Zip Drives
Zip Space is the "path between space and time that make up our reality" that U-Drives and the less reliable but more common Zip Drives use to navigate long distances. While pilots have learned HOW to navigate it over the last few hundred years, they have yet to form an understanding of what Z-Space truly is.
Zip Drives are known for their ability to plot courses through Z-Space, but they are often limited in distance for any sort of reliable result. They are also prone to time dilation and malfunction when pushed past their intended limits. Zip Drives need to be permitted to cool down after jumps equal to their Planing rating and can only make reliable jumps of Light Years equal to 10x their Planing Rating.
Drive Cooldown
Unlike the newer, rarer Utopia-Drives, Zip Drives require a cooldown period, usually (10 minutes - Planing Rating) between re-engaging to avoid damaging their engines. A Zip-Drive trying to jump again without that cooldown must resist a Systems attack with intensity equal to the minutes remaining. Any shifts must be soaked by a Consequence named "Z-Drive (Malfunctioning > Damaged > Broken)". Utopia Drives do not require that same Cooldown, but instead require Utopian Cells equal to their Planing Rating per jump. Each Cell consumes 1 Utopian Shard.Utility
It is accessed through U-Drives with reliable success and by Z-Drives with more potential issues depending on the skill of the pilot and the quality of the drive.
Social Impact
The invention of Zip Drives opened interstellar travel to humankind, allowing for rapid intrasystem transit. Distances that once took stasis pods and a matter of years if not centuries now take only days.
Access & Availability
Z-Drives are available on almost all Transport ships
U-Drives are incredibly expensive to purchase and install, though a series of dangerous knock-offs have recently made them riskier but more available.
U-Drives are incredibly expensive to purchase and install, though a series of dangerous knock-offs have recently made them riskier but more available.
Complexity
The easiest way that the drive works is to think of a sheet of paper. On one end of the paper, the ship resides. On the other, the intended destination. Zip Drives effectively fold that paper in half and attempt to line up those two opposite ends, allowing the ship to punch through one side and end up where they intended to be on the other.
Discovery
Unknown
Related Vehicles
Related Species
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