Runcible Technology
From Earth Central
The Runcible was a transportation device widely used in the Polity. It functioned as a teleportation mechanism, with users entering at one Runcible gate and emerging at another. The physics behind this was beyond the comprehension of unaugmented humans, and AIs were required to operate Runcibles, one notable exception being Moria Salem. On most planets, the AI operating the primary Runcible was also the Polity governor for that planet.
Runcible tech was one of the many inventions of genius Iversus Skaidon and his brief melding with the Craystein computer. Many of the technology's components are named after Edward Lear's nonsense poem, the Owl and the Pussycat. For instance, travellers are called quince, and "sliced" as they enter U-space (in reality rendered into sub-atomic particles and reassembled at the receiving gate by that gate's AI) and the gates are called runcibles.
Runcibles varied in size from small installations used for transporting humans to cargo runcibles so large they were mounted in space stations. They required at least two "horns", between which the Skaidon Warp was created, and this formed the link to to the next gate (larger Runcibles often had more, with Orlandine Taser 5 commandeering a runcible with five horns). Polity Runcibles could be connected to any other Runcible in the Polity network, and were accessible to all Polity citizens for a small fee. The only legal limitation on their use was the prohibition of transporting weapons without special permission (attempting to do so would result in the weapon being left in U-space upon by the receiving runcible AI). Runcible transportation was, for the most part, an extremely safe means of transportation, although sophisticated sabotage could have disastrous consequences. One example was a member of the enigmatic Makers, who stopped the buffers at the runcible on Samarkand functioning, causing a traveller to come through at near light speeds. The release of uncontained energy was an explosion that destroyed the entire facility and much of the colony, with the only survivors being Dracomen, one of which was Scar.
Runcibles could also be used for time travel, although this was an extremely risky venture. In the novel Line War, an 800 year expedition to the Maker empire in the Small Magellanic Cloud arrived only to find Jain-infested ruins. The expedition crew, among which was Chaline, Cormac's lover in Gridlinked, constructed a runcible and evacuated some of the expedition to 800 years in the past (actually the present in the current time setting of the novel). The station AI who received these travellers was forced to dump the runcible into a sun on the borders of the Polity to contain the destructive energy and to stop any Jain infection from coming through.
Two cases of runcibles being used as offensive weapons are by Moria Salem and Orlandine Taser 5, in the Prador War and the war against Erebus respectively. Moria is a notable case, being only an augmented human (though the aug was recognized as being much more powerful than a standard aug by the Trajeen Cargo Runcible AI). Moria, with Jebel Krong, an ECS veteran commando, lured a Prador dreadnought in range. The Prador at the time were wanting to uncover the secrets of runcible travel and believed the runcible captured by their Separatist puppets. Moria then activated the runcibles under her control and threw of on Trajeen's moons at the dreadnought, utterly destroying it. It was the first recorded victory against a Prador vessel of that size.
The next case is against the Jain construct Erebus, formerly the AI Trafalgar. Erebus had managed to disrupt all U-space travel across the Polity but for a small corridor straight to Earth, and was heading there with all its entire fleet. Orlandine, a haiman (extensively augmented human, but closer to an AI than a regular augmented person) with extensive control of Jain technology, intercepted them with her commandeered cargo runcible and its crew of Prador War era war drones. She opened fire with unbuffered energy transported from another open runcible around a black hole. The radiation and energy emitted by the black hole was sent through the runcible and came out at light speed as an enormous beam weapon, destroying 95% of Erebus's ships, which were vulnerable by merging into a construct the size of a moon, presenting one massive target. The remaining 5% were destroyed by two arriving ships, the alpha class dreadnought Cable Hogue and Jerusalem.
