Conversion Drive
Conversion drives (or monopole catalyzed fusion drives, as they are
more
formally called) use massive magnetic monopoles to
increase the efficiency
of a standard fusion drive up to nearly 100% if so desired.
Operating Principles
In its most basic form, a conversion drive is a reinforced fusion
drive
using magnetic confinement to contain the fusion reaction and eject the
resulting high-energy plasma from the vessel to provide thrust. In
their
lowest power mode, most conversion drives still operate in this manner
and
are no more efficient or capable than any other fusion drive system.
However, when desired, massive Forward-type magnetic monopoles (usually
held
in storage rings surrounding the reaction vessel) are magnetically
injected
into the containment chamber and repeatedly cycled through the reaction
zone
at its center. Through the process of ‘S-wave sucking' the
monopoles
induce baryon decay within the plasma stream and effectively convert a
greater percentage of the fusion fuel into energy than would be
achievable
through thermonuclear processes alone. By increasing the number of
monopoles
passing through the reaction zone, either by increasing the number of
monopoles used or cycling them through at faster rates, drive
efficiency may
be increased to levels approaching 100%. At such levels the drive
exhaust is
effectively a beam of high-energy gamma rays focused to near laser-like
intensity. Great care must be taken to avoid irradiating planets and
habitats along the vessel's flight path or even destroying the vessel
itself
if there is a containment or drive reflector failure. For these
reasons, as
well as the remote but finite possibility of a runaway conversion
reaction
(something not possible with a standard fusion drive) most systems in
the
Civilized
Galaxy strictly regulate the power levels of conversion drives
operating within them and require long range and interstellar-capable
vessels to operate at much less than maximum power while anywhere
within a
prescribed distance of the system primary (generally at least one
light-
day).
When powered down, the monopoles are magnetically collected and
stored
until the next time the drive is in operation.
History and Background
The first conversion drives were developed almost immediately after
the
development of Forward monopole generation technology by early Second
Singularity intelligences. While the technology for generating massless
magnetic monopoles and matter to energy conversion reactors was first
developed by the early S1 minds, the monopoles so produced were too
unstable
to be stored for any length of time and required massive installations
to
create and control. This led to the development of large, centralized
power
stations that converted matter to energy in monopole enhanced fusion
reactors and then beamed the resulting power to where it was required.
The
early S1
often used such stations to power their larger projects and propel
their vessels. It was not until the First
Federation that such technology
was made available to modosophonts,
and even then, it still required a
transapient mind to create and control it. S2
monopole technology was far
more compact, produced stable, long-lived monopoles and, most
importantly,
had the potential to be accessible to lower-level minds
For a time conversion drives were seen as a sort of ‘calling
card'
of the newly rising S2 ‘demigods'; however as first S1 and then
modosophont level minds acquired massive monopoles and developed the
technology to readily ‘breed' them in particle accelerators,
various
forms of the drive became first common and then commonplace. Perhaps
the
most well-known effect of the drive was to make truly relativistic
interstellar travel a practical possibility. Much less well-known, but
arguably just as important, the widespread use of conversion drive
would
break the stranglehold of the great amat megacorps, ending a monopoly
extending all the way back to the Interplanetary Age.
Conversion Drive in the Modern Age
In the modern era conversion drives are still the most widely used
form
of interplanetary and interstellar propulsion technology. This
technology
also forms the basis for a number of other devices. Conversion reactors
provide power to deep-space habitats across the Terragen sphere and
illuminate countless outer system and Deeper
gas giant and brown dwarf
communities with catalyzed fusion sun-lines. In the case of some
high-level
transapients and archai, advanced reactors have been injected into the
outer
layers of stars. Operating at an efficiency far out-stripping that of
the
star itself, they provide power by ingesting large quantities of
stellar
hydrogen, converting it to energy, and beaming the resultant power to
receivers located all over the local system.
On a darker note, conversion based weapons have vastly increased the
destructiveness of warfare. Monopole enhanced weapons have made it even
easier to destroy modosophont populations and at their most extreme can
be
so powerful that even the stars themselves are at risk from Terragen
conflict.
Like so much knowledge down through the history of humanity,
monopole
technology has proven to be a two-edged sword, capable of being a
tremendous
boon or a terrible danger.
References
See also: Conversion
Weapons
