Containment field

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In Dan Simmons' Hyperion universe, the containment field is a common technology with many uses varying from military defense shield to civilian safety restraint.

The containment field is apparently a type of controlled force field of varying capability; the apparent strength of a containment field is denoted by its class -- a class one containment field at lower settings could be used to keep children safely in their seats in a vehicle, or keep insects from bothering tourists on a nature path; a class three containment field could be utilized as a sort of windshield during atmospheric travel, or simulate artificial gravity; higher classes of containment fields (up to ten, or even higher) could be set to reflect all incoming radiation and matter and serve as extremely powerful defensive shields for military craft, repelling laser/energy weapons, nuclear explosions, conventional weapons, etc.

Even lower-class containment fields like those utilized by the Consul's civilian starship are capable of deflecting some degree of energy weapon attack; the ship's AI claims it is well equipped to comfortably hover in the upper levels of a red giant star.

In interstellar travel, containment fields shield the passengers within ships from the enormous g-forces involved in acceleration to near-light speeds, and also protect them during interstellar transit at relativistic velocities via Hawking drive as well as simulating ship gravity (generally significantly less that Earth standard gravity, but sufficient to keep obects in place and define a clear sense of down). It's stated by a character in one of the novels that, during acceleration/deceleration periods in a spacecraft, should the containment fields fail even for a microsecond, all the passengers within the spacecraft would be compressed into jelly.

Containment fields can be artificially generated; however, aboard Templar treeships, semi-sentient creatures called ergs can naturally generate their own containment fields, and are used to maintain atmospheric pressure within the treeship, generate a one-sixth G gravitational force orienting the passengers to 'down' as the base of the treeship, and protect the passengers from stellar radiation and solid space debris.