The Jump Drive operates by dilating a wormhole and allowing the ship to make transit through it. Each slot of Jump Drive installed will allow a ship to dilate a wormhole of up to 1.6 parsecs, or about 5.2 light years, in distance. Most starships will install two or three slots of Jump Drive, but a cruiser might install four to six slots.

Transiting the wormhole requires 4.39 seconds, and during this time, the people aboard the starship experience a sense of disconnection from the universe that varies from mild unease to existential dread.

Jump Drives require an extraordinary amount of energy, and carry compressed monatomic hydrogen, used in powerful matter/energy conversion generators to create the power needed to charge the jump coils. Each slot of jump fuel carries sufficient hydrogen to power one slot of drive through three jumps, or three slots of drive through one jump.