Sevencyclopaedia - C

CYPHER MACHINES

Used by the Federation (and presumably others) to transmit coded messages, they were a target of Blake's on several occasions. In Seek-Locate-Destroy Blake snatched a cypher machine from the Federation's communications centre on Centero, later Servalan says she must tell Central Security to change the code system after learning that Blake stole the cypher machine on Centero.. In Bounty, Blake tells Sarkoff how he learned of the Lindor Strategy after capturing a cypher machine. In Killer, Avon and Vila were sent down to Fosforon to acquire a TP-crystal to allow Blake to decipher pulse-coded A-line messages.

Among coded messages appearing in the series, Travis sent Blake a summons to Exbar in a code destandardised 50 years previously. In the same episode (Hostage), Avon contacted Servalan on Top Priority General Code 107, and Servalan received a call from Councillor Joban on Priority Code 9.

The trouble with capturing cypher machines was that they became useless once the codes had been changed. Travis could have had the codes altered within hours of Blake's attack on Centero, but held back to lure Blake back with news of Cally's capture. Blake told Sarkoff that the codes were changed after he learned of the Lindor Strategy. In Voice from the Past he used the changing of codes and the sense of futility it generated to reinforce his commitment to LeGrand's bloodless coup.

It is also worth noting that Orac could intercept and decode transmissions, as it did with Travis" message to Blake. This implies unspecified limits to Orac's capabilities: if it really could access any information Blake required, there would have been no need to take risks capturing cypher machines.

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