A person-siBed defensive shield that protected only one side of the body Most could be adjusted to cover either the right or the left side The gap between the body and shield narrowed, but did not close entirely, at the backbone, navel, and Adam's apple One leg was entirely enclosed The semi-shield wus used principally m gladiatorial contests, the chosen champion was fully shielded, and the drugged slave was given a semi-shield The generator for the semi-shield was earned on a belt harness, it was some what bulkier than that of a full shield The semi-shield was also more complex man the regular defensive shield more expensive, and fairly rare Further references HOLTZMAN EFFECT pstuoo SHIELD PENTASHIELD SEMUTA, or "Starsong " A highly addictive narcotic derived, by crystal extraction, from elacca drug (the residue produced by burning the blood-grained elacca wood of Ecaz) While there is evidence that elacca drug was in relatively common use as early as 9751, the extractive process that produced semuta was not discovered until 10092 Credit for this de\elopment is awarded to Pavon Harle, a Caladan physician/pharmacist Harle, who specialized in battlefield medicine, was well acquainted with the effects pro duced by elacca drug, because it weakened the will to survive, it was often employed as a chemical weapon, planted in an opposing camp's water supply Faced, as any military doctor so often was with the large number of wounded for whom there was simply no hope of help, Harle began to experiment with various elacca derivatives, hoping to find one that could be used to ease the passing of the dying troops His search even tually led him to semuta The drug was everything he could have wished, the crystals either taken in capsule form or dissolved in wine, produced a feel ing of timeless, ecstasy,1 of separation from all pain and trouble Accentuating this overpowering sense of well-being was the "semuta music"-rhythmic atonal vibrations set up m the sympathetic nervous system- which accompanied the drug experience (It was this aspect that brought semuta its more poetic name ) ' No semuta-drugged soldier,' noted Harle in his memoirs, "ever showed dismay at dying it is, indeed, doubtful that most of them realized that death had touched them at all" An unfortunate facet of semuta was its addictive qualities, most often, a single dose sufficed to cause severe physiological addiction In the case of the mortally wounded, of course, this was not a consideration, in the case of its discoverer however, it was an unending regret Harle had tested a dose of semuta crystals on himself, and he continued SEMUTA 452 to use the drug for the remainder of his steadily less productive life Qpce the methods used to manufacture semuta became known, massive use of the narcotic sprang up in the various militaries throughout the Impenum In services com manded by the kindlier Houses use or pos session of semuta was generally grounds for discharge For those in more stringent services the consequences ranged from blackmail through enforced withdrawal (there was a notable percentage of fatalities in such cases) to immediate execution That semuta addicts made poor fighters was unarguable In addition to their usetessness during their ecstasies, addicts were prone to such fits of depression between doses that there were instances of soldiers waiting into enemy fire rattier than facing the agonies of withdrawal The drug quickly made its way to the civilian population as \veli At one point during the peak of its popularity it was hypothes zed that as much as fifty percent of the elacca wood Ecaz sold for off planet export eventually became semuta crystals By 10185 semuta addiction had come to be considered one of the Impenum s most msidi ous health problems the effects of which were felt on eveiy planel Leaden* and officials from Shaddam IV down spoke publicly of controls but privately despaired of ever containing the menace All legislation to the contrary traffic in the drug apparently continued unabated until ap proximately 10380 Beginning with that year and continuing until the end of the century two trends combined to reduce the flow of semuta to a faltering tnckle First m the decade that began with 10380 elacca wood production dropped by nearly ninety percent Some form of botanical plague never satisfactorily diagnosed, was believed to be at fault.