Gravity controlling and manipulating technologies are among the most valuable creations of the kice civilization. Without them interstellar colonization would be extremely hard if not impossible to achieve, to say nothing of the possibility of star spanning empires and cultures. The ability to create artificial gravity and antigravity fields has many wide reaching benefits. It allows the kice to design ships and habitats with gravitational fields comparable to their homeworld as well as produce normal gravity conditions on worlds with gravity that is too high or low for health and comfort. It has allowed the creation of spaceships that have high efficiency reactionless drives based on a combination of gravity and anti gravity as well as the ability to shield a ship or habitat from debris and weapons. However, all of these pale in comparison to their ability to create wormholes which allows ships to travel nearly instantly over interstellar distances

The size and shape of gravity generating devices varies according to their purpose. A gravity generator is basically a power source hooked into a complex support structure that powers a device which projects a gravitational field from the surface of the gravity generator. Gravity generators are often called gravity cores and their size is dependent on the size of the gravity field required as well as the strength of the gravitational field at the surface of the gravity core.

The two main limits on gravity generation are power supply and the inverse square law. The power supply necessary can be easily provided by fusion or antimatter power plants. However it is often more efficient, at least on the larger habitats, to use centrifugal force to simulate gravity instead of generators due to the fact that it can be energy intensive. The thickness of the gravity core is normally 5% of the diameter of the gravity field from the point at which gravity nears 1 G the area between the surface of the gravity core and the area at 1g is known as the Gravity zone. Gravity Generators range in size from 10cm to 1km in diameter. Example if you have a gravity generator that is 10cm thick then the distance at which you would have 1g of force would be 190cm from the surface of the gravity generator.

Many energy fields and forces can be consider point sources. The inverse square law states that the strength of a point source will fall off according to the formula 1/r^2 where R is the distance from the point source. The following example is for the use of Terrans as it gives the example in terms related to the planet Earth. If the gravity at the surface of the earth is 1 and r is the distance to the center of the earth, the radius of the earth, then 1/2r^2 will tell you what gravity would be at twice the earth's radius from the center of the planet. Two squared is 4, so you divide 1 by four and get 0.25; this means that gravity is only 25% as strong at 2 earth radii as it is at 1 earth radii.

Now that you better understand some of the limits placed on gravity generators you can better understand their usefulness.

Gravity cores are the central artificial gravity generators on starships, habitats, and some planets. Due to the inverse square law there is a limit to the size of gravity generator that can be used. The reason is that if too small of a generator is used then the gravity gradient becomes too severe for comfort. The gravity gradient is the difference in gravitational force felt over a given distance. For kice and humans this gradient is calculated as the difference between the force felt over a distance of two meters which corresponds to the difference between the gravity felt at a 2 meter tall humans feet compared to that at their head when standing. Some humans and kice with training and medical treatments can endure gravity gradients that are higher than what most other humans or kice could.

To figure out the size of gravity core needed for a given gradient you need to know what percentage of the gravity zone 2 meters is. For our examples we shall use 60 as the diameter of the gravity zone and multiples there of to discover the gravity gradient. If the gravity zone is 60 meters in diameter and the radius of a gravity core is 5% of the radius of the gravity zone then we can figure out several things. First the gravity core would have a radius of 3 meters the gravity zone a radius of 30 meters minus 3 meters or 27. Next you divide 2 by 27, which gives you 0.074. Now if 1 represents the gravity felt at the surface of the gravity zone then you can take 1 and divide it by 1.074^2 to discover the gravity gradient for a gravity zone of 60 meters. The answer will be 0.87, which means there is a 13% difference between the gravity felt at 27 meters from the gravity core and 29 meters from the gravity core. The kice consider this the maximum acceptable gravity gradient.

Gravity drives are the main propulsion system used by many kice transportation vehicles. Many planetary vehicles and nearly every space going vessel built by the modern kice use gravity drives. Gravity drives use normal gravity plus a force that is like gravity in every regard but is repulsive instead of attractive, or antigravity. This means that objects fall away from antigravity in the same way they fall towards gravity. Gravity drives used on planetary surfaces are rather simple. Antigravity generators in the form of Spheres are placed on various locations along the entire surface of the vehicle in question. These generators, due to their small size, are powered by the most efficient fuel cells created by the kice. Larger vehicles may have fission or fusion power plants. The antigravity spheres serve several functions, they levitate the vehicle off the ground, they repel air from the vehicle, which reduces drag, and they propel the ship forward by having the rear sphere produce more repulsive force than the others so that the vehicle pushes its way through the air surrounded by a thin vacuum.

Gravity drives used in space are more complex. Atmospheric vehicles rely on the fact that air or water is repealed from a strong antigravity field, this repulsion pushes the vehicle forward but in space there is little or nothing to push against so a different method is used. Gravity and antigravity both warp space-time to one degree or another, while gravity causes a contraction of space-time antigravity causes an expansion. On space vehicles powerful gravity generators are placed at the very front and rear of the ship as well as other places along the hull for maneuvering. These generators create a much more intense and focused gravitational field than those used for artificial gravity or for planetary vehicles. Gravity is focused onto a small point in front of the ship and antigravity is focused onto a point behind the ship. The net result is that the expanding space-time behind the ship serves to push it forward while the contracting space-time acts to pull the ship forward. The ship is literally in free fall as it 'falls' forward into the gravity well while being pushed forward by the gravity hill however since the ship is in free fall the occupants do not feel the acceleration of the ship allowing it to accelerate at extreme speeds.

The maximum speed is still limit to within several fractions of light speed as per the laws of physics. However due to the problem of objects hitting a ship moving at relativistic speeds few ships actually travel beyond 1-10% of the speed of light. Ships travel over longer distance by wormhole drives.

Remember the gravity drives are only noticeable as two dish shaped indents at the front and rear of the ship. Also around the front and rear sides of the ship are 12 other smaller dish shaped dimples used for maneuvering.

As mentioned before ships moving at some fraction of the speed of light experience a huge risk due to impacts by dust and even hydrogen floating in space. To combat this two forms of shielding are used. Antigravity generators along much of the hull protect the ship for the most part however the very front of the ship where the gravity generating part of the gravity drive is highly vulnerable especially as the intense gravitational field at this point acts to accelerate impacts. To save this single vulnerable part of the ship from impacts when the gravity drive is turned off the dish is turned over to antigravity shielding. However to protect the ship during acceleration hydrogen gas is allowed to flow into the dish area as the ship accelerates and the gravity at the front of the ship increases the hydrogen is drawn flush with the gravity dish which compresses it into a liquid then into a metallic solid which acts as a perfect debris shield for the gravity dish. The front gravity dish is turned off slowly and the hydrogen is recovered, as it becomes liquid and then gas once more before the dish is turned over to antigravity.

Military ships use this metallic hydrogen shielding as well but may cover the entire hull in it to protect the hull for beam weapons that might damager antigravity generators. This however is energy intensive so is only used in actual combat on ships with multiple antimatter power plants. The deployment of this sort of shielding is rather interesting as the military vessel will appear to disappear as hydrogen is eject from ports all across the vessel which envelops the ship in a cloud of hydrogen gas which will form an up to 1 meter plus thick shell around the ship as the gas contracts and stick to the hull to form metallic hydrogen.

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