The military wing of the Terran Federation. According to Par in
Trial, "Space Command runs the Federation". The Supreme Commander
was, however, answerable to the President and the High Council: Servalan
lacked the authority to turn off the defences around Central Control on
Earth. Other references include:
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Under attack from the Liberator in Trial | Deliverance: Blake noted that Maryatt's AA security clearance gave him access to any area of Space Command. This seems to be the first mention of Space Command in the series. |
Rank within the Federation, relative seniority unspecified. Travis was a
Space Commander, and was seen to take orders from no-one but Servalan. He
described himself as "a field officer", and Par said of him "He didn't waste
troopers... when you're up to your neck in slime and lasers, that's
everything". Travis was thus engaged in surface combat, in command of
troops, and low enough in rank to be directly involved in the fighting,
though this may have been before his promotion to Space Commander.
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Another, unnamed, Space Commander was seen in Hostage, in charge of the attack on the Liberator with 20+ pursuit ships - a very different type of command from that inferred for Travis. Servalan ordered him to put himself under arrest when the attack failed. |
Suggested by Avon as the possible reason for Blake's unusual behaviour en route to Del-10. Presumably common parlance for a clinically recognised psychological condition affecting long-term space travellers.
Bellfriar suggested that Tynus might be "space happy", a diagnosis not unconnected with Tynus" passion for drawing locusts. Possibly another, even more colloquial, term for space fatigue.
Servalan's command station as first seen in Seek-Locate-Destroy. The
station was seen in apparent close proximity to Centero in that episode, not
far from UP-Clonemaster and UP-Weapon in Weapon, a few hours
flight away from the Host at Standard by 10 in Trial, little more than
hours away from Exbar at Time Distort 10 in Hostage, and in The
Harvest of Kairos was stationed in Lipterion and very close to Kairos.
This assumes that the station seen on each occasion was the same one, which
is not necessarily the case. The station was also seen in Deliverance
and Star One. In Hostage the designation "FEDSTAT 2" can be
seen marked on the outer rim.
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Provine's escape rocket on Albian contained life-support for just 100 space hours, according to Blake, whereas the nearest planet was 500 space hours away. It is not impossible that a space hour is a measure of distance rather than time, with one space hour perhaps representing one hour of travel at TD-1, but this is pure conjecture.
Rank within the Federation, held by Provine of the Space Assault Force on Albian. | Provine |
The craft in which Ensor Jr. and Maryatt journeyed towards Aristo was described by Zen as a Space Master series V, with four neutron power units with a maximum thrust of "four by six". It appeared to be very small and cramped, but fitted with at least two impact life capsules. Cally described Liberator to young Ensor as "ten times faster" than the Space Master, although this might have been mere platitudes on her part.
Mentioned by Artix soon after the London left Earth. Space Met had reported that meteorite activity 18 hours ahead on the London's flight path would have cleared by the time the ship got there. "Met" is clearly an allusion to meteorology; "space met" might be a colloquial term for a space flight monitoring body with a more formal title.
As well as planets and space stations, a number of natural phenomena were encountered by the crew in their travels. They included meteorite storms, asteroid clusters, dustclouds, stardust blizzard field, turbulence and black holes, all of which are discussed under their respective headings.
In Breakdown the Liberator crossed a Prohibited Space Zone and
encountered a powerful gravitation vortex which threatened to tear the ship
apart. In Trial Blake was put down on a planet which turned out to be
a single living organism, the Host. In Hostage the Liberator
was flown through a cloud of ionised particles in an attempt to disrupt the
detector systems of pursuing Federation craft. In Moloch Vila
mentioned asteroid clusters and ion clouds. Ionic reefs as residues from
ship-to-ship combat appeared to be a recognised hazard. In Headhunter
Dayna suggested that freak magnetic storms might be responsible for the
disruption of Scorpio's systems. The violent energy discharges were
in fact the work of Muller's android.
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In Terminal Avon flew the ship through an energy-charged cloud of fluid particles, some of which adhered to the hull and began to literally consume the ship. Zen detected "enzyme activity" and "molecular metamorphosis", implying that this substance was in some way alive. It was certainly capable of self-reproduction, and ate its way through metal, plastics and fabric with equal ease. Ultimately it led to the Liberator's destruction. |