Distortion Drive

Distortion Drive (colloquially referred to as "d-drive" or "FTL") was the method of faster than light travel used to get between tachyon gates in systems. Distortion drives worked by expanding space behind the ship, and contracting it in front, accelerating a ship just past the speed of light. Even though space was being warped in front of and behind the ship, a bubble of normal space still existed inside of the distortion field, this prevented time dilation from becoming a problem, and kept the ship from being torn apart by velocity. Technically, the ship never actually accelerated, only the space in the immediate vicinity of the ship did.

Most ships disengaged their distortion drives several thousand kilometers from their destination, and made the rest of the trip with their sublight drives. This was because matter making contact with the distortion field produced by a ship travelling at the speed of light, would result in the distortion field collapsing instantly, the sudden change in velocity would result in the ship being torn apart.