Brad Kowalski
Twenty-two years at Bode Telecom. Three prior deep-space missions. Three denials of command. The man the crew trusts with their lives because he has never once given them a reason not to.
Brad Kowalski joined Bode Telecom at twenty-nine, after a decade in commercial aerospace and a seminary degree he completed on weekends. He is licensed as both a flight engineer and a minister in the Free Methodist tradition, and has conducted services for Company personnel on three prior deep-space missions — quietly, in his quarters, for anyone who wanted to attend and a rotating group who always did.
He has applied for command three times. The Company has passed him over three times. The reasons given to him were operational. The reasons in his file are not.
On the Rømer, Brad is the flight engineer and the man who makes the coffee. He keeps sunflower seeds in his pocket. He tends plants in his quarters with a patience that earlier shipmates have called saintly and that Brad himself calls attention. He is, by every metric the Company uses, the most reliable senior technical officer in the deep-space rotation. The crew relies on this. He has never given anyone a reason not to.
