An energy-focussing crystal, its action analogous to a burning glass, but "infinitely" more efficient. Exactly how feldon worked, however, was (perhaps wisely) not entered into at length. The "hardest known substance in the universe", it was extremely rare, Orac mentioning traces in the asteroid belt (presumably of the Solar System) and "a few insignificant planets". The Federation was prepared to start major mining operations on planets previously considered uninhabitable to get it. Mining operations had been in progress on Mecron II for twelve years, but this apparently began before the Federation appreciated the true potential of feldon: a series of uncontrolled accidental explosions on Agrava, killing thousands of people, prompted full-scale investment. On Mecron II at least, extraction of feldon was by electromagnetic crusher: everything but the feldon was reduced to a fine dust, leaving the crystals readily removable.
Feldon was of course not only rare and useful but valuable as well, and the consignment Belkov had supposedly stored away over his twelve years on Mecron II had an estimated value of between 900 million and a billion credits. The Mecronian priests considered feldon to be a symbol of power, and one priest died whilst wearing a necklace of crystals during a lightning storm. Belkov exploited this incident to prove he had been sent by the gods to mine the crystals. His ship Orbiter was fitted with feldon panels, which could harness the energy of distant stars to control its movements.
See also JEWELS
| One of the Clonemasters, and herself a clone. She created at least two clones of Blake for Servalan. | |
| Along with Carl Deca and Renor Leesal, one of three children treated to believe he (or possibly she) had been assaulted by Blake. Fen's date of birth was given as 43.2.1, a patient of Dr Wen Caen, and s/he attended school ZL 3 Level 417. |  |
Sarkoff played a (very scratchy) recording of her Blow the Wind Southerly in his residence. Blake destroyed it to persuade Sarkoff to leave the planet with him.
Born in 1912, Kathleen Ferrier first established her reputation as a contralto in the Second World War, singing for factories and the forces. She remained popular after the war, until illness forced her early retirement in 1953, in which year she later died.
Fibre optics were mentioned just once: when Dr Plaxton offered to install her Mark II photonic drive in Scorpio, she checked with Tarrant that the current plasma drive was linked to the ship's controls by standard fibre-optic connections.
Phenomenon twice mentioned by Jenna and apparently related to gravitational influences on a space craft. In The Web the gravitational attraction of UP-The Web on the Liberator had a "field strength" of 3.5, which Jenna said was too big for field drag. In Mission to Destiny she stated that field drag whilst passing through a meteor storm was forcing her to use more power to maintain speed.
Federation unit, all but wiped out in the Intergalactic War. The survivors under Colonel Astrid accidentally landed on Sardos, and took command of the population there. Grose later deposed Astrid and assumed personal control. Servalan noted that the Fifth Legion was renowned for "women, food and inflicting pain - in no particular order".
Fitted to the Ortega and no doubt most if not all other space craft. The filtration, or filter, plant handled the recycling of air aboard the ship and controlled oxygen levels. Sara put the crew of the Ortega to sleep with a canister of sono vapour, rigged to bypass the filter mechanism.
Name used to refer to space, according to a public viscast, presumably by the inhabitants of a world before deep space travel became commonplace. It may have originally become popular on Earth due to its use in Star Trek, a science-fiction television series of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries AD.