Garfield stepped forward. "We’ve been pursuing militarization on two fronts—improvement of existing weaponry, and creation of new modes. The second hasn’t been all that fruitful. We’ve managed to build big honkin’ lasers, and they’re a little more effective against big enemy ships than plasma spikes, but like the spikes they suffer from an inability to follow the enemy. Where light-speed lag is a significant factor, if the enemy changes direction after you’ve fired, you’ve just wasted a shot."