Pandora's Star

Chief Investigator for the Commonwealth's Serious Crimes Directorate, genetically engineered for impartiality, who pursues the Guardians of Selfhood cult.

Five-times-rejuvenated former NASA pilot, one of the first men on Mars, called out of retirement to command the starship Second Chance.

Leader of the Guardians of Selfhood, who believes a hidden alien called the Starflyer is manipulating the Commonwealth into the mission.

Astronomer whose observation of a star vanishing inside a vast force-field enclosure a thousand light-years away sets the plot in motion.

Co-inventor of wormhole technology and one of the Commonwealth's most powerful citizens, involved in deciding how to respond to the vanishing star.