Cyrus Dreher

Cyrus Dreher
Cyrus, in work clothes
Character
Date of birth:	4th December 3963 (age 42)
Nationality:	Independence, Earth
Language(s):	Commonwealth English Tranquilan English Martian English
Gender:	Male
Height:	6' 3"
Family
Spouse(s):	Gabriella Dreher
Children:	Conner Dreher
Father:	Stephen Dreher (Deceased)
Mother:	Cath Dreher (Deceased)
Occupation History
Occupation(s):	Axil Industries Research Corp
Previous:	New Gettysburg Project Lead Life Support Engineer
[Source]

“	A man's only as good as his word and his family.	”
–Cyrus, when first meeting his wife

Cyrus Dreher (born 4th December 3963) is an engineer who is currently contracted by Axil Industries.

History

On December 4th, 3963, Cyrus Dreher was born into a lower-class family in the Independence Arcology on Earth. With few resources at his parents' disposal, Cyrus had a rough childhood that only got worse when his sister was born a few years later. Feeling guilty that his parents were sacrificing their meager income to send him to school, he felt the need to help supplement it. Cyrus would devise schemes to accomplish this: finding scrap androids to sell, hacking vending machines to get free products and working out ways to make the most of the Independence benefits system.

After a run in with Axil Industries security at the age of fourteen, he was put on the straight and narrow, forced into an AI containment programmer to repay his debts to society. From here, he'd continue working for Axil in this capacity, giving his wages to his family to ensure their financial stability. Despite the fact his chances for a future as anything other than a corporate drone were slim to none, he still had dreams of traveling the galaxy, visiting far off places like Tranquility or Zhu Que. He held this dream so close to his heart that he even studied Tranquilan English at school, hoping to be able to use it someday. Sadly as the years passed, so did his drive to fulfill his desires, being replaced by a determination to do better for his family.

After completing his final school exams, he knew his family wouldn't be able to afford to pay for further education, so he resigned himself to finding work. After sitting an employment aptitude test he was put forward for a apprenticeship position as a junior research assistant position in Axil Industries Life Support department. Initially hesitant, Cyrus would excel in the job, finding it intellectually stimulating and rewarding. He would even earn a ‘Most Promising Young Researcher’ award after finishing his apprenticeship.

The exposure from this award saw him land a job working in the lucrative research and development department for the planned New Gettysburg arcology. With a comfortable starting salary, he was able to move his family out of the gutter and into a more middle-class lifestyle. But this came at a cost, as from that point on he’d spend most of his life working and making his way up the corporate ladder.

Due to a rather gruff personality and his lower-class origin, he rarely made friends, but his strides in the field and his work on the life support systems intended for New Gettysburg ensured he slowly climbed up the corporate ladder. After four years in the department, he was invited to a specialist conference for Life Support Research and Development, where both attended and gave seminars on his particular area of expertise.

He was hitting the apex of his career, but sadly it would not last for long. He had met a fellow intellectual at the conference, an MD named Anastazia Bleier, who had convinced him to help her on ventilator design that would allow for cheaper manufacturing of Interface Suits. While reluctant, he was easily taken in by her charms and elected to take a sabbatical from New Gettysburg Research and Development, in favor of making this design a reality. Over the next few years he worked night and day, growing closer with Anastazia the closer they got to perfecting the ventilator. Both the relationship and the design came to a peak when he finalized the blueprints and design notes. In celebration, they had a few drinks and before he knew it Anastazia had swept Cyrus off of his feet and into the bedroom. When he awoke the next day however, he had found their designs gone and would go on to discover that Anastazia had taken them, submitted it under her own name exclusively and sold the rights to a rival corporation, Digi Agostino.

Cyrus was destroyed by this betrayal. To cope he withdrew from his social circles and obsessively restarted his work on the New Gettysburg project. Thankfully his self-imposed isolation was alleviated by the support of his family, mostly his loving sister, who in the meantime had been inspired by her brother had elected to undertake a career in academia as well.

His broken heart was healed just in time to properly attend a mandatory cocktail party, where he would mingle with and inform investors of the progress and technology going into the New Gettysburg project. It was there he was once again enchanted, this time by an ambassador from New Manhattan. They hit it off during some small talk at the champagne table, and after they discovered each other’s love of strong family values and a good work ethic, they decided to meet again at a later date. Of course, neither bothered to establish whether or not the meeting would be a professional one or not.

In the next few years, his life was officially back on track. His relationship with Gabriella grew into a marriage, then a family with a newborn son. While his parents had passed, Lydia was going strong, having a marriage of her own and being well-situated financially as a physicist. Cyrus was at the top of his field and the foundations of New Gettysburg were planned to be laid down in at the beginning of the new millennium. Sadly tragedy once again struck while he was visiting another specialist conference, though this one was more far-reaching and devastating than the previous: the Commonwealth Senate had voted to withdraw funding for the New Gettysburg project.

This spelled disaster for Cyrus, as the majority of his career had been spent designing the life support systems for the New Gettysburg project. Research and development was gutted as the project heads were forced to make major cuts in employment and the general scale of their operations as construction was set to be delayed by at least half a century. Cyrus attempted to cement his place within the company by doubling down on his work, even making an impressive breakthrough in the form of discovering a means of manufacturing industrial-grade fuel cells to be 5% more efficient. While it was an impressive feat, it was not enough to save Cyrus, as he simply hadn't made enough friends in the field to be given an opportunity to work elsewhere, finding his previous involvement with Anastazia to be held against him as an indication he was vulnerable to corporate espionage. He was informed he was being let go, with redundancy pay, but no pension. The news brought Cyrus to a level of despair that exceeded even the betrayal that now served as a barrier to his career. His family, including his now pregnant sister, comforted him as he spiraled and scrambled for a solution to his family’s newfound lack of financial security.

His sister offered to support him in the meantime, but he couldn’t bear to be a burden on her, refusing any logic she used about returning the favor of their early years or any nonsense like that. While at his lowest point, a life-line would present itself to Cyrus, in the form of a former colleague from his AI containment days sending him a job offer. Apparently, his work with the fuel cells had gained the attention of the Axil Corporation, and they were looking to hire him for a job in the AD Leonis system. Axil would provide high quality accommodation for Cyrus and his family in the system for the duration of the contract, with the option to remain in AD Leonis as colonists at the end of the four years. The only catch was the distance from Earth to AD Leonis of sixteen light years that meant it would be unlikely Cyrus would see his sister again within his lifetime.

It was a daunting offer but, after consulting his wife, Cyrus came to a decision and signed himself on. He was to leave within the week to the chagrin of his sister. She had been expecting her big brother to stick around to support her during this tough time, and it broke her heart when he told her he was leaving for Saturn next week. In a fit of anger, she disowned him, refusing to talk to him even before he had departed. Situated on an Axil ship, separated from his family, Cyrus made small talk with a passenger heading the same way as he prepared for the next chapter in his life.

Future

Work in progress This section is currently unfinished. The author(s) apologise for the inconvenience.

Personality

Cyrus comes off as a gruff and professionally cold individual at first glance, which could be considered arrogant if you didn't bother to give him a second look. In reality, he is just not very socially adept, relying on an unemotional attitude to carry him through unfamiliar social situations. He has strong family values and a desire to do what's best for both his family and anybody else he considers to be important to him. Thanks to how he spent his childhood, he has a willingness to sacrifice that few people can match, thankfully he knows not to let it spiral into a martyr complex and often considers the pros and cons of doing so in any given situation. Cyrus, being a rather conservative man, dislikes excessive displays of wealth and a clear lack of morality, which is probably why he hates the Saturn so much. Despite how much Cyrus loves his family, he is often wracked with regret over his decisions in their name, whether it be about his sacrificed dreams and happiness or about leaving his sister behind on Earth. Because of this, he has a tendency to stray towards sadness during long periods of silence and also a taste for alcohol on occasion.