Fitch-Finnig Engine

"The humans' method of travel is... questionable. What they call 'Grayspace' is a paraspace that seems dubious and doesn't appear in our models of the universe, but then again humans don't have access to our stellar folding or the Reticulans' EM phasing. I suppose we must all reach for the stars in our own ways."

— Quazhe, Kheezer Humanologist.

Dimensional Kinetics

These engines come in hypersphere, hypercube, and pentachoron varieties. Fitch-Fennig engines have been around a long time, and worked off of an even older precursor called the Gravity Drive. As such, many gigacorps manufacture models, and brands can be found from YSLU, Vanguard Dynamics, Celestial Securities, Helios Innovations, Galactic Trade Syndicate, Stellaris Mining Consortium, AetherTech Solutions, Quantum Dynamics, AstraTech Industries, Titanium Star Enterprises, Orbital Dynamics, Eclipse Entertainment, NovaTech Solutions, Transtar Shipping Corporation, and Gentleman's Creed International.
FF-Hypersphere: The basic hypersphere engine uses a crystal-matrix sphere pushed slightly into Grayspace, creating a rotating hypersphere over which red mercury from Jupiter is cycled. The result is a smooth function with relatively low complexity, making these engines reliable, quiet, and durable.
FF-Hypercube: The mid-tier FFE uses a hypercube. The hypercubes 'beat' like a heart, creating a signature staccato thump as they cycle through. This beat ripples and counter-ripples the red mercury and The engine is louder and less quiet but has a much higher output than a hypsersphere. This arrangement is more fragile than hypersphere models and can explode with serious force, blasting a city block into ashes and dust.
FF-Pentachoron: The high-tier FFE uses a 4-dimensional pyramid crystal as its central component. A Pentachoron actually pulls some of the red mercury into Grayspace and pulls it out again, exponentially increasing output. This arrangement is fragile and if the engine goes critical can implode, yanking most of the mech through a pinprick sized hole into Grayspace.

Red, White and Gray

All FFEs can access Grayspace, Whitespace, and Redspace. Most have blockers on Redspace and will shut down if they detect an attempt, but a good enough Engineer can remove this block.
Note that entering Redspace anywhere is illegal according to the Pan-Solar Consortium, and if the authorities learn that a ship has gone that way they will arrest and quarantine the crew and likely destroy the ship. Entering Redspace takes about 10 seconds, and travel through Redspace divides the time/distance of travel by 3d due to the variable time phenomenon of Redspace. There is a chance of attracting Redspace Adversarial Intelligences with any jaunt through Redspace, which can be pulled into Realspace if they make it onto the ship.
Entering Whitespace takes an average of about 3 hours. Entering Whitespace is illegal within the orbit of PSC-controlled stars, due to 'Whitespace leakage,' which creates 'scars' of matter and energy that can become space Hazards and have to be cleaned up if they're in a place that might intersect with a planetary or satellite orbit or a space lane. Travel through Whitespace is removed from time entirely, but targeting it is impercise and the destination has to be decided prior to entry into Whitespace. The emergent location is typically within 5,000 to 15,000 AU of the programmed destination.
Entering Grayspace takes ten minutes, is relatively safe, and the time/distance division is a matter of piloting skill. Some people report sightings or contact with entities in Grayspace, but these have been chalked up to hallucinations.

Fitch-Fennig Drive

An FFD is a scaled down version of an FFE, designed for use in vehicles such as Hovercraft, armored military vehicles, cataphracts, etc. FFDs are also sometimes used as generators, though Quantum-Matrix Batteries are much more effecient at this.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

The Fitch-Fennig engines use gravplating technology to focus miniature singularities in on a geometric crystal, forcing the Realspace crystal to occupy sumultaneous location within the engine. This causes Realspace to shift into a 4th dimension known as Grayspace. Red Mercury is poured over the object, pulling the substance into and out of Grayspace, adding the exponential kinetic energy of 4th dimensional movement to the Red Mercury. This allows a 'gravity pulse' to flow through the ship, enveloping the whole ship in a gravity 'bubble' which pulls and pushes it along at relativistic speeds without liquefying the internal organs of the passengers.
When agitated by focused Gamma waves, the engine pulls the entire ship and its contents into Grayspace, returning it when the Realspace inside the engine is allowed to normalize by cutting the Gamma waves.

History

Invented during the Solar Commonwealth Era by inventor John Fitch and his partner Aeli Finnig. The original models went into Whitespace and transportation was instantaneous. Repeated exposure to Whitespace was later found to cause mutations and mental anomalies, so Fitch and Finnig reversed the polarity, finding Wrongspace, which was a disaster resulting in the death of Aeli Finnig. Fitch returned to the original model, utilizing less power and more focusing singularities to utilize Grayspace. Grayspace doesn't entirely evade the time-distance barrier the way that Whitespace does, but it gets near to it. The technology has been miniaturized and improved over time, but the basic principles have remained the same.

Significance

Fitch-Fennig engines are in every human interplanetary starship for both Grayspace travel and for energy production, as well as for the generation of Defense Screens.

Item type

Mechanical