How long is Kai's brace cable and how does he carry it?

Question

In Lexx, there are many scenes where Kai is flung out into space and he uses his brace as a grappling hook to drag himself back to the Lexx.

Sometimes this distance seems enormous. E.g. in episode 3 Eating Pattern you see him flung off the Lexx's face, it does a 180° turn, and Kai can still reattach to the face. The ship has been described as "Manhattan-sized" meaning from stem to stern it's over 20km, although it's hard to tell exactly how much of it he has to cross because of the lack of reference points in space. There are other episodes where you see it extend up buildings that must be at least 50 meters tall.

How long is Kai's brace cable? What's it made out of that he can fit so much of it inside his sleeve?

Answer 1

Kai uses his brace on numerous occasions during the various seasons of Lexx, either as a murder weapon or as an impromptu grappling hook.

Given that other (non-Brunnen) agents of His Divine Shadow also possess a brace, it could well be a standard-issue weapon for his Assassins and Executioners. The brace seems to be made from some sort of bone or chitin and possesses mandibles for grabbing which would strongly suggest that it's based on insect technology.

There seems to be no upper length for the "rope" carried within his arm, which on at least one occasion stretches from the ground to a low-flying ship that appears to be at least a thousand metres up.

Out of universe, we can see that the prop brace possesses 3 different kinds of rope chosen depending on the scene's lighting conditions. The maximum length appears to be about 50 feet.