The Union of Planetary Republics

What Is Stringwarp?

    “Hmm,” Engineer Leis thinks about your question for a while. “Follow me through Engineering, I’ve got things to do.”
    You nod and follow her down the corridor. You notice the irregular bend up ahead in the corridor, and you ask her what that’s all about.
    “That bend there?” she asks. You nod. She says: “That’s where two of the ship’s hull segments join together.”
    “That’s a pretty odd looking turn in the corridor,” you say.
    “Yeah, it is,” she answers, “But there’s tons of weird-looking corridors in this ship. That’s all part of how Hanor Sta designed the ship’s morphos.”
    “Morphos?”
    “Morphing motors. See, the entire ship is built to withstand the Belts. Out there, all of our toughest ships were nearly destroyed, and now we think it’s because they were too stiff. See, most ships have special artificial gravity generators that help to prop up the hull and make it stronger. We call that GVS for short. There won’t be a quiz on how that works. Anyway, it makes the ship ‘rock-solid’ whenever the ship needs to be strong.
    “But the problem that ‘rock-solid’ ships have is that sometimes they’re so stiff that they could snap. So Engineer Hanor Sta designed a system that lets this ship bend. It’s like trying to break a green tree branch. Since it bends so much, it doesn’t break, and it can withstand much more than an ordinary dry tree branch.”
    “That’s an interesting solution,” you say.
    “Yeah, but it doesn’t explain stringwarp, which is why you’re here, Admiral.”
    “How does stringwarp work?”
    “Well,” Tamara Leis stops to think for a bit. She says: “There’s a bunch of theories about how it all works, but none have been proven completely. Stringwarp is a pretty unpredictable thing. But the best theory is the theory of philotics.
    “When we use the term ‘philote’ or ‘philotic’ it’s important to remember that these terms were borrowed from a twenty-first century author, Orson Scott Card. He came up with one of the best working theories of philotics for his time. Basically, his theories were relatively sound, but they weren’t nearly as complete as today’s knowledge of philotic behavior.”
    Engineer Leis climbs down a ladder that is set into part of the corridor. You follow her down, and she keeps talking:
    “Basically, we have two principles to define why stringwarp works. One is the way objects tend to orbit, and the other is the Law of Thermodynamics.”
    “How are those related?” you ask, as you step off of the ladder. Leis leads you down a wider corridor. As you approach the end, a loud throbbing sound grows louder and louder. It is the sound of the ship’s power plant.
    “The theory of orbits goes like this: electrons orbit atoms, planets orbit stars, and stars orbit galaxies. What do they have in common?”
    “They’re all orbiting,” you answer.
    “That’s one,” Engineer Leis says as she counts what you say out on her fingers. You think a bit more, then add to your answer:
    “Each object tends to orbit at a stable level. Planets stay far enough out not to fall into the sun, and stars stay far enough out not to fall into the center of the galaxy.”
    “That’s two,” Leis says.
    “And every object is orbiting something bigger than itself,” you add.
    “That’s three. All of those are right. You could also say that each one has a size variation. Planets don’t orbit the sun at quantum distances the way electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom. And electrons don’t orbit planets the way a moon does.
    “But the idea is that philotics govern the natural laws of the universe, from the biggest star or galaxy, down to the smallest atom of matter. In the theory of philotics, a scientist would say something like this: ‘All objects are philotic to stable orbits around other objects which have more mass.’ In other words, things tend to orbit other things.”
    “But what about the cases where things don’t orbit?” You ask.
    “That’s a very good question, Admiral. It’s what makes stringwarp so hard to explain. Philotics explains a lot of things, but every rule seems to have an exception when it comes to philotics.”
    “So that’s one question you haven’t solved yet.”
    “That’s one of the ones we’re still working on,” Leis stops to record the output of one of the generators in the power plant. She adjusts a few of the dials on a little control panel, and a holographic chart of the power changes to a better graph.
    “The the computer isn’t completely in control of everything down here,” Leis explains, “And sometimes, the generators need to be reset to keep things running smoothly. Once we’re out of dock, that problem had better be fixed.”
    “What about the Law of Thermodynamics?”
    “Let me go and run a few of my errands, Admiral. We’ve got to get this ship running before launch deadline. I’ll be only a few minutes.”
    “Should I wait here?” you ask.
    “Feel free to look around, inspect things. I know every part of this ship, so I’ll be able to catch up with you. I’ll reach you over the intercom when I’m done.” Chief Engineer Leis steps onto a small platform and folds a safety railing down. The platform rises on tracks mounted on the wall and carries her up to a different part of Engineering.

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