Government treasury, which issued the payment to General
Services for developing the gravity field.
Pierre Beaumont
Government chief of protocol who requested General
Services' aid in setting up an interplanetary conference on Earth,
including comfortable (i.e. low-gravity when necessary) facilities for all
delegates.
Carson (no first name)
Engineer on the General
Services staff who worked on the artificial gravity problem.
Employee of General
Services and wife of employee Saunders
Francis. Although she worked as a receptionist, she was apparently a
special agent with wide-ranging responsibilities, talents, and authority. She
was assigned to the task of providing artificial environments, including
lighter-than-Earth gravity if necessary, for all envoys to an interplanetary
conference on Earth.
Farquarson (no first name)
Astrophysicist mentioned by Dr. Krathwohl in his response to Grace
Cormet's question about gravitation.
Flower of Forgetfulness
Ming china bowl coveted by O'Neil. General
Services acquired it for him from the British Museum (by means
unspecified) in return for his help in developing artificial gravity.
Saunders (Sance) Francis
Assistant to Jay
Clare and husband of Grace
Cormet. He and Grace were assigned to outfitting the interplanetary
conference on Earth, including devising a method of providing artificial
gravity.
General Services
Company that provided any sort of service the client requires, provided it
is legal and physically possible. They specialized in solutions to unique
problems, but also provided all sorts of mundane tasks: Their motto was, "We
Also Walk Dogs."
Peter Johnson
Son of Mrs. Peter Van Hogbein Johnson [see next entry]; he broke his hip
playing polo just before an important dinner party his mother was hosting.
Mrs. Peter Van Hogbein Johnson (no other
first name)
Society matron who requested General
Services' help so that she could both be at her son's hospital bedside and
act as hostess for an important dinner party. They arranged a two-way video
broadcast between the party and her son's hospital room.
Dr. Julian (no first name)
[mentioned in passing] Foremost theoretician on
gravitation. Unfortunately for the purposes of General
Services, he was deceased.
Krantz (no first name)
[mentioned in passing] Artist who painted "The Weeping
Buddha", a reproduction of which disguised Jay
Clare's video console.
Dr. Krathwohl (no first name)
Scientist on the permanent staff of General
Services. He had no fixed assignments but was allowed to pursue whatever
interested him, since so often this freedom led to profitable results. He was
consulted to find a gravitation expert to help devise environments for
delegates to Earth's interplanetary conference.
Memorial Hospital
[mentioned in passing] Medical facility treating Peter
Johnson.
O'Neil (no first name)
Foremost expert in gravity theory, who was persuaded to help General
Services only after they acquired an antique Chinese porcelain bowl,
called the Flower
of Forgetfulness, for him.
[mentioned in passing] Business in Jupiter's system. (it
was probably headquartered on one of the moons.)
Second Plutonian Expedition
[mentioned in passing] General
Services handled the outfitting; the implication is that some of the
arrangements were somewhat unorthodox.
Solar System Federation
Interplanetary political organization, probably analogous to the United
Nations. General
Services was hired to create artificial environments (including gravity
and atmospheric pressure) congenial to natives of all planets so that Earth
could host SSF conferences.
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."