Dan Sylveste -- son of Calvin Sylveste and a member of an enormously wealthy Yellowstone family of scholars and industrialists -- was the driving force behind the Resurgam expedition and the original leader of the colony. He was an archaeologist studying the ruins of the ancient Amarantin, convinced that their history held the key to why no alien species had yet survived long enough for humans to make contact. It eventually became apparent that Dan was a biological clone of his father, an immortality contingency plan that was never enacted.