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CAL (Tyler Johnston)
An 18 year old lad with light hair and sullen eyes.
He is the son of Liam Ragg, the famed glaciologist who travels from one worksite to the next.
Cal never knew his mother. She died in an accident when he was just a baby. So Liam has raised him alone, with inevitable slips but with constant affection. He has taken advantage of their travels to teach him the ice and the realities of the world around them.
Thus, Cal has always lived on the Pacific, a magnificent locomotive dating back to the 1960’s. Cal has learned everything about the trains; he knows the railroad instruction manual by heart, and can maneuver the Pacific often more deftly than his father.
Cal loves to speed across the vast frozen expanses. He has the Ice Fox, a small self-propelled engine, which is easily disconnected from the third power and communications rail. Such practice is against the law! But Liam looks away as long as Cal keeps it away from the station.
Cal is ill at ease in the better circles of the Rail Society. He has little regard for his father’s friends who live on luxury liners while most people lie in ill-heated wagons.
Tar, Kurt's mother, is the perfect example of her class. The powerful owner of a sub-glacier mine, she spends her time wasting Calories (the official company currency) and eating horrendously expensive oranges. Cal hates her. The fact that she is always trying to seduce his father doesn’t make things any easier.
Cal also dislikes the Pointsmen, their condescending manner exasperates him. They act and feel as if they are vested with an almost god-like power. And when they abuse it, it throws Cal into a violent rage.
Cal has developed a strong free-spirited character. He vaguely resents his father’s over-protectiveness. The truths that surround his existence are no longer sufficient. He has a sudden urge to shake the world.
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