Sci-Fi Weapons: How the Peacemaker Works

As I explain in my novel, Copernicium-296, I have my female lead, Jana Anders, learning the truth about a sidearm issued to her as a Federation Navy Ensign, fresh out of Academy. The weapon was initially designed to be more than the simple stun gun for crowd control. The Navy had disabled its capability to, for example, reduce a twenty-ton mobile cannon to ashes. But the gun could be hacked to recover its original power. My challenge was to come up with something reasonable for a sidearm that could be handheld but have that kind of destructive power.

How does the Peacemaker work? I decided that the laser-like action of Star Trek Phasers was too weak and that the mysterious action of Romulan Disrupters was, well, too mysterious. I also determined that plasma beam weapons which send a bolt of plasma to the target, would only work in space where atmospheric drag will not disperse the plasma. So, the operation of my Peacemaker had to be something new.

My Peacemaker has a micro-fusion reactor at its nucleonic core. The reactor drives a very powerful ultraviolet laser, which is destructive enough in its own right. But the key to the weapon’s astonishing destructive power is not in the laser beam but in the tuning rings in the barrel. The rings pulse the out-streaming laser at a frequency that is resonant with the forces that hold together the atomic nuclei of matter (Strong Force or Quark-Gluon Plasma). The resonance increases the energy inside nuclei beyond sustainable levels, until they implode. The result is nuclear fusion, like what occurs in the center of stars. The heat and pressure wave that is produced causes a chain reaction in adjacent atoms, quickly spreading to all connected matter. Because the reaction delta-t is femtoseconds a sustained fusion reaction occurs without the need for containment. Entire structures, such as tanks or buildings, become fuel for the super-nova-like explosion that reduces them to ashes.