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Can't get there from here

“…and so as the field distortion increases, we can enter relativistic speeds and come as arbitrarily close to C as we want. This causes space itself to bend around the craft, compressing space in front and stretching it out behind. We subjectively can travel faster than light, because we shrink the distance we have to travel. And once the field is turned off, we return to normal space.”

He sat looking at the equations. He could find no flaw in them.

“Subjectively travel faster than light?” he asked.

“To an outside observer the craft will approach the speed of light but never pass it. To an occupant, the effects of time dilation, which are well understood, will make the trip seem to take less time. But this new drive will decrease the required distance travelled as well, and so we can make the 4.3 light year trip to Alpha Centauri in 3 years.”

“Or three months, or three days.”

“With enough energy, yes. That would be theoretically possible.”

“How much energy?”

“More than a thousand supernovas.”

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