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Another reference to a neutron blaster in Dawn of the Gods applies to a totally different weapon, a mounted ground weapon carried outside the ship and deployed for use against the Thaarn's slave retrieval vehicle. A device on the vehicle neutralised the weapon before Vila could fire it. It might be this type of weapon that Avon was thinking of when he asked Gunn-Sar for a neutron blaster in Power.
A device used for the fine adjustment of molecular structures. One was brought from Betafarl to Xenon to turn the sap of a plant growing wild on Betafarl into the antitoxin for pylene-50. Zukan planted the release canister for the radioactive airborne virus in the neutron bombarder, and Zeeona later removed the virus from Xenon Base by turning the bombarder into a neutralising filter before she died.
Zen stated that young Ensor's Space Master craft was fitted with four neutron power units, "maximum thrust four by six". Durkim mentioned the Nova Queen's neutron drive going critical as it landed on Keldon City. Neutron drives thus appear to be a common ship fitting.
The Space Commander leading the attack on the Liberator in Hostage surmised that 12 hits on the ship must have caused "a heavy drain in the neutron energy banks", but this might have been mere assumption on his part regarding the nature of Liberator's power source.
See also HOFEL'S RADIATION.
Igin was killed by a neutron strike on Helotrix, and reference to "launchers 3 and 17, 50 metre bracket pattern" indicate a form of missile.
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Described as an "energy refractor" and taken to Destiny in the care of Dr
Kendall. The neutrotope was to be placed in orbit around the planet where it
could add new wavelengths to the sun's emissions, thus destroying the
fast-growing fungus sweeping across the planet. Kendall showed Blake the
neutrotope and later entrusted it to his care, but in between it was stolen
by Sara. It was recovered in due course and taken aboard the
Liberator to complete its journey to Destiny, presumably arriving
intact.
|  The neutrotope |
 The box carrying the neutrotope |
The neutrotope consisted of three cylinders about 30cm long, a small device
for such a grandiose purpose, and so might have been a vital component of
something larger. The neutrotope was probably similiar to the plutonium and uranium used in modern nuclear warheads. That would explain why it was so rare and expensive. Its source was not specified, nor its price, but was highly valued: Kendall said that buying it had bankrupted his people's economy and mortgaged their future. It was not the only neutrotope known to exist, but there were very few others. Kendall called them "the most valuable objects in the galaxy", with plenty of ready buyers. |
Blake told Gan, on arriving at the rendezvous point on Earth, that all churches were destroyed by the Federation at the beginning of the New Calendar. No specific time period was given. Fan lore places the series in the third century of the New Calendar.
See FEDERATION.
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In Star One, the battle cruiser Newton reported its position as
one hour and seven minutes from the Andromedan fleet. It seems reasonable to
assume that this ship was named after Sir Isaac. Newton's laws of motions
were cited in a discussion between Avon and Tarrant in Dawn of the
Gods. The scientist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1642 and died in 1727. |  |
The wife of Gunn-Sar on Xenon. Formerly a Seska, described by Pella as "a great Seska", seen on Xenon base's chronicle discs by Dayna and Tarrant relating the events of Maravik's last attack twenty years previously and presumably operated on by one of her predecessors, since at the time of Avon's arrival she was performing the necessary surgery on captured Seska herself. She removed the dynamon crystal and collar from Luxia, last of the Seska to be operated on in this way. She also let Kate escape from the Hommik stronghold. She told Gunn-Sar she remembered Pella being born. Despite his treatment of her, she mourned his death, and vowed to lead the Hommiks far away to a new home.
Forbus had fitted the pylene-50 production plant on Helotrix with 700 kilograms of "triglyceryl nitrate", which Dayna described as "a bit outdated". Nitroglycerin, it transpired, was all he could make with his limited resources. Detonation was from a hand-held trigger, but Sleer killed him before he could press it.