Simon Rand
Names: Simon RandSimonRand
First appears in Book 1: Pandora's Star, chapter 16 (FIFTEEN)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Pandora's Star
- Ch 16Simon Rand, a minor Grand Family son, arrived on Elan 55 years ago and spent three years building a highway through the Dau'sing range to found Randtown.
- Ch 16Simon keeps Randtown clean and green: no industry, organic farms, geothermal and solar energy, no combustion engines, and strict protection of the lake from pollution.
- Ch 22Simon Rand is the founder of Randtown, apparently near sixty, a charismatic, guru-like figure surrounded by attractive acolytes, who built the highway through the mountains.
- Ch 22Simon leads the blockade and sleeps in a bus at night with his closest supporters to stop the navy convoy.
- Ch 22Simon has unofficially heard the navy may negotiate an alternative power source to plutonium.
- Ch 22Simon Rand leads the blockade; Olga thinks his principles are hurting people.
- Ch 25Simon, in orange robes, took charge of the hospital and leads Randtown's evacuation, framing it as regrouping and promising to return and rebuild his house.
- Ch 25He tells the crowd Randtown is number 876 on the evacuation list, then changes plans to leave immediately for the Highmarsh by convoy.
- Ch 25Simon Rand fires a shotgun to quiet the panicking crowd and organizes a volunteer rear guard of about two dozen guerrillas to delay the aliens.
- Ch 25Simon Rand leads the rear guard and chooses the Turquino Valley, a narrow valley, as the convoy's destination to await naval evacuation.
- Ch 25Simon stays behind at Elan to hold off the aliens, saying it is his home, while everyone else goes through the wormhole.
Book 2: Judas Unchained
- Ch 5Simon Rand leads a small band of resistance fighters hiding in a cave near Lake Trine'ba, grieving the alien destruction of his Green homeland.
- Ch 5Simon resolves that the aliens must be made to know their pollution of Lake Trine'ba is wrong.
- Ch 7Simon Rand founded Randtown, which he calls a paradise; he leads the few human survivors hiding in a cave by the Trine'ba.
- Ch 7Simon and his group store their last memories on a handheld array before venturing out, and survivors are sworn to carry them back to the Commonwealth.
- Ch 7Simon Rand trusts Mellanie, saying her rescue of the refugees is penance enough.
- Ch 12Analyzed samples and found the Primes' fungicide of limited use against tal-fungi and pesticides ineffective on Elan's insects.
- Ch 13Simon Rand founded Randtown, which has been lost; Nigel offers condolences.
Connections
- createdRandtownfounded it
- ally ofMark Vernon
- leadsRandtownleads the rear guard
- ally ofDavidfellow resistance fighter
- ally ofGeorgia
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 22Vernon family joins the blockade
Mark, Liz and the children, with Panda, drive up to the Randtown blockade on MtZuelea, where Simon Rand leads residents blocking the navy's convoy in a picnic-like protest.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Aftermath in Randtown
Mark's group enters Randtown, finds the streets full of glass and blood, and carries a wounded man to the General Hospital, where Simon and Mellanie are present.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Evacuation order and Prime landing
Simon announces an urgent convoy to the Highmarsh after Mellanie warns the aliens are coming; Prime ships then descend through the clouds over the Trine'ba, and her feed cuts out.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Rear-guard fight at Randtown
Simon Rand's guerrillas fire on landing Prime troops; the aliens retaliate, destroying many buildings and causing panic among the defenders.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Randtown convoy reaches Turquino wormhole
The convoy flees to the Turquino Valley, where Mellanie has opened a small wormhole, and Carys's group begins to pass through.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Defense of the Turquino Valley
Mark, Liz and Simon fight Prime flyers; Mellanie hijacks one. Mark's battery bomb wrecks the advancing aliens while the last Randtown refugees reach the wormhole.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Aliens pump liquid into Lake Trine'ba
Simon and David spot a wormhole gateway at Randtown pouring dark liquid into the lake and resolve to tell the other resistance fighters.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Escape downstream and rescue of Simon Rand
After the nuclear blast, Morton and Rob escape down the stream with the survivor, who identifies himself as Simon Rand, founder of Randtown.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Meeting in the cave and new plan
In the survivors' cave, Cat's Claws treats David and feeds the group. They plan to evacuate them and, following the Cat's idea, plant a nuke at the future force field boundary.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Debate over informing the navy
On the mountain saddle, Morton persuades the group to delay telling the navy about Bose. Mellanie's message confirms the secrecy and promises extraction from Elan.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Nova of the staging post star
A Commonwealth ship triggers a nova in MorningLightMountain's staging post star, destroying its wormhole generators, halting the invasion and freezing local Prime motiles temporarily.
- Book 2 · Ch 13Wormhole rescue from the Trine'ba mountains
Morton's team receives Mellanie's message, verifies her, and passes through a wormhole to Augusta with survivors and the Bose motile.