A neutral planet which Blake visited in search of Lurgen. The atmosphere was toxic: Jenna observed that prolonged exposure would "rot your lungs eventually", suggesting that sulphur dioxide was present and Jenna did specifically mentioned sulphur. The population lived largely underground, although trees were plentiful on the surface. Rats were seen underground. Docholli described the people of Goth as "a crude lot", and the technology there was unsophisticated. Weapons included swords and spears, although the crossbows used by many warriors fired bolts that exploded on impact. "We are a warrior people," said Gola at one point, a statement difficult to deny. Goth was ruled by a king or Charl, probably inherited through the male line (though Tara appeared to assume rule once both her brothers were dead).
The planet was visited by Blake, Jenna and Vila. Servalan and Travis had arrived some days sooner. Named Goths were the royal family: Gola, Rod and Tara. Tara passingly mentioned the "Lost Time", possibly implying early colonisation from Earth, but no meaningful details were given.
Tok, the proxy bidder on Domo, took bids for Avon from Natratof of Gourimpest. Gourimpest may have been a planet, city, race etc - exactly what was never specified.
Various references suggest that Federation society was stratified into four or more grades: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. Blake was an Alpha, and Vila claimed to have grown up in the "Delta service grades". Coser was a Beta class/Beta grade technician (both terms were used). No-one was ever stated to be Gamma.
Other references are based on occupation, probably independent of a social stratification system. Rashel was a labour grade slave (specifically, a bond slave), and she also spoke of the "free grades". Councillor Joban mentioned labour grades. Jarvik had resigned his captaincy to join the construction grades, and he later referred to troopers as the security grades.
If nothing else, it would seem that Federation society was distinctly grade conscious.
| Sarkoff owned a gramophone, on which he played Tommy Steele's Singing the Blues and Kathleen Ferrier's Blow the Wind Southerly. | |
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A Federation agent, code-named Bartolomew. Anna was first mentioned in
Countdown, when Avon met her brother Del. Del had sworn to kill Avon,
believing him responsible for Anna's death, but Avon managed to convince him
that he had been unable to rescue her. In Children of Auron Avon admitted that Anna had "meant a lot" to him, and that he planned to kill the man responsible for executing her. Rumours of Death supplied more details: Anna had been working with Avon on his fraud scheme - after he had been shot by the man supplying exit visas for himself and Anna, Avon had been forced to lie low for a while, only later finding out that Anna had been arrested and had died under interrogation.
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In actuality, Anna had been assigned to monitor Avon, in the belief that his
crimes were politically motivated. Anyone he came into contact with was
brought in for questioning. Anna apparently staged her own death to conceal
her secret identity: Del definitely believed that she was dead.
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Very few people knew that Anna Grant was Bartolomew. Chesku certainly did not, at least according to Servalan, and Del Grant appeared to have no idea. A "controller" from Central Security that Shrinker interrogated for the rebels did know, but died before he could reveal any details.
On meeting Avon in the cellar of Servalan's palace, Anna professed her love for Avon (whom she addressed as "Avon"), adding "I heard there was someone with Blake but I didn't know for sure". When questioned by Avon, she claimed to have run to "her husband" when Avon disappeared after being shot (although if genuinely married at the time she had retained her maiden name). This husband, she said, knew she didn't love him. Her dying words, after being shot by Avon, were: "I let you go, my love".
In flashback, Avon admitted that he trusted Anna, with the rider "I'm afraid I do", revealing the depth of feeling he had for her, and possibly (probably?) she for him. Many possibilities are hinted at in what various people said about Anna/Sula/Bartolomew, but very few real facts are to hand.
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A mercenary, responsible for a revolution on Arcos and called in by Cauder on
Albian to overthrow the Federation's control of the planet. The garrison was
defeated under his command of the rebels, but not before the solium radiation
device was activated by Tronos. When Blake arrived, Grant recognised Avon
instantly. Avon believed until then that Grant was dead (Grant also believed
that Avon had himself died). Having some knowledge of timing devices, he
worked with Avon to disarm the solium device.
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 | Del was Anna Grant's brother, and believed not only that she was dead but also that Avon was, albeit indirectly, responsible, having left with the exit visas before he knew Anna was dead. He appeared to have a very anti-Federation attitude, and was thus perhaps not completely mercenary. He did demand a high fee for his services, but apparently because his reputation (and ego) demanded it. |
When Tarrant was persuaded to perform calculations for the Thaarn on Crandor, he was given a pencil. He referred to it as a graphite writing stick, adding that he had never seen one outside a museum. Avon was seen using a pencil a few minutes later. Quite how the Thaarn got hold of a box of pencils is not specified.
When told by Dayna that his near death from the undead alien was incidental, Vila replied: "Incidental? That'll look good on my gravestone". Together with the star orbit burial suggested by Tarrant for a supposedly dead Vila in Dawn of the Gods, this is a rare reference to funeral rites in the series.
| The hazard at the centre of the Prohibited Space Zone crossed by the Liberator to get Gan to XK-72. Ship speed within the vortex exceeded Standard by 12, Liberator's apparent design limit, and structural distortion was suffered, but not to any severe extent. Jenna took the ship right through the eye of the vortex to bring it out through the other end intact. |  |
Gravitational Vortex - Written by Iain Coleman
The object is described as a gravitational vortex, and can lead to the destruction of inadequately-navigated spacecraft. It is localised and has low luminosity (otherwise it wouldn't have been such a surprise). It exhibits unstable magnetic fields, which are strong enough to significantly affect spacecraft. It is red and swirly.
My guess is a massive, highly magnetised compact object, along the lines of a neutron star but perhaps made of more exotic matter than boring old neutrons. It is rapidly rotating and accreting matter from its surroundings (a dense interstellar cloud) at a slow rate. (The accretion rate is slow enough that the accreting material does not get too hot: its temperature is about 3000K, giving a dull red glow).
It's hard to reconcile the low temperature with such a strong gravitational field that the Liberator might be destroyed by tidal forces. Instead, let's try an intense magnetic field. If the intersellar cloud has an incredibly strong magnetic field which is roughly oppositely directed to that of the compact object we get an interesting model. There will be a magnetopause, where the oppositely directed fields meet. The gas will diffuse very slowly across the magnetopause, limiting the accretion rate and hence limiting the temperature increase. Where the fields meet, intermittent magnetic reconnection will take place: the fields join together and twang apart like stretched elastic bands, opening holes in the magnetopause and accelerating particles to high energies. This process will also involve considerable magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.
What with reconnection, turbulence and extremely large field strengths, this magnetopause would be a pretty dicey region to fly through. It would be best avoided, but could be negotiated with skilful piloting. It would at first glance appear to be just an ordinary accretion disk (or "gravitational vortex" as Blake puts it).
In the event, they just fly straight through the center. This isn't such a bad move. They cut down their exposure to the worst of the turbulence to two short periods (entering then leaving the magnetosphere), and are lucky enough that those two brief crossings are not too disastrous.
Fitted to Ensor Jr's Space Master, they failed to prevent the ship diving down towards Cephlon after Servalan's bomb exploded aboard the craft. Probably fitted to many ships, perhaps small ones in particular.