All this and now that

Yesterday we looked at the first scene in Part 2 of Rome's Revolution after Rome and Rei had just arrived at Deucado. MINIMCOM had been attempting to contact the inhabitants of that planet to begin the process of transporting the frozen colonists to the planet.

It didn't go so well. Sometime in the past, the Vuduri living there had decided that no mandasurte (mind-deaf) could have access to Vuduri technology. Of course The Flying House was pure Vuduri technology. Here is when they get the bad news:

     “The punishment for illegal access to Vuduri technology by mandasurte is death. They are coming to kill you!” said the little computer.
     “Oh no, they cannot,” said Rome. “That is not the Vuduri way.”
     “These are not ordinary Vuduri,” said MINIMCOM. “There is something not right about this samanda.”
     “What do we do?” Rei asked. “MINIMCOM, can we outrun them?”
     “Not with your cargo craft,” said MINIMCOM.
     “And if we left it here?”
     “They mean to destroy it as well. They know it contains many Essessoni. They fear the Erklirte have returned.”
     “What are we going to do?” Rome said, in anguish.
     “Is there any way we can talk to them?” Rei asked, desperately.
     “There is no time to develop an adequate technology. You should determine a course of action and quickly,” MINIMCOM said. “They have launched multiple craft to intercept you.”
     “Can’t you explain what has happened?” Rei asked. “Tell them who we are. Their rules shouldn’t apply to us. We’re supposed to be here.”
     “I will try,” replied MINIMCOM, “but I would not count on the outcome. They seem very determined. They have scrambled eleven armed ships.”
     “What kind of arms?” Rei asked.
     “The Vuduri do not use weapons,” Rome insisted.
     “These Vuduri do,” countered MINIMCOM. “They are armed with magnetic pulse cannons, electrostatic charge disrupters and PPT throwers.”
     Rome gasped. All the color left her face.
     “What? Say again.” Rei said.
     “PPT throwers.”
     “What are those?” Rei asked, panicked.
     MINIMCOM replied, “They are normally used in mining and salvage operations. They create a moving PPT tunnel, a very small one, even within a gravity well, which sweeps across an area and separates atoms that encounter it from their immediately adjacent atoms by sending them elsewhere. They can cut through any material known to man. However, in space, they can extend over a much greater distance.”
     “So you’re saying…” Rei sputtered.
     “What he is saying,” interjected Rome in a hushed tone, “is that they are for slicing up very large objects into very tiny pieces.”

PPT Throwers are just plain bad news. It sounds pretty ominous to me. How will they ever escape? More on that tomorrow.