristic adapter however, and it's amazing capability to receive, manipulate, and use new external data, as well as to patch into other ship's systems (even if this does constitute a security threat).
However, it is impossible to ignore that the heuristic adapter is a severed head in a jar, with the biological brain being utilised to control the drive.
After the Corax's return to the prime universe, the ship immediately set course to the nearest safe haven - the Phoenix Station. Whilst there, the drive was dismantled and entrusted into Master Chief D'Kmal's care, as the only person with the vaguest understanding of the drive and the only person who was insane enough to travel with the thing in his runabout generously repaired/reconstructed by the Phoenix station, claiming that "recently I learned, death isn't really a problem to me anymore", before undocking straight to full impulse and ignoring the dock controller's instructions. The drive was given to Starfleet Intelligence, and a brief search of his vessel revealed no copies of the drive's specifications had been made, though Starfleet Intelligence seriously doubts no attempts weren't made, especially after how willingly D'Kmal and Epsilon turned over the drive and it's specifications. Notably, the Chief was late on his return to Phoenix Station, returning from the wrong approach vector, saying he took the opportunity to "repay a few debts".
No further information on the drive is available, and as Starfleet are not willing to spend scarce resources on exhuming another drive from the parallel universe, adopting a new cross-universe clause to the Prime Directive after the large amounts of universe and timeline incursions recorded in the last century, it is unlikely any more information will be learnt soon.
1(see "Warp Field Mechanics and Subspace Manipulation" by Montgomery Scott for more info, available in Memory Alpha Federation Public Library)
## REPORT AMENDED BY ORDER OF STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE ##