LIST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
RUSTUM BATTACHARIYA: aka Bat, aka Megachirops, the Great Bat, reclusive problem-solver and Master of the Puzzle Network.
JACK BESTON: the Ogre, head of SETI Project Argus.
PHILIP BESTON: the Bastard, head of SETI Project Odin.
SEBASTIAN BIRCH: displaced person after the Great War, with obsessive interest in outer planet cloud systems.
DR. VALNIA BLOOM: head of the Ganymede Department of Scientific Research.
JANEED JANNEX: displaced person after the Great War, and would-be Outer System colonist.
MAGRIT KNUDSEN: senior member of the Jovian Worlds cabinet, and former boss of Rustum Battachariya.
CAPTAIN ERIC KONDO: captain of the Outer System Liner Achilles.
HANNAH KRAUSS: senior SETI analyst, and boss of Milly Wu.
HAROLD (HAL) LAUNIUS: a leading nanotech designer.
AGATHA LIGON: a Commensal, great-aunt to Alex Ligon and a member of Ligon Industries’ board of directors.
ALEX LIGON: predictive modeler and junior member of the Ligon family.
CORA LIGON: great-aunt to Alex Ligon and a member of Ligon Industries’ board of directors.
HECTOR LIGON: cousin to Alex Ligon.
JULIANA LIGON: cousin to Alex Ligon and a Commensal.
KAROLUS LIGON: uncle to Alex Ligon, and Ligon Industries’ senior “fix-it” specialist.
LENA LIGON: mother of Alex Ligon and a Commensal.
PROSPER LIGON: great-uncle to Alex Ligon and the head of Ligon Industries.
TANYA AND REZEL LIGON: cousins to Alex Ligon.
KATE LONAKER: division chief for advanced planning and predictive modeling on Ganymede, and Alex Ligon’s immediate superior and lover.
PAUL MARR: first officer of the Outer System Liner Achilles.
CHRISTA MATLOFF: director of Earth’s orbiting medical facility.
CYRUS MOBARAK: the “Sun King,” inventor of the Moby fusion drive, and head of Mobarak Enterprises.
LUCY-MARIA MOBARAK: daughter of Cyrus Mobarak.
MORD: the idiosyncratic high-level Fax of the late Mordecai Perlman.
PACK RAT: senior member and Master of the Puzzle Network.
OLE PEDERSEN: the capable but paranoid head of a predictive group competing with Alex Ligon and Kate Lonaker.
THE SEINE: the integrated quantum-entangled computer system that extends all through the solar system.
NADEEN SELASSIE: legendary developer of a lost “dark as day” doomsday weapon, presumed killed at the end of the Great War.
BENGT SUOMI: chief scientist for Ligon Industries.
MILLY WU: SETI analyst, and former junior champion of the Puzzle Network.
ZETTER: security chief for Project Argus.