Quellcrist Falconer

Quellcrist Falconer is the fictional political activist/revolutionary often referred to in the "Takeshi Kovacs" series by Richard Morgan.cite web |url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/books/sfw716.html |title=Woken Furies |work=SCI FI Weekly |date= October 17, 2005|accessdate=2008-10-02 |authorlink=Paul Di Filippo |first=Paul |last=Di Filippo] She was born on Harlan's World, a planet settled via needlecast of stored personalities and clone banks sent conventionally through space.

Her views ignited a revolutionary action against the ruling class of the planet, which is referred to historically as the "Un-Settlement". While believing all war is the result of unused male drive, and the over-accumulation of testosterone in men, her own actions and views let to a great deal of violent action.

Quellcrist was visionary in respects to the importance of "data-stacks" and the "resleeving" of consciousness with respect to revolutionary efforts. She proclaimed that the rebellion would prevail so long as its followers were patient - 20 years or 200 years, the difference is insignificant in the face of immortality.

She disappeared, and was subsequently presumed dead, following an attempt to escape from an overwhelming "Protectorate" force. She was last seen fleeing in a small helicopter with her pilot, and was assumed shot down by the 'orbitals' (aka orbital gun platforms, a web of active Martian relics surrounding Harlan's World.) These orbitals routinely disintegrate anything flying higher than a few hundred meters. The helicopter's disappearance and the lack of any wreckage indicated this was the fate that befell it.

It is revealed that she was indeed shot down by the orbitals, but they did not kill her. The orbitals are discovered to be "digitizers" rather than contemporary weapons of destruction, and Quellcrist was stored in the orbitals' memory for over a hundred years. She was eventually downloaded into Sylvie Oshima, a woman whose profession in decommissioning AI hunters led to a large amount of computerized hardware linked to her consciousness. This caused a great deal of instability in the political structures of the planet, whose ruling class had re-established itself by that point.

References