Sevencyclopaedia - Z

ZEN

The main computer on the Liberator, first appearing after Jenna touched a control that linked Zen with her mind. Zen took the name "Liberator" from her mind and referred to the ship as such immediately afterwards, explaining that "your thought was accepted". At some unspecified point it was told to accept commands only from recognised members of the crew, recognition being keyed to voice. Tarrant, Klegg and his troopers thus had no control over Zen. Avon later allowed Zen to obey commands from Tarrant and Dayna. In The Harvest of Kairos the same was extended to Servalan, but later removed by Avon. Avon ensured that Zen would only obey his course commands when journeying to Terminal.

Although an invaluable part of Liberator's capability (and considered by Blake at least as a member of the crew), Zen occasionally proved to be less than helpful. It never answered Blake's queries about the original owners of the Liberator or their possible whereabouts. It switched off when Blake attempted to bring the programmed guardians" cryogenic capsule on board, with no reason given. It also refused to take the ship through the Prohibited Space Zone to XK-72 in Breakdown, and the ship had to be flown manually. An order to self-destruct, which flying through the Zone was considered to be, ran counter to Zen's prime directive.

Zen was also unhelpful in identifying Cally as the source of the sabotage inflicted on the ship in The Web, saying that "pre-emptive interference in crew activities is forbidden".

Since the Liberator's defence system was probably under Zen's control, Zen can be attributed with a bodycount - Wallace and Teague from the London (with a third crewman apparently driven insane) and two of the Thaarn's in Dawn of the Gods. Blake, Jenna and Avon would also have succumbed had Blake not seen through the illusions it projected.

Zen occasionally came under external control. Orac assumed control of Zen when the Liberator arrived at Aristo, suggesting that tarial cells were a component of Zen's systems. In Redemption, Zen failed to respond to the crew's commands after the initial contact with vessels from the System. Orac assumed control of Zen for a second time in Dawn of the Gods. The undead alien in Sarcophagus managed to assume control of Zen.

Zen occasionally referred to members of their crew by their names, addressing Olag Gan in this way in Time Squad. In Terminal it called for Blake and Cally who weren't even present on board. In the same episode, as it finally lost all power and computing ability, it referred to itself as "I" for the first and only time. Zen exploded when Servalan took the ship away from Terminal.

Avon in The Harvest of Kairos described Zen as a "capacity charged brain", without elucidating further.

Blake used Zen in a novel way in Shadow, whilst held prisoner by Largo. He asked Cally to have Zen bring a further payment across to Space City, thus letting her know that things had not gone according to plan.

Zen's final demise

Zen's exact parameters were never defined. It had master control over all the ship's systems, and had to be bypassed when it automatically went offline in Breakdown. It frequently relayed detector readings to the crew, and also monitored inboard sensor readings. It managed to decode the Horizon Kommissar's coded message to Flotilla 13 and the flotilla's reply, which was also in code - this ability might have been due to Blake's theft of a Federation cipher machine, either that in Seek-Locate-Destroy or on another, unseen occasion. Zen also had access to considerable astrographic data on many of the planets visited by Liberator, as well as some Federation archive material (relating to Obsidian, for example). How it came to have such data in its memory banks was never discussed.

ZEROK

A frontier planet, "not very modern" according to Keiller, and possibly the only remaining source of gold in the known galaxy. The gold was sold to a number of parties, that destined for the Federation travelling as fruit in the pleasure cruiser Space Princess. Captain Kennedy referred to a voyage of twelve standard days from Zerok to Earth. The planet had a breathable atmosphere, and was visited by Avon, Tarrant, Dayna and Soolin. Shortly after the crew stole 17 billion (credits?) worth of gold from the Space Princess, Zerok ceded to the Federation, with all local currency invalid after seven days and all private transactions immediately illegal. Servalan had just given the crew ten billion in Zerok banknotes (apparently of one million denomination) in exchange for the stolen gold.

ZETA-3 PARTICLES

Federation communications were converted into zeta-3 particles and then scrambled, forming an unbreakable code without a cypher machine. This process may or may not be the same as the pulse codes mentioned in Killer.

*ZIEGLER-5

One of the Outer Worlds, on which Blake believed his brother and sister were living. According to Dal Richie, Bran Foster had been on Ziegler-5 a few months before he met Blake.

ZIL

Parasitic, vaguely humanoid creature living on the surface of the Host. Seeing the white (egg-like) teleportation field of Blake's arrival, it took Blake to be a newly-hatched individual of its own species and set out to protect him. When the Host started to cleanse itself by drowning the land masses, Zil surrendered and disappeared into the Host. Blake, however, found new resolve to continue with his campaign.

Zil may have been the name for the species as a whole, but the individual Blake met was happy to accept the name Blake as his "oneness", and thus Zil was probably specific to that particular individual. Zil came to speak Terran after a brief period of incomprehensibly, and may have had some telepathic or similar ability.

ZIRCASTER

Referred to by the Judgement Program as a planet, the location of a massacre in which 1,417 unarmed civilians were murdered under the orders of Travis, although the shooting itself was carried out by the troopers under his command, one of them being Par. This happened about three years before Travis" court-martial, and presumably before his appointment by Servalan to hunt down Blake, although earlier references to a massacre conducted by Travis (in Seek-Locate-Destroy) alleged that it happened on Auros.

*ZOLAT-4

Planet on which Jenna and Tarvin hid from 300 customs guards, during which time Jenna saved Tarvin's life.

ZONDA

The home planet of the moon discs. (Pronounced "Zondar"). This was said by Blake to have no night side as it had twin suns (a planet in such a position is in a highly unstable orbit and would be ejected from the star system within a few orbits). Visited by Blake, Avon, and Jenna, who planted fire control sensors around the moon disc plantations. It was also visited by Cally. The President's personal security force guarded the moondisc plantations.

ZONDAWL

A planet acquired by the Federation through their Pacification Programme. Avon showed the warlords invited to his prospective alliance a videocast from Zondawl, in which drugged citizens (marked with identifying numbers on their foreheads) were randomly gunned down by Federation troopers. The videocast had been made some six weeks previously.

ZONES

Divisions of some or all of the galaxy. The freighter Blake followed to Horizon travelled from Zone 8 to Zone 9, where Horizon was situated.

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