# Rudy Hartman — Short Fiction character guide

> Rudy Hartman in Short Fiction by Henry Kuttner.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Hartman, Pirate Rudy Hartman, Hastily Hartman

**First appearance:** 0000-the-secret-of-kralitz

## Snapshot

A hasty pirate who helped drag Andrea into the Plutonian mess, now trapped aboard Duncan's suicide cruiser with no exit but Pluto.

## Who they are

Hartman is the nervous third man in a hijacked cruiser, the one who reads the ship's weakness and the radium box before anyone else does. He helped engineer the scheme that killed Andrea, and now he watches Duncan's cold fury with the helpless dread of a man who knows he's riding to his own execution. His flinches and warnings sharpen the early arc's moral arithmetic: everyone aboard is complicit, and nobody gets to leave.

## In the story

### [II: Invisible Pirate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_27_se/chapters/ii-invisible-pirate)

Drunk and disheveled, Hartman prepares the blacked-out cruiser and explains the danger of Plutonians.

### [III: Destination—Death!](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_27_se/chapters/iii-destination-death)

Nervous wreck without khlar; warns about the ship's structural weakness.

### [IV: The Destroying Avenger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_27_se/chapters/iv-the-destroying-avenger)

Awakens first from suspended animation, overpowers Duncan, and proposes summoning the Varra to escape Pluto.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_27_se/characters/rudy_hartman
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_27_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_27_se/characters