Ring Drive
The Ring Drive the most featured faster-than-light transporting technology in this comic, albeit not the only one[1]. It consists of the Singularity Ring[2], which propels the rest of the ship forwards, Circle's End[3], which creates a naked singularity to power the Ring and the parts with unknown functions Hope and Fear[4]. Ships can thereby travel faster than light and remain matter and not be affected by special relativity.
The Ring Drive has been invented by the Makers, who maintained monopoly over the technology until 2258, when Conrado Cruz discovers a crash-landed ship with said technology, reverse-engineers it and starts a monopoly on its own, creating the second Spanish Empire. This leads to war with The Continuum Of Makers.
How it works
Is unknown. Unless you are a Fillipod or a Maker. No-one else, not even one member of La Familia has any clue how it actually works - but only very few people know that.[5]
The comic gives some clues about the physics, making it sound like a working Alcubierre warp drive (however, Dave Kellett has revealed that the physics are different in some important ways[6]):
- The ship itself seems to move slowly.[7]
- Localized space is pinched around the ship, then the ship is presumably driven through folds of space.
- Moebius-class Maker ships can pinch "more than localised space" with double Rings, making them even faster.[8]
However, the Alcubierre warp drive does not
- need to create a naked singularity like the Ring Drive does with Spirit's End
It is also known that the Ring permits faster-than-light communication.[9]
Dangers and limitations
- Using the Ring Drive without a member of the Pilot Species has a rather high chance of high-speed collision with an object in space.[10][11]
- Using the Ring Drive without a member of the Pilot Species has an artificial limit of speed as a consequence. The Ring Drive cannot reach infinite speed, there is a theoretical limit.[12]
- Using the Ring Drive inside El Imperio without the empire's permission (by letting a La Familia member supervise all of the Ring alone) results in death and destruction
- Using the Ring Drive without the Continuum's permission will (probably) make them hunt you down and bring war to your puny little empire.
Use as a weapon
The Ring Drive should not be used close to any celestial objects, such as Planets. Doing so will result in intense seismic activities[13] or - if powerful enough - in the destruction of the planet.[14]