Anti-matter in the Imperium

Adrian Hurt writes:

>And now you know why the Shionthy system is a Red Zone.  According to
>Adventure 1, Kinunir, that system is a planetoid belt with chunks of
>anti-matter floating around.
>
>What this means is that either the Imperials have already used the
>stuff (TL 15 ships with anti-matter power - not quite such a big
>shudder :-) or that there is some basic reason why they could or
>would not do so, such as the ship blowing up.  If the Imperials can't
>build anti-matter powerplants at TL 15, neither can those TL 10 people.

Unwarranted assumption, I think. It is much more likely that the amount
of anti-matter that the Imperium can get out of Shionthy is too small to
base a squadron of ships on (I doubt that Imperial admirals think in
smaller units than squadrons). The people of Shionthy lives by gathering
anti-matter and selling it to the Imperium (this is the real reason the
Imperium allows them to stay in a system that is interdicted for being
to dangerous to travel in). So they can at least handle the anti-matter.
Wether they can use it in power-plants is another matter. But if you
want to give your players a prototype anti-matter-driven ship you can.

>Or indeed, the TL 8 residents of the Shionthy system.

They can collect it, at least. But maybe they get the tools to do so
from the Imperium.

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "A  subsector  official  pompously states that the
        subsector  armed  forces  have  four Kinunir class
        ships in service,  each with enough troop strength
        to put down any military operations that threathen
        the peace of the Imperium."

                        ---Adventure 1, The Kinunir