Sevencyclopaedia - C

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COMMUNICATIONS

(various episodes)

Communicators of various forms were seen in most if not all episodes, and to list them all would be impractical. Some of the more pertinent facts are given here.

At least some communications were faster than light, and thus not in the electromagnetic spectrum. Hyperspace sub-beam communication was first mentioned in Seek-Locate-Destroy, presumably the same as the sub-beam transceiver on Cephlon and Coser's sub-space communicator in Weapon. Orac's carrier beam passed through the same dimension as Cally's telepathy. Instantaneous long-range communication was seen between Servalan and LeGrand in Voice From the Past, to name but one example.


On the London

On the Liberator
Few indications of range were given, but clearly varied according to the device used. The teleport bracelets used by the crew could transmit over at least a thousand spacials, since this was a standard orbital distance. Central Control was beyond the range of both the Federation contingent on Horizon and the pursuit ship flotilla called to Horizon by the Assistant Kommissar. Orac, on the other hand, could contact Servalan's HQ from Star One, beyond the edge of the galaxy, and given the purpose of Star One the computers there could presumably do the same.

Communications were frequently relayed on their journey. A large relay/booster station had been built by the Federation on Saurian Major. Blake blew it up. Scrambled messages were relayed through Centero and the A-line converter on Fosforon. Some planets were endowed with a magnetrix terminal to relay communications, and Hunda planned to isolate the Federation forces on Helotrix by destroying the terminal there. Avon's directions to Terminal were relayed through a communications satellite, and Gerren's communications with Avon were through an obsolete communications beacon in Sector 4.

It was noted in Weapon that a Federation "priority-1 communication" was automatically relayed to the senior officer present at the receiving end.

Short-range hand-held communicators of various designs were seen in many episodes. More unusual was Krantor's dressing table mirror, which also doubled when required as an audio-visual link.

Orac had what it called in Hostage a unique ability to intercept transmissions.

See also CYPHER MACHINES, HYPERSPACE SUB-BEAM, ORAC

COMPUTERS

(various episodes)

Several computers were given names, these being Zen, Orac, Slave and Gambit. All were fitted with speech circuits and could communicate vocally, as could the judgement computer at Travis' court martial, the inboard computer on the ship to which Vila and Kerril were transported in City at the Edge of the World and Practor's "house computer" in Traitor and the LFS operated by Tarrant in Games. The Public Records Computer on Earth in The Way Back responded to verbal commands. Computers with an organic content included Ultraworld and Moloch. Many other computers appeared almost everywhere, even in the Hommik stronghold on Xenon (although apparently only Cato knew what they were and how to use them). The most powerful computer complex in the galaxy was Federation Central Control, originally on Earth but later moved to Star One.

COMPUTER FLIGHT COORDINATION

(B-13: STAR ONE)

Registered space flight within the Federation was handled by CFC through Star One. Durkim mentioned CFC breaking down on twenty different worlds, and gave Servalan a graphic example in the collision of the passenger liner Nova Queen with an unmanned ore carrier above the planet on which Keldon City was situated.

CONFIRMATION CIRCUITS

(A-7: MISSION TO DESTINY)

Mentioned by Avon, but with few details. What they did do was convert numbers into the written word, revealing to Avon that the "54124" scrawled by a dying Rafford was actually "SARA".

CONSTELLATION

(various episodes)

Several uses of the word "constellation" suggest a slightly different meaning to current usage. The word normally means a pattern of stars as seen in the night sky from Earth, the component stars themselves frequently being widely separated in space. In Blake's time, however, a constellation would appear to be a discrete group of stars in close proximity to each other. In Orbit, for example, Egrorian referred to Porphyrus being in the constellation adjacent to Malodar, some 17 light years away. This subtle change in meaning is what one might expect in a spacefaring, as opposed to Earthbound, culture.

CONTROLLED BEAMING

(B-10: VOICE FROM THE PAST)

When Cally mentioned the artificial telepathy transmission project on Auron, Avon asked "Controlled Beaming?", presumably to clarify his own understanding of the technology.

CONTROLLED PARTICLE EMISSION

(B-2: SHADOW)

Property of the substance with which Largo laced the shadow he gave to addicts on Space City. The enforcer said it was "not exactly" radioactive. It was detectable "with the right equipment" and enabled the Liberator to be tracked on its way to Zonda, owing to Hanna's presence on board.

CONTROLLER

(A-6: SEEK-LOCATE-DESTROY / C-8: RUMOURS OF DEATH)

In Seek-Locate-Destroy Bercol and Rontane made mention of the growing criticism of Space Security by "the controllers of the Outer Planets".

In Rumours of Death Shrinker told Avon that he interrogated a controller from Central Security whilst working for the rebels.

There is no definite link between these two uses of the word and neither is adequately defined.

CORE

(C-10: ULTRAWORLD)

The living heart of Ultraworld, a vast brain-like organism that, in the words of Relf, "lives to expand and must expand to live". It expanded through the process of nucleoplasmic absorption, described the Ultra as a very complicated process but essentially boiling down to consuming anyone unfortunate enough to be fed to the Core. Cally and Avon narrowly escaped this fate. The power of the Core was considerable: as exerted by the Ultra it twice affected Tarrant, and was used to bring the Liberator into dock. The Core, however, could only comprehend logical thought, and it was distracted by Vila's illogical riddles and word puzzles while Orac reflected the Core's own wave emissions back at it, destabilising the Core and eventually destroying Ultraworld.

COSER

(B-3: WEAPON)

Beta grade technician who single-handedly developed IMIPAK at the Federation's weapons development base. Realising that his superiors were going to take all the credit for his invention, he destroyed all records of his work and fled with IMIPAK and the slave woman Rashel to an unnamed planet. He was killed by Servalan, using IMIPAK, shortly before Blake arrived.


Coser

The demise of his spaceship
Coser was described by Carnell as a good pilot, and had a known admiration for Blake. He recognised Blake as soon as he saw him, not knowing that "Blake" was in fact a clone working for Servalan.


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