Gene

Born in the small, southeastern Idaho town of Preston, Gene is the eldest of 16 children – all of whom had been born by Gene’s 13th birthday. Raised in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, Gene shared a single bedroom with all his siblings – as well as fourteen cats, nine dogs, a howler monkey, and various other transitory pets – triggering a severe claustrophobia-related psychological disorder by the time he finished high school. Eager to see the world and its wide-open spaces, Gene immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy where, ironically, he was assigned to classified duty aboard a ballistic missile submarine where he saw none of the world nor its wide-open spaces.

After 20 years of distinguished service, Gene left the navy and – inspired by the writings of Jack Kerouac – began a crosscountry backpacking journey with his dog, Mr. Sonar. The traveling duo made it only as far as Rancho Cucamonga, however, until being robbed by another Kerouac-inspired backpacking cliché. His money gone, Gene took a job as a writer for a start-up newspaper where he wrote news stories with headlines such as “Local Mall Opens” and “City Council Meets Next Wednesday” and “Newspaper Writer Seeks Missing Dog That Never Comes When You Call His Name But His Name Is Mr. Sonar Just In Case You Want To Try And Call Him Anyway.”

His dog gone and his professional life in a spiral of boredom, Gene was preparing to take to the road once again when he was contacted by the National Space Agency – looking for volunteers for “an experimental new space program”. Gene refused them at first, saying “I spent the first part of my life in a shack no bigger than a gnat’s earhole, and the second part of my life in a tiny underwater tube. I’ll be monkey’s uncle if I’m going to volunteer for a mission where I’m cooped up in a one-room spacepod some 3 billion miles from Earth.”

But, as it turned out, that’s exactly what he did.