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Creative Destruction

Cast of Characters
and Space-Alien Species

Major characters returning from Brighter Than the Stars
Dr. Gerry Landis	A distinguished professor of Physics at a Chicago university. In Brighter Than the Stars, his student takes him to see an unusual generator in the student’s father’s basement. The generator, really a home fusion reactor, stimulates Dr. Landis to pursue the aliens who have created and placed it. He travels to their planet, Cygnus Prime, learns the physics behind the fusion generator and writes a series of world-changing papers to share his new knowledge on Earth.
James McDermott	Fifty-year old leader of the fusion power rollout on Earth, McDermott has the backing of unspecified powerful people, which allows him free reign to do what is necessary to manage the tremendous changes caused by fusion power and the disclosure of the existence of aliens on Earth.
Salesman-Drake	The first Cygnian on Earth, who took the risks to place the first test units of the fusion generators. Referred to as Salesman by fellow Cygnians.
Sociologist-Andrew	Cygnian in charge of the rollout of the fusion power plants. Known to humans as Andrew and to Cygnians as Sociologist.
Elka Sommerfeld	A Swedish college student and Keyshawn’s girlfriend. Elka is an expert martial artist, a skill she developed to protect herself from her abusive father.
Keyshawn Washington	A student of Dr. Landis who, in Brighter Than the Stars, accompanies him to Cygnus Prime as an assistant and is abducted by a radical Cygnian group determined to drive all predators off of their planet. In Creative Destruction, Keyshawn is part of the team rolling out the fusion generation stations throughout the USA and UK.
Jason Wise	An operative of the Sirian Secret Service whose skill in designing and building disguises has allowed him to operate undetected on Earth for sixty years.

Major characters new in Creative Destruction
Marshall Bourbonnais	A Mississippi senator, a Republican, who accompanies Senator Clayburn on the junket to Tertia and plays an important role in communicating with the Cygnians.
Jack Clayburn	An Illinois senator, a Democrat, who supports UZPG (Upper Zion Power Generation) because it is in his state.
James Martin	Seventy-year old president of the Martin Coal Company of West Virginia.
Miles Martin	James Martin’s twenty-three-year old son.
Abdullah Naïr	Director of an unnamed giant Middle Eastern oil company operating out of an unnamed Middle Eastern city.
Saeed Naïr	Abdullah’s brother and an executive in the oil company.
Maria Schoenbrun	A career fanatic in her early twenties who is the figurehead leader of Aliens Out.
Paul Welton	A prominent power plant expert who works at UZPG and is recruited by the Naïrs to try to sabotage the plant.

Space-Alien species in Creative Destruction
Arcturans	The violent wolf-like Arcturans live in underground cities on their native planet, which orbits the star Arcturus, 36 light-years from Earth. Their sector on Tertia is off-limits to other species, as it is too dangerous to visit. Arcturan females are much larger than males and are polyandrous, taking multiple male mates. The resulting excess of females led to their tradition of extreme fighting, where females battle to the death. Arcturans are dangerous but can also be fiercely loyal to those they like and trust.
Cygnians	From the planet Cygnus Prime, 50 light-years from Earth. They are pandalike grazers who have developed enormous intelligence and used it to create the advanced technology they are now trying to sell on Earth. Cygnians are herd animals who instinctively work toward common goals and usually avoid conflict. Males are blue-gray; females are brown. They have an estrus season they call “the musk,” when the entire planet goes into a sexual frenzy. Otherwise, they are not sexual. They greatly fear predators and can be dangerous if their instinct to repel a predator is triggered.
Eridaneans	The diplomats of the League of 51 Planets. They inhabit a system of three planets orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, 10 light-years from Earth. Eridaneans are large, centaur-like creatures looking like a horse with a lion’s head. They can be stuffy, rigid, and insistent on slavishly following procedure. One of their three planets is Tertia, the Las Vegas of the galaxy.
Sirians	The Sirians come from a planetary system surrounding the star Sirius, just eight light-years from Earth. They are hermaphrodites who have been visiting Earth for hundreds of thousands of years. In Brighter Than the Stars, James McDermott learns that they actually designed humans for their own pleasure. They are extremely sexual, pleasure-seeking creatures who live a life free of cares or responsibilities since their advanced technologies take care of all of their needs. While usually careful about concealing themselves when on Earth, they sometimes get careless, which has led to the many stories of little green men: short, slight aliens with large bulbous heads and very large black eyes, which is indeed what they look like undisguised.