Ion Strike Engine

The Ion Strike Engine, uses particle theory to reach an effective reality cancellation effect in preparation for ethereal transversal by a psion. It is the simplest of the striking technologies, and is what is used exclusively in all known cultures up to the 4400s.
The following briefing is a cursory glance at the basic operations of an ion strike engine. It is not a definitive or complete treatise of this topic as it is intended for clients and their technicians. The ion strike engine is completely contained within what is called the striker rod apparatus. The striker rod extends for much of a striker's length and is a sizeable proportion of its weight. It is composed of three parts:

1. Power plant - supplying the power to the ion strike engine (usually a fusion power plant and a microprocessor).
2. The outer, coil region - containing the interactive neutral field generator array (NFG-interactive) the neutral particle bank array (NPB) and the central operator computer.
3. The inner, core region - containing the proactive neutral field generator array (NFG-proactive) and the neutral matter holding chamber (NMHC).

Together these comprise a very tightly controlled system that is responsive to all its parts. The communication throughout all is carried on fibre-optic cable. This cable is sufficient for all command sensor and mathematical routing carried out by the apparatus as a whole. The cables meet at microprocessor nodes. Each node has a different function and there are typically thousands in all. The nodes fall into three classes

1. Sensor Nodes - these typically gather and process gravimetric information. All information from the nodes of this type are collated by the central operator computer. Other nodes gather electrical and/or fault information which is used directly by the nodes to rout nanobots.
2. Command nodes - have more uninterrupted access to the central operator computer as these are its local workers. These nodes rout commands in order of their importance, or more correctly, their expedience.
3. Conformal Mapping Nodes - have no direct link to the central operator computer, rather they have prioritised links to each other. This ensures that when the central operator computer taps into the conformal mapping web, there is a coherent picture to be read from and written to. The nodes handle much of the mapping tasks themselves, the central operator computer merely sets them in motion adds critical off-the-cuff information and reads from them in order to calculate what is termed the matching function (more of this later).

NFG-Interactive

The typical ion strike engine contains 40 NFG interactive particle accelerators operating at around 30-40 eTeV (equivalent tera electron volts). In total, they generate a sufficient neutral field as to attract and hold all of the gravitons in the ship's original locomotive mass. The process takes 3-4 femtoseconds (45 MHz AC operation standard) although by the second femtosecond most of the gravitons have already passed to the NPB.
At the centre of the NFG is the core particle accelerator. This is what is used to generate the gravitational fields of the correct frequency pattern to lower the potential wells holding gravitons to matter. The gravitons, once released, are attracted to the most obvious gravity source, the NFG. The core particle accelerator is modulated by primary and secondary windings of AC accelerators (usually 10 of the former and 6 of the latter). These are concentrically bunched around the core accelerator.
At close intervals along the core accelerators length are conformal mapping nodes. These consist of three parts (a) a passive/active conformal applicator, (b) a conformal mapper microprocessor driver unit, and (c) a local power unit for the applicator. Essentially, the mappers mathematically transform the spatial map of the current graviton distribution in the ship to the equivalent toroidal mobius distribution of the NFG core. The AC accelerators use this information to alter the NFG power distribution so as to maximise graviton attraction.
Winding close to the accelerator bundle are fibre-optic bundles used to service the conformal mappers.
All of the above is enclosed in a wound gravity shielding that provides the main structure to the cable itself. The grav shielding consists of some 74 000 hexagonal cross-section electric-to-neutral particle accelerators that counter the effects of the NFG on a local scale so as to filter out neutrinos and WIMPs for example. The area of the hexagonal cross-sections vary. The grav shielding is surrounded by a hyperchassis-polyAVB plastoid gravimetric film. This material supplies a small and even potential "ledge" where gravitons momentarily come to rest.
Puncturing the film and wound gravity shielding at regular intervals are graviton diode source-sink pairs. These devices are extremely complex and make use of supersymmetry to produce a funnel effect in the film. They are designed to allow the passage of gravitons to and from the NFG core (depending on the phase of striking the engine is currently in). When the NFG-interactive is in graviton collection mode, the top graviton diode is a GDsink while the bottom is a GDsource for the NFG. When the NFG-interactive is in graviton redistribution mode, the top graviton diode is a GDsource while the bottom is a GDsink for the NFG. Generally speaking, the roles of these units swap but they remain, at all times, diodes. The GDSs are placed such that there are a minimum of saddle points on the film (where gravitons can be lost). Through the wound gravity shielding, the GDSs are linked gravitationally (a fact of which is made use of by the conformal mapping array).
As a mass, the NFG-interactive array holds a transformed map of the ships graviton distribution. These gravitons must now be redistributed to the neutral matter holding chamber. To achieve this, switch gates are operated which capture all of the gravitons in the NFG array and transfer them to the neutral particle bank.

Neutral Particle Bank

The neutral particle bank is a graviton router. In the initial stages of striking, the NPB collects the gravitons from the NFG-interactive and funnels some 99% to the NMHC. The remaining 1% is used in recombination with unencumbered ion particles to provide thrust for the ship. Timing is, of course, of the essence. When the strike phase is over (i.e., the ship has reached its destination), the NPB collects the gravitons from the NMHC and redistributes them to the NFG-interactive. The 1% missing mass is made up by converted i-gravitons.
Conformal mappers in the NPB work hard at this point to calculate any changes in the ship's particle distribution so that the gravitons can be placed back in their correct positions in the ship. At other times, these mappers tranform the dodecca-mobius toroidal map topology of the NFG to the tetra-crossed toroidal topology of the NPB, to the oblate spheroid topology of the DMHC, and back again.

NFG-Proactive

This has a very similar structure to the NFG-interactive, but it achieves an opposing effect. Instead of producing a gravity well, the NFG-proactive sets up a gravity vacuum. Space is literally torn apart within the central accelerator and i-gravitons, enticed out of their imaginary potential wells with similar AC signals, inevitably fall in. Energy is stolen from the trapped i-gravitons essentially quickening them and lengthening their profile. They are forced into a circular path which acts as a linear potential well with the characteristics of imaginary matter. The circular motion of the i-gravitons induces an imaginary gravitational field (in effect, antigravity) which is used to (a) further confine the i-gravitons, (b) impart a bias on their distribution to match that of the ship, and (c) match the resultant i-field with the n-field in the NMHC.

Neutral Matter Holding Chamber

This is the most complex machinery of the striker engine. It is where real graviton fields are combined with i-graviton fields for effective reality cancellation. The real gravitons are sourced from the NFG-interactive (through the NPB) while the i-gravitons are sourced from the NFG-proactive. Each r-graviton is matched with a suitable i-graviton counterpart and they are held in a transdimensional dipole. The fields of this couple are matched and enhanced according to the outcomes of the matching function. The matching function uses the conformal mapping data of the ships mass distribution as a boundary condition, light speed is one of the initial conditions. Eventually a match is achieved for every particle and the thrust from the NPB will propel a near massless ship beyond the light speed barrier, and out of corporeal existence and into the ethereal bathymetric substrate, ready for the psion and the next phase.

Ethereal Bathymetry

The common term for ethereal bathymetry is scersics. The principle is that for every position in corporeal space, there is a tensor of potential movement. The scale of the components of this tensor is measured depth potentials. These are velocity components because subspace is fluid in comparison to the corporeal, but not entirely dislocated. This means that it is fluidic, not actually a fluid. The extent of the fluidity, at any point, or it's feedom, is what is equated to a scaler depth, or bathymetry. It is the mapping of this bathymetry over the whole of the length of the journey, that allows the striker to amplify the psion's teleportation and transverse the ship and everything in it to the new destination.

Psionic Theory

The striker is an engine for navigating ethereal space with the aim of facilitating teleportation. It is one of the simplest psionic technologies in that it can provide a practical link between the intention (to shift to a new location) and the means (navigation through supernatural space).
A psion need not concern themselves with navigation to teleport themselves, as they are embedded in the ethereal through their consciousness already, they need only consider a familiar place and make that their teleportation destination. However, if you require the amplification of this ability to include a group of people, their possessions and an interstellar ship, then a striker rod apparatus is required to plot the ethereal bathymetry and make the connections between psionic intention and the dragging of all that material and people through the ethereal with the psion. The striker takes the intention directly from the psion and translates that through bathymetry, to surrounding physical objects and subjects within a scersic field area.
There is a lot of ineffeciency in this process. The psion could normally make the trip between stars on their own instantaneously. But the amplification comes at a tremendous cost in time, which is proportional to the physical distance between origin and intended destination. Immensely greater technological input is needed to reduce this time lag.