Build:Warp Engines

7.1 Warp Engines

(Also known as M/AMI, M/ARA, intermix chamber or warp core)

(Required on most FTL vessels)

Cost: Varies

Available: 2063

As discussed previously, the warp engine provides power to the ship. The accompanying table indicates the classes of warp engines available, as well as their base SU cost.

Table

Table 7.1 Warp Engines

Warp Engine Type	SU	Year
Mark I	20	2063
Mark II	30	2091
Mark III	40	2148
Mark IV	50	2215
Mark V	60	2226
Mark VI	70	2245
Mark VII	80	2270
Mark VIII	90	2284
Mark IX	100	2292
Class 1/A	20	2313
Class 2/B	30	2327
Class 3/E	40	2348
Class 4/G	50	2353
Class 5/H	60	2358
Class 6/K	70	2359
Class 7/M	80	2362
Class 8/N	90	2364
Class 9/O	100	2368
Class 10/P	110	2370
Class 11/Q	120	2374
Class 12/R	130	2375
Class 13/S	140	2378

7.2 Romulan Artificial Quantum Singularity Drive

Cost: Varies

Available: 2348

During the late 2340s and early 2350s, the Romulans began scaling back their development of matter/antimatter warp drives in favor of developing a more powerful, albeit potentially more dangerous, energy source: the artificial quantum singularity drive (AQSD). As described on page 68 of Book One of the Way of D’era boxed set, an AQSD functions by creating a collapsar —a collapsed star, a singularity— and containing it within a subspace containment field (so that the ship can move despite the singularity’s mass). While this type of engine generates enormous amounts of power with comparatively little fuel, it carries with it a significant risk: the user can never turn it off, or else the containment fields holding the singularity release it, causing a black hole to form instantly. For this reason, the Romulans build their AQSDs to be extremely sturdy and difficult to damage. Even when, as in the Dominion War, a Romulan ship becomes so badly damaged that the Empire cannot salvage and repair it, the safety features on its AQSD usually maintain power to the containment field.

In most other respects, an AQSD functions similarly to a warp drive. It contains a segment, the engine core, that the ship can eject to save the rest of the drive if its containment fields are in danger of collapsing.

The system has a battery capable of supplying this power for up to a year, and it can recharge itself via solar energy or many other methods. (The Romulans use the battery for emergencies only; even in desperate combat situations they keep providing power to the AQSD every round.) If an attack or event destroys an AQSD, or disrupts the power to its containment field, the battery activates immediately. If something (for example, sabotage) prevents the battery from activating, the artificial quantum singularity immediately becomes a real black hole, destroying the Romulan ship (through either gravity or the creation of Hawking radiation) and affecting nearby vessels as if a total catastrophic failure of a warp core had occurred (Spacedock, page 93). Thereafter a black hole exists where the ship was destroyed, assuming there’s sufficient matter nearby to feed it; otherwise it may vanish quickly. (See Spacedock, page 174, for rules on black holes, a.k.a. quantum singularities.)

Many Romulan ships continue to use standard matter/antimatter warp drives, for safety and technical reasons. They buy these using the normal Spacedock rules. Vessels with AQSDs use standard nacelles, PISs, and upgrades thereto (see Spacedock, page 35 et seq.).

Ships of Size 4 and smaller cannot have AQSDs; the mass of the drive is too large for it to function efficiently aboard such vessels.

Table

Table 7.2: Romulan Artificial
Quantum Singularity Drive

Type	SU	Year
Type I	45	2348
Type II	60	2350
Type III	75	2350
Type IV	90	2354
Type V	105	2359
Type VI	120	2371
Type VII	135	2376
Type VIII	150	2379

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