Episode 619: Maskirovka, Special Features

GALLERY OF GUEST STARS

Omar Tennison

Rina's former employer immediately after the war, Omar runs a garage and repairs shop on Eavesdown Docks. Famous the docks over as a tightwad, very few know he's also a member of a clandestine Independent network.

Cult Poster of Anna

The officially appointed Alliance Regional Governor of the Russian Cultural Preservation Enclave, based in St. Petersburg Kremlin. She has quite a cult of personality campaign going but she also runs the city with the proverbial iron fist in the velvet glove, doling out political rewards and creature comforts as a means to maintain control over the populace. She is not, however, averse to using harsher methods when deemed necessary.

The Tigranovs

Natalia Borisevna Tigranova

Rina's mother and Prima Donna of Traditional Russian Opera. Now a political hostage—euphemistically termed 'guest'—of Anna inside the Kremlin walls.

Aleksandr Feodorovich Tigranov

'Sasha', Rina's second oldest brother, once a lacquer artist, now a fish cannery worker in the Russian Cultural Preservation Enclave.

Dmitri Feodorovich Tigranov

'Mitya', Rina's third oldest brother, once a painter and a steampunk sculptor but now a factory worker in the Enclave. He is married with a wife, Svetlana, and three children.

• Also mentioned but not seen...
  
  

Feodor Aleksandrevich Tigranov

Rina's father and Master Luthier. He and Rina's mother have spent their lives in the Enclave, training for and achieving Artist Guild status, with successful careers in their respective fields. He is also a political prisoner of Anna.

Grigoriy Feodorovich Tigranov

'Grisha' Rina's first oldest brother and accomplished painter and portraitist. He was taken in as a 'guest' of Anna along with his mother and father when Nikolai was imprisoned.

Nikolai Feodorovich Tigranov

'Kolya', Rina's fourth oldest brother, once a popular folk singer, he was arrested for sedition and thrown in the Kremlin's notorious Black Tower. It has been three years and more since his incarceration and there has been no news of him since.

POSTCARDS FROM THE VERSE

Cultural Preservation Enclaves, Sihnon

Founded early in the initial years after arriving in the Verse from Eearth That Was, the Cultural Preservation Enclaves on Sihnon are accessible only by a single spaceport located in the Israeli CPE. Access to the other ethnic CPEs is by foor or by ground transportation such as car or train.

HOW TO SPEAK RUSSIAN

pizda = пизда = peez- dah = cunt Sound clip

Chto vy khotite? = Что вы хотите? = Shto vu khoh-teet-yeh = What do you want? Sound clip

Zdravstvuĭte = Здравствуйте = zdrahvst-vuy-tyeh = Hello (formal/polite form) Sound clip

Chernaya bashnya = черная башня = chore-neh-yah bahsh-n'yah = black tower Sound clip

Vot by mne = Вот бы мне = Voht bee m'-nyeh = That would be me. Sound clip

HOW TO SPEAK CHINESE

Pigu = 屁股 = pee – goo = ass, buttocks Sound clip
See also: further definition

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

1. What is causing the malaise on Persephone?
   1. Is it a Pax derivative such as Bianca Meyers hinted at on the voyage over from Red Sun?
   2. If it is, how is it delivered?
   3. Is it in the air or the water or the food supply?
2. Omar said the poor and the unemployed are hardest hit by this drug. If so, how are the rich escaping the effects of the drug? How are they by and large immune?
   1. Does this mean a pre-existing behavioral component is needed to trigger the drug?
   2. Or does this mean a specific segment of the population is being targeted along economic lines?
      1. If that's the case, again the question becomes one of delivery vehicle—how is the drug getting to its target?
3. What is the event that Omar hinted is coming soon, the one that will galvanize the splintered Independent groups to a consensus?
4. What is behind the recruitment program for The Elect?
   1. Is there any significance behind the audience targeted for the program?
   2. What are The Elect supposed to do?
5. Who is Anna?
   1. Why is she running the Russian Enclave like her own private fiefdom?
   2. Is she coming up with her methods of ruling St. Petersburg or is she a puppet for someone else?
6. Why is the Black Tower empty?
   1. Are the prisoners killed outright but in secret?
   2. Are the prisoners shipped off elsewhere in secret?
      1. If so, where?
7. Omar says that Georgia is stable as can be, given that it's seen battle and there's a war on. No worlds have fallen to one side or the other but he told us to keep our eyes open for certain waves.
   1. What kind of waves? About what?
8. Omar also said that something's going to happen and soon.
   1. What does he mean by that? What's happening? How soon?
   2. He said it was going to be a big target. ##He also warned us that we're to take extraordinary steps if necessary, that if we're there when it happens, we wouldn't want to be there.
   3. So what is the target? Political? Corporate? Terrestrial? Celestial? What?
9. When Rina invites Omar to her wedding, he makes a cryptic remark about possibly needing to leave Persephone. Why?

---

Go back to: Maskirovka or Special Features Index
Go back to Season Six: Franc-tireurs
Back to EPISODES or TIMELINE