He glared at me and the brown skin on his cheeks showed pronounced signs of a rise in temperature indicating anger, embarrassment, and possibly other emotions. I was pretty sure he was just pissed off, though. Then he hesitated and said, “Look, I—I didn’t mean to get you shot. I’m sorry.” If you had meant to get me shot, Thiago, we would be having a different conversation. (Network Effect)
Thiago is a linguist on Arada's kidnapped survey in Network Effect. He is Mensah's brother in law, and Amena's uncle.
Biography[]
Thiago is the marital partner of Dr. Ayda Mensah’s (unnamed) brother. Thiago attended university with Tano, one of Mensah’s two marital partners. When Mensah comes back changed by her captivity by GrayCris, Thiago is disturbed by her new reliance on Murderbot, and by Murderbot's apparent aggression.
He joins Arada's survey as a linguist. His peaceful background and idealism leave him ill-prepared for a dangerous lifestyle: he is kidnapped by raiders when he goes against Murderbot's security protocols due to a lack of trust. Murderbot rescues him, but this distrust is an ongoing obstacle.
When Perihelion kidnaps Arada's PreservationAux survey, Thiago is caught up in the chaos. He's able to analyze the language that his latest captors are speaking, getting clues about their origins, and he's also able to program a language vocabulary translation module. As the team learns more, he brings up knowledge of the history of alien remnants and their side effects, and is able to analyze biological samples to look for contamination.
Eventually he confronts Murderbot about Mensah's apparent dependence on it, and about the leverage he thinks it's using against her. Murderbot tells him that Mensah had been the victim of more failed assassination attempts than had reached the public ear, and Thiago is surprised. He talks with Ratthi as he processes the information, realizing that he's been mistaken in his assumptions, and even shows interest in apologizing to Murderbot for his treatment of it. Ratthi dissuades him, explaining that Murderbot would rather not have more emotional conversations if it can help it.
When Murderbot and Overse go down to the Lost Colony to rescue the Perihelion's crew, Thiago accompanies them. They rescue the missing crewmates, and when Murderbot is captured in the process, Thiago helps distract the colonists as SecUnit 3 rescues it.
Personality[]
Thiago is an acknowledged optimist about most people, always assuming good intentions and attempting to negotiate rather than fight in cases of conflict. This makes his distrust of Murderbot even more obvious. Thiago seems to believe that Murderbot has emotional leverage over Dr. Mensah and is causing her to be needlessly afraid to make her dependent on it. He also seems to assume that Murderbot will default to reacting violently to situations, and objects to how Murderbot acts around Amena, even though its actions saved her life.
After learning about the real risks Mensah has faced from Corporation Rim assassins (suppressed from the news feeds), Thiago does seem to have a change of heart, offers to apologize to Murderbot (before being dissuaded by Ratthi, who knows Murderbot really doesn't want to have another heart to heart conversation with a human), and actively supports Murderbot's rescue plans toward the end of Network Effect.
Physical Appearances[]
Thiago is noted as having brown skin.
The PreservationAux uniform is grey, and occasionally includes a jacket.