Frank Chalmers was an important member of the First Hundred.

Early life

Frank was born in 1979 in the United States of America (in Savannah, Georgia). His parents divorced when he was seven; he lived with his father, an alcoholic, in Jacksonville, Florida, where he grew up. He graduated from Harvard. In his young years, he was hardworking, optimistic and idealistic. He joined the National Service Corps and ran a project for the integration of Caribbean immigrants in Florida. He married Priscilla Jones. In 2004 the NSC was terminated because its excessive success threatened local interest and Frank was embittered. He joined NASA's astronaut program in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2005 and broke up with Priscilla. In 2007 he became an astronaut; he and John Boone were teamed in the American space station. During those years his character changed completely; his dreams of social justice disappeared, he became a pessimist withholding a deeply rooted anger, obsessed with keeping the situation from becoming worse than what it already was -- damage control. He became head of NASA in 2015. With John he promoted the "Mars Apollo" project to the government. He left the position of first man on Mars to John so that he could be the leader of the first permanent martian colony; eventually John joined the First Hundred nevertheless.

The Underhill years

He was the leader of the American contingent of the First Hundred. On the voyage out on the Ares he had a short relationship with Maya Toitovna before she got involved with John.

Political career and assassination of John Boone

After Underhill, he became the US Secretary for Mars. Maya was one of the reasons he and John grew estranged: he and John were also not on the same line politically, as Frank perceived John to be unrealistic and manipulative. He was one of the rare Americans to accept and be accepted by the Arab immigrants. He ordered the assassination of John in Nicosia. After John's death, he and Maya became lovers again, however they argued often. Frank negotiated the renewal of the UN Mars Treaty in 2057. He joined Zeyk Tuqan's mining caravan for a period of resting from political activity. He returned to active duty and moved the Department of Mars headquarters to Sheffield, where the space elevator was about to be completed. Despite his efforts at damage control during a period of riots across Mars, he was unable to prevent the 2061 revolution.

The First Revolution and death

He was at Nicosia when the Coyote effectively started the revolution. With Maya, he attempted to make Cairo a meeting point for the First Hundred, from where they could negotiate with UNOMA. When the situation in Cairo turned sour, Frank followed his friends and joined the Areophany team that was sent to retrieve all the First Hundred to Zygote. He was killed on the journey by the flooding caused by the Compton aquifer break.

Legacy

With John Boone and Arkady Bogdanov, he is considered to be one of the three most influential politicians of the First Hundred who all died prior to or during the First Martian Revolution.

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