"Now," said Channing as the dishes were pushed aside, clearing a space on the table. "What are we going to do?"
"That's what I've been worrying about," said Walt. "Let's list the things that make our gun ineffective."
"That's easy. It can't dish out enough. It's too dependent upon mobility. It's fundamentally inefficient because it runs out of ammunition too quick, by which I mean that it is a sort of gun with antiseptic bullets. It cures its own damage."
"Prevents," said Arden.
"All right, it acts as its own shield, electrostatically."
"About this mobility," said Walt, "I do not quite agree with that."
"You can't whirl a hunk of tube the size and weight of a good-sized telescope around fast enough to shoot holes in a racing spaceship," said Channing. "Especially one that is trying to dodge. We've got to rely upon something that can do the trick better. Your tube did all right following a meteor that rung in a course that can be predicted, because you can set up your meteor spotter to correct for the mechanical lag. But in a spaceship that is trying to duck your shot, you'll need something that works with the speed of light. And, since we're going to be forced into something heavy and hard hitting, its inertia will be even more so."
"Heavy and hard hitting means exactly what?"
"Cyclotron, betatron or synchrotron. One of those dinguses that whirls nucleons around like a stone on a string until the string breaks and sends the stone out at terrific speed. We need a velocity that sounds like a congressional figure."
"We've got a cyclotron."