# Short Science Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Science Fiction by Noel Loomis.

- [High-Pockets Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/high_pockets_jones.md): High-Pockets Jones moves through the labor conflicts of the printing plants like a rumor made flesh, his talent with linecasting machines matched only by his inconvenient habit of appearing exactly where trouble is brewi
- [Grant Russell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/grant_russell.md): Grant Russell has spent three years on Venus chasing the stake that will let him reclaim his daughter Beth from a welfare home, and now he finally has something worth protecting. But The Pass is a trap of informers and m
- [Mark Renner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/mark_renner.md): Mark Renner drifts through a 2021 where work is scarce and points are everything, so when a shrieking old lady accuses him of injuring her foot, he signs her outrageous claim rather than argue. But the woman drops her ac
- [Slim Coleman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/slim_coleman.md): Slim Coleman works detection alongside a narrator who dodges their landlord Swanberg and hauls ham sandwiches through coal chutes to keep the rent at bay. Three months behind and betting everything on the Brain-Finder, S
- [Dale Stevenson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/dale_stevenson.md): Dale Stevenson commands Sun-Station No. 18, a man-made island of sodium mirrors and rocket berths that lights Paris by night, and he has been psych-tested and certified as stable. But the Bryd, curled in his mind since h
- [Jeffrey Wadsworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/jeffrey_wadsworth.md): Jeffrey Wadsworth sits before the Map in the Midwest Chamber, commanding rockets and explosive screens in a war where only the losing president will die. He chose this station deliberately, and Hoshawk watches him flick 
- [Dalen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/dalen.md): Dalen sits on the IX Galactic Council, newly arrived from the LIII Constellation Committee and already clashing with Mogar, its most senior and thunderous member. Where Mogar sees bipeds with opposed thumbs as self-destr
- [Old Arturius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/old_arturius.md): Arturius works the linecasting machines alongside High-Pockets Jones, and when a line sticks at transfer he arrives with a scowl diluted by self-satisfaction. He knows the equipment, and he knows more than he lets on abo
- [Dr. Hudson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/dr_hudson.md): Dr. Hudson advises the narrator during the Legal Printing Company offensive, installing a mind-reading device at the water fountain with a private line back to his desk. He is methodical, clinical, and willing to weaponi
- [Electron Eat Electron Supreme General Hoshawk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/electron_eat_electron_supreme_general_hoshawk.md): Hoshawk watches President Wadsworth undergo cosmic-ray conditioning with narrow, piercing eyes, barely restraining his contempt for a sixteen-year-old commander with an I.Q. of 340. He has spent thirty years resenting th
- [Marillyn Stevenson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/marillyn_stevenson.md): Marillyn is the invalid whose care has shaped Dale's life and finances, and she reads her own medical situation more honestly than he does. She urges him to stop chasing newfangled cures and go have fun, but her gentle p
- [The Bryd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/the_bryd.md): The Bryd curled up in Dale's four-year-old mind decades ago and settled in for a long sleep, only to be jolted awake by turmoil aboard sun-station No. 18. It believes in minding its own business and not interfering with 
- [Mogar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/mogar.md): Mogar clawed his way to a modest seat on the Galactic Council and now treats conservatism as a survival strategy, opposing any experiment whose outcome might embarrass his judgment. Having watched younger gods pass him o
- [Relegar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/relegar.md): Relegar controls The Pass's intelligence network because only a Uranian can hear the fish-people's high-range speech, and no Uranian trusts another, leaving him the sole interpreter of their dialect. Anything of value fo
- [Penelope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/penelope.md): A poised and perceptive individual who interacts with key characters.
- [Ann Wondra](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/ann_wondra.md): A capable woman involved in the central conflicts.
- [Tom Ellingbery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/tom_ellingbery.md): A local figure whose household is touched by the strange events.
- [Swanberg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/swanberg.md): A married couple who appear in a supporting role.
- [Conley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/conley.md): A character with a limited but notable presence.
- [Charlie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/charlie.md): A recurring name, possibly a narrator or focal character in a segment.
- [Netse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/netse.md): A Jovian character with a specific role in the story.
- [The Uranian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/the_uranian.md): A non-human character from Uranus, appearing in a specific scene.
- [Beth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/beth.md): A minor character, possibly a friend or family member.
- [Nellie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/nellie.md): A minor character with a few mentions.
- [Doc](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters/doc.md): A nickname for a character, possibly a doctor or mentor.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_science_fiction_2_se/characters