==Characters Introduced in Order of Appearance; Character Status==
Bryan Benson,
A police(?) detective and our leading man, a gigasaurus who loves sports and evading responsibility, possibly taxation too.
Chao Feng,
The First Officer (of what?), and a douchedrinker according to Benson.
Lau,
The captain of Patrick's favorite Chinese sports team.
Edmond Laraby,
A missing geneticist, dead or alive off the grid.
Avelina Pereira da Silva,
Science Director; Head of Environmental Research & Development. Got her full name in Chapter 3
Vasquez,
Not to be confused with Vasquez from Aliens; a player in Patrick's favorite sports game.
Lindqvist,
A sports player not even worthy of description by Patrick. Must be a PCJ caricature.
Ther
esa Alexopolous,
A lieutenant, and a Duty Officer (of what?), sidekick to the Chad Bryan Benson.
Vikram Bahadur,
Chief Constable of the Chinatown District, on par with Bryan Benson. Definitely not a Sikh.
Nibiru,
Not a character, but a black hole on the edge of a solar system. Probably the best character, though, if it's anything like Black Hole Sun.
Devorah Feynman,
Curator of the Museum, wants to preserve humanity's culture by locating and securing authentic works of art.
Constable Korolev,
Theresa sent him to back-up Benson; a rookie that's greener than grass.
Chef Takahashi,
Probably Japanese. Probably a chef.
Magistrate Boswell,
Probably king of the douchedrinkers.
Salvador 'Sal' Kite
Old guy with "war stories"; criminal scum who paid the court a fine and/or served his sentence for participating in a massive art heist.
Old Benny
Criminal scum who has violated the law.
Director Hekekia,
Engineering genius or something. Big Samoan guy who speaks better than Benson.
--E1: Benson wakes up in Laraby's bed, energized by the fact he'd eaten the first real chicken meat produced in over two centuries, and there's something about Ther
esa's scent lingering on more than just the sheets. He prowls home before nightly hours end and the lights flip on, and we get more innuendo about how he could go for a jog but he'd already "gotten enough exercise" the night before... and then in the very next paragraph is him showering off the various leavings. Is this sci-fi or hen-ti? Anyway there's some Patrick Tomlinson-brand worldbuilding™ with implausible, poorly defined locations, and of course, we learn that Vikram Bahadur, chief constable of Chinatown, was also a
*Zero Finals* champion, but for the opposing team.

--E2: We learn that the stationhouses on the Ark were built small; there's barely any room to conduct adequate law enforcement procedures... and there are no jails. The explanation is this: humanity was *so* optimistic about the Ark (nevermind that only 50,000 people got aboard in the midst of what can only be an unfathomably violent event) that they also commit very few crimes because criminal tendencies, antisocial traits and other negative predispositions were quietly rejected in the on-boarding process. Such tendencies couldn't possibly resurface in warlike humanity ever again!
Well, about that: there are a few edge cases on occasion, and the answer is to put them on house arrest and community service. They also probably get a maximum power stun-sticking to the ass to ensure a downtrend in recidivism.
I don't believe any of this for a second.

--E3: First Officer (or Dooty Officer? haha gottem) Chao Feng finally materializes in the story to visit Detective Bryan Benson. It appears he's also infected with the
*Zero Finals* space-virus too. Feng introduces a new character,
*Magistrate Boswell*, possibly a judge but in space, who has declined Benson the warrant he needed to access Edmond Laraby's personal files. I don't remember when that request was made (probably Chapter 1) but the investigation has been cold for three days and now it's being stonewalled by someone real high up. Wonderful. Director da Silva gets mentioned as "screaming about lost productivity", too.
--E4: After some "playful" chatter between Benson and Theresa, there's an interlude/break where Benson leaves the stationhouse (without any prior mention or motivation to the characters or clues for the reader) and goes to Apartment #168, Chinatown, registered to a *Mr. Sal Kite* who has his doorbell disabled so he doesn't have to put up with funsters and anyone wanting to hear his "war stories". Sal steps away to bring some tea and honey, giving Benson time to notice the old fogey's art collection.

While conversing about this, there's a random drop about Sal being an "old criminal", which is then followed up with mention of his involvement in
*the Heist*, and the naming of a new suspect in the case (probably),
"Old Benny", who'd have fingered a piece like Laraby's authentic Monet in a heartbeat. We get a little background into
*the Heist* as its known, that everyone involved except Sal (who was a minor) was executed
(which I can only deduce to be a typo/logic failure because if everyone died there could be no plot currently), and then some more bullshit out of left-field in the form of Sal insinuating Benson was born in a tank, and implying most people are.
It's way too late to be dropping a massive revelation like that. It's unnatural, and Benson himself doesn't care. Instead, the two men enjoy some old-fashioned, authentic whiskey made from a still that the constables never found.

Oh, and a throwaway line about the ship having mandatory birth control, making Chapter 4's expository meandering about intercourse before marriage genuinely retarded.
--E5: The dialogue between Salvador and Benson dominates the chapter, and it's stilted due to a lack of build-up. Salvador rifles off everything right from the getgo, when Benson says he needs to find the missing man who owned the Monet. We as readers had no clues before we're going into an unearned minute of an elderly caricature spilling the beans and his life story too because the protagonist came to collect.

Benson asks why Sal 'did it', conspire in the Heist. Sal answers that they were young and wanted to "send a message to their self-appointed, nepotistic overlords" that "all of this" (he points to his artwork) belongs to everybody, revealing him and some his friends to be rather progressive on top of being firebrands. One
"David Kimura" is mentioned in passing: he was a Crewman who resigned his post and entered the Ark's political sphere, campaigning on a platform of transparency for the Crew and privacy for the citizens. Kimura is described as a rabble-rouser who wanted to end implantations for children (such as
*the Plant*), and won a seat on the Council based on his promise to give civilians the authority to elect Crewmen.
It'd be nice of Patrick to expand on what kind of implantations people get. There can't only be *the Plant*.
Kimura died less than a year into his first term, none of his plans coming together. Sal laments that "only just enough" *cattle* kids make it through the reigning Council's processes to give the plebs hope, but never enough to change things fundamentally. I have no idea why the Hell Theresa would call Benson an optimist who believes in humanity's goodness after this thorough reveal on this setting's equivalent to the fucking Deep State.
Sal finishes by explaining that some of the conspirators involved in *the Heist* were greedy, wanted to get rich by selling it all off, and that he won't identify any of the buyers for Benson. Our protagonist cuts a deal, however: in exchange for calling in a favor with Devorah Feynman to arrange Sal some after-hours private browsing time at the Museum, which he's currently banned for life from, he'll finally get a lead in Laraby's case.