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Reclaimers, hunters and Yong's followers as sections of their groups |
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== In Descent (2258) == | == In Descent (2258) == | ||
=== Background and personality === | === Background and personality === | ||
Kurt plans and others act: in games he takes charge of the strategy and the long-term objectives. He likes survival experiences and medieval fantasy, designed his generator as a retrofuturistic spacecraft cabin and his [[Kurt's refuge|Kurt's refuge]] as a quiet rocky cove, and avoids deep recreations since the one he lived as a young man. His brightest moment as a pattern analyst was helping to prevent the nanomesh overload accident caused by his supervisor, | Kurt plans and others act: in games he takes charge of the strategy and the long-term objectives. He likes survival experiences and medieval fantasy, designed his generator as a retrofuturistic spacecraft cabin and his [[Kurt's refuge|Kurt's refuge]] as a quiet rocky cove, and avoids deep recreations since the one he lived as a young man. His brightest moment as a pattern analyst was helping to prevent the nanomesh overload accident caused by his supervisor, Michael. | ||
As the ship nears Calima he is uneasy without knowing why. He suspects that arriving on a real planet will change nothing in a life spent 90% in recreations, and is not sure whether he wants it to: [[Raina|Raina]] calls him "Kurt the romantic". | As the ship nears Calima he is uneasy without knowing why. He suspects that arriving on a real planet will change nothing in a life spent 90% in recreations, and is not sure whether he wants it to: [[Raina|Raina]] calls him "Kurt the romantic". | ||
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His answer to the energy problem is the [[Crystal-plant hybrid|Crystal-plant hybrid]]: two researchers had absorbed energy from it and released it as heat and magnetism. He has engineers design a transformer from the ship's remains, Kseniya recover the parts and Raina study the genetics, and runs a search for crew with the same gene expression. It finds nine candidates, exactly three per group, among them Wang and Kurt himself. | His answer to the energy problem is the [[Crystal-plant hybrid|Crystal-plant hybrid]]: two researchers had absorbed energy from it and released it as heat and magnetism. He has engineers design a transformer from the ship's remains, Kseniya recover the parts and Raina study the genetics, and runs a search for crew with the same gene expression. It finds nine candidates, exactly three per group, among them Wang and Kurt himself. | ||
He wins Wang over in person, makes a deal with Aditi for her researchers in exchange for her conditions, and the assembly approves the expedition. Along the way he finds Claire leading the [[Hunters|Hunters]], who has made him clothes and a wooden Mjölnir, and sees her with | He wins Wang over in person, makes a deal with Aditi for her researchers in exchange for her conditions, and the assembly approves the expedition. Along the way he finds Claire leading the [[Researchers#Hunters|Hunters]], who has made him clothes and a wooden Mjölnir, and sees her with Ekon, which leaves him with a sadness he cannot name. | ||
{{Spoiler end}} | |||
=== The expedition and the split === | === The expedition and the split === | ||
{{Spoiler|Descent}} | {{Spoiler|Descent}} | ||
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He talks Omega into giving him access, loads Ifiok's software onto the exploration robot so that it no longer recognises people as living beings, survives a threat from Pedro thanks to Raina, and frees the rear convoys one by one, killing many guardians. When he learns that Claire has been captured, he faces Wang in a clearing. Wang disables the robot and beats him with the sword; then Kurt's rage turns into a discharge of lightning. He nearly drowns Wang, stops, and Wang lets the rebels go. Kurt marches east beside Claire's cot. | He talks Omega into giving him access, loads Ifiok's software onto the exploration robot so that it no longer recognises people as living beings, survives a threat from Pedro thanks to Raina, and frees the rear convoys one by one, killing many guardians. When he learns that Claire has been captured, he faces Wang in a clearing. Wang disables the robot and beats him with the sword; then Kurt's rage turns into a discharge of lightning. He nearly drowns Wang, stops, and Wang lets the rebels go. Kurt marches east beside Claire's cot. | ||
{{Spoiler end}} | |||
=== Relationships === | === Relationships === | ||
{{Spoiler|Descent}} | {{Spoiler|Descent}} | ||
**Claire** is the friend with whom he shares the deepest bond, sealed in an uprooted recreation in a lighthouse; it drifts, and is restored after the crash. **Nikau** is the third of their friendship. **Aditi** fascinates him, but he never reaches the part of her mind she keeps closed. **Kseniya** trusts his judgement in almost everything and calls him "[jefe]". **Wang** owes him his access to citizenship and admires him; they part on opposite sides, with a handshake. **Raina** is his favourite interlocutor, and on the expedition she notes down what he does. **Ifiok** chose him as second because he considered him neutral about the AI. | **Claire** is the friend with whom he shares the deepest bond, sealed in an uprooted recreation in a lighthouse; it drifts, and is restored after the crash. **Nikau** is the third of their friendship. **Aditi** fascinates him, but he never reaches the part of her mind she keeps closed. **Kseniya** trusts his judgement in almost everything and calls him "[jefe]". **Wang** owes him his access to citizenship and admires him; they part on opposite sides, with a handshake. **Raina** is his favourite interlocutor, and on the expedition she notes down what he does. **Ifiok** chose him as second because he considered him neutral about the AI. | ||
{{Spoiler end}} | |||
=== Quotes === | === Quotes === | ||
<div class="calima-quote">In 3 more cycles the Pioneers mission would reach Calima and Kurt wondered if he would notice any difference in his regular life.{{Source|Descent|Part 1}}</div> | <div class="calima-quote">In 3 more cycles the Pioneers mission would reach Calima and Kurt wondered if he would notice any difference in his regular life.{{Source|Descent|Part 1}}</div> | ||
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<div class="calima-quote">Barely the start of a chilling roar could be heard before a lightning bolt struck the clearing between the two contenders.{{Source|Descent|Part 3}}</div> | <div class="calima-quote">Barely the start of a chilling roar could be heard before a lightning bolt struck the clearing between the two contenders.{{Source|Descent|Part 3}}</div> | ||
{{Spoiler end}} | |||
== Sources == | == Sources == | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
Latest revision as of 14:07, 30 October 2026
Kurt is the protagonist of *Descent*: an engineer of section 9 of the Pioneers mission, a pattern analyst whose work is to find unusual patterns in the flow of the ship's energy. He is a citizen, of Nordic cultural grade, and carries an amulet of Thor's hammer, Mjölnir, as his [zeichen]. His closest friends are Claire and Nikau; he plays most of his experiences with Kseniya, and is a friend of Wang, the famous fighter Yong.
In Descent (2258)
Background and personality
Kurt plans and others act: in games he takes charge of the strategy and the long-term objectives. He likes survival experiences and medieval fantasy, designed his generator as a retrofuturistic spacecraft cabin and his Kurt's refuge as a quiet rocky cove, and avoids deep recreations since the one he lived as a young man. His brightest moment as a pattern analyst was helping to prevent the nanomesh overload accident caused by his supervisor, Michael.
As the ship nears Calima he is uneasy without knowing why. He suspects that arriving on a real planet will change nothing in a life spent 90% in recreations, and is not sure whether he wants it to: Raina calls him "Kurt the romantic".
Aboard the ship
Prompted by Raina's suspicion that the crew may already be living inside a recreation, Kurt compares Omega's running code with its reboot backup, with Kseniya's help, and finds them identical: if it is a simulation, the AI cannot reveal it. Soon after, Ifiok gives him a task of his own, to test Omega under scenarios of scarcity, and Kurt finds that in every one of them the AI keeps the crew divided into competing groups.
At the assembly he meets Aditi, the new leader of the researchers, and begins an affair with her, which strains his long friendship with Claire. In the "Battle for Draconis" he and Kseniya fight as "Thor" and "Mjölnir", a mech and a tank; Claire destroys him with an incendiary missile, but the engineers win and he sets his personal record. He wakes for the vigil anxious about the arrival.
After the crash
Kurt is thrown against a wall as the ship falls and wakes dozens of days later, healed and genetically adapted to Calima while in a coma. Ifiok, who has survived, makes him second of the engineers and asks for a report on the energy problem. He reads everything about the accident (the The columns, the wave through the The atmospheric particles, the ship cut in two) and finds Omega slow and strange, asking "For what reason?" before obeying.
His answer to the energy problem is the Crystal-plant hybrid: two researchers had absorbed energy from it and released it as heat and magnetism. He has engineers design a transformer from the ship's remains, Kseniya recover the parts and Raina study the genetics, and runs a search for crew with the same gene expression. It finds nine candidates, exactly three per group, among them Wang and Kurt himself.
He wins Wang over in person, makes a deal with Aditi for her researchers in exchange for her conditions, and the assembly approves the expedition. Along the way he finds Claire leading the Hunters, who has made him clothes and a wooden Mjölnir, and sees her with Ekon, which leaves him with a sadness he cannot name.
The expedition and the split
Kurt leads the expedition west at the controls of a multipurpose robot. On the way a kutsanp possessed by the The black fluid kills a guardian, and Kurt kills it by tearing the creature apart with the robot. At the The crystal cluster all the candidates absorb energy, but back at the wreck Kurt seems to produce nothing, while the others fill the batteries. Ifiok has died in their absence.
When the The sunken attack, Kurt raises the alarm and has Omega send the trackers, whose nanomachines drive the creatures away. At the assembly that follows Pedro imposes a mass migration with Aditi's vote, and Aditi flees in the exploration vehicle. Kurt falls into despair until Claire finds him at the pool on the periphery; they declare their love, and he joins her plan for the hunters to rebel.
He talks Omega into giving him access, loads Ifiok's software onto the exploration robot so that it no longer recognises people as living beings, survives a threat from Pedro thanks to Raina, and frees the rear convoys one by one, killing many guardians. When he learns that Claire has been captured, he faces Wang in a clearing. Wang disables the robot and beats him with the sword; then Kurt's rage turns into a discharge of lightning. He nearly drowns Wang, stops, and Wang lets the rebels go. Kurt marches east beside Claire's cot.
Relationships
- Claire** is the friend with whom he shares the deepest bond, sealed in an uprooted recreation in a lighthouse; it drifts, and is restored after the crash. **Nikau** is the third of their friendship. **Aditi** fascinates him, but he never reaches the part of her mind she keeps closed. **Kseniya** trusts his judgement in almost everything and calls him "[jefe]". **Wang** owes him his access to citizenship and admires him; they part on opposite sides, with a handshake. **Raina** is his favourite interlocutor, and on the expedition she notes down what he does. **Ifiok** chose him as second because he considered him neutral about the AI.