In William T. Quick's two novels detailing the aftermath of the Oberon's crash on the planet Ashlar, David was one of the central characters. Crew-member Molly Benavides gave birth to a son, fathered by Leo Davidson before he had disappeared in space. At around the same time, Jonathan, the genetically-enhanced son of chimpanzees Pericles and Aspasia, was born.
Biography
After the Oberon had crashed, Molly and Grace Alexander had decided to instil genetic improvements in the still-unborn chimp foetus to improve the colony's chances of survival. The enhancements caused the death of Aspasia, but Jonathan survived and was raised by Molly.
While David and Jonathan were very close and saw each other as brothers, the status of apes in the new society was little more than that of slaves and soldiers in the fight against the planet's native lifeforms, which caused resentment from Jonathan. Secretly plotting a society of free apes, Jonathan waited until the native lifeforms (the 'Brax') had been defeated before launching a vicious slaughter of almost all the humans (in 2048). Molly, David, and a small group of others escaped, to become the ancestors of the humans Leo would encounter 3000 years later. Jonathan, meanwhile, rejected his human name and called himself Semos.
Trivia
- In the first treatment of William Broyles' story, the legends about the foundation of Ashlar civilisation say it was settled by apes and humans who came from beyond the suns a thousand years earlier, led by the humans Moses and Daena and the apes Abraham and Zophie.[1] In the first draft script, the migrants landed on Ashlar 3000 years earlier, led by the ape Semos and the human David.[2] In both versions, the time-travelling Leo Davidson is ultimately revealed to be the human founding father Moses/David.