The CS Mercurial, the third interstellar colony ship launched by the international Space Exploration and Defense Administration (SEDA), is the first space-going vessel to be driven primarily by mercurials.

The discovery in 2015 that a large portion of the universe’s “dark matter” consisted of small particles of immense density that appeared to rapidly wink in and out of existence only deepened the mystery over the nature of our cosmos.  Not until more than fifty years later did research reveal that these particles did not actually come into existence and disappear, but were persistent entities that were constantly moving  - but primarily through other physical dimensions, only tangentially dipping into our four space+time dimensions.

Dubbed “mercurials,” these particles seemed to lend weight to various hypotheses within the study of quantum physics, most significantly New Standard Revised String Theory.  A key breakthrough was the Strunk Field, which prevented mercurials from losing contact with our space or from moving beyond the confines of the field, thus allowing scientists to study them more closely under controlled circumstances.

The final discovery that would lead to mercurial propulsion was made at the United States’ Rice Orbital Telescope and Physics Lab (affectionately known as “ROTFL”).  The lab, one of the main sites for mercurial research, was having trouble maintaining a geostationary orbit.  Months of troubleshooting, analysis, and expensive upgrades resulted in the conclusion that the force of the mercurials straining against the Strunk Field was moving the station incrementally, bumping it out of its orbital path.  This discovery, combined with new methods of reversing the direction of mercurials, made the new mercurial drive for space-going vessels possible.

Although the drive has been used in conjunction with more conventional propulsion systems for decades now, the CS Mercurial is the first to primarily use this type of drive. Vice Admiral Marcus Bale of SEDA’s Center for Education, Research, and Applications, christened the new colony ship “CS Mercurial” in honor of this achievement.