As security officer, I need to understand the weapons and potential weapons of the technology available. As such, and also to practice my writing, I will attempt to describe a general theory of weapons and violence.
Violence is change, and change is violence. Any object capable of changing something else is thus capable of violence. Against humans, this causes a change in their body. Against vehicles (from wagons to Lady Zephyr) this causes a change in their structure.
Violence may or may not be debilitating, and may or may not be fatal. It is possible to use an object to change a human’s body without debilitation. A weak punch is an example. Similarly, debilitation may not be fatal. I could break an arm with little chance of causing fatal damage. The question is what is changed about the subject. I could break a wheel on a wagon, or any number of parts of Lady Zephyr, and while that part would not work, everything else would work. Fatal damage is, then damage that causes everything else to not work. If I crush a man’s skull with a hammer, his arms and legs will be just as, if not more, ineffective than if I had broken them. More-over, fatal damage negates the healing process – you can heal an arm, but if you are dead, you will simply rot instead healing.
How this applies to Lady Zephyr is uncertain. I suspect that there are vital weaknesses, as well as parts of her that can be debilitated. I must ask Engineer Maria about it. This knowledge will be vital.
Now, with the view that change is violence, to examine weapons, we must examine what things will cause change in humans, or, if possible, change in the Lady Zephyr.
For humans, weapons can be divided between weapons that apply force, and weapons that use other means. A hammer applies force spread over a small area. A blade applies force over a tiny area. A hammer may cut, when wielded with sufficient force, thus it is obvious that both of them are changing the body in the same manner. They push or divide parts of the body, thus changing them into a configuration that no longer function. A brain works in its normal shape, but if you push the skull and a hammer into the brain, the brain has been changed, and no longer works. The same is true of many parts of the body. Change the configuration, and it will not work. The human body, in particular, is very delicate.
Other weapons exist, of course. A man may die of disease, may die of burning, may die of drowning, of freezing, of choking, of starvation, of fright, of poison, and onwards from there. No doubt there are many more causes for death that do not involve the application of force. However, all of these methods cause changes to the body that ceases its function.
This leaves two directions for study. I could talk with Doctor Tanaka, and understand more about the body. By better understanding the weaknesses of the body, I could then create methods of causing change to the body. Alternatively, I could examine our tools, and ascertain what effects they would have on bodies, and see if any of those changes are fatal. Even if they are not, there is still the question of debilitation. Anything that can cause change can be a weapon.
Lastly, there is the question of accidentally harming my lady in the process of harming my enemy. This is not normally a concern for a guardsman, but I am surrounded on all sides by Lady Zephyr, and it would be easy to accidentally hit her. However, what may damage a human may cause no damage (or even debilitation) to a starship. I suspect that my sword would likely not cause much damage to my liege as it does against humans, but I believe that there are better potential weapons than my blade. As I build my list of potential weapons, each weapon should be checked against both humans and the Lady Zephyr, and the difference in effect understood.
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