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.
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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. |  |
The only spaceport specifically cited was that on Zerok, but such installations must have been present on most if not all colonised worlds.
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A pleasure cruiser, implicitly owned and operated by persons or a company on
Zerok and probably by the gold mining company there. Although ostensibly
carrying passengers on a tour of various galactic sights, it actually made a
direct 12-day run to Earth carrying gold for the Federation. The itinerary
was pre-recorded and the passengers drugged to make them believe what they
were seeing. The gold was listed as a cargo of fruit.
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Soolin noted that the ship was unarmoured and Avon that it was unarmed, neither of which is surprising. Since Avon and Soolin managed to board the ship via the conveyor tunnel from the processor on Zerok, it would seem that the Space Princess could make surface landings, despite its not overly-aerodynamic shape.
Delinquents of unexplained origins, they were described by Vila as living for "sex and violence, booze and speed - and the fellas are just as bad". He added that he had known two on an unnamed penal colony who "were always trying to frighten me". They had been imprisoned for breaking into transport museums to steal vehicles for personal transport, something that had been banned by the Federation. He then said that space rats were "speed crazy, and I mean crazy".
The space rats encountered by the crew of Scorpio were based on the planet Caspar, where they were sheltering the renegade Dr Plaxton whilst she developed her photonic drive for their space choppers. Atlan referred to them "scouring a dozen worlds" for raw materials for the drive. At least nine space rats were seen to be killed, including Atlan. Others, including several female rats, were apparently left alive on Caspar. Named space rats were Brig and Bomber, and they were led by Atlan, who admitted to Dr Plaxton that he was not really a space rat himself.
Egrorian worked at the Space Research Institute up to the point where he fled with Pinder and several million credits. Tarrant also trained there shortly after Egrorian disappeared.
Shortly after taking off from Earth, Leylan reminded Artix to identify the London to Space Security. No further mention of this was made, nor any indication as to whether it was a civil or military body.
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A wide variety of space craft, Federation and otherwise, appeared during the
course of the series. Named or described vessels included the London
(make and model unspecified - unless it was an ex-military T16 transporter);
Liberator (a Deep Space Vehicle used by the System); an ancient
cryogenic capsule (not unlike a Space Master in design); the Mark III Galaxy
class cruiser Ortega; Starburst class (and other) pursuit ships; the
civilian cruiser Star Queen in Bounty; a Series V Space Master;
a chemical rocket on Cephlon; two high speed craft despatched by the System
to intercept Liberator; an apparently faster sister ship to the
Liberator; the freighter Blake followed to Horizon (very similar to
the London); Wanderer K47; the Salvager on Q-base (also very
similar to the London); Provine's escape rocket (also like a Space
Master);
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The Bari; a Trantinian planet hopper on Freedom City; the passenger
liner Nova Queen; the unmanned ore carrier it collided with; an
unidentified and possibly alien craft bringing Travis to Star One; a Chengan
hospital ship; the remains of a Type 6 survey ship on Crandor; the unmanned
kairopan transporter; an Auron C-Type Patroller; Servalan's Mark II Star
Cruiser; an alien sarcophagus-craft; a T-16 troop transporter (also looking
very similar to the London); a Teal-Star liner; Scorpio, a Mark
II Wanderer class planet hopper; B-19 cruisers; single-seater space choppers;
Alpha-3 (a small cargo ship); Orbiter; the Space Princess (a
pleasure cruiser); and the commercial freighter Lodestar as well as
sundry interceptors, cruisers, shuttles etc.
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Commissioner Sleer used a number of craft. Her lenticular cruiser was first
seen in Animals, and also seen in Assassin and Warlord.
It had surface landing capability and could accommodate at least five people.
Other performance criteria were unspecified. In Sand, she went to
Virn on a totally different craft (fanlore: According to Martin Bower, who
made the model, it was an FT-7 freighter), and in Orbit mentioned
reaching Malodar in an L-type cruiser, which she told Egrorian could only
hold two people.
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When any form of drive system was mentioned it was usually the "neutron drive", but Orac noted that the photonic drive was innovatory in its use of "light instead of plasma". This suggests that plasma drives were also found on many ships. Little was said about different drive systems and type of travel (sublight, faster-than-light etc), except that hyperdrive appeared to be for faster than light travel, and Scorpio used plasma thrust to approach an asteroid near the Altern system, probably at sublight velocity. Plasma drives were fitted with a focussing coil, but no other drive components received a meaningful mention.
References to fuel and power were few, but the prisoners bound for Cygnus Alpha were held in a transit cell whilst the London was being refuelled. Scorpio also needed fuel, at least before the acquisition of the photonic drive, since a disastrous visit to the Altern system was made to obtain selsium ore for fuel crystals.
| Very few space suits were worn. In Voice from the Past Blake wore a suit when he teleported down to Asteroid P-K118: it was silver with a "teardrop"-style helmet and tinted visor. Vila and Tarrant wore a very different kind of suit in Dawn of the Gods, which had an open "fishbowl" helmet and visible oxygen tubes entering at the sides. At least one such suit was kept on the flight deck. |  |
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The pressure suits worn by the
crew and Vena in Headhunter were noticeably less bulky, and helmet
fittings appeared to leave the throat and neck area exposed, not recommended
in a low pressure environment. These suits were seen again in
Warlord, worn by Zeeona, Tarrant and Dayna. It was noted that the
suits provided protection from radiation.
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| Large space station at astro point 781 in the 12th Sector, under the control of the System. Space World was one of only two places in which the Liberator was seen to dock, the other being Ultraworld. It was the central control complex for three planets previously at war but now united by the System, and probably housed the System itself. Disruption to the System by Orac led to Space World suffering damage of unspecified extent on Liberator's departure, and the whole space station itself may have been destroyed. |  |
Unit of distance, never specified. Liberator's standard orbital distance from a planet's surface was 1000 spacials, from which the ship could be visible from the ground as in Cygnus Alpha. Many references were made, too many to list here (see DETECTORS), but some include Voice from the Past, where Asteroid P-K118 had a stated diameter of 0.102 spacials, and The Harvest of Kairos, in which Zen reported destroying an area of fifty square surface spacials (possibly a different unit altogether).
See also SUBSEC