Columbus Day characters

Also known as Joe

Appears from the start

A young U.S. Army sergeant home in Maine when aliens attack Earth on Columbus Day. Practical, stubborn, and inclined to act before a situation becomes hopeless, he survives the first contact through fieldcraft and luck. He soon joins the human expedition sent into an interstellar war that humanity barely understands.

First appears in chapter 2

A U.S. Marine noncommissioned officer serving with the forces mobilized after the attack on Earth. Disciplined, formidable, and protective of the people under her command, she is one of the soldiers Bishop comes to trust as humanity is drawn into the alien conflict.

First appears in chapter 4

A senior Chinese officer in the multinational expeditionary force. Experienced and composed, he gives Bishop valuable support as human troops try to operate under alien command on Paradise.

Also known as Skippy the Magnificent

First appears in chapter 10

A highly advanced artificial intelligence whom Bishop encounters while confined on Paradise. His visible hardware resembles a shiny cylindrical canister, but his knowledge and control of technology are far beyond the younger species fighting nearby. He is boastful, secretive, and constrained in whom he can assist, which makes his willingness to speak with an ordinary human exceptionally important.

First appears in chapter 12

A British special-forces officer selected for the small human team assembled after Bishop escapes confinement. Reserved, exacting, and highly capable in hostile boarding operations, he provides professional military experience for a plan built around stolen alien equipment.

First appears in chapter 12

An officer chosen for Bishop's improvised starship crew. She brings organizational discipline to a group that must turn soldiers from several nations into the crew of an unfamiliar alien vessel.

First appears in chapter 12

A military pilot recruited for the human crew attempting to operate captured alien spacecraft. Her aviation experience makes her one of the people Bishop relies on while Skippy supplies the technical knowledge humans lack.

First appears in chapter 12

A French special-operations soldier who joins Bishop's compact multinational team. He is selected for dangerous boarding and ground assignments in which the humans must depend on training rather than a full understanding of alien systems.

Also known as Ski

First appears in chapter 12

A soldier in the group Bishop draws together for the effort to seize and crew an alien ship. His combat experience helps the hurriedly formed unit carry out missions for which no human military has doctrine or equipment of its own.

First appears in chapter 16

A scientist brought into the effort after the captured ship reaches Earth. Friedlander is among the specialists asked to study what Bishop's crew has learned while preserving the secrecy on which the planet's safety depends.