Meet the Vanguard crew
Sector Zero begins in a bedroom with a phone and ends Part 1 on the deck of a small research ship. These are the people on that ship, as we know them from Part 1. Nothing here goes past the end of the first chapter.
Leo Reyes
Age 27 · phone repairer · the one who paused the video. Leo fixes broken phones for a living, so he notices things other people scroll past: odd compression in a video, a water drop that stays still on a lens, a coastline that does not match the map. He has watched every ice wall, giants and lost-empire video there is. He does not believe all of it, but he has never been able to believe none of it. Before this story he had never set foot on a ship.
What he wants: proof that what he saw is real. Look for: the olive coat and mustard scarf he wears once the voyage begins.
Frank Reyes
Age 58 · Leo’s uncle · former Navy navigator. Frank spent twenty-two years at sea, and he reads water, charts and weather the way Leo reads screens. When Leo shows him a video he laughs it off. Then he asks to see it again, and his face changes. He does not say why. He only warns Leo that this would not be a sightseeing trip.
What he wants: to see for himself, and to do it carefully. Look for: the navy beanie, the grey-white beard, and how long he stays silent.
Captain Marcus Hale
Age 61 · owner and captain of the Vanguard. Hale agrees to carry the expedition because he owes Frank a favour, not because he believes any of it. His rule is simple: out here the weather decides the schedule, and if he turns the ship around, everyone turns around. He is calm, exact and hard to argue with.
Cole
Age 27 · sonar and communications. Cole runs the instruments that let the ship see under the water. He knows who Leo is before they are introduced (“You’re the one with the videos?”), and he takes Leo’s reply with a smile. When the ship enters unknown water, everyone waits for his readings.
Dr. Elena Rostova
Age 30 · polar biologist. Elena is the crew’s scientist. She secures sample cases, handles every piece of equipment with care, and says she would rather have something to examine than something to believe. She is the sceptic who will still look closely.
Ines Moreau
Age 32 · medic. A former ski-patrol medic, Ines wants everyone back home alive. Her first questions to Leo are about allergies and medication, and her instruction is simple: if you feel sick, tell her early. Then she adds: “Tell me anyway.”
The Vanguard
A small dark-hulled research vessel with a white superstructure, an orange lifeboat and a working crane on deck. It is not an icebreaker and not a luxury cruise ship. It is just big enough to carry a handful of people and their instruments to the edge of the map. In Part 1 it sails south from a mountain harbour, rides out a storm, and finds a wall of ice taller than anything Leo has ever seen on a screen.