Personal History:

From an early age, Lysandr Yurievich Gagarin was not content with following his father's footsteps as a lowly weapons development research officer on the ground and merely among the ranks of the Republic. Though all fields of engineering were fascinating to young Lysandr, his dream was to actually fly. Knowing that only the most ambitious students with the most potential in the eyes of the Republic went on to become government pilots, Lysandr focused his efforts all throughout his early education and was accepted to Triduana's pilot training program at the age of sixteen, a year younger than most. However, Lysandr also continued studying engineering in his spare time in addition to the flight and astrophysics lessons required at the academy. After receiving his commission as a lieutenant at the age of twenty, the Republic supplied him with a nymph-class transport and he began his real education and service under the Republic.

Family History:

Lysandr comes from a long line of Republic supporters. His family is one of the few Slavic families left that still carries on the knowledge of the Russian language spoken by their ancestors along with the remaining bits of Russian culture that has survived the eons. Lysandr was named after one of his early ancestors, a pilot named Lysandr Vitaliyevich Nikolayev, who was a member of the second generation produced after the migration through the slipgate. Lysandr Nikolayev was the first to pilot the earliest compact and fully reusable single stage to orbit spacecraft that was also capable of reliable slipspace travel. This vehicle, the RX-17, was capable of entering slipspace for several seconds before reversing course and returning safely to the launch site. Before this, only the largest craft with immense powerplants were able to produce, maintain, and direct the energy (on the measure of terajoules) required to power the systems used to successfully enter and navigate slipspace. The RX-17, known as the precursor to modern spaceflight, fundamentally consisted of a previous model RX spacecraft retrofitted with a compact SLS-233 propulsion system along with updated avionics and navigation hardware. Using numerous EM field singularities combined with slight phase variances between the electric and magnetic fields, the SLS-233 was able to safely contain relatively large amounts of antimatter (several kilograms) and release controlled amounts for use in the system's crude matter-antimatter reactions. At the time, these unrefined reactions were the only means of producing the energy output required to enter slipspace.

Personality Traits:

Lysandr avoids politics and has a strong distaste for politicians. He sees politics as a waste of reason. He prefers to keep his hands in the grease as an engineer and pilot working to advance humanity towards a deeper understanding of the universe while upholding the values of the Republic. He is a relatively private person, but is almost always willing to help a deserving comrade.