Characters
Dr. Sondra Berghoff: A researcher at the Gravitics Research Station who assists Larry Chao in his attempts to prove his findings in artificial gravity. Without authorization, she reconfigures a routine experiment with Larry's assistance to boost the power of the gravity signal a thousandfold, resulting in the accidental awakening of the charonian Observer, also known as the Lunar Wheel.
Wolf Bernhardt: Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Earth, who becomes the head of the U.N. Directorate of Spatial Investigation after the Big Jump.
Larry O'Shawnessy Chao: A young junior researcher at the Gravitics Research Station on Pluto who discovers a way to concentrate and amplify the power of an existing source of gravity. Unfortunately, in a later attempt to prove his claims, he directs a modulated gravity beam at Earth, triggering its capture by the slumbering Observer buried deep within the moon.
Dr. Gerald MacDougal: Husband to Marcia MacDougal. A born-again Canadian exobiologist, Gerald was transported to the Multisystem along with the Earth.
Dr. Marcia MacDougal: Wife to Gerald MacDougal. Born in Tycho Purple Penal, she was declared a refugee and escaped the Naked Purple lifestyle when the fire department burned her parents' house. A planetary engineer at VISOR, Marcia observed Earth's disappearance and later cracked Charonian communications via the Arecibo method.
Dr. Hiram McGillicutty: The abrasive head physicist at VISOR. Notorious for his lack of couth when dealing with other people, he is brilliant and meticulous in gathering data, even if he tends to come to the wrong conclusions.
Dr. Simon Raphael: Embittered by years of failed research into gravity manipulation, Raphael is the director of the Gravitics Research Station. He initially dismisses Larry Chao's test results as a fabrication in attempt to keep the station open, and attempts to shut down further research into the so-called Chao Effect. Following the apparent destruction of Earth, he opens the station's facilities to Larry in order to try to undo what he has done, and later comes to trust and support the young scientist in his actions.
Dianne Steiger: Pilot of the cargo tug Pack Rat, Dianne is later appointed the captain of the Terra Nova following the Big Jump.
Dr. Jane Webling: The aging Director of Science at the Gravitics Research Station.
Coyote Westlake: A solo asteroid miner who is inadvertently transported to Mars when she lands on a Charonian G-point disguised as an asteroid.
Read more about this topic: The Ring Of Charon
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor. Though the woodchoppers have laid bare first this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroad has infringed on its border, and the ice-men have skimmed it once, it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“Trial. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)