Hilen Tukoss

Hilen Tukoss (born YC75) is a famous Caldari multidisciplinary research scientist, most known for his defection from the Caldari State in YC113. He was the former Program Director at the Otosela Neuropsychology Center for Zainou Biotech until his defection, when he joined Eifyr & Co. and launched the Arek'Jaalan Project.

Early Life

Little is known about Tukoss's childhood. He has remained relatively tight lipped on the subject, frequently deflecting questions about his background when asked by researchers. An oft-repeated quote of his is, “My upbringing was uninteresting; typically Caldari. It's the science that's important.”

Regardless, Hilen has allowed some details of his life to become public. He was born to megacorporate workers in Lonetrek. He was raised in a communal creche along with hundreds of other employees' children. At a young age, it was evident he was intellectually gifted. His parents, recognizing his aptitude, encouraged his studies and pushed him toward advanced educational opportunities.

He has said life during this time was “ordinary”, with much of his time spent studying and learning the various sciences in a private school funded by the megacorps. Despite his interest in all science, he recalled that one of his instructors decided he excelled at neuroscience and herded him toward that area of expertise.

Education

In YC96, Hilen began attending the School of Applied Knowledge to both earn his doctorate in Neuropsychology and become trained as a capsuleer. Despite the heavy workload that such dual-concerns would entail, Tukoss managed to graduate in a little over two years, officially earning his degree on December 15, YC98.

Hilen's time at the SAK was apparently spent mostly in study, as his transcripts do not include any details on extracurricular activities or participation in any campus programs. Additionally, despite heavy interest from reporters in recent months, few classmates of Tukoss have stepped forward to share memories of him. As with much, Tukoss has described his life at the university as “unextraordinary”.

Zainou Biotech

Hilen was recruited by several different corporations after he completed his doctorate. Ultimately, he chose to join Zainou Biotech, wishing to be on the forefront of the cluster's research. Zainou, long known for being on the cutting edge of science, utilized Tukoss's vast intellect and skills extensively in a variety of projects.

The majority of Hilen's work at Zainou remains top secret and protected by numerous confidentiality agreements and patents. It is known that he was one of the researchers who studied the drug C3, especially the psychological side effects. He is also said to have been heavily involved in Zainou's mind transfer research.

In YC108, Hilen had risen to the position of Program Director at the Otosela Neuropsychology Center. As the overall director, he oversaw roughly three hundred researchers in a variety of projects.

Defection

On August 7, YC113, Tukoss shocked the scientific community by packing a significant portion of his research team, their equipment, and data into a Charon-class freighter and defecting from the Caldari State. Tukoss contacted a large number of capsuleers to escort the Charon out of Otosela into Eram, where it docked at a Eifyr & Co. production plant. The movement was contested by Ishukone Corporation, the parent company of Zainou, who scrambled their security arm, Ishukone Watch, to halt him. However, the Watch force was unwilling to engage the capsuleer escort and only harsh words were exchanged.

Initially, the reasons for Tukoss's defection were unknown. The Scope was able to obtain an interview, however, and learned that Tukoss had become dissatisfied with the direction Zainou was taking in relation to certain areas of research. Particularly, he felt that the company had become too focused on “applied science” to the exclusion of learning deeper answers, thus leading to fewer fundamental discovery. Additionally, he believed the company had become more militaristic in focus, threatening the “sense of discovery that lies at the core of science.” Tukoss further announced that he would be joining Eifyr & Co. officially, due in part to his long held respect for them.

Arek'Jaalan

Soon after joining Eifyr & Co., Hilen made further waves by announcing the formation of the Arek'Jaalan Project on the Intergalactic Summit, a popular capsuleer forum on GalNet. The stated goal of the project was to “establish a series of communication networks to enable a greater flow of information between various capsuleer individuals and organizations” particularly in regard to “researching and discussing Sleeper technology and history, Talocan technology and history, Wormhole Space exploration and archiving, as well as any matters that relate to those.” He established a central mailing list and communications channel, both named Arek'Jaalan, that were open to any individual interested in assisting with the project.

While the project garnered many supporters, many Caldari loyalists reacted with outrage to his defection, calling for boycotts of and sanctions against Eifyr & Co. Some even went as far as to offer large bounties for his capture and return to Ishukone Corporation to stand trial for theft and treason.

Activity was high in the first week, prompting Tukoss to release a report on the project's activities. It laid out several of the project's plans and set up a budget. Eventually, the project split into several different divisions and Hilen sought out a number of archivists to assist with the documentation of information.

Tukoss subsequently took a back seat to much of the capsuleer research, working behind the scenes as theories were put forward and data collected.

When Lianda Burreau's abandoned Helios was discovered and destroyed in wormhole space, Tukoss took extreme interest in it. He tracked down the pilot who destroyed the ship and investigated. Ultimately, there were few answers to be found, leaving the Arek'Jaalan project to simply seek out additional copies of the Trinary Data that had been destroyed in the destruction of Burreau's ship.

See Also

• Caldari People
• Anoikis (Chronicle)
• The Vitrauze Project (Chronicle)