Portraits revealed through your current reading position.
An aging but still charismatic geologist sells Drummer on letting a new institute hunt for the gate builders' Rosetta stone.
Fayez Okoye-Sarkis is a geologist who survived the Ilus crisis decades earlier and remained with his wife, exobiologist Elvi Okoye, to study the alien world. He now speaks for the Chernev Institute, a research organization based on Ganymede and Luna.
Before the Transport Union board aboard People's Home, Fayez argues that humanity resembles rodents adapting to environments created by others. He wants systematic fieldwork to determine what built the gates, what happened between the launch of Phoebe and the Sol gate's creation, and whether a translatable contextual key survives. Camina Drummer finds him charming and irritating, rejects immediate union underwriting, but allows the board to review his proposals and decide whether to reduce passage fees.
An older man with expressive furrows in his forehead and a practiced, charming smile; his exact build, coloring, and clothing are not described during the presentation.
Fayez advocates for a coordinated new era of research into the identity, history, and disappearance of the gate builders.