Dan Sylveste (full name Daniel Calvin Lorean Soutaine-Sylveste) - son of Calvin Sylveste and a member of an enormously wealthy Sylveste family of scholars and industrialists from Yellowstone - was the driving force behind the Resurgam expedition and the original leader of the colony.
Personal history[]
He was an archaeologist studying the ruins of the ancient Amarantin, convinced that their history held the key to why no alien species had yet survived long enough for humans to make contact. It eventually became apparent that Dan was a biological clone of his father, an immortality contingency plan that was never enacted.
Dan was a driven man who had come closer to penetrating a Shrouder enclave than anyone else living, but it was only after that experience that he developed an interest in the Delta Pavonis system. After settling Resurgam his investigations eventually revealed that the scouring of the entire planet's surface by a coronal mass ejection - from its otherwise stable star - coincided with the period in which the Amarantin were gaining spaceflight.
Sometime after arriving on Resurgam Dan's eye were injured, and replaced with prosthetic ones by the beta-level simulation of his father, Calvin.
After a pair of coups oust him and then his replacement from office, Sylveste's ability to research his theories was nonexistent; and after the latter coup his replacement eyes were greatly damaged.
The Nostalgia for Infinity arrived in the system eight months after the latter coup in 2566, searching for Dan Sylveste so that he could heal Captain Brannigan, with the help of his father's beta-level simulation. Sylveste was taken aboard the ship, which he had been on board before one-hundred and six years earlier, in the Epsilon Eridani system. Once he was aboard, traces of the Sun Stealer entity that had been aboard since that previous visit were able to gain influence over the ship and Sylveste. Fighting broke out for control of the lighthugger.
Sylveste unwittingly - under the influence of Sun Stealer - awoke the Inhibitors to the existence of mankind, by triggering the inhibitor device left near the Hades object. Too late Dan realized he was no longer in control and tried to destroy himself and the Inhibitor artifact with anti-lithium 'hot dust'.
He was eventually inducted into the Hades Matrix, an apparent neutron star that was actually a solid sphere of computronium, where he effectively became an immortal component of the computronium.
Relatives[]
- Lorean Sylveste (famous grandfather, member of the Sylveste family)
- Calvin Sylveste (father, member of the Sylveste family)
- Rosalyn Souitane (mother, later revealed to not be his direct biological parent)
- Alicia (ex-wife, leader of a mutiny among Resurgam colonists)
- Pascale (later wife)
Appearances[]
Notes[]
- For many years, Dan was under the impression he was the son of Calvin and Rosalyn Soutaine, only to learn later he was actually a clone of his father, Calvin, though with some genetic engineering done to add certain differences, and traits from his official mother, Rosalyn.