In the gamma universe, the story goes off into speculation about the far future, including routine interstellar space travel. This is acheived by a fictionalised version of two "real world" faster than light travel methods, as well as some other made-up ones.

"Warp" Drives (Alcubierre Drives)

This is a theoretical method of FTL trave which was thought up by the physicist Miguel Alcubierre. His original design required more energy than every star in the observable universe to work. More recent ideas for how it might be done have reduced this to only the total energy put out by two or three large galaxies. In the future of the Gamma Universe, it is worked out how to make them efficient enough to run off a fusion reactor.

The first Alcubierre drives appeared in the Milky Way in 1940. The Terralians and Hylasians, the civilisations that invented them, began to form the foundations of the Galactic Government, slowly exploring and cataloguing every star system and planet over about 300 years.

Alcubierre drives in the Gamma Universe have a top speed of about 3000c, which equates to going a light year in about eight and a half hours.

Jump Drives (Musha Jump Drives)

This is another theoretical FTL drive, in which a disc of lasers can be used to give a ship negative mass. This, coupled with "violent acceleration", causes faster-than-light travel because, as physics attempt to stop the ship accelerating, it actually accelerates even faster. Current theories around this drive suggest it could travel intergalactic distances in seconds, in practice (in the Gamma Universe), it allows for about 53,000c, enough to go a light year in just under 10 minutes. Ships usually fly slower than this, though.

By the late 22nd century, this is the standard propulsion method used by the Galactic Government's explorers. They have also modified the method of giving ships negative mass, by "polarising" the hull. This eliminates the need for ships to be disc-shaped.

Magnetic Isolation Drives

This is an ill-explained drive, created in the Gamma Universe during the course of the Great Galactic War (2315 to 2333). Ships equipped with it can "isolate" the "magnetic signature" of a star, and leap directly to it's vicinity at millions of times the speed of light - effectively creating instant travel. It's a precarious technology, though, and ships run the risk of flying right into the star.