CT and MegaTrav both describe the black globe as absorbing "all energy"; CT goes on to say, "whatever its form". The rules describe it blocking the electromagnetic spectrum (lasers) and matter (missiles, particle beams, plasma/fusion guns). It also absorbs mesons which - given that they then transmit the weapon's full energy - must decay on contact with the globe. It also appears to absorb neutrinos, else it would be possible to track a globed ship by the power plant's energy output and it would not be invisible. The implication is it affects anything based on quarks. MT also cautions that the black globe will appear as a "hole" in space to opposing sensors unless flickered at a rate that allows the ship to leak energy equivalent to the background energy of the universe.
Now the interesting bit: the black globe affects the maneuver drive. It also appears to affect antigrav modules (else you could maneuver by mounting those instead of a maneuver drive). Antigrav modules work by pushing against the local gravity well - they do not appear to be able to cross the globe to do that. By extension, the influence of the local gravity well most likely cannot cross the black globe.
Now consider two scenarios:
Scenario 1: a ship boosts outward from the planet, turns on the black globe, and from that point forward coasts outward to the jump point, unaffected by the local gravitational field; we have violated the basic laws of physics by creating potential energy from nothing.
Scenario 2: a ship boosts outward from the planet, turns on the black globe, but the ship is still slowed by gravity - because the planet's gravitational field is acting on the black globe as if it were the ship; we have complied with the basic laws of physics (to the extent that a black globe is capable of complying with such laws).
As with all things Traveller, this creates problems. Consider: if you are in free-fall, in orbit around a planet, and you turn on your black globe, the occupants of the ship are no longer in free fall. The ship maintains an orbit, as the black globe is affected by the planet's gravity and the ship is locked into the center of the black globe by the globe projector. The occupants are not affected by the planet's gravity: they adopt a straight-line vector at the point at which the field is turned on, while the ship maintains a curving trajectory. Absent inertial compensators and grav plates, the occupants would come to rest against the outward wall of whatever compartment they were in, experiencing outward centripetal acceleration instead of floating in free fall. They have to: if the planet's gravity could reach inside the field to affect them, then the drives within the field would likewise be able to reach outside the field to affect the ship's vector.
Consider also: gravity affects time. If the interior of the globe is shielded from external gravitational effects, then it is also shielded from changes to the progression of time related to those effects. Individuals within a black globe travel slightly faster through time than those outside, when both are within a gravitational field.
This creates some head-scratching questions. Could you, for example, sling-shot a ship past a black hole at, say, a 99.??? percent flicker rate to gather data (very attenuated data, but still data) close to the black hole? Or would the energy output of matter falling into the hole overwhelm your black globe? Or, if you could find a singularity free of falling matter, would the tidal effect transmit enough energy through the black globe to blow your capacitors?
Is the CMB cold spot due to an improperly set flickering Globe? :xh: What could Grandfather or Number 6 be hiding in there?:smirk:
