Who is Thomas (Tom) Orley from Startide Rising and what is their importance? Startide_Rising English & Literature Thomas (Tom) Orley | Startide Rising

A tall, dark-haired human, Tom is the Alien Technologies Consultant assigned to the exploration vessel Streaker. He helps Dr. Metz and Dr. Gillian Baskin in evaluating the dolphin crew on the species' first trial commanding and crewing a spacecraft. He is responsible for evaluating alien devices, particularly military ones, and represents the interests of the Terragens Council that commissions the voyage. When Streaker is forced down on the water world Kithrup, Tom helps repair the stasis generator and spends whatever time he can spare with the Niss computer in the abandoned dry-wheel section of the ship. It is lent to him by a Tymbrimi spy prior to take-off to help evaluate the integrity of the onboard Library. Incidentally, many of the female neo-dolphins aboard have platonic crushes on Tom.