Federation Commander

So where do Ion engines come into play in this universe?

I remember the episode with Spock's Brain, that there was a ship that used Ion drive as their main propulsion, and I remember Scotty mentioning that Ion drives were more advanced then the warp drives..

so are there any races in the Alpha or Omega Octant that use Ion drives?[/quote]

Nope.

I don't play Omega or Mellenganics, so I don't know them, but in the Alpha Octant, everybody pretty uniformly uses dilithium-regulated matter/anti-matter-powered warp drives, with fusion-powered impulse engines as sublight auxiliaries (also usable for s-l-o-w "non-tactical" warp, as in the Early Years and the Romulans until the Smarba treaty with the Klingons).

And to follow on from 'dood's comment, the Impulse engines are ion engines, albeit of a far more advanced design from those we have nowadays.

Remember you can't always take things that Trek characters say as Gospel, because they are dictated by the writers - who make it up as they go along.

Impulse engines ARE ion engines.

Trying to base engineering on character dialogue will drive you mad.

The reason why Impulse engines are ion engines is because of the way ion engines work.

You have an anion which is an electron ion pulse, which is a negative charge. You also have a cation which is a positive ion pulse, which is a positive charge. The ion engine pulses positive then immediately negative to push against its first pulse. It repeats this process in very rapid impulse changes to force itself against the last charge that it maid to lift itself off the ground, similar to magnets pushing against one another.

Thus you have impulses of the ion engine, which is why an impulse engine IS an ion engine.