Ozzie Fernandez Isaac
Names: Ozzie Fernandez IsaacOzzieMr. Isaacthe great OzzieOzzie IsaacMr. IssacOzzie IsaacsMr. IsaacsOzzie legendsBossOswald IsaacOswald
First appears in Book 1: Pandora's Star, chapter 4 (THREE)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Pandora's Star
- Ch 4Co-inventor of the wormhole generator and legendary wildman of the Commonwealth; his thought routines were the basis of the SI.
- Ch 4Attends as CST's technical advisor to the Council, arriving late and hungover in casual clothes, still wearing a big Afro.
- Ch 4Argues the Dyson barrier aggressor no longer exists and finds it a curious coincidence that a threat approached the only civilization able to defend itself.
- Ch 4Ozzie is delighted by the starship idea and teases Nigel about hyperspace.
- Ch 9Ozzie was born on Earth but rarely returns, disliking how sanitized and lifeless New York has become, especially the lack of children.
- Ch 9Ozzie lives in a hollowed-out asteroid orbiting the Leo Twins, reached by a private modified wormhole generator and a micro-width CST link.
- Ch 9Ozzie opposes sending a starship to the Dyson Pair, arguing it would be poking a hornet's nest and alert whoever built the barrier.
- Ch 9Ozzie and Nigel helped establish the SIs on Vinmar and negotiated that RIs replace SIs in running CST's big arrays.
- Ch 9Ozzie sent incomplete copies of his own memories to run in the SI arrays, hoping for privileged treatment.
- Ch 9Ozzie arrives in Lyddington dressed for hiking with a saddle and heavy pack, intending to pathwalk deep into the forest to other worlds.
- Ch 9Ozzie is very old, rejuvenated over centuries, and with Nigel gave humanity unlimited opportunity; he avoids interfering in others' lives unless faced with monstrous evil.
- Ch 9Ozzie grew up on the streets of San Diego and has an ExoProtectorate Council mission that he avoids the cultural mission for.
- Ch 9Ozzie buys a lontrus as a pack animal and has his horse Polly reshod, then leaves Lyddington on the third morning.
- Ch 9Ozzie gives Orion forty dollars for clothes and food, and offers to place him with a family, but Orion refuses to leave in case his parents return.
- Ch 9Ozzie opened the human gates, has walked to hundreds of planets, and is known as the oldest and richest person ever. He is over three centuries old.
- Ch 9Ozzie is a former physicist whose curiosity is roused by the Silfen damping field that disables his electronics.
- Ch 9Ozzie plans to slip away from Orion before dawn, but cannot bring himself to abandon the boy and tucks his blanket around him.
- Ch 9Ozzie had a Silfen language memory implanted at the Augusta clinic and uses it to speak with the Silfen.
- Ch 9Ozzie met the Silfen a couple of times before on Jandk and found them irritating, like kindergarten children.
- Ch 9Ozzie is trying to find where the Silfen go after they leave their forests, because he has a question for the thing they become.
- Ch 9Ozzie speaks Silfen well because he cheats, using some form of built-in memory aid; he admits he is not sure of the thing he seeks.
- Ch 9Ozzie believes the Silfen are real and know things they shouldn't, and says that is why humans' devoted followers treat them as messiahs.
- Ch 12Ozzie and Orion are on the eighth day in the Silfen forest, riding through cold mist and dark alpine trees; Ozzie dresses in old-fashioned clothes since semiorganic ones don't work on Silfen worlds.
- Ch 12Ozzie is wealthy and famous, has Jaguar-Chevrolet T-birds in his garage, and admits he gives some money to charity when he remembers.
- Ch 12Ozzie realises from the short day, snow and cold that they are probably no longer on Silvergalde, and hopes the Silfen will not let harm come to them.
- Ch 12Ozzie lacks semiorganic clothing, so he layers waterproofs and sweaters, which keeps him warm but limits his mobility.
- Ch 12Ozzie invented the gateways; Sara Bush recognises him by name. He is stranded with Orion on a frozen Silfen world.
- Ch 12Ozzie fires red distress flares and is answered by a green beacon across the icy plain, then waits in his tent for rescuers.
- Ch 12Ozzie fears the Silfen are not as kind as humans believe, and that many seekers of the deep paths died on such worlds.
- Ch 13Ozzie, a technically minded man, deduces the pyramid's crystal mirrors focus sunlight and is astonished by the Silfen cathedral.
- Ch 13Ozzie wants to learn where the gathered alien species come from and whether they know more about the Silfen; he intends to leave soon.
- Ch 17Ozzie is in the Ice Citadel, where he dislikes the red light and hosts evening gatherings lit by a lamp in his room.
- Ch 17Ozzie has been stranded in the Ice Citadel for about seventeen weeks and is impatient to leave, planning an escape following the Silfen hunt.
- Ch 17Ozzie proposes evacuating everyone at once by following the hunt on lightweight sleds pulled by relays of animals.
- Ch 17Ozzie secretly worries he cannot get Orion out safely, and considers how much simpler it would be to leave the boy behind.
- Ch 17Ozzie is rich, has had hundreds of wives, and is on the paths for a reason tied to events in the Commonwealth.
- Ch 17Ozzie distrusts his fellow travelers and locks the group's packs in a carbon wire security mesh; others once tried to break in.
- Ch 17Ozzie, with a friend, created wormholes, which George references as the basis of the Commonwealth's waste dumping.
- Ch 17Ozzie realized the tochee speaks in ultraviolet light patterns after switching his retinal inserts through the spectrum, and began building a vocabulary with it.
- Ch 17Ozzie plans to use translation routines in his inserts and to teach Tochee the human alphabet, and wants it to join him and Orion in escaping.
- Ch 17Ozzie keeps his belongings in a padlocked security mesh and is not very trusting.
- Ch 18Ozzie is skiing across ice in freezing cold, wearing icewhale fur.
- Ch 18Ozzie plans to leave the Ice Citadel with Orion and Tochee by following the Silfen off the planet, and he is eager to escape.
- Ch 18Ozzie recalls Nigel's spacewalk on Mars nearly three and a half centuries ago, when their space suit was badly inadequate.
- Ch 18Ozzie uses retinal inserts to zoom in and to see ultraviolet, which lets him read Tochee's flashing patterns.
- Ch 18Ozzie has retinal inserts with zoom, infrared and filter functions, and keeps being rejuvenated; he jokes he is headed for hell.
- Ch 18Ozzie claims the Silfen are experiencing physical life as a stage and will eventually join their adult community, saying a man in a bar told him.
- Ch 18Ozzie feels guilty for bringing Orion to witness the hunt and comforts him, insisting the Silfen do not truly die.
- Ch 18Ozzie propositions Sara, and they discover a mutual misunderstanding: others assumed Ozzie and Orion were a couple, which he firmly denies.
- Ch 18Ozzie comforts Orion, insisting the Silfen are not evil and that his parents are probably walking the paths happily, and keeps the discarded pendant hoping it will guide them.
- Ch 18Ozzie privately suspects the icewhale planet may be as artificial as Silvergalde, and is three hundred fifty years old.
- Ch 18Ozzie, Orion and Tochee have only eight heatbricks left, giving three guaranteed safe nights.
- Ch 18Ozzie had believed nothing bad could happen to travelers on the Silfen paths, but now knows his life is at risk and relies on the alien pendant.
- Ch 18Ozzie leads the group and ties a rope from his waist to the sledge to keep it connected in the snowfall.
- Ch 18Ozzie communicates with Tochee by writing on parchment; Tochee replies in capitals, saying it will keep going as long as it lives.
- Ch 21Travelling the Silfen paths with Tochee and Orion, he is worried by the larger-than-normal world they are crossing and has found no path leading out.
- Ch 21Ozzie is uneasy about the empty planet and distrusts its river water, fearing alien parasites, though he jokes and hides his fear from Orion.
- Ch 21Ozzie gives Orion dating advice and pickup lines, finding the boy's one-track mind embarrassing, and carries a diamond-tipped blade and flares.
- Ch 21Ozzie knows the Silfen language, and recognises that the ghost voices are not Silfen.
- Ch 21Ozzie believes time cannot flow backward, and theorizes Silfen paths work like wormholes desynchronized in time, letting travelers move forward into the future.
- Ch 21Ozzie asks the Silfen whether this place is the answer to the Dyson barrier and the imprisoned stars; they answer only cryptically.
- Ch 21Ozzie is devastated after the vision, weeping for hours, and needs Orion's comforting touch despite being fiercely independent.
- Ch 22Ozzie's electronics begin working again on the new world, and he sets up a handheld array to translate Tochee's speech.
- Ch 22Ozzie recognizes the world as one Bradley Johansson described: a planet inside a gas halo around a star, with tree reefs.
- Ch 23Ozzie admits he does not understand this planet and tells Orion they must find things out together.
- Ch 23Ozzie's handheld array has been broadcasting first contact signals and a human SOS, but the entire spectrum remains silent.
- Ch 25Mellanie guesses the private wormhole and giant rotating cylinder habitat belong to Ozzie; the SI tells her to respect his privacy.
- Ch 26Ozzie is puzzled by the tide-locked planet's steady mild climate, its enormous apparent size, and the water spheres in the gas halo, but lacks equipment to investigate.
- Ch 26Ozzie feels guilty that Orion has become near-savage, and resolves to restore hygiene and start teaching him by having him read background files.
- Ch 26Ozzie privately doubts the crude raft and its palm-frond sail will work, hoping Tochee can tow it or oars will suffice.
- Ch 26Ozzie leads the raft voyage, using retinal inserts to scan for land, and insists they keep moving; he is baffled by the sea's rushing current.
Book 2: Judas Unchained
- Ch 2Ozzie realises the waterfall is artificial and that they are in freefall, and has Tochee swim through the air to tow the raft out of danger.
- Ch 6Ozzie is the practical leader of the raft party, rationing resources and designing sailing ideas while worrying about water and Tochee's health.
- Ch 6Ozzie recycles his urine through his hand-pumped filter into drinking water and orders Orion and Tochee to save theirs too.
- Ch 6Ozzie once lived on Akreos when its sun entered a cold expansion phase, and married an English woman named Annabelle there.
- Ch 6Ozzie has retinal inserts, virtual vision and an e-butler, and constantly broadcasts a distress signal that nobody has answered.
- Ch 6Ozzie tells a story from one of his past lives, in which he lived on Akreos with Annabelle and their children when the sun failed.
- Ch 6Ozzie injured his right knee and cheeks in the crash, damaging some OCtattoos on his face.
- Ch 8Ozzie is cofounder of CST with an equal share alongside Sheldon, and has not been seen publicly for years.
- Ch 8Ozzie left a recording saying he went into the Silfen paths on Silvergalde to find answers about the Dyson sphere and the center of their forests.
- Ch 9Ozzie, Orion and Tochee are stranded on Island Two, a reef in the gas halo, after the Pathfinder broke up. Ozzie's knee is stiff.
- Ch 9Ozzie insists nothing lives on Island Two, arguing that no one would populate islands in the gas halo with troglodyte species.
- Ch 9Ozzie believes the reef is a biological carbon sink in the gas halo's ecosystem, with a gravity generator that probably steers it and was put on a collision course with them.
- Ch 9Ozzie wants to find the reef's gravity generator to try to steer the reef somewhere, as they have no other options.
- Ch 9Ozzie is weary of travelling, longs to get home, and feels sure the Silfen adult community is watching and manipulating the paths to bring them together.
- Ch 9Ozzie explodes in rage at a diamond-inscribed pillar, believing the Silfen are mocking him, and declares it is merely the reef's serial number.
- Ch 9Ozzie can sense when he is on a path, a trait he has had for some time and keeps quiet about.
- Ch 9Ozzie alone remembers yesterday's visit to a central clearing with a serial number pillar, which Orion and Tochee have no memory of.
- Ch 9Ozzie's bruised toes have healed and his recorded files contain no trace of the pillar, and the jungle at the reef's middle shows no clearing.
- Ch 9Ozzie finds a jungle spot where he had a vision or hallucination, but neither Orion nor Tochee remember it and sensors detect nothing.
- Ch 12Ozzie suspects he is reliving the same day, possibly an illusion made by the Silfen, and is unsure whether Orion and Tochee are real.
- Ch 12Ozzie reasons the crash on Island Two was no accident and that the Silfen will come to the reef's spires.
- Ch 12Was seeking who built the barriers around the Dyson Pair and why; learns humans released the Dysons.
- Ch 12Accepts the Silfen pendant and briefly senses the Silfen Motherholme, recognising its beauty but also that it is alien and will not help humans.
- Ch 12Promises to buy Orion the best equipment and boots, and decides to leave the next day.
- Ch 13Ozzie ordered the Sheldon political office in 2243 to oppose cargo inspections for Far Away, apparently helping the Guardians.
- Ch 13Ozzie was lost track of on Silvergalde; he went to ask the Silfen about the Dyson Pair barriers and hasn't been seen since.
- Ch 15Ozzie has gained a path-sense from the Silfen paths, letting him sense which paths lead toward the Commonwealth, though not as precise as satnav.
- Ch 15Ozzie discovers from unisphere dates that he was away from the Commonwealth over three years, though he experienced only eighteen months walking the paths.
- Ch 15Ozzie uses his bank tattoo and identity certificate to get the Ledbetter's penthouse and pays well for discretion about Tochee.
- Ch 15Ozzie feels responsible for Orion and plans to return to his asteroid and think about what to do next.
- Ch 15Ozzie returns from his journey with the Silfen, drinks heavily, and learns the Anomines built the barriers around the Dyson Pair and will not help humanity.
- Ch 15Ozzie admits he was a participant in the Great Wormhole Heist alongside Bradley Johansson, which he saw as a swan song for the generator he built with Nigel.
- Ch 15Ozzie ordered the Dynasty political office to block inspection of cargo sent to Far Away because Johansson's story made him wonder if the Starflyer was real.
- Ch 15Ozzie begs Nigel not to commit genocide against the Primes, having walked a ghost planet and felt its species die.
- Ch 15Ozzie proposes repairing the disabled barrier generator and asks to go on the nova bomb ship; Nigel refuses.
- Ch 15Ozzie used Johansson as an excuse to play superthief; he stopped Far Away cargo inspections.
- Ch 16Ozzie Isaac returned to the Commonwealth with a teenage boy and a new alien species and was taken to Cressat; he knows who put the barrier around the Dyson Pair.
- Ch 16The SI says Ozzie took part in the Great Wormhole Heist, implying he was a Guardian.
- Ch 16Ozzie, Orion and Tochee are under house arrest at a Sheldon mansion after a bust-up between Ozzie and Nigel Sheldon over the war.
- Ch 16Ozzie is studying a projection of the Dark Fortress generator, claiming he is trying to save the universe with little time left.
- Ch 16Ozzie is confined in the mansion with only limited biochip wetwiring and no unisphere access, and is studying the Dark Fortress data.
- Ch 16Ozzie concludes the Starflyer's quantum-distortion device is only disrupting the barrier generator, which may still work if the device is removed.
- Ch 16Ozzie owns forty-nine percent of CST and plans to use a quantumbuster beam against the disruption device, so he must escape the mansion.
- Ch 16Ozzie stages the guilty embrace and angry quarrel as an act so Mellanie has an excuse to go to Orion and leave after dark.
- Ch 16Ozzie is a huge celebrity in the Commonwealth, regarded by many as a saint or fallen angel.
- Ch 16Ozzie owns half of CST, but Nigel handles its day-to-day running and has kept Ozzie confined.
- Ch 16Ozzie hopes to find the Sheldon Dynasty's secret starship base on Cressat, probably at the one place Nigel would build something so secret.
- Ch 17Ozzie avoids Cressat's net because he fears Nigel and Nelson have found his backdoor codes; he infiltrated a copy of the SI into the Sheldon Dynasty's world.
- Ch 17Ozzie begs Giselle to get him to the starships, believing a small chance exists to avert genocide, and insists only he will be at risk.
- Ch 17Ozzie lies that he is wetwired with weapons to cow Mark, then admits he is only wired with a few bioneural chips.
- Ch 17Ozzie wrests control of the Charybdis via the SIsubroutine and takes it into space, going FTL toward Dyson Alpha.
- Ch 17Ozzie hijacked the Charybdis, intending to use a quantumbuster against the Starflyer gadget disrupting the generator's quantum state and reactivate the barrier.
- Ch 17Ozzie claims he will stop humanity and MorningLightMountain from killing each other, and refuses to hand the frigate to MorningLightMountain.
- Ch 19Ozzie is 360 years old, built the first wormhole generator, and insists he is not a Starflyer agent despite Mark's accusations.
- Ch 19Ozzie hijacked the Charybdis hoping to reach Dyson Alpha and restart the barrier generator, opposing Nigel Sheldon's plan to nova the star.
- Ch 19Ozzie may be heading for the Dark Fortress to restart the barrier, which would show he is not a Starflyer agent.
- Ch 19Ozzie pilots the Charybdis toward the Dark Fortress at Dyson Alpha, convinced the flare bomb's quantum signature is still present.
- Ch 19Ozzie fears MorningLightMountain is still a threat and that the mission is not truly finished.
- Ch 20Ozzie sent Mark and Liz a gift of ten lunch boxes of champagne, crab salad and chocolates for their new house.
- Ch 20Ozzie and the Bose motile follow an old Silfen path to the valley that is the home of MorningLightMountain.
Connections
- friend ofNigel SheldonOld friends and co-inventors of the wormhole generator
- createdSentient IntelligenceHis thought routines were the basis of the SI
- related toOzzie's asteroidowner and resident
- ally ofOrionhired guide
- ally ofNigel Sheldon
- related toOrionuninvited traveling companion
- friend ofOrionOzzie looks after the boy and travels with him
- related toNine SkyOzzie questions him about the Silfen paths
- ally oftocheeproposes teaming up to escape
- friend ofSara
- friend oftochee
- createdWormhole gateway
- partner ofAnnabellemarried on Akreos
- part ofCSTcofounder
- ally ofGuardians of Selfhoodprovided political cover
- ally ofBradley Johanssonhelped him in the Great Wormhole Heist
- ally ofMellanie Rescorai
- enemy ofNigel Sheldon
- member ofCSTowns 49 percent
- related toNigel Sheldonkeeps Ozzie penned up in the mansion; runs CST day to day
- related toCSTowns half
- partner ofGiselle Swinsolmarried
- friend ofMellanie Rescorai
- ally ofGiselle Swinsolreluctantly helps him despite past betrayal
- enemy ofMark VernonMark opposes Ozzie's hijacking while trapped aboard
- related toMark VernonOzzie kidnapped Mark aboard the Charybdis
- ally ofMark Vernon
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 4ExoProtectorate Council convenes over the Dyson barriers
Powerful Council members gather in New York to assess the threat posed by the barriers around the Dyson Pair, discovered by Dudley Bose. They debate whether the barriers are defensive or imposed.
- Book 1 · Ch 4CST reveals Beta's identical enclosure
Nigel reveals that CST's exploratory wormhole showed Dyson Beta's barrier formed within three minutes of Alpha's, identical to it, suggesting a defensive action by one civilization.
- Book 1 · Ch 4Council approves a starship
Nigel proposes building an FTL starship to investigate the Dyson Pair; the Council votes unanimously in favor and CST will partly fund it.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie returns home from New York
After the Council vote, Ozzie leaves Earth through his private wormhole to his asteroid home orbiting the Leo Twins.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie debates the SI
Ozzie questions the SI about why it backed the Dyson Pair mission, the aggressor theories, and its capabilities, then tells of a man who lived with the Silfen.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie arrives in Lyddington
Ozzie takes the train to Lyddington, walks through the muddy town, and takes a room at the Last Pony after haggling with the landlord Big Bear.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie meets Orion
Orion shows Ozzie to his room and offers to guide him to the Silfen. Ozzie learns of his abandoned situation and gives him money.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie departs for the forest
After two days of preparation with Mr. Stafford's help, Ozzie sets out on the third morning with a horse and lontrus to pathwalk into the forest.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Orion joins Ozzie
Orion catches up with Ozzie on the forest path and refuses to turn back. Ozzie gives in, and the boy travels with him.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Meeting the Silfen
Orion's pendant glows and the Silfen appear singing. Orion chases them into a clearing, and Ozzie follows and rebukes him. Ozzie speaks Silfen with one he names Nine Sky.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie questions the Silfen
Ozzie asks Nine Sky where the path leads to the thing the Silfen become. He gets only cryptic replies, though a mention of a cave convinces him he is on the right track. The Silfen then run off singing.
- Book 1 · Ch 9Ozzie and Orion resume walking
After the Silfen vanish, Ozzie explains his quest to Orion, admits they probably won't find Orion's parents, and decides to take the first path they find.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Ozzie and Orion in the cold forest
On day eight the pair ride into cold misty alpine woods; Ozzie changes clothes and they camp, struggling to light a fire with wet wood.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Buried by snow
Ozzie wakes breathless with the tent half-buried by powder snow, digs out, and Orion sees snow for the first time; Ozzie realises they are far from Silvergalde's climate.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Following the pendant and Silfen tracks
After a bitter night, Orion's pendant indicates the way, and Ozzie finds apparent Silfen footprints which they follow through deepening cold.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Orion collapses; jewelry tree discovered
Orion collapses from cold; Ozzie pitches the tent and warms him with heatbricks, then discovers the trees are crystal inside.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Rescue at the ice plain
After a freezing trek in which the animals die, Ozzie and Orion signal with flares, answered by a green beacon. Sara Bush and Bill arrive by sledge and take them to the Citadel.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Ozzie and Orion reach the Ice Citadel
Sara takes them by sled to the Ice Citadel, explaining the Silfen paths and the dangers of leaving; they descend into the vast domed hall full of many species.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Ozzie and Orion shown their quarters
Sara leads Ozzie and Orion to rooms off the great chamber, tells them to share news at the evening meal, and urges them not to rush off to find a path.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Ozzie proposes mass escape
Ozzie suggests to George that everyone leave together by following the Silfen hunt on lighter sleds pulled in relays. George refuses, arguing the Ice Citadel has a purpose and the risks are too great.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Ozzie gives Orion dating advice
Orion, lonely and inexperienced, asks Ozzie how to talk to girls; Ozzie offers a lame pickup line that Orion finds funny.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Ozzie decodes Tochee's language
Testing the tochee, Ozzie realizes it communicates through ultraviolet light patterns from its eye. He sees them with his retinal inserts and starts matching symbols to objects.
- Book 1 · Ch 17Orion learns of the breakthrough
Orion finds Ozzie surrounded by sketches of symbols. Ozzie explains the discovery and that Tochee asked to be taken out. Tochee then requests a communications device, and Orion stays to watch.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Silfen arrive to hunt
A procession of about 250 Silfen reaches the Ice Citadel to hunt icewhales. They party in the central chamber, and Sara secures permission to follow and keep the carcasses.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Preparing to leave
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee pack and sort gear, leaving surplus items behind, and agree to follow the Silfen off the world. Tochee asks not to be abandoned.
- Book 1 · Ch 18The hunt departs
At dawn the Silfen ride out chanting, and the covered sleds follow into the crystal tree forest. Tochee's sledge is towed behind Bill's sled.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Journey to the hunting ground
The sleds cross the crystal forest, descend the massif and travel across the crater plain, camping on an escarpment near the Silfen. Ozzie shelters Tochee with furs and a heatbrick.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Ozzie and Sara's misunderstanding
Ozzie hints at a relationship with Sara; both realise the others assumed he and Orion were a couple. Sara warns him to stay back from the hunt.
- Book 1 · Ch 18The icewhale hunt
Silfen riders hurl lightning spears to drive icewhales from the ice crater. The beasts kill over a dozen Silfen; Orion is horrified and Ozzie takes him inside.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Orion breaks down after the icewhale hunt
After witnessing the Silfen hunt, Orion despairs, hurls away his pendant and fears for his parents. Ozzie calms him and pockets the pendant.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Following the Silfen across the ice forest
The group skis after the departing Silfen for hours; Orion tires and they camp. Next day wind and snow erase the Silfen tracks, leaving Ozzie to rely on the pendant.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Escape from the frozen world
After hours of skiing through snow, Ozzie's group notices the snow melting and finds real trees. They conclude they have left the Ice Citadel world and emerge into a green mountain valley at dawn.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Descent into the canyon
The trio follow the river down a series of steep falls into a vast red canyon, finding an ancient fire circle and a bleached soda can that raises false hope about being in the Commonwealth.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Ghost voices and a distant light
A golden light shines downstream, apparently from seven travellers walking the avenue ahead. At night Ozzie hears frightened alien voices on the wind, which he and Orion take for ghosts.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Vision of the canyon's past
Ozzie steps out of the tent into daylight and sees a living past of jellyfish aliens with carts. Back in night, Orion thinks it is a time machine, and Ozzie insists it is only an image. Another apparition, a steam car, appears.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Discovery of the ruined palace city
Walking beside the avenue, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee see a huge cliff carved with jelly alien profiles and a ruined palace city between them.
- Book 1 · Ch 21The Silfen show the planet's last memory
Pushing through the ghostly gale, Ozzie meets elderly Silfen, who lead him to a black globe. It shows imperial starships annihilating the planet; Ozzie feels every death and collapses weeping.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Ozzie decides to leave
After recovering, Ozzie concludes the memory is the Silfen's grief and holds no answer for them, and decides to leave.
- Book 1 · Ch 22Electronics return on the ringed world
On a new world, Ozzie's devices work again. With the handheld array, Tochee and Orion converse for the first time, and Ozzie spots a gas halo around the star, recognizing the place from Bradley Johansson's tale.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Island circled
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee complete a circuit of their island after two days, find Ozzie's marker frond, and realize they are stranded; Tochee proposes building a boat.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Launch of the Pathfinder
After preparations, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee launch their raft Pathfinder, row out, raise the sail and head toward a nearby island.
- Book 1 · Ch 26The raft goes over the edge of the world
After missing several islands in a swift current, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee on the Pathfinder realise the roar ahead is a waterfall. The sea pours over a cliff, and the raft falls off the edge of the world.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Escape from the waterfall
After the Pathfinder plunges over the worldlet's edge, Ozzie realises they are in freefall and has Tochee fly them out of the weak underside gravity.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Ozzie drinks recycled urine
With water nearly gone, Ozzie filters his urine into drinkable water over Orion's disgust and orders everyone to save theirs.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Flock of flying Silfen ignores the raft
The party sights a flock of winged Silfen. Orion shouts and Ozzie fires two flares, but the flock keeps going without responding.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Ozzie plans to reach a sponge tree
Ten hours later, Ozzie decides to steer toward a sponge tree for water and food, planning to use the sail as a rudder, and reassures Orion.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Crash onto Island Two
The Pathfinder drifts into the artificial gravity of Island Two, accelerates and smashes through the treetops. Ozzie is hurt, Tochee saves him, and Orion survives by jumping.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Nigel suspects Mellanie is an SI observer
Nigel, Nelson and Perdita review Mellanie's background; Nigel concludes she is probably an SI observer and orders discreet surveillance, and a search for Ozzie.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Nigel finds Ozzie's recording
Nigel reaches Ozzie's habitat, learns of the Halgarth-Burnelli clash over Paula Myo, and finds Ozzie gone into Silfen paths on Silvergalde, leaving only a recorded message.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Morning on Island Two
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee start a day on the reef. They debate whether anything lives inside it, and Tochee reports no power or life nearby.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Ozzie explores the reef and finds the pillar
Ozzie, Orion and Tochee search the reef's center for the gravity generator, find a clearing with a diamond-inscribed pillar, and Ozzie rages at it, deciding it is only the reef's serial number.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Ozzie's missing day
Ozzie finds that Orion and Tochee remember nothing of yesterday's serial number pillar, and records and the clearing itself are absent.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Ozzie's party ambushes a figure on the reef
On the reef of Island Two, Orion spots a dark shape; Tochee pulls a humanoid down from the canopy and Ozzie tackles it as it struggles.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Clouddancer reveals the truth about the barriers
Clouddancer explains the Anomines built barriers to imprison the Dysons; a human starship disabled one generator, freeing the Dysons to invade Commonwealth planets. He refuses Silfen help.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Ozzie is named a Silfen friend
Clouddancer gives Ozzie a pendant; wearing it, Ozzie senses the Silfen Motherholme. Clouddancer departs and Ozzie decides they leave next day.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Ozzie's role revealed
Daniel finds that Ozzie ordered the political office in 2243 to block Far Away cargo inspections, showing the Guardians, not the Starflyer, were behind the obstruction.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Ozzie's party returns to the Commonwealth
After walking the Silfen paths, Ozzie, Orion and Tochee emerge on Bilma, Ozzie reconnects to the unisphere, learns three years have passed, and hires a Land Rover to Eansor.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Stay at the Ledbetter Hotel
Ozzie secures the penthouse and discreetly smuggles Tochee in. They eat, bathe and get new clothes, then he leaves Orion and Tochee with the unisphere while catching up.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Ozzie taken to Nigel
Drunk after reviewing events, Ozzie is seized by Nelson's security team, sobered up, and taken with Orion and Tochee by hypersonic and maglev to Nigel's mansion on Cresset.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Nigel questions Ozzie about the Starflyer
Nigel asks if Ozzie is a Starflyer agent; Ozzie explains his Johansson contact and confesses to taking part in the Great Wormhole Heist.
- Book 2 · Ch 15Nigel quarantines Ozzie
Nigel reveals the nova bomb plan to destroy MorningLightMountain, rejects Ozzie's pleas to try repairing the barrier generator, and confines Ozzie and his friends over suspicion he may be a Starflyer agent.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Mellanie diverted to Cressat
As Hoshe's arrest team moves on Alessandra Baron, the SI tells Mellanie to impersonate call girl Vanora Kingsley and reach Ozzie Isaac on Cressat; she leaves the operation.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Orion meets Jasmine
Jasmine Sheldon arrives at the mansion, bullying the security staff. Orion sees her and is smitten. Ozzie tells him to go and talk to her.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Mellanie's secret contact with Ozzie
Posing as Jasmine, Mellanie kisses Ozzie to activate a simulation in his inserts, delivering the SIsubroutine. Ozzie shares his Dark Fortress theory and plans an escape.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Ozzie's escape plan
Ozzie asks Mellanie to leave that night and have a car waiting while the SIsubroutine subverts security so he can run to the car.
- Book 2 · Ch 16The staged betrayal
Orion finds Jasmine and Ozzie embracing and flees in tears. Ozzie, acting, sends Mellanie after him, which gives her a reason to stay and leave after dark.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Escape from the mansion
With the network infiltrated, Mellanie leaves a note for Orion and takes a cab. Ozzie joins her at the cattle grid and they head off to find the Dynasty's starship base.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Ozzie visits Giselle
Ozzie and Mellanie arrive unannounced at the Illanum home of Ozzie's wife Giselle, who slaps him.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Infiltrating the starship complex
Giselle drives Ozzie and Mellanie through security to the assembly platforms and the frigate dock, where Ozzie charms Mark into letting him aboard the Charybdis.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Hijacking of the Charybdis
Ozzie seizes command of the frigate through the SIsubroutine, leaves the dock with Mark aboard and heads for Dyson Alpha at FTL.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Ozzie hijacks the Charybdis and goes FTL
Ozzie blocks Mark from the arrays and the frigate jumps to thirteen point five light-years per hour, with Mark aboard against his will.
- Book 2 · Ch 17Nigel's ultimatum
Nigel contacts Ozzie via the TD channel, demands the ship's return, tries a Trojan takeover and threatens to hunt him down. Ozzie refuses and cuts the link.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Mark fixes the quantumbuster launcher
After arguing, Ozzie persuades Mark to accept the flight; Mark gets fire authority and quickly fixes the launcher by balancing the electromuscle arms' traction.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Scylla nears Dyson Alpha
Nigel readies the nova bomb and neutron lasers as Scylla closes on Charybdis near Dyson Alpha.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Charybdis attacked at the Dark Fortress
Ozzie and Mark approach the Dark Fortress, activate active sensors, and are detected; MorningLightMountain opens wormholes and launches missiles at them while they accelerate at twelve gees.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Quantumbuster strikes at the Dark Fortress
Nigel Sheldon's Scylla fires a quantumbuster, annihilating the Prime fleet. Ozzie and Mark then reach the core and launch a quantumbuster at the Sparks ring distortion.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Flare bomb hits the Dark Fortress
Ozzie's flare bomb flashes at the Dark Fortress; afterwards Dyson Alpha's light and MorningLightMountain's signals vanish and the crews head home.
- Book 2 · Ch 20Ozzie parts from Orion, Mellanie and Tochee
Ozzie says goodbye to his friends, who go on to Tochee's world. Ozzie and the Bose motile take a Silfen path to MorningLightMountain's home.