Retrieved from “S-Drives for Dummies” by Logan Carcetti, How-To Writer, Published 2244.

  So, you want to know how reality breaking, expensive as hell and very confusing faster than light engines work, do you? Great! You’ve come to the right book. So, we will go into the details of S-Field formation patterns and correct alignment procedures, yada yada, but that will come later. For now, we want a solid ground to start on.

  First things first – you have a soul. Shocker! Well, a soul is one way of putting it, and even that is debatable. You can ask all of the traditional religions how well that discussion goes. Soul or not, the point is that there is something inside not just you, but every living thing more complicated than a mushroom or a prokaryote. This is your Quantum Identity Structure. It represents you, in a sense. Now, I can hear you already ‘Logan, isn’t that what my brain is?’ And that’s where the fun begins!

  Of course, you start as a bunch of cells at some point. Up until you develop enough as a fetus, no QIS Pattern. There are the brief stirrings of one rather early on, but I doubt any academic would call it a real Pattern, even less than a little snail or an insect. However, after you reach a certain stage (which is highly debatable and variable, so don’t ask me to touch that topic with a ten foot pole!), a QIS Pattern snaps into existence. From then on, your sense of ‘you’ in the real world requires both your physical body and your Pattern to coexist. Though your Pattern is effectively you, in that it is your ethereal memories, consciousness and personality in a single structure, it needs a place to attach to the universe through, and a way to sense our surroundings. In our case, our brains and bodies!

  So, what is the deal with all that electrical stuff going on in our brains? What happens when someone gets cloned from the same genetics? We are getting to that! So, the way it works, is that your biological nerves are acting as a transmission point for your thoughts. When your dendrites are firing signals to different parts of your brain, it is actually copying the different parts of your QIS Pattern firing similar patterns to, say, create emotions or decisions or how confused to get when seeing your best buddy naked. When a brain is damaged, it can interfere with its ability to replicate what the QIS Pattern is trying, leading to issues.

  Of course, it’s a two-way street – as much as you are your QIS, you still need your body to get feedback from reality. For example, someone had a damaged Wernicke's area, a part that controls speech, in their head – the QIS Pattern will try to speak a phrase, but the damage to the brain makes the body incapable of replicating the order to the rest of the body. Its as if the body is trying to read a printout of instructions to follow, but the printer, or brain in this case, keeps skipping over all many of the words. Similarly, if a brain is too damaged, the QIS Pattern fully disconnects, leading to a total vegetative state. Through monitoring of a QIS Pattern, this allows doctors to see if anyone is ‘still home’, so to speak. If so, then proper medical care and surgery can help aid with QIS reattachment.

  Now, this is very crazy stuff. Believe me, took a while to get it too! I am sure many a biologist or philosopher hanged themselves when the QIS Pattern was first discovered, but stay with me! Its not bad. In fact, it doesn’t really change anything for most people. Nothing in the physical world can actually harm your QIS Pattern – it is on another layer of reality entirely, unable to be directly affected by any physics known thus far, so hopefully that gives you some comfort. Its structure varies from both species to species and person to person. The details lie in the information contained at each node of the Pattern, with the whole making up your sense of self. All humans, however, have a similar general structure, one that is made of a series of interconnected nodes. The shape has often been likened to a tree, or a branching path, though some have drawn a clear connection to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life (again, not even getting close to the implications of that topic!).

  What is important for our next section is maintaining the attachment of the body and the QIS Pattern. Again, nothing can damage your Pattern, only the body it is attached to. What can happen, however, is detachment through misalignment between the physical space your body and your QIS take up. Normally, your Pattern effectively outlines your body, stretching from head to the lower spine, and closely follows your movements. Even if you were to get on the fastest hoverbike, or were even able to move at speeds past that of light, your Pattern would stick to you like glue. However, with the creation of the S-Drive, or Schr?dinger-Drive as everyone calls it, this can change.

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  The S-Drive, in a simple way, teleports matter. It collapses the waveforms of every atom, subatomic structure, and even matter on alternate layers of reality, and reforms them elsewhere in the universe. Using an advanced internal structure involving a core made of exotic material, the S-Drive involves running a current through this core, which in turns generates a field of altered reality (the S-Field) and using this field to adjust what matter needs to be collapsed and where it needs to be reformed.

  This S-Field takes up an area of space determined by advanced computers involved with the S-Drive, and selects the matter required to be moved, how far it needs to be moved, and in what structures they need to be reformed in. Generally, it is actually incredibly hard to displace specific parts of matter using an S-Drive than it is to move it as a whole, so no people turned inside out or spaceships being cut in half. Sure, at the end of the day, it is all just atoms, but there is an almost personal connection required for an S-Jump, as evidenced by the need for Keepers, and it’s far harder to picture a ship in half than a whole one. Close-range S-Jumps are also not typical, as nearby matter increases inaccuracy. Doing any of the before mentioned scenarios so would require a powerful computer, and an S-Drive with a level of accuracy and power magnitudes beyond even the most advanced modern models. Similarly, each S-Drive has its own signature, and other S-Drives attempting to jump near or into an opposing S-Field doesn’t work, so no teleporting soldiers onto enemy ships or S-Jumping a bomb onto a colony. This is why all colonies, even if they don’t intend on jumping between planets (a silly idea, but one that had been considered for Vulcanis Two, since it’s such a terrible planet to live on), have an S-Drive for security.

  Sounds simple, right? What’s the problem? Well, as it turns out, the only way to displace a QIS Pattern, is to teleport using an S-Drive, as the instant movement between two points in space without an anchor disconnects the Pattern from the body. Bummer, right? So, how do we solve this? Thanks to science, we have a way! Using two parts, we can safely travel at FTL speeds to travel the galaxy – QIS Stabilization Liquid, and Keepers.

  QIS Stabilization Liquid is a thick, green liquid that, whilst chilly and uncomfortable to touch, is oxygenated and necessary for S-Jumps. Through its matrix, a crew’s QIS Pattern is kept tight to their physical bodies as they teleport, keeping them alive. However, it must also be combined with a Keeper. This is the term given to our trusted guides, those who keep us safe from the horrible fate of QIS Dislocation during an S-Jump. They are highly augmented, typically sporting a full-body replacement aside from their brains, and act as an anchor for the S-Jump. By focusing on their QIS Pattern through their implants and through well-developed meditation procedures, they can manage the S-Jump in such a way that they effectively pull the rest of the crew’s Patterns along with them. Doing so puts them under strain, and a larger crew may require multiple Keepers, each with a designated section of crew to protect. Although computer alternatives exist for smaller ships, these are generally considered risky, as the artificial QIS Pattern created to replicate a Keeper’s is flimsy at best. As such, there is always a risk of QIS Disconnection when using this method.

  Lastly, and less important, are some of the other uses of the S-Field. Firstly, whilst the first exotic materials were extremely costly to make, most modern-day ones are quite affordable thanks to the use of the S-Drive. Aside from syraline, the highly advanced exotic metal used to enhance the S-Drive itself, other exotic matters can be formed by passing a precursor resource through a concentrated S-Field. This imbues the material with properties not in line with our universe at a low cost. Such materials include baryonic attraction glass (commonly called baryplates), the lining used in ships and stations to producing an artificial gravity field, and tempraline, the string-like substance used for high-speed inter-sys network nodes, neo-wave musical instruments and modern fishing gear. In my opinion, those last two are a bit of a waste of such an otherworldly material, but that’s just me.

  In warfare, the S-Drive can also be used not just to oppose an enemy’s S-Field, preventing them either from jumping in or leaving, but also to form a Scar Field. Unlike old world sci-fi with spaceships with shields that simply absorb a target’s gunfire or lasers, the Scar Field instead teleports matter entering the field from one side to the other, passing over the ship. Though very effective against smaller kinetic weapons, they can be overcome through sheer over usage, as using a Scar Field is very energy intensive, or through the early detonation of a missile. Though the explosion may pass through the Scar Field, it can be timed well to ‘bait out’ unnecessary usage of the defensive measure.

  So, with the basics out of the way, we can get into the nitty gritty about field patterns, the many equations behind S-Field calculations, and other such fun stuff! Read on, for more!

  - Retrieved from Chapter One of “S-Drives for Dummies” by Logan Carcetti, How-To Writer, Published 2244.