Sevencyclopaedia - I

INTERGALACTIC DRIVE

Having found the antimatter minefield out beyond Star One, Avon surmised that "the intergalactic drive" may have been developed. His use of the term suggests such a drive was a much-mooted, theoretically possible but as yet undeveloped technology. The Federation certainly seemed to be working on such a project, designing a drive using monopasium 239 to be fitted to the "hyperspace ships" mentioned by Ro in Horizon.

See also PHOTONIC DRIVE, SPEED, TIME DISTORT, HYPERDRIVE.

INTERGALACTIC WAR

The war between humanity and the aliens from M31 (see ANDROMEDA), culminating in the destruction of Star One. The War began as a fleet of some 600 ships appeared beyond Star One, waiting for the antimatter minefield to be deactivated. Travis only managed to deactivate one sector of the field before he was shot by Blake. Liberator held off the alien fleet until Federation reinforcements arrived, the nearest being the battle cruiser Newton, little more than an hour away.

Over an unspecified period of time, Liberator suffered extreme damage and had to be evacuated. Star One was reported destroyed by Battle Commander Squadron 6. According to the troopers stranded on Sarran, nearly 600 alien ships were destroyed (Hal Mellanby told Avon that the aliens had been virtually wiped out: the figure of 600 ships destroyed tallies with the number arriving at the end of Star One). Over 80% of the Federation fleet was also lost, although Tarrant mentioned in Volcano that a "sizable remnant" of the Federation battle fleet remained. An alien counterattack wiped out Servalan's escort group 9 and destroyed her flagship, although she managed to escape down to the surface of Sarran.

Further references to the War occurred in the following episodes:

• Volcano: Mori reported that some of the greatest battles took place around Obsidian, and Avon cited three major ones.
• Children of Auron: Pilot 4-0 was told that the ionic beam Servalan used to cripple his ship was in fact an ionic reef that had drifted in from the War zone. Avon later commented that any such residual effects could not have drifted so far in such a short period of time. The alien pathogen Servalan used to wipe out the population of Auron was introduced by the aliens during the War, and was non-bacterial and non-viral. CA 1 called the disease a leftover "from their insane galactic war". According to Ginka, the pathogen was used by the aliens during the War (but he may have been lying, as he certainly wasn't going to tell the Auronar if Servalan had developed it).
• Moloch: the Fifth Legion was all but destroyed in the War and the survivors landed on the hidden fixed meteoroid of Sardos, taking control of the population there.
• Animals: the genetic engineering experiments on Bucol-2 were developed further during the War, but abandoned before hostilities ceased. The scientists, except Justin who opted to stay, were shot down by an enemy gunship as they were leaving the planet.

INTERPLANETARY MINING AGREEMENT

Mentioned by Blake whilst on Asteroid P-K118. He was denied the chance to give full details, but apparently mining companies bound by the agreement were obliged to leave stocks of fuel and other unspecified things on worked out asteroids, presumably as an aid to stranded travellers.

INTERROGATION DIVISION

Travis handed Cally over to the Interrogation Division after she had been taken alive on Centero. The Division appears to be a discrete unit within Space Command with its own identity, presumably with units present on many worlds. References were made to interrogation units and interrogation teams in Project Avalon. Shrinker mentioned that "the elite from Central [Security] didn't mingle with the Interrogation Division", implying that he was attached to that division.

Travis and Cally in the unit

INVESTIGATOR

Rank within the Federation. It is unclear whether Investigators worked for the military or the Civil Administration, but probably the latter. Servalan was accompanied by Investigator Reeve on her visit to Virn.

ION CLOUD

Mentioned by Vila as the crew shadowed Servalan on her journey to Sardos. Presumably a space phenomenon posing some hazard to shipping.

IONIC BEAM

Ginka fired an ionic beam at Pilot 4-0"s C-type patroller to disable its instruments, allowing the pilot to be picked up for contamination. Servalan pointed out that the beam would prevent the pilot using his telepathic abilities to discover what Servalan was actually up to. From her later comments, it would appear that force shields could protect a ship from such an attack.

IONIC REEF

A residue of the Intergalactic War, if not space battles in general. Servalan told Pilot 4-0 that his ship had strayed into such a reef, though it had actually been deliberately hit by an ionic beam. Ionic reefs could supposedly drift from their source of origin, but at no specified speed.

ISLAM

With Christianity, it was one of the two religions of late twentieth century Earth referred to in the series, though the references were fewer.

• Explicit reference:

  The chief executive of the Thaarn in Dawn of the Gods called himself 'Caliph', a title used in Islam to refer to the successor of Mohammed, the person regarded as the leader of the entire Islamic community. There was no indication that this person had any Islamic connection; so the title was probably used as one of power.

• Marginal references:

  In Bounty, the Amagons wore what looked like Arab dress.

  In Gambit, two of the visitors to the Big Wheel were dressed as Arabs.

ISON

The Galaxy class cruiser Ortega was disabled by the destruction of its Ison crystal, which meant that it was effectively blind and could only travel at sublight speeds.

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