Character Interviews #1

The room is dimly lit, with a single, odd-looking chair illuminated by a bright light.  Next to the chair is a small metallic table with a glass of water and a plate of what could only be military ration bars.  As you wait, a door slides silently open and a man walks into the room.


He stands around 6'5" tall and has a hard, muscular build.  As he comes closer to the chair, you can see he's not an unpleasant looking fellow but not entirely what you'd call drop dead gorgeous.  His chestnut hair is cropped close to his head, and his goatee is trimmed close to his face.  His eyes are hazel.  His nose looks like it's been broken a time or two, and he carries himself with a military bearing.  As he seats himself in the chair - which accommodates itself to his tall frame and adjusts so he can sit comfortably - you see he's wearing a tight black bodysuit of some kind and a midnight blue jacket.  Strangely enough he's also wearing a pair of black gloves made of something you can't easily identify.


Ah.  Ms. Woods told me to expect an audience.  I wasn't aware she'd invited half the cosmos to witness this.  *sigh*  Let's get this over with, then.  I've got a great deal of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in.  My name is Jon Pylon.  I'm 42 standard years old, I'm married, and I have three children of my own - Sefira, Maliya, and Aeryk - and seven adopted children.  I'm the oldest - and only - son of High Admiral Hippolyta Pylon and her husband Admiral Malcolm Pylon.  We're also one of the oldest and most established of the First Families.

Hm?  A question?  Ah, yes.  I'd forgotten none of you are familiar with the world I come from.  The First Families are the descendants of the powerful leaders of the humane exodus from the Sol System.  It took a few generations to get to where we are now since FTL drives weren't common back then.  But the leaders found worlds that would suit well for the colony ships they ran and settled down.  Leadership became a generational matriarchy and that's where we get the First Families.  If you're interested in more history, I'd speak with Ms. Woods.  She's the resident historian.

I am a semi-retired pro laser ball player.  Again with the questions.  At this rate I'm never going to get done.  Laser ball is a game played usually by telekinetics, though the best teams are the ones with both telepaths and telekinetics on them.  The ball is about the size of my fist and is very hard.  The point of the game is to try to score a goal through a narrow opening in the opponents' other goal post.  It's a very dangerous game, often fatal if the other person's armor isn't kept up - or if there's a head shot - because the ball moves at blinding speeds.  It's played in zero g.  Again, if you want more details, ask Ms. Woods when next you see her.

The Pylons are, as they've always been, a military family.  I'm what you'd call the black sheep since I refused to join the navy.  I started as a laser ball player, which is where I got to know my best friend Jaspen.  He was a fan of the team I played on, and his family was one of the top R&D tech families so he got someone in his family to upgrade our armor for free.  I talked with him briefly and then after a match where we should've been slaughtered and weren't, I looked him up and spent some time with him.  He's also my wife Eloise's older brother, so you can just guess how I met her.

Jaspen is slated for one of these things, as is Eloise, so I won't go into too many details here.  My mother needed a tech family and had been looking for a daughter of a suitable Family for me to marry.  I eloped with Eloise.  Good thing I did, too.  The Telphys family turned out to be one of the greatest acquisitions our family ever had the good fortune of securing.

Now, a slight bit of history here.  The First Families started out as allies but after several generations of living in peace, someone got greedy and decided to try to conquer the rest of the regions.  This led to the ongoing conflict that rages even today between the First Families.  We're at war, a perpetual war with no end and no true recollection other than vague reports as to how it first started.  The Family the Pylons and Telphyses have the most trouble with are the Tershanes.  They're a militaristic R&D family who've got an inflated notion of their own superiority.

The war with the Tershanes heated up for a time and my parents asked me to turn my rather formidable skills to the benefit of the family.  In layman's terms, I became a spy.  I'm one of the best, and I provide a great deal of useful information to my family.  Which is what I was interrupted in doing when I was asked to come to speak to you.

*glances at an odd looking watch*  Let me wrap this up now.  I've been running deep runs into Tershane territory now for fifteen standard years.  My wife would prefer if I were home more often but is accepting of the fact that I'm rarely there.  My children aren't quite as forgiving, although Seffie is willing to forgive anyone of anything.  I'm a spy, an assassin, and a thief.  I'm hacker and, thanks to my father-in-law who gave me the impetus I needed, I'm an inventor and an engineer.  I'll probably continue this line of work until I either die or we find someone else as powerful as I am who can do the same thing I'm doing - or we find enough people to do it so I can have a break.

Jon stands up, gives a kind of salute, and strides out of the room.  He holds up his hand and one of the ration bars flies into it.  As he leaves, it becomes obvious that his mouth never moved at all during the conversation.  The words everyone heard were only in their minds, proving him to be as powerful a psionic as he claims.