Dr. Petrova

Dr. Anastasia Petrova (466-501 R.T.), known to her friends as "Ana", was a physicist, engineer, and Fratrum Procella operative. She was the director of the Avalon University Advanced Propulsion Laboratory until she was fired for her alleged involvement in a terrorist attack on Caerleon Meeting Grounds.

Early life
Ana spent her childhood on St. Petersburg, the older of two children in an upper middle class family. Her father was in middle management at Kapsilus Arms. When Ana was 17 years old, her 12-year-old sister Lilya started to show powerful psionic talent. (Ana only had minimal psionic ability, not enough to be worth training.) The family moved to Avalon to enroll Lilya in the prestigious Avalon Meadows School for Psionically Gifted Youth. Ana received a full scholarship to Avalon University, where she quickly distinguished herself in the field of astrophysics. Around the time Ana finished her undergrad degree, Lilya ran away from school. Her parents quickly sent her back despite her protests.

As a graduate student, Ana worked on next-generation spaceship propulsion systems in the Avalon University Advanced Propulsion Laboratory. She was widely expected to be nominated as director of the lab when its elderly director retired.

Radicalization
After Lilya finished school, she drifted around Avalon for a few months, broken and despondent, before taking her own life. Ana, devastated, started looking into conditions at Lilya's school, and was horrified to find that the most promising students had been subjected to cruel experimentation and tests. She briefly advocated for closing the school, with little success.

Realizing that legitimate channels would do nothing, Dr. Petrova turned to the Fratrum Procella. By supporting the FP with funds and expertise, she hoped to avenge Lilya's death.

Fratrum Procella activities
Dr. Petrova was involved in several Fratrum Procella operations, with varying degrees of success. Often assigned to recruit new members, she was able to speak most compellingly to psionicists who, like Lilya, had been badly mistreated by scientists. Among the people she tried to recruit to the FP cause was Dresden psionicist Zeal.

Less successful, but more harrowing, were Dr. Petrova's attempts to retrieve valuable artifacts. The search for ancient technology took her to Arcadia, where she fought and died for House Dallas and the Rodriguez Cartel in the hopes of gaining an ancient battery. At Castle Clinton, she acquired the Cartographer, but was found and killed only minutes before a dropship arrived to retrieve her.

Probably the most notable action Dr. Petrova was involved in was an attack on Caerleon Meeting Grounds during the 500 R.T. riots. To prolong the chaos of the riots, and thereby provide cover for other FP activities, she detonated a Vorl-tak crystal during diplomatic talks at Caerleon. Unfortunately for Petrova, she hesitated instead of running away afterwards. Malcolm DeSalvo, who had survived the attack and cloaked, slit her throat and reported her to the authorities. Before the diplomats fully recovered from Dr. Petrova's attack, Maggie the Cat opened fire on the meeting, killing most of those present.

After the attack at Caerleon, Dr. Petrova was fired from her teaching and research position at Avalon University, and had to go underground to avoid the RIA. She took a variety of odd jobs, which provided cover for another FP mission when she collected blood samples for psionic research under the guise of a public health initiative.

Paradigm
When Cydonia was destroyed during the 500 R.T. riots, Dr. Petrova worked with Cyrille Beaumont to build a new BBS in Roth Park. Problem Onassis funded the construction, and dubbed the server Paradigm.

As a contribution to the galaxy that didn't involve killing people, Paradigm was Dr. Petrova's proudest accomplishment after she lost her university position.

Incidentally, because the Paradigm server had fairly low-level security, the Jersey Devils were able to store all manner of unpleasant things on it. Out of gratitude, the Devils allowed Dr. Petrova to move freely about Roth Park, dubbing her (much to her chagrin) the "porn doctor".

Attack on Avalon Meadows
In 501 R.T., Dr. Petrova decided to take avenging Lilya's death into her own hands. Working with Maggie the Cat, she planned to assassinate James Ballinger, one of the scientists who had tortured Lilya.

On May 14 -- what would have been Lilya's 30th birthday -- Dr. Petrova infiltrated Avalon Meadows, disguised as a maintenance worker. She disabled the alarm system, allowing Maggie to sneak in and go up to the roof. As Ballinger walked across the courtyard, Maggie fired on him. But the bullets were psionically redirected into a room full of children, and Ballinger was unharmed.

Being inside at the time and on the run afterwards, Petrova didn't find out what had happened until she read news reports blaming her and Maggie for the deaths of three children. Ana was devastated. Fearing she could never atone for what she had done, she moved to the slums of Jersey City Station to volunteer her medical skills at the UCUF-affiliated Saint Theresa of Calcutta free clinic.

Disillusionment and death
In the spring of 501, Dr. Petrova finally met her FP contact, Aldous Kleist, at his base on Manhattan Colony. He had captured a number of people, including some of her friends, using cybernetically enhanced dogs and modified humans. Kleist told Petrova about his research, much of it conducted on unwilling subjects he deemed "enemies" of their cause.

Dr. Petrova, for obvious reasons, felt very strongly that human experimentation without informed consent was wrong. Doubt grew in her mind about continuing to work for Dr. Kleist and Singularity.

Later that year, Dr. Kleist paid a visit to Jersey City Station. Dr. Petrova tried to make him understand her qualms about his research, with no success. She was with him, Arkadi Zaides, and Olivia Hazard when a group of people working for the Republic tried to arrest Dr. Kleist. Among the Republic force were Zeal and some of Petrova's other friends. Rather than fight her friends, Dr. Petrova surrendered, then cloaked and slipped away.

After this betrayal, Dr. Kleist offered Dr. Petrova a "gift": James Ballister and Henry Milgram were beaten and executed by the Vory v Zakone, and Kleist found evidence that Lilya might be alive. His gift came with a demand: unwavering loyalty, or Ana's remaining family, friends, and students would pay.

For a time, Dr. Petrova was indeed loyal. But that November, back on Manhattan Colony, Kleist revealed to her that President Dave was in cryostorage there. Dr. Petrova was horrified at the implications. She couldn't let this happen. Unaware that a rescue operation was already underway, she betrayed Kleist to warn Kenna Riley about the president's situation.

Later that day, Dr. Petrova openly betrayed Singularity when she helped fight the temporal phase entity which was protecting Manhattan Colony. Badly wounded, she had cloaked to protect herself. But when Kenna Riley was dying in front of her, Dr. Petrova uncloaked to administer CPR, and the entity killed her.