Travis O'Connor
Doctor Travis O'Connor
Travis O'Connor was a child born inside Hermes station in 281 PA. Born at the height of an economic boom following the founding of the Interplanetary Governance Council and the departure of the The Ouránia project, Travis grew up attending The Hermian Academy of Science, after his parents died in Hermian Duels. His parents had run a habitat in Hermian orbit, and intended to educate Travis there, but after Travis' intelligence emerged, King Gherard of Hermes base insisted he be educated like other children in the country. His parents both perished after challenging the king for the right to raise their son. Travis secretly blamed himself for his parents death. At the Academy, Travis would meet Queen Emma Kubler, who he befriended after constructing her a bionic to replace her right arm. This project earned Travis the favor of his peers, and top scores in both his robotics and biology classes.
Travis graduated from the Hermian Academy of Science in 296, and was immediately pressed into service by Queen Emma Kubler . He spent his early years in relative splendor, designing massive lasers and his precious Self Replicators. He and the Queen developed a close relationship, and often discussed the possible applications of technology outside of the ICG's restrictions. The Queen would later use this knowledge in her attacks on the Solar System.
Travis would help the Queen throughout the Hermian war, suggesting and assisting her in the various strategies that allowed her to manipulate her way through the Solar System. Travis was abandoned and arrested after the war, facing for the first time the world outside the Hermian royalty. He was prosecuted, imprisoned, and derided for his service to the Hermians. Travis spent several years inside a small space habitat, the scapegoat of the galaxy. Later her was allowed to resume his work as a scientist, and eventually travel the Solar System in his space habitat, overseeing the many projects he had designed.
Travis spent many years as a background figure, the quiet scientist credited for so many discoveries and designs. Travis was never comfortable with the general consensus that the Mad Queen was dead, since he had played a large part in the design of her interstellar craft (later named the B.A.B.E. class warship). He petitioned the ICG throughout his career, often claiming that the ICG was doomed without deregulating the use of technology. Travis eventually threatened the Interplanetary Governance Council, foolishly claiming he would use Self-Replicators to destroy the Solar System singlehandedly, if he wasn't allowed to use it peacefully. Travis was restricted from all work involving robotics, and his ship ordered back to the inner Solar System.
Travis had experienced the freedoms of travel throughout the Solar System, and was determined not to return to a miniature prison, low over the sun. He engineered an escape plan while traveling back towards the Solar System. Travis warned the captain of his flying prison, trying to persuade him to ignore ICG commands, and fly away free with Travis. When the captain wouldn't listen, Travis carried out his plan, sabotaging the fusion reactor aboard his ship. This caused a pressure vessel breach, which killed most of the crewmembers. Travis, prepared and wearing a spacesuit, proceeded to tap into the ships computer, and open all the airlocks on board, killing the rest of the crew as well as his fellow Hermian scientists, who had been part of his design team.
Travis ejected several tons of scrap metal as fake debris, and tweaked the ship's course to avoid being detected by prying telescopes. The Interplanetary Governance Council would investigate the explosion caused by Travis' fusion reactor sabotage, and write the ship's disappearance down to an asteroid impact. The ICG found faint radar traces of metal debris along the spaceship's last known vector, and decided the ship must have broken up completely. The debris was later lost in the belly of the Sun.
Travis would spend the next 9 years hiding in the outer Solar System, working on his robots and dodging from shady habitat to shady habitat on the edge of the ICG's control. Travis would have continued this way in relative peace for the rest of his life if he hadn't been kidnapped. In 337, He was contacted by a black market dealer who claimed to have recovered one of Travis' mark 1 Self Replicating Robots from the crater fields of Mercury. The dealer had key details about the design no one else knew, and so Travis traveled 8 AU to find out how they had found this relic of the past. It was a trap, set by the Queen Emma Kubler. The Mad Queen had been intent on recovering her long-lost scientist before the attempted to invade the Solar System, and had coordinated the kidnapping with Hermian loyalists back inside the Solar System. Travis was delivered to the Queen's flagship after an extremely rushed and cramped journey across the Solar System, involving a massive coordination of rockets and resources. The ship he was interned rendezvoused with the Queen's fleet late in 338, and Travis was brought to the Queen's throne room. The Queen had aged 5 years less that Travis had, the passing of her time warped by ludicrous speed. She fondly remembered her lost scientists, affection that had withered into obsession during her long years in the interstellar void. She wanted a king, while Travis found no way out of his current nightmare. With his last shreds of pride, Travis refused the advances of the Queen, determined to serve out the remainder of the war in whatever prison cell she would cage him in. The Queen was hurt beyond words by his flat refusal, and the last nails of madness sealed her former self in a coffin. She sent Travis back to his labs, ordered to create more machines of war or face torture at the Mad Queen's hands. Travis never dared refuse her demands.
When battle was joined, and the War of Stars truly began, Travis was set as a sensor officer on the Queen's flagship, tasked with identifying the threats approaching them from the Inner System. Travis identified Admiral Corbin Tolle first as he waited in ambush around a small asteroid, and Travis who suggested splitting the Queen's fleet into many sections to avoid the hordes of attackers approaching them. Travis also detected Admiral Tolle's 3 remaining ships following the Queen's fleet towards Jupiter, after the Admiral succeeded in destroying one of the Queen's 7 fleets, and Travis who hid this information from the Queen. Travis stole a malfunctioning radar beacon from his Self-Replicator lab, and used it to send Morse code messages to Admiral Tolle. He told the Admiral that all drones coming to reinforce the Mad Queen were completely powered down, a strategy intended to keep them hidden from the ICG. Using this information, the Admiral would sabotage dozens of these incoming drones.
The Mad Queen's tyrannical reign finally ended after the battle of Ganymede, which Travis survived only by hiding inside an airlock, and ejecting himself and his stolen radar beacon as the proper moment. He was picked up by the Interplanetary Governance Council, and may have been executed if Admiral Tolle hadn't revealed his crucial part in the battle.
Travis was only imprisoned for a few months, before being released in an official parade on Eous station. Travis was offered a Council position on behalf of the planet Mercury, but he declined repeatedly. Travis became a figurehead of progress and hope throughout the Solar System, even though he was twice previously the Mad Queen's head scientist, and the scapegoat of the Hermian war. Travis again had the opportunity to travel the Solar System, to invent and explore as he pleased. Travis, 61 when the War of Stars ended, would live for 50 more years, becoming one of the most famous humans in history. His last 'great' act was the commemorative 1 trillion speech, which he dedicated to all those who had died in debris accidents resulting form the Queen's wars. He would die at the age of 111, 3 years after the human population increased above 1 trillion individuals, and 7 after his great brainchild, the interstellar highway, was completed.
["Expanding outwards at the speed of light, the greatest cataclysm the galaxy has ever seen spreads its organic grip. Riding in climate controlled metal bubbles, forced forwards by the power of a star's core, the explorers forge new links in a chain; a chain years long and decades in the making, a chain outward. Away from the comfort of their home system, away from the roiled politics of their solar system, 1 trillion humans climb outwards towards the stars.The universe will never be the same." - Travis O'Connor, 388 PA.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born 281, grew up as Queen Emma Kubler's personal scientist. Captured by the Interplanetary Governance Council after the Hermian war of 304, and roamed the Solar System under house arrest until his escape in 328, after which he hid in the outer Solar System until he was kidnapped again by the Mad Queen, in preparation for her second attack on the ICG. Held captive and forced to create war machines for the Queen until 342, when the War of Stars ended and Travis escaped. Lived as a hero until his death in 392.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Travis was motivate by peace and progress, most importantly desiring the right to do his work in freedom, a freedom he never completely achieved. Travis grew up subservient to Queen Emma Kubler, and was afterwards imprisoned for many years. The Mad Queen used Travis as a tool to achieve her violent aims, and the Interplanetary Governance Council never allowed him to work on the projects he was most passionate about.
Relationships
Ethnicity
Life
281 AD
392 AD
111 years old
Birthplace
Mercury, orbit.
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Quotes & Catchphrases
"Expanding outwards at the speed of light, the greatest cataclysm the galaxy has ever seen spreads its organic grip. Riding in climate controlled metal bubbles, forced forwards by the power of a star's core, the explorers forge new links in a chain; a chain years long and decades in the making, a chain outward. Away from the comfort of their home system, away from the roiled politics of their solar system, 1 trillion humans climb outwards towards the stars.The universe will never be the same."
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