Igor Nikolayevich Vorobyov - miner
Basic Information
Full name: Igor Nikolayevich Vorobyov
Date of birth: c. 2064
Place of birth: Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
Education: High school diploma; no university degree
Position
Miner at the Vostok Settlement (Russian sector, Mars), initially a member of Kolyakov's brigade
Igor's Story
Igor grew up in Yoshkar-Ola, in the back room of a small general store his parents ran, wedged between the main street and an abandoned warehouse. The store was practically his whole life: he learned to count behind the counter, and he learned to be alone in the storeroom. He was a thin, quiet child who would rather straighten the shelves than talk to customers. If someone spoke to him, he would look at the toes of his shoes before answering. There was no task in the store his parents wouldn't trust him with: he hauled the crates, fixed the old cash register, swept up every evening. He never complained. He barely knew how to exist any other way.
In the Shadow of the Draft Notice
As the war drew closer, his parents started looking at him more and more the way people look at someone they've already begun to mourn. Igor's thin wrists and narrow shoulders had never counted against him at home; they were enough for the store, and Igor was a very good boy. But they knew what that would mean in a uniform. Igor himself rarely spoke of it. When the draft notice came up at the dinner table, he would just lower his head, as if silence could put off the inevitable.
The Parents' Decision
They heard about the Mars recruitment drive on the radio. His mother raised the idea one evening after closing, over dinner. Only one thing mattered: getting their son as far as possible from what was waiting for him at home. If Mars meant Igor would stay alive, then Mars was the answer.
Departure
When Igor applied, he told no one the real reason for his decision. He was ashamed of it. For months he talked about wanting adventure, about wanting to see what was out there; it was easier to believe that than to admit what he was running from. He landed at the Vostok Settlement at twenty-three, with a single bag of clothes and the same old, involuntary habit of looking down whenever someone spoke to him.
The First Sol, the story of Elena Markova's arrival on Mars. A sci-fi novella that serves as a direct prequel to the novel Icarus, published in 2026.
Disclaimer: All characters, events, and storylines presented on this website are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental. The characters' visual depictions were created using AI-generated images and are for illustrative purposes only.
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