Sevencyclopaedia - R

RO

Nominal ruler of Horizon on behalf of the Federation. Trained at the CEC, where the Kommissar described him as "quite malleable", he was initially reluctant to face the fact that he was a puppet ruler when he questioned Blake, but eventually realised the truth. His father, Movo, had been killed by the Kommissar, and Ro was telepathically informed of this by Cally. He was engaged to Selma, but had her sent to the mines for refusing to take Federation training herself. She was later released on his order. He finally appeared in tribal costume to kill the Kommissar with a poison dart from a blowpipe, and came to rule Horizon in his own right.

Blake called Ro "a human being" and Ro did not contest this, so he and his people may have been descended from early colonists from Earth.

ROBOTS

Federation security robots, armed with flamethrowers, were seen patrolling the Federation complex on Centero and the tunnels beneath the surface of UP-Project Avalon. Orac guided Blake and Cally through the force barrier on Aristo via a spherical flying robotic device. Blake, in Voice from the Past, referred to robotic maintenance on Asteroid P-K118 as 'standard'; and Avon later said that the former had been summoned there, 'whistled' up, 'like a service robot'.

See also ANDROIDS.

ROBOT DEVELOPMENT CARTEL

Organisation on the planet Pharos, employing the genius Muller. It was never made clear whether Pharos or the Cartel were within the Federation or not: the word "cartel" suggests a consortium of independent companies rather than a state department, and the term is almost certainly a purely descriptive one rather than a proper name. Visited by Tarrant when he teleported down to pick up Muller. Either Pharos or the cartel itself could deploy interceptors against potential hostilities, since Vila detected "a flock" of them launched as Tarrant prepared to teleport up from the planet.

ROCHE'S LIMIT

The duty tracer on Helotrix detected Scorpio during a routine line scan and deduced that it had to be a space craft because it was "above Roche's limit".

The Roche limit is a multiple of the radius from its centre. For Earth it is 2.44, but varies elsewhere with planetary density. Should a fluid body such as a moon approach within this distance it fragments under the influence of the planet's gravitational field. Artificial satellites are unaffected, being held together by their structural cohesion. This is somewhat at odds with the duty tracer's comments (if only because Slave stated an orbital altitude of just 40 miles, giving Helotrix an improbably small radius - perhaps 20 miles or less), and is probably an error - not impossibly deliberate - by Robert Holmes.

ROCKET

Any vehicle propelled by a rocket engine or motor, the latter being a reaction engine in which a fuel and oxidizer are burnt in a combustion chamber, the product expending through a nozzle, producing thrust. There were five rockets mentioned or shown in the series. In Space Fall, Avon mentioned to Blake that the Liberator's 'Life rocket launch control' had been operated, explaining what had happened to the crew.

In Mission to Destiny, Sara launched Life Rocket Two from the Ortega to make people believe that Dortmunn had left the ship, therefore had killed Raffort and had damaged the main controls on the flight deck. Mandrian said that the life rockets had a 'limited range'; the one launched couldn't carry Dortmunn to a habitable planet.

In Deliverance, a 'chemical rocket in launch position' was seen, later launched by Avon on a journey that would take it 500 years. In 'Countdown', a rocket was shown on Albian, in what was variously described as a 'rocket silo' or 'rocket launch pad'. The rocket was described by Avon as 'fast but short-range', with a life-support capacity of about 100 space hours. It was intended that Provine, Selson, and Tronos would get into orbit in the rocket, staying there until the decay of the radiation from the detonated solium radiation device.

In Killer, the salvager sent from Fosforon to pick up the Wanderer Class One spacecraft K47 took the form of a late twentieth century Earth rocket on its journey to that spacecraft, in what was an obvious use of stock footage by the makers of that episode.

The life rockets referred to appear, from their function as emergency escape devices from a ship, to be life capsules under another name. Apart from the chemical rocket in Deliverance and the one shown in Killer, no indication was given if the vehicles mentioned or shown were powered by rocket engines or motors equivalent to those of twentieth century Earth.

See also LIFE CAPSULES.

ROCKET SILO

A rocket silo on Albian, at the junction of corridors 11A and 51B, contained a short-range space craft with life support capability for 100 space hours.

ROD

Gola's brother, who conspired with him to imprison their father and take the throne. Gola made himself Charl and exiled Rod. Captured by Gola's men, Rod was rescued by Blake and they worked together. Rod was later defeated by Gola in single combat.

Mme ROLAND

Quoted by Egrorian: "O liberty, liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!" She allegedly said this on passing the statue of Liberty in 1793, on her way to be executed as another victim of the French Revolution.

RONTANE

Described in Seek-Locate-Destroy as Secretary Rontane and personal representative of the President. Rontane, together with Bercol, visited Servalan in her space station to express the President's disapproval of Blake's continued freedom and his growing popularity with dissidents. Rontane later appeared, again with Bercol, as an observer at Travis" court-martial. He probably died as a result of Blake's surprise attack on the HQ station as sentence was being passed on Travis.

In Trial

ROTORNOID LINK

Component of the sub-etheric transmitter on Albian which could activate the solium radiation device. Vetnor attempted to isolate the rotornoid link, but merely delayed the countdown for a few seconds.

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