A man dressed in simple clothing without identifying characteristics.

***

Gestalt is a "honcho" in the Alliance of Sol, a terrorist organization that serves as a cover for a non-terrorist organization with somewhat altruistic goals about preventing humanity from experiencing the horrors of the larger galaxy until it is actually ready to cope with all that entails.

Gestalt's flagship, Pragnanz, was damaged when the away team boarded it and made off with everyone in its brig plus Gestalt himself and his bruiser, Timon.

Gestalt accompanied Rebecca and Fiernas on their journey to Amg and back. When Persephone crash-landed on Venus, he remained aboard the shuttle while Rebecca, Fiernas, and Kayla went to explore the caldera in which they would eventually encounter Barachiel.

His whereabouts are currently unknown, as are Persephone's.

***

Gestalt's story

"Once upon a time, a shrouded ship cloaked in starlight stumbled upon a particular solar system in a particular galaxy in a particular stretch of space. Neither pilot nor ship had ever been there before -- which makes sense, as part of their job was to catalog the stars."

"There are regulations and conventions for everything, and the classification of solar systems is no different. Our intrepid pilot was looking for signs of sentient life, signs of organizational maturity, and signs of technological achievement."

"His ship quickly identified 8 planets surrounding this particular star. Half of them were smaller, rockier worlds which were only able to hold a moon or two at most, while the other half were gas giants with many moons of their own."

"Though all of the planets were interesting in their own right, by far the most promising was the rocky world orbiting third from the sun. Though rocky, three quarters of it was covered in liquid water, and it had a vibrant atmosphere and magnetosphere that together helped the planet sustain organic, carbon-based life."

"The pilot drew closer, and observed that this planet was inhabited by a race of sentient bipeds capable of invention, communication, and independent thought. They had passed the first test."

"The final two tests, however -- organizational maturity and technological advancement -- were handily failed. The bipeds of this planet did not have a centralized system by which their resources could be equitably distributed for the greater good. Nor had they managed technology sufficient to survive beyond their homeworld."

"Checking the relevant boxes on his surveying form, the pilot turned to his instruction manual for the correct protocol on how to proceed. The sentient life he had witnessed might one day grow enough to be inducted into the interstellar community, but at the moment it was a liability. Many promising civilizations discovered in about the same state as these bipeds had gone on to be wiped out by the more aggressive races, to whom intelligent but technologically immature civilizations were prized as slave fodder."

"To combat this, the regulations required the pilot to remove this system's jump rings from the larger network, rendering them dormant but observational. Eventually, perhaps this race would stumble upon them, and in doing so invite themselves into the interstellar community once it was ready. And until that time, the pilot's organization would simply watch and wait."