| |
| Citizen Eight | |
|---|---|
| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | Human |
| Rank: | None |
| Status: | Dead |
| Played By: | Maury Chaykin |
Biography[]
Citizen Eight is the self-named owner of Ganglia Drift. His family has pre-Fall ties to the Systems Commonwealth, and because of that he had a lot of influence in the Commonwealth. His family has a tradition of repairing, retrofitting, updating, and building ships for the Systems Commonwealth, and his ancestors were the heads of the civilian industries that built the pre-Fall Commonwealth ships, and Eight himself is rebuilding and updating the New Commonwealth fleet.
The Andromeda Ascendant visited his drift because of a scheduled upgrade to their computer systems and infrastructure. After arriving at the drift and having repairs commence without anything eventful happening, Dylan Hunt discovers that Citizen Eight apparently also has political ambitions. During the retrofit, Rommie and Seamus Harper discover a hidden Slavedriver program put into place by Eights' retrofit team that disables Andromeda, crippling the ship by deactivating the Artificial Intelligence and shutting down all crucial systems. However, the program is destroyed and Eight was allowed to believe that his program was still in place.
Concerned that Eight would be taking power and replacing her in the Commonwealth senate as well as replacing Dylan with another captain, Tri-Jema commissioned Dylan to investigate Eight's business endeavors. Eight had been making a growing fortune through an alien race called the Prescient whom he had enslaved and forced to work as soothsayers whose predictions of the future were always correct in some form or another. Unlike most enemies he faced, Dylan was visibly annoyed and disgusted by Eight, whom he would later describe as "a loser doubling as a dictator." ("The Torment, The Release.")
Eight was working in league with the Spirit of the Abyss and intended to kill Dylan and his crew. When Andromeda and her crew detached from the drift upon realizing Eight's deception, he tried to activate the program to cripple Andromeda. The Andromeda then tricked him into believing that the Andromeda was disabled, and when his freighters (secretly armed with weapons) arrived to take over the ship, Andromeda powered up and destroyed them after broadcasting Eight's rants across the Commonwealth's system.
Eight, who had been keeping the Prescient captive in a temple was confronted by Dylan and a firefight broke out between them. During the duel, Eight confessed freely that he was not a ruler but a good businessman simply taking the next logical course of action, acquiring power over the Commonwealth. He gained the upper hand over Dylan due to his higher-powered weapon but was distracted by the Prescient. Dylan took this opportunity and shot Eight dead with his force lance. ("Pieces of Eight”)
Trivia[]
- The name references the Spanish dollar, which were minted so as to be easily clipped into 8 smaller pieces. The modern term "two-bit", speaking of 2 of these 8 and thus a quarter of a dollar, derives likewise.
Quotes[]
"I'm the Commonwealth's biggest fan, I love the Commonwealth!"
"Do something that will last, unlike the Commonwealth."
"It is the duty of the person in power to stay in power."
"You are only as good as the universe allows you to be."
Gallery[]
Citizen Eights Logo
After Eight was killed, the abyss' presence within him was revealed