"That was the small-scale test." He held up a hand to ward off the objection he's sure is coming. "On paper, it worked. In computer simulations, it worked. In practice, we needed the kind of power that only a Juggernaut-class warship's hypermatter generators would... um. Generate. Nothing smaller would have worked, and we don't have the resources to just build another power source on that scale."
Graham tugged his comm device out of his pocket, pointed is at the hologram, and swept his thumb over its surface in a complex pattern. "I'm not a science man, so bear with me. I'm simply repeating what I've been told. But, as we understand it, there are three ways to go faster than light. One is by simply building extraordinarily powerful thrusters. Another is to travel through either subspace or hyperspace. Picture our universe as... As a pizza. We are the sauce. The cheese is hyperspace, which is a dimension that exists 'above' our own. The crust is sub-space, which is a dimension 'underneath' ours."
As he finishes the pattern, a very complex map with math covering the dimensional variables appears in the holographic display. "Hyperspace is fairly easy to travel in. It has a much lower speed of light, allowing vessels capable of entering it to travel far faster than it ever could in real space. However, gravimetric forces are an even greater danger there. A stray exoplanet or an uncharted star would rip your ship to pieces almost before you could react. Now, what we use for FTL is subspace. It's actually a bit slower than real space, but by surrounding our vessels in a subspace bubble, we're capable of pushing aside realspace to move through it much more swiftly."
He turned to his desk and picked up a bottle. A nice, refreshing sip of water later and he's ready to get back to business. "Now, Science Captain McEngineer theorized that if we could enter subspace completely, surrounding our vessels in a realspace bubble, then warped it by creating an artificial black hole and forcing a hyperspace tunnel open... Well." He tapped the orb twice and the image shifted into another detailed image. "He figured that we could travel through the tunnel, reach the other side, dissipate the black hole, and sub-space would 'unsink' and fill in behind us, pushing us to our destination within seconds rather than centuries. Unfortunately..."
He tapped the orb a few more times and a massive hulk of a ship appeared in the display. Something rippled around it and it vanished for a moment. Then it reappeared. However, debris surrounded it, including smaller ships, parts of the vessel were rusted through, while other parts were polished and seemingly brand-new. And still more of it was exactly as it had seemed earlier.
"...We're not sure what went wrong. Or, rather, I think some of the Science officers know, but they haven't explained it very well to me. The best I've gathered is that they think that the realspace 'bubble' the ship was in collapsed under the strain."
He paused and looked at her, coughing nervously. "Did you follow that, Miss?"
no subject
Graham tugged his comm device out of his pocket, pointed is at the hologram, and swept his thumb over its surface in a complex pattern. "I'm not a science man, so bear with me. I'm simply repeating what I've been told. But, as we understand it, there are three ways to go faster than light. One is by simply building extraordinarily powerful thrusters. Another is to travel through either subspace or hyperspace. Picture our universe as... As a pizza. We are the sauce. The cheese is hyperspace, which is a dimension that exists 'above' our own. The crust is sub-space, which is a dimension 'underneath' ours."
As he finishes the pattern, a very complex map with math covering the dimensional variables appears in the holographic display. "Hyperspace is fairly easy to travel in. It has a much lower speed of light, allowing vessels capable of entering it to travel far faster than it ever could in real space. However, gravimetric forces are an even greater danger there. A stray exoplanet or an uncharted star would rip your ship to pieces almost before you could react. Now, what we use for FTL is subspace. It's actually a bit slower than real space, but by surrounding our vessels in a subspace bubble, we're capable of pushing aside realspace to move through it much more swiftly."
He turned to his desk and picked up a bottle. A nice, refreshing sip of water later and he's ready to get back to business. "Now, Science Captain McEngineer theorized that if we could enter subspace completely, surrounding our vessels in a realspace bubble, then warped it by creating an artificial black hole and forcing a hyperspace tunnel open... Well." He tapped the orb twice and the image shifted into another detailed image. "He figured that we could travel through the tunnel, reach the other side, dissipate the black hole, and sub-space would 'unsink' and fill in behind us, pushing us to our destination within seconds rather than centuries. Unfortunately..."
He tapped the orb a few more times and a massive hulk of a ship appeared in the display. Something rippled around it and it vanished for a moment. Then it reappeared. However, debris surrounded it, including smaller ships, parts of the vessel were rusted through, while other parts were polished and seemingly brand-new. And still more of it was exactly as it had seemed earlier.
"...We're not sure what went wrong. Or, rather, I think some of the Science officers know, but they haven't explained it very well to me. The best I've gathered is that they think that the realspace 'bubble' the ship was in collapsed under the strain."
He paused and looked at her, coughing nervously. "Did you follow that, Miss?"