This works like a jump drive, only it jumps between universes, this one in particular was installed in place of a jump drive of a free trade that was purchased by the Imperial Research facility on Luna in the Terran system, in involves an Ancient artifact found on Luna containing a wormhole mouth, the other mouth of the wormhole is located in a parallel universe. The free trader was stolen in 1080 Imperial by a Solomani agent who thought it was a time machine, he attempted to tamper with history in a way that would eliminate the Third Imperium from existance which would favor Terran independence. What the agent failed to realize was that he was actually operating in a parallel timeline with some resemblance to Terra's past history, he forgot to look at the planet's Venus and Mars, he just assumed they were dead worlds and focused on events in the American Civil War instead. Being somewhat of a racist, he helped the CSA win its war of independence, and with advanced tech he was importing from the OTU, he hoped to facilitate an early breakout into space by the Terrans, learning some some lessons from the past, his plan was to take over the CSA and then conquer the World, and then breakout into space catching the First Imperium unawares and by using superior tech conquer the First Imperium and move their capital to Terra.
Unfortunately for the Solomani agent, the Confederate government got wind of his plan and made one minor alteration to it by arresting him and squeezing him for information on how to operate the ship. The Confederate government took control of the ship, and has been using it to import parts for other starships, mainly scout ships, free traders and far traders, the parts had to fit within the cargo bay of the free trade with wormhole drive, so each ship was carefully disassembled into parts and then reassembled when brought over to the 1889 universe, nearby stars were thereby explored by that means, as the wormhole Starship has some important limitations:
1) A jump drive cannot jump carrying a wormhole drive within its jump bubble, normally the wormhole is in its contracted state, nothing can pass through it without the help of the wormhole drive. The wormhole drive contains a "closed" wormhole mouth, technically it is open but the throat is so constricted that only subatomic particles can pass through. When in such a closed state, which is most of the time, the gravitational gradient makes it impossible for a jump drive to operate near it, which prevents said jump drive from carrying the wormhole drive to another system, both ends are stuck in their respective Terran systems. A maneuver drive can move each end around within the system, but the only way to go to another system is by going STL.
2) When one end of the wormhole is moved around, the other end stays put, usually in orbit at the jump radius of a planet. When traveling through its wormhole, its jump bubble props open the throat of the wormhole so the Starship can pass through, this takes the same amount of Jump fuel as a Jump-1 drive that this drive replaces in the free trade Starship.
3) A jump through a wormhole is instantaneous as seen from the outside but takes about a week as experienced by the Ship's crew and passengers as the ship is moving sideways in time.
Unfortunately for the Solomani agent, the Confederate government got wind of his plan and made one minor alteration to it by arresting him and squeezing him for information on how to operate the ship. The Confederate government took control of the ship, and has been using it to import parts for other starships, mainly scout ships, free traders and far traders, the parts had to fit within the cargo bay of the free trade with wormhole drive, so each ship was carefully disassembled into parts and then reassembled when brought over to the 1889 universe, nearby stars were thereby explored by that means, as the wormhole Starship has some important limitations:
1) A jump drive cannot jump carrying a wormhole drive within its jump bubble, normally the wormhole is in its contracted state, nothing can pass through it without the help of the wormhole drive. The wormhole drive contains a "closed" wormhole mouth, technically it is open but the throat is so constricted that only subatomic particles can pass through. When in such a closed state, which is most of the time, the gravitational gradient makes it impossible for a jump drive to operate near it, which prevents said jump drive from carrying the wormhole drive to another system, both ends are stuck in their respective Terran systems. A maneuver drive can move each end around within the system, but the only way to go to another system is by going STL.
2) When one end of the wormhole is moved around, the other end stays put, usually in orbit at the jump radius of a planet. When traveling through its wormhole, its jump bubble props open the throat of the wormhole so the Starship can pass through, this takes the same amount of Jump fuel as a Jump-1 drive that this drive replaces in the free trade Starship.
3) A jump through a wormhole is instantaneous as seen from the outside but takes about a week as experienced by the Ship's crew and passengers as the ship is moving sideways in time.