The Physics of Space Warfare: Gravity in the ether streams

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I mentioned the epic battle of Parelisis in my last post, wherein hundreds of Persian and Roman ships were destroyed in combat and left floating in space for over nine hundred years.  Part of this wreckage is expected to collide with Earth in a few decades, creating a spectacular meteor storm. When it comes, I am going to watch it with my grand children (it will be summer time) and tell them the story of the greatest space battle between two human clans.

In the meantime, however, I shall be content to explain a little about the physics of space war-fare a thousand years ago.  All the human ships–apart from a few crafty pirates–had to sail through space in the ether streams that connected the planets to one another. These ether streams were coated with polarized/magnetized ions that could lift a sailing ship out of a planet’s gravity and send it speeding through space at amazing velocities.  The ship would skim just inside the crust of the ether stream, creating friction with positively or negatively charged micro-magnets, depending on which way they traveled. These magnetic bands actually spiraled around the Ether stream, creating eough centrifugal force to create Earth-like gravity aboard the ships.  However, since the size of the ether streams varied at parts, the centrifugal force did as well, resulting in varying levels of gravity.

But I digress.  When ships fought in the ether streams, it was very complicated, to say the least.  If they wanted to speed up, they would hug the outside of the stream, where gravity was the strongest.  If they wanted to slow down, they could slip towards the center of the stream: but they would be nearly weightless.  Thus waiting for one’s enemy was very difficult, especially since they were usually traveling at supersonic speeds.  So attackers would usually hover at a joint in the stream where magnetic seams forced the ships to slow down or stop.  It was here that battles usually took place.  In the case of the battle of Parelisis, two ether streams suddenly broke apart and shifted orientation (a natural occurance) right where the battle was! Hundreds of ships were flung in to space, resulting in the virtual destruction of both fleets.  Both sides claimed it was a miracle, although neither side really benefited from it.

The return of the muse is not a news source. This post relates to the imaginary universe of the SkyPath Crusade

The Return of the Muse is not a news source. This post relates to the imaginary universe of the Space Crusaders web-novel.

The entire SkyPath Crusade epic poem is posted at http://skypathcrusade.wordpress.com  Only go there if you feel like reading a book-length epic poem.  Otherwise, just keep browsing this website.

 

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