Fiction:Nisporack Empire/Technology

Nisporack are highly advanced considering their empire's age. However, having evolved with a myriad of different factors than most spacefaring races, their technology is unique and grounded in millenia of Nisporack tradition.

Sub-Lightspeed
Nisporack inter- and intraplanetary travel is almost always ion-propelled. Ion propulsion, discovered about a century ago by Sretna of the Ianis family, uses magnets to eject a stream of hydrogen ions at high speeds, thus carrying the craft forward due to reactionary forces. Ion engines used for sub-orbital craft of any kind "srubs" ions from the air to use as fuel and can run indefinetely. However, in space there are far fewer ions available. Interplanetary travel therefore requires that a ship carry large amounts of hydrogen with them, and is such impractical for long distance space travel.

Faster-Than-Light
In order to outrace light, Nisporack have discovered a method of crossing space rapidly that, while energy intensive, doesn't induce any relativistic effects. Essentially, a Nisporack ship will "anchor" itself to a single point in spacetime, drag the point and its destination together, and then jump to its destination, "snapping back" the original spacetime point. It's comparable to crossing a river by dragging the opposite bank closer to you and hopping on to it.

Needless to say, it requires colossal amounts of energy. Less obviously, it has strange and not yet fully understood consequences in the area the jump takes place in. Generally, all jumps have to take place beyond the gravitational field of any nearby stars or other significant objects.

Time does appear to pass to those on the ship, but they do not age even if years are spent in transit. Nisporack scientists are still unsure why, but one theory posits that it is because the "soul" continues to age while the body does not. The entire method is commonly referred to as "superspace jumping" or sometimes just "going super".

Communications
Nisporack communicate in person with a series of tail signals and pheromones, plus a limited verbal language. Written Nisporack is, as such, written with many symbols denoting tail signals for aggression, happiness, or other emotions. (It's very similar to using an exclamation point in English, but on a larger scale. )

Because of this, Nisporack have only recently developed something similar to the Internet: Holonet (Diporsa in Nispor Common), which is an infrastructure system for holographic projections of Nisporack individuals, complete with sound and scent, to anywhere on-planet. Long-distance communication (e.g. to someone in a different solar system) requires a superspace uplink and still carries some lag from gravitational affects.