The Crew of the Icarus II

7.7  

Robert Capa


Role: Physicist
Nationality: American
Religion: Atheist
Dreams of: Falling to the Sun.

Description: When Capa was seventeen, he wrote a paper which he submitted to America’s foremost scientific journals. It contributed to the understanding of dark matter, and in particular a theory for a controlled method releasing its energy. Although dark matter theory was already well advanced, Capa’s theory assisted in the formation of the principle on which the Stellar Bomb was constructed for the Icarus I mission.

Because Capa is the only member of the crew who is not, by history and training, an astronaut, he is an outsider. In this respect, much of the crew see him as effectively a piece of valuable equipment, which must be transported intact to the delivery point.

"When a Stellar Bomb is triggered, very little will happen at first - and then a spark, will pop into existance, and it will hang for an instant, hovering in space and then, it will split into two, and those will split again, and again, and again... detonation beyond all imagining - the big bang on a small scale. - a new star born out of a dying one... I think it will be beautiful... No, I'm not scared."

KCenturion's rating:

7.2  

Cassidy 'Cassie'


Role: Pilot
Nationality: American
Religion: Atheist
Dreams of: The surface of the Sun.

Description: Cassie’s background is military - she entered the space program through her experience as a pilot in the US air-force. But she does not fit the stereotype of military personnel. She is non-competitive. She has no particular interest in, or attraction to, machismo. She doesn’t have an automatic deferential response to rank or duty. Cassie has a personal interest in the arts. She was the only crew member who packed books in her kit-bag as personal possessions.

Both instinctively and academically, Cassie is a humanist. She likes people, she cares about people. Her sense of mankind is non-cynical and forgiving: she would believe that, in general and as a default position, people are good. On the psychological profiles about who would cope best with the long-term deep-space mission, Cassie’s score was the highest. There were pilots in the space program who matched and exceeded her skill, but none that were seen as more suitable for the stresses and pressures of the mission.

"I know the argument. I know the logic. You're saying you need my vote. I'm saying you can't have it."

KCenturion's rating:

7.4  

Corazon 'Cory'


Role: Biologist
Nationality: Chinese
Religion: Spiritual
Dreams of: Rice-field terraces cut into hillsides.

Description: Corazon is a career astronaut from the Chinese space program. Her area of specialised knowledge is the cultivation of high-yield oxygen-producing plants. For the last fifteen years, Corazon has been based on the international Moon stations, where she supervised the oxygen production and recycling program. Whereas everyone else on the crew see their mission as to secure the future of mankind, Corazon sees the protection of life in broader terms. Her wish would be to protect Earth as a single biosphere, of which mankind is just one part.

Corazon is the only crew member who has never used the calming properties of the Earth Room. For her, the Earth Room is simply artificial, and she prefers instead to spend solitary time in her beloved Oxygen Garden.

"I know what it is flyboy."

6.5  

Harvey


Role: Communications Officer, 2nd-in-Command
Nationality: American
Religion: Protestant
Dreams of: His Wife.

Description: Harvey earned his rank on the Icarus II mission partly by hard work and all-round abilities. He is a fine engineer, and would be able to perform most of Mace, Trey, and Cassie’s duties at an equal level. His physical fitness and general health is extremely good. He consistently scored highest in crew fitness tests.

He also scored extremely highly on psych tests, as a dependable and stable member of the crew. However, in the psych tests, he managed to disguise (and they failed to detect) his Achilles heel… which is his attachment to his wife. Simply, he misses her. He dreams of her every night. He is terrified by the idea that he will not survive the mission, and never see her again.

It is this weakness that eats away inside him.

"Clearly its not impossible. You heard it with your own ears!"

7.2  

Akira Kaneda


Role: Captain
Nationality: Japanese
Religion: Buddhism
Dreams of: Pinbacker and the Icarus I.

Description: In both age and time spent in space flight, he is the most experienced astronaut of the crew. He was a natural choice to lead the second mission. The entire crew of Icarus II are deferential to him. No one questions his authority or judgement.

Outwardly, Kaneda is a model of calm, and he leads by example. But privately, he obsesses about fate of Icarus I. He questions and re-questions the failure of the previous mission.

Kaneda feels paternalistic towards all his crew, but in particular, Capa. This is partly because Capa is the youngest, but also because Capa is the only crew member who is not a career astronaut. He knows that it is hard for Capa being an outsider, a passenger, and goes out of his way to make Capa feel included.

"You have to come down on one side or the other."

KCenturion's rating:

7.5  

Mace


Role: Engineer
Nationality: American
Religion: N/A
Dreams of: Cassie

Description: His family background is military. He grew up on air-bases; both parents were pilots. He has an innate belief in the chain of command, and an innate distrust of those - such as Capa - who sit outside the chain of command. His mind is practical and three-dimensional, not abstract. He has never read a book for pleasure. He would rather spend spare time doing push-ups than listening to music. He cuts his hair short because life is easier that way. He is honest. He has no vanity, but he does have pride.

Mace is disgusted with himself when he finds that, over the long journey to Mercury, he has lost his focus on the mission. The fist-fight with Capa is his epiphany. He makes it a catalyst for his focus to return - and from that moment on, his focus on the mission is total. He is the only crew member whose vision remains unclouded in respect of this goal.

"The waves make me feel peaceful."

KCenturion's rating:

5.9  

Searle


Role: Medical & Psych Officer
Nationality: American
Religion: Agnostic
Dreams of: Unknown

Description: He spent years researching the effects of deep-space travel and its effects on the mind - during which time he developed and created the Earth Room. As a consequence of his research, he argued strongly that the Med Officer on Icarus II should also be a qualified psychiatrist. It was an argument he won. Its unintended consequence was that Searle himself was chosen as the Psych Officer for the mission.

His own psychological profile is of a man who is extremely emotionally stable. He is even-tempered. He has a good sense of humour. He is not given to panic or hasty decisions. However, he is also a man who is eternally separate from other people. He is detached. A watcher. Unjudgemental. Oddly unconcerned. This can make him appear (particularly to Mace) unprofessional. Searle’s motivations and his agendas are his own, and could best be described as philosophical. Ultimately, he believes only this: the larger the searchlight, the larger the circumference of the unknown.

"It's invigorating. It's like... taking a shower in light. You lose yourself in it."

KCenturion's rating:

5  

Trey


Role: Navigator
Nationality: Chinese
Religion: N/A
Dreams of: Number Sequences

Description: Trey has a prodigious ability with mathematics. He can perform extremely complicated calculations in his head, and can perform the classic mathematician’s party-trick: to tell you what day of the week any given date fell on. His extreme talent for mathematics is also the cause of his mistake on the mission. He is unwilling to give the role of recalculating the changed flight trajectory to Icarus, because he is afraid to delegate such an important task to anyone, or anything, else.

This decision is not born from arrogance. It is simply the safest option from his point of view - he knows the limits of his own parameters, and feels more comfortable if all variables are known to him, and under his direct control. In fact, Trey is the opposite of arrogant. His breakdown is a consequence of his inability to blame anyone else for the mistake on the shields but himself - despite the fact that the decision to go off mission was not his own.

"My head was full of velocities and fuel calculations and a million different - I FUCKED UP!"