Perry Rhodan-verse - 24 ----------------------- The long-running German pulp Sci-Fi series “**Perry Rhodan**” has created an impressive roster of FTL drive technologies over the decades. *Disclaimer: The following list of drives (and their descriptions) are based on a quick survey of [PerryPedia][1] and is probably not very exhaustive. It’s been 20 years since I last read some PR dime novels, so feel free to correct me on the details :-) Translations of drive names are approximations (I don’t know if “official” English terms exist for some of them).* - **Transition Drive**. First FTL drive tech adopted by humanity. Allows a ship to “jump” through Hyperspace, de- and rematerializing it upon entry and exit. Nearly instantaneous, but individual jumps need careful calculations and are limited to a few thousand light years a time. Those “transitions” are usually stressful for man and machine, and transition events can easily be detected across interstellar distances using basic sensor equipment. Like many drive types in the Perry Rhodan universe, it has a limited total range before “burning out” and needing replacement. - **Hypertact Drive**, **Transmiterm-Rotator**, and **Intermitter Drive**. Separate advanced transition drive variants, using short, soft hyperspace transition jumps in very rapid succession to reach FTL speeds. - **Linear Drive**. Wraps the vessel in a protective field bubble and pushes it into “linear space”, a semi-spatial zone that exists between the boundaries of normal space and hyperspace. Since objects moving through linear space are not bound by the speed of light limit, the ship can now use its conventional sublight drives to reach high FTL speeds before emerging back into normal space. - **Libotron Drive**. Advanced drive based on linear drive tech. No longer relying on sublight propulsion systems, it uses refined field manipulation to maintain and propel the ship through “linear space”. - **Cenprokton Drive**. Kind of a booster stage to a basic “Linear Drive”. It pushes the vessel out of a linear space flight “deep into a zone between the energy levels of the 5th and 6th dimensions”, where even greater speeds can be achieved. - **Metagrav** (aka **Hyperkon Drive**, **Grigoroff Drive**). In sublight mode, it uses hyperdimensional fields to project a virtual gravitational singularity in front of the vessel, tugging it along (kind of like a carrot on a stick). The FTL mode shifts the ship into a state of partial dematerilaization, allowing it to coast at speeds of up to several tens of million times the speed of light. Refined variants of the Metagrav are designed to allow more dynamic control over the geometries of the fields. They permit travel through Hyperspace at speeds of up to several hundreds of million times the speed of light. - **Paradim-Nullsphere**. Similar in principle to the Metagrav, but based on different technologies. - **Supratron Generator**. Exotic drive based on creating a “hyperspace bubble”. - **Dimetrans Drive**. Intergalactic jump drive based on osculating the dematerialised vessel between normal space and hyper space. Ships will need to rematerialize in the gravimetric centre of the target galaxy, limiting its usefulness. - **Dimesexta** and **Transferdim** Drives. Advanced technologies that allow a ship to continuesly move through a partial space between the 5th and 6th dimension. Allows intergalactic travel at up to several billion times the speed of light. - **Septim Parallel Track Drive**. Exotic drive that allows a ship to move through a partial space between the 6th and 7th dimension. Allows intergalactic travel at up to several trillion times the speed of light. - **Trafitron Drive**. Creates a pocket universe around the ship that can propel itself at up to several hundreds of million times the speed of light, utilising “Psi Matter”. - **Gravity Line Drive**. Exotic alien drive based on riding interstellar “hyperdimensional gravitational streams”. - **Enerpsi Drive**. Exotic alien drive based on taping into a galactic “psionic net”. - **Oktabim Parallel Track Hyper Drive**. Experimental drive possibly based on 8-dimensional tech. - Drive of the “**Quell-Klipper**” living ships. Exotic organic drive allowing travel at speeds of up to several thousand times the speed of light through normal space, possibly by warping spacetime. #Edit:# *Thanks to flq's suggestions, here are 6 more means of FTL travel appearing in PR:* - **Black Star Ways**. An interstellar and intergalactic transit network build from wormholes (aka "Einstein-Rosen-Bridges") inside black holes, spanning some 100 million LYs. Relay stations are anchored beyond each black hole’s event horizon and can be used to “dial” the receiving wormhole. A ship using such a “black gate” will have to pass through the event horizons on both sides, but will be shielded by the relay stations. - **Polyport Network**. An interstellar, intergalactic and “interuniversal” transport network originally build for trade and cultural exchange, consisting of various interconnected transport hubs. Transport is fast but non-instantaneous. During transit between two such stations, a person will manifest as higher dimensional “holographic” waveform, allowing the user to remain conscious and observe vast stretches of the universe even in their dematerialized state, - **The Bridge To Infinity**. A “mystic” transit way connecting numerous “bridge pillars” scattered across space. The bridge itself is leading through an unknown “medium” spanning between two such pillars. To the user it appears as a physical bridge constructed from wooden planks (floating above a galactic vista) and has to be crossed by foot, reducing a journey of many light years to a short stroll. - **The Time Fountains**. Yet another ancient transport network spanning intergalactic distances, built some 20 millions years ago. The Time Fountains appear as small and featureless “holes in space time” and allow instantaneous travel through space, but can also be used to travel through time. - **Absolute Movement**. Exotic means of transport. It is described as some sort of “hyper energetic tractor beam” that de- and rematerializes a target, effectively allowing instantaneous transport across thousands of light years. - **Teleporters**. Some rare human mutants (and a few alien species with naturally occurring gifts) in the Perry Rhodan-verse have the psychic ability to teleport themselves across varying distances. I don’t recall if those teleports are supposed to generally happen at FTL speeds, but the ability of some species to cross interstellar distances by means of collective teleportation seems to suggest that this is at least possible. - **Mental capabilities of the Motana**. Through the focussing of a group of Matana with the aid of chants, Motana can move spaceships with sub-light and FTL velocities. Typically, such capabilities of biological lifeforms are related to the psionic network. - **Biodim propulsor of the Kybb**. Not much info on that one, only that it has been used in the Kybb-Titans and seem to contain biological components extracted form the Motana which presumably are related to their capabilities of propulsing a spaceship beyond light-speed. [1]: http://www.perrypedia.proc.org/