So a comment I just got has me thinking that I should probably explain my thoughts on how the propulsion systems work in the setting. The actual name of the system is fluid, because its real name is in Galactic Standard and none of us can speak that. For the purposes of this explanation I am currently going with Gravity drive.

  The heart of the drive is a gravity node. This receives the electrical power it needs to operate from the ship’s power plant.

  The node has two states, on and off. While the node is off you can set the parameters of the gravity simulation, and when you turn it on it will simulate an object with mass located at an arbitrary point to everything within a designated area. The larger the simulated object and the larger the designated simulation area the more power is required from the power plant.

  An important limitation is that the simulation areas have to be spherical or ellipsoid. There is no known way to put edges or corners on the shape of the simulation area. Another important limitation is that the node has to be outside the simulation area BECAUSE REASONS.

  You cannot change the settings once the node is turned on. You have to power the node down and reprogram it if you want a larger or smaller simulated object, locate the simulated object at a different location relative to the simulation area, or change the size or location of the area that is affected by the simulation.

  To compensate for this issue, the nodes are used in an array, and they are turned on and off in sequence to allow for continued operation while allowing adjustments to be made.

  While you are inside the simulation area you are affected as if there was an object in the distance and direction indicated. So if you are inside a space ship and the node generates a simulation enclosing the crew compartment of an Earth sized object located in a ‘down’ direction, everything in the compartment gets pulled in that direction.

  This also means that portions of the compartment itself get pulled equally, resulting in no net effect because everything is moving in the same direction at the same speed. If there are portions of the compartment outside the simulation area they will get pulled by the portions within it. The whole ship will go down.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Since there are portions of the ship outside the simulated area, there will be a drag effect. This means that while your feet may actually touch the floor, the whole ship is still moving and you don’t want that.

  To counteract this you would use a second node to generate a counteracting simulation on a portion of the ship that isn’t affected by the first simulation.

  Consider for a moment that you are hanging on to a hot air balloon basket drifting through space. You use a node to generate a simulated earth-sized object on the empty spot in the center of the basket where you would stand. You have the simulation area small enough so that the rim of the basket isn’t affected, just things that are between the outer edges. You pull yourself inside and voila, you are now successfully standing in the basket. But now you are moving the basket because the gravity that you alone are experiencing is pushing on you and you are pushing on the basket.

  To fix this problem you generate a second simulation area that encapsulates only the portion of the basket where the burners are. You set it to generate an object in the opposite direction, that is very close to the size of the first object. Not exactly the same because the burner has a different mass than you do and the pull would be unequal. You compensate for that.

  So now you are standing in a hot air balloon basket in space going nowhere because all you have done thus far is cancel undesirable motion.

  You use a third node. This time you simulate a pretend object with the mass of the sun because you want to go fast. You put as much of the ship as you can inside this simulation area because you want there to not be a force that pulls the crew towards the back of the ship. Just your luck though because the node has to be outside the simulations and so there will ALWAYS be a small drag effect that pulls the hull differently.

  How do you fix that? FOURTH NODE.

  OK, so you have 4 active nodes in your array if you want to move and have gravity. LEt’s say I take off my shoe and throw it overboard. I have changed the mass of the ship but the nodes are still pulling based on the original mass calculations. I get an unwanted movement of my hull now because of that. I need to recalculate and reset my nodes to fix that, but I have to turn them off to do it.

  Bye bye gravity and thrust. How do you fix that? Eight nodes.

  OK, now I need to take into account the possibility of node failure because running the nodes introduces wear. To counteract wear I perform maintenance on my nodes, but they can’t be on when I do that. How do I fix that? How do I account for a ship that isn’t spherical or ellipsoid or that I want differing levels of gravity in different areas? What if someone tries to destroy my nodes?

  MORE NODES. All the nodes. 16 nodes? 32? 64? 128?