Ben Stark (died 1942) was a Caprican terrorist involved with a breakaway Soldiers of the One faction. He is responsible for the suicide bombing of a Caprica City Maglev train. He was the son of Natalie Stark.
Biography[]
As a teenager, Stark was educated at the prestigious Athena Academy, though it is uncertain if his parents were wealthy or if he got in via a scholarship program. He was in the same year group as his friends Zoe Graystone and Lacy Rand.[1][2] By their second year, Stark and Graystone would be in a romantic relationship, though at Graystone's insistence this fact was kept hidden from her parents.[3] The two were indoctrinated into Monotheism through their headmistress, Sister Clarice Willow, and would convert Rand soon after. The three joined the Soldiers of The One, a Monotheist organisation which had in the previous ten years abandoned terrorism in favour of peaceful alternatives, and from there developed hostile views towards Holoband technology, which they saw as driving cultural decadence.[2]
During his second year, Stark was radicalised by Barnabas Greeley, an STO cell leader opposed to continued peace, who was reaching out to Willow's STO recruits to form his own rival force. In Aprilus 1941, he was detained for curfew violation while carrying explosives, but successfully convinced the GDD this was for a model rocket project he was doing for school.[4] This interview was thereafter misfiled, with his name spelt "Starke", preventing a follow-up investigation.[4] Into his third year, Stark continued to work for Greeley, with explosives handled by fellow Athena student Keon Gatwick.[5] During this year, Stark became aware of a scientific breakthrough undertaken by Graystone, which she dubbed the "Avatar Program". The program created a sentient AI duplicate of herself, which she intended to take to Gemenon as part of a secret project for Willow. When the time came to take the program away, Stark obtained fake passports for himself, Graystone and Rand so they could run away together. Ahead of the trip, however, Stark was ordered by Greeley to instead kill himself in a suicide bombing. As they reached the Caprica City Mag-Lev station, Rand dropped out of the plan. As the train set off, Stark opened his coat to reveal his suicide vest. Shouting "the One True God shall drive out the many", he detonated the vest, killing himself, Graystone, and some 498 others.[2][6]
In the aftermath of the bombing, Athena Academy set up the Graystone-Stark Memorial Scholarship Fund as a means of funding the enrolment of lower income families.[7] The GDD investigation found circumstantial evidence linking Stark and Graystone to the bombing, including an e-message sent by Graystone to her mother, Dr. Amanda Graystone, which they believed suspect. Graystone's involvement was addressed on live television, and directed the investigation to her instead of Stark. While the uncovering of his 1941 arrest helped advance the case, GDD priorities were focused on the Graystones, and his responsibility for the bombing was not reported on.[8]
Sources[]
- ↑ The Caprican, "Athena Academy in Mourning".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Caprica, episode: "Pilot".
- ↑ Caprica, episode: "Rebirth".
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Caprica, episode: "The Reins of a Waterfall".
- ↑ Caprica, episode: "Know Thy Enemy".
- ↑ Caprica, episode: "MAGLEV Memorial Ceremony to be held in Apollo Park".
- ↑ The Caprica,, "Graystone-Stark Memorial Scholarship Fund Established at Athena Academy".
- ↑ The Caprican, "Graystone-Stark Memorial Scholarship Fund Renamed".
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