A point of Builder technology. Soft tools appear to be solid matter but prove to be remarkably flexible. Several examples are known. The Builders will not explain how they work.
Examples[]
- Builder Class Station dock doors and docking "collars" -- a red membrane that flows out of the way, or grips your ship in an airtight embrace. (Ships that have attempted to break away from these docks have lost the surface of the hull. The attachment is molecular.)
- Toadstools -- The chairs on Builder class stations, these devices read your desired sitting surface and conform to it, be it a stool or an easy chair.
- Computer terminals -- Like the toadstools they conform to your expected idea of a computer terminal and become one.
- Bathrooms -- again ,what ever you think a toilet and a sink should look like.
- Station controls -- These follow the patten of the other items.
- Soft Tool -- This does not conform. All other examples of soft technology are fixed purpose and variable interface. The soft tool is a whole infinite tool box in one item. It becomes what you want it to become, a wrench a diagnostic tool, an interface, a musical instrument. What you require with in the mass limits it can be. Thousands of these devices are floating about Known space and most people do not know what they are. The reason being that removed from the station environment they loose power and stop working. So those that took them thinking it was a solution or a way to get wealthy got disappointed.
At least one work of art was found to be a soft tool. A famous Orion work called the Nacre Angel circulating on tour came to Renaissance Station. The next morning it was gone, replaced by a dull silver sphere. Some investigation proved the "art work" was the sphere. The last user had formed the tool into the beautiful Orion woman, and didn't know how to set the protection bit. When reenergized by the station it revered to neutral. Gensilan was able to reset the tool to the last setting and set the protection bit. It won't happen again.