The Uplift War

Neo-chimpanzee scout pilot held as a Gubru prisoner and potential race-representative; irreverent but perceptive; navigates covert communication and ultimately escapes toward the mountain resistance.

Pale, long-limbed Tymbrimi envoy; amused observer at the farewell ceremony; privately laughs at human hopes for rescue; orchestrates an encounter with Kault outside the Branch Library and offers him evacuation as an opening gambit.

Hulking, high-caste Thennanin envoy with a towering ridge crest; stranded without a ship; angrily demands access to the Branch Library; accepts Uthacalthing's offer of evacuation despite suspicion.

Young Tymbrimi female assuming command of mountain survivors; asserts Peremptory Command over chims, discovers the gorilla secret, confronts the Uplift scientists, and decides to launch guerrilla resistance.

Megan's son and Athaclena's hiking companion; uses an effective empathy shield that frustrates Athaclena; knowledgeable about Garth's Bururalli history; prefers unsolved mysteries to Library answers.

Chim standing beside Fiben in the Honor Guard; urges Fiben to stand at attention; Jewish background referenced in Fiben's later dream.

Gubru military Suzerain; arbitrates the first policy debate between the Suzerains of Propriety and Cost and Caution regarding whether to use ground troops against the Terran resistance detachment.

Theocratic Suzerain who leads the invasion's opening ritual and must enforce Rules of War; seeks a casus belli to void Garth's Earthling lease; aware of rivalry with the other Suzerains.

Newly appointed Suzerain; a white-plumed neuter bureaucrat elevated at the Conclave Arena; believes careful policy will win the upcoming molting competition; departs with the invasion force.

Senior neo-chimpanzee who follows Athaclena's authority; had attempted to hide the gorillas from her; becomes her primary aide in organizing resistance.

Young human girl sheltered with the gorillas during the gas attack; assumed charge of her 'clients' by instinct, impressing Athaclena with human patron-responsibility despite her age.

Large male gorilla sheltering with April and a chim mother; communicates via hand signs; central to the Uplift secret Athaclena uncovers.

Mother chim sheltering with her infant Cha-Cha and the gorilla Jonny in the trees; provides Athaclena with information about the gas's differential effect on humans versus chims.

Tall, dark-skinned human female; one of the incapacitated Uplift specialists at the Howletts Center; proposes the gorilla matter go to the Tymbrimi Grand Council rather than the Gubru.

Fiben's draft horse; used as cover for his spy mission into Port Helenia, pulling the grain wagon.

Chim female dancer performing a Gubru-orchestrated erotic ritual at the Ape's Grape; appears drugged during performance; receives Fiben's defiant gesture of rejection and dignity.

Hostile, sexually aggressive chim assigned alongside Gailet for the Uplift ceremony; quick-witted but undisciplined, publicly studious but privately predatory.

Elderly chim serving Robert in the caves; provides map briefings on the occupation and relays information about Athaclena's command structure.

Chim academic and urban resistance leader in Port Helenia; initially hostile to Fiben; leads the resistance cell meeting; shattered by Fiben's forced insight about Gubru perception of chims.

Chim physician and nutritionist tending Robert in the mountain caves; relays information about Athaclena's spy assignment of Fiben.

Large, calm yellow-card chim, longtime retainer of Gailet's family, who installs the gas splice and assists in the embassy sabotage.

Advocates aggressively for launching flicker-swivver missiles against Gubru ground targets as a symbolic counterstrike.

Briefly counters Millchamp's urgency with a philosophical point about interstellar simultaneity.

Calmly questions the value of symbolic strikes in council; later accompanies Robert on reconnaissance, admiring the mountain forest and drawing his involuntary attraction.

Small chim who carried Robert's private message to Megan, including news of the consort bond, while recovering from his journey.

Cautious scout lieutenant who accompanies Robert; explains gorilla care logistics including Dr. Schultz's microbiological feeding solution.

Young sun-browned girl riding on a gorilla's shoulder; leaps into Robert's arms; believes she may soon see her parents, unaware of the true situation.

Runs the gorilla medical and care operation at the hot springs refuge; has told April she may see her parents 'soon.'

Patronizingly praises Robert's guerrilla work and dismisses him with orders to take McCue on recon, having taken over the caves and displaced Robert's authority.

Atavistic neo-chimpanzee living wild on the steppe in Uthacalthing's service; found by Robert through empathy and used as intermediary to reach the diplomat.

Serentini official of the Uplift Institute presiding over the ceremony; upholds ceremonial law against Gubru interference and grants Fiben a hearing.

Head of Garth's local Uplift Board; bewildered participant who endorses Uthacalthing's request for a democratic vote.

Commands the Thennanin armada approaching Garth; resents Earthclan but recognizes political necessity of alliance; plans to consult Kault before signing agreements.

Elderly human woman commanding the Terran delegation aboard the Thennanin warship; experienced in Galactic affairs; presses negotiations hard and appears worried about the Gubru defense array.

Kills the Suzerain of Beam and Talon to prevent the order for weapons of mass destruction; places itself under arrest pending judgment.