Kady Grant (The Illuminae Files)

**Kady Eleanora Grant** is the main character and protagonist of *Illuminae*, a minor character in *Gemina* and a major character in *Obsidio*.

## Personality

Kady's rebellious tendencies are evident from early on, as she deliberately failed certain exams given by the crew of the Hypatia to avoid being drafted into duty. She has a clear sense of her goals in life and is quite ambitious. Kady can be exceedingly obstinate and hold onto resentments for a very long period before forgiving them. She must, however, swiftly make up with everyone she has a falling out with because she and the other survivors are generally always pressed for time. She is said to as "not a team player," although she succeeds under pressure and consistently seems to put her safety in peril for the sake of others. She would also much rather work alone and get the job done, though she is willing to work with close friends.

## Appearance

Kady's bright pink hair, which has gradually grown out to reveal her brown roots throughout the series, is her most distinguishing trait. She is really petite and has blue eyes. She believes that because of her height, people often misjudge her. Although not many of her other distinctive characteristics are mentioned by Ezra or on the surveillance tape, she is characterised as being quite attractive.

Towards the conclusion of Obsidio, she is recognised as having coloured her hair back to a subtle shade of brown.

## Plot

### *Illuminae*

Kady was one of the victims of BeiTech Industries' assault on Kerenza IV. When David Taylor, the director of acquisitions at BeiTech, discovered that the Wallace Ulyanov Consortium (WUC), a rival company, was engaged in illegal Hermium mining on Kerenza IV, he began planning a full-scale invasion of the planet. Jump Platform on Wheels In order to attack the settlement, Magellan was sent out alongside the four dreadnought ships Kenyatta, Lincoln, Churchill, and Zhongzheng.

In the opening rocket salvo, Kady broke a window to leave her school. With the assistance of Ezra Mason and the evacuation fleet, she attempted to depart with the van she had taken, running over numerous BeiTech personnel in the process. Ezra was transported aboard the military cruiser Alexander-78V while Kady was forced to board the research vessel Hypatia.

Following the departure of the fleet from Kerenza IV, the order to enrol all capable civilians was circulated throughout the whole fleet. Kady was put through a lot of testing, but the findings were unclear; according to her conscription file, she was friendly and challenging to work with.

Kady's mother, Helena, moved voluntarily to the Copernicus, the third fleet ship, to assist with Copernicus' worsening medical problems. Kady made many attempts to relocate to the Copernicus so she could be with her mother but was denied three times. She didn't know Helena had asked that Kady be kept onboard Hypatia at all times out of worry for her safety. Later, Ezra sent Kady an email over the inter-ship system. Only after exchanging numerous emails did Kady start talking to him. Ezra gave her a picture of a flower created from ASCII text because he was clearly persuaded that their love could be saved. It touched Kady a little bit, and she continued to talk to Ezra.

After it was determined that the BeiTech dreadnought Lincoln, the only undamaged and alive BeiTech ship from the Kerenza attack, was pursuing the fleet, Kady began cracking into Hypatia systems with the help of Byron Zhang, a tech engineer on board the Hypatia. They were able to gather information from the Alexander together, the majority of it involved the AI of the wrecked spacecraft, AIDAN.

Only a few weeks remained before the Alexander's fleet arrived at Heimdall Jump Station. From the Alexander, AIDAN launched nuclear missiles at the Copernicus, killing it. A few of survivors took to the air in shuttles and flew to the hangar bays of the Alexander. AIDAN gave the order to his crew to destroy the shuttles to Ezra Mason, who had been hired as a pilot to defend the fleet. They were useless, though, since a number of shuttles landed at Hangar Bay 4. Then the Alexander techs switched AIDAN off.

In order to propagate false information onboard the Alexander and Hypatia, Alexander General David Torrence knew that the public would panic if they discovered the truth—that AIDAN had defied his direct instructions and sunk the Copernicus. He insisted that the strike was the result of a misfired missile from the Lincoln.

A file regarding Serjeant James McNulty, a close friend of Ezra's, was discovered by Kady. It included a First Lieutenant Winifred McCall After-Action Report. The AAR followed McCall's unit (Sigma unit) while they conducted their mission in Hangar Bay 4. Torrence authorised the evacuation of every survivor from Copernicus to Hangar Bay 4 due to his concern that they would be infected with a "Alpha Zero Pathogen." McNulty was unable to flee the attack on Sigma Squad by utilising the airlock to reach Bay 4.

Grant conducted more research and discovered many Copernicus medical papers. She discovered that during the initial assault on Kerenza IV, BeiTech had used a missile carrying an experimental virus. The sickness, which Tobias Salinger of Copernicus termed "Phobos," was originally intended to cause the victim to slip into a 24- to 48-hour catatonic condition. However, when sick immigrants boarded the Copernicus, the virus was conveyed and disseminated throughout the ship by them. Phobos changed into Phobos Beta through mutation. Phobos' beta release was more dangerous than its release. The impact of the Beta variation on a number of major brain areas caused the patient to become insane or develop psychosis. The impact of the Beta variation on a number of major brain areas caused the patient to become insane or develop psychosis. several Beta-infected inmates aboard the Copernicus were responsible for several murders and violent crimes, to the point where damaged AIDAN decided the ship represented a threat to fleet safety and sank it.

The threat posed by the Lincoln's approaching arrival, though, was more immediate. The dreadnought was supposed to catch the fleet in a few hours. While the Alexander scrambled to build defences, Kady and Zhang created a brand-new form of weapon—a string of code designed to induce self-replicating, unsolvable issues that can only be fixed by restarting the system. By using this "logic bomb," the Lincoln wouldn't be destroyed, but it may be slowed down long enough for the fleet to get to Heimdall.

Zhang was forcibly moved from the Hypatia to the Alexander just hours before the battle in an effort to reactivate AIDAN in the hopes that it could be helpful. Hypatia captain Ann Chau was shot and killed during the transfer when there was unrest.

Ezra was one among the several pilots dispatched to stop the dreadnought, and after the Lincoln intercepted the fleet, Zhang (and Kady) finalised the code. He had success. With the help of a reactivated AIDAN, the logic bomb was completed and used against the Lincoln to shut it down. Thanks to Grant, Zhang, and the AI, the fleet was kept safe for the time being. Ezra returned as a hero, and Alexander embraced him.

However, this didn't last long. The fleet's safety was at risk, therefore AIDAN decided to put an end to Torrence by opening the doors to Hangar Bay 4 when it saw that Torrence was trying to shut him down once more.

On a course supplied by AIDAN, the 156 psychotic Beta-infected inmates of Bay 4 arrived to Torrence and his crew of twelve. The infected were able to overpower them and kill them despite their valiant efforts. However, AIDAN did not account for the virus's proliferation. Within a few hours, the effect began to spread across the ship. At the Hypatia, a group of fugitives arrives that includes a former member of Mason's crew. Unfortunately, they are later spaced when one of their number displays Phobos Beta signals.

A little while after Torrence died away, AIDAN established radio contact with the Acting Captain of the Hypatia Syra Boll. AIDAN told Boll that if Hypatia tried to leave the Alexander, nuclear payloads would destroy them. AIDAN insisted that a crew of engineers and technicians from the Hypatia be sent to Alexander, claiming that the fleet's prospects of survival would increase if AIDAN could be fixed. Despite being rejected, Hypatia persisted because it was afraid of being destroyed.

Kady concerned for his life and phoned Ezra. Ezra answered that he was still alive despite the fact that the impacted were dispersing around the ship. To get a shuttle to Alexander, Kady stormed into Syra Boll's chambers and shouted for permission. She was instructed to report to neurogramming after being rejected because of her coding prowess. She attempted to achieve this but failed and instead utilised a stolen Shuttle 49A to travel to the Alexander while carrying a biohazard suit.

When Kady arrived at the Alexander, she decided to visit Hangar Bay 4 rather than go to where Ezra was. The fact that all of the ill had previously been through the ship made it easy for her to explore it. This was brought on by Winifred McCall's AAR of Bay 4. During her report, McCall recounts passingly noticing something moving in one of the shuttles. Kady scans the shuttles in the hopes that her mother is still alive and virus-free. She was unaware that AIDAN was using surveillance to watch her. When she was unable to locate her mother in either shuttle, she knew that she had passed away.

Kady entered the core server rooms after learning from Ezra that he was staying there to avoid being attacked by the afflicted. She only found Byron Zhang, who was infected, mad, and destroying the servers for AIDAN. Kady was running away from Zhang, who was pursuing her with an axe. She ultimately was able to calm Zhang, if only momentarily. When Zhang realised, he had tried to hurt Grant, he electrified and killed himself.

After the fight with Lincoln, AIDAN admitted to Kady that it had fabricated her conversations with Ezra to bring her to the Alexander and stop Zhang from harming AIDAN anymore. When the AIDAN server banks notified Kady that there are still more than a thousand healthy individuals aboard the Alexander, she was furious and prepared to eliminate them. They decided that Kady would help fix AIDAN so that it could fight the Lincoln when it came back, and AIDAN would help with the evacuation of the unaffected.

Kady reached Winifred McCall, who was uninfected, still alive, and hiding from the prowling Beta-infected. All crew members who were in good condition were instructed to proceed to the hangar bays while McCall and Kady orchestrated a huge evacuation from the Alexander. Out of a total of 1,000 persons, only 659—including McCall and Danny Corron—survived. After the evacuation, Grant called Syra Boll and told her to leave the Alexander for their own safety. She reveals that the danger from AIDAN was unfounded; the fleet's defence remained its top priority in spite of the harm caused by the AI.

Kady stayed behind and made her way through hundreds of broken drive redundancy systems on the Alexander to patch AIDAN. Then, anticipating the approach of the Lincoln, she and AIDAN began constructing their defences. They were both aware that the next battle would bring about their respective demise. The fleet's last hope of surviving lay in the Lincoln's destruction, which would ultimately allow Hypatia to escape because AIDAN lacked the speed to outrun it.

When the Lincoln finally arrived, Grant used all of the Alexander's remaining nuclear warheads to sink it. She succeeded, and the dreadnought departed. Unfortunately, AIDAN's anti-missile defences were unable to stop the Lincoln's retaliatory fire, and the Alexander sustained significant damage. Despite being exposed to radiation, Kady was unharmed. AIDAN sent her in the direction of a shuttle that had not been destroyed. Kady gave the Alexander one more look before launching the shuttle.

Fortunately, Grant was not inside the blast zone when the Alexander's personal wormhole burst and vaporised everything around. Grant expressed regret for the loss of AIDAN, who was also lost in the Alexander.

Later, Kady was located by a Hypatia rescue vessel. They came upon Kady when acting captain Boll made the decision to return to the Alexander in search of survivors. Her radiation exposure was managed. A week after the most recent battle between the Lincoln and Alexander, Kady and Ezra were reunited. In contrast to what AIDAN had claimed, Ezra had survived. Instead, he was a part of the first evacuation fleet, however due to an injury, he arrived later than the rest and was not granted the same rooming. Grant and Mason had last crossed paths.

### Gemina

Kady and the refugees eventually made it to Heimdall Jump Station after spending weeks aboard the Hypatia in the hope that they could jump to the Core Systems, where BeiTech could not attack them. When they got there, though, they saw Travis Falk-led BeiTech soldiers capturing Heimdall. Additionally unstable, the wormhole was about to set off a multiversal paradox that would cause two worlds, including their own, to collapse.

Hanna Donnelly was able to avoid the paradox and eliminate the BeiTech troops with the aid of Kady and Boll. The wormhole was still damaged, and access to the Core Systems was barred.

### *Obsidio*

Kady came to the conclusion that returning to Kerenza IV was their last chance of survival as Kerenzan refugees onboard the Hypatia. She assisted in planning the movement of thousands of civilians from the Hypatia and Heimdall to the Mao, the ship captained by the late Travis Falk. The Mao could return the refugees to Kerenza IV in a lot less time than it took Hypatia to reach Heimdall since it possessed intact engines and thrusters. However, AIDAN (who had been discovered hidden in Kady's datapad after the Alexander was sunk) determined that the Mao had insufficient resources to feed Kerenza with the whole population.

Kady persuaded Boll to provide her access to the Mao's computer systems by reassuring him that AIDAN was merely looking out for the refugees. Boll gave in, allowing AIDAN in.

Kady noticed the escalating hostilities between Captain Boll and Ben Garver, a former Heimdall Security agent, as the Mao set off towards Kerenza. Garver pestered Boll nonstop to give the passengers aboard the Mao more attention. Garver disagreed with the notion of giving AIDAN control of the ship as well. Garver's intuition turned out to be right. AIDAN murdered nearly 2,000 of the refugees by injecting carbon monoxide into their cabins because he knew the fleet would perish if the population was not under control. Even when AIDAN was stopped right away, the harm had already been done. Given that Boll was held responsible for the killings, Garver thought the moment was right for a rebellion against her.

Boll was slain during a Mao rebellion that Garver engineered. By Garver's supporters, Kady was imprisoned in the Mao bridge. Later, Hanna, Ezra, and Niklas Malikov managed to save her. After the mutiny was put down, Winifred McCall was named the Mao's new acting captain.

Kady created a backup plan on the route to Kerenza IV in the likely scenario that BeiTech would destroy the Mao. She assembled a dossier of hundreds of papers from the Alexander, Heimdall, and Hypatia that, if discovered, would implicate BeiTech Industries and help prosecute them. Her 'The Illuminae Files' dossier was Kady's last chance to hold BeiTech accountable.

To assist her in gathering and transcribing material for the files, she sought the aid of Ezra, Hanna, Niklas, and Ella Malikova. After McCall restarted AIDAN because he knew it will be required for the impending conflict, AIDAN also helped with data gathering and compilation.

Kady got a distress call from her cousin Asha, who had survived the original fight of Kerenza and was now a member of the outnumbered resistance army, just before the battle. Kady promised Asha that more troops would come shortly.

When the Mao eventually arrived at Kerenza IV, Kady took over as captain because McCall was a member of the assault team tasked with capturing the Magellan, a BeiTech jump platform ship that represented the refugees' sole chance of reaching the Core Systems.

Ella Malikova broke into the Churchill's (another BeiTech ship that had survived) weaponry. The Churchill rapidly discovered that its railguns and nuclear weaponry had been turned against it and were firing its own complement of Warlock planes as the Mao and Churchill started exchanging fire.

The Churchill commander's order to hack and employ the defeated Kenyatta in the fight rapidly turned the tide, though. The plane carrying Ezra and Niklas was downed. Kady was going to tell Hanna to board the Magellan and "get the hell out of here" when AIDAN hijacked the Churchill's propulsion systems and guided it into the Kenyatta, killing both ships. It did, however, result in the destruction of AIDAN.

The Kerenzan survivors, refugees on the Mao, and the remaining BeiTech marines (who had signed a peace pact with the Mao) travelled to Ptolemy, a neighbouring system that had escaped the attention of BeiTech forces after the conflict. The refugees utilised the seized Magellan to fly to the Core Systems after restoring their strength at Ptolemy. when a four-month trial, BeiTech and Director of Acquisitions Leanne Frobisher were found guilty when the Illuminae Group presented their findings to the UTA legal panel.

The Illuminae Group, made up of Kady Grant, Ezra Mason, Hanna Donelly, Niklas Malikov, Ella Malikov, Asha Grant, and Rhys Lindstrom, celebrated their achievement with supper at Vitaly's in New Petersburg. It was discovered that AIDAN, who was surviving as a "ghost in the machine," was watching them as they departed.

## Reference

Information sourced from The Illuminae Files Wiki