Hmmm, tranqs, huh ?
Well, lets look at a couple of ways they've been used in fiction
and real-life in recent history ...
First of all we have the wide-area gas effects. Mainly inhaled,
usually pretty dangerous, these are quite effective. The aim of
most of these is to tranquilise in the broadest sense of the
word - to render ineffective. Tear gas, light doses of war gases,
anything that produces a disabling affect on the targets. If there
are any serious side-effects, well, too bad. (The Stumm gas used
by the Mega-City Judges has a 1 in a thousand death rate - perfectly
acceptable for crowd control where you can be sure that they *all*
have broken the law ... however, just a little *too* dangerous
for even the Judges to use routinely :-)
Next we want to look at the tranqs that are a little more selective
in their targeting ...
So, we have small gas grenades, that, when delivered *accurately*,
only affect a few targets ... but they are affected grately by
environmental effects (like a strong wind ...) And of course,
the basic gas type is still the same as the ones above.
Next up are the skin-absorbed chemicals (and if you've ever
played paintball, you'll know just how easy it is for the stuff
to pass through many layers of clothes) - but still the same
arguments apply as to side-effects etc.
So, we have to be very selective to ensure that the materiel gets
delivered - and you see the sort of dart guns that African big-game
hunters seem keen on sticking into rhinos ... these darts deliver
a very large dose as quickly as possible, so if the dart gets
brushed off by a charging rhino, it will still eventually fall over.
Unfortunately, these darts can have a lot of side-effects related
to the fact that they are very physical - get hit in the eye by
one of those and you won't notice the tranq chemicals - you'll
be dead. Also, they are very susceptible to simply not penetrating
a tough outer layer if they hit at an angle - a common complaint
with many missile weapons (but not nukes ... :-)
Some very nice high-tech solutions to these common problems have
been put forward - I draw mainly on Larry Niven's works here, for
describing what amounts to TL8 and above.
First of all we have needle-thin slivers of frozen/soluble tranq
chemicals (which, is not made clear) fired at high speeds with
powerful Gauss guns (the chemicals are assumed to have a high
enough iron content to need no other delivery agent) that break
the skin easily (being so small) and then dissolve directly into
the blood stream. The slivers are so small that any that hit
sensitive areas (such as the eyes) will cause minimal damage,
and any that encounter normal clothing will be able to easily
penetrate the weave of the material. The chemical itself must
be similar to the non-overdosing ones mentioned by Metlay, as
the basic idea is to pump your target full of them until you're
sure you've hit him ...
Then we have the non-chemical methods - ultra-sound stunners
being the best method. I'm sure you've all noticed how sound
vibration can have strange effects on the body - the basic
function of the stunners is to make the central nervous system
shut down into unconciousness. There are no chemical side-effects,
and by quickly running up and down the frequency ranges that are
effective on different species and races, a universal humane
weapon can be quickly developed.
Finally, we have what an intelligent victim will realise to be
the most dangerous weapon of all ... the tasp, which directly
stimulates the brain's pleasure centre by induction (OK, I know
that induction isn't a direct method, but I mean that you're
bypassing the normal routes to the pleasure centre). While the
stimulation is going on, the victim is completely incapable of
anything, and is experiencing the most *pleasurable* sensations
possible. This can quickly lead to addiction to the source of
stimulation, and only the most intelligent victim could correctly
understand the threat of addiction, and what that would mean to
his life. For more information on that, you are advised to read
the stories that Niven has written dealing with Direct Current
Stimulation Addiction (The Ringworld Engineers being the best).
And as a final note, which methods are suitable to combat when
enclosed in sealed suits (in space, hostile environments etc) ?
Well, the stunners fail in space, and be less effective in thin
atmospheres as they rely on transmission of vibrations, and the
tasp could easily fail is the victim's suit acted as a Faraday
Cage, keeping out all electro-magnetic radiations ... The sliver
guns couldn't penetrate even light armour ...
Are we left to consider psionic attack as the only non-lethal
tranq effective left ?
Anyway, I hope that this missive has introduced a few more ideas
into the discussion of tranqs and non-lethal weapons ...
Comments please !
[ Note for Larry Niven fans in the London area - he'll be in Hamwicks bookshop
in Kingston-upon-Thames on Tuesday 10 April, from 12.30 till 1.30 with
Steven Barnes signing copies of the Barsoom Project - -sequel to Dream
Park, I think ...]
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____ (JANET) [email removed]
(__ __) O ______ (local) [email removed]
(____) (_)(_)()(_) (voice) (+44) 1 549 1366 x2690
Jim Cheetham, ISD Kingston Polytechnic.
"... nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------