Pathfinder Tsiolkovsky arrived at Boreas Station this week for refueling and resupply — the last scheduled stop before its solo transit toward Neptune and, depending on what it finds there, beyond. BBN’s Javier López sat down with Commander Jakub Novák for a live interview shortly after docking.
LÓPEZ: Commander, thank you for taking the time — I imagine there isn’t much of it before you’re back underway.
NOVÁK: There’s enough for this. We’re here to refuel and restock, not to hide from questions.
LÓPEZ: Let’s start with the crew itself. There’s been a lot of speculation about who’s actually aboard Tsiolkovsky for this run.
NOVÁK: I’ll just tell you directly, since the speculation isn’t doing anyone favors. We’re 48 personnel total. Two-thirds of that — thirty-two people — are not the crew this ship flew with before the retrofit. The original crew’s been reassigned in stages since the 2110s, most of them years ago, long before I took command. What’s left of the original complement, roughly a third, is the science team.
LÓPEZ: And the other two-thirds?
NOVÁK: Security and operational personnel, essentially all of them with a military or security background of some kind. Some former mercenary work, some active UNSF — the Security Force, the closest thing we’ve got to space police — some UN Marine personnel with Earth-based service records, and a few more who did their time in one military or security posting or another before this assignment. It’s not a science-vessel crew with a couple of guards attached. It’s closer to the reverse.
LÓPEZ: That’s a significant shift for a Pathfinder. Why does a research ship need that composition?
NOVÁK: I’d ask CAI that question before you ask me, honestly — the retrofit and the crew composition came out of the same recommendation. What I can tell you operationally is this: UN Command on Luna has told us, on a private channel, that we’re authorized to engage any hostile we encounter beyond Titan. Not “report and wait for instruction.” Engage. That’s not a posture you hand a crew of scientists with an afterthought security detail. That’s a posture you build a crew around.
LÓPEZ: Has that authorization changed the mood aboard the ship?
NOVÁK: Everyone’s alert. I won’t pretend otherwise. You don’t hand a crew standing rules of engagement like that and expect them to relax about it. But alert isn’t the same as afraid. I trust CAI’s judgment on this the same way I trusted it in 2125, under Commander Lukas Richter, during Operation Crowbar. CAI selected me for that mission too, for what it’s worth — I was a lieutenant and a pilot, nothing more, and it put me somewhere I wouldn’t have put myself. It was right then. I have no reason to think it’s wrong now.
LÓPEZ: Do you believe you’ll all come back from this?
NOVÁK: I believe we’re going to be fine. I trust the judgment that got us armed, crewed, and sent out here in the first place — I don’t think CAI built this crew to lose it. And if I’m wrong about the danger, I’d still put this crew up against it. UNS Tsiolkovsky has the best pilots in all UN Space, and I’ll guarantee you that much myself, whatever else I can’t.
LÓPEZ: Commander Novák, thank you. Safe travels to Neptune.
NOVÁK: Thank you. We’ll be in touch when there’s something worth reporting.