Harriet: <...but are the shields anything like the "door" in City at the Edge of the World?>
For the sake of consistency I would prefer to imagine that all shielding devises with similar functions are based on one single technology. Same way, as all today's cars, regardless the variations in shape, colour, etc., use same internal combustion engine. The logic is, that if given technology works efficiently, why bother changing it.
Vila himself says that the door is a kind of force field: VILA: It's a forcefield. Set to refract light so that it appears solid. Well naturally it feels solid, all forcefields do. Looks solid, feels solid, so everybody treats it as solid. They bash, blast, and burn it, and like all forcefields, whatever energy you push into it, it chucks right back at you.
He eliminated it by tuning his opening devise to field's frequency, which is exactly the way to induce resonance waves, which can destroy things. Well, at lest *sounds* reasonable idea...
Hellen == "Consistency is the last resort of the unimaginative." -- Oscar Wilde _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.