The energy field necessary to propel the USS Solstice is created by the warp field coils and assisted by the specific configuration of the starship hull. The coils generate an intense, multilayered field that surrounds the starship, and it is the manipulation of the shape of this field that produces the propulsive effect through and beyond the speed of light, c.
The coils themselves are split toroids positioned within the nacelles. Each half-segment measures 9 x 30 meters and is constructed from a core of densified tungsten-cobalt-magnesium for structural stiffening, and embedded within a casting of electrically densified verterium cortenide. A complete pair measures 20 x 30 meters, with a mass of 34,375 metric tonnes. Two complete sets of thirteen coils each masses 8.94 x 10^5 metric tonnes, accounting for close to 25% of the total starship mass. The casting process, as discussed previously in 5.1, proved to be somewhat difficult to repeat reliably during
the early phases of the Nova Class Project.
Improvements in materials and procedures led to more exact copies for use in the spacecraft, though the installation of closely matched pairs of coils within a nacelle is still practiced. During coil refurbishment at a major starbase yard, the maximum time between the youngest and oldest coil should be no more than six months.
When energized, the verterium cortenide within a coil pair causes a shift of the energy frequencies carried by the plasma deep into the subspace domain. The quantum packets of subspace field energy form at approximately 1/3 the distance from the inner surface of the coil to the outer surface, as the verterium cortenide causes changes in the geometry of space at the Planck scale of 3.9 x 1033 cm.
The converted field energy exits the outer surface of the coil and radiates away from the nacelle. A certain amount of field energy recombination occurs at the coil center line, and appears as a visible light emission.