Beforehand: Had this lucid dream about a conversation between Nathan and Abby over the jump drive and wanted to share it. Please don’t stone me if it already was somewhere in the earlier books and I forgot about it :).
Just see it as a small piece of fan fiction in form of an A / B conversation to the topic of "How does teh Jump Drive work?".
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Nathan: Good Morning Abby. Always Nice to have you at our Breakfast Table.
Abby: Thx Captain.
Nathan: It always mind boggles me regarding how the Jump Drive really works in details. I mean, there we are jumping through our Galaxy.
Abby: Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Nathan: Of course. I started reading on it, over and over, but the part where the equations start sadly always make me lose concentration and then I fall asleep.
Abby: I could give you recommendations on some lighter topics, regarding where to start reading on it.
Nathan: How would you explain it to your daughter?
Abby: Alright. Let’s do this, but I warn you, it’s only going to be half the truth.
Nathan: By all means, go ahead.
Abby: Alright, stop me in case I get side tracked.
Imagine you have our emitters projected inwards and let them create a mass cancelling Higgs field in form of a sphere. Now any Material going through that, would instantly loose integrity, by losing its strong force interaction between its fundamental particles, give of a hell lot of radiation, but also lose its mass while engulfed within.
Nathan: Ok, I am still with you.
Abby: Good. Now take this field and once you are lucky enough to have it stable you push one emitter forward and therefore turning it over, so to say from inside out and therefore wrapping it into oval sphere around you.
Nathan: Ok. Now you are sitting inside a sphere that can’t be touched by gravity, but how do we move.
Abby: The Universe outside of us is naturally, let’s call it “not happy”, about this gap within and wants to fill it up. Therefore it creates pressure on us. Now imagine a wet piece of soap. If you press it perfectly from each side, just like reality of our universe does to us in this state you don’t move. Should you though change the sphere into an imbalanced drop like shape you can use this pressure to move forwards.
Nathan: Amazing. So you can also call it a Higgs Drive?
Abby: Not really. Don’t forget, only half the truth.
Nathan: Reality Drive?
Abby: More like dark matter pressure slip drive, but better keep calling it jump drive, that’s closer to reality then how I can explain it to you for now.
Nathan: What if we move through something big while we are in this Higgs field cancelling sphere? I understand that the hard Vacuum outside still contains some particles here and there.
Abby: I can only guess, but remember what happened to Josh? If it’s only a couple of particles here and there, the hull can shield us from it, if its planet size we probably die an instant Radiation death, the emitters fail and our particles likely merge with the mass around us.
Nathan: What about minor asteroids of a meter or ten?
Abby: As long they are not composed of super heavy elements we might not feel them.
Nathan: So, would that mean, that we could jump in any direction.
Abby: Yes, but effectively only forwards and backwards, due to how we have to distort the shape of our sphere, towards our side it would not be energy efficient. A half minute jump could empty our energy banks, but I have not done the calculations here.
Nathan: But backwards is no problem during any situation?
Abby: With a second computer doing the calculations, maybe. Due to the shape of our Ship and how we therefore placed the emitters, probably also not as energy efficient, but maybe within the range of doable.
Nathan: Alright. Last question for today. How is it that we don’t have to turn the field inside out from the centre of our ship in order to wrap it around us?
Abby: That was the part which took us a decade, so I am not even starting before you have read half of my notes on it.
Nathan: Fair enough.
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Then I woke up and noted it down.
Anyhow, am only a science fan, therefore all the above is certainly kind of nonsense in reality, but on the other hand it also kind of does sound like an explanation to me.
What do you think?
(If an explanation was already in the books, then could someone please remind me of the episode? Probably should re-read it anyhow)
Not bad. Of course it all springs from Ryk's brain, so he can make it do anything he wants, but that seems to match the facts as laid down so far. That backwards jump might come in handy in a battle. 🙂
An interesting general concept. I like the idea of creating a gap. In nature, such gaps, when filled, tend to fill very fast. A void of space itself might be filled sufficiently fast to be considered instant.
It seems like the jump drive would then work by first forming a gap in space itself, then letting that gap collapse in such a way that rather than crushing an object inside of the gap, it pushes that object forward through space itself, until it unable to continue at which point it pops back into normal space. Since it's effectively punched a hole in space (similar to a wormhole), it opens up the possibility of traveling a limited distance through space instantly. Like a ship going through a wave rather than over it. To go farther likely requires creating a larger gap. The actual increase in size of gap vs increase in distance could actually not be that large given what is being displaced. So the super jump would have happened because as fields were supercharged resulting in a relatively huge gap being formed. Although, it may have also had something to do with stray matter/antimatter particles hitting the field.
An object moving through space itself could very well be much more affected by gravity which would account for the attraction to black holes and things with similar effects. The collapse of the field could also result in a temporary (during that instant of travel) case where the field is much higher than normal.
Although, it seems like the key question is why isn't any craft crushed when the gap collapses or when it forces it's way though space itself. Seems like it would require using a cushion of space to push back when the gap is collapsed. It seems like the best explanation is that the effects are contained to the area inside of the shearing volume and lasts the tinest fraction of a second. The force may also be balancing itself out by pushing the ship along.
Also, since jumps are pretty much instant, "a half minute jump" doesn't mean much, unless you meant "a half light minute jump".
Shall I explain?
Of course it all springs from Ryk’s brain, so he can make it do anything he wants,...
Indeed, ... Naturally. 🙂
...
Since it’s effectively punched a hole in space (similar to a wormhole), it opens up the possibility of traveling a limited distance through space instantly.
Sounds better then I imagined it at first.
(Whoops ... yes, meant light minute.)
...
Shall I explain?
Yes, please. I would be delighted (as many other I guess) to read about it within the next episode(s).
lay it on us ryk
my memorys may be wrong but didn't abbys father not really know how it worked, it just did.
Ehhh, strange harmonics from experimental shielding. Kinda like the discovery of penicillin.
Although they do not yet fully understand how it works, they do know how to make it work.
The problem with interstellar travel is not the distance, but the time. So, remove the element of time from the equation. Nathan's nick name for the STS is more appropriate that he realized. The ship does not "jump" from point A to point B, but rather it "jumps" (transitions) into a universe (for lack of a better term) where time does not exist. You have length, width, and height, therefore the ship travels a linear course between points.
They know how to make it happen. Establish the inner and outer fields, collapse the outer field while the inner field expands, and at the moment the two shields converge, dump a ton of energy into them. This merges the two fields and creates the jump field (and the flash) and causes the ship to "transition" (or in Nathan's mind, "jump") out of our 4-dimensional universe into a 3-dimensional one. (One without time) Now, the jump field is in contact (on the inside surface) with a small chunk of our 4-dimensional universe (the ship) and therefore still has time within the field. (Space outside the field doesn't have time.) The inner shield has a decay rate. Once the inner shield decays beyond a certain point, it becomes unstable and collapses, causing the ship to transition out of the 3-dimensional universe (the one without time) and back into our 4-dimensional universe. (The one with time.) The greater the amount of energy dumped into the shield, the longer it takes for the jump field to decay.
Now, there are a thousand arguments as to why (based on our current understanding of physics) this shouldn't work, and that's why they don't really understand how the formation of this "field" causes the ship to transition from 4D to 3D space. But it works. Perhaps, as they learn more about it (probably with some help from the Takarans) they will be better able to control and harness its capabilities.
Now, let the arguments begin!
I shall now return to writing book 11.
Ryk
Writing 11? I thought you would have 11 in the proofreader's hands by now, and perhaps even be finishing 12. Shoot.
Got a bit derailed by a move followed by a case of the stomach flu that put me down for about ten days. Writing like mad to get it out by late April/early May, though.
"No worries" said the crack addict waiting for his fix. 😉
I have always been amazed at how fast you put them out so far. Good work ethic shines through.
You should save up episodes 16 through about episode 25, though, so you can spring them on us quickly. Kind of like House of Cards on Netflix! 🙂
Thx for the input/clarification.
Hence a bit outside of current popular ideas I had to read through it over and over and even draw it, as per below, in order to comprehend your approach.
As I read it, ... the emitters create so to say two layers of shielding (1) which while converging closer to each other create a transition horizon (2). Inside our linear 4th Dimension gets preserved, while the outside universe comes to a standstill at the time of transition. Hence no time is required to transition from A to B on the outer universe, no time is required to pass inside the field and one can immediately come back into the 4th dimension, just at an other point in space.
This creates following Questions:
A.) What creates the forward push in order to get from A to B?
B.) How is it that the Forces of Nature from outside the field have an impact on the route (Gravity/Black holes & Electromagnetism/Zero Point Modules)?
Thought that in a universe without time, there should also be no impact of the natural forces. Mass would so to say exist at a still stand. I could understand the impact from the mini zero point modules within, hence they could distort the field during formation ... but currently not the outside impact.
Nuclearman. Ideas?
Admittedly I am probably not reading it right, but if the internal space has time and the outer space doesn't, then the ship can travel without time passing in that outer universe... but in THIS universe, wouldn't time still pass? Plus, I can't wrap my head around the re-integration between that isolated bubble of this kind of spacetime and the greater universe of this spacetime. Seems like that would be prone to variances that would generate a lot more than just a flash. More like a ship arrives and >>BOOM<< the local stellar systems get torn apart. But maybe I am reading more into it than I should. 🙂
Regrardless, it is Ryk's universe and I am enjoying the cruise.
I know ... it is what it is ... still, I liked the Idea of the universe balancing out the gap in the equation by punishing the ship forward in space (+ the details from Nuclearman) more ... sorry.
Its easier to understand the impact of gravity from my point of view if time is still part of the equation.
Also the fact that they know how much energy they have to pump into it and how to set-up the shields in order to go a straight line of a precise predefined length would be clearer (to me).
The science is a bit sloppy, but I think I worked out a reasonable equation for how far the jump drive travels based on energy requirements, roughly based on Ryk's view of the jump drive.
There are still a lot of loopholes to fill in, but the basic premises are as followed. They are based on getting as close to Ryk's vision as possible.
1. Energy from this universe is used to provide movement in the timeless universe.
2. The timeless universe is also massless in so far as energy is concerned. Things work out better if the same amount of energy (ignoring the energy for creating the fields) provides equal distance traveled regardless of mass.
3. The timeless universe is actually on a extremely small scale compared to ours. Such that light years can be traveled by going meters.
4. The jump field itself however has an effect on space itself in the timeless universe causing a drag force on the fields of the jump drive during travel in that universe.
5. Configuration of the jump field is what takes most of the time in plotting a jump.
On the basis of the first three, lets say that the majority of the energy requirement goes into forming the fields itself, either that or your definition of a "ton of energy" is hopefully close to what I see as the energy needed to travel 1 light year. That is the cost of traveling 1 meter in the timeless universe (1 light year in ours) is less than a megajoule of energy. This means that in order for the superjump to work, the field would have to have been supercharged with less than a quarter of a kiloton of TNT worth of energy. This seems reasonable for the amount of energy the Aurora's fields could have obtained from the blast given likely distance and the ship's size. This also opens up the possibility of traveling to different galaxies, as traveling to the Andromeda Galaxy would require less than 2 teratons of TNT worth of energy. Not the kind of energy they are likely to be have access to anytime soon, but perhaps around the middle or so they might depending on how quickly they build up their ability to produce/harness energy.
The issue with the ZPE powered jump drive was a result of #4 and #5. The reason why the ships started going farther and farther was due to improper configuration. The maximum distance the jump drive can travel is determined by configuration of the fields and how much energy is put into building the fields, collectively "field strength". The distance that can be traveled is determined by the amount of energy put into the transition itself (minus the inefficiencies that cause the jump flash), "jump energy". The actual distance traveled is the smaller of the two. Before obtaining the ZPE, the limiting factor was the amount of jump energy. However, once they had the ZPE, it started to shift over to field strength being the problem.
The attraction of the jump drive to things with extreme gravity isn't clear to explain in this theory. The best explanation seems to be that objects with extreme gravity effects in this universe have an effect on the timeless universe if their effect on this universe is significant enough. However, the objects exist in this universe and are not physically connected to the timeless universe (like a jump drive does), and thus only their gravity is felt in the timeless universe. A jump drive produces it's own gravity effect (as part of #4) and thus can be pulled towards something with extreme gravity. Since the timeless universe is timeless, the effect of that pull is instant. It's kinda of like plotting a graph of path it would take. Except it goes from start to finish instantly. However, the extreme fiction from the gravitational stresses close to the gravity effect of the object, causes all but the strongest of jump fields to fail. This is a good thing as otherwise the jump drive would likely exit the timeless universe dead center of the source of the extreme gravity. It also means that as jump drives improve their field strength and available jump energy, the risk of appearing previously unattempted jumps ending up dead center of a black hole increases. They'll likely want to start sending jump probes ahead to ensure that the area is clear of black holes.
It can be said that energy (based on how it is calculated and defined) from our universe is directly converted into movement in the timeless universe. However, this conversion is not very efficient. The formula is based on removing mass and time from how energy is calculated. The result being a straightforward calculation that energy cost (E) increases with the square of the distance traveled (D), "E = D^2" (D = sqrt(E)). Personally, as implied above, I like the idea of 1 megajoule of jump energy (239 grams of TNT) allows for a light year of travel in our universe.
