This record contains full-book spoilers.
Names, outcomes, and discoveries from later histories are concealed in spoiler-light mode.
Brookes' dead man's switch linked his heartbeat to a hawk's sphere drive. He used the threat of a drive explosion to prevent resistance and force access to Cylli and Echo.
Also recorded as: Dead-man switch, Heartbeat switch
Hostage leverage
Brookes told Helen that his death would detonate the hawk's drive and destroy the habitat. He made the same threat when boarding Echo. The device's physical removal is not described; Cylli ultimately neutralized the larger threat by compelling him to jettison the sphere drive.[1][2][3]
Related records
Sources
Simon Evans, The Flaxen Tyranny, first edition (2023). Page numbers refer to the printed pagination of the source edition.
- Chapter 29 · pp. 238
- Chapter 33 · pp. 273–274
- Chapter 37 · pp. 307–308