The leader of the Martian Rebellion and founder of the Martian Communal Movement, Progeny Brown, is driven to exile on the ruined Earth by the relentless Quasi-Police Captain Armand Solla. Progeny meets the young poet/spacer Ali Karil, astrogator of the intelligent smuggling ship Atalanta. All the Martians call themselves Progeny’s Children, but Karil is special in the eyes of Progeny and also of his young wife Terry of the Tharsis Commune.
Progeny is, of course, inspired by Jesus. Like many atheists, Swift is fascinated by religion and its profound effect on art and literature. Tired of political speeches that harp on patriotism, religion, and the family, he wondered how one might create a society without those building blocks and thought a Terran-occupied Mars inhabited by rebellious prisoners and transportees might be the place to do so. The character of Ali Karil was inspired by Arthur Rimbaud, the 19th Century French libertine poet who ran away from home and became a gunrunner in Africa. Atalanta was inspired by all the sentient spaceships in science-fiction, who seem mostly to be there for comic relief, a waste of a good character. It seems there are only two ways to go with robotic intelligence—Asimov’s Rules or Terminators. The ship, he felt, should be a major and beloved character.