Amphibious vehicle commonly used in the swamps of Venus. The
drivers are called "crockers." [Probably named for the resemblance to
crocodiles.]
Doc (no other name)
Former professor of economics on Earth, now a Venus
contract laborer who had joined the fugitives' camp in which Humphrey
Wingate took refuge after fleeing his employer. He worked as assistant
radio operator, and critiqued Wingate's manuscript on colonial conditions.
Transport ship taking contract labor to Venus. It
also carried first-class passengers. When Sam
Houston Jones shipped as a contract laborer, unbeknownst to him his sister
was in the first-class section of the ship.
The Governor (no other name)
The head of the fugitive colony to which Humphrey
Wingate fled from his contract labor.
"Satchel" Hartley (no other first name)
Contract laborer who befriended Humphrey
Wingate on the Evening
Star and was purchased with him. They escaped together after learning they
would be sold South.
Reserve officer and wealthy friend of Humphrey
Wingate. He signed up with Wingate as a contract laborer on Venus and
was sent to the South Pole, but managed to buy his and Wingate's contracts and
free them from indenture.
Intoxicating beverage on Venus. It
was addictive but it made conditions tolerable for contract laborers. The
laborers, of course, bought the rhira from their employers for a large enough
price that they were never able to save enough to buy out their contracts.
Religious demagogue whose followers overthrew the United States government
and instituted a theocracy. This dictatorship controlled the country for
several generations until it was itself overthrown by resistance movements.
His followers included Venus
colonials, but the movement apparently was dominant only in the United States.
He is also called the Prophet.
Daughter of Humphrey
Wingate's patron. She took an interest in Humphrey and warned him that he
was going to be sold south.
Van Huysen (no first name)
Venus
patron who bought Humphrey
Wingate's contract. He was not a bad employer. When he learned his
daughter had taken an interest in Humphrey, however, and after Humphrey
defended a fellow laborer from a beating by the pusher,
he decided to sell Humphrey south. (Venus' southern hemisphere was much less
comfortable for humans, so being sold south was a dire fate.) Humphrey and a
fellow laborer abandoned Van Huysen in the middle of a swamp so they could
make their escape, but he survived the walk back to his estate.
The term for nonhuman natives of Venus; the
term for human colonists is "Venusian". The amphibious natives traded with
humans for tobacco, harvesting native plants in return.
It was settled by humans, but most of the "colonists" were contract
laborers who were little better than slaves and had only a slim chance of ever
buying out their contract.
The Heinlein
Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science
fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."