# Captain Stark — Short Fiction character guide

> Captain Stark in Short Fiction by R. A. Lafferty.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Stark

**First appearance:** 0000-the-six-fingers-of-time

## Snapshot

A military man who finds himself named rather than born, Captain Stark confronts a garden where two people claim to be all of humanity.

## Who they are

Captain Stark leads a group of explorers into a strange garden where Ha-Adamah names them—Captain, Priest, Engineer, Flunky—and insists there are no people but two. He's dogged, practical, and increasingly unsettled by the possibility that this place is Eden and that he and his men are something other than human. His stubborn questions about apples, pomegranates, and the nature of belief drive the story's theological tension as he tests whether the garden is dream or reality.

## Relationships

### [Adam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/adam)

_professional_

Adam is a subordinate officer under Captain Stark, with a relationship defined by duty, discipline, and occasional friction over command decisions.

### [Adam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/adam)

_professional_

Adam is a subordinate officer under Captain Stark, with a relationship defined by duty, discipline, and occasional friction over command decisions.

### [Adam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/adam)

_professional_

Adam is a subordinate officer under Captain Stark, with a relationship defined by duty, discipline, and occasional friction over command decisions.

## In the story

### [In the Garden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/in-the-garden)

Leads the landing party, questions Ha-Adamah, and becomes convinced of the garden's reality.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/i)

The marooned narrator, recording his final thoughts after being abandoned by his crew.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/captain_stark
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters