Quantum Slipstream Drive

Quantum Slipstream Drives are one of the many different methods by which denizens of the interstellar community have devised for circumventing the light-speed barrier and achieving superluminal speeds. The technology shares similarities with the transwarp technology of the Borg, likely from crossover events during the Collective's many expansion periods. The technology was first encountered by USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, originally developed by a species the Borg designated as Species 116.

The drive technology works via a starship's main deflector generating a quantum field to penetrate the quantum barrier underpinning space-time, allowing for maintained speeds far in excess of modern warp drives. QSD does not require antimatter to function, though the system does require high energy outputs to initiate and operate, for which modern matter/antimatter reactors are especially apt.

A major component of Federation QSDs is benamite crystals, used as a focusing component for the quantum field. These rare crystals are the current primary limitation on the use and deployment of Quantum Slipstream Drives in the modern Starfleet, limiting the system to a handful of closely guarded ships at most currently.

Limitations

Quantum Slipstream Drives, while incredible propulsion systems, are especially complex from a technical and engineering standpoint, not just for the system itself but for all the adjacent and ancillary systems that work alongside the drive technology.

Early systems were temperamental, requiring constant supervision during operation lest they tear a ship apart, or requiring specially built hulls to counteract the worst effects of the system. Upon the return of Voyager, hopeful engineers examining the technology hoped to retrofit the vast majority of Starfleet with QSDs, only to discover that this was not an achievable goal. Design decisions made to optimise warp drives during the 2340s and 2350s resulted in hull designs and configurations fundamentally at odds with QSD. Even designs drawn up in the 2360s, such as the Intrepid-class would prove to be difficult to adapt.

Newer starship designs since then have been drawn up with QSD in mind, or with support systems laid out to allow for safe operation. Older ships built with adaptable hull frames have had these support systems installed during major refit cycles if they weren’t installed during construction, as supplementary structural integrity field enhancements, but the primary components for a functional QSD have remained absent due to other limitations and to minimise complexity for maintenance at this time. Certain older designs however are simply incompatible with the stresses of slipstream and therefore can not be retrofitted with the system. This primarily impacts vessels of the Galaxy-class lineage and older designs.

QSD drives are also incredibly ravenous when it comes to their primary component - the benamite crystal. 1kg of crystals is good for roughly 24 hours of sustained operation, depending on the hull form and mass of the given starship. As they break down, the crystals are rendered useless and no form of recrystallisation has been deemed viable to date. Combined with the half-life of the crystals when not in use, adequate supplies is a major hurdle that Starfleet hasn’t been able to overcome.

Benamite Ore, crystallisation and inherent dangers

Benamite crystals form the heart of Federation Slipstream drive systems - a technological and logistical hurdle that prevents widespread deployment of such systems due to the rarity of the precursor ore, the hazards of processing and the inherent instability of benamite in its crystalline form post-processing.

Benamite ore is an incredibly rare substance in currently surveyed space and the only known locations of the ore to date are themselves exceedingly dangerous and make the gathering of benamite ore perilous in the extreme. The vast majority of benamite ore is found in close proximity to a few highly active pulsars and magnetars, leading to theories that synthesis of the ore requires extremes in heat and pressure found during supernova events. It is also assumed that the vast majority undergoes crystallisation during the original supernova event and immediately begins decaying into standard elements, further explaining the rarity of the substance.

The proximity to pulsars and the more active magnetars makes mining benamite a life-threatening experience even with modern safety equipment and strict adherence to safety protocols. During the height of the Romulan evacuation efforts, the Federation was only able to procure a sizeable supply of benamite ore due in part to pioneering miners supplemented with a sizeable A500 workforce. After the A500s were decommissioned mining production for benamite dropped off considerably and currently the Federation maintains a single mining facility that barely produces enough ore to keep stockpiles at maintenance levels.

Benamite ore is relatively stable, with a half-life of 1.5 million years. However, the radioactive emissions of benamite as it decays are theta and geodesic radiation, both of which are incredibly harmful to organic life in even minute quantities. Combined these forms of radiation make the ore an extremely toxic substance to procure and later process where radioactive decay is increased by orders of magnitudes during crystallisation. All of this means that expensive and complicated shielding technologies are required to keep work crews safe. Even with such mitigations in place Federation workplace safety regulations limit the amount of time workers can undertake benamite mining during their limetimes.

Once benamite ore has been mined, processing, refinement and crystallisation must be undertaken to make the substance useable within a quantum slipstream drive. At present current methods require a prodigious amount of ore to produce benamite crystals, with the best ratio achieved to date of 200:1. The refinement process is not without its own hazards as benamite becomes extremely volatile during the refinement process, prone to rapid decay and requiring extreme care in handling. Failure to comply with established safety procedures at any stage can result in explosive consequences with no warning and could result in runaway reactions that have previously destroyed entire refineries with subsequent losses of life and material.

Waste products of benamite processing are themselves extremely toxic to organic life and require careful consideration as to disposal. As these products are many times more deadly than raw benamite ore, rapid disposal is best and is typically achieved via dropping such products into blackholes. As the substances are themselves highly problematic to the formation of warp fields as well, refineries for benamite ore are found in extended orbit around blackholes and use automated tenders for timely delivery of waste materials to a point where they can be discarded and ensured they will enter terminal orbits.

The final logistical hurdle preventing deployment of Quantum Slipstream Drives in anything outside of testbeds and emergency courier vessels after the decommissioning of the A500s is the fact that benamite crystals are inherently unstable and begin decaying into daughter elements almost immediately after production, with an expected half-life of 5 days. Unlike all other stages of benamite decay and radioactive emission, the crystalline form radiates most of its energy away as relatively harmless subspace radiation. The short half-life of benamite crystals and the rapid consumption of them within the heart of a QSD does make maintaining a suitable stockpile for anything other than emergency uses incredibly problematic. Current Starfleet storage options also utilise blackholes by storing the crystals on automated tenders that maintain perilous orbits in close proximity to the gravity well in order to exploit relativistic effects to extend the lifespan of benamite crystals from near-average temporal reference frame.

Future hurdles

With recent revelations in regards to the true origin of the Attack on Mars becoming public and Federation restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence being rescinded, benamite mining and processing continues to face difficulties that are unlikely to be resolved in a timely fashion. The extensive use of A500s in the entire process during the Romulan evacuation was considered a distasteful but necessary step to preserve life. With the pressures of the evacuation no longer present, AI rights are being taken into account and as yet A500 production hasn’t resumed. Restrictions on dangerous workplace environments are being discussed in conjunction with reactivation as well, taking into consideration the well-being of any future artificial workforce. With a constrained workforce and no ‘easily replaceable’ labour pool, benamite mining and processing is unlikely to expand upon its limited operations for the foreseeable future.

While safer processing and refinement methods are being devised, these are still in the laboratory stage, restricted by the availability of resources for testing and with incredibly small yields to date. There are also attempts at synthesizing a more stable version of benamite crystals with a vastly longer half-life, but they face the same limitation of resources for experimentation. Current best estimates by leaders in the field predict no major changes in the industry for at least fifty or so years without major increases in resources for testing and increased support by a wary Federation and Starfleet.