THE march of technology moves on in the Sol System even without the great labs of old Earth. After the Starcrash Catastrophe, research into new, more powerful weapons and shields, better drives and improvements of more exotic systems has actually increased as an expression of per capita expenditure. Humans' dependence on their science changed from a question of luxuries (such as creamier Venusian chocolates) to a matter of life and death (how to fabricate essential Flintstone-shaped vitamins). These days, however, are not like those days of yore when journals circulated new discoveries and (most) science was shared even between enemy nations. Modern humans keep discoveries secret, for knowledge and technology truly are power, perhaps more so than ever.
In light of this, the Weekly Solar News hopes with its new technology roundup to enlighten and give a sense what the future of research is about to bring us. Without further introduction, here is the roundup!
The PTR Ray is a type of weapon never seen before. It is a "psycho-active" ray that seeks to incapacitate a ship by making its crew lose the will to take agressive action. The beam is a variant of the "P-Energy" radiation that the WSN reported on last week. By deactivating the p-areas of the brain, it makes even the most bloodthirsty raider into a sweet-dispositioned pacifist. Said one test subject from Uranus Station, "It felt like flowers. And sunshine." This cannon promises to take raiding to a whole new level as your targets will just lay down their weapons! It will be available as soon as the effect can be targeted directionally and no longer inundates every ship within 1,000 miles with the PTR effect.
Quantum physicists on the secret (until now!) Project Half-Baked have been working on a new kind of shield tech that they call "Class 0.5" There are still some kinks to work out, but the hope of the researchers is to make a low power shield that simply rotates the virtual surface of the shielded ship 1/2 of a quantum spin so that it is completely impenetrable to beam weapons or photons of any kind! Rick Watterson of the Project says that, "Any day now, we'll figure out how to get one of these things working without vaporizing everything inside." If any ship captains want to help Project Half-Baked field-test this device, hold tight, because they'll be needing more subjects in just a few days and will be advertising soon.
Jimmy Bob's Super Hull eXtreme
James "Jimmy Bob" Hickey examining a scale prototype of one of his Super Hull eXtreme hulls
Jimmy Bob's of Triton says that expensive cloaking technology is, "for suckers." It is difficult and expensive to hide using electromagnetic means of bending light around your ship. To boot, it doesn't even work a large amount of the time. James Robert Hickey, proprietor of Jimmy Bob's, says that his hull design is a low cost alternative to cloaking technology. "You ain't gotta worry about getting raided if'n you look like worthless junk." These hulls should be available next week.
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