LASSALLE

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

The LASSALLE is a Driver tug (Treiberschlepper) that serves as one of the Terranauts' principal warships across the middle arc of Die Terranauten. Originally a Council vessel stored at a Gray Guards base in the Cheviot Hills of Scotland, the LASSALLE was stolen alongside its sister ship, the GARIBALDI, during a daring commando raid led by Asen-Ger in Booklet 024. The ship went on to serve in the prison world liberation campaign, the Banshee crisis on Rorqual, Edison Tontor's conquest of Oglallah and the disastrous Walhalla System expedition, and the evacuation operations during Rorqual's collapse -- a span of service that places it at the center of some of the saga's most consequential events.

The LASSALLE is most prominently featured in 039 - The Gravity Trap, where it serves as the primary vessel for Edison Tontor's campaign of military expansion on behalf of the League of Free Worlds. Under the command of Llewellyn 709 and crewed by Asen-Ger's Terranauts, the LASSALLE deploys the devastating Gravitron weapon to force Oglallah's surrender, travels to the Walhalla System to recover a hidden fleet of decommissioned Driver ships, and narrowly escapes the Black Hole created when the Gravitron malfunctions -- a catastrophe that consumes Edison Tontor and his cruiser the THOMAS ALVA, but from which the Terranauts escape into Space II with sixteen recovered vessels. It is aboard the LASSALLE that David terGorden is brought to safety after being rescued from the doomed THOMAS ALVA by the enigmatic Merlin.

Specifications

Crew

The LASSALLE's crew composition shifts across the saga as the ship moves between different operational commands. Unlike the GARIBALDI, which is consistently associated with Hadersen Wells's lodge, the LASSALLE appears to serve as a command vessel whose crew rotates based on mission requirements.

Known Personnel

History

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

The LASSALLE first appears in 024 - The Starship Thieves, stored at a Gray Guards base in the Cheviot Hills of Scotland alongside other decommissioned Driver ships the Council of Corporations had retained after the transition to Kaiser Force technology. David terGorden orchestrated a daring commando operation: twelve Terranauts infiltrated Earth via container ships, with teams assigned to different objectives.

The theft of these two Driver tugs was a strategic turning point for the Terranauts: it restored their capacity for independent interstellar travel after years of dependence on captured or improvised vessels. While Claude Farrell piloted the GARIBALDI during the escape, the pilot of the LASSALLE during this operation is not explicitly named.

Prison World Liberation Campaign (c. 2547)

By 028 - The PSI-Seekers, the LASSALLE has become a key element of the Terranaut fleet, operating alongside the CYGNI and the GARIBALDI in a coordinated campaign to investigate and liberate Drivers from Council prison worlds. The three ships formed a small but effective fleet capable of projecting Terranaut power across multiple star systems simultaneously.

From this fleet, David terGorden, Llewellyn 709, and Claude Farrell were dispatched to Veldvald, a prison planet disguised as a lumber operation run by Interstellar Wood & Furniture (IWF). The team ultimately liberated the planet with the help of the sentient tree Ro Ulema and the native Quom. While the GARIBALDI served as the reception ship for David's mission report (under Hadersen Wells's command), the LASSALLE operated in a parallel capacity within the fleet.

The Banshee Crisis on Rorqual (c. 2547)

During the Banshee invasion that threatened the Terranaut base on Rorqual (Booklets 029-031), the LASSALLE played a critical role in the rescue of the Malaiara -- the native winged inhabitants of Rorqual who were being systematically possessed by Banshees, the malevolent PSI-entities of Space II. Llewellyn 709 organized the evacuation of uninfected Malaiara from Fortress II, shuttling them aboard the GARIBALDI and the LASSALLE, "whose metal hulls provide sanctuary" against the incorporeal Banshees. The ships' physical structure -- impenetrable to the PSI-based entities -- made them floating refuges during one of the most harrowing episodes in the Terranauts' time on Rorqual.

The crisis was ultimately resolved when the Terranauts used their fleet to transport the possessed Malaiara through a Transition out of Space II into normal space, where the Banshees could not survive.

The Conquest of Oglallah (Booklet 039)

The LASSALLE's most prominent role comes during the events of 039 - The Gravity Trap. Edison Tontor, now the First Representative of the League of Free Worlds, commandeered the ship -- still crewed by Asen-Ger and his Terranauts -- for an aggressive campaign of military expansion. Under the command of Llewellyn 709, the LASSALLE arrived near Oglallah, an agricultural planet in the Schiwa System under Council control and defended by Gray Guards under Queen Eirene.

After a tense standoff, Tontor ordered the Gravitron -- a devastating gravity weapon developed by his chief scientist Einstein III -- fired at the spaceport of Soox, the planet's capital. The attack forced Oglallah's surrender. Tontor began establishing League control, but his ruthless methods alarmed Asen-Ger and the other Terranauts. The tension deepened when Tontor interrogated the deposed governor Onar Cluf, who revealed the existence of a hidden fleet of decommissioned Driver ships in the Walhalla System. When Queen Eirene killed Cluf to prevent further revelations, the Terranauts were forced to extract the fleet's location from her themselves.

The Walhalla Disaster (Booklet 039)

The LASSALLE and Tontor's commandeered Kaiser Force cruiser, the THOMAS ALVA, traveled to the Walhalla System to recover the hidden fleet. In his most ruthless act, Tontor took David terGorden hostage aboard the THOMAS ALVA, forcing the Terranauts to help him activate and seize the decommissioned ships.

The Terranauts began powering up the dormant vessels, but Fay Gray's Gray Guard fleet arrived, initiating a battle. Einstein III fired the Gravitron at the attacking ships, but this time the weapon malfunctioned catastrophically, creating an uncontrollable gravity field that collapsed into a Black Hole. The artificial singularity began consuming the entire system.

The Terranauts escaped into Space II with sixteen of the recovered Driver ships. The THOMAS ALVA, carrying Edison Tontor and his crew, was consumed by the Black Hole. David terGorden was rescued at the last moment by the enigmatic Merlin -- a mysterious wizard who exists in both the normal universe and Space II -- and brought safely aboard the LASSALLE. This rescue marked a pivotal moment: the Terranauts had gained a fleet of sixteen ships, but the alliance with the League of Free Worlds had been shattered by Tontor's death.

Evacuation Operations on Rorqual (2587)

The LASSALLE's last documented appearance occurs in 051 - World in Turmoil, set during a period of catastrophic environmental and social upheaval on Rorqual. The Terranaut base on Pitcairn faces a collapsing dimensional gate that threatens to isolate the Terranauts permanently. In this crisis, the LASSALLE serves as a logistics and support vessel: David terGorden deploys in a Ringo from the LASSALLE to search for the seeds of Yggdrasil -- vital for re-establishing Driver space travel and saving the terrestrial star empire.

David's Ringo is attacked by rat-like creatures and crashes, leading to a long overland journey through Rorqual's increasingly hostile landscape. Meanwhile, the GARIBALDI handles the evacuation of people from Pitcairn to Aqua, and the TASCA serves as a courier between the two locations.

Key Events

Significance

The LASSALLE and the GARIBALDI are twin pillars of the Terranaut fleet's middle era. Stolen together in one of the saga's most audacious operations, both Driver tugs restored the Terranauts' capacity for independent interstellar travel at a time when the movement was transitioning from a scattered insurgency into a coordinated military force.

Where the GARIBALDI's narrative arc is one of endurance and eventual destruction -- serving across ten booklets before being accidentally annihilated in the Turquoise system -- the LASSALLE's arc is defined by the dangerous partnerships it is drawn into. The ship's most significant appearances involve it being commandeered or repurposed by forces beyond the Terranauts' control: Edison Tontor uses it as the instrument of his military ambitions; the League of Free Worlds deploys it for campaigns of conquest that sit uneasily with the Terranauts' ideals; and the Gravitron mounted aboard it nearly destroys its own crew when the weapon creates a Black Hole.

The LASSALLE is, in this sense, the saga's most contested ship -- not physically contested, as in battle, but politically. It is always in Terranaut hands, but it is rarely used for purely Terranaut purposes. It is the ship that carries the compromises the Terranauts must make to survive: alliances with men like Tontor, weapons like the Gravitron, campaigns of conquest that look disturbingly similar to the Council's own methods. That the LASSALLE survives these compromises -- where the THOMAS ALVA, Tontor's own vessel, is consumed by the consequences of his overreach -- is perhaps the saga's way of distinguishing between those who wield power recklessly and those who endure despite being forced to serve it.

Appearances

See Also

Characters

• Llewellyn 709 -- Commander of the LASSALLE during the Oglallah and Walhalla campaigns
• Asen-Ger -- Led the commando raid that captured the ship; served aboard during Tontor's campaigns
• Edison Tontor -- Commandeered the LASSALLE for the League of Free Worlds' military expansion
• Einstein III -- Chief scientist who operated the Gravitron aboard the ship
• David terGorden -- Rescued aboard the LASSALLE from the Walhalla Black Hole; deployed a Ringo from the ship on Rorqual
• Merlin -- Rescued David terGorden and brought him to the LASSALLE
• Claude Farrell -- Participated in the theft of the LASSALLE from the Cheviot Hills
• Lyda Mar -- Participated in the theft of the LASSALLE
• Onnegart Vangralen -- Participated in the theft of the LASSALLE
• Queen Eirene -- Gray Guard commander defeated during the LASSALLE's campaign at Oglallah

Ships

• GARIBALDI -- Sister ship; stolen in the same Cheviot Hills raid
• CYGNI -- Operated alongside the LASSALLE during the prison world campaign
• THOMAS ALVA -- Edison Tontor's Kaiser Force cruiser; traveled with the LASSALLE to the Walhalla System; consumed by the Black Hole
• TASCA -- Terranaut courier ship that operated alongside the LASSALLE during the Rorqual crisis
• Ringo -- Auxiliary shuttle deployed from the LASSALLE

Locations

• Cheviot Hills -- Scottish mountain range; site of the Gray Guards base where the LASSALLE was stored
• Oglallah -- Agricultural planet conquered by the League using the LASSALLE's weaponry
• Soox -- Capital of Oglallah; its spaceport destroyed by the Gravitron
• Walhalla System -- Site of the hidden Driver fleet and the Gravitron disaster
• Rorqual -- Terranaut base in Space II; the LASSALLE served during the Banshee crisis and evacuation operations
• Aqua -- Water world; destination for evacuees during the Rorqual crisis
• Veldvald -- Prison planet investigated during the LASSALLE's fleet operations

Technology

• Gravitron -- Gravity weapon mounted aboard the LASSALLE during League operations
• Space II -- Higher-dimensional space used for FTL transit
• Treiberschlepper -- The Driver tug ship class to which the LASSALLE belongs
• Kaiser Force -- The rival propulsion technology the LASSALLE's Driver-based design predates

The LASSALLE appears in 5 booklets of Die Terranauten (024, 028, 030, 039, 051). Stolen alongside its sister ship the GARIBALDI in one of the Terranauts' most important early victories, the LASSALLE's service spans the prison world liberation campaign, the Banshee crisis, Edison Tontor's ill-fated alliance with the League of Free Worlds, and the Rorqual evacuation -- a career defined less by the ship itself than by the dangerous alliances and desperate circumstances it was forced to serve.