Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 2: Redemption (27 page)

Characters, Places, Ships

and Random thoughts

D'lralu

(del ra Lu)

Six
legged creatures that resemble dogs. Intelligent, seemingly bent on destroying any intelligent life they chance upon. Their technology is impressive in that they have powerful energy generation systems but they utilize inferior computers and artificial intelligence platforms. They are lead by a pack system headed by an elected official called the First of the First.

ESX Arizona

An experimental VASMR space craft piloted by Catherine Kimbridge.

Catherine

Kimbridge

A human female who has been rebuilt after a heroic death by a powerful race known as the Heshe. Her body is filled with regenerative nanites that repair tissue damage and can re
-engineer her on the fly to withstand incredible stresses. Cat, as she is called by her friends, is the title character. The series explores her rise through the ranks as she helps to shape the Galactic Coalition of Planets as a force for good.  

Admira
l‘
Bu
d
’ Faragon

Head of
Admiralty Board.
USC Yorktown
is his flagship.

Rigel Kentaurus,

A ternary star system roughly four light years from Sol.

Ricky Valen

A major character who is briefly introduced in book one with the line: "Mars II, this is Prospector 49. Request permission to dock at first available gate. Over."  "49, you are cleared for gate 3. Do you have any cargo to declare?" The rebuilt Catherine Kimbridge is indeed that cargo.

Deimos
Base

Mars II, a lunar base that survives the
D’
lralu attack.

Yarin

A Heshe who Cat sacrifices her life to save.

Heshe

Aliens that look to be some type of land-based cephalopod with eight ridged legs and matching eyestalks. The legs appear capable of working both for locomotion and manipulation. They communicate by changing the color of patches of their skin, much like squid on Earth.

USC

United Space Command, replaced by Galactic Coalition of Planets

Dr. Ken Kirkland

Chief Engineer on the
Bowman
, and chaplain, later First Officer of the
Yorktown
. Wife: Rebecca Ann civilian cook, later Lt. in
Bowman
environmental.

USC Bowman

Humanity's first interstellar ship. The
Bowman
was primarily a ship of exploration but given the massive amount of armament and shielding on the recovered D'lralu vessel the powers-that-be decided that Earth's first starships should have defensive systems built in.

In addition to reactive hull plating, the
Bowman
was able to generate a displacement field around itself that, in theory at least, should shunt energy weapons around the vessel. The inertial dampeners could be configured to transfer momentum from a colliding mass to the entire ship. This meant the impact energy required to 'hole' the ship would need to be enough to crush the entire ship at once.

The
Bowman
was also outfitted with a single center mounted rail gun and four chemical torpedo launchers. The torpedoes included low-yield nuclear payloads and small quantum fold generators. Unfortunately the hyper drive engines in the torpedoes were of limited use because the firing solutions still took too long to calculate for the torpedoes to be effectively used in a light speed engagement. Likely the next generation of missiles would have this capability removed until it could be perfected.

Dr. Riley

Irish medical doctor on
Bowman
with a German accent.

Lunar One

Primary lunar base and city

Orbital One

Primary Earth orbiting base, destroyed and rebuilt several times.

Lt. Jim Cortez

Communications officer.

Lt. Kelley Shelby

A petite blond woman with a southern accent that was at navigation on the
Bowman
. Killed.

Commander Jason Ruck

First Officer, an African American. Promoted to captain of
Avenger
. Future love interest for Catherine Kimbridge?

Lt. Commander Andrew
Martinescu

Weapons control
officer on
Bowman.

Ganymede station

Research Station.

Lieutenant Commander Sherry Melbourne

Admiral Faragon's administrative officer on the
USC Yorktown.

The First of

the First

Title given to the current leader of the
D’
lralu.

Chief
Engineer Commander Thais Figarero

Brazilian Chief Engineer of the
USC/GCP Yorktown.

Ensign Davis

Red Shirt I think

Lal'quint

D'lralu mother tongue.

Admirals

Admirals Pike, Chu, Forrest, Faragon, McMullen, Cartwright, and Chelsea.

Mirdan

A
D’
lralu first officer. He was the Third of the Seventh.

Giblinanner

Hopper (Hupenstanii) called Gibby. Doctorate in Human studies.

Hupenstanii

Hoppers, Gibby, Trifa.

Galactic Coalition of Planets

GCP

Chief Wroblewski

Weapons officer on
USC/GCP Yorktown

Lt. Chris Zimmerman

Ziggy, communications officer on
Yorktown.

Gliese 581g - similar to
Earth,

Ashkelon homeworld

Twenty light years away, 0.92 on Earth similarity index, roughly 1.7 g surface gravity. Centered in goldilocks zone
.

Yakin and Yurka

Heshe explorers visiting Uruk system with Yarin.

GCP Yorktown

Flagship.

Captain Lastila of the
Silver Fledgling

Ashkelon Space Exploration Corps
.

Sassi

Ashkelon communications officer,
Silver Fledgling.

Rasta-Tckner

Hive race called Hymenopterans.

Captain Jeffries

Captai
n
of starship
Heidman.

Kepler-47b

Kepler-47b had an orbit within the goldilocks zone where liquid water could theoretically exist. The planet's radius was 4.6 times that of Earth, roughly the size of Uranus, complete with well-formed rings. Its orbital period around the binary stars was 303 days.

Hymenopterans

Hive race that communicate via pheromones, organic radio, and cybernetic quantum links. Native to Kepler-47, unit of distance =
ferel (use like mile).

Ensign Pete Sanders

Naval Space Academy, Notre Dame, advanced degree in Systems Integration,
Heidman
survivor.

Pointers

Pointers were a slang term for plasma guided electric pulse Tasers. The idea was a simple one. An ultra-short but high powered and precisely tuned laser creates a plasma pipe in the air through which it travels. A high voltage pulse uses the ionized air to conduct its charge to the desired target. A low power visible laser is combined with the system for targeting and was responsible for the name.

Rudy McQuin

The First Officer, an Irishman named Rudy McQuin.

Hilde-tuk

KayBee asteroid pilot who disabled his quantum node.

Modos Syndicate  of Thieves

I
nterested in expanding operations in virgin territory.

Running-Stream, aquatic member of Reef-Hugger school
; a scout. Misc: ink, tentacles.

Cricket
,
Jiminy, and a young queen named Madam Roach

KayBee
children rescued from a crashed floating city.