Gil Rodrieguez (John's character)

[John Niska]

Gil is an inactive duty scout. He is about 1.7 meters tall and a stocky 82 kg. He has short black hair with very little curl and green eyes. He usually wears a kilt. In colder climes, he will pair the kilt with leggings. In situations where he may need to rapidly put on a vacc suit, such as traveling aboard a ship, he will wear cargo shorts or pants.

He usually has a mug of Carlisle choffee or herbal tea with him if possible. His preferred breakfast is eggs but as fresh eggs are sometimes hard to get, he will do with egg substitutes. When visiting a new world, he is very interested in trying any new egg-based meals.

He is neat and organized. Everything has a place and its place is where it should be. He learned early on in his career that if the tools are not in the right place, they might as well be no tools.

[John Niska]

Gilberto ‘Gil’ Rodriguez
Interstellar Scout Service, Inactive Duty.

Gil hails from the core world New Caledonia. Aside from school, where he excelled in the fields of science and mathematics, Gil spent his free time skiing in the Orkney Mountains, and surfing off the coast of New Inverness. His father was an engineer in the New Caledonia Shipyards and he would often take young Gil to work with him when school was out of session. Gil could not wait for the day when he could soar off into space.

After school, Gil joined the Interstellar Scout Service as the Navy or the Marines would require him to kill people and that really did not set well with Gil. He was assigned to the Courier service, running back and forth between systems, delivering messages and the occasional government package. In his third year of the term, another courier ship clipped his ship and he was injured in the crash. As his injuries were minor, he was selected for additional training and he served his fourth year learning advanced first aid.

He applied to the Survey branch and landed in Stellar Analysis. He thought he learned a lot in basic training. He had additional classes in planetology, xenobiology, physics and computers. He was doing a routine scan of a planet in the Vitzor system. The planet had previously been deemed lifeless. At first he thought it was a corrupted scanner but he took the initiative and visited the planet. He discovered the planet harbored micro-organic life after all. The discovery earned him a promotion.

In his third term, he was transferred to the Exploration Branch/Analysis. According to the scouts, his third term was pretty routine. He learned to remotely operate drones and pilot small atmospheric craft.

Gil stayed in the Exploration Branch for his fourth term. He was chosen to be part of a joint Scout/civilian research project. The company, Nurashu-Michiko Systems, was working on increasing the capabilities of handheld sensor packages. While Gil learned a little about electrical engineering, he was selected for additional training in ship systems. He was transferred to the ISS Randin’hal for his fifth term.

Working on the ISS Randin’hal, Gil learned more about the ship systems and engineering. Pirates attacked the ship during his third year. A volley of fire killed or incapacitated most of the senior officers. He assumed command, being the next in line and rallied the crew to hold off the pirates. While the ship was boarded, the scouts managed to win the day. Gil received a commendation for valor and additional training in command.

In his sixth term, Gil had an unremarkable tour of duty. He studied the science of sophontology as well as logging more time on sensor duty. On vacation, he had a minor injury while skiing. He had come home to New Caledonia and as it was late fall, he went skiing. Unfortunately, a family of bandersnatch was in the area and one of them managed to dig a claw into Gil’s leg. Gil managed to get back aboard his snowboard and escape. For his seventh term, Gil transferred back to Stellar Analysis.

The ISS Gantry was his home for his seventh tour. By this time, Gil was the head of the Stellar Analysis team, so he primarily supervised the team. Gil found time during this tour to match his experiences with the science of planetology. Research assistant Howard Robinson encouraged him to send the book up the chain of command. Stars and Planets, Scouts and Spaceships by Gilberto Rodriguez became required reading in the Scout Service/Stellar analysis school.

In his final tour, Gil stayed with Stellar Analysis but he was loaned to the Navy for a joint task force. He received a little combat-related training, but this was due to his involvement with a Navy officer rather than his duties. During his time there, he impressed the Navy and they offered him a commission in the Alliance Navy if he wanted. Gil decided he had served his time and he turned down the offer. He also decided he had served his time with the Scout service as well and he switched to inactive duty.