Nacelle

Most vessels use two warp nacelles and manoeuvre in space by creating slight imbalances in the warp field geometry produced by each nacelle. The symmetrical warp nacelles help to create this imbalance if one or the other is damaged, the operation of a single warp nacelle can literally tear a ship apart. Nacelles are usually located near the rear of a ship, connected to the engineering hull by long, sweeping support pylons that keep the potentially dangerous warp fields away from the inhabited areas of the ship. The shape of the hull has been designed to help it achieve warp speeds and to influence the geometry of the field itself.

Warp nacelles are constructed from tritanium, duranium, cobalt cortenide, verterium cortenide, and tungsten-cobalt-magnesium - and assembled with gamma-welding manufacturing techniques 2.5 meters thick. The pressures exerted on the nacelles are extreme, and is countered by three levels of cobalt cortenide that line the structure's inner hulls. The power contained within nacelles are so potent that they can be extremely dangerous if they malfunctioned, so safety features are incorporated that allow them to be jettisoned in an emergency; explosive structural latches are fired, driving the nacelles away from the ship at a rate of 30 meters per second. New features on the Sovereign-class includes emergency plasma purge vents in the nacelle support pylons. The vents trace the length of the pylons, and are adjacent to the power transfer conduits that supply plasma to the warp field coils. This ventilation system provides engineers with another safety buffer by allowing them to bleed off heated plasma before it reaches the warp field coils, obviating in some circumstances the need to shut down systems or eject the warp core.

Inside the nacelles, the warp plasma generated by the warp core is turned into energy that propels a ship. In emergencies, when plasma is unable to reach the warp nacelles the Bussard ramscoop assembly at the front of each nacelle is able to draw in low-grade galactic matter and use this as an energy source instead. There are two major components to warp nacelles: the plasma injection system, and the warp field coils. A plasma injection system is located at the terminus of each of the power transfer conduits that carry plasma from engineering, where it is generated, to the warp field coils, where it is turned into energy. There is one injector for each of the warp field coils. Each pair is fired in variable sequences, allowing for the permutations to be specified for different types of flight function. The open-close cycle can vary between 25 and 50 nanoseconds; low warp factors require the injectors to be fired at low frequencies, remaining open for short periods, higher warp speeds require higher frenquencies and longer openings. The longest safe cycle for which an injector can be open is 53 nanoseconds. The warp field coils generates the actual warp field that propels a ship, by forming an intense, multi-layered effect that surrounds the starship. The ship is propelled beyond the speed of light by the manipulation of the shape of this field. On the Galaxy-class each nacelle contains 18 warp field coils and 26 sets on the Sovereign-class which, combined, account for almost a quarter of the weight for the entire starship.

When energized, the verterium cortenide within a coil pair causes a shift of the energy frequencies carried by the plasma deep into the subspace domain. The quantum packets of subspace field energy form at approximately 1/3 the distance from the inner surface of the coil to the outer surface, as the verterium cortenide causes changes in the geometry of space at the Planck scale of 3.9 x 1033 cm. The converted field energy exits the outer surface of the coil and radiates away from the nacelle. A certain amount of field energy recombination occurs at the coil centerline, and appears as a visible light emission.