Time Bubbles

The time bubbles are produced by the Impossibility Engine, although almost no one has any idea how they actually work. To control them, starships place their Impossibility Engine in a magnetic field, which generates a time bubble in exact proportion to the magnetic field strength and shape.

Writers Note: I aim to eventually put all details on the equations here, showing the maths involved in order to provide the rules on how this fiction works. For now however, it isn’t a necessity or a priority on my time. It is safe to say that any ship can produce both the Outer and Inner Bubbles, and run interference out to 100km.

Outer Time Bubble

The outer bubble is the one in which time is speeded up. The size and shape of the time bubble is directly proportional to the size and shape of the magnetic field put around the Impossibility Engine. The time multiplier is directly proportional to the intensity of the magnetic field, although it maxes out at 8 times the normal speed. In conversation, when a bubble is referred to without any reference to the outer or inner bubble, it is always the outer bubble being referred to. Ships engines are always in the outer bubble and generally the crew is always in the inner bubble in order to not feel any inertia. Also it is illegal to put people in the outer bubble against their will.

Inner Time Bubble

There is an inner bubble that is always the inverse of the outer bubble, although it can be as small as the Impossibility Engine itself, rendering it irrelevant. As it is within the outer bubble it therefore always maintains normal time (the same as outside the outer bubble). It is possible to throw the outer bubble around the fusion engines so from the outside, the observers sees the engines burn for 1 hour while the engines in fact burn for 8 (traveling eight times further in the same external time). The inner bubble can be within the engines but around the crew so the crew will only experience 1 hour. The inner bubble is ‘inertially detached’ from the outer bubble so the crew experience weightlessness. The effect is the engines appear up to 8 times more powerful.

Interference

Electrical current used to generate the magnetic field, AC vs DC is irrelevant in all aspects except for interference. Two time bubbles independently created and within 100km of each other will interfere and collapse each other’s effects, unless they match the pattern of the magnetic field. With standard power components used, two ships could quickly find the correct frequency allowing them both to generate time bubbles. The Astry discovered that they could use small spinning magnets around the main field generator encode a ‘frequency’ to the time bubble. Frequency encoding and interference begins before bubbles form so it is therefore possible to put out interference while the engine is ‘off’.

Gravity

Time bubbles are irrelevant to gravity. It will affect you just the same within your time frame. To an outsider you may appear to fall faster.