[function_seven]

Isn't this kinda like mounting a fan on your car's roof to charge the battery? You have accelerated your spaceship to 0.995C (or whatever) and now you are encountering space dust at a phenomenal rate. Some of that dust is moving away from you, some of it toward you, some of it is at rest. On average it's all just sitting there unaware that your vessel is about to smack into it. The energy is in the difference between your speed and the particle's. If you try to harness it, you slow down.

(I'm asking genuinely here. My analogy might be wrong because it's too classical!)

[zardo]

I think in principle you should be able to generate thrust greater than drag orthogonal to the particle flow. That's what wings do.