Field-Drive Ships

The Fleet Of Stars, 3.

In a field-drive ship:

material and vacuum quantum states interact;

there is direct thrust;

momentum is conserved;

but the momentum is of the plenum;

wasteful jets are redundant;

but mass is still expended as fuel.

 

A c-ship is a small field-drive ship with minimal payload able to approach light-speed whereas a cruiser is a larger field-drive ship able to carry more but at lower speeds.

 

Download Guthrie in c-ship Yeager crosses from Beta Hydri to Alpha Centauri in about thirty years, arriving with nearly empty mass tanks. The Lunarian Jendaire is Wardress of the orbiting city Zamok Sabely', Lady Commander of the Phyle Ithar and invested associate of the occasional High Council of Alpha Centauri. Guthrie asks Jendaire to provide him with a cruiser so that he will not arrive helpless at Sol. That journey will take another thirty years.