The Drifter

Origins
Though the story of the discovery of the Drifter is taught in every school in the Four Systems, it's true to say that nobody really knows exactly what happened. The story goes that the crew of the salvage ship Marianne found the drifting hulk of a spaceship of unknown configuration. Within it were the Jump Engines - large pieces of machinery which now form the hearts of the JumpShips we know today.

The drives were removed from the the Drifter, and an agreement reached among the crew of the Marianne that each member of the crew would get one when the drives were discovered to be easily wedded to Human technology. Ships were bought or stolen, and the first JumpShips were born. The remains of the Drifter were blown up so that the secret of the Jump Engines remained with the original JumpShip captains. Of course, none of those captains are still alive. Every child knows that each JumpShip has changed hands a dozen times since then.

But many questions remain. How could a salvage crew have reverse-engineered the Drifter's technology? How long did the crew of the Marianne know about the Drifter before they plundered its bounty? Who did the actual work of attaching a Jump Engine to a spaceship?

Nobody knows. Or nobody is telling.

Analysis
Later analysis of Drifter fragments that were discovered by the many "foreign technology prospectors" that came later on suggested that the Drifter was constructed of alloys unknown in the Four Systems. Later discoveries of Drifter-technology led to the discovery of Veriseum. Nobody has yet managed to duplicate the technology of the Jump Engines, there is still debate between the physics and astrogation communities over exactly how Jump Engines work.

Analysis of the input and output ports on a Jump Engine would suggest that Drifter technology is very similar to Human technology, as evidenced by the fact that Jump Engines can be installed easily in Human spacecraft.