Hey.......Pt.1 Completed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Zero Angel]

If you're going to name one of the hunter class ships after an indian tribe, you might as well name them all -- ie:

- Seneca
- Algonquin
- Blackfoot
- Iroquois

[Iron Maiden]

Uhm, I don't neccesarily see why. I see your point, but I think it works better to make the names more braod reaching, note I include names from all corners of the globe. (Though I need to work up some African stuff.)

The hunter ship is a small ship coated in an expensive form of black stealth armor that is designed to act as an harrasment, chase, subterfuge, and ambush craft n the enemy. Its stealth material makes it difficult to detect and its black coating makes it hard to visually see in space unless you look at the obstruction of stars. Hunters were actually disbanded after the Europa uprising through strange complaints that they were to dangerous and un ethical to use. They were, however, reinstated shortly after the start of the Treasconi war to counter the large number of Treasconi warships. In this meeting bromine missiles as well were almost disbanded as well, but a close vote by the high command allowed them to remain, later proving instrumental in the war.

The bromine missile works by combining about 3 1/2 pounds of highly corrosive bromine with potassium permanganate, which causes a strong corrosive and toxic affect when detonated. It is similar to a molotov coctail, using a small explosion to release the chmical whihc is highly corrosive against most metals and very effective against troop formations. Similar to a combination of greek fire/napalm/tear gas.

[Nielk1]

I have one issue with my quick breeze through of your story. Not sure if you already covered it or not.
FTL of the type you describe, ignoring issues resulting to inertia from such acceleration, would have drastic relativistic effects. All the FTL issues I see are as thus:

To instantly accelerate would cause the classic 'smashing everyone on the back wall' problem. If the speed is a burst that is somehow slowed in the same way it is accelerated, then you have the classic 'smashing everyone on the front windshield' problem. If only the acceleration is a pulse, then you only have the first issue. If you have ships accelerate to a given speed, then make the acceleration burst, or even do several bursts, this would resolve this issue, however another is still present. Objects moving at light speed exist under time dilation. You can actually find the equation for this which is even why something cannot go faster than light, since if it did, the time dilation kicks in and speed is a measure of distance over time. Curiously, this means something could go faster than light from the external view, but in doing so something hits infinity and something else hits 0, and the laws of the universe as we know them break down. It might be that the instant you go faster than light you reach the end of time outside the ship and thus the only existing bit of time left in the universe is inside said ship, which happens to be frozen entirely. So, moderate acceleration (or heavy inertial compensation) and going no faster than the speed of light solve these issues for the most part, however, you still have time dilation. If your story is in the Battlezone Universe, you have biometal and thus you have a substance that can break the basis of space by creating wormholes between areas of 'thin space' generated either by masses of biometal the size of planets or powerful energy singularities. If you are not in this universe, you still need some method to alleviate issues. You could underplay the time dilation, though in truth I don't know how bad it should be, meaning that a child in a ship using FTL might return home to find his younger brother is now a middle aged adult, or you can claim some ability to protect the ship from the issues with such travel. In many modern science fictions, FTL is achieved by exiting normal space and thus no-longer being limited to the rules there of. In Star Trek they create a bubble of normal space separate from the space from which it came to alleviate relativistic effects. In Stargate, they use subspace exited via hyperspace windows or in SGU, some unknown method of separating from normal space (SGU looking almost like they cut through space, or slide under or over it).

Relativity is a fun thing to play with, so it might fit best if you use its effects lightly, creating generational gaps in what were once siblings, even if it takes a year of FTL for a 10 year difference, its still a useful plot device.

[Iron Maiden]

Well put Neilk.

Essentially, my idea for the jump drive which I regretibly left out is that yer, it is is similar in startrek by creating a bubble around the ship whihc preserves its time, then sending it through hyperspace using my aformentioned light slow down technique. You do bring up the point of mass acceleration though. To counter this, I am thinking of a temporary gravatational lock down on the ship, which secures everything in place similar to diving board. It may bend a little in one direction, but it wont go flying every which way.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Yes. That's why I didn't want to comment on the science, since I am not sure how you wanted to play the story. As I said, if it's science-loose fantasy-fiction such as BSG/Caprica-type cluster of planets with FTL capabilities, then the political angle can continue and use the loose science as a backdrop to achieve quick human and material interaction between the worlds.

However if it's to be hard-science fiction, FTL would definitely be THE centerpiece in the story, since FTL essentially means either a complete breakdown in our understanding of physics and resultant causality. . .or. . it could very well be some freaky "many worlds interpretation" with FTL, which would certainly influence the story and history in a massive way. Time dilation, per say, would only be factored from lengthy time periods at high g, if you wanted to keep human interactive sequences timely. (it takes very close to a full year at 1g to reach the energy insane requirements of relativistic speeds beyond accelerating that long!(>95%c)). So. . do you want travel to be painful 3 or 4 month jaunts at 3, 4 and 5 Gs, etc.

[Iron Maiden]

The thing with this is that I want there to be balence. I want it to be somewhat up to the imagination wen it somes to the science yet I want it grounded enough in reality so as not to draw scientific concern.

I have a poor understanding of these kinds of physics at best, so I appreciate the information and critique. This Jump drive thing has always been trouble for me to work out properly, as the theory of FTL travel is always altering slightly. Your advice is appreciated.

Now, with time dilation, is what your saying that you would have to go 95% of C in order for there to be time dilation? If so, I once agian bring up Hyperspace. As far as I am concerned, that is compleatly open to imagination as far as physics. Like I said, if youare beyond space, youare the only object of "space" so you can control what your own physics are. I think that would be a good way to explain these jumps, but your opinion is wanted.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

All I am saying with time dilation is that for it to become a 'serious factor' in the story line beyond it being merely recognized, would be for the characters/society to achieve ~>90% light speed, as you can see from the equation and the resulting dilation curve;


You can see serious dilation does not begin till around 95%c. And it takes a LOT of time at a comfortable g (~1g) to achieve those kinds of velocities. Multiple g is fine for minutes, maybe a couple of hours, but 2, 3 or more gravities for weeks is very unrealistic.

[Nielk1]

Don't stretch to fit the science if you don't want to!
I just tend to nit pick on the end of science. I also like having explanations as to why it 'works' when ppl get annoying.

You could just say that the plasma, when used for FTL, creates a strong magnetic field that effectively traps normal space around the ship with no or very minor relativistic effects. And I would be content with that. I like having it explained enough that a leap of faith works, some people go the more hard science fiction approach. (In fact, you can create limits to the tech to force jump lengths or any other such ability for use as plot device.)

[Iron Maiden]

PR: So your saying that until I reach around 95% C, there is little time dilation?

Neilk: I agree. I don't want to dela with the science to much, as it hurts both the story and my brain. What you propose also sounds like a descent idea, I'll stick with it.

Also, I hope this weekend to write a summery of the war for your enjoyment, to get a better idea of the world of the story.

[Nielk1]

Interesting question, how do you communicate while in FTL? There *are* possible methods that you can easily come up with, but do you want them to be able to? If not, you could have ships arrive at a place for battle only to find a transmitter beacon giving them new orders.

[Iron Maiden]

I think it is hoped that the jumps will be short enough that there will not be a change in orders. If you were to want to communitate, fire a laser encoded with your message traveling at light speed through Hyperspace, and use the same rule as jump drive. At least that is how I see it.

[Ded10c]

If you are firing a laser, the laser is travelling at >c. How can light be made to travel faster than light?

Also, remember that firing a projectile from a moving object adds the velocity it is given at launch to the velocity it already had (that of the moving object)

[Iron Maiden]

By firing it through Hyperspace, you can use the same prinicple as before, set light to a small number and travel faster than that number. Light would go very fast and thus allow for near instantaneous communication.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

PR: So your saying that until I reach around 95% C, there is little time dilation?

I'm saying time dilation is all about how long you stay at the speed you achieve, as well as the duration it took to accelerate to that velocity. A very good novel that explores this is "The Forever War"

For example, in the novel the passengers breath a variant of perflurocarbon to fill the lungs to eliminate the largest of the human body's gas space to reduce deformation and allow higher g tolerance. They travel at very high g (~5-15) for extended periods.

But for explanation, let's say a ship and its passengers are able to accelerate at even crazier acceleration. . . oh. . 50g! so it takes just a few days to achieve 95%c.

Then they spend a few hours at 95%c before accelerating back to the origin.

(notice I didn't say "deceleration". Technically 'deceleration' is kind of a misnomer. Mathematically, you use the same equations, and the term deceleration merely emphasizes the object is returning to its "original" velocity.)

Anyway, in a different scenario the ship accelerates slowly, say 1g to 95%c taking just under a year, then immediately returns to its origin, again at 1g, spending only seconds at 95%c. Now I haven't done the math, but if you look at the chart above, you'll see you can spend a VERY short time at 95%c to equal LONG periods of time getting there in the flat part of the curve, so the two trips could very well dish out the same time dilation to the passengers.

Hope I wasn't too confusing.

[Ded10c]

Makes sense to me... might want to watch it with the acceleration / deceleration thing though.

Basically, deceleration is just negative acceleration.