James Goode

―Goode as to why he chose the life of a nomad

**James T. Goode**, raised as **John Pliskin**, is a former pilot for the United Colonies Space Command who currently serves as the captain and pilot of the *Endeavour* and leader of the *Disco Volante* prospecting company. Son of "The Man Out of Time" Kirk Goode, he was orphaned as a child and joined the U.C. Space Command when he came of age. In 2470 he became the sole survivor of the *Archduke* Incident and prompty left SPACECOM to form *Disco Volante* with his childhood friend Cole Miller.

## Biography

### Early Life & Background

James T. Goode was born in 2438 to an unnamed mother and Kirk Goode, a pilot and the famous "Man Out of Time" who had inadvertently time travelled 200 years into the future during testing of a new gravity drive. Like all spacers, Goode was fitted with an anchor shortly after birth. His father's displacement in time meant that James grew up with a facination for "antiques", that is, anything from the 20th, 21st and 22nd centuries, including music players, clothes, vehicles and weapons. James and his family lived on a ranch inside a space station, where he developed a love for farm animals.

#### Orphan

When James was just two years old, his father Kirk was called up for service in the Great Galactic War and never returned home. Shortly after, their ranch was attacked and raided by pirates, who took James and his mother for slave labour; James' mother died shortly after, filling him with a lifelong hatred of pirates.

James' torment lasted a year, during which time he was abused and beaten by the pirates; it only came to an end when their hideout was stormed by a United Colonies military police squad, which exposed one of the pirates as Samuel Rockwell, son of a powerful Anvil Engineering executive. Though rescued, James was destined to waste away in the U.C.'s network of war orphanages; unwilling to put the boy through more pain, one of the officers, a man named Pliskin, adopted the boy as his own and nicknamed him "John". The name "James Goode" would then go unused for many years, including by "John" himself.

#### Adolescence

John grew up alongside his adoptive sister, Juliette, on the icy world of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn in the Sol System, and attended a school for military children. He was teased for his anchor by all his classmates apart from one, a boy named Cole Miller; John and Cole quickly became friends over their shared fascination for space travel and were as close as brothers by the time they were teenagers. They attended military academy together and were the top scorers in their chosen subjects: spaceflight for John and engineering for Cole. At the age of sixteen, both were screened for mutations; Cole was clear, but John proved positive for a "sponge" mutation, making him incredibly resistance to ionising radiation. John was immediately fast-tracked to pilot training.

When they finally reached adulthood John enlisted with the United Colonies Space Command while Cole left the military entirely to work for the Transport Union; prolonged separation meant that they slowly lost contact.

### Serving the U.C.

#### *Archduke* Incident

In 2470, while serving on the UCS *Archduke* as a cartographer, John began investigating the surface of an uncharted planet. While returning to orbit, the *Archduke* suddenly exploded and shrapnel shredded John's ship. He subsequently crash landed on the surface, completely stranded and low on oxygen.

John was forced to leave behind the wreckage of his ship equipped with just a single oxygen tank that had a leak in it. On the edge of suffocation, he stumbled upon a crashed ejection pod and scavenged oxygen and other supplies. He quickly discovered that the hills where he had crashed were littered with empty and occupied escape pods; after a week of scavenging, he had collected just over 50 days worth of oxygen.

On the ninth day, John found a crashed cargo pod containing an undamaged rover; though he could use it as shelter, its oxygenator had not been fitted, forcing him to improvise one using the oxygen he had collected. He spent another twenty days driving around the hills collecting any remaining supplies - food, water, oxygen, even a stash of morphine - before heading towards what he hoped was the wreckage of the *Archduke*.

Fifty-two days after crashing, John finally reached the wreckage, where he recovered a distress beacon. Though it fired successfully, no help came during the next three days. Out of food and water, John was now running out of oxygen; after three days of waiting, now hypoxic, John finally accepted his death. At that moment, help arrived in the form of H.N. Sovereignty Patrol ship instead of a U.C. ship.

The doctor aboard, Harley Burton, fed John oxygen before putting him in a medically-induced coma; while unconscious, John dreamt about his birth father, Kirk Goode, who encouraged him to seek his own path through the chaos of the Settled Systems. When he finally awoke and Dr. Burton asked his name, he gave his birth name, James Goode, leaving behind the identity of "John Pliskin".

His miraculous tale of survival spread across the Settled Systems, becoming relatively well-known. SPACECOM recommended him for a medal, which was granted by the Secretary-General himself. During the live presentation, Goode passionately refused the medal and spoke about the cowardice of SPACECOM's leadership, which was doing everything it could to cover up the engine failure that led to the *Archduke*'s destruction; he also accused SPACECOM of ignoring his distress call as part of the cover-up. Goode resigned from SPACECOM with immediate effect, finishing his career by throwing his medal in the Secretary-General's face.

#### Prospecting

Goode suddenly found himself without a purpose. He had spent most of his life in the military and was prepared to leave behind everything he knew. Rather than follow the example of other disgruntled soldiers and join Eclipse or the Spacers Legion, Goode decided he wanted to be completely free; thus he became a prospector, a nomad willing to take any job that fit within his code of morals. To that end, Goode tracked down his old friend Cole Miller and asked if they could go into business together; disillusioned by the corruption within the Transport Union, Miller agreed. Together they founded the *Disco Volante* prospecting company and purchased the heavily modified Space Shuttle *Endeavour* at auction.

For the next five years *Disco Volante* earned a name for themselves as adventurers, mercenaries, salvagers and bounty hunters. Between jobs they would hunt pirates, dissassemble ships and loot abandoned faciliites, earning themselves a small fortune. Over the years they recruited a sizeable crew aboard the *Endeavour*, including Harley Burton, the doctor that had rescued Goode from his famous stranding; a former Twin Moon pirate named Nyoka, who served as their combat specialist; Tennyson, a Dustcorp analyst; engineer and former convict Myra Beach; and a number of support crew and robots, including a particularly versatile M.U.S.E. named "Marvin".

At some point, Goode joined the *Event Horizon*-based rock band Electrolyte as their drummer.

### Personality

A spacer and prospector whose escapades have reached even the ears of House Izar, James Goode is known as a "solo's solo", someone willing to take any job, as long as its for a good price and innocents are not harmed. The 55 days he spent stranded, alone and with minimal resources including oxygen, have taken their toll on him, giving rise to an eccentric, jovial personality mixed with a degree of cockiness and dry sardonic wit, a stark contrast to what one would expect from a seasoned veteran of the Space Command. His cunning and charm have virtually no limits, and he is as capable of talking his way out of a situation as he is at shooting his way out. He is completely indifferent to violence so long as it is directed towards people that deserve it, such as pirates, corrupt officials and slavers.

## Relationships

### Cole Miller

Miller is Goode's oldest and closest friend, business partner and brother-figure, despite - or perhaps because of - their conflicting personalities. The pair grew up and trained together and always had each others' backs; the only weak point in their friendship was the period of no-contact caused by Goode's service in the U.C. Space Command, a rift that quickly healed upon their reunion and decision to go into business together. As well as Goode's endlessly loyal friend and confidante, Miller also acts as a cold foil to Goode's cocky and witty persona.

As co-owners of the *Endeavour* and their company, *Disco Volante*, Goode and Miller have equal authority when it comes to hiring new crew; otherwise, they agree to keep their duties split: as pilot, Goode is the ship's captain while Miller, as chief engineer, is first mate, with neither interfering in how one runs the other. Miller acknowledges Goode as the better leader of the two, while Goode recognises Miller's level-headedness and world-class engineering ability.

## Trivia

* Goode owns several pieces of cyberware and augmentations, including a bionic left eye and left eardrum, artificial capillaries, and synthetic nerves in his hands and feet; all original tissues were damaged during the *Archduke* incident.
* Goode's anchor is an Incyte V11 M2.
* Known for his fondness for "antiques", Goode owns a number of 20th-23rd century items, including:
	+ The *Endeavour*, a space shuttle built in the 20th century
	+ An M1911 pistol, which he uses as a sidearm
	+ A piece of the Hubble telescope's mirror
	+ A Sony Walkman cassette player, plus a collection of cassettes
	+ A Heckler GM12 ballistic pulse rifle from 2255, one of the last made
	+ A drum kit that once belonged to John Bonham
* Goode carries what is known as a "sponge" mutation, granting him extraordinary resistance to ionising radiation.
* The primary influences for Goode's character include James Kirk from *Star Trek*, Han Solo from *Star Wars* and numerous heroes from sci-fi pulp magazines. His tale of survival is also inspired by Andy Weir's *The Martian* and Michael Swanwick's short story *The Very Pulse of the Machine*.