For a little context, this is a follow up of a discussion over the PF2e subreddit which derailed a bit. This is the relevant post for this discussion..
How do Helldrives work? The concept of Drift engines and most drives is that they benefit from using the properties of planes which have locations that correspond to physical locations on the Material Plane to make transit faster. Examples of this are shadow engines and first engines, which use the Shadow Plane and First World respectively, though the Helldrive's description says "which enable starships to travel through Hell itself to circumvent Material Plane distances", but how does that work? Hell is a plane of the Outer Sphere that doesn't overlap or is tied in any way with the Material Plane, so how does Hell allow someone to travel faster? Is this explained somewhere or it was just an oversight from the Starfinder team?
- You can call a devil from Hell to the universe from anywhere in the universe.
- For balance reasons with lore explanations to back it up, "Plane Shift to Hell, Plane Shift out of Hell" does not let you end up anywhere in the universe.
So, there's definitely something going on, and your assumption that Hell isn't tied in any way with the universe is probably where the problem is. They may not be touching each other, but that doesn't mean there aren't metaphysical ties.
It's notable that Hell is the most... let's say "controllable" of the planes. What Asmodeus says, goes. It's one of the only major planes that was constructed. Mephistopheles is the manifestation of Hell's consciousness. The contracts use in helldrives could actually cause Hell to alter itself to make faster travel possible, running up some chain of authority all the way to Mephistopheles. That's probably what I would use for the explanation.
I don't say it is impossible for this to be possible, but shadow engines and first engines describe they work because they benefit from the conditions of the Shadow Plane / Netherworld and First World, which are planes that have locations that correspond to locations in the Material Plane and that also have weird shifting properties that would allow for those travels to in fact made faster, though the only connection Hell has with the Material Plane is how they are connected through the Astral Plane, which doesn't really answer the question on this topic because when a devil is summoned in the Material Plane they aren't plane shifting, more like their essence is being summonsed in that location, meanwhile, like you said, if someone shifts into whatever plane and then shifts back to the Material Plane they end up in the same spot they left in the first place.
The latter isn't as important because it can be explained as easily as "the Helldrive circumvents that limitation", but if the Helldrive somehow makes places in Hell have an equivalent in the Material Plane I feel it should be explained or at least hinted how it works, because as is I don't even know how someone is be able to know where they are going in Hell and why X location would leave then on Y location on the Material Plane. The book in which Helldrives were released isn't that old (2020) to be a bit of lore that was retconned or changed, and I also seen that a few monster entries from a 2022 AP mention Helldrives and that they work exactly like the original item describes them to work. I don't have the APs in question, so I only know this because I seen the monsters in AoN, so probably the AP goes a little more in-depth about that?
Quick correction; it wasn't a monster entry that mentions Helldrives, it was a starship. It was the Hellforged Soulscourger which says "The Soulscourger model bristles with weapons and is equipped with a standard Helldrive, allowing for quick travel across the galaxy by passing briefly through Hell."
It's described as hybrid technology developed in Hell, so my presumption is that, at some unknown point during the Gap, the lords of Hell decided to take advantage of the opportunities presented by burgeoning interstellar societies by constructing their own, "proprietary" system -- particularly since Heaven was working on the same concept.
I agree with QuidEst that the user of a helldrive is, essentially, using Hell as a form of hyperspace. Jump out of the Material Plane, navigate through Hell's network, then re-emerge at your desired location on the Material Plane, bypassing all of the real-space in between entirely.
For me, it's First Drives that require more effort to understand, since the dimension standing in for hyperspace this time is much much larger and more crowded than the Material Plane.
I agree First Drives could be hard to comprehend if you to put some thought behind the logístics of it, but I at least see the logic behind the idea and it can be assumed the engine itself is equiped to make those calculations easier, but with Helldrives I would want to have some kind of explanation because if it isn't an oversight (which doesn't seem to be the case) then there must be a reason that explains it somehow.
Even an official response along the lines of "its planar magic shenanigans" would be enough for me.
I agree First Drives could be hard to comprehend if you to put some thought behind the logístics of it, but I at least see the logic behind the idea and it can be assumed the engine itself is equiped to make those calculations easier, but with Helldrives I would want to have some kind of explanation because if it isn't an oversight (which doesn't seem to be the case) then there must be a reason that explains it somehow.
Even an official response along the lines of "its planar magic shenanigans" would be enough for me.
Helldrives take shortcuts through Hell and require an individually crafted contract. Archon Drives take shortcuts through Heaven and require prayer and worship to Iomedae.
Notably, both require a special level of divine permission and travel through a lawful plane. That's enough explanation for me. If Axis can entire branches of mathematics that only function within the plane itself, it seems trivial for Heaven and Hell to have some degree of spacial mapping back to the universe, at least when there's proper authority in play.
As for an official response, holding out for one of those is kind of hit-or-miss. In this case, you'd need the Starfinder author of the 2020 book who worked on that part of the book. They might be a bit limited on how officially they can nail things down because the planes are a shared element with Pathfinder. A big planar was planned for SF1, but then, well, the whole OGL mess happened. On top of that, the structure of the outer planes got a small rework in the remaster.
All that to say, though, if you don't get an answer, it does seem like the kind of thing that will come up in a planar book when Starfinder eventually gets one.
How would you guys make an engine that uses the Ethereal Plane? I find it kinda weird that the only inner plane that doesn't have its own engine is the Ethereal Plane since its the one that most people would think makes the most sense to have one since you can see back from the Ethereal Plane into the Material Plane (thus see where you are going) and since there's little matter there you can travel without bothering with obstacles.
It also would fit perfectly for a High Science Fantasy setting or location with Treasure Planet-esque ships that travel through aether.
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Galactic Magic touches on Ethereal travel. In a nutshell, Ethereal space is considered good for running stealth missions, but it's terrible for travel times. Ships that could navigate the Ethereal without getting bogged down in ectoplasm - ether ships - are mentioned as ancient, lost magitech. (One such ether ship - the King Xeros - has turned up in an adventure.)
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I'd lean away from the ability to see into the Universe, myself, and instead focus on the fact that the Ethereal Plane is so highly transitive. A hypothetical ghost drive would use that fact, acting like a lot of the other drives we've already mentioned. It would cheat by moving through related planes instead of the Universe, but with the Ethereal Plane as its focus the travel would be centered on finding spots where the Ethereal overlaps other planes, which in turn overlap other parts of the Ethereal Plane or other planes themselves.
So rather than going into one plane and coming back out, you'd be skipping around between loads of planes. Possibly much faster, assuming you have the technomagical computing power to calculate where all the planes intersect, but also much more dangerous because of just how many radically different places you'll be shooting through.
I think Accelsys would approve.
This actually sounds really cool! To the point that I'm asking myself why Paizo came up with Drift and didn't use the Ethereal Plane instead.
Funnily enough, the Corpse Fleet do have some means of taking their ships to the Negative Energy Plane, though we don't know what that is.
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Here is my 2¢ and quarter for the jukebox:
In Hell, time doesn't tick away like it does everywhere else. It can speed
up or slow down depending on where you are. Imagine one place where
a minute feels like an hour, and another where an hour feels like a minute.
Now, infernal beings, with their dark powers, can move between Hell and
other realms. They piece together a path through space using bits from
places where time moves differently. So, when a starship follows this
path, it seems like it's traveling faster than light. But really, it's just bouncing
in and out of different parts of Hell, where time flows at various rates. This lets
the starship hop through space and reach its destination in a flash.