On the way to Saurian Major, Jenna asked Blake if there were any artificial satellites on their course. The Pyroans had a satellite in orbit around Obsidian, with which they detected the Liberator without the ship detecting the satellite. In Terminal Avon received signals boosted and redirected through a communications satellite. A satellite was in orbit around Xenon, with visual and probably other information relayed to the control room in Xenon Base. Practor had a satellite communications link with all areas of Helotrix. Gerren's transmissions to Avon were relayed through an obsolete communications beacon in Sector 4.
Servalan several times referred to her headquarters as a "satellite station", and Vila called Space City the "Satellite of Sin". Neither was seen to orbit a planet, and it could be that "satellite" in Blake's time meant any fixed artificial body, regardless of size or purpose.
| Another name for Space City, in Vila's mind at least. | |
Planet described by Blake as being in star sector "four six point two one". The atmosphere was tinted red, at least in the area Blake visited, and some of the native flora was carnivorous, some species even having an intelligence rating. It had a day length of 36 hours. Cally referred to the resistance fighters hiding in "the hills and jungles", giving some idea of the terrain.
An early self-governing colony, Saurian Major was at some point annexed by the Federation. The settlers redeclared their independence, and were promptly crushed, half the population being killed and the rest transported to frontier planets. The Federation built what Blake described as "a vast transceiver complex", through which all Federation signals were routed before being boosted and redirected to their destinations, "a vital nerve centre in the Federation space control system". Some resistance fighters remained, but were eventually wiped out (except for Cally) by "poison from the sky", presumably an allusion to chemical warfare. The transceiver complex was eventually destroyed by Blake.
Constellation for which Blake set a course on departing from Fosforon.
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One of the Lost, whose body came to house the minds not only of himself but
of five others as well. This collective identity was kept alive in a life
support system powered by flutonic cells; when the cells began to run out of
power, Saymon and the other minds used their combined power to force Cally
into bringing Liberator to their planet. Saymon and the others died
when the Decimas infiltrated the compound and destroyed everything they
found. Saymon described himself and the others as "from the Auronar, but not of them". |  |
 | Often synonymous with detectors, but aboard the London the term referred to the internal surveillance system. Avon turned off the scanners (black cameras with a winking red light) once he had overpowered the technician in the computer room. Similar scanners were seen in the dome city on Earth in The Way Back and again on Earth in the Forbidden Zone in Pressure Point. |
Survivors of the war which destroyed civilisation on Cephlon. They had undergone severe regression to the primitive state, a process probably aided by the high radiation levels on the planet. Meegat estimated their numbers at about two hundred. They held Jenna prisoner for a while. Avon killed one scavenger whilst on the planet, and others received a severe bruising.
Although several academic institutions were mentioned at various times (the Central Educational Complex, the Central Science Complex, Leedenbrank, Belhangria University), reference to schools was found in only one episode. The three children allegedly assaulted by Blake each attended different schools in the dome city on Earth. Renor Leesal went to school ZL 2 Level 716, Carl Deca to school ZL 14 Level 552, and Payter Fen to school ZL 3 Level 417. Interpretation of the medical records in The Way Back suggests that these children were 9 or 10 years old. The reference to "Levels" might indicate either some measure of academic performance, or the physical location of the school within the city - the latter seems more likely, but there is no hard evidence for this. Access to school attendance records from the Public Records Computer was through access code alpha 3377.
Described by Tarrant as "a Wanderer class planet hopper, Mark II by the look of it - obsolete but functional", Scorpio belonged to Dorian until acquired by Avon. Its speed at acquisition was unstated but once fitted with the photonic drive it could make at least Time Distort 12. The ship was generally under the control of the Slave computer, designed and installed by Dorian. It was also fitted with a teleport facility, installed by Dorian and perfected by Avon. Like most ships of this type, only the main deck was pressurised in flight.
Scorpio was taken by Avon and his crew to Helotrix, Caspar, Bucol-2, Pharos, Domo, Mecron II, Virn, Zerok, Beta 5, Malodar, Betafarl and Gauda Prime. Because of the teleport, landings were rarely made, and the ship was only seen to touch down on Terminal, Xenon, Caspar, and Betafarl. A landing was also made on Beta 5. Final touchdown was on Gauda Prime, where the ship broke in two on crash-landing.
Scorpio suffered damage in Stardrive, where it grazed an asteroid when trying to enter the Altern system, holing the main drive chamber as a result, and in Animals when attacked by pursuit ships above Bucol-2, suffering damage to the main detectors and anti-grav gyros. Control of the ship was lost in Power, when Pella briefly hijacked it, and Headhunter, where all systems came under the influence of Muller's android.
Orbital altitudes were mentioned twice: in Traitor the ship took up position 40 miles above Helotrix, and initial orbit over Malodar was 10 miles up.
Prior to installation of Dr Plaxton's photonic drive, the ship needed fuel crystals derived from selsium ore. Other fittings included an orbital booster, inertial guidance glycolene ballast channels, precision guidance subsystem, thrust computer, short burn boosters to aid lift-off with a full payload, and armament which Soolin described as insufficient to "tangle with Federation patrols". There was also a gun locker for six clip guns (Rescue), a medicapsule (Headhunter) and facilities for in-flight docking (Gold). In Orbit Tarrant stated that Scorpio needed to be stationary for a docking, but Gold apparently contradicts this.
In Gold the transfer tube from the Space Princess locked onto a hatchway marked "Bay 2", so the ship presumably had at least two and possibly more cargo bays. Bay 2 must have been pressurised when the gold was brought aboard, since the crew entered the ship through this bay whilst not wearing spacesuits.
| Safety device on certain ships, including the London. If the outer hull was holed, sealing gel would fill the space between the inner and outer bulkheads, setting solid in seconds. It was recognised by Jenna, and Nova died when asphyxiated by it. |  |