Sevencyclopaedia - A

ADRENALIN AND SOMA

Dispensed by Cally to counter fatigue shock in Horizon: described as one third adrenalin, two thirds soma. The crew had been virtually living on it for weeks, according to Cally, yet Vila still had to ask what it was.

In Horizon it was injected, leaving Vila sleepy for about half an hour, but Vila helped himself to a glass of adrenalin and soma in Volcano and seemed visibly affected before downing half the glass.

Justin offered Dayna a glass of adrenalin and soma shortly after her arrival on Bucol-2, adding that he had taken to drinking a lot of it lately.

Adrenalin is a stimulant hormone, raising heart rate in response to sudden stress.

Soma has a number of meanings. It can refer to the cell body of a nerve cell (from the Greek *soma* the body), but the more likely connection seems to be to Hindu mythology where Soma is the moon-plant, the juice of which bestows immortality -- an intoxicating drink called soma is used in some Vedic rituals. This strongly echoes the tranquillising drink of the same name in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. However, the derivation here may also be from the Latin *somnus* to sleep.

"Adrenalin and Soma" implies a combined stimulant/tranquilliser (Justin referred to it as a "stimulant", although it appeared to work on Vila as a relaxant in Horizon and Volcano. The names are not, perhaps, to be taken too literally. Taking large quantities of adrenalin in particular seems distinctly unwise. Adrenalin and Soma might therefore have been the trade name of a marketed product, or even a colloquial term of reference.

ADVOCATE

The description and possible title of a Federation lawyer. In The Way Back, the arbiter of the court that tried and sentenced Blake called Tel Varon 'your [Blake's] advocate'.

Tel Varon

A-F HILL

Site of Maravik's headquarters in the Hommiks" final battle against the Seska. Cato also referred to his surveillance system spying Dayna, Tarrant and Vila at "A-F 43".

AGRAVA

Planet mined by the Federation for feldon crystals. The Federation failed to appreciate the energy-harnessing potential of feldon and thousands of people were accidentally killed in a series of explosions. Avon commented that they would have died anyway, since the Federation would have considered it uneconomic to remove anyone except "key personnel".

*AKRAN

Word spoken by Chel. It might have been the name of one of his warriors, but could equally well have been an expletive of some kind.

ALBIAN

A planet, population 6 million, all living around the equator, presumably because it was the only habitable region of the planet. Temperature at the poles was stated to be approaching absolute zero (but see under BIRDS), which gives a temperature gradient of something in the region of 250-300K if the equator offered a breathable atmosphere and tolerable temperatures. Since Avon and Del Grant visited one of the ice caps and found a breathable atmosphere, the reference to absolute zero might not mean 0K as such, but be a colloquialism for a region too cold to inhabit. The teleport distance from the Federation bunker to the device's location was said to be 4,000 miles, suggesting the planet was approximately Earth-size or smaller (Earth has a polar radius of about 4,000 miles, and a surface journey from equator to pole would be about 6,200 miles). Blake noted that the nearest planet was 500 space hours away.

A Pole of Albian

Albian was colonised in the last century of the Old Calendar. The colonists resisted joining the Federation for a long time. The Albians suffered what Cauder called "impossible demands on our economy", and when the planet tried to secede legally a state of emergency was declared and the planet placed under martial law. At the time of Blake's visit it was garrisoned by less than 100 troops of the Federation's Space Assault Force under Space Major Provine, who described Albian as "important to the Federation". Resistance was kept in check by a solium radiation device on one of the polar caps.

Britain was referred to as Albion by the Greeks in the 4th Century BC, after the Albiones who lived there. It was also known as Albany. The term later applied more specifically to Scotland, under the name of Albin.

ALIENS

Simply defining an alien is not always easy. The inhabitants of planets like Sarran and Goth, for example, may or may not have originated from Earth. In Gold, Tarrant was told that Dayna could not be given drugs on Earth because she was an alien - this might be taken to imply that the people of Zerok were not human, or simply that they were not recognised Federation citizens. "Alien" in a general sense might have been a term for anyone not coming directly from Earth (cf EXOMORPH). Some definite (non-humanoid) aliens did appear, however, including the following.

• Time Squad: some native plant life on Saurian Major was carnivorous and according to Blake some species even had an intelligence rating. Vila described the texture of one as "warm, clammy; a bit like flesh".

• Jenna referred to the programmed guardians in Time Squad as aliens, and used the word in a highly derogatory sense against Cally as Blake left Saurian Major.
• Duel: nocturnal predatory species were heard in the forest.
• Breakdown: Jenna noted that the inhabitants of Epinaarl were hostile to humanoid life and Homo sapiens in particular. Whatever else they were, they were not human.
• Orac: an amphibian species, called "phibians" by Ensor and described by Travis as "some kind of lizard", inhabited the tunnels beneath Aristo.

• Shadow: a being from another dimension, referred to herein as the Darkness, took control of Orac in an attempt to enter our own universe. Zonda was home to the moon discs.

  Moon Discs

• Weapon: a large predatory creature attacked Coser and Rashel during the night. Coser killed it using IMIPAK. The mood-responsive vegetable of the Clonemasters" city may have been a naturally-occurring species.

• Trial: the planet which Blake visited was a life form in its own right, with the composition of its oceans analogous to saliva. It surface was inhabited by a number of life forms, including the parasitic species to which Zil belonged. Zil referred to it as the Host.
• Star One: the "andromedans" from M31 could assume human shape, but in their natural form looked amorphously non-humanoid.
• Powerplay: Vila was aware of the presence of a predatory-sounding species on Chenga. Epheron, to which Blake was headed, was said by Zen to be home to several primitive life forms, presumably indigenous to the planet.

• The Harvest of Kairos: a large insect-like species roamed the surface, devouring kairopan which it used for making silk. It could be deadly to encounter, although exactly how it killed was never shown. The same episode featured sopron, a rock-like organism which defended itself by projecting an image of itself as slightly more dangerous than its opponent.

• A Link

  Terminal: the corrosive cloud through which Avon took the Liberator may have been a form of life, though probably not intelligent. The planet Terminal was home to violent ape-like creatures called Links, which according to Servalan were what humanity was destined to evolve into.

• Rescue: another Link was seen on Terminal. The planet was also inhabited by large, carnivorous creatures which Vila referred to as "snakes", though this was a purely figurative term of expression. Avon killed one, and Dorian rescued Dayna and Vila from two more.
• Assassin: the polymorphic crab like creature with which Cancer killed her victims was probably a form of life, but may have been partly or wholly mechanical.
• Sand: the sand on Virn was vampiric, motile and with some reasoning capacity. It could feed on human life energy, and also nourish itself on the dead. It selected its victims according to the herd principle, keeping one dominant male alive and any number of women. Vila, Reeve and a Federation officer fell victim to it, the latter fatally. It also wiped out the first expedition to Virn. Tarrant managed to kill Reeve through the action of the sand. Emanations from the sand affected Virn's atmosphere, charging it such that it interfered with circuitry systems. The sand appeared to have some control over which items were affected in this way.

A-LINE CONVERTER

A communications scrambler, converting messages into A-line pulse codes. The converter on Fosforon was constantly manned by three technicians. The TP crystal, essential to its functioning, was located within a high voltage area: Avon referred to 250,000 volts flowing through the circuitry. Avon sabotaged the converter so that Tynus could draw a spare crystal from the stores, allowing Avon to take the original. The sabotage effects could be attributed to a fire started by Tynus. Avon ultimately destroyed the converter after removing the crystal, hoping its absence would not be missed.

Avon with the crystal

ALPHA 197

Class of Federation computer, used by Belkov as the basis for Gambit.

ALPHA 3

Described by Orac as a small cargo ship, it was Belkov's personal craft. It is uncertain whether the ship escaped or plunged into the black hole of Cygnus-XL. Alpha-3 might have been the ship's name, design model or registration code.

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