Flattened by Beltstrike

[alex_greene]

The McGuffin of the chapters from p. 74-79 and p. 84 onwards is little short of staggering.

I don't want to throw in a spoiler for anyone who hasn't got the book, but a piece of technology from Larry Niven's Known Space universe makes an appearance in Beltstrike.

Let's just say that the technology may well predate the earliest known limits of technology of the currently established OTU.

And I never thought I'd see this tech appear in Traveller. (Even though the precedents for its presence have been set as early as CT).

Can't say any more. I'm just going to read this book again, and kind of boggle a bit. I know, unprofessional, but what's a hard SF grognard to do?

@Loz: I am in awe. In awe.

 

[barasawa]

None of my local stores have Beltstrike yet.
(I still have to wait before I can even order it...)

I have read most of Nivens stuff, so I am somewhat familiar with Larry Niven's Known Space.

Please tell me what it is? Just the name, don't need any details.


Some wild guesses with nothing to go on... Scrith, Stepping Disks, Statis Box, General Products Hull, Flashlight Laser, Gil Hamilton, Kzinti, Fusion Torch Drive, T-Shirt that says "I'm a Ptavv", Kdatlyno Touch Sculpture, Baked Tree-Of-Life Ice Cream Sunday...

 

[alex_greene]

It's one of them, all right ... though not the last one.

Or the T-shirt.

And it's not made of scrith, though scrith hullmetal would put a serious dent in the Traveller'verse: "What do you mean, infinite armour points? And that's just the door to the dunny?"

 

[Diabolus]

Stasis Box is the only one that leaps out (unless you totally missed that Kzinti are an awful lot like Aslan )

 

[simonh]

Stasis Box is the only one that leaps out (unless you totally missed that Kzinti are an awful lot like Aslan )

How about a fragment from an Ancients ringworld? Ringworlds are mentioned in CT.

The problem with guessing is if you guess right, nobody will believe you hadn't read the book already.

Simon Hibbs

 

[EDG]

I really don't think anyone's going to throttle you for revealing something in the book. Right now this dancing around the topic is all pretty meaningless to me... if you want to get me interested then say what it actually is .

 

[Loz]

I kind of ummed and aahed about including it, but it seemed logical and yep, I'm a huge Niven fan.

Glad its pushed the right buttons Alex!

 

[kristof65]

You could always post it, but change the font color to white, like I did below. That way those who want to know can see the spoiler by highlighting it; those who don't, won't have it glaring in their face.

This worked didn't it? It should have, I suspect. If not, ignore what I said above.

 

[alex_greene]

Does this forum do spoiler tags?

Spoiler

If you can read this without having to click on a button, evidently not.

As the author, Loz knows all about it - it's stasis boxes. Alien stasis box tech.

Possibly the Ancients, but stasis tech strongly suggests the Thrintun, an extinct race 1.5 billion years old - making Grandfather and the Ancients look like a species that just stepped into the stars yesterday.

Mind you, the existence of stasis boxes doesn't have to be OTU material ... unless you count the Droyne pods in the Ancient base beneath Fulacin, at the climax to CT's Twilight's Peak. In which case it could ...

 

[barasawa]

Just some small notes, Ringworlds have already been mentioned in Traveller, though I forgot what sector one was in.

In Known Space, humans invented the statis field independantly. It wasn't until after they created it that someone thought that wierd statue might be a stasis field.

Also, Scrith doesn't have infinite armor points. It's probably about equivalent to Coherent Superdense (prior version of Traveller). In some of the Ringworld stuff, they actually specify it's structural capability. (It needed a certain level to withstand the strain of the Ringworld.) Also, scrith has been damaged/destroyed by both human weapons, and meteors.

In my campaign, I have Duralloy, it uses the stats for Bonded Superdense.
(Sorry, not a Known Space campaign.)

Hey, anybody have a spare coyn I can borrow?

 

[EDG]

Thanks for posting that... yeah, that does sound cool!

 

[simonh]

Also, Scrith doesn't have infinite armor points. It's probably about equivalent to Coherent Superdense (prior version of Traveller).

Much, much tougher than that. The tensile strength of scrith is on the same order as the strong nuclear force. Nuclear weapons don't even scratch it as they are powered by the weak nuclear force, which is 10^13 weaker.

Simon Hibbs