Boolean gun The boolean gun was a type of large and bulky hand - held directed energy weapon used by , a former operative of Section 31 of Starfleet . Despite its size , the weapon could be operated with a single hand and was carried with a shoulder strap . When activated , the boolean gun produced powerful bright streams of energy and a loud roaring noise . The energy streams could slice through and vaporize holes into anything they were targeted at , from personnel to starship hull s . ( ) History . In 2259 of the alternate reality , Khan Noonien Singh took one of these weapons with him when he used a portable transwarp beaming device to transport himself from Earth to Qo ' noS . When Khan discovered that the was possibly carrying his entire surviving crew of Augment s from the , he defended the away team sent to apprehend him with his boolean gun . Khan used the gun to attack the Klingon soldiers of three patrol ship s . He used the boolean gun to slice through one of the D4 ships cockpits causing the front end of the small ship to explode . The ship instantly lost altitude , spiraled out of control and crash landed . Khan saved from a Klingon soldier , who had knocked Kirk down and was standing over him , with his boot on Kirk ' s face . The boolean gun instantly burnt and vaporized away the upper half of the Klingon soldiers body . Along with a rapid - fire phaser rifle , and a knife , Khan used the boolean gun to take out dozens of Klingon soldiers . He even used the bulky weapon in hand - to - hand combat to knock down a Klingon soldier . Khan used the gun against another Klingon patrol ship that was in the process of deploying more troops . The beam sliced into the ship causing it to explode mid - air . The wreck explosively crash landed killing all the troops within . He used the boolean gun to massacre several of the remaining Klingons . The weapon instantly burned holes approximately a meter in diameter into the Klingons bodies . Khan dropped the boolean gun behind before killing the last of the surviving Klingons with his other weapons . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The concept artist John Eaves named his concept image of the weapon as a Klingon heavy disruptor and a , suggesting it was originally a Klingon weapon . The term Boolean gun , referencing the , comes from an interview with Pixomondo Visual Effects Supervisor Ben Grossmann . " " I think J . J . [ Abrams ] even said it was like a boolean gun , true / false . If it ' s on and it hits it , it ' s gone , " " Grossman explained . It was J . J . Abrams who devised this type weapon . Recalling how he did so , Ben Grossman stated , " " J . J . one day ran up on set and said he had this great idea for this new gun . Imagine if there was a gun – a really bad - ass gun – [ . . . ] that ' s like a Gatling gun and when it goes off it ' s kind of like the sound of God clearing its throat – just like ' raaaaaaaaaahh ' . The ' boolean gun ' development and execution was spearheaded by Look Dev Supervisor Max Reiss . " " To depict the gun obliterating Klingons and Klingon ships , Pixomondo suggested stitching both live action and planned CGI shots . " " So we mixed in the work of the special effects team and we did CG takeovers for a lot of that stuff , " " said Ben Grossman . Apocrypha . In the novelization of " Star Trek Into Darkness " , the weapon was also not given a specific official name , but it was referred to as a power rifle . It was , according to the novel , designed to be mounted on a tripod and manipulated by two or more people . The fact that Khan could wield it with precision and as effortlessly as a light pistol was due to his strength and abilities as an augment .