Author of the United Kingdom, Earth, of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries AD. Her prolific output mostly included childrens' books, science fiction, fantasy, and horror; but, out of all her works, Don Keller found an untitled poem to be most appropriate to his situation on Virn, and quoted it in Sand.
See POETRY.
Along with Carl Deca and Payter Fen, one of three children treated to believe he (or possibly she) had been assaulted by Blake. Leesal's date of birth was given as 42.1.5 and was thus probably the oldest of the three (a little over ten years old). S/he was a patient of Dr A.J. Globbs and attended school ZL2 Level 716.
One of the technicians who elected to remain on Star One for the rest of their natural lives. Later replaced by an alien. The substitute Leeth was seen leading a search for Lurena on the surface of Star One's planet.
Governor of Outer Gal, described by Avon as "the only sane one amongst them" and renowned for her attention to detail. She harboured Travis, believing him to be Shivan, and worked with Ven Glynd after his defection in compiling evidence that would discredit the senior echelons of the Federation (she claimed to have been working with him "for years"). She boarded the Liberator on its way to Atlay, and insisted that Blake take a position of seniority over her, on the basis that "he who leads must be from Earth" (implying she was not born on Earth?). Her plot was known to Servalan, and she died on Atlay, killed by a shot from one of Servalan's troopers. She had her own security forces, who were heard battling with Servalan's troops but presumably to no avail.
Federation officer, working for Commissioner Sleer on Helotrix. He was appointed to President-elect Practor's personal staff, and also worked as a double agent, winning the confidence of rebel units including Hunda's 4th column. He also claimed responsibility for the destruction of the rebels" 2nd column. He convinced Dayna and Tarrant of his defection by directing them to the pylene-50 production plant, but failed to tell them of all the security measures in force there. Forbus described Leitz as "almost as vile a sadist as Sleer", revealing his true nature to Tarrant and Dayna. Leitz escaped Hunda's attack on the magnetrix terminal, but learnt that Sleer was in fact Servalan. He told her this just after she killed Forbus, and tried to use this information to be given the Presidency of Helotrix. Instead he became the 26th person to die for knowing her true identity.
| Crew-woman of the Ortega. She joined Dr Kendall, Pasco, Sonheim and Grovane in teleporting to Liberator to complete her journey home. Levett was one those who supported giving Blake the neutrotope to take to Destiny. | |
 | Commander of the London on the voyage to Cygnus Alpha. After failing to talk Blake out of the computer room, he gave Raiker permission to take "any measures necessary" to force Blake's surrender. He remonstrated with Dainer for shooting an unarmed prisoner, and told Raiker he exceeded his authority in doing the same. He additionally pledged to make a full report concerning events on the voyage (although the report transmitted shortly before reaching Cygnus Alpha omitted many details). |
| Described by Tarrant as "the most powerful fighting ship in the galaxy", Liberator was a vessel of unknown origin found drifting parallel to the London after a battle between unknown protagonists. Leylan reckoned that the battle involved "two fleets, maybe more", and so the Liberator might not have been fighting alone, although this was never made clear. |  |
First impressions of the ship were of a technology that Avon described as "not just advanced" and Blake as "conceptually alien", although Avon later (in The Web) described it to Gan as "a little more advanced" than what he was used to: this may have been ironic understatement on his part. The armoury, when found, initially allowed each person to take only one weapon each (what Avon called "single function isomorphic response"), although this problem was never encountered again. The gun locker could hold up to 35 weapons, although only 8 were seen present in Cygnus Alpha. Exploration of the controls by Jenna sent the ship hurtling forward at incredible speed, causing Avon to comment on "negative hyperspace", prompting Blake to mention "crossing the antimatter interface". Jenna then found her hand affixed to a control, and was swamped with a feeling she described as "being completely known": at this point the Zen computer announced itself, but ignored Blake's questions regarding the proper owners of the ship or their whereabouts. Avon found a control panel indicating that the previous crew, whoever they were, had abandoned ship in life capsules. Zen was the first to use the name Liberator, but Zen had apparently plucked this from Jenna's mind; Jenna said she thought the name was appropriate, and Zen replied that "your thought was accepted".
| Over the course of time further information came to light regarding the ship's capabilities. It was fitted with a working teleport, had an advanced automatic repair system, could travel at a speed of up to Standard by 12 (see SPEED), was armed with neutron blasters, had ground attack capability (in The Harvest of Kairos an area of fifty square surface millispacials was instantly obliterated on Servalan's command) which apparently utilised plasma bolts, and Vila in Redemption tried but failed to launch "a couple of seekers". |  In Killer |
In Redemption further details of the Liberator were revealed, as its original owners reclaimed it and took the ship back to Space World in the 12th Sector. The ship had been built by the System, to whom it was known as Deep Space Vehicle 2.
 At Kairos |
Liberator was taken to the following planets/space stations: Cygnus
Alpha, Saurian Major, UP-The Web, Centero, Destiny (probably),
UP-Duel, UP-Project Avalon, XK-72, UP-Bounty, Lindor
(probably), Cephlon, Aristo, Space World (docked), Space City, Zonda,
UP-Weapon, Horizon, Earth (twice), the Host, Servalan's HQ, Fosforon,
Exbar, Albian, Asteroid P-K118, Atlay, UP-Gambit, Goth, Star One,
Sarran, Chenga, Obsidian, Crandor, Xaranor (probably), UP-Sopron, Kairos,
Keezarn, Auron, Ultraworld (artificial planet, docked), Sardos,
UP-Death-Watch, and Terminal. Others, unspecified, were undoubtedly
visited "between episodes", but 38 were seen to be so.
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 Space Command under attack from the Liberator in Trial | In Shadow Cally destroyed a gunship launched from Space City after issuing two warnings. In Weapon the ship sustained damage from impact with one of the micro-mines seeded in orbit by Travis. In Horizon Blake lured three pursuit ships into the magnetic barrier around Horizon, destroying them. In Trial an attack was made on Servalan's HQ, causing a number of casualties, probably including Fleet Warden Samor, Senator Bercol, Secretary Rontane and Major Thania (Travis described the toll as "high, and rising all the time"). |
 Under attack from the Mark Ten pursuit ships | In Volcano eight Federation cruisers landed just three hits, but these did considerable damage, and it was some time before Liberator could get underway again. In The Harvest of Kairos Tarrant's piloting experience outmanoeuvred three pursuit ships in an eclipse pattern, and later he destroyed three Mark Ten pursuit ships without realising that this was in accordance with Jarvik's plan to take the ship. Two hits were sustained in this engagement. No significant battles took place thereafter. It was mentioned in Volcano that the weaponry systems needed recalibrating, presumably at periodic intervals. |
The defence system was only activated twice: against those boarding from the London in Space Fall, when Blake disarmed it, and against the Thaarn's personnel in Dawn of the Gods. Control of the ship was partially or wholly lost in: The Web, when Cally, under the control of the Lost, destroyed the forward detector links and planted a bomb on the primary power channel, blinding the ship and rendering the drives dysfunctional; Duel when Sinofar took control of all systems on board; Orac, when Orac took control of all ship systems; Redemption, when the System asserted control of all systems, denying all repair attempts and in one case directly attacking Blake;
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Shadow, when the Darkness
assumed control of Orac, drained power from Liberator and tried to
generate the energy needed to effect its entry from its own dimension by
destroying the ship in atmospheric entry burn up; Dawn of the Gods,
when the pull of the Thaarn's black hole was too powerful to resist;
Sarcophagus, when the undead alien crippled the ship psionically to
supply the energy she needed to take on physical form; and Ultraworld,
when Liberator was brought into dock under the influence of the
Core.
|  The Liberator flies either way up in space |
 About to enter the cloud of fluid particles in Terminal |
Numerous features of the ship were mentioned, many of them only once. They
include various detectors, asymmetric thrust computers, autorepair system,
battle computers, navigational computers, autonavigator, directional probes,
orbital drift compensators, outer teleport transducers, propulsion computers,
recycling machine, remote visualisation unit, repair monitors, and steer
control unit.
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Liberator carried an unspecified number of life capsules. An unstated
number were used by the original crew before Blake's arrival. Five would
have been launched in Aftermath if, as seems likely, Blake and Jenna
left in separate life capsules. Avon launched another in Powerplay,
but he may simply have activated the jettison system on an empty launcher.
|  The digestion of the ship starts |
 More digestion |
Flight could be manually controlled, but was usually governed by automatic
back-up computers that kept the ship's complex systems in balance. Without
the automatic systems, control could be lost very rapidly, as nearly happened
in Breakdown. Avon said in Deliverance that the ship could transmit and receive "sub-beam".
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Equipment in the medical and/or surgical unit (references to each may mean
the same place) included diagnostic analyser, resuscitation capsules,
tranquilliser pads, and vor-ray scan. On its final voyage, to Terminal, the Liberator flew through a cloud of fluid particles that began to digest the ship, weakening it to the point where it broke apart once the main drives were activated. Those aboard were killed in the resulting explosion, except for Servalan who escaped, by her own account via a freak power surge through the teleport system
|  First explosion as the Liberator breaks up |
 The final demise of the Liberator in Terminal | See also DETECTORS, ENERGY BANKS, FORCE WALL, LIFE CAPSULES, NEUTRON BLASTERS, SPEED, TELEPORT, ZEN etc |
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Varon told Blake that lie detectors had verified the statements made by the
three children Blake had allegedly assaulted. In Animals Dayna was
strapped into a chair aboard Servalan's ship that functioned as a lie
detector. It could, if desired, deliver a painful shock to the subject when
a lie was spoken. The Caliph's neuronic whip, in Dawn of the Gods, could also function as a lie detector. |  |