Age: 55
Height: 6’ 2”
Body: Thin
Hair: White, crew cut.
Personality: Luche' is highly secretive and speaks only the words absolutely necessary to convey his messages.
Basic Attributes: Luche’ is always extremely aware of his immediate surroundings, with every detail... almost to a psychic level. He is typically suspicious of people and their intent.
Relevant history: A survivor of the crash, Luche’ Muskov well remembers the wonder of reaching the Procyon system. It had seemed to him that mankind’s survival was assured, and he would be part of a new world, a new order, with an extraordinary history to tell; it would change humanity’s thoughts, their entire way of living, for the better. He truly believed that everything would be well with mankind; convinced that new ages lay ahead in which remarkable stories would be told of the first settlers and the unthinkable possibilities which awaited them. Muskov embraced the mission in his youth as the most incredible adventure. This attitude endeared him to many people, most of whom could not help but have some doubt in his convictions. But he was highly social and sociable, and his many friends always felt better about things after being in his uplifting presence. There was never any doubt that he would serve as an officer of some sort, and that he would go far in the GGI.
Suffice to say, the subsequent events and the fall of the Cosmos1 changed many peoples attitudes to the mission – but not Luche’. Though he, like everyone else, lost family and friends in the crash, he would not yield his personal convictions to tragedy. In his heart and mind, he felt that this changed nothing – a remarkable, if somewhat abnormal, attribute for which he was quite unique. In fact the event seemed only to steel him to the nearing reality of mankind’s ultimate survival. He would tell all he spoke to that the heart-break and suffering they had endured would shape a future race of fantastic nobility and inhuman resolve, of heretofore unseen compassion and understanding – another renaissance in which, the greater the tragedies and difficulties endured, so much greater would be their final triumph. He would seem to preach even to his elders, whose resolve had been shattered, and helping them to recover their hope. In their darkest hours, Luche’ Muskov was the brightest of them. Even Samuel Blake, who would be known by the good he did for many people, felt re-assured by Muskov’s presence and at the time of the crash no one could say that anyone else was as pleasant to be around as the young and resolute Luche’.
He sped through the ranks of the GGI like no other. He seemed to be able to anticipate the requirements of the crew and commanding officers, and he was never short of ideas. He became something of a symbol – a living mascot – amongst the crew. His was an imagination that genuinely foresaw humanity’s survival, and this had a tremendous effect on morale. Though many people would naturally put this down to his youth, they found their mistake as they saw Luche’ mature. He did not lose his convictions with time, he only learned to better express them. Somewhere high above his station it was all but decided that he would one day serve as an Admiral of idyllic quality.
In the time it took Luche to accomplish this position, he had contributed two children to the population. Though he, like General Waquer and a few others, was exempt from the PSA laws, Luche’ chose to follow them. He accepted, however, that there would be little time to raise them, and so seldom interfered in the course of their upbringing and education. Luche’ would never marry. He believed this was an institution which was in no way required in mankind’s current state; it was the product of a settled species, and humanity was still some way from that point. It was simply logical to him. He accepted that he would be exactly what was needed to survive, and part of nothing which was not absolutely necessary.
There was but one thing in the life of Luche’ Muskov that caused him concern. He occasionally had bad dreams. He would sometimes wake in a confounded state. He was once found in his quarters, having woken from a dream, so terrified that he seemed not to recognize the other man. Later, Luche’ admitted to dreaming of a humanoid figure “with a monstrous soul” which had appeared with others in an invasion aboard the explorer, “an army of indescribable proportion, casually slaughtering the last of us, as we would swat the dust from an object to examine it.” The man who had walked into his room, Luche’ thought to be his executioner. Throughout his adulthood Luche’ would suffer these night-terrors with increasing regularity. When he reached his mid-forties, and was about to be promoted to Admiral, it was with some pity for the man who seemed to be suffering greatly, and with the hope that the promotion would lift his flagging spirits. It did not have the desired result. Though he served the position very well for the first few years he became increasingly reclusive, and less sociable when engaged in conversation. Privately, Luche’ was going under – he felt he had become particularly sensitive to something within Procyon 1 itself. He believed that perhaps the race mankind had sought had been itself destroyed, and he was now haunted by their restless spirits. General Waquer learned to keep a close eye on the Admiral, who began to perpetuate strange and upsetting rumors among the crew. And then one day, after waking, he seemed catatonic with fear for many hours, and would only utter some incomprehensible syllables “See-gee-Maw” over and over. After some deliberation it was decided that he simply could not perform his duties, and he was admitted into a psychological profiling program where he would spend the next year of his life, including a six-month period of stasis containment. This period seemed to have some effect on Luche’, though it was difficult to tell if it was a positive one. General Waquer tried to do the right thing, and restored him to minimal duty, with Katrina Dumet promoted to Admiral. Luche’ was calm and collected, but gone were all those traits that had marked him in his youth. It was thought his dreams had decreased in frequency and intensity since his stasis, but he simply learned to control their effects, even if it meant disregarding everything he once was. Though this meant that he grew steadily distant from everyone, again, Luche’ was only doing what seemed necessary to survive, and he could no longer afford to imagine his ‘new age’.
After Samuel Blake’s death, and Luche’s many years of steady service, he was given the position of Intelligence officer which he has dutifully occupied. However, it is suspected that Luche has knowledge of many things which he refuses to impart; knowledge which may in fact be helpful to their cause. He is approachable, however, only in a professional sense, and keeps his thoughts, his dreams, to himself. Some crew members have come to believe that Luche’ may even be exhibiting symptoms of a split personality, but everyone has enough problems of their own. As has been frequently muttered, keep your head down.
Character Quote:
“Nothing is right with Procyon. There’s life here that we can’t imagine; a past with a divided voice. You can hear it echoing through the walls; encroaching on the dreaming mind. Something happened here that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Many thanks to Mike Pantazi for his work on this.