Hal Dresner

Overview

Hal Dresner is the de facto leader of Hygeia Station and a former union organizer. At 58, he’s spent more than thirty years in the belt, most of them navigating the aftermath of failed movements. He’s the kind of man who’s seen enough to be cynical about everything – except the people who keep trying anyway.

Background

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Hal comes from the Squirrel Hill neighborhood and an Ashkenazi Jewish family with deep roots in the city’s labor organizing history. He arrived in the belt in 2147 and threw himself into worker organizing. The strikes of the 2160s ended in failure, and Hal paid the price. He was blacklisted, making him unemployable within the contract system. He arrived at Hygeia Station in 2171 and has been there since.

He has an ex-wife on Earth whom he hasn’t spoken to in twenty years. No children.

Physical Description

Hal’s body tells his story. His shoulders are stooped, and he suffers from chronic back pain from old injuries. His white hair is thinning and usually uncombed. His hands shake slightly – nerve damage from an “accident” during the 2160s strikes. His voice is raspy from scarred lungs, the result of tear gas exposure three decades ago. Despite all this, he still moves like someone who expects to be attacked.

Personality

Hal possesses strategic patience. He understands that movements fail from overreach as often as inaction, and his first instinct when presented with new information is to slow things down: verify, authenticate, plan. He’s seen what happens when people move too fast.

His institutional memory is vast. He knows every failed movement, every corporate counter-tactic, every way this has gone wrong before. He predicts responses before they happen and maps out probable reactions with unsettling accuracy.

He speaks slowly and deliberately, every word considered. Dark, dry humor about his own mortality comes naturally. Old union songs sometimes surface when he’s drinking. He uses labor history references that younger people don’t understand, and never raises his voice – his menace comes from quiet precision.

Relationships

Hal sees something of himself in Cade Brennan and tries to share what he’s learned. With Tobias Kone, he feels a mixture of frustration and reluctant hope – the kid’s idealism is both dangerous and necessary. He and Yeva Sorokina have known each other for twenty years without becoming friends, maintaining a relationship of mutual wariness.