Fate of Worlds: Return From the Ringworld

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Sigmund Ausfaller: retired Defense Minister; New Terra resident; Earth expatriate.

Julia Byerley-Mancini: Captain in the New Terran Defense Forces; commander of starship Endurance; leader, expedition to “The Anomaly”; granddaughter of Sigmund Ausfaller.

Alice Jordan: member, expedition to “The Anomaly”; New Terra resident; Sol system expatriate.

Donald Norquist-Ng: Minister, New Terran Defense Forces.

Denise Rodgers-Bjornstad: Governor (planetary executive), New Terra.

Louis Wu: Earthborn adventurer; member of both Ringworld expeditions; newly escaped from the Ringworld.

Tanya Wu: Earthborn junior naval officer aboard ARM vessel Koala.

Wesley Wu: Earthborn naval officer commanding Koala, deployed to the Artifact Monitoring Mission.

(FLEET OF WORLDS [NATURE PRESERVE FIVE] RESIDENTS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Cd’o: A Gw’o unit from the Ol’t’ro ensemble mind; born on the colony world of Kl’mo.

Er’o: Memory remnant within Ol’t’ro of a long-dead Gw’o unit; veteran of the Pak War.

Ol’t’ro: the Gw’oth ensemble mind (a Gw’otesht-16) who secretly rules the Fleet of Worlds; also see artificial intelligence Proteus and Citizen/Puppeteer Chiron.

Tf’o: the Gw’o leader in the joint Gw’oth/Citizen expedition lurking around the Ringworld.

Hawking: AI managing tactical operations of Earth’s Task Force Delta within the Artifact Monitoring Mission.

Jeeves: Any of the many AIs descended from the shipboard intelligence of the ramscoop Long Pass (from whose embryo banks New Terra was populated).

Proteus: AI that manages the Hearth/Fleet of Worlds defensive grid; controlled by Ol’t’ro. As a minor function, it also animates the “Citizen” known as Chiron.

Voice: AI long in exile with Hindmost on the Ringworld.

(HEARTH RESIDENTS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Achilles:planetary hindmost[*] of Nature Preserve One; member of Experimentalist Party; former Hindmost[*]; former Minister of Science; former physicist.

Baedeker:former Hindmost[*]; former Minister of Science; former engineer; member of Experimentalist Party; in off-world exile.

Chiron:longtime Minister of Science and planetary hindmost[*] of Nature Preserve Five; secretly a network persona animated by Proteus; Ol’t’ro’s stealthy presence within the Citizen government.

Hindmost:deposed Hindmost[*]; member of Experimentalist Party; hindmost[*] of the second Ringworld expedition; newly escaped from the Ringworld.

Horatius:Hindmost[*] — as a pawn of Ol’t’ro — since soon after the first Ringworld expedition; head of the Conservative Party.

Minerva: Citizen head in the joint Gw’oth/Citizen expedition lurking around the Ringworld. A deputy director of Clandestine Directorate.

Nessus:onetime senior agent/scout of Clandestine Directorate; hindmost[*] of the first Ringworld expedition; in exile on New Terra.

Nike: former head of Clandestine Directorate; former Hindmost; Experimentalist.

Vesta: longtime deputy to Achilles; Experimentalist.