Jason Lawrence Sansky aka Jay or Ski was the captain of the TCS Tiger Claw in 2654. He was a secret spy for the Pilgrims under Amity Aristee, William Wilson, and Carver Tsu III.
History[]
Sansky and Tolwyn
Sansky was commissioned in 2625.03 and became a Captain in 2640.08. He was an old friend of Geoffrey Tolwyn.
While commander of the TCS Halsey during the Epsilon initiative, he managed to bring the ship back from a hopeless situation and earned himself a Senatorial Star. It was not the only time he displayed his efficiency in a crisis. He became the Captain of the Tiger's Claw (at some point in late 2653 or early 2654 after Taggart left the Claw), forming a good command team with his First Officer, Paul Gerald.
After the loss of the Pegasus Station, Admiral Tolwyn used Christopher Blair as a carrier to deliver to Sansky a message about the impending invasion of the Kilrathi to the Sol system. 17 hours after the destruction of the Pegasus, Blair delivered the communique to Sansky, and he ordered officer Obutu to decrypt the disk.
In the communique, Sansky was ordered to lead the Claw to the Charybdis and gather intelligence about the Kilrathi fleet. Tolwyn also adviced Sansky to trust the knowledge of pilot James Taggart. Sansky's XO Paul Gerald however was skeptical about the message, as it was delivered by Blair, a Pilgrim half-breed. Sansky therefore sent for Taggart and asked a proof that he isn't tricking the Claw to divert it away from its position.
Taggart was an undercover agent of Terran Confederation Naval Intelligence and produced a family heirloom given to him by Tolwyn as a token that he has the Admiral's absolute confidence. Taggart also convinced Sansky that Charybdis is too far away and that they must jump a nearby pulsar; Sansky admited there was no other choice.
Sansky was in his quarters staring at an old picture of him with Tolwyn, when Obutu called him to the bridge as soon as they approached the pulsar. Taggart gave instructions to Sansky how to navigate the ship, and asserted that the computer was iving false warnings and manually overrode it. Sansky followed blindly Taggart's instructions despite skeptical Gerald's request to reconsider.
Eventually Taggart successfully made the jump to the Ulysses Corridor and Sansky ordered Obutu to enable stealth mode. Harrison Falk reported a strong EM signature near the D-5 asteroid field and he ordered Jeannette Deveraux to prepare a connoiter.
However Deveraux and Blair revealed themselves to the enemy, and Sansky seemed to share Gerald's fears that Blair betrayed them. He agreed with Gerald to prepare an assault to the enemy, believing that this would slow down the Kilrathi. He was angered by Taggart's objections who warned him that this would make the Claw vulnerable, and ordered him to accompany the operation. He ordered Obutu to plot a course for the rings of planet 145.
Wounded
The Claw however was soon engaged by a Kilrathi force and Sansky admitted that Taggart was right. A Sivar-class battleship along with two Ralari-class destroyers launched tordpedoes against the Claw and during the battle, Sansky was wounded on the head and incapacitated. Gerald assumed command for the rest of the operation.
After it was revealed that Bill Wilson turned out to be a Pilgrim traitor and had helped the Kilrathi steal the NAVCOM AI (and had even joined them on their ship KIS Grist'Ar'roc. Gerald, Taggart and Blair discovered that Jay Sansky was a spy, and had secretly been sending reports to the Kilrathi and Wilson. They went to his room and overoede the hatch, and found Sansky sitting on his bed, and claiming he was no longer a threat, and pointing to a used syringe on his night-stand. He had poisoned himself with plecodome. He began to drift off, handed ring the Tolwyn heirloom ring, and asked him to return it to Taggart before finally succumbing to the poison. After looking through his images they discovered how connected he was to Wilson, and that he must have been a pilgrim.
Personality[]
Sansky was an excellent darts player, horrid amateur painter and liked musical theater.[1]
Although a private person, he was a pleasant fellow to be around; his crews seemed to adore him, and had to first rate efficiency reports (for this he had the reputation of a soft commander). Tolwyn had a liking for his character and considered promoted him, although such things did not seem to interest Sansky.[1]
Sansky did not like to be called by his given name and friends called him "Ski"[1] or 'Jay'.
Sansky was a bad captain and bad spy (in the sense that he was both corrupt, had failed, and been discovered). Like Bill Wilson his persona he created for himself to appear within Confederation was fake, only an illusion. It is unclear if he ever really given any loyalty to the Confederation.
Behind the scenes[]
Known as Lawrence Sansky in the Handbook, and Jay Sansky in the novels. In the film, this character is called "Jay" by Tolwyn on the incripted message, listed as only "Sansky" in the movie credits, and "Jason Sansky" in the cast bonus in the special features on the DVD.
The subplot about Sansky (and Admiral Wilson) being Pilgrim traitors, and Sansky's suicide, was deleted from the final film. The re-edits altered the plot so that Sansky died from the head injury he received earlier.