Chelle “The Kindness of the Deep” Parker, Le Maître Espione (2944-3399)

Born to Antoine Czerniawski and Eléa Charlet, Chelle Parker was raised on the interdimensional French colony of Espoir Mort, which housed the infamous Institut des Chuchotements. Though descended from a long line of conspirators and spies, Parker’s youth was spent training in exo-aquatic sciences and participating in the Collective Games, an interdimensional competition featuring intellectually grounded sports (Orphitball, Nortlin, Onion Table, etc.).

In 2959, Parker declared their intention to pursue an advanced education at the prestigious Université du Nouveau Paris in the Cavlum Sector of the French Conglomerate. However, tensions between the French Conglomerate and the Faustian Empire, a neo-imperial syndicate of crime lords, plunged the two powers in a galactic and interdimensional war which lasted for a thousand years (see The Bargain War). While Espoir Mort was located at the farthest edge of the space of battle, a surgical strike by the Akitania Separatist Polity (ASP) cut the planet and three other sectors off from the French Conglomerate, which did not have the resources to scramble reinforcements to the region. The territory was temporarily ceded to ASP. As a result, Parker and their family joined Rouge Léviathan, a resistance movement made up of surviving members of the Espoir Mort military and skilled citizens and housed in a repurposed submarine research facility.

For the first ten years of the war, Parker used their considerable knowledge of aquatic sciences to support guerrilla attacks against ASP using amphibious drones and camouflaged wetsuits. These actions eventually earned them the nickname “The Kindness of the Deep,” which borrowed for ironic purpose a line from ASP Colonel Dupont’s speech in 2965, wherein he declared, “We will not show them [the guerilla fighters] a kindness, not in the quarterhouses of the city nor in the deeps” (see Speech of the Whales). By 2969, Parker was in charge of espionage for Rouge Léviathan, filling in a gap after a successful assault by ASP occupation forces.

From 2969 to 3002, Parker led a force of nearly three hundred men and women and became a mythical figure among ASP personnel. One written account from a survivor of the 2988 bombing of an ASP communication tower stated that, “The Kindness of the Deep lived in every shadowy place, even the ones in our minds. Some of us would keep our lights on at night, afraid that if we awoke in darkness, we’d see two great eyes staring down at us before we were snuffed out of existence. That was before it actually happened. Before the whole building came crashing down on us. On me.”

While ASP personnel feared and criticized Rouge Léviathan’s tactics under Parker’s direction, most historians today recognize it as a necessary liberation movement and Parker an essential component of its success. By 2995, ASP was largely in disarray; five years later, French Conglomerate forces would be repositioned to retake Espoir Mort. On this, Parker would later state the following in a public interview: “I suppose you can’t blame them for showing up eventually. They are, if anything, people who keep promises. But we didn’t need them in the end. Not really. We could have done it on our own. We should have done it on our own.” Though viewed as a controversial statement, it was not an inaccurate one; in fact, the Admiralty of the French Conglomerate argued that if given three more months, Espoir Mort and the Cavlum Sector would have been liberated by Rouge Léviathan. Some believe this is the reason the French Conglomerate signed the De-Incorporation Treaty in 3005, granting Espoir Mort greater representation in parliament and the right to train and fund their own military.

Following the successful expulsion of ASP from Espoir Mort, Parker remained hidden in Rouge Léviathan’s underwater facilities, spending much of the time reading books while refusing calls by nearly all levels of Espoir Mort society to run for office. In 3015, those calls ended, in large part because of credible evidence that Parker had used their considerable influence to undermine the campaigns of several local politicians, including Denis Badeaux; however, a 3016 investigation found equally credible evidence that most of these figures were involved in a monetary scheme that would have undermined the stability of Espoir Mort (see the Potfire Incident). Following these revelations, Parker opted to take a one-way trip through the Kuiber Rift into Universe 331A-X44-993-B.

Most information about Parker post-3016 is based on unsubstantiated rumor. One tightbeam cable claimed that they had taken up residence in a bunker on Octovian Prime to provide assistance to the Octovian Anti-Colonial Resistance Front; another asserted that they had become a pop singer on the homeworld of the Wessex Heptarchy. The only confirmed fact is Parker’s death in 3399, though how exactly they died has never been described by either a medical professional or a historian.