Lieutenant Tyler “Ballsy” Volz

Lieutenant Tyler “Ballsy” Volz is a young, 22-ish fighter pilot, single, bold and daring. During book 1 he takes the newbie-drafted pilot Jessica “Fishtail” Miller under his wing. After she flies into the singularity threatening the Constitution, saving the ship, he delivers the news of her death personally to her parents and child in California. The 4 year old boy latches onto him, and he’s haunted by her apparent death. Though once Captain Granger returns from the singularity, he becomes increasingly convinced that she is still alive, and obsesses over finding her again. In book 2, he does, having piloted his own fighter into a singularity, returning with a dying Fishtail at the end of the book. To keep her alive Granger injects her with Swarm matter, and she falls under their control, but lives. During book 3, he is haunted by the fact that he managed to save her, but still lost her to the Swarm. By the end of book 3, he manages to save her a second time when she goes through a second singularity, now free of the Swarm virus, nearly getting himself killed in the process.