Niklas Malikov (The Illuminae Files)

**Niklas Malikov** is a major protagonist in Gemina and a minor character in Obsidio. He is a member of the House of Knives, a notorious crime family in New Petersburg.

## Personality

Nik's a goofy character—making the best in every situation and getting through difficult situations with humor/sarcasm. He's the comic relief in a heavy book brewing with war and death. Nik also has been shown to handle dangerous situations well, and has a caring, romantic side, mainly displayed when he is around Hanna.

## Appearance

Nik has dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and dimples. He is of Russian descent, as his family is based in New Petersburg and his last name is Russian. In *Gemina*, he describes himself as being lean and good-looking, with "great abs from working out in prison". According to Jay Kristoff, he resembles Bob Morley.

Nik also has numerous tattoos. At the beginning of *Gemina* they are noted as being a sleeve of blades noting his full membership in the HoK, a single chain around his waist to denote time in juvie, and black angel wings inked across his throat to denote his supposed murder in the name of the HoK.

## Plot

Nik appears in both *Gemina* and *Obsidio*.

### *Gemina*

We first see Nik via whisperNET when Hanna Donnelly asks him for ten grams of dust for the Terra Day celebration. He bugs her about it for a while before she explains it's for her friends as well. Later on, he receives a message from the hacked whisperNET of Sam Wheaton, asking him to smuggle something on board. When Nik refuses, "Sam" blackmails him into agreeing, and he ends up unknowingly smuggling on board the BeiTech acquisitions team.

At the celebration, he gives Hanna a palmpad to privately chat (and deal) on, the dust she paid for, as well as a corsage of jasmines, her favorite flower. When BeiTech attacks the *Heimdall*, they split up to gather info on what happened.

The next time we see Nik, he's smoking in Bay 17, where the House of Knives crew were killed by the BeiTech team. Before this, Nik peformed what might have been a House of Knives ceremony, laying each slain member on the ground with their arms crossed over their chests and placing chips from *Heimdall* casino over their eyes. Soon Sara "Mona Lisa" Laurent and Lucas "Link" Castro enter the bay to unload the explosives they were smuggled in with. Nik hides behind an AAL suit and waits for them to leave, but he's discovered when Mona Lisa notices the fresh cigarette butts he left littered on the floor. While the BeiTech soliders begin to search for him in the bay, he suits up in one of the AALs, managing to injure both Link (Breaking multiple ribs) and Mona Lisa (WIP), which slows down the rest of Charlie Squad and gives him the time he needs to make his getaway into the vents.

After his escape from Bay 17, he's summoned by Ella Malikova and (virtually) reunited with Hanna. Ella leaves the chat, leaving Nik and Hanna alone to talk. They tell each other about what happened during their respective run-ins with the BeiTech squads, among other things, then log off to get some rest. Four hours later, they log back on to check in on each other. They talk for a while, Hanna's emotions about her father starting to show. Nik comforts her by telling her the story of how his babushka, Nika, killed his grandpa, reciting her famous quote: "Patience and Silence had one beautiful daughter. And her name was Vengeance." He tells Hanna that sometimes, revenge just has to wait, and that it's better for her to wait rather than rush revenge and die in the process. They then go offline again, Hanna resting while Nik crawls around in the vents for three hours, finding food. He tells Hanna about his discovery, and they proceed to assess their current situation. Ella enters the chat with news, reporting that she found a file with the email Leanne Frobisher sent to Travis Falk, which contained the plans she had for the *Heimdall* as well as the news that the *Kennedy* assault fleet is en route to the jump station.

The three are shocked to discover that the WUC was running an illegal hermium mining op on Kerenza IV. Hanna feels betrayed that her father was a part of it but confesses that the evidence adds up. They start making a plan to delay BeiTech by shutting down the wormhole long enough that they fail in their mission to destroy *Heimdall*, and ultimately, saving the *Hypatia*. Ella names it Operation Thermopylae after the Greek battle during the Persian War.

After the conversation ends, we see Nik in one of the bathrooms, covered in dirt from crawling in the vents for so long. He washes himself off, then takes a moment of quiet to himself. When he hears footsteps, he hides in one of the stalls, just as Kai "Juggler" Saprykin enters, talking into his earpiece. Juggler notices the jacket Nik was wearing left on the sink and starts kicking down stalls. He moves to kick down a third stall, but Nik shoots him the eye before he does, killing his first man. He escapes into the vents once more.

He logs on to his palmpad in search for Ella, but Hanna is the one that answers him instead. She notices that he seems off, and asks him what's wrong. Instead of answering directly, he tells her the story of when his father told him to kill his dog, Billy. She says she doesn't like his father very much, and he agrees with her. When he finishes the story, he finally confesses to killing Juggler. Hanna comforts him, and he thanks her, then says he has to leave to wash the blood off of himself.

The next time he and Hanna talk, it's after her radio encounter with Falk, where she sees Nik's criminal record and his confession to killing Dmitri and Oksana Balashova. She asks him what his angel tattoo at his throat means, and he asks her why she wants to know. She tells him to stop playing around and to just answer the question. He confesses that it represents when you kill someone for the HoK. She calls him a bastard, then leaves the chat. Nik is clearly upset with Hanna's response to her discovering he was responsible for two counts of murder.

When she starts talking to Nik again, it's to ask him if he has an envirosuit on to protect himself. He asks if she's finally talking to him now, and she repeats her question. He answers that he's looking for one, and she asks him if she knew that Jackson Merrick was a traitor, and he answers by saying Ella told him. She admits she wants to ask him something, but she's too afraid to ask. He tells her not to be afraid and to just ask. She asks if he lied to her, and he answers that he would never. He then confesses that he never killed Oksana and her father, then explains the story of how his younger brother, Erik, killed the Balashovs after their father was arrested. Nik knew Erik was too young and wouldn't survive jail, so he confessed to the murder, took the angel, and went to jail. Hanna asks how he get out so fast, as he had only been in juvie for three years. He admits that Erik sent a note and the bracelet he stole from Oksana's body to the police before committing suicide via drug overdose. His sentence was commuted, and he was released. His father threw a celebratory party, but Nik was so angry at him that he broke his jaw. Ella's father took him in and as far away from Zakary as they could get, which is how Nik ended up on the *Heimdall*.

The next conversation we see is between Ella, Hanna, and Nik. They talk about sports for a while before Ella steers the conversation of their current situation. They start making plans on how to break the wormhole so they can fix it later with the help of Isaac Grant. The conversation ends with a bit of teasing, then cuts to cam footage.

In the footage, we can see Nik running and typing on his palmpad at the same time. He's talking with Ella, so he knows what to do in the reactor. He follows her instructions carefully, then has to stop to wait for her to hack into the *Betty Boop* and unlock it for him. He starts complaining about how long it's taking, causing Ella to snap at him. He teases her for using all caps, which distracts her and triggers an alarm set up by the BT hackers. She alerts him that two BT goons are coming through the elevators. The goons are Ji-hun "Flipside" Park and Hans "Ragman" Tahirović. They threw concussion grenades before stepping in, but Nik was already hiding. Ella activates the fire extinguishers as a distraction, allowing Nik time to shoot them in the head. He hesitates long enough that Ragman turns around, right as he shoots Flipside in the ear. Ragman shoots at Nik's cover, but Nik empties his clip into Ragman's chest. He kneels by Flipside's body, only to discover Ragman is still alive. He aims his gun at Ragman's head, threatening him not to move. Ragman doesn't listen and raises his gun, but Nik shoots first, once again killing another BeiTech soldier. Ella pings him in reassurance, but he just gets in the *Boop* silently and takes off towards the reactor.

The next footage is transcribed from AIDAN and details Nik's trip to the reactor. AIDAN's footage cuts off to a small conversation between Nik and Hanna, where he asks her out to either "dinner. Or coffee. Or something." She replies with three dots and the beginning of an answer, but she's cut off when the wormhole is activated. This is when the Nik from universe B enters the main universe. Ella texts the group, asking what the \*\*\*\* that was, and Hanna asks if everyone was okay. Ella doesn't answer, instead saying that it was a power surge and that BT brought the wormhole back online. Nik enters the chat, and Hanna asks him to check in. He says he fine, just shaken up, and they spend more time discussing what happened. Ella then tells them that she managed to break through the lock on comms and transmit through the Kerenza waypoint. Hanna thanks her, while Nik teases her. They talk for a bit more, then Hanna plans a meeting with Nik in the reactor core, ending the conversation.

The next footage we see is Hanna sliding into the reactor through the vent. Nik docks the *Boop* a few moments later. He greets Hanna softly but tiredly. She starts crying, so he closes the space between them and hugs her. Eventually, he starts, crying, too. He breaks the silence, telling her BeiTech will just have to wait to kill them. He takes off both their helmets, wiping her tears away. She asks if he ended up eating the bacon he found earlier, and he jokes saying that something came up, referring to his run-in with Juggler in the bathroom. She replies saying she has to draw the line somewhere, confusing him. Instead of explaining what she meant, she kisses him. They eventually pull away, and she finally gives an answer to his offer on a date, saying that she doesn't drink coffee, so they'll just have to go to dinner (if they make it out alive). They hug for a while before he pulls away to give her the ruined jasmine corsage. She kisses him one more time before they seal themselves back into their envirosuits and begin working on the wormhole.

We then see Nik telling Ella about how the lamina hatched from the cows, but they don't have much time to talk about it because she alerts him about BT goons heading their way. Nik asks for more info on them, but she's unable to answer because one of the lamina attacked her.

## Reference

Information sourced from The Illuminae Files Wiki