ILLUMINAE

**ILLUMINAE: The ILLUMINAE Files\_01** is the first book in *The Illuminae Files*.

## Synopsis

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations (Wallace Ulyanov Consortium and BeiTech Industries) are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she *swore* she'd never speak to again.

## Plot

BeiTech invades the planet Kerenza IV after discovering that it harbors an illegal hermium mining colony, killing most of the population in the hopes of taking the planet over for iself. Ezra Mason, Kady Grant, and her mother are among the few survivors: Ezra on the warship *Alexander,* Kady on the accompanying research vessel *Hypatia*,and her mother on the supply ship *Copernicus*, trying to reach the Heimdall Jump Station waypoint before the BeiTech warship *Lincoln* intercepts and destroys them.

While they try to escape, a deadly bio-chemical weapon that BeiTech released on Kerenza IV has spread from contaminated refugees to the crew of the *Copernicus*, who in turn bring it to the *Alexander*. When the *Alexander*'s Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network system (AIDAN), discovers this, it goes rogue and destroys the *Copernicus,* killingKady's mother and all of the other refugees there. Ezra and Kady have to work together with engineer Byron Zhang, who communicates cross-ships with Kady to not only beat the *Lincoln* to *Heimdall*, but also to disable AIDAN.

The virus attacks and debilitates victims' nervous system. The more deadly strain of the virus, dubbed *Phobos*, doubles the effects, as demonstrated by the little girl in Bay 4 who stabs and penetrates the hazmat suit of James "Jimmy" McNulty, who later kills himself when he feels the virus affecting him, and whose last testament Kady finds when she boards the *Alexander* in an effort to help AIDAN delay the *Lincoln* from catching the fleeing *Hypatia.*

The mutating virus, however, spreads further and the Afflicted break out of Bay 4, the designated quarantine zone, and go on a killing spree; prompting the few remaining persons of command to make a desperate run for the launch bays to escape to the *Hypatia* with some 1000 civilian survivors. Slightly less than 250 of them make it to the *Hypatia*, and not all of those make it unscathed by *Phobos*, which weighs heavily on Kady, as she was the one navigating for most of the small groups that did not make it.

Once on board, Captain Ann Chau of the *Hypatia* quarantinesthe fighter pilots and med-evacs similarly in different hangars. To protect the rest of those on board the *Hypatia*, she flushes Mikael "Chatter" Carlin and his group of Cyclone pilots out an airlock, due to a few possibly infected among their numbers. Ezra nearly misses being spaced in that group; he was med-evaced because of his broken arm, presumably in the mad dash for the launch bays. AIDAN, however, has tricked Kady into believing that he was dead in order to get her to carry out her mission of battling the *Lincoln* from the inside out.

Together, she and AIDAN attack the *Lincoln* using the *Alexander*'s Defense Grid System (DGS). However, after the attack, the *Alexander* has been so damaged that there is seemingly no escape for either of them, but AIDAN leads a radiation-poisoned Kady to the last Cyclone left on the ship and into the waiting bay of the *Hypatia,* where everyone watches the *Alexander* "die*".* AIDAN remains faithfully in Kady's data pad, always ready to assist her.

### Characters

* ALEXANDER ON BOARD
* HYPATIA ON BOARD
* COPERNICUS ON BOARD
* OTHER

* **Second Lieutenant Ezra Mason** - After his home planet Kerenza IV got attacked by BeiTech Industries, he finds refuge on the *Alexander*, where he gets conscripted by the UTA and learns to pilot a Cyclone.
* ✝️ **General David Torrence/Dozer (UTN-951-787ad)** - Commander of the *Alexander*
* ✝️ **Colonel Lia Myles** - Executive Officer of the *Alexander* and Second In Command
* ✝️ **Colonel Eva Sanchez** - Acting Chief of Technical Engineering
* **UTA Information Services Division of the *Alexander***
	+ ✝️ **Corporal Charles Dorian** - A mid-level Communication Technician
	+ ✝️ **Private Stephanie LeFevre** - Communication Technician; seems to have had a thing for Corporal Charles Dorian
* **UTA Marines' Sigma Squad**
	+ **First Lieutenant Winifred McCall** - Commanding Officer
	+ ✝️ **Sergeant James McNulty** - Member; Ezra Mason's friend
	+ ✝️ **Corporal Sykes** - Member
	+ **Private Henderson** - Member
	+ **Gandolfini** - Member
	+ **Montano** - Member
	+ **Parker** - Member
	+ **Kilpatrick** - Member
	+ **Doherty** - Member
* **Echo Cyclone Flight Group of the *Alexander***
	+ ✝️ **Major Eli Hawking/Prophet (UTN-912-842ad)** - Commanding Officer
	+ ✝️ **First Lieutenant Zhenya Alvaranga/Dreadnought (UTN-945-817ad)** - Member
	+ ✝️ **Second Lieutenant Mikael Carlin/Chatter** - Member; later one of the refuge after the Phobos Virus outbreak aboard the *Alexander*
* **Senior Technical Engineering Specialists**
	+ **Major Nico Lassinger**
	+ **Major Lisa Barker**
* **First Lieutenant L. Ribar** - Works on the *Alexander*
* ✝️ **Mallory Yzerman** - Former Chief of Technical Engineering, who died in the attack on Kerenza IV
* **UTA military**
	+ ✝️ **Sergeant Kyra Tan** - Sergeant
	+ ✝️ **Captain Andrew Cole** - Captain
* ✝️ **Major Cayla Alton/Sting (UTN-924-776ad)** - Member of the Delta Cyclone Flight Group
* **Cyclone pilots not surviving *Lincoln's* first attack**
	+ ✝️ **First Lieutenant Sumiko Watanabe/Tsurugi**
	+ ✝️ **Captain Benjamin Szymkow/Money**
* **Cyclone pilots finding refuge on the *Hypatia* after the Phobos Virus outbreak aboard the *Alexander***
	+ ✝️ **Andrew Bambroon/Buzz**
	+ ✝️ **Peter Wolverton/Ladiesman**
	+ ✝️ **Nic Crowhurst/Guvnor**
	+ ✝️ **Marion Cole/Badger**
	+ ✝️ **Kathleen Kennedy/KitKat**
	+ ✝️ **McCormick Templeman/Sharkgirl**
	+ ✝️ **Kacey Smith/Greyhound**
	+ ✝️ **Justin Shearer/Griefer**
	+ ✝️ **Julie Holmes/Mighty**
	+ ✝️ **Jim Parker/Surly**
	+ ✝️ **Steve Tuck/Warlord**
	+ ✝️ **Keri Bas/Zephre**
	+ ✝️ **Kristen Simmons/KayKay**
	+ ✝️ **Marc Schaper/Logan**
	+ ✝️ **Keet Stachura/Mom**
	+ ✝️ **Andrew Glouftis/Dreadpirate**
	+ ✝️ **Sam Leibowitz/Sigil**
* **Matt** - A conscript on the *Alexander*, who is acquainted with Peyak
* **Martina Hernandez** - A refugee that gave birth to her daughter on the *Alexander*
* **Christopher Hernandez** - Martina Hernandez' husband
* **Unnamed daughter** - Martina Hernandez' and Christopher Hernandez' unnamed daughter

* **Kady Grant** - After the attack on Kerenza IV, Kady ends up on board of the *Hypatia*.
* ✝️ **Byron Zhang** - A Technical Engineer, Research Officer and Civilian Contractor working on the *Hypatia*. He is an information-liberty activist, who teaches Kady how to code properly and hack into computer networks.
* ✝️ **Ann Chau** - Captain of the *Hypatia*
* **Syra Boll** - Executive Officer of the *Hypatia* and Chief Navigator; later becomes the Acting Captain of the *Hypatia*
* ✝️ **Consuela Nestor** - Technical Engineer working on the *Hypatia*
* **Ronan Wells** - Second Navigator of the *Hypatia*
* **Bronwen Evans** - Second Class Security Officer
* **Sam Ryan** - First Class Security Officer
* **James Wu** - Head of the Security Section
* **Kate Irving** - Second In Command in the Maintenance Division of the *Hypatia*
* **Corporal Anton Boklov** - Works in the UTA Information Services Division
* **Xi Wei Lu** - Network Engineer on the *Hypatia*
* **Benjamin Fraser Brown** - Senior Network Engineer on the *Hypatia*
* **Peyak** - Works on the *Hypatia*
* **Martha** - A refugee from Kerenza IV, who used to work in GeoSpec Analysis before the attack
* ✝️ **Tony** - Martha's husband, who died when their car crashed on the way to the evacuation shuttles
* ✝️ **Julie** - Martha's daughter, who died at the age of six during the evacuation of her school
* ✝️ **Lela** - Martha's daughter, who died at the age of two when their car crashed on the way to the evacuation shuttles
* **Katya** - Martha's eight-year-old daughter; her current whereabouts are unknown, as well as whether she survived or not
* **Thanh** - Refugee on board of the *Hypatia*

* **Helena Grant** - Kady Grant's mother, who is conscripted to work as a pathologist on the *Copernicus*
* **Harry Ryker** - Captain of the *Copernicus*
* **Heather Kelly** - Executive Officer of the *Copernicus*
* **Teresa Shteyngart** - Chief Medical Officer of the *Copernicus*
* **Tobias Salinger** - Medical Officer on the *Copernicus*
* **Kurt Heyder** - Chief Engineer of the *Copernicus*
* **Sergeant Randall Blythe** - Officer on the *Copernicus*
* **Corporal Adler** - Officer on the *Copernicus*
* **Mark Morton (KR985cop)** - A 31-years-old refugee from Kerenza who murdered four people, his wife and three children, with a screwdriver and pipe wrench while under the influence of the Phobos Virus.
* **Maryanne Morton (KR986cop)** - Mark Morton's 29-years-old wife, whom he murdered
* **Stephanie Morton (KR987cop)** - Mark Morton's 12-years-old daughter, whom he murdered
* **Olive Morton (KR988cop)** - Mark Morton's 8-years-old son, whom he murdered
* **Julian Morton (KR989cop)** - Mark Morton's 4-year-old son, whom he murdered

* **AIDAN** - The *Alexander's* Artifical Intelligence, which has been damaged during the attack on Kerenza IV
* **Leanne Frobisher** - Director of BeiTech Industries
* **Antony Mason** - Ezra Mason's father; his whereabouts and whether he died in the attack on Kerenza IV is unclear
* **Isaac Grant** - Kady Grant's father, who works at *Heimdall Jump Station*; it is unclear whether he is alive or was murdered by BeiTech Industries

## Other Covers

Alternative Cover 1Alternative Cover 2Illuminae with the cover taken offAudiobookGerman CoverSpanish CoverCzech CoverItalian CoverBulgarian CoverPortuguese CoverPolish CoverTurkish CoverFrench CoverDanish CoverSerbian CoverIndonesian CoverChinese CoverRussian Cover
## Trivia

* ILLUMINAE was sold to Random House based on a 130 page sample, which included rough designs of the pages designed by Jay Kristoff, who studied graphic design and used to work as an art director.
* "Illuminae" means "the radiant ones" or "those who shed light" in Latin. Jay Kristoff came up with the title during a *Tool* concert, not knowning that it was a real Latin word until a year later.
* Ezra's AAR on page 42 was the first scene written for the novel, and was originally intended to be the opening of the book, until the authors decided to discard this idea.
* The binary at the edges of Kady's journal pages reads "Death by Giant Slug to the reader of this journal" when translated.
* Leigh Bardugo is listed amongst the casualty list of the *Copernicus*; it is a name of an actual author. This easter egg however causes a slight continuity error, for it appears again in *GEMINA: The ILLUMINAE Files 02*, as another eventual casualty.

Satya Achanti

## References

1. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23395680-illuminae
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 https://www.themarysue.com/all-the-illuminae-trivia-thats-fit-to-print/