Marcus Leitman (born Gene Klament, 2001 AD) was part of Juno, a GMO sales rep, Earth politician, Secretary-General of the Compact, and later, it’s acting president.
Early Life
Leitman was born as Gene Klament in Saskatchewan, Canada on Earth in 2001, making him the second oldest sapiens as of 434 IE. Like his eventual rivel, then known as Steven Turing and, later, Tol Germanicus, he became a software developer, eventually specializing in artificial intelligence.
World War III, Suri Mongano, and Rejuvenation Experiments
After the end of the Third World War and subsequent AI War, Klament took part in human trials of a periodic rejuvenation treatment. While there, he met Suri Mongano. Early treatments locked Klament’s physical age to his mid-fifties, though later treatments, near the end of the twenty-first century AD, began rolling his age back somewhat.
Over time, he and Suri entered into a relationship and moved together to Chicago.
Meeting Jermaine Tolbert
Shortly after the dawn of the Interstellar Era, when the wormhole between Eris and Jefivah was discovered, Turing reawakened and began building a new identity as “Jermaine Tolbert,” a name he pulled from a defunct wireless carrier’s directory. Once established, Tolbert began building a new business empire and came across Suri living with Klament in Chicago. As he had been investing in artificial intelligence—primarily to keep it “nice and stupid”—and the fledgling interstellar travel industry, Tolbert offered both of them jobs. Klament did not know his identity, but Suri deduced it was Turing. She said nothing about it, learning his agenda.
Though Klament had no idea who he was dealing with, he readily accepted Tolbert’s plan: mitigating population growth via extreme longevity and interstellar colonization and subtle changes in human economy to discourage resource hoarding and irrational risk taking.
Permanent Amortality and Treatment on Gohem
Shortly after Earth humans made first contact with the Neanderthal-descended Orags, the latter race offered to bring their amortality treatment to Earth to test on sapiens (Humans of genus Homo sapiens or those descended from Earth humans in the previous fifty thousand years.) In theory, Orags and sapiens were nearly identical genetically. Klament and Mongano participated in a clinical trial at an Antarctic university. The trial ended in disaster with eight of the patients dying horribly. Suri Mongano came through completely unscathed, owing to a high concentration of Neanderthal DNA in her genome. Klament also survived, but the continuous regeneration effect caused his body to reject one organ after another. They transported him to Gohem, the Orag homeworld, where they determined sapiens lacked a previously unnoticed protein key to the process. Klament had enough Neanderthal DNA to keep him alive long enough for a workaround to be found. Specialists took their findings to Thule, where every long-term resident successfully underwent the treatment.
Return to Human Space and Discovery of Germanicus’s Original Identity
Klament returned to sapiens space in the final months of the Earth-Mars War. His ordeal may have caused a psychotic break, but he became extremely resentful of the rebellion on Mars, the outer Sol worlds, and other Earth colonies such as Jefivah and Tian.
He was further outraged when Tolbert, now calling himself Germanicus, and his business partner founded Etrusca, a Roman Republic-based world accessible only via projection drive or the new hypergate technology. Etrusca had declared independence from Earth.
Not long afterward, he learned Germanicus had been Steven Turing. From then on, Klament considered Germanicus a threat to humanity’s existence.
Juno
When the Compact was first chartered, Klament saw it as part of a conspiracy by Germanicus. He went underground and founded a group called Juno. The name had no meaning, which helped mask its purpose. Klament worked for the next few centuries to destroy Germanicus and undermine Dasarius Interstellar. He was spotted several times on Aphrodite whenever unrest on the planet thwarted Dasarius’s attempts to modernize that world.
Eventually, Klament went deep underground and virtually disappeared from view.
Aliases and JunoCorp
By 400, Juno had created a corporate front as a genetically modified organism maker. The field had proven nearly impossible for startups to break into since the founding of the Compact. Juno used that as a sales point. Klament traveled to Thule to create multiple aliases which functioned as legal entities, then moved all of them to Etrusca, which had similar laws. Thulian aliases did not require the bearer to be legally traceable while Etruscan aliases did. The Etruscan law did not apply. As such, Marq Katergarus and Luxhomme (no given name) had Etruscan citizenship, and Marcus Leitman had a legend reflecting Klament’s Canadian background.
As Luxhomme and as Katergarus, he made pitches to Jefivah and several colonies to use JunoCorp’s GMOs as crops. He traveled to Farigha shortly before it was destroyed by the Gelt. He also visited Gilead and Amargosa, then met with Laral Jorl of the Realm to engineer the invasions of both worlds. Upon his arrest, he went to Quantonesia and testified before the Compact Security Council about chaos within JunoCorp. He omitted becoming part of Dasarius’s portfolio without their knowledge or his brief affair with Tessa Dasarius. His speech resulted in the recall of the Martian Security Council delegate and an invitation from the UN Secretary-General to work for Earth’s government.
Political Career
As Leitman, he soon won an appointment to the Compact Assembly as Earth’s junior delegate. There, he befriended both Douglas Best and Baker ibn-Aziz. The former had taken over the investigation into JunoCorp from the Navy. The latter was a dark horse candidate for secretary-general of the Compact. An assassination attempt against Germanicus elevated Leitman and Best to Security Council delegates from Earth and Jefivah respectively. He also manipulated his way into the position of deputy secretary-general, where he pressed for a revision to the Compact instituting a strong president. Though Best moved onto the ambassadorship to the Laputan Guardianship, he managed to ram the revision through but not without losing Metis and Thule in the process. The two worlds could legally secede during a Compact revision. Ibn-Aziz became provisional president before winning the post in a general election.
Ibn-Aziz fell ill days into his term, making Leitman acting president. The disabled ibn-Aziz could not run for a second term, and Leitman was able to win the post in his own right. However, Cybercommand and the Navy resisted Leitman’s civilian oversight of the military, the former considering him a suspect in the activities of Juno and the radical sect of the Cubist faith.
During this time, he continued to run Lucius Kray as a surrogate on occupied Amargosa. Additionally, his acolytes, Malcolm Russell and Jez Salamacis, carried out covert operations for him. He implanted an experimental resurrection chip stolen from Dasarius Interstellar in Salamacis, allowing her to self-incinerate to escape otherwise no-win situations.
Personal Life
Initially, Klament shared Germanicus’s vision and Suri Mongano’s optimism. His doubts following the Earth-Mars War might have been considered reasonable, but his anger and hatred for Germanicus became all-consuming. Eventually, as Leitman, his leadership of Juno corrupted him as it gave him access to power, wealth, and sex. At one point, Germanicus pointed out Leitman’s trail of blood was longer than his if one began after the massacre at Ulan Ulde.
As Leitman, he could be charming but ruthless. During his first intimate encounter with Jez Salamacis, he became aroused when he saw the body of his previous lover floating outside their ship.
Suri Mongano: As Gene Klament, he met Suri Mongano during the clinical trials for periodic rejuvenation. The soon became a couple and lived in Chicago until they made contact with Jermaine Tolbert (later known as Tol Germanicus.) Both accepted jobs with Tolbert’s various businesses. Klament’s illness due to the permanent rejuvenation treatment separated the pair for about three years. Because he was so angry, obsessed with Germanicus’s original identity as Steven Turing, Suri broke off their relationship. His descent into terrorism broke her heart, driving her to frequently periods of seclusion after her move to Thule.
Tol Germanicus: Leitman never knew Germanicus as Steven Turing. They met when he used the name Jermaine Tolbert and Leitman went by Gene Klament. For whatever reason, Klament emerged from his amortality treatment angry, almost racist against non-Earthers. He focused his rage on Germanicus over the ensuing centuries, a conflict the older man tired of.
When, as Leitman, he sat a hearbeat from leadership of the Compact, he made a bet (which he welshed on) with Germanicus, comparing them to the Devil and God betting on Job’s life. Germanicus told him they were not gods, but Leitman was the Devil.
Germanicus generally liked singing or referencing Van Halen music around Leitman. Leitman hated the band from his youth when his parents played it constantly.
Douglas Best: As Luxhomme, Leitman brokered the acquisition of three Class-E planets for Jefivah, where Best was Agriculture Minister. When seven nuclear weapons went missing from the Naval depot on Marilyn, Best ended up under scrutiny. He tried to trace JunoCorp, Luxhomme’s apparent employer. Accompanied by the Marilynist Grand Dimaj, he went to the company’s headquarters on The Caliphate. He traced Luxhomme to Metis, where Luxhomme lived under the more common Leitman alias. He had just been assaulted by Lattus Tishla, but Best did not know who that was at the time.
Later, when Best became Jefivah’s junior delegate, Best made himself present. They were having a drink when they witnessed an explosion that killed both their senior counterparts, elevating both of them to the Security Council. Later, when the Diplomatic Corps asked Best to negotiate possible scenarios for a liberated Amargosa, Leitman attempted to disrupt the effort by revealing to Best and his wife Germanicus’s true identity. However, Tishla convinced them to continue with planning the post-liberation. Best became provisional governor after liberation, then full governor after Amargosa left the Compact with Metis.
Tessa Dasarius: Leitman helped engineer JunoCorp’s acquisition by Dasarius via the latter’s Hatch subsidiary. When Juno came under scrutiny, Leitman “quit” and began testifying about “the company’s” misdeeds. He met Tessa Dasarius during this time and managed to seduce her. His proximity to her allowed him to steal technology and resources, including resurrection technology meant to be released to the masses when perfected.
Tessa grew tired of his lies and kicked him out when he showed contempt for her children.
Lattus Tishla: As Marc Katergarus, or simply “Marq,” he traveled to the Gelt colony of Essenar, where the governor, Lattus Kai, struggled with keeping his population of transported convicts fed. Leitman offered Kai and his concubine Tishla a load of potatoes that, in theory, would solve their problems. When the planet’s ecology eventually destroyed potato crops, Leitman revealed he had already brokered a deal with Laral Jorl, a Warrior Caste general, to seize what he called two “rogue” colonies after doing a test run on a third, “unauthorized” test colony.
When Kai learned he had been deceived, that the colony now called Hanar was legitimate, he sent Tishla with “Marq” to Metis, which terminated her status as indentured. With his unborn children, she also became his wife. When Leitman neglected to explain what was happening she found him and assaulted him, but did not kill him.
Once Hanar‘s joint human-Gelt government was on solid ground, Tishla issued what would be the only standing death warrant on Hanar, later honored by the wider Foundation.
Baker ibn-Aziz: Upon accession to the Security Council, Leitman ingratiated himself to Baker ibn-Aziz, who became secretary-general shortly afterward. Baker tried to be patient with Leitman’s schemes. However, when the Compact revision creating a president independent of the Assembly came up for vote, ibn-Aziz all but surrendered to his inevitable move into the new office. Leitman became secretary-general in ibn-Aziz’s place. When ibn-Aziz fell ill to a debilitating virus, Leitman became acting president, then won a term in his own right.
Jez Salamacis: Jezebel Sue Salamacis was Leitman’s most devoted disciple. When it came time to assassinate the new Sovereign of the Realm, Salamacis volunteered for the suicide mission. Leitman injected her with two sets of nanites, one set would flood her body with euphoric drugs, the second would incinerate her and disintegrate the ashes. The thought of dying for Leitman aroused her. She killed Leitman’s current lover and took her place in his bed. Leitman secretly implanted her with a resurrection chip and created clones, allowing her to use death to escape. Dying not only became a means of escape but a sexual fetish for her as well.
Bio Capsule:
Species: Sapiens (Homo amortalis)
Birth Year: 2001 AD
Birthplace: Saskatchewan, Canada
Homeworld: Earth
Occupation: Artificial intelligence developer, subversive leader, GMO sales rep, politician
Aliases: Gene Klament (birth name), Marc Katergarus (Marq in Mother Tongue), Luxhomme
Appearances:
The Roots of War, The Marylinists, Gimme Shelter, Beyond Amargosa, Storming Amargosa, Suicide Run, Royal Orders