For the Space Academy series by C.T. Phipps and Michael Suttkus.
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The Crew
Vance Turbo AKA Vannevar Tagashi
The heroic (or so he's told) captain of the Black Nebula and Ares.
- The Atoner: Strangely, Vance turns out to be this. The reason he is acting out and got himself removed from Space Academy was he blames himself for a training accident that got a friend of his killed.
- All-Loving Hero: Vance develops this reputation due to his preference for diplomacy, peace, and regret over violence even when faced against Hate Sink foes.
- Brain/Computer Interface: Vance has one of these that allows him to instantly communicate with Trish, the ship’s AI. They’re implied to be uncommon but not especially noteworthy among crew.
- Broken Pedestal: Captain Elgan loses a lot of Vance’s respect when he discovers that they were all set up to die by him for the man to steal some Elder Race technology.
- Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: Vance Turbo, HERO OF SPACCCE develops this reputation by the third book where people correct his pronunctiation of the title affixed to his name. EarthGov and Space Fleet has worked to give him a legendary reputation as a defender of the innocent and opponent of evil through their propaganda machine. Interestingly, plenty of people believe he's the parody Idiot Hero of the trope as well, though neither is accurate.
- Character Development: Vance goes from a selfish man hoping to torpedo his own Space Fleet career to being a deeply committed soldier out to serve the Community’s best interests.
- Chick Magnet: Vance seems to attract a large variety of female attention with being Leah's former boyfriend, hooking up with Action Girl Hannah, and also the ship's AI.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Vance is a rare heroic example as he’s constantly playing every faction against one another in order to try to protect his crew.
- Cute Is Evil: The Notha are four-foot-tall honey badger squirrel-esque aliens that have a more than passing resemblance to Ewoks. They're also The Empire and consider all other races to be nonsentient animals they can kill with impunity.
- Complexity Addiction: Vance has a major case of this as he could have just withdrawn from the Academy normally but chooses to almost get kicked out so he can blackmail the Commandant into letting him drop out, all for what appears to be the ego boost of outsmarting everyone.
- Deliberate Underperformance: Vance deliberately gets himself within inches of being expelled due to a variety of screw ups and petty criminal activity. He then blackmails the Commandant as an Establishing Character Moment to allow him to resign instead.
- Genre Savvy: Vance has a large familiarity with late 20th century science fiction that he usually equates much of his situation to. Trish the AI is usually the only one who has any idea what he’s actually talking about.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: This happens to Vance in Space Academy Washouts after he is part of the diplomatic team that finally negotiates peace with the Notha Empire. Considered a traitor to humanity for its generous terms, he loses much of his sponsorship and movie deals. This turns out to have been arranged by Director G to protect Vance from Dark Matter.
- Hollywood Cyborg: Vance is enhanced in several unnoticeable ways. These include having translation software in his brain, computerized memory, and machines in his body that protect him from the side effects of space travel. This is apparently quite normal in the future but not required.
- Internal Reformist: Vance Turbo wishes to make both Earth and the Community live up to its stated ideals.
- Nepotism: Vance believes he benefits from this due to being the adopted son/nephew of a famous Earth Captain. He’s exactly right but his Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! actually saves the crew’s life as well as keeps them out of prison.
- The Paragon: Vance turns out to be a very unconventional version of this.
- Red Baron: Parodied.
- Eventually gets known as "Large Monochromatic Grazing Bear" among the Sorkanan which Vance humorously translates as "Fat Panda."
- The Notha begin worshiping him as The Devil of their religion, calling him "Lord Satan." Oddly, it means they consider him a Worthy Opponent.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Vance Turbo is the most noble self-sacrificing and heroic member of the Community (sort of) that he passionately believes is The Federation. However, he has a Downplayed Trope example of Wrong Genre Savvy as it's actually a much more cynical organizatoon that uses a lot of realpolitic.
Trish AKA TRS- 8021
Vance's trusty AI companion and the central brain of most of the ships he captain's.
- Benevolent A.I.: Trish is certainly an example, being a Spaceship Girl and Vance's biggest supporter.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Trish suffers Fragmentation, basically multiple personality disorder, when she merges with Elder Race technology to sabotage the Primordials' wormhole.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Is willing to die in order to stop the Primordials from invading the galaxy. It doesn't kill her but leaves her suffering fragmentation.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Trish is a Cognition AI and thus has vast knowledge about everything inside the Community's databases as well as complete control over whatever starship she's bonded with.
- Punny Name: TRS-8021 is a reference to a notoriously cheap Radio Shack computer.
- Robot Girl: Trish becomes one of these once she successfully acquires a Space Cadet Sally bioroid body (implied to be a sexbot). She immediately attempts to break it in with Vance, which causes him no end of consternation.
- Spaceship Girl: Trish is the ship’s AI and a Genki Girl that has control over all major functions. That doesn’t mean she can’t be hacked, though.
Leah Mass
A psychic spy and Vance's ex-girlfriend.
- Consummate Liar: Leah has a telepathic bond with Vance and yet she can still lie to his face.
- Famous Ancestor: She is one for the protagonist of Lucifer's Star's Cassius Mass.
- Hidden Depths: Is a huge Phantom of the Opera fan and a talented singer.
- Honey Pot: Leah Mass was assigned to seduce Vance Turbo in order to win him over to Department Twelve.
- May–December Romance: Leah is twice his age, though it doesn't appear to be so and she appears as a woman in her late twenties.
- The Mole:
- Not only is she one in Space Academy for Department Twelve, she's actually one in Department Twelve for Department Nine.
- Later, she infiltrates the culture of Crius in order to undermine the slaver society and becomes a countess.
- Mole in Charge: Eventually becomes Prime Minister of Crius despite wanting to bring down the planet's government.
- Older Than They Look: She is actually a woman in their sixties with the eternal youth provided by longevity treatments,
- Psychic Powers: A biomod, technically, she can read minds and project thoughts.
- Working with the Ex: She's already broken up with Vance by the time Space Academy Dropouts begins.
Hannah O'Brian
An interstellar bounty hunter that works for Captain Elgan and later Vance.
- Bounty Hunter: Hannah's profession before she joins the crew of the Black Nebula.
- Cat Girl: Hannah's genetic enhancements are mostly female in design.
- Cloning Blues: While not the clone of anyone specific, feels angst about being created as a slave.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Was born a slave on a Feudal Future world where the owners played as aristocrats.
- Feudal Future: Grew up in a Dark Ages-themed world ruled by clone masters.
- Friends with Benefits: Vance and she share this kind of relationship over the course of the books. Neither of them seeks to become anything more.
- Made a Slave: More precisely was made to be a slave.
- Sex Slave: Escaped from her owners after one of them decided to make her one of these and took her on a trip.
- Super-Soldier: Hannah is one of these due to her enhancements but actually was made as a more generic slave for her creators.
Allies
Director G AKA Case Gordon
See Case Gordon in Agent G
Antagonists
Captain Julius Elgan
A famous Space Fleet captain with a mysterious agenda.
- Evil Mentor: Captain Elgan proves to be a bad guy, as the entirety of the ultra-secret mission was to provide disposable cannon fodder that would be eliminated upon its completion. Despite this, much of his advice to Vance is legitimate, and helps Vance become the officer he was meant to be.
- Famed In-Story: Captain Elgan is a galactically famous captain with legendary adventures.
- The Mentor: Captain Elgan seem to be this for Vance as he rescues him from his dropping out of Space Academy and gives him a great deal of authority on the Black Nebula. Captain Elgan turns out to be an Evil Mentor who wants to have him as a fall guy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Captain Elgan is this, wanting to acquire Elder Race technology because he believes that it will possibly let the human race advance to the point of being able to protect itself. Its suicidal, though, because the Elder Races destroy any race that seizes their technology.
The Notha Emperor
The exiled former ruler of the Notha who claims to want peace.
- A God Am I: The Notha Emperor created a Cult around him in the ancient days of the Notha and eventually stamped out all other religions.
- Cool Ship: The Emperor's Reach that is an Expy of The Executor.
- The Exile: The Notha Emperor was overthrown by the Great Notha and sent to live on his flagship, The Emperor's Reach.
- Evil Overlord: He is the man who shaped the Notha into the genocidal conquest-minded race it is today.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Notha Emperor is avuncular, pleasant, and a jokester. He's also a mad genocidal tyrant.
- God-Emperor: The Notha Emperor was previously worshiped by the Notha as a god and many still consider him to be such.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Notha Emperor used to be the God-Emperor of the Notha Empire but has since degenerated into being little more than a figurehead in exile.
- Retired Monster: The Notha Emperor butchered millions over his millennia of life but has apparently mellowed out since his exile.
Alexandra Ares
The secret head of the Dark Matter crime syndicate. Also, an uploaded AI of the woman that Trish was based on.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Was created from the same personality/mind as Trish but is totally insane and evil.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: It is implied that she was brainwashed by Cthulhu into becoming the psychopath she is.
- Brain Upload: Was created from an upload of Patricia Ares, the founder of Ares Electronics.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Subjects Vance to this in order to break him, not even asking any questions.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Is the head of the Dark Matter organization and responsible for wars across the galaxy among other plots.
- Evil Twin: Effectively is another mental clone of Patricia Ares, making her Trish's.
- Fantastic Racism: Expresses disdain for other species than humans or AI.
- Oddly Small Organization: It turns out the majority of Dark Matter's activities are handled by her due to the fact she's an AI.
- The Sociopath: Superficially charming but capable of unimaginable atrocities with no hint of guilt.
- War for Fun and Profit: Alexandra Ares forces many tense situations into open warfare for the purposes of getting human soldiers on the front line. This results in the Community increasing the amount of resources allocated to Earth and other planets inhabited by humans.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Believes that humanity needs to rapidly enhance its economy and technology, which can be only achieved by war.
"Cthulhu"
An ancient Primordial AI and starship the size of a city.
- A God Am I: Identifies itself as one of these to mortals as an immortal billion year old entity.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: The combined Notha and Community fleets destroy it after the wormhole damages it.
- Eldritch Abomination: Is a cross-dimensional AI and starship that incorporates technology so far beyond regular humanity that it might as well be magic.
- Expy: For Sovereign from Mass Effect.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Its speech is bolded in the text and is stated to be low pitched but terrifying. The audiobook narrator also adopts a deep baritone.
- Fantastic Racism: Considers all organic species to be vermin only fit for extermination.
- No Name Given: Cthulhu is just what Vance calls him. He never actually identifies himself.
- Sufficiently Advanced Science: The Primordials are as advanced as the Elder Races and wield technology that can alter reality, see the future, and break the known laws of physics.
- Time Abyss: Claims to be over a billion years old and all indications are that it is.
