Reverie (Spaceship)

"I do remember what they said about the ship, too. They named it Reverie, for the 'embodiment of humanity’s greatest dreams and the yearning for travelling the stars’" — Cab Driver

JCRV 1014-23 or "Reverie" is the titular space research vessel that travels to Alpha Centauri, piloted by Bryony Mitchell. It was built for the mission REVERIE-1, and was apparently under construction for the past two decades. The ship itself was built in Trager Shipyard in Lincoln Spaceport and officially completed in 2309.

Registry
Its spacecraft registry 'JCRV' stands for Jump-Capable Research Vessel, the first of its kind. The ESAA thought it would be fitting to give a new class registry name to spacecraft that have the ability to travel faster than light. The word 'Jump' in the class came about because it was thought that Reverie would simply begin rapid acceleration towards its intended target through 'normal space' and quickly stop when it got there.

It is intended to be a scientific research vessel, as it is fitted with the regular equipment that qualifies it to be named as such. It is a part of the 14th generation of spacecraft created by Janning Spacecraft Technology & Manufacturing, and the 23rd ship to come from this generation.

Design
Reverie looks very different than any other spacecraft built before it. This is due to its massive Warp Ring, as well as its oddly streamlined hull, designed for possible future missions to land on planets with substantial atmospheres. The buttresses holding up the ring are actually incredibly sturdy, able to withstand several Gs of sudden and prolonged force. It is unknown what they are made of, but it has been stated in many press conferences that the buttresses are basically "indestructible". There are four Legacy-22 engines mounted on the rear of the spacecraft to provide substantial forward propulsion without using too much fuel. The hull itself is embedded with thermally insulated material and "hybrid lead" to block all incoming cosmic radiation from entering the spacecraft. The lead is apparently mutated material from the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl.

The front view port is made of transparent aluminum and coated with a UV resistant material to protect observers from getting harmed by directly viewing stars from up close.

Weapons
Reverie is not equipped with any weapons. The ESAA came to a consensus that weapons would not be required on the Reverie-1 Mission. The scenario of hostile alien warships has come into consideration, but the official response was simply: "Hopefully that doesn't happen".

Shielding
Reverie's "shields" are used to deflect incoming debris from impacting the spacecraft at high speeds, especially approaching and transcending the speed of light. Otherwise, even the smallest dust particle could destroy the ship. The shield isn't considered a physical thing, more like a wave pulse that constantly surrounds the ship, generating random frequencies that clear any matter that touches it. When something comes in contact with the shield, it was reported that the resulting ping sounds sort of like a church bell.

Emergency Eject
If the pilot considers the ship a total loss and threatens the life of its crew, the Emergency Eject lever can be pulled twice. What follows is the severing of the cockpit from the drive housing and the ejection of the cockpit from the rest of the ship at a vector perpendicular to the spacecraft's Driving Beam.

Propulsion Systems
Reverie has two main methods of moving the ship, which are referred to as the "Newtonian" and the "Relativistic" methods of propulsion.

Newtonian Propulsion
Newtonian Propulsion utilizes the four Legacy-22 rocket engines on the aft of Reverie, as well as thrusters on different parts of the ship to orient the ship in 3-dimensional space. It is the conventional and most common form of propulsion, which was used since the 20th century on primitive rockets launched from Earth. It is also the most wasteful, as most of the energy is still lost to heat, not kinetic energy. In 2309, this has been substantially reduced, but not completely eradicated. Reverie has liquid rocket fuel tanks mounted behind the warp ring, which holds an undisclosed amount of fuel.

The maximum speed achievable by this method of propulsion is 37km/s, only achievable in a vacuum.

Relativistic Propulsion
See Warp Drive

Reverie is equipped with a revolutionary warp drive built from scratch that has the ability to move the craft faster than the speed of light, 299,792 km/s. However, the manner which this is done is beyond the scope of classical physics. The drive concept can be thought to originate from the works of Miguel Alcubierre, from the 20th and 21st century. Put simply, spacetime in front of the ship is retracted and the spacetime behind the ship is expanded, figuratively creating a 'wave' that the ship rides on. The ship itself is not moving through physical space at all, rather the warp drive is dragging spacetime along, taking the ship with it. This in theory does not break any physical laws, and can allow the ship to travel faster than light, when in fact it isn't moving at all.

Reverie's warp drive has been heavily modified compared to that of commercial warp drives. Its small mass and large power threshold made its drive the most powerful engine humanity has ever created at the time, allowing operating speeds many times higher than commercial drives.

The maximum speed attainable in 'normal FTL flight', colloquially known as flying in a "Low Energy Warp State" or LEWS, is 8.49 times the speed of light, measured from external static surroundings.

While in High Energy Warp State, or HEWS, the ship is not considered to be in the same dimension compared to the Universe, so velocity cannot be determined.

Jumping Process
In order for Reverie to achieve a High Energy Warp State, it must first undergo the Pre-jump process, where the warping ring has to be manually unlocked in order to spin freely (it's spin regulated by energy consumption). Electricity is drawn from non-essential processes of the ship not needed for the jump sequence. The lights go out except for lit buttons on the main console, giving the room a dim amber hue. In order for the ship to continue Pre-jump, the ship MUST be pointed directly at the target and only have forward momentum in normal space.

In the first book, all distances were already entered into the onboard computer beforehand, down to the 22nd significant figure. Reverie's computer can only jump precise distances from Sol to Alpha Centauri A, from Alpha Centauri B to Proxima Centauri, and from Proxima Centauri back to Sol. Any other distance would have to be done by hand and entered into the computer.

Once the warp ring has achieved sufficient velocity, the pilot can press the Jump button on the console. Once that is done, the computer fine-tunes the trajectory to the target so it really is pointing right at it, and so begins the deuterium and antideuterium collisions within the drive which powers it. The resulting energy is channeled to two areas: The warp ring and the forecylinder. The forecylinder is much smaller than the Warp Ring, and uses plasma generated by the Warp Drive to create a huge positive mass distortion in front of the ship. The warp ring is what holds the coils responsible for generating and sustaining the warp field as well as displacing negative mass behind the ship. All the while, a deafening is emanating from the Warp Drive within the ship, which Bryony notes on multiple occasions.

The plasma has to enter the forecylinder and warp ring at the same time. When this occurs, spacetime is bent accordingly and the ship seemingly enters another dimension. The computer regulates deuterium usage the entire trip. In order to stop the warp ring, there are no brakes, since the ring is spinning at such a rapid pace the resulting friction would melt the metal. So, what the computer does is simply stop the combination of deuterium and antideuterium in the core of the warp drive, immediately dropping Reverie out of warp and back into normal space, at its destination.

Every time the ship needs to enter a warp state, the warp drive must be "spooled" in order for the plasma to distribute itself again. Any heat that is created within the warp ring while at warp is sucked out using the Heat Dissipation Vents located all around the warp ring.

Inside The Ship
Interior of the ship

Cockpit
The Cockpit is the second largest room of the ship, and where most of the story takes place while Reverie is on her mission. There are three seats for three of its occupants, and consoles for all three of them, but the one with all flight controls belongs to the main console at the front of the cockpit. The entrance hatch is to the left, looking forward. To the rear is the Warp Drive Housing, a metal casing that comes through the floor into a glass pillar, and through the ceiling. The housing can be used to see if deuterium is flowing or not. Surrounding the housing are a series of screens and switches used for controlling engineering operations directly from the cockpit, instead of in the actual engineering bay.

Breathable air is circulated through the ship and regularly replenished via hydrolysis.

Telecommunications
Reverie has a conventional radio used for communicating with other ships within its immediate cosmic surroundings. Although Quantum Communicative Devices exist within Entangled Satellites, it is not currently possible to mount them onto spaceships. For Reverie, this means a distress signal would not reach Earth for 4.2 years.

Engineering
The Engineering Bay is where all of the ship's functions funnel through, and can be controlled from here or the terminal in the cockpit. The area provides direct access to the Warp Drive components that are able to be touched, as well as the ship's main Power Plant. The Engineering bay can be accessed via a hatch from the cockpit, or an external hatch near the bottom of the spaceship.

Cargo Hold
The last of the three accessible rooms within Reverie is the cargo hold, at the front of the ship. It is the smallest of the three rooms, and was designed to hold and launch the Entangled Satellites into orbit around their celestial bodies.

Trivia

 * The definition of "Reverie" is "a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream". I thought it was fitting to name the first ship to travel to another star system this, as it has been in the dreams of humanity before the dawn of civilization. What are those dots suspended in the sky?
 * The ship's design is based on the fuselage of a jet airplane. This was to allow it to be more aerodynamic while travelling in an atmosphere.
 * It's registry number (1014-23) was not a random number pattern. The first part is from a shotgun prototype, the Benelli XM1014. I honestly forget where the 23 came from.
 * In-universe, the ship is a modified Janning Slingshot Planetary Shuttle.