Gwen Holtz

Gwen was born on the sparsely populated hellworld of Bragg in the Sallounn Subsector of Gushmege Sector in the Domain of Vland. At the age of 18 she was accepted to university to study science and it was there that her troubles started. In what would eventually become a repeating pattern in her life, Gwen focused her scientific endeavours more on ‘can I do this?’ rather than ‘should I do this?’. And while that’s all well and good when you’re playing with the odds and ends you can scrounge together from the leftovers in a school lab, the supplies and equipment in a fully stocked university lab are more both more plentiful and more dangerous. Fatal in fact, as it turned out. Though technically Gwen was not responsible for the accident that caused the death of the closest friend she’d made since starting at the university, that was not how the university saw it. Or her friend’s family. And so, with the disappointed words of her own family and the rage of her friend’s still ringing in her ears, Gwen dropped out of university and ran as far from her guilt as she could get.
As far as she could get turned out to be Guhnesh, a much more hospitable planet a subsector and several stars over, where she landed on her feet, somehow managing to secure employment as a field researcher. This was perfect for Gwen, it allowed her to both develop her scientific skills and distance herself both physically and mentally from the traumatic events that had led her there. At least until her friend’s family attempted to pin legal blame on her for the death of their child and accuse her of stealing their research. This, naturally, brought back up the earlier trauma and made it extremely difficult to focus on her work. Neither charge stuck but the events had left their mark and when the opportunity to advance her career by stealing research came up several years later, she resolutely refused - determined to make amends somehow.
By the time Gwen was in her late 20s it seemed like she had left her troubles behind her. She was established in both the community and her field of research, and it was this success that brought unwelcome attention to her in the end. Colonel Hewett, an ambitious officer in the local military, had teamed up with a scientist, Sabine Tyrell, to engage in some less than ethical and almost certainly illegal research. They had hit a stumbling block, however, and needed to enlist another scientist to work on it. After a little research Tyrell stumbled across Gwen, qualified for what they needed and with enough unfortunate events in her past that she proved to be eminently blackmailable. Facing the threats that they would reveal she had been approached to steal research a few years previously and throw doubt upon her exoneration in her friend’s death and the earlier accusations of stealing that friend’s research, Gwen caved to their blackmail. She managed a little less than a year before her conscience could no longer take it and she fled, once more, leaving two determined enemies in Colonel Hewett and Sabine Tyrell in her wake.
The next decade and a half were much smoother sailing for Gwen in her new home in Orren Station. At the age of 37 she won a prestigious scientific prize, drawing both the respect and envy of her peers on the station. This brought her a more positive form of attention than her success on Gunesh and she was recruited to work on a secret project for the government of Orren Station. Things kept going surprisingly well for a while, uncommonly so, until eventually it all came crashing down around her ears. Again. Some pencil pusher made a mistake in some paperwork somewhere and all of a sudden there were government inspectors snooping around. Not that she had done anything illegal but it was a lot of hoops and red tape. With skills developed through years of talking herself out of trouble Gwen eventually got it sorted but it soured things enough that it was time for another move.
Seeing as she wasn’t fleeing for her life this time, she only hopped a system over to Homage but that may have been one of her bigger mistakes. The government of Homage aren’t known for being friendly or lenient and whilst the lush jungle environment may have been perfect for her research, the political environment definitely wasn’t. It took a while, but they took exception to Gwen’s work, and ordered her to stop. That might have been the smart idea but the principles which Gwen almost thought she didn’t have any more reared their head. Perhaps foolishly, she didn’t stop her research and Homage’s government didn’t take it well, so Gwen is now in urgent need of a lift off-planet.
Enemies:
* Colonel Hewett - officer in Guhnesh's military
* Sabine Tyrell - scientist on Guhnesh
* Vanya Gudenko - beaurocrat on Homage