STORTIS

"The STORTIS successfully navigates Space II, but the crew is aware of its impending destruction."
-- Events of Booklet 081

The STORTIS is a tramp ship -- an independent interstellar freighter operating outside the major corporate shipping lines -- that serves as the primary setting for the "Driver Pirates" arc of Die Terranauten (Booklets 080--082). Captained by Artuur Morgh and navigated through Space II by a Driver Lodge under Lodge Master Laacon Merlander, the STORTIS plays a central role in three interconnected storylines: the recruitment of Thor von Riglan and Jelina von Riglan as Drivers, the posthumous return of Edison Tontor, and the Mistel Syndicate's conspiracy to smuggle mistletoe blossoms to insurgents on Parisienne.

The STORTIS is ultimately destroyed in Space II -- torn apart by the dimension's amorphous phantoms after Tontor sabotages the vessel and abandons it. Its destruction fulfills a precognitive vision experienced by Thor and Jelina during their very first transition through Space II (Booklet 081), making it one of the saga's most precisely foreshadowed events.

Specifications

The STORTIS is described as a "tramp ship" -- a term indicating an independent commercial vessel that operates without a fixed route, taking cargo and passengers on an ad hoc basis. This classification distinguishes it from the larger corporate freighters and military vessels of the Council of Corporations. The ship's engine nozzles are noted as malfunctioning, and its overall condition suggests an aging vessel operating at the margins of interstellar commerce -- a fitting home for a crew engaged in smuggling and deception.

Crew

The STORTIS carries both a conventional ship's crew and a Driver Lodge, the group of PSI-gifted navigators essential for transit through Space II. The crew's composition shifts across the three booklets as new Drivers are recruited and the ship's true mission is gradually revealed.

Command Staff

Driver Lodge

The STORTIS's Driver Lodge is led by Laacon Merlander and consists of the following members:

History

Voyage Through Space II and the Haapala Crisis (Booklet 080)

The STORTIS is first encountered during a transit through Space II, carrying what the crew believes to be medicine for the plague-stricken planet Parisienne. During the journey, Driver Kirju Haapala suffers a severe psycho-epileptic attack -- an uncontrolled PSI manifestation that creates dangerous materializations from his subconscious, including a younger version of himself who physically assaults Oona Karf. Lodge Master Laacon Merlander is forced to use a Strahler (paralysis weapon) to subdue Haapala and halt the manifestations.

The attack destabilizes the STORTIS's navigation through Space II, causing the ship to veer off course. The STORTIS emerges from Space II near the Heinlein system -- a remote, forbidden zone -- rather than its intended destination. Merlander proposes landing on Heinlein IV to find a doctor or replacement Drivers for the incapacitated Haapala. Captain Artuur Morgh initially resists but eventually agrees.

It is in the aftermath of this crisis that Edison Tontor's Id -- the disembodied consciousness of the former GeneralManag of the Consolidated Tontor Corporation, dead since the Walhalla System catastrophe decades earlier -- seizes control of Haapala's weakened mind. The possessed Haapala becomes Tontor reborn: the same ambition, cunning, and hunger for power, now wearing a different face.

Tontor-as-Haapala immediately begins scheming. He feigns continued illness to manipulate the crew, attempts to convince Merlander to resume the Space II journey, and then confronts First Officer Jeng-Jeng, whom he identifies as Max von Valdec in disguise. Tontor attacks Jeng-Jeng but is subdued and confined to the ship's quarantine sector.

The STORTIS arrives at Heinlein IV and detects a city on the planet's surface.

Recruitment of Thor and Jelina (Booklet 081)

While the STORTIS is in orbit around Heinlein IV, the landing craft Ringo -- piloted by Jeng-Jeng and carrying Lodge members Laacon Merlander, Siri Lankard, and Ain Lavalle -- descends to the planet. On the surface, they discover the Sky Watchers, a fanatical cult preparing to sacrifice Jelina von Riglan, a young woman from the Riglan Clan on the nearby world Lagund.

Simultaneously, Thor von Riglan and his Clan Brother Falk von Riglan have fought their way to the Sky City atop the volcano Krakata to rescue Jelina. During the confrontation with the Sky Watchers, Falk is killed, but Thor rescues Jelina from the sacrificial pyre with the aid of the Ringo crew.

The STORTIS crew recognize that both Thor and Jelina possess latent PSI abilities -- specifically, the precognitive gift they call the "Light of Realization." Captain Artuur Morgh reveals the ship's desperate need for replacement Drivers and its true destination: Parisienne, a planet suffering from plague. Thor and Jelina reluctantly agree to become Drivers.

During their first transition through Space II, Thor and Jelina experience a shared precognitive vision: the STORTIS being torn apart by amorphous phantoms. Despite this terrifying omen, they successfully navigate the ship through the dimension, proving their psionic potential. The crew, however, is left with the knowledge that the STORTIS's destruction has been foreseen.

The Mistletoe Conspiracy and Destruction (Booklet 082)

As the STORTIS approaches the Gallia System and Parisienne, the truth of the ship's mission emerges. The STORTIS is not merely delivering medicine -- it is smuggling five mistletoes to a group on Parisienne planning to overthrow the planetary government. The mistletoe blossoms, precious offshoots of Yggdrasil essential for Driver space travel, are among the most valuable and strategically sensitive substances in the galaxy.

Parisienne space surveillance detects and pursues the STORTIS. In response, the Driver Lodge -- including the newly recruited Thor and Jelina -- erects a PSI Shield to protect the ship from laser fire. The collective psionic effort drains the Lodge but succeeds, and the STORTIS escapes into Space II.

Inside Space II, the crisis reaches its climax. Kirju Haapala reveals himself to be Edison Tontor -- the former GeneralManag and co-founder of the League of Free Worlds, returned from the dead through possession. Tontor sabotages the STORTIS, seizes Captain Artuur Morgh and the smuggled mistletoes, and abandons the ship to its fate.

Left crippled and adrift in Space II without its captain, the STORTIS is destroyed by the monsters of Space II -- the amorphous phantoms that Thor and Jelina had foreseen in their vision during the first transition. The ship's destruction fulfills the precognitive warning with terrible precision.

Thor and Jelina, however, are no longer aboard. Tontor had manipulated them into leaving with him, posing as "Ulan terHara" and claiming to represent the Driver Assistance. Thor's precognitive abilities ultimately allow him to see through Tontor's deception, trick him into surrendering, and expose both Tontor's identity and the Duke of Britt as the mastermind behind the Mistel Syndicate.

The Driver Lodge

The STORTIS's Driver Lodge is a critical element of the ship's story. A Driver Lodge is a cooperative group of PSI-gifted individuals who pool their mental abilities to navigate a vessel through Space II. The STORTIS's Lodge operates under the leadership of Laacon Merlander and faces a cascading series of crises across the three booklets:

1. The psycho-epileptic attack (Booklet 080): Kirju Haapala's uncontrolled PSI manifestations endanger the entire Lodge and destabilize the ship's course.
2. The personnel shortage (Booklets 080--081): With Haapala incapacitated and possessed, the Lodge lacks sufficient Drivers to navigate safely. This drives the recruitment of Thor and Jelina.
3. The PSI Shield (Booklet 082): The Lodge's collective effort to erect a protective psionic barrier against Parisienne surveillance drains the Drivers' reserves.
4. Tontor's betrayal (Booklet 082): Tontor's sabotage and abandonment of the ship leaves the Lodge unable to save the STORTIS from the dangers of Space II.

The Lodge's use of Mistletoe Blossoms -- the very substance the ship is smuggling -- to focus their PSI abilities during Space II navigation creates a bitter irony at the heart of the story: the Drivers are literally dependent on the contraband their ship is carrying.

The Ringo

The Ringo is the STORTIS's auxiliary landing craft, stored in the ship's Ringo Hangar and deployed via a Launch Catapult. The Ringo serves as the crew's means of reaching planetary surfaces while the STORTIS remains in orbit.

In Booklet 081, the Ringo plays a pivotal role when Jeng-Jeng pilots it to the surface of Heinlein IV, where the crew discovers the Sky Watchers preparing to sacrifice Jelina von Riglan. The Ringo crew -- Laacon Merlander, Siri Lankard, and Ain Lavalle -- assist Thor von Riglan in rescuing Jelina and transport both Thor and Jelina back to the STORTIS.

Key Events

Route

The STORTIS's journey across the three booklets traces the following course:

1. Transit through Space II -- Initial voyage, destination Parisienne (Booklet 080)
2. Forced diversion to the Heinlein system -- After Haapala's attack destabilizes navigation (Booklet 080)
3. Orbit around Heinlein IV -- Landing party descends in the Ringo (Booklets 080--081)
4. Departure from Heinlein IV -- With Thor and Jelina as new Drivers (Booklet 081)
5. Transit through Space II -- Successful navigation toward the Gallia System (Booklet 081)
6. Approach to Parisienne -- Pursued by space surveillance (Booklet 082)
7. Escape into Space II -- Final transit; sabotaged by Tontor (Booklet 082)
8. Destruction in Space II -- Torn apart by amorphous phantoms (Booklet 082)

The STORTIS is also noted as passing near the Walhalla system during its voyages -- a darkly appropriate detail, given that the Walhalla system is where Edison Tontor originally died decades earlier when his own weapon, the Gravitron, created a Black Hole that consumed him and his flagship, the THOMAS ALVA.

Significance

A Ship of Deceptions

The STORTIS is defined by layers of deception. Nothing about the ship or its crew is what it first appears:

• The stated mission -- delivering medicine to plague-stricken Parisienne -- conceals the true purpose: smuggling mistletoes to insurgents planning to overthrow the planetary government.
• The First Officer, Jeng-Jeng, is actually Max von Valdec in disguise -- the saga's primary antagonist, the former Lord Colonel and Kaiser of Berlin, hiding aboard a tramp ship under a false identity.
• The sick Driver, Kirju Haapala, is actually possessed by the Id of Edison Tontor -- the dead former GeneralManag, resurrected as a disembodied consciousness inhabiting another man's body.
• The new Drivers, Thor von Riglan and Jelina von Riglan, are presented as willing recruits but are in fact manipulated into service by Captain Artuur Morgh, who conceals the ship's true mission until they are committed.

This layering of deception makes the STORTIS one of the saga's most thematically dense vessels. It is a ship where almost every person aboard has a secret identity or hidden agenda, and where the boundary between ally and enemy is constantly shifting.

The Mistletoe Connection

The STORTIS's role in the Mistel Syndicate's operations connects it to the saga's central economic conflict: the control of Mistletoe Blossoms, the irreplaceable substance that enables Driver space travel. The five smuggled mistletoes aboard the STORTIS represent both enormous value and enormous danger. The ship's pursuit by Parisienne surveillance, the Driver Lodge's desperate PSI Shield defense, and Tontor's ultimate theft of the mistletoes all underscore the strategic importance of these organic artifacts.

The STORTIS's story also illustrates the darker side of the mistletoe economy: when the legal supply is controlled by monopolies and governments, smuggling and black markets inevitably arise, drawing ships and crews into criminal operations that place them at the intersection of corporate power, insurgent politics, and organized crime.

Narrative Function

The STORTIS serves three primary narrative functions:

1. Origin vessel for Thor and Jelina: The ship provides the mechanism by which two young precognitives from a primitive volcanic world are transformed into trained Drivers and ultimately into Terranauts. Without the STORTIS's need for replacement Drivers, Thor and Jelina would never have left Lagund.

1. Stage for Tontor's posthumous return: The STORTIS is the vessel aboard which Edison Tontor's Id takes possession of Kirju Haapala, marking Tontor's re-entry into the saga after his physical death in the Walhalla System. The confined space of the ship intensifies the paranoia and power struggles that define Tontor's character.

1. Vehicle for the Mistletoe Conspiracy: The STORTIS's smuggling mission provides the entry point for the Mistel Syndicate storyline, connecting the ship to the broader political and economic conflicts that drive the saga's late-era narrative.

Parallel with the PHOENIX

The STORTIS shares notable similarities with the PHOENIX, another ship associated with outlaw Driver activity:

Both ships are destroyed, yet both produce consequences far exceeding their own existence. The PHOENIX page in this wiki notes the STORTIS as "another ship associated with Driver piracy" (Booklet 081), and indeed the two vessels represent different facets of the same phenomenon: Driver ships operating outside the law, carrying hidden passengers whose true identities reshape the political landscape.

Appearances

Related Articles

• Artuur Morgh -- Captain of the STORTIS
• Jeng-Jeng / Max von Valdec -- First Officer (secretly the saga's primary antagonist)
• Laacon Merlander -- Lodge Master of the STORTIS's Driver Lodge
• Kirju Haapala / Edison Tontor -- Possessed Driver whose crisis triggers the arc's events
• Thor von Riglan -- Precognitive Driver recruited aboard the STORTIS; exposes the Mistel Syndicate
• Jelina von Riglan -- Thor's Clan Sister; fellow Driver recruit
• Oona Karf -- Driver aboard the STORTIS
• Ain Lavalle -- Driver; former Gray Guard
• Siri Lankard -- Driver; telepath
• Zeus Alpha -- Driver aboard the STORTIS
• Ringo -- The STORTIS's auxiliary landing craft
• Parisienne -- The STORTIS's intended destination
• Heinlein IV -- Planet where the STORTIS makes a forced stop
• Lagund -- Homeworld of Thor and Jelina; planet in the Heinlein system
• Space II -- The alternate dimension through which the STORTIS navigates and in which it is destroyed
• Mistletoe Blossoms -- The smuggled cargo that defines the STORTIS's secret mission
• Mistel Syndicate -- The criminal organization connected to the mistletoe smuggling
• Duke of Britt -- Mastermind of the Mistel Syndicate, exposed through events aboard the STORTIS
• Driver Lodge -- The psionic collective that navigates the STORTIS through Space II
• PSI Shield -- The defensive barrier erected by the Lodge to protect the ship
• PHOENIX -- Another ship associated with outlaw Driver activity
• Terranauts -- The movement Thor and Jelina join after the STORTIS arc
• Consolidated Tontor Corporation -- Edison Tontor's corporate empire, still active on Parisienne via Paryl Val
• Driver Assistance -- Organization under Llewellyn 709 that investigates the mistletoe conspiracy

The STORTIS appears in 3 booklets of Die Terranauten (080--082). A tramp ship defined by secrets and deceptions -- a smuggling mission disguised as a mercy run, a dead man's consciousness hiding inside a living Driver, and the saga's greatest villain serving as First Officer under an assumed name -- the STORTIS is destroyed by the very forces its crew tried to navigate, but not before launching the careers of two young Drivers who would go on to join the Terranauts and expose one of the galaxy's most dangerous criminal conspiracies.