The result of the 'name that drive' poll on COTI was the Quantum Skip drive. In a quick review, I'd decided to get around delta-v limitations that were going to seriously undermine any Travelleresque nature in the Dark Stars ATU with the introduction of a second mode of the old Lares drive. This second mode only works in interplanetary space as long as the gravity gradient remains above a certain rating. Initially I had the yet to be named interim drive working exactly as the Lares drive between stars but in a sort of micro-jump fashion in interplanetary space. This still left me with the need for reaction drives both near planets and beyond certain limits.
However, the more I examined it, the more I realized I was just complicating things for no good reason. If you are going to have realistic reaction drives in any sort of plausible mid term future setting, you're going to have months long transit times. If your setting cannot work with those times, then introducing a cheat mode of your FTL handwavium might as well just do the whole job from jump point to orbit. You will still need reaction drives for planetary landings and atmospheric operations but you won't need to spend half the role playing session calculating delta-V's.
The stutterwarp drive in 2300AD fits the bill except for the interstellar travel speeds. So functionally the Quantum Skip drive is identical to the stutterwarp drive without the speed boost of stutterwarp past the 0.001 m/s^2 gravity gradient. Like 2300AD's stutterwarp it cannot operate effectively in gravity fields stronger than 1 m/s^2. The second and major difference between the Quantum Skip and Stutterwarp drives happens at Lares points where the Quantum Skip drive can be operated in a second mode that, instead of making a jump of a few hundred meters, makes a jump between star systems.
The secondary, interstellar, mode of the Quantum Skip drive requires an energy pulse 1000x normal input levels. It also emits a correspondingly higher entrance and exit signature. Reconfiguring and charging up the drive for secondary mode requires anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending upon available power. Reconfiguring, cooling, and properly discharging any stray accumulations of energy upon exit require a minimum of 20 minutes. Note that unlike stutterwarp drives in 2300AD there is no need to discharge 'gravity potential charges'.
One oddity of the Quantum Skip drive is that the skip always has a directional vector perpendicular to the plane of the drive's emitter array. This means that in combat, changing facing is the same as changing movement vector and requires the use of reaction thrusters (or thrust vectoring of a ship's reaction drive if it has one). This limitation has a great effect on any evasive maneuvering attempts as well as on targeting of any spinal mount or fixed forward facing weapon systems.
The largest effect on the Dark Stars ATU setting from this change is that the trade model gets a bit closer to that of stock Traveller and that combat is possible anywhere in interplanetary space. Lares points become the choke points of the setting. Travel between star systems requires 24 +/- 5 hours as before with Lares drive, and interplanetary times are governed by the maximum apparent (base) speed of 250000 m/s. Note that this is quite a bit slower than 2300AD stutterwarp speeds. It basically gives 1 AU per week in total movement. (Note: this is subject to change as I work out the details for the design sequence.)
Reaction drives aren't totally gone, just relegated to interface duties. The preferred reaction drive will be the advanced trimodal NTR scramjet design in the current design sequence. So I still get my nuclear rockets, just not quite the way I thought!
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