(IW) People Worth Snagging, Recruiting Drive Fun!

[Astromancer]

When the noble and sagacious Ken Hite suggested in this book that certain people could be recruited by outtimers, he offered us a wild treasure of adventure seeds. This thread is about listing people who'd make good recruits for the Icops or other groups in the Infinite Worlds setting.

I'll start the ball rolling with two suggestions.

A flawed man it's true and small and weak, but Richard Haliburton was an adventurer who traveled the wide world and wrote exciting accounts of his travels and adventures. Yes, he was racist and a liar. As a Southerner born in 1900, he would have been raised to be racist. But his xenophilia and cosmopolitanism would tend to suggest he could have gotten over his racism fairly easily. As for the other, as a bisexual in the early 20th century, he would have had to be a liar to survive. And the experience of hiding his real feelings and goals would likely serve him well as an agent.

The extraction mission would likely focus on the Sea Dragon, the junk he was sailing to San Francisco when he disappeared at sea. Since we know little or nothing about the voyage. This suggests that you'll need to get to an echo of late 1930s Homeline and hide some kind of tracking device on the Sea Dragon. Given the time period, there are things other than storms that could sink a boat sailing from Kowloon with no traces. The last sighting of the Sea Dragon was March 23, 1939, 1900 kilometers west of Midway Island. Those that sighted the Sea Dragon spoke on "mountainous seas."

Getting people off a fragile poorly made junk in such weather would be a major challenge. As no one survived the voyage, no secrecy once the
SS President Coolidge is over the horizon. All of the passengers and crew may be recruited with no significant issues.

Another possibility for recruitment is a woman that I am no fan of, but she'd make a formidable agent. Margaret Thatcher was tough as nails and smart, given her political career, she must have had high social skills, when young she was pretty in a way that would have hidden her steely toughness very well. Chose a parallel were Britain was invaded or trashed, Ms. Thatcher (or Miss Roberts if not yet wed) would have been in the resistance and probably has fighting skills.

Unless she's either become a liability to her resistance cell or has no hope of survival in her Britain, she'll want to continue the fight to free her Britain (yes I dislike the woman for many reasons but I know she was always a patriot and personally brave). So it might be involved to get her to accept being recruited. And she might try to use the Icops as a way to get improved training and tools for her fight for her Britain. The "Lady" was proud of not turning (and liked theatre too, or at least enjoyed Christopher Fry) and could be tricky if it met her needs and especially if the need was a higher goal like loyalty to queen and nation.

Who are you rescuing?

[Astromancer]

Hey, you're allowed to post the people, either people snatched from ordinary or alternate history. Please, share your creativity and knowledge.

This is a specialized WhosWho. it's a who could be an Icop!

[AlexanderHowl]

Well, I think that Amelia Earhart would be the top of my list, closely followed by Eleanor of Aquitaine (from a parallel where her younger brother William survived and inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine) and Mary Queen of Scots (from a parallel where her older brother James survived to become King of Scotland). In the case of Amelia, you have a woman who possesses an indomitable desire of adventure. In the case of Eleanor and Mary, you have women of indomitable spirit. Of course, that would also make one heck of a team up (add in Cleopatra and Boudica, and you have the perfect team).

[Verjigorm]

Let's grab Archimedes. Man did some really impressive work with some really crappy tools. Get him up to speed, and let's see what he can do.

Sakageta. Robert Guiscard's wife, she was quite a woman.

[The Colonel]

Adrian Carton de Wiart - one of the few people in real life who would appear to have been written by Bernard Cornwell.

John Pennington Harman VC might also make a useful agent - this was as much detail as I could find about him online, but apparently he was the sort of chap who might have made a decent agent.

Also Frank Abagnale - the chap they made "Catch me if you can" about - would probably have been worth grabbing.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Well, I think that Amelia Earhart would be the top of my list, closely followed by Eleanor of Aquitaine (from a parallel where her younger brother William survived and inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine) and Mary Queen of Scots (from a parallel where her older brother James survived to become King of Scotland). In the case of Amelia, you have a woman who possesses an indomitable desire of adventure. In the case of Eleanor and Mary, you have women of indomitable spirit. Of course, that would also make one heck of a team up (add in Cleopatra and Boudica, and you have the perfect team).

How about adding Hanna Reitsch to the team (although you do, admittedly, already have an aircraft driver).

[Dr. Beckenstein]

I suggest:

1) Sven Hedin, the last of the great explorers. Spoke multiple rather exotic languages, travelled Central Asia on horse- and camelback, discovered lost cities and much more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hedin

2) Giacomo Casanova. If there ever was a real-life adventurer, it was this guy. Today mostly known for his understanding of the ladies, he also (among other things) played the violin, studied various topics (law degree at the tender age of 17), travelled Europe, met famous people of his age, organized a lottery, was a slick con man ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Casanova

3) Bass Reeves. Born as slave, became a US Marshal. Arrested more than 3.000 (!) felons (among them his own son) in a lawless wilderness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Reeves

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Well, I think that Amelia Earhart would be the top of my list, closely followed by Eleanor of Aquitaine (from a parallel where her younger brother William survived and inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine) and Mary Queen of Scots (from a parallel where her older brother James survived to become King of Scotland). In the case of Amelia, you have a woman who possesses an indomitable desire of adventure. In the case of Eleanor and Mary, you have women of indomitable spirit. Of course, that would also make one heck of a team up (add in Cleopatra and Boudica, and you have the perfect team).

Ken Hite suggested Earhart as someone outtimers would want to recruit. he focused on the wide range of Earhart's skills. And Earhart was a nurse, a pilot, a mechanic, and a skilled author.

Why I agree with the choice of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Mary of Scotland, while clearly intelligent and passionate, was also impulsive and imprudent. Her cousin Elizabeth surpassed her in everything but beauty and had awesome self-discipline and self-control. Getting an Elizabeth from a world where her bother lived to adulthood and had children would be a shrewd choice.

Cleopatra would also have to be gotten from a world where male relatives shut her out of power. Boudica could be extracted after her defeat but before her suicide.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

Let's grab Archimedes. Man did some really impressive work with some really crappy tools. Get him up to speed, and let's see what he can do.

Sakageta. Robert Guiscard's wife, she was quite a woman.

Archimedes is a good call. Skielgaita might also be a good choice. You'd want to find an alternate world's Skielgaita who never wed Guiscard and whose family lost the crown young.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Adrian Carton de Wiart - one of the few people in real life who would appear to have been written by Bernard Cornwell.

John Pennington Harman VC might also make a useful agent - this was as much detail as I could find about him online, but apparently he was the sort of chap who might have made a decent agent.

Also Frank Abagnale - the chap they made "Catch me if you can" about - would probably have been worth grabbing.

The first two would have to be brought from alternates were Britain was conquered or worse. Frank seems more doable.