Lev Abalkin (Абалкин, Лев)

Lev Abalkin (2138 — 2178) is a fictional character in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky’s series of science fiction novels set in the Noon Universe.

Biography

Lev Abalkin was born on 6. October 2138 on Earth. Officially, his parents were Vyacheslav Tsyurupa and Stella Abalkina, who both participated in the «Yormala Project» (submersion into the black hole EN-200056) in 2135, which means that Lev was a post mortem child, a child who, at the prior request of his parents, was grown «in vitro» from his mother’s fertilized ovum. Such practice was common on Earth in XXII century among the scientist couples who weren’t sure of their chances of survival in certain experiments.

The truth is, however, that Abalkin’s official parents never requested a post mortem child and that Lev Abalkin was, in fact, one of the «Stepchildren». This knowledge was kept away from the public and only a few people on Earth knew of his true origin. In 2139 he was the first «Stepchild» to obtain the s.c. «Wanderer’s mark».

According to the Sikorski’s Requirements, Abalkin was trained as a progressor and since 2160 worked on Saraksh. He was especially interested in the contact with Golovans, so until 2162 he led the diplomatic negotiations between them and Earth. In 2162-63 he was in charge of the Saraksh sub-project «Golovans in Space».

In 2163 Abalkin was the first (and only) human to work in pair with a Headie, Schyokn-Itrch, during the unsuccessful rescue operation «Dead World» on Hope. Between 2164 and 2166 he worked on Giganda, but after an accidental encounter with another «Stepchild», Korney Yashmaa, who already knew of his true origin (but not of Abalkin’s one), COMCON-2 moved Abalkin back to Saraksh in 2170.

In 2178 Abalkin disappeared under suspicious circumstances and, without providing any reasons, returned to Earth. Being closely chased by Maxim Kammerer and Rudolf Sikorski, he tried to obtain his corresponding «detonator» from the Museum of Extraterrestrial Cultures (MEC). In the end, Abalkin managed to convince his childhood friend Maya Glumova to let him enter the forbidden sections of MEC, where the «detonators» were stored, but Sikorski has foreseen such outcome and set a trap for him. Lev Abalkin was killed by Sikorski moments before he could reach his «detonator».

Leonid Gorbovsky (Горбовcкий, Леонид)
Leonid Gorbovsky is a fictional character in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky’s series of science fiction novels set in the Noon Universe.

Biography

Leonid Gorbovsky’s birth year is unknown, but most probably he was born in the end of XXI century, because in 2104 he already participated in the mission to Cepheus led by August-Iogann Bader. Back then Bader was the captain of the ship, while Gorbovsky was mere a scientist under his command, but by 2118 he was already famous enough for his space adventures to be a role model for many boys back on Earth (e.g. Gennady Komov). His first spaceship had the name «Tariel».

In 2119, Gorbovsky was one of the main scientists behind the development of the «Venus Project» and in 2121, he was working again with August Bader on the artificial satellites of Vladislava. Although their interests barely interesected (Bader was exploring the satellites, while Gorbovsky landed on the planet hoping to find a Wanderers’ city on the surface), both of them were able to understand each other and create a s.c. «Wanderers’ Road» list — a list of star systems, where the traces of Wanderers’ activities were most like to be found (e.g. Saula was on that list, too).

Gorbovsky was the one who discovered Leonida (maybe, even named after him) in 2133, but soon after the discovery he had to leave the planet due to health problems of his crew members and leave Gennady Komov in charge. However, Komov only stayed there for a short time, too, and left immediately after the discovery of Leoniders’ civilization. Gorbovsky led the consequential negotiations with Leonida on behalf of Earth World Council and COMCON. By that time he was already a prominent and influential member of both this organizations.

In 2137, Leonid Gorbovsky briefly participated in the discussion of the «Stepchildren Case», but has shown little interest in it.

He was also on Rainbow in 2156, when the infamous incident with the Wave took place. He was the captain of «Tariel II» spaceship («Tariel I» was probably destroyed prior to that), that delivered special equipment to the scientists on the planet. During the catastrophe, Gorbovsky’s ship was used to evacuate all children to space, but since she was the only one on Rainbow, all adults had to stay on the surface. It is unknown, how Gorbovsky survived the catatrophe, since he abandoned «Tariel II» (leaving Stanislav Pishta, his first mate, in charge of her) to make more room for the children.

Leonid Gorbovsky reappeared in space five years later, when the «Ark Project» commenced in 2161. While showing no interest in the original goals of the operation, he changed his attitude after a contact with Ark Megaforms was established. As a member of COMCON, Gorbovsky tried to join the Komov’s party in the area of contact, but hasn’t succeeded and had to stay away from it. He advised Komov many times not to force a contact on Megaforms, but he didn’t listen, even though in the end Gorbovsky turned out to be right.

Leonid Gorbovsky’s last famous activities in XXII century were those connected to the «Great Revelation». In 2199 he and Gennady Komov represented the human race in their negotiations with Ludens (represented by Daniel Logovenko).

Gorbovsky is famous for his habit of laying down to rest on any horizontal surface accessible. He motivates it by saying that in a space flight, he may not do so, therefore he tries to compensate it by «reducing the entropy of the universe» on any other occasion. This habit has caused a lot of jokes about him.

Maxim Kammerer (Каммерер, Максим)
Maxim Kammerer (2137 — ?) is a fictional character in Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s series of science fiction novels set in the Noon Universe.

Biography

Kammerer starts out as an adventurer and space explorer, becoming involved in the politics of the local civilization of Saraksh and overthrowing the totalitarian regime of one of its states in 2157. However, his actions also resulted in a severe crisis (both political and psychological) on the planet, forcing him to stay there and help the progressors to sort it out. Approximately at that time he also discovered the canoid race of Golovans.

Later Kammerer became a prominent official in the COMCON-2, «Contacts Committee», which is a type of intelligence and security service. His career thereafter focuses on studying the Wanderers, an alien civilization that has left traces on many of the planets known to humans of Earth. In 2178 he was briefly acquainted with the «Stepchildren Case».

While gathering little meaningful information about intentions, history, or potential threat of the Wanderers to the human civilization of Earth, Kammerer eventually presided, as the head of the «Unexplained Events» department of the COMCON-2, over the Great Revelation involving the discovery of Ludens, a subgroup of humans capable of superhuman intelligence after certain medical procedures.

Originally, Strugatsky brothers dubbed Maxim Maxim Rostislavsky (Максим Ростиславский). However, the Soviet censors demanded that Maxim’s last name would be changed to something more Germanic (this was part of the censor’s efforts to steer the novel away from its originally anti-Soviet[citation needed] undertones). When Strugatsky brothers got an opportunity to reverse the changes brought on by Soviet censors, they chose to retain the «Kammerer» last name. They felt that changing it back to the original would create a continuity problem for other Noon Universe stories where Maxim went by his altered last name.

Gennady Komov (Комов, Геннадий)
Gennady Komov (2103 — ?) is a fictional character in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky’s series of science fiction novels set in the Noon Universe.

Biography

Gennady Komov was born in 2103 and by 2118 had proven himself as a man (at that time — still a boy) of action by organizing and nearly succeeding in a flight to Venus, together with his friends, Michael Sidorov, Paul Gnedyh and Alexander Kostylin. At that time, the «Venus Project» idea was extremely popular on Earth and Komov always dreamed of space flights (his role model was Leonid Gorbovsky)... but luckily for them, their mentor Tenin became aware of their plans and stopped this suicidal initiative. Later Komov received a Ph.D. in xenopsychology.

In 2133, Gennady Komov was the captain of an expedition to Leonida that made the first contact with Leoniders. But upon discovering a local civilization, Komov decided to leave the planet immediately and let the professional diplomats establish negotiations.

His next famous mission was that to EN-9173 in 2137, when Boris Fokin’s rangers group discovered the so-called «Sarcophagus» (see «Stepchildren Case»). It was Komov’s decision to classify all information about it, although later, as a member of Earth World Council, he anticipated activating the embryos stored within it since he believed they were potential agents in negotiations between humans and Wanderers.

In 2161, he was the leader of an ecologist group that was supposed to turn Ark into a planet suitable for the Pantians. However, as soon as a local civilization of Ark Megaforms was discovered, his objective changed to establishing contact with them, in which he failed after numerous attempts. By that time he was already a prominent member of COMCON.

In approximately 2162, Komov was promoted to the head of COMCON and personally supervised (as one of the leading Golovans-experts) the «Golovans in Space» project led by Lev Abalkin. This operation was, however, stopped abruptly and Abalkin was transferred to Hope, much to his dissatisfaction. On Hope, Komov personally directed the operation «Dead World», constantly keeping an eye on the Abalkin-Schyokn-Itrch duo.

His last famous activities in the 22nd century were those connected to the «Great Revelation». In 2199 he and his childhood idol, Leonid Gorbovsky, represented the human race in their negotiations with the Ludens (represented by Daniel Logovenko).

Rudolf Sikorski (Сикорски, Рудольф)
Rudolf Sikorski (2075 — ?) is a fictional character in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky’s series of science fiction novels set in the Noon Universe. Sikorski appears in Prisoners of Power, Beetle in the Anthill, and The Time Wanderers.

Biography
Sikorski was one of the key figures on Earth in the XXII century. It is unclear how he rose up, but in 2137 he was already a member of Earth’s World Council as well as of recently founded COMCON-2. In 2137 Sikorski was appointed to the «foundling» case as its director and curator and classified all information about it, so that nearly nothing was leaked to the public of Earth.

In 2152 he enlisted in the Institute of Experimental History and became a progressor. His first (and, probably, last) mission was that on Saraksh, where he soon became the project chief. In 2157 he met Maxim Kammerer, who later became his apprentice — first on Saraksh and then in COMCON-2. Some sources indicate that Rudolf Sikorski participated on the Saraksh project until 2165.

In 2165 Rudolf Sikorski returned to Earth and for the next 13 years devoted himself to the foundling case, which he believed was vital for the Earth’s existence. In 2178 he assigned Maxim Kammerer to the task of locating a «Stepchild», Lev Abalkin, who disappeared from his view. But Kammerer failed and Sikorski had to lure Abalkin into a trap and assassinated him, because he believed it to be the only way of protecting Earth.

Shortly after the assassination of Abalkin in 2178, Rudolf Sikorski had to leave his position as the head of COMCON-2 under the pressure of public disapproval. Maxim Kammerer became his successor as the chief of COMCON-2.

Just as Maxim Kammerer, Rudolf Sikorski was originally given a Russian name by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky — Pavel Grigorievitch (Павел Григорьевич). However, the Soviet censors didn’t allow it, so the authors had to find a more Germanic one for him.