Evita Jaschini

"Evita Jaschini, the Cosmoral (commandant) of Lunaport, is in a secret relationship with the Psyter and is concerned about his presence among the new prisoners."
-- Narrator, Booklet 010

Evita Jaschini, holding the rank of Cosmoral in the Gray Guards, is a military officer in the service of the Council of Corporations who appears in two booklets of Die Terranauten. Despite her limited appearances, Jaschini occupies a pivotal position in two of the saga's most consequential events: the prisoner revolt on Luna that launches the MIDAS into intergalactic space, and the military blockade of Zoe that precedes the planet's destruction. Her story is one of personal vulnerability exploited, professional failure endured, and a fierce determination to redeem herself through military action -- a determination that makes her a willing instrument of Max von Valdec's most ruthless campaigns.

Biography

Commandant of Lunaport (2499)

Evita Jaschini is first introduced in 010 - Revolt on Luna as the Cosmoral and commandant of Lunaport, the main lunar spaceport and military base on Luna. In this capacity, she commands the Gray Guard garrison that oversees the Moon Dungeons -- the vast underground prison complex where the Council of Corporations incarcerates political prisoners, Drivers, and dissidents.

Jaschini's command responsibilities include:

• Overseeing the security of Lunaport, including its central computer, Big Brother
• Managing the Moon Dungeons and their prisoner population
• Supervising the guard detachment, including Hauptmann Shimon
• Guarding the MIDAS, an experimental Kaiser Force interstellar spacecraft hidden on Luna

At the time of the events of Booklet 010, Jaschini faces a logistical crisis: the Council has ordered the transfer of thousands of additional prisoners to Luna, straining the already taxed facilities of the Moon Dungeons. Among the new arrivals are Llewellyn 709, David terGorden (disguised as Ishmail Tout), Angila Fraim, and Sirdina Giccomo -- all of whom will play crucial roles in the revolt to come.

The Secret Relationship with Scanner Cloud

Beneath her official role as Lunaport's commandant, Jaschini harbours a secret that compromises her position fatally: she is in a clandestine relationship with Scanner Cloud, the Psyter. Cloud -- a prisoner with advanced psionic abilities including telepathy and mind-influence -- has cultivated this relationship over an unspecified period, gaining Jaschini's trust and, critically, intelligence about Lunaport's operations, security protocols, and the MIDAS's existence.

The nature of their relationship is described in terms that suggest genuine emotional attachment on Jaschini's part. She is "concerned about his presence among the new prisoners" -- not as a security threat but as a personal worry. This emotional vulnerability is precisely what Cloud exploits: he has been planning the prisoner revolt for some time, and his hold over the commandant gives him an insider's knowledge of Lunaport's defences.

Cloud's manipulation of Jaschini stands as one of his most morally ambiguous acts in the entire saga. As his character profile notes, "his betrayal of her trust is one of his most morally ambiguous acts" -- a pattern of cunning self-interest that only transforms into genuine selflessness across the later booklets.

The Revolt on Luna (Booklet 010)

The revolt unfolds in stages, each of which strips away Jaschini's control:

1. The Infiltration: Scanner Cloud, operating as "the Psyter" from within the Moon Dungeons, tasks Morgenstern with retrieving Leande, a former computer technician, from the deepest level of the prison -- the Brown Plate.

1. The Sabotage: Llewellyn 709 and other Drivers enter Leande's fractured mind in a collective act of psionic therapy, restoring her ability to function. Leande then disables Big Brother, Lunaport's central computer, crippling the base's surveillance, communications, and automated defence systems.

1. The Uprising: With Big Brother down, the prisoners launch an armed revolt, overwhelming the Gray Guard garrison, seizing weapons and spacesuits, and taking control of key facilities.

1. The Betrayal Realised: Jaschini realises that the Psyter has betrayed her. The man she trusted -- the man she was secretly involved with -- has used their relationship to plan and execute the revolt. She attempts to contact Valdec to report the emergency, but the prisoners' actions have crippled Lunaport's communications.

1. The Escape: The prisoners seize the MIDAS and launch it from Luna. Valdec, upon learning of the situation, makes a coldly calculated decision: he allows the prisoners to escape, intending to use them as expendable test subjects for the Kaiser Force drive.

The revolt on Luna is a catastrophic failure for Jaschini on every level. She loses control of her base, her prisoners escape with the most valuable experimental spacecraft in the Council's arsenal, and the man she trusted reveals himself as the architect of her humiliation. The professional consequences are severe -- she has failed in her primary duty as commandant.

Reassignment: The Blockade of Zoe (Booklet 011)

Despite the debacle on Luna, Jaschini is not stripped of her rank. Instead, Max von Valdec gives her what amounts to a second chance -- one that she seizes with fierce determination. In 011 - Planet of the Lodge Masters, Valdec tasks Cosmoral Evita Jaschini with blockading Zoe, the planet of the Lodge Masters and the political seat of the Drivers.

This assignment is significant for several reasons:

• It is a major military operation, not a garrison post. Jaschini is given command of a fleet, not a static base. Her flagship is the GRAUE ARDA, and she commands the Delta Fleet -- a formation of Gray Guard warships.
• It represents Valdec's confidence in her loyalty, if not her judgment. Valdec needs officers who will carry out his orders against the Drivers without hesitation, and Jaschini's desire to redeem herself after Luna makes her exactly such an officer.
• It places her at the centre of the escalating war. The blockade of Zoe is the opening move in what will become the siege and destruction of the planet -- one of the saga's most catastrophic events.

Jaschini's characterisation in Booklet 011 explicitly frames her motivation: she is "determined to redeem herself after failing on the Moon." This drive for redemption makes her aggressive, perhaps recklessly so, and renders her susceptible to manipulation -- this time not by a lover but by an intelligence agent.

The Shadow Agent and the Attack on Zoe

On Zoe, the Summacum Gram Ashmit is revealed to be a Shadow agent named Etchmund Crieger. Crieger, operating undercover within the Driver diplomatic corps, betrays critical intelligence to Jaschini: specifically, that David terGorden is present on Zoe and that the Yggdrasil Seeds -- the last hope for the continuation of Driver space travel -- are at stake.

Armed with this intelligence, Jaschini launches an attack on Zoe, moving from blockade to active assault. The attack forces David to flee, and Jaschini pursues him alongside Crieger, using the landing boat ARDA IV. The military action is swift and aggressive -- consistent with a commander desperate to prove her worth after the Luna failure.

However, Jaschini's attack is ultimately overtaken by events of a larger scale. Valdec himself arrives at Zoe aboard the FUGGER and takes personal command, ordering the execution of all captured Drivers. The Drivers respond with a devastating psionic counterattack, using their collective PSI powers through the Super-Lodge in the Grottos of B'ai Ching to liberate the planet and force Valdec to retreat.

After Zoe

Jaschini is not mentioned by name in 012 - The Supreme Colonel's Gambit, which chronicles the final siege and destruction of Zoe. However, the GRAUE ARDA continues to appear in the saga:

• In 048 - Narda and the Sky Marshal, the GRAUE ARDA serves as Valdec's flagship during the standoff at a Black Hole in Space II, where Valdec attempts to force the Terranauts' surrender.
• In 049 - The Computer's Ultimatum, the GRAUE ARDA is again Valdec's ship during the crisis involving the mutated Ebberdyk computers.

In both cases, the GRAUE ARDA is described as Valdec's vessel rather than Jaschini's, suggesting that either Jaschini has been reassigned, or that Valdec has commandeered her flagship for his personal use -- a plausible outcome given his habit of appropriating military assets.

Jaschini's ultimate fate is unrecorded in the saga. She does not appear among the officers executed after Chan de Nouille's broadcast exposes Valdec's crimes (Booklet 054), nor is she mentioned among the survivors of Valdec's inner circle. Her story ends where the narrative leaves her: a Cosmoral in the field, fighting to recover from disgrace, caught in the machinery of a war far larger than her personal ambitions.

Key Actions (Chronological)

• Commands Lunaport as Cosmoral; oversees the Moon Dungeons and guards the MIDAS (010)
• Maintains a secret relationship with Scanner Cloud, the Psyter, unknowingly providing him with intelligence about Lunaport's defences (010)
• Learns of the plan to transfer thousands of prisoners to Luna (010)
• Realises the Psyter has betrayed her when the prisoner revolt disables Big Brother (010)
• Attempts to contact Valdec to report the revolt; communications are down (010)
• Loses control of Lunaport; the MIDAS is seized and launched by escaped prisoners (010)
• Receives a second chance from Valdec; assigned to blockade Zoe with the Delta Fleet (011)
• Commands the GRAUE ARDA as her flagship during the blockade (011)
• Receives intelligence from Etchmund Crieger (posing as Gram Ashmit) revealing David terGorden's presence on Zoe (011)
• Launches an attack on Zoe, forcing David to flee (011)
• Pursues David in the landing boat ARDA IV alongside Crieger (011)

Relationships

Ships and Commands

The GRAUE ARDA is described as "a Gray Guard spaceship commanded by Cosmoral Jaschini" and later as "Evita Jaschini's flagship." It is a vessel of significant size and capability -- later in the saga (Booklets 048-049), it serves as Valdec's personal flagship, described as "a heavy Kaiser Force ship." The fact that Valdec eventually takes the GRAUE ARDA as his own command vessel suggests it was one of the more powerful warships in the Gray Guard fleet.

Character Analysis

The Pattern of Betrayal

Jaschini's story is defined by a recurring pattern: she is betrayed by those who provide her with intelligence. On Luna, Scanner Cloud uses their intimate relationship to gather the information he needs for the revolt. On Zoe, Etchmund Crieger feeds her intelligence calculated to provoke an aggressive response that serves the Shadows' agenda. In both cases, Jaschini acts on the information she receives -- trusting the source, failing to question the motives behind it.

This pattern suggests not naivety but a particular kind of military directness: Jaschini processes intelligence as actionable data, not as a web of hidden intentions. She is a commander, not a spy. When told that the Psyter is among the prisoners, she worries about the personal implications. When told that David terGorden is on Zoe, she attacks. In neither case does she ask the deeper question: who benefits from my knowing this?

Redemption Through Force

Jaschini's assignment to the Zoe blockade is explicitly motivated by her desire to "redeem herself after failing on the Moon." This redemption arc, however, is channeled entirely through military aggression. Rather than reflecting on what went wrong at Lunaport -- her compromised personal judgment, the systemic vulnerabilities that Cloud exploited -- Jaschini seeks to prove her worth through force of arms. She blockades, she attacks, she pursues.

This approach makes her useful to Valdec but does not address the underlying failure. She remains vulnerable to manipulation because she has not understood why she was manipulated in the first place. The saga does not give her the space to learn this lesson; her story ends mid-campaign, in the heat of action.

A Cosmoral Between Two Queens

Jaschini occupies an interesting structural position between the saga's two most prominent female Gray Guard officers:

• Fay Gray is the loyalist who never questions, never wavers, and is ultimately executed for her blind devotion to Valdec (Booklet 054).
• Queen Mandorla is the officer who defects, saving David terGorden's life and providing the Terranauts with critical intelligence throughout the saga.

Jaschini falls between these poles. She is loyal to the Council and to Valdec, but her loyalty is not the cold, mechanical obedience of Fay Gray -- it is complicated by personal entanglements, by shame, and by a drive to prove herself. Nor does she defect like Mandorla; there is no moment of moral awakening in which she sees the Council's cause as unjust. She is, instead, a soldier doing her job under extraordinary personal pressure -- and the saga does not wait around to show us whether that pressure eventually cracks her or hardens her beyond breaking.

Significance to the Saga

Despite appearing in only two booklets, Evita Jaschini plays a role in two events of enormous consequence:

1. The Revolt on Luna (Booklet 010): The seizure of the MIDAS launches the entire intergalactic exile arc -- Scanner Cloud, Llewellyn 709, and a crew of escaped prisoners are flung across the galaxy, making first contact with alien civilizations and discovering a cutting of Yggdrasil. None of this happens without the revolt, and the revolt succeeds in large part because Cloud has compromised the commandant through their relationship.

1. The Blockade and Attack on Zoe (Booklet 011): Jaschini's blockade is the opening military action in what becomes the siege and destruction of Zoe -- the loss of the Lodge Masters' homeworld, the scattering of the Terranauts, and one of the saga's most catastrophic events. Her attack forces David to flee and escalates the conflict that Valdec then escalates further with the Kaiser Force transmitter.

In both cases, Jaschini is the proximate cause -- the officer whose actions (or whose failure to prevent others' actions) set catastrophic chains of events in motion. She does not intend these outcomes; she is not a villain of grand ambition or ideological conviction. She is a military officer caught in the currents of a conflict far larger than herself, making decisions that seem reasonable in the moment and prove devastating in their consequences.

Appearances (2 booklets)

The GRAUE ARDA continues to appear in Booklets 048 and 049 as Valdec's flagship, but Jaschini herself is not mentioned in those later appearances.

Timeline

Connections

• Scanner Cloud -- Former lover who betrayed her to orchestrate the Luna revolt
• Max von Valdec -- Superior officer who assigned her the Zoe blockade
• Lunaport -- The lunar base she commanded as Cosmoral
• Moon Dungeons -- The prison complex under her authority
• MIDAS -- The experimental Kaiser Force ship seized during the revolt she failed to prevent
• GRAUE ARDA -- Her flagship during the Zoe campaign
• ARDA IV -- Landing boat used during the assault on Zoe
• Delta Fleet -- The fleet assigned to her for the blockade
• Zoe -- The planet she blockaded and attacked, later destroyed by the Kaiser Force
• Gray Guards -- The military institution she serves
• Etchmund Crieger / Gram Ashmit -- The Shadow agent who manipulated her into attacking Zoe
• Fay Gray -- Fellow Cosmoral and Valdec loyalist; parallel trajectory
• Big Brother -- The central computer of Lunaport, disabled during the revolt
• David terGorden -- The strategic target she pursued on Zoe

Evita Jaschini appears in 2 of 99 booklets of Die Terranauten. She is the Cosmoral whose personal vulnerability and professional ambition are exploited twice -- first by a lover, then by a spy -- placing her at the fulcrum of two events that reshape the galaxy.