Rogue Moon - Characters

Characters

• Dr. Edward Hawks, 42, an unmarried scientist, "a black-haired, pale-skinned, gangling man who rarely got out in the sun." As administrator, he is put in charge of learning the reason for an alien artifact having been placed on the cold, dark, far side of the Moon. He has been sending United States Navy volunteers, and suffers guilt because they become insane after the twined experiences of being teleported to the Moon and then trying to make sense of the crazy logic of the artifact.
• Vincent Connington, Continental Electronics' Director of Personnel, who wears cowboy boots and proposes to Hawks that they ask Al Barker to volunteer. He tries uselessly to flirt with Claire Pack.
• Al Barker, a "daredevil of a man who has spent his life defying death;" Connington calls him "a man famous for split-second decisions. Always the same ones." He likes to taunt Hawks by saying, for example, "morituri te salutamus," but comes to respect Hawks (perhaps because Hawks replies, "I've also read a book"). Barker works successfully for the project: "each time Barker moves farther through the artifact" by inches, he maps "a route through the enigmatic structure."
• Claire Pack, Barker's girlfriend, who flirts with both Hawks and Connington but knows she prefers the manliness of Barker. She has some sort of sado-masochistic bond with Barker; even when he hits her face in public, she says without irony, "Isn't he grand? Isn't he a man?"
• Elizabeth Cummings, a young woman who meets cute with Hawks and forms a romantic bond with him. She is an artist with a witty sense of humor. When he chooses to die on the Moon, he regrets that he did not stay with her, after all.
• Sam Latourette, Hawks's chief assistant. Sam is protective of Hawks and at first dislikes Barker, not understanding how Hawks can quietly put up with Barker's ceaseless insulting jokes.
• Benton Cobey, the Continental Electronics president, a small, aggressive man with an undershot jaw and a bald skull; he consults with Hawks about their project.