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The Kzinti, desperate to know how to access the hidden setting, threaten Jason's wife in an attempt to get him to divulge it, but he refuses. Her life is spared when the device, which is intelligent (and loyal to its long-extinct
Tnuctipun masters), begins to speak. The Kzinti converse with the
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mechanism. The Kzinti are killed, but the humans survive, in part thanks to technology used by the Kzinti to restrain them as prisoners, inadvertently protecting them from the blast and impact. Nessus then frees the humans and the three of them leave the planet.
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stasis box, not
Thrintun. Stasis boxes (which are rare) often contain advanced technological products of immense military value. The Kzinti hope to use the contents of the box to develop weapons technology that will allow them to wage
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pirates. The rogue Kzinti are using a dummy stasis box to lure ships that they detect to be in possession of stasis boxes. The Kzinti capture the crew and open the looted stasis box, which is revealed to be a
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The box contains a
Tnuctipun weapon which is capable of morphing into several devices, none of which is deemed useful by the Kzinti as a war weapon. However, one setting, an energy absorber, causes a Kzinti
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weapon, believing that they are getting knowledge of how to access the setting. However, the weapon, believing itself to have fallen into the possession of an enemy, tricks the Kzinti into activating a
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beam, which is far more powerful than anything possessed by either human or Kzinti. Although Nessus remains free, Jason and the weapon are recaptured by the Kzinti.
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This story itself contains clues which set it prior to the short story "
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in 1967 and has since been included in the short story collections
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universe. It was first published in the
February 1967 issue of
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who later became one of the main characters of the novel
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216:couple, Jason and Anne Marie Papandreou.
177:"The Soft Weapon" was first published in
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212:box, on a passenger ship run by a
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1305:Collections by Niven or others
1246:Star Trek: The Animated Series
1223:Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex
1186:The Return of William Proxmire
299:Star Trek: The Animated Series
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1349:Fiction set around Beta Lyrae
1359:Short stories by Larry Niven
1200:What Good Is A Glass Dagger?
247:matter-to-energy conversion
127:Cover art by Paul E. Wenzel
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857:The California Voodoo Game
16:Short story by Larry Niven
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945:Building Harlequin's Moon
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313:as a chapter of the book
296:" for a 1973 episode of
1076:The Best of Larry Niven
1028:Playgrounds of the Mind
980:The Flight of the Horse
549:The Ringworld Engineers
190:Playgrounds of the Mind
816:Starborn & Godsons
128:
1102:The Borderland of Sol
1036:Bridging the Galaxies
929:The Descent of Anansi
765:The Mote in God's Eye
350:www.danhausertrek.com
338:title listing at the
304:The Borderland of Sol
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1116:The Defenseless Dead
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792:The Legacy of Heorot
663:The Magic May Return
565:Ringworld's Children
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496:Tales of Known Space
43:improve this article
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1233:TV episodes written
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972:All the Myriad Ways
886:A World Out of Time
849:The Barsoom Project
687:The Seascape Tattoo
655:The Magic Goes Away
646:The Magic Goes Away
614:Destroyer of Worlds
388:www.technovelgy.com
1364:1967 short stories
913:Co-authored novels
894:The Integral Trees
865:The Moon Maze Game
800:Beowulf's Children
622:Betrayer of Worlds
512:The Patchwork Girl
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964:Other collections
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773:The Gripping Hand
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606:Juggler of Worlds
472:A Gift from Earth
369:www.goodreads.com
365:"The Soft Weapon"
315:Star Trek Log Ten
294:The Slaver Weapon
277:Juggler of Worlds
171:Juggler of Worlds
125:First publication
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