← To the world of Lena Voss

Characters

Niklas Brenner

Young marine geologist on board, keeps the handwritten equipment log

Niklas Brenner is a marine geologist, twenty-eight, sailing on the FS Nordmark. At breakfast he is telling the story of a dataset from Bergen for the third time when Lena Voss interrupts him and gives him a side job: for every measurement, he is to note which instrument delivered it, when it was last serviced, and by whom. By hand, in a notebook, not in the database. In that moment he ages several years. On Sunday evening he calls everyone into the instrument room because a lost bird is sitting on the cable duct.

First encounter

• First noticed: when the crew is introduced, he raises his hand from the second row and asks about the “big thing”
• Speaks: a lot and fast, with a beginner’s short questions; “Is that bad?”
• Object: the notebook for instruments and maintenance dates

Connected to

• Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
• Yuki TanakaClimate data analyst aboard the FS Nordmark, double-checks everything
• Mats ReimersFS Nordmark systems technician who knows the old OCEANUS probe
• ThodeShip’s doctor on the FS Nordmark, photographs fish
• FS NordmarkLena’s research vessel in Book 1, captained by Kai Sörensen
• Lena’s Red NotebookLena’s notebook for measurements, written by hand

Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.