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Summary:

• FTL Drive, Speed 0.82c (Theoretical instantaneous)
• Hazardous to crew
• Requires a crew to operate
• May or may not invoke images of dead friends, space horrors, and general otherworldly strangeness.

The Phantom Drive is based upon the Copenhagen Interpretation of the Principle of Locality:

• If the wavefunction is assumed to physically exist in real spacetime, the principle of locality is violated during the measurement process by the occurrence of wavefunction collapse. This is a non-local process because Born's Rule, when applied to the system's wavefunction, yields a probability density for all regions of space and time. Upon actual measurement of the physical system, the probability density vanishes everywhere instantaneously, except where (and when) the measured entity is found to exist. This “vanishing” is theorised to be a real physical process, and clearly non-local (i.e. faster than light), if the wavefunction is considered physically real and the probability density has converged to zero at arbitrarily far distances during the finite time required for the measurement process.

The Phantom Drive creates a pocket of non-observable space around the target object, essentially cutting it away from the rest of the known universe. At this point, the object simultaneously exists everywhere and nowhere.

Motion is achieved by moving the object in regular intervals, briefly allowing it to be observed, and then making it become non-observable once again. This effect leaves a trail of ghostly after-images as the universe resolves the observable image and then unresolves it. This method of travel is _extremely_ fast, because it requires no true travel of the object in question. It is simply one place, then another, and then another, all over a very short period of time. Unbound by conventional physical laws, even the concept of C is largely irrelevant.

The primary factors limiting the speed of the drive are accuracy and the need to periodically re-enter space-time to provide inertia. These re-entries slow the ship considerably compared to its theoretical maximum speed (“instant”).

Within the non-observation bubble, the laws of reality are still preserved by a temporary pocket universe for the object itself. This is not unlike the space-time bubble created by standard CFS systems, but the overall effect can be jarring or traumatic for passengers. Organic minds have difficult rationalizing the deja-vu effect of the observable pocket universe against the un-observable true universe surrounding the vessel. Further still, some crew members (while still retaining their sanity) have reported strange sightings during FTL travel - old friends, future events, horrifying scenes, and more. The precise nature of these visions is unclear, but it is believed to be a side effect of the sentient mind trying to make sense of the nonsensical. One theory is that, unbound by conventional space-time, passengers are able to view events from all across the universe, at any point during the universe's existence. The visions most commonly experienced seemed to be related to the passenger themselves, so there is perhaps some sort of 'magnetic' aspect to these observations.

For passengers who are able to witness the object during travel, they see that the object appears to reside within a tumultuous energy corridor, full of crashing waves and surging walls. Indeed, a 'wake' of sorts is created for the object while it travels, which cascades outwards upon the object's full reentry into normal space-time. This effect is caused by something like the friction between the known universe and the pocket universe; it is imperative that vessels traveling in this way are capable of “steering” through the changing environment. For this reason, vessels equipped with a Phantom Drive typically have large, highly-protected “rudders” that can maintain the vessel's course.

Vessels without these rudders are still capable of short-range travel via Phantom Drive; however, their arrival destination is much less precise. The universe ↔ pocket universe interaction is inherently unstable as the universe attempts to resume observation.

A further complication is that instrumentation seems unable to detect these non-Euclidean “waves”, which creates a rather interesting paradox for those who wish to use the Phantom Drive for FTL travel - that is, you need an awake, sentient crew to steer the vessel, but that crew is simultaneously being driven mad by the effects of being awake while underway. It has also been reported that while arrival at the specified destination seems to be near-instantaneous, passengers can experience hours or even days depending on how 'tumultuous' the journey was. This is an unusual inversion of the usual time dilation experienced when travelling at or close to C, wherein the object traveling at speed experiences time at a faster rate than the universe around them.

It is possible for a vessel so equipped to engage the Phantom Drive without undergoing FTL travel. In this way, it can be partially or completely removed from reality in its current position and trajectory. This has interesting implications for stealth and defensive capabilities.

Despite the Phantom Drive's impressive upsides, the PR nightmare alone of attempting to use the technology has kept it iceboxed and out of the public eye.

• Copenhagen Interpretation
• The Number of the Beast(novel) by Heinlein
• The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes by H.G. Wells
• Non-Euclidean Geometry (in general)
• Event Horizon
• Infinite Improbability Drive
• Lazarus Volumetric Compression, particularly the Pocket Universe part

Whisper created this article on 2019/09/16 08:55.

🚧 This article is a work-in-progress. Is it not currently approved.