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LASER RIFLE

(D-8: GAMES) (Written by Murray Smith)

A sidearm, a remote-controlled version of which was successfully used by Belkov to persuade the Mecronian high priests that their gods had sent him to mine the Feldon crystals on Mecron Two. This he did by using the rifle to kill six of them who challenged his claim to be the only person able to wear a necklace of the crystals. This exploited the death of a chief during an electrical storm while wearing such a necklace, interpreted as a sign of divine wrath.

LASER SCAN

(C-11: MOLOCH)

Avon requested a laser scan from Zen of Sardos after Liberator narrowly avoided crashing into the meteoroid. The results, such as they were, were displayed on the main screen.

LASER TRANSFER LINKAGE

(A-7: MISSION TO DESTINY)

Required by Avon when repairing the flight systems of the Ortega. No worthwhile explanation given. Cally went to the ship's stores in search of some linkage, and found Dortmunn's body instead.

LAUNCH AND FLIGHT SIMULATOR (LFS)

(D-8: GAMES)

Belkov had one of these in the game sequence inside his orbiter craft, and Tarrant recognised it instantly, having trained on them. He said of the LFS that "these things chuck the lot at you" and that "flying the real thing's nothing after one of these". Tarrant's "craft" suffered damage to the retrostabilisers whilst using Belkov's LFS, and he opted to "take up orbit" rather than "land": this still earned enough points to continue with the game sequence.

LAUNCH GRID

(B-2: SHADOW)

Spaceship docking system on Space City, and presumably elsewhere. Bek told Hanna that the crew on Launch Grid 6 were for hire, and he intended to buy an escape route from Space City for himself, Hanna and Petie from them.

LAUREN

(C-1: AFTERMATH)

A native of Sarran, but adopted as a child by Hal Mellanby and considered a sister by Dayna. Keeping watch over the entrance to Hal's refuge at dusk, she was captured by Chel and killed. Avon and Dayna later found her body; she had apparently been tortured, or mutilated after death.

LAWYERS

(various episodes) By Murray Smith

The only identifiable lawyers - those who acted in a manner familiar to those on Earth in the late twentieth century AD - were three Federation ones: two civil, Alta Morag and Tel Varon, representing the prosecution and the defence in Blake's trial (The Way Back); and one military, Major Thania, defending Travis (Trial).

The title of these three may have been 'advocate', as Varon was described as such by the arbiter in Blake's trial. Morag and Varon were similarly dressed when in court: a tunic with a V-shaped neckline, and a floor length cloak, all in burgundy, though Varon wore a lighter shade of that colour. In both cases, the tunic's neckline was trimmed with a dark purple stripe, bordered at both edges with a lighter shade of that colour, which met a similarly-coloured horizontal stripe across the front, at the same level as one across the back.

From the behaviour of these lawyers, their possible title, and the dress of the civil lawyers, it is reasonable to assume that a legal profession existed in the Terran Federation. The difference in the shades of burgundy worn by Morag and Varon may indicate a form of grading within that profession. Nothing was said regarding the education and training provided by that profession, and whether it varied depending on a person's desire to become a civil or military lawyer.

Orac was not a lawyer, although claimed by Avon to be his and Tarrant's 'legal advisor' to explain their knowledge of the Teal-Vandor Convention to Max. This claim reasonably implied that lawyers and legal professions also existed on non-Federation worlds.

It may be assumed that these various legal professions, including the Federation's, had codes of conduct for their members. Such codes, if like those of legal professions in the late twentieth century, presumably included: the duty of a lawyer to uphold a client's interests regardless of his own or the consequences to himself or another person; the duty to defend any accused person on whose behalf he has been instructed regardless of his belief or opinion regarding his guilt or innocence; the duty not to knowingly deceive or mislead the court; and the conducting, subject to the code, of a case by the lawyer in such a manner as in his discretion he feels will be most to the advantage of his client.

While Varon kept to these presumed principles in his representation of Blake, carrying out the latter's wish to offer no defence to the charges, Morag and Thania did not, behaving in a way that in the late twentieth century would have been regarded as professional misconduct. Morag's misconduct can be judged by the standards of that period by looking at the judgement in an English case, _Dallison v Caffrey_ [1964] 2 AER, 610 at 618, when Lord Denning MR held that:

The duty of a prosecuting counsel or solicitor, as I have always understood it, is this: if he knows of a credible witness who can speak to material facts which tend to show the prisoner to be innocent, he must either call that witness himself or make his statement available to the defence. It would be highly reprehensible to conceal from the court the evidence which such a witness can give. If the prosecuting counsel or solicitor knows, not of a credible witness, but a witness whom he does not accept as credible, he should tell the defence about him so that they can call him if they wish.

Thania's misconduct was obvious, colluding with Servalan to ensure that there was 'no trouble'.

LAZERON DESTROYER

(A-6: SEEK-LOCATE-DESTROY ff)

A powerful sidearm installed in the forefinger of Travis" left hand (the artificial one, naturally!). Travis described it as "more powerful than any sidearm". In Seek-Locate-Destroy it appeared to require a charging-up period before firing, although in later episodes it was used spontaneously without trouble. In Duel it was unable to function, as were all other weapons under the influence of Sinofar. In Orac, a shot from Avon destroyed the hand, but the lazeron destroyer was still fitted to the replacement. The trigger circuit was removed at the time of Travis" court-martial: Travis demanded its return from Servalan at gunpoint. In Hostage, Travis adjusted the yellow crystal on the ring of the lazeron finger, and also operated an unseen control in his palm. This may have been to activate the weapon, or perhaps indicated a bolt intensity modulator or similar function. In Gambit the arm was disconnected by Jarriere, leaving the weapon unusable (Travis used a Federation-issue pistol during this period) but reconnected by Docholli. Uses of the lazeron destroyer were as follows:


After Avon shot it
  • Seek-Locate-Destroy: one shot aimed at Blake, but missed due to Cally's warning shout.
  • Orac: A Phibian killed, and the door to Ensor's living quarters blasted down. Two shots aimed at Blake missed, and this was probably intentional in the case of the second. Avon destroyed the hand before a lethal shot could be fired.
  • Weapon: a clone of Blake was shot dead.

LECTOR

(C-11: MOLOCH)

Trooper of the Federation's Fifth Legion that landed on Sardos during the Intergalactic War. Although described as a "unit commander" he was subordinate to Section Leader Grose. He killed Servalan's mutoid aide, but was killed himself by Tarrant, shortly after torturing Avon.

LEEDENBRANK

(D-3: TRAITOR)

Before he joined the freedom fighters on Helotrix, Igin was director of geological studies at Leedenbrank. This suggests that Leedenbrank was a university or similar. However, Colonel Quute cited the destruction of Leedenbrank "along with 18,000 defenders". That implies either a very big campus or that Leedenbrank was the name of a university town. The latter seems more likely.


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