GARIBALDI

"Asen-Ger and the other Terranauts board the LASSALLE and the GARIBALDI and escape into Space II."
-- Booklet 024

The GARIBALDI is a Driver tug (Treiberschlepper) and later Terranaut warship that serves as one of the saga's most important vessels across its middle arc. Originally a Council ship stored at a Gray Guards base in the Cheviot Hills of Scotland, the GARIBALDI is stolen during a daring commando raid in Booklet 024 and becomes a mainstay of the Terranaut fleet for over thirty booklets -- serving as troop transport, plague ship, evacuation vessel, and finally as Hadersen Wells's command during the catastrophic Wreckage Nebula expedition. Its destruction in Booklet 055, when the alien Ngk-guk's ship collides with it in the Turquoise system, marks the end of an era for the Terranauts and the shattering of one of the saga's most fully documented Driver lodges.

The GARIBALDI is compared to a "lightship" (Feuerschiff) in the wreckage graveyard -- a beacon in dangerous waters, guiding those who are lost. The metaphor is apt: the ship serves as a lifeline for the Terranauts across some of their darkest hours, from the Hate Plague crisis to the search for David terGorden on Rorqual.

Specifications

Crew & Lodge

The GARIBALDI's crew evolved over the course of the saga. Initially piloted by Claude Farrell during the theft from the Cheviot Hills, it was subsequently commanded by Hadersen Wells, whose GDANSK lodge transferred to the larger vessel sometime between Booklets 027 and 028. During the Hate Plague crisis, the ship also carried infected Terranauts from the CYGNI.

Lodge Master

Core Lodge Members (Wells's Lodge from the GDANSK)

Other Notable Personnel Aboard

History

The Cheviot Hills Raid: Theft from the Gray Guards (c. 2544)

The GARIBALDI first appears in 024 - The Starship Thieves, where it is stored at a Gray Guards base in the Cheviot Hills of Scotland, one of several decommissioned Driver ships the Council had retained after the transition to Kaiser Force technology. David terGorden leads a daring commando raid: twelve Terranauts infiltrate Earth via container ships, with teams assigned to different objectives.

Prison World Liberation Campaign (c. 2547)

By 028 - The PSI-Seekers, the GARIBALDI has become a key element of the Terranaut fleet, operating alongside the CYGNI and the LASSALLE in a coordinated campaign to investigate and liberate Drivers from Council prison worlds. Hadersen Wells's lodge -- formerly of the GDANSK -- has transferred to the GARIBALDI, establishing it as their permanent command.

From the GARIBALDI, David terGorden, Llewellyn 709, and Claude Farrell are dispatched to Veldvald, a prison planet disguised as a lumber operation run by Interstellar Wood & Furniture (IWF). The team enters the atmosphere via "cosmic surfboards" and ultimately liberates the planet with the help of the sentient tree Ro Ulema and the native Quom. It is Wells aboard the GARIBALDI who receives David's report about the successful liberation.

During this period, the Quom warrior Morpot the Sturdy joins the GARIBALDI's crew, adding a native Veldvald perspective to the Terranaut lodge.

Shondyke Extraction (c. 2548)

In 036 - Flames Over Shondyke, the GARIBALDI serves as an extraction vessel. After David terGorden and Llewellyn 709 help defend Shondyke -- the secret heart of the Gray Guards -- from the Super-Drivers Ares 17, Artemis 11, and Plutos 23, and after the clone Queens led by Ci Anur take control of the planet, the GARIBALDI picks up David and Llewellyn as they depart Shondyke for Bortzynn. This moment demonstrates the ship's role as the Terranauts' reliable lifeline: wherever the leadership ventures, the GARIBALDI is waiting.

The Walhalla System and the Gravity Trap (c. 2548)

During the events of 039 - The Gravity Trap, the GARIBALDI is identified as a Terranaut freighter present during Edison Tontor's campaign to seize decommissioned Driver ships from the Walhalla System. While the LASSALLE takes a more prominent role in this operation -- and Edison Tontor's cruiser THOMAS ALVA is consumed by a Black Hole created by the malfunctioning Gravitron -- the GARIBALDI operates in support, part of the growing Terranaut fleet that escapes into Space II with sixteen recovered ships.

The Hate Plague Crisis (c. 2536)

The GARIBALDI's darkest chapter begins during the Hate Plague arc (Booklets 046--049). The ship becomes a plague vessel -- a floating quarantine zone where infected Terranauts rage against their confinement.

In 048 - Narda and the Sky Marshal, Queen Ishiya and Valhala 13 use the GARIBALDI as a staging point during an attempt to spread the Hate Plague to Rorqual. The ship is docked to the BERLIN, the courier cruiser controlled by the self-aware Ebberdyk Computers, creating a linked flotilla approaching a Black Hole where Max von Valdec's fleet waits.

By 049 - The Computer's Ultimatum, the Hate Plague has consumed multiple crew members aboard the GARIBALDI, including Claude Farrell, Sirdina Giccomo, and Angila Fraim. Farrell, driven to the edge of sanity by the virus, threatens to bomb Berlin from the GARIBALDI if the antidote is not delivered -- a desperate act from one of the saga's most loyal characters. Ennerk Prime and Onnegart Vangralen eventually help deliver the antidote aboard the ship, saving the infected Terranauts and ending the crisis.

Evacuation from Rorqual (c. 2587)

In 051 - World in Turmoil, the GARIBALDI takes on the role of evacuation vessel. As Rorqual -- the Terranauts' hidden base in Space II -- undergoes catastrophic environmental and social upheaval, the GARIBALDI is used to evacuate people from Pitcairn to Aqua, the water world where the Terranauts have established a secondary base. The ship TASCA arrives from Aqua with news that everything is ready for the reception of the emigrants, confirming the GARIBALDI's role as a vital transport link between the two Terranaut strongholds.

The Fall of the High Lord (2502)

In 054 - The Fall of the High Lord, the GARIBALDI makes a dramatic appearance at Earth during Max von Valdec's attempted coup and subsequent downfall. Hadersen Wells arrives aboard the GARIBALDI, "signaling trouble at Rorqual" and demanding contact with Asen-Ger. The urgency of his message prompts Llewellyn 709 and Narda to prepare for immediate departure to investigate. This moment reveals the GARIBALDI as a critical node in the Terranaut intelligence network -- a ship that races across space to deliver warnings to the leadership at the most dangerous moments.

The Wreckage Nebula: Destruction in the Turquoise System (2481)

The GARIBALDI meets its end during the events of 055 - The Wreckage Nebula -- the ship's most extensively documented appearance and its final mission.

Carrying Llewellyn 709 and Hadersen Wells's lodge, the GARIBALDI orbits Veldvald to seek help from Ro Ulema in reaching David terGorden, who is stranded on Rorqual. The Ro Ulema activates a RZS (Space-Time Stroboscope) to transport the ship, but instead of reaching its destination, the GARIBALDI is shunted to the Turquoise system -- a graveyard of derelict spacecraft orbiting the planet Glimmer.

The crew splits up to investigate:

• Hadersen Wells, Dime Mow, and Winchinata Jacques take a Ringo to explore Glimmer's surface, where they discover semi-intelligent plant life that attacks them and destroys their shuttle. Wells is killed by a poisonous thorn -- a death as sudden and random as a bullet in wartime.
• Llewellyn 709 and Tsien-Wan examine strange stone plates in orbit, determining they drain energy from passing ships -- explaining the graveyard of wrecks.
• Luther Straightwire and Maury Jacques explore the derelict ships. Straightwire notes that all the wrecks used Kaiser Force drives. When Maury confronts him about his suspicious identity, Straightwire attacks her and escapes in a Ringo toward the CORTES, a Gray Guard battle cruiser caught in the same RZS field.

Meanwhile, Ngk-guk, a three-legged extraterrestrial stranded in the wreck system, observes the GARIBALDI and attempts to make contact. The attempt goes catastrophically wrong: Ngk-guk's ship collides with the GARIBALDI, destroying both vessels. The collision is one of the saga's most grimly ironic moments -- the GARIBALDI is annihilated not by enemy action but by an alien trying to say hello.

The destruction scatters the lodge. Farewell-Paal, who stayed aboard the GARIBALDI, is killed when a Shadow drains his PSI energy. Tsien-Wan is killed by Gray Guards on Glimmer. The survivors -- Dime Mow, Winchinata Jacques, Maury Jacques, and Llewellyn 709 -- are stranded on Glimmer until they can secure passage off-world. The GARIBALDI's loss marks the effective end of the Wells lodge as a cohesive unit.

Aftermath: Loss and Legacy (Booklet 056)

In 056 - The Dragon Witches, set in 2502, the GARIBALDI is referenced as "a ship lost while trying to reach Rorqual via the space-time stroboscope." Asen-Ger and Narda, seeking the dragon witches of the Sealed Land on Adzharis to help reach David terGorden, must find alternative means because the GARIBALDI's attempted transit failed. The ship's loss thus has direct strategic consequences: without it, the Terranauts must resort to increasingly desperate measures to reconnect with their stranded leader.

The GARIBA II, a successor vessel that departs for Tamerlan under Asen-Ger's leadership, carries the GARIBALDI's name forward -- a tribute to the ship that served the Terranaut cause across its most critical years.

Key Events

Auxiliary Craft

The GARIBALDI carried several Ringo-class shuttles, at least two of which are documented by name:

These shuttles served as the primary vehicles for planetary landings, surface exploration, and ship-to-ship transfers. On Glimmer, the destruction of a Ringo by semi-intelligent plant life stranded Hadersen Wells, Dime Mow, and Winchinata Jacques on the planet's surface -- a loss that directly contributed to Wells's death.

Significance

The GARIBALDI occupies a central position in the middle arc of Die Terranauten. Between Booklets 024 and 055, it is the ship most consistently associated with the Terranauts' operational capacity -- their ability to project force, evacuate populations, investigate threats, and maintain communication across the scattered Terranaut network.

The ship's history traces the full arc of the Terranaut insurgency's middle phase:

1. Stolen from the enemy (Booklet 024): The GARIBALDI begins as a symbol of Terranaut audacity -- a ship seized from the heart of the Council's military infrastructure.
2. Instrument of liberation (Booklet 028): It becomes part of the fleet that frees imprisoned Drivers from Council prison worlds, demonstrating the Terranauts' growing strategic reach.
3. Plague ship (Booklets 048--049): The Hate Plague transforms the GARIBALDI from a vessel of liberation into a floating quarantine, its crew raging against each other as the virus strips away their humanity. This inversion -- the freedom ship become a prison -- mirrors the saga's recurring theme of revolutionary ideals tested by biological and psychological warfare.
4. Intelligence courier (Booklet 054): Wells's desperate arrival at Earth aboard the GARIBALDI during Valdec's fall demonstrates the ship's role as more than a warship -- it is the connective tissue of the Terranaut movement, carrying warnings and intelligence across interstellar distances.
5. Destroyed by accident (Booklet 055): The GARIBALDI's end is characteristically unheroic. It is not destroyed in battle, not sacrificed for a noble cause. An alien ship rams it while trying to make friendly contact. This pointless, absurd destruction is of a piece with the deaths of Hadersen Wells (poisoned thorn), Farewell-Paal (PSI-drained by a Shadow), and Tsien-Wan (shot by Gray Guards on a planet he never chose to visit). The saga consistently refuses to grant its ships -- like its characters -- the deaths they might have earned.

The GARIBALDI's destruction also marks the beginning of a wider catastrophe. The loss of the ship triggers the scattering of Wells's lodge, the exposure of Luther Straightwire as a non-human infiltrator, and the deaths of multiple Terranauts on Glimmer. In narrative terms, the GARIBALDI's collision with Ngk-guk's ship is the keystone disaster that unravels the most stable unit in the Terranaut fleet.

Appearances

Related Articles

Characters

• Hadersen Wells -- Lodge Master; killed on Glimmer during the GARIBALDI's final mission
• Claude Farrell -- First pilot; suffered the Hate Plague aboard the ship
• Llewellyn 709 -- Led the GARIBALDI's final expedition to the Turquoise system
• Asen-Ger -- Led the commando raid that captured the GARIBALDI
• Dime Mow -- Lodge member; survived the ship's destruction
• Maury Jacques -- Lodge member; attacked by Luther Straightwire
• Winchinata Jacques -- Lodge member; survived the ship's destruction
• Farewell-Paal -- Lodge member; killed aboard the GARIBALDI by a PSI-vampire Shadow
• Tsien-Wan -- Lodge member; killed by Gray Guards on Glimmer
• Luther Straightwire -- Imposter lodge member; revealed as an ancient Steerer
• Morpot the Sturdy -- Quom warrior who joined the crew
• Sirdina Giccomo -- Suffered the Hate Plague aboard the ship
• Angila Fraim -- Suffered the Hate Plague aboard the ship
• Ennerk Prime -- Helped deliver the antidote aboard the ship
• Onnegart Vangralen -- Participated in the theft and later delivered the antidote
• Ngk-guk -- Alien whose ship destroyed the GARIBALDI in a collision

Ships

• LASSALLE -- Sister ship; stolen in the same Cheviot Hills raid
• GDANSK -- Predecessor vessel for Wells's lodge
• CYGNI -- Operated alongside the GARIBALDI during the prison world campaign
• BERLIN -- Courier cruiser to which the GARIBALDI was docked during the Hate Plague crisis
• CORTES -- Gray Guard battle cruiser; Luther Straightwire escaped to it from the GARIBALDI
• GARIBA II -- Successor vessel carrying the GARIBALDI's name
• GARIBALDI-Four -- Ringo shuttle
• GARIBALDI-Five -- Ringo shuttle
• TASCA -- Terranaut courier ship that coordinated evacuations with the GARIBALDI

Locations

• Cheviot Hills -- Scottish mountain range; site of the Gray Guards base where the GARIBALDI was stored
• Veldvald -- Prison planet; the GARIBALDI orbited it during the liberation campaign and the Wreckage Nebula mission
• Shondyke -- Secret Gray Guard planet; the GARIBALDI extracted David and Llewellyn after the Super-Driver crisis
• Walhalla System -- Location of decommissioned Driver ships; the GARIBALDI operated as support
• Rorqual -- Terranaut base; the GARIBALDI served as evacuation transport and intelligence courier
• Aqua -- Water world; destination for evacuees transported by the GARIBALDI
• Pitcairn -- Island on Rorqual; evacuation point
• Turquoise (star system) -- Wreck graveyard; site of the GARIBALDI's destruction
• Glimmer -- Planet in the Turquoise system; site of Wells's death and multiple lodge casualties

Technology

• Space II -- Higher-dimensional space used for FTL transit
• RZS -- Space-Time Stroboscope; the device that transported the GARIBALDI to the Turquoise system
• Ro Ulema -- Sentient tree on Veldvald that activated the RZS
• Kaiser Force -- The technology whose wrecks littered the Turquoise system
• Hate Plague -- Bioweapon that ravaged the GARIBALDI's crew
• Potential Amplifier -- Device revealed by Straightwire after the GARIBALDI's destruction
• Ringo -- Standard auxiliary shuttle craft

The GARIBALDI appears in 10 booklets of Die Terranauten (024, 028, 036, 039, 048, 049, 051, 054, 055, 056). It is one of the saga's most important Terranaut vessels, serving across the middle arc from its theft in the Cheviot Hills to its destruction in the Turquoise system -- a span encompassing liberation campaigns, biological warfare, political upheaval, and the shattering of one of the Terranauts' oldest lodges.