The Soft Weapon

"The Soft Weapon" is a science fiction short story written in 1967 by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. It was the basis of the "" episode, "The Slaver Weapon". The original idea for the episode later became Niven's novellette "The Borderland of Sol".

The story introduces the character of Nessus, who later became one of the main characters of the novel "Ringworld".

Plot

Nessus is returning from a diplomatic mission to the Outsiders, having purchased what is apparently a Thrint stasis box, on a passenger ship run by a Human couple. They stop at Beta Lyrae and discover, by deep radar, another Thrint stasis box. However, it is a trap by Kzinti pirates, who use a dummy stasis box to lure ships that they detect to be in possession of stasis boxes. The Kzin capture the crew and open the looted stasis box, which is revealed to be a Tnuctipun stasis box, not Thrint. Stasis boxes (which are rare) often contain advanced technological products of immense military value; the Kzin hope to use them as part of their quest to discover technologies that will allow them to launch a new Man-Kzin War. The Kzin plot fails when the recovered Tnuctipun weapon (capable of morphing into several useful devices), which is intelligent and loyal to its long extinct Tnuctipun masters, believing itself to have fallen into the possession of a Thrint slave race (and hence its enemy), tricks the Kzin into generating a matter-energy conversion explosion. The Kzin are killed, the humans and puppeteer survive.