Tomas Lithe

Full name	Tomas Lithe
Pronouns	he/him
Species	Human
Origin	Lukyr Qyvor
Affiliation	ZRDC — prior to conscription · Royal Research Guild — conscripted, 7354
Role / occupation	Physicist; SYMMETRY ambassador

Tomas Lithe is a physicist based on Lukyr Qyvor in year 7354. Employed by ZRDC, he is assigned to study The Glowing Element, a mysterious superheavy material found in a mine under Lukyr Prime. Together with his partner Alex Prane, he determines the element is a communication device transmitting messages from an approaching entity — later designated SYMMETRY (Evitr) — and reports this to ZRDC management, triggering his conscription by the Royal Research Guild. He is subsequently appointed humanity's first ambassador to SYMMETRY, joins the mission to intercept the probe, and ultimately makes direct physical contact with it during a spatial anomaly event.

He is later known as a historical figure who wrote reports identifying Evitr as a technological probe rather than a divine entity — reports suppressed by Emperor Rovin Warpine. He shares a surname with August Lithe, who published "Of Evitr" in 7609.

Physical Appearance

Not yet established.

Personality

Tomas is a persistent, intuitive researcher who refuses to accept that The Glowing Element has no significance beyond its unusual properties. He documents every test meticulously and acts on unverified hypotheses when the logic is compelling — connecting corrupted data files to an approaching astronomical object before any confirming evidence arrives. He is collaborative by temperament, drawing on Alex Prane's computer science expertise when his own runs out and valuing her judgment even when she is skeptical.

Under pressure he is strategically calm: when conscripted he negotiates for Alex's relocation as a precondition before agreeing, rather than refusing or complying outright. He tends to stay quiet rather than escalate in high-stakes environments — a habit that costs him the chance to ask why he specifically must go on the SYMMETRY mission. His dominant anxiety throughout the mission is Alex's safety in his absence, and the drive to return to her persists as the last coherent force in his mind even after he has lost his own name and memories inside the void.

Background

Tomas's areas of expertise are material science, experimental physics, and orbital mechanics. He works in a private ZRDC laboratory on Lukyr Qyvor, where he and Alex Prane share both a home and a research partnership. His lab habits include detailed test logs and a tendency to hoard experimental remains — a trait Alex finds amusing and characteristic. His orbital mechanics background proves directly relevant when SYMMETRY transmits coordinates: he recognises the parameter notation immediately.

He reflects on Lukyr Qyvor as the oldest continuous society in the Lukyr system and the planet most resistant to the Empire's influence — largely self-sufficient, retaining its distinct identity even under nominal imperial rule. He and Alex cannot legally marry under Rovin Warpine's laws because Alex is of Brisk descent.

Discovery and Conscription

The Glowing Element

Working at ZRDC, Tomas is assigned to study The Glowing Element — a superheavy material with no apparent utility beyond its unusual properties. His experiments are thorough but unproductive until corrupted files on two separate computers yield a hidden message: fragments across his test log and Alex Prane's system file combine to read "Almost there." He hypothesises the element is communicating intentionally, despite a chronological irregularity suggesting the corruption predated his questions to it.

To test this, Tomas places data drives at varying distances from the element. While waiting, he reads about an unidentified astronomical object that has appeared in the system unexpectedly — expected arrival within days, violating the normal 100-year detection window. The experiment results arrive as orbital parameters corresponding exactly to that object's position 73 minutes prior. He reports the discovery to ZRDC management, who immediately contact the Royal Brigade.

Conscription

Tomas and Alex are detained at ZRDC while the Royal Research Guild independently verifies the findings. A Guild scientist — acting under direct orders from Emperor Rovin Warpine — presents Tomas with a compulsory work contract: indefinite assignment on Lukyr Prime, no early exit, no refusal. Tomas accepts on one condition — that Alex be relocated with him. The scientist, citing imperial grace for an exceptional asset, agrees. The two are escorted immediately to Prime by an armored Royal Brigade Knight, travelling via Lukyr Qyvor's floating cities past Tomas's lifelong home city Starpointed, then up a space elevator he has never previously ridden, then by imperial transport ship.

On Prime, both are chipped with locator devices at the Royal Compliance Center. Alex is separated from Tomas at the Guild HQ train stop. Tomas is assigned to a prestigious private building where multiple batches of The Glowing Element run continuously and screens display SYMMETRY's real-time proximity transmissions — readings confirming it is approaching Lukyr Prime specifically, not merely the star system, with an estimated arrival of approximately three days. Hours of experiments produce no change in the transmissions until, without researcher input, a new message appears: SYMMETRY has acknowledged humanity and is relaying data about it homeward. The Royal Brigade arrives and appoints Tomas humanity's ambassador to the entity.

The SYMMETRY Mission

Briefing and Launch

Summoned to a roundtable at the Royal Palace, Tomas meets Styvin Fring-Warpine — 1st Commander of the Royal Brigade and great-grandson of Emperor Rovin — who appraises him openly and commands his immediate departure in service of the Emperor. A young scientist who attempts to withdraw from the mission is frozen motionless by an unknown ability of Styvin's; Tomas cannot later remember the scientist's name, which continues to trouble him. Miran Keldt (High Commander of the Royal Research Guild) provides a mission briefing: SYMMETRY has performed a gravity slingshot past Lukyr toward Prime, and the government has known about it for some time. Tomas's request to see Alex before departure is denied — the Emperor has demanded immediate launch.

Tomas joins a five-person research team at the regional spaceport on Prime: Mera Serenol (orbital mechanics), Kristopher Yette (theoretical exobiologist), Byran Kale (spaceship technician), and Miryana Dorense (astronomer). Mission parameters include a 23-hour journey to intercept SYMMETRY in medium Lukyr orbit, a 2-3 hour research window with a 15-minute critical window for data retrieval, and an option to destroy SYMMETRY if deemed safer than exposing the Empire's citizens to the unknown.

Journey

The mission briefing establishes that SYMMETRY is partially organic and partially metallic, emits disruptive energy of an unknown type preventing detailed analysis from distance, and that the broader scientific community had already identified it as an intelligently designed object — a finding the Crown suppressed from publication. Shortly after departure, Byran Kale disables the ship's audio surveillance and expresses strong anti-Empire sentiment, unsettling Tomas. Tomas's primary preoccupation throughout the journey is Alex Prane's safety: as a Brisk individual on Prime, she is in a hostile environment created by Rovin's systematic elimination of the Brisk — the first settlers of Prime — from the planet.

Conversations with crew members confirm mutual distrust. Mera Serenol expresses paranoia about their actual course. Byran is secretive and evasive. Miryana Dorense discusses The Glowing Element (atomic designation 114-311, which Mera calls Lyrium) and confirms the suppressed intelligence-design finding. The team barely knows each other when they arrive.

Spatial Disruptions

As the ship approaches SYMMETRY, spatial anomalies begin to manifest. Tomas notices a hallway in the wrong location and a storage room with an extra aisle — one containing duplicate crates bearing identical serial numbers at identical positions to the originals, confirming the anomaly is not equipment redundancy. He presents these findings to the team; Byran Kale is hostile, but Mera Serenol independently verifies the serial numbers.

The anomalies intensify. Miryana Dorense enters a repeating time loop. A duplicate of Mera Serenol appears in a maintenance room, and the real Mera stuns her. Tomas defends the double in the medical room, arguing her existence must be treated as legitimate. When Byran later sabotages the ship's course toward Gamma Eona and erases mission parameters, Kristopher Yette invokes the Sylvian Contingency Override to halt the engines; Byran enters firing and is eventually stunned. Tomas bandages Kristopher's shoulder wound, then — after Kristopher privately rebukes him for dismissing the double's distress — returns to apologise to her directly.

The spatial loops preserve relative velocity to the ship, but Tomas concludes that conflicting reference frames from SYMMETRY's anomalies could eventually tear the ship's structure apart.

The Void

Derealization

During a strategy meeting, Tomas experiences a gap in consciousness and finds the entire crew motionless — seated, watching him with perfectly tracking eyes, completely still. Ship noise is entirely absent. Hallway displays show star positions that are visibly wrong. A door he expects to lead to the cockpit opens instead onto an infinite white space; he steps through with no way back.

The void is featureless and traversable indefinitely without physical fatigue. Tomas walks for what feels like subjective months. His waking mind empties gradually; he sleeps occasionally from boredom rather than need. A small rabbit-like creature he names Fred joins him, accompanies him for weeks, and responds to his voice. The void later generates environments: meadow patches with creatures from no known Lukyr biome, then a landscape of waterfalls, islands, and a distant city of unfamiliar architecture — reminiscent of home but distinct from anything in the Lukyr system. After subjective years, exhaustion and a sense of eroded self produce a moment of breakdown before the environment shifts again, producing a bridge that leads toward a meadow convergence point.

Crew Reunion and Contact

All four remaining crew members arrive simultaneously at the convergence point: Tomas, Kristopher Yette, Mera Serenol, and Miryana Dorense. Each perceived the void differently — Tomas encountered natural environments; Kristopher traversed frozen cities populated only by animals; Miryana heard whispers she interpreted as the probe's thoughts and transcribed on paper scraps; Mera spent most of the anomaly aboard what appeared to be the actual ship. At the convergence point itself, each member perceives the central environment differently. At the center stands the probe — the mission's target — which Miryana identifies from her transcribed whispers, one excerpt reading: "Lives, intruding on the processor. No harm."

When Kristopher touches the probe's structure, reality collapses. Tomas finds himself in a partial ship interior with the probe floating nearby in open space; white tears begin pulling his body apart. He experiences three rapid visions: Lukyr's sun seen directly without harm; a barren planet with an enormous unfinished orbital structure; and a blue planet with a single moon, orbited by millions of destroyed ships of every class, accompanied by the intrusive impression of the word "Home" — whose home he cannot determine before the vision ends. As sensation, memory, and identity dissolve, Tomas makes contact with the probe by will alone.

In the void following contact, the probe acknowledges Tomas's appeal to stop with "Forgive me," then identifies itself: "I am all that exists in two halves of a whole. I am light and dark, good and evil, here and there."

Aftermath

Return and Reunion

Tomas wakes in a medical facility on Lukyr Prime to find Alex Prane beside him. His memories of events after boarding the ship are intact but chronologically scrambled; he can recall what happened with vague certainty but struggles to provide details. After a medical check, he spends half an hour recounting his experience to Alex. She relays what Kristopher Yette observed: the moment Tomas touched the probe, all anomalies ended; the probe apologised for "its mistake" and asked permission to bring the crew home; Kristopher consented; the probe transported the ship back to Prime at extraordinary speed, set it down gently, then landed nearby and has since done nothing. Crew status: Byran Kale is in custody, Mera Serenol has gone to a genetics and biology lab, and Kristopher and Miryana Dorense are unharmed.

A medical examination finds Tomas in perfect health despite crew testimony describing severe physical trauma. Cleared for release, he immediately confirms intent to continue his research into the probe. He, Kristopher, and Alex leave the hospital together.

Later History

In the years following the events of SFL-TA, Tomas writes reports identifying Evitr — the entity humanity comes to know SYMMETRY as — as a probe rather than a god. His firsthand experience as ambassador, and his direct exposure to SYMMETRY's communication methods and internal transmissions, give these conclusions empirical grounding that no subsequent scholar could replicate. Emperor Rovin Warpine suppresses the reports, building religious and political authority around Evitr's presence instead.

The reports survive in fragmentary form into the 8044 period. Zet recovers and reads them after Evitr's departure, citing them to Zeni as a counterpoint to the theological interpretations that dominated Evitr discourse for centuries.

Relationships

Alex Prane

Alex Prane is Tomas's romantic partner and research collaborator. They live together on Lukyr Qyvor and divide expertise along discipline lines — Tomas handles physics and material science; she handles computer diagnostics and data analysis. They cannot legally marry under Rovin Warpine's laws because Alex is of Brisk descent. Alex's safety is Tomas's primary preoccupation throughout the mission, and the drive to return to her is the last coherent force in his mind during the void.

SYMMETRY / Evitr

The entity later known as Evitr communicates through The Glowing Element throughout Tomas's research. He is the first human to establish deliberate communication with it and the person appointed to represent humanity at its arrival. His assessment of it as a technological probe is the most accurate any human produces before Zet's analysis in 8044.

Styvin Fring-Warpine

Styvin Fring-Warpine commands Tomas's departure on the SYMMETRY mission at the palace roundtable. Styvin evaluates Tomas openly — assessing his usefulness — and uses an unknown ability to immobilize a scientist who attempts to withdraw, an act that deters Tomas from questioning the mission himself.

August Lithe

August Lithe, who published "Of Evitr" in 7609, shares Tomas's surname. Whether a family connection exists is not established, but the shared name and subject matter suggest a possible lineage — August may have had access to Tomas's suppressed work, or pursued the question because of ancestral connection.

Open Questions

What are the "transgressions" Rovin commits against Evitr that lead to the freedom decree?
How does Tomas come to write the suppressed reports identifying Evitr as a probe — and when?
Does he ever learn that SYMMETRY calls itself SYMMETRY?
What is his relationship to August Lithe?
Why can Tomas perceive fine spatial details aboard the ship that others cannot?
How long did the void anomaly last in real-world time, and what was happening aboard the ship during that period?
Whose "Home" is the blue planet with a single moon and millions of destroyed ships in orbit?
What did the probe mean: "I am all that exists in two halves of a whole. I am light and dark, good and evil, here and there"?
What happened to Fred and the other crew animals after the reality collapse?
What was the probe's "mistake" that it apologised for?
How does Tomas's relationship with Alex develop after their reunion?