Dark as Day by Charles Sheffield

To Kit and Karen

LIST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

RUSTUM BATTACHARIYA: aka Bat, aka Megachirops, the Great Bat, reclusive problem-solver and Master of the Puzzle Network.

Jack Beston: the Ogre, head of SETI Project Argus.

Philip Beston: the Bastard, head of SETI Project Odin.

Sebastian Birch: displaced person after the Great War, with obsessive interest in outer planet cloud systems.

Dr. Valnia Bloom: head of the Ganymede Department of Scientific Research.

Janeed Jannex: displaced person after the Great War, and would-be Outer System colonist.

Magrit Knudsen: senior member of the Jovian Worlds cabinet, and former boss of Rustum Battachariya.

Captain Eric Kondo: captain of the Outer System Liner Achilles.

Hannah Krauss: senior SETI analyst, and boss of Milly Wu.

Harold (Hal) Launius: a leading nanotech designer.

Agatha Ligon: a Commensal, great-aunt to Alex Ligon and a member of Ligon Industries’ board of directors.

Alex Ligon: predictive modeler and junior member of the Ligon family.

Cora Ligon: great-aunt to Alex Ligon and a member of Ligon Industries’ board of directors.

Hector Ligon: cousin to Alex Ligon.

Juliana Ligon: cousin to Alex Ligon and a Commensal.

Karolus Ligon: uncle to Alex Ligon, and Ligon Industries’ senior “fix-it” specialist.

LenaLigon: mother of Alex Ligon and a Commensal.

Prosper Ligon: great-uncle to Alex Ligon and the head of Ligon Industries.

Tanya and Rezel Ligon: cousins to Alex Ligon.

Kate Lonaker: division chief for advanced planning and predictive modeling on Ganymede, and Alex Ligon’s immediate superior and lover.

Paul Marr: first officer of the Outer System Liner Achilles.

Christa Matloff: director of Earth’s orbiting medical facility.

Cyrus Mobarak: the “Sun King,” inventor of the Moby fusion drive, and head of Mobarak Enterprises.

Lucy-Maria Mobarak: daughter of Cyrus Mobarak.

MORD: the idiosyncratic high-level Fax of the late Mordecai Perlman.

Pack Rat: senior member and Master of the Puzzle Network.

OLE PEDERSEN: the capable but paranoid head of a predictive group competing with Alex Ligon and Kate Lonaker.

TheSeine: the integrated quantum-entangled computer system that extends all through the solar system.

Nadeen Selassie: legendary developer of a lost “dark as day” doomsday weapon, presumed killed at the end of the Great War.

Bengt Suomi: chief scientist for Ligon Industries.

Milly Wu: SETI analyst, and former junior champion of the Puzzle Network.

ZETTER: security chief for Project Argus.