4.9 Plasma Injection System

At the terminus of each PTC is the plasma injection system, a series of thirty-six valved magnetic injectors linked to the warp engine controllers. There are two injectors for every warp field coil, and the injectors may be fired in variable sequences, depending on the warp flight function being executed. The injectors are constructed of rhenium duratanide and single-crystal ferrocarbonide, with magnetic constriction toroids of yttrium-samarium-praseodymium-cobalt. Control inputs and feedback are handled by 15 redundant links to the QTDN. Small timing discrepancies between the computer and the injectors that used to plague warp nacelles during startup of change in warp factors no longer affects the Camelot due to nanocomputer control and the speed of the quantum transient network.

The injector open-close cycle is variable, from 15 nanoseconds to 25 nanoseconds. Each firing of an injector exposes its corresponding coil to a burst of energy to be converted into the warp field. At warp factors 1-4, the injectors fire at low frequencies, between 20 and 30 Hz and remain open for short periods, between 10 and 15 ns. At Warp factors 5-8, the firing frequencies rise from 30 Hz to 40 Hz, and the injectors remain open for longer periods, 20 to 30 ns.

At warp factors 8.1-9.99, the injector firing frequencies rise to 50 Hz, and there is a small tail off in the injector cycle time, owing to small residual charges in the magnetic valves. Above 9.99, potential conflict with the energy frequencies from the QFRC and input\feedback control reliability rise firing frequencies even higher, and the longest safe cycle time for these speeds is generally accepted to be 48 ns.