DREAMSCAPE UNIVERSE PLASMA BLADE
Energy-Based Sword
When people hear about the "Plasma Blade" in Kurt's book series, they can be forgiven for comparing it to the "Lightsaber" in Star Wars. Both are energy-based swords that require skill to use. When people ask what the inspiration was for the his energy sword, Kurt's answer the "Covenant Energy Sword" from HALO, used by the Sangheili elites. While schematics of a Lightsaber's inner workings exist, how it functions as a sword is never really explained. The Sangheili Energy Sword (which the Dreamscape Universe sword is based on) has a clearer explanation. The blades are comprised of superheated plasma contained in a tightly configured magnetic field generated from the hilt.
In the Dreamscape Warriors Universe, the Plasma Blade is constructed similarly. Plasma and a blade-shaped force field project from the hilt. The “edge” of the blade is where the plasma leaks through just enough to create a cutting edge. The blade is adjustable, so in addition to cutting like a sword, it can be used as a tool, such as an awl, to enlarge a hole.
The militaries described in Kurt's novels that use Plasma Blades standardize them for most soldiers. The Neo-Etruscan Military, for instance, use short blades based on the Roman gladius on Earth. Finnian Military plasma blades are based on the leaf-shaped swords from the Hallstatt period (1200-450 B.C.) in Central Europe, which is when we first identified a style as Celtic.
DREAMSCAPE UNIVERSE SPACE TRAVEL
According to Albert Einstein, a spaceship cannot go faster than the speed of light. It is the universal speed limit. Science Fiction authors fall into two camps. "Hard Science Fiction" writers adheres to this rule, and their characters must live within it. They use suspended animation to keep the crew asleep until they reach their destination, or they use a multi-generational ship where the descendants of the people who started the journey are the ones who end it.
Then there are other writers who find that too limiting and workaround the speed limit and time dilation. Their stories will involve a journey from point A to point B and back where they travel faster than the speed of light. Star Trek uses the warp drive. The ship generates a warp bubble, including the space around it. This is a deviation from Einstein's rule, since space can go faster than the speed of light. Star Wars has a ship enter a space dimension where the rules do not apply. In the Dreamscape Warriors Series, it makes use of "Interdimensional Drive," which is akin to the warp drive.
How are such ships powered? Star Wars takes there ships into hyperspace. Star Trek, however, make use of matter-to-antimatter annihilation. The principle is sound. When a particle of matter comes together with a particle of antimatter, they violently cancel each other out, producing energy. To make sure this only happens when desired (i.e. it won’t vaporize the ship), their power plants would have antimatter stored in a magnetic bottle.
In Star Trek, losing antimatter containment is one thing that starship crews fear most. When one thinks about it, this would hold true of anyone using matter-to-antimatter annihilation to power things. Astrophysicists hypothesize that in the early universe, matter and antimatter were together in a stable state. It was only when the universe had sufficiently cooled that they separated.
In the Dreamscape Warriors Novels the question is asked, “What if…”
What if matter and antimatter could be stored safely in their stable state. The results are the substances Neodregen and Neodreleum used in the Dreamscape Universe. These are by combining Hydrogen and Anti-Hydrogen and Helium and Anti-Helium, held together in their stable states. Neodreleum particles are stored in a special chamber. When the power plant is operating, the particles get drawn into a separation chamber, where a special laser separates them. They travel independently by magnetic field and come together in the combustion chamber, where matter and antimatter do what they do best—coming together and exploding. In this universe Neodregen is the first combined fuel discovered and was less stable. It fell out of use when Neodreleum was discovered.
THERMAL LIGHT RADIATION GENERATORS
In the previous issue, I explained how the Dreamscape Universe generates power using Neodreleum to produce Helium and Anti-Helium for a Matter/Anti-Matter reaction: a special laser splits the Neodreleum into matter and anti-matter. The two particles travel separately to the combustion chamber, where they violently cancel each other out, producing energy.
This energy has to be harnessed to do something useful, such as generating an interdimensional warp that allows ships to travel faster than the speed of light. Energy must also power shields, energy weapons, charge batteries, and even turn on the lights. That is where the Thermal Light Radiation Generators (TLR-G) come into play. These superconductors convert heat, light, and radiation into usable energy. The TLR-Gs line the combustion chamber to absorb the immense power of the reaction and direct it to where it needs to go. Then the ship’s engines expel the blast energy for conventional thrust.
However, TLR-Gs are not limited to Matter/Anti-matter reactions. Fusion reactors can use them to power cities and towns on habitable worlds. People have even used fissile materials such as Uranium, Plutonium, and Thorium as energy sources for colonial homesteads. Such materials do not need to reach critical mass, like an atomic bomb, but only generate enough heat, light, or radiation for the TLR-Gs to convert into usable energy.
