The Lane Hackers | Diplomatic Channel

Hello there.

What I believe Provocateur Yoshida has failed to explain is the enormity of the undertaking you are asking to begin. Allow me to attempt to explain Trade Lane technology in greater detail, so that your curiosity may be tempered by the chilling effect of rationality.

As the Provocateur explained, stationary Trade Lanes fold space/time in order to shorten the travel time between two areas of space by effectively shortening the actual distance between those two places. This can seem effortless and simple as one passes through a Trade Lane, especially because the advanced technology required for their construction is now ubiquitous throughout the Houses of Sirius. This is not the case. In fact, the Trade Lanes are based on a level of technology far beyond the comprehension of the majority.

However, I believe that the source of your confusion comes from the idea of warped space-time in and of itself rather than the technological hurdles involved in producing Trade Lanes. You see, the Trade Lane network is successful in part because the technology is easily applied in the manner that it currently is, but difficult or nigh-impossible to apply in other directions. The proprietary space-time manipulation projectors that create the field which a ship travels through must be placed around the outside of the field in order to bend space-time into the proper shape. Without a ring of projectors encircling the field the effect cannot be properly contained and the technology runs into unforeseen complications which I am not at the liberty to detail.

If, as your ship design shows, the projectors are affixed to the outside of the ship facing in, they would not have the effect you desire. The field is, after all, only manipulating the area within the Trade Lane rings. If those rings were moved, the field would move but the rings could still only be moved at standard impulse speed as they themselves are not within the field's effect. A ship as you have proposed would still only travel at impulse speed due to this complication. Objects within the ship would move at a rapid rate between the two points, and there may be unusual interactions between the field and the hull due to the fact that the connecting struts traverse the region of bent space-time.

To summarize this explanation; Trade Lanes are built the way they are because the containment of the space-time manipulation field is of the utmost importance to the field's stability. The containment mechanism (the Trade Lane Ring) must therefore be on the outside of the field and, as a result, cannot be moved faster than impulse speed. Overall, you may wish to return to the drawing board and attempt to target another means of propulsion. I have heard that artificial wormhole travel is a fruitful area of research in that regard.

We hope you find this explanation satisfactory.

Regards,
Maxwell Tarn