Quoted By:
<span class="mu-b">"You know, Tetak, I feel as though you <span class="mu-i">could</span> be better equipped to handle your research and test your theories. Enforcer?"</span>
"W-wait? What do you mean? Cijan, please Cijan- I said I was sorry."
<span class="mu-b">"If you were truly dedicated to studying Starsight, you would have blinded yourself already. I'm just giving you a helping hand."</span>
"Cijan- I'm supposed to be the Overseer! The Overseer can't be some... blind cripple! Please Cijan!"
<span class="mu-b">"Not anymore, you're not..."</span>
With Tetak's punishment finished and the funding secured, you feel as though you've removed a bit of a bad egg from your science core. Now you have a much better handle on things. Using your own prodigious intelligence you can manage some of the technicalities of the department until you can find, or perhaps grow, your suitable replacement.
In the meantime; the BAG research is yielding fruit. The ability to create matter, or more accurately, convert energy into matter, has a massive number of practical applications. The concepts at play here are staggering! With even a basic setup- using this in tandem with recyclers and converters already found on starships and space stations could virtually eliminate the need for routine shipments of biomass and other materials. Finally, truly self sufficient colonies could exist- but if that is a thing desirable for the Hegemony remains to be seen.
Your technical officers report three possible applications of the BAG that could be implemented in the short term- depending on where you prioritize research.
The first would be to start mass producing and industrializing; retrofitting civilian infrastructure with this would make resource scarcity nonexistent and would be a massive boon to your economy. Large scale creations, such as star ships, or especially complex things like AI cores would still need to be made in factories, but for most civilian goods a BAG fabricator would be sufficient.
The second is more theoretical; the creation of super heavy elements. Finally, the periodic table could be expanded beyond the ultra heavies that shake themselves apart- as BAG would essentially absorb the radiation and convert it into more matter, possibly creating stable superheavy elements with unique properties.
Third and final, and perhaps most promising of all, is the creation of antimatter. The BAG creates matter from nothing, but by adjusting how energy is fed into the gas, it may be possible to create reverse polarity protons, neutrons, and electrons- or other fundamental particles. Using this, your scientists could create actual, real antimatter for your laboratories or even warfare applications- considering how explosive antimatter is when exposed to normal matter.
Which research opportunity should you pursue?
>Replicators
>Superheavy Elements
>Antimatter
