Hi Jay P Hailey, hope you are having a nice day

>> Shields, weapons systems, repulsorlift/antigrav, life support, the
>>whole kit and kaboodle except for that one little thing.
JPH>Oh.  What's the power supply?
JPH>How do force fields actually work?
JPH>How do they make laser beams that can actually hurt anything A) Not 
JPH>explode from waste heat and B) are smaller than a cargo jet?
JPH>Just curious.

 You would ofc ask this when all those books are boxed up wouldn't
you. ;>

 But power is from a cross of ion/fission systems, shields are a
modulated high tesla magnetic field, lasers involved a more recent
technique for keeping a beam colaminated even when there's enough
particulate matter to spread it into nothing. The pic of that one
was in a laser magazine being tested w/ an argon/ion laser.

 The tech is there, it's just spread across so many differing areas
and most people who're interested in one area aren't interested in
the others thus.... Or to (slightly mis)quote RAH..

  A human being should be able to...
change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship,
design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall,
set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
play solitaire, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure,
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

  Specialization is for insects. -- Robert A. Heinlein (slightly edited)

 -=> Yours sincerely, Paul Williams <=-

... Someone's telling me to stop thinkin' I know anything AND IT'S MY
... BRAIN! - Jay P. Hailey
--- Terminate 4.00/Pro