Biography:
Wooden Heart: Alien technology is discovered on an asteroid which apparently has the ability to transform raw Skarsium into the crystals needed to maintain the power grid – essential if the Domha’vei is to maintain its current level of technology. Ashtara suspects that something is wrong and secretly emanates Owen, a mining engineer, to investigate. Owen discovers that the mine is unstable and that the company has cut corners by using human, not android labor, and also that the mine has been infiltrated by members of Earth’s Telepathic Resistance. It turns out that Skarsium crystals can also be used to amplify telepathic skills, allowing a skilled telepath to broadcast his own thoughts louder that the native thoughts in a human brain – in effect, mind control. Owen believes Tara to be safely on Eirelantra, but she has come to investigate the mine on her own, and is captured and interrogated by Traeger, the telepathic black ops agent who tried to brainwash Suibhne. Owen fights Traeger, using the power of the crystal and Ailann’s skills to destroy Traeger’s telepathic ability. Traeger is killed by Molly, who says it’s a mercy killing. She then escapes while the mine collapses as Owen attempts to save the miners. He succeeds in only a limited fashion; his alchemy is incapable of affecting the mine tunnels shot through with Skarsium ore. Anyone below ground is killed in the collapse.
After that point, Ashtara refuses to emanate Owen, associating him with Tara’s torture and the deaths of the miners. When Atlas is bombed by terrorists, Owen’s branch is missing and is assumed to be blown completely off the tree. In fact, the attack was a ruse by Taseans (supported by CenGov) to obtain one of the Atlas branches. The branch is suspended in hydroponic solution, and roots grow from it. Owen eventually emanates within a force-field box. He is cut off from Atlas and nearly goes mad with loneliness.
In the meantime, Ashtara tries to repair the damage on the tree. Another branch regrows from the same spot, but emanates Lugh, a branch very different in both looks and personality from the original Owen. Lugh shares parts of Owen’s memory, but has lost everything in the missing wood.
Eventually Tara and Cillian raid the Tasean base, discovering that they are fighting a seemingly limitless army of incredibly adept soldiers. They explore the base to find that the Taseans have been cloning Cu’enashti soldiers; when a soldier is killed, it is simply re-emanated. However, these soldiers seem to be without coherent personalities and are in constant suffering. Cillian and Tara destroy the facility, but stumble upon Owen, who begs to be destroyed. Tara refuses, rescuing Owen. During this time, he is consoled by Lugh, who swears that Owen will never be alone again. They return to Dolparessa where Tara cuts back the false roots and Sir Kaman grafts Owen back onto Atlas.
When Owen next emanates it is with Lugh, and from that point forward, they emanate as a pair. Tara, of course, enjoys the novelty of sex with two “brothers,” at once, but Owen and Lugh are hesitant. Their bond is very deep, deeper than is normal for Cu’enashti branches, and they are worried about compromising their n’aashet n’aaverti.
Eden Blues: Owen gains some notoriety as Driscoll makes a portrait of Constantine in wood and Owen in leather, entitling the work, “What Prometheus Gave.” It wins the prestigious Duchamp Prize in artistic innovation. It becomes clear that Owen and Lugh are engaging in a sexual relationship independent of Tara. She condones it, but the other branches consider it to be a perversion.
Owen’s role in this novel is minor although it is mentioned that he and Mickey are the ones who devise the strategy ultimately resulting in the capture of General Panic.
The Poison Garden: At the beginning of the novel, Owen and Lugh are estranged. Lugh has confessed that he loves Owen more than he loves Tara. Owen is incredibly disturbed by what he considers to be Lugh’s perversion, and undertakes a course of Tara Therapy with Tarlach aimed at making him normal again. Lugh is hurt and refuses to talk to Owen, sending Owen into a depression.
In a philosophical discussion of the nature of evil, Seth concludes that according to Cu’enashti standards, Lugh is evil as he loves Owen more than he loves Tara, in direct violation of n’aashet n’aaverti. Owen furiously defends him, but Lugh rejects his help. Later, it is revealed that Lugh’s love for Owen is a manifestation of Ashtara’s survival instinct, and a direct result of Tara’s mandate that no emanation is expendable. Because of Lugh’s love, he will always react in the way which will result in Owen’s (and therefore Ashtara’s) best-interest.
Owen feels terrible about their estrangement, but Lugh refuses to reconcile. Owen and Cüinn engineer a design to extend the power grid through a wormhole to the Draco Galaxy, thus making it possible for Ashtara to leave his home system. Owen says he is dedicating his work to Lugh, but Lugh refuses to assist him. At this point, exasperated with the brothers’ extended quarrel, Ash emanates the pair of Ethan and Barnabas in order to replace them in the experiment.
Ethan is taken prisoner by Lilith, who threatens him with a gun laced with nul-matter. She commands him to raise his hands, which he does, triggering the swap with Owen. Lugh, emanated in place of Barnabas, realizes that Ash has arranged the situation to force his reconciliation with Owen. The emanations fear that if Owen is killed with a nullet, it could destroy him forever and perhaps the rest of them as well. Lugh is able to disarm Lilith, but in the ensuing scuffle, Esau St. John shoots Owen in the leg.
Predictably, Lugh rushes to Owen’s side. The nul-matter is removed when the Twist suggest using the Staff of the Matriarch to induce a reaction between the nul-matter in the nullet and the pos-matter in the staff.
In the short story, “The Prophecy of Ash,” Owen warns of the pending volcanic eruption threatening the Volparnian city of Ventosty. He and Lugh accompany Tara to the surface to investigate, warning that the situation is more complex than it seems, and that it may be beyond Ash’s power to correct. The Volparnians, believing in Ash’s power, refuse to evacuate despite Owen’s advice. When the situation turns political, Marius is emanated to deal with it.
Perpetual Rose: Owen’s only role is on the team engineering glowkrill.
Portable Grove: Owen and Lugh are featured in the second experiment, where the goal is to see if cross-fertilization between dual emanations can be facilitated. Owen and Lugh emanate and engage in a threesome which makes them pollen-receptive. Tara decides that they should go all out to seduce Owen with a hot oil massage and a hookah blend from RR-3 labs. Later, Ellery emanates, causing Owen and Lugh to produce pollen which fertilizes their receptive blossoms. The experiment is ultimately successful, but the presence of Ellery causes some anomalies which corrupt the data.
Owen and Lugh are also called to take part in the fourth experiment, but this time as a control group for the experiment performed with Ethan and Barnabas. Owen and Lugh are game participants, but the experiment goes awry due to various personal dramas between Ethan, Barnabas, Whirljack and Blackjack.
Owen also participates in the fourth stress-test, but does not have a major role.
Correspondence Chart Entries from The Portable Grove
| Denotation | Owen Carrick (Gaelic: born of the yew tree, or Welsh form of Latin Eugenius: noble; Gaelic: rock). |
| Numeration | 14th emanation of Ashtara; 14th branch of Atlas; 3 in the correspondence chart. |
| Age | 36 |
| Hotness | 7/10 |
| Vital Statistics | 1.838 meters tall, cock size 18.29 cm when erect. |
| Description | Square face with rough but gentle features, dark brown, bangs, scruffy cut. Wears denim with occasional casual leather, thrice-hardened steel toed boots. |
| Skills | Mining engineer. |
| Sexual Prowess and Kinks | Threesomes, brotherly love. |
| Average Duration of Play | 13 minutes, 56 seconds. |
| Totem Tree | Platanus orientalis, the Oriental plane tree or chinar. |
| Fixed Star | Capella Ab, second twin of the she-goat (α Aur: actually made of two double-stars). |
| Color |  |
| Esoteric Symbol | The Platonic solid octahedron. |
| Function | Exegetic stabilization. |
| Official Title | Proconsul and Supreme Engineer of the Skarsian Matriarchy. |
| His Prophecy | Lead which becomes gold. |
| Dessert |  Nau’gsh kolacky |
Persistence of Weeds Addendum
| Branch Growth Characteristics | Owen’s branch was grown and emanated in secret in order to intervene in a problem which Tara refused to acknowledge. Later, an explosive attack severed the branch from Atlas; initially seeming like an act of random violence, it was a deliberate plan undertaken to abduct Owen. His branch was spirited to a secret research facility where it was forced to grow roots hydroponically. When he was recovered, these roots were burnt and the branch reattached to Atlas, but in the meantime, Lugh’s branch had regrown where Owen’s used to be. Owen and Lugh were used as templates for the branch material to formulate their twin brothers on Goliath, Barnabas and Ethan. |
| Nul-history | Originally bonded to Tarlach; part of the mass synchronization facilitated by Wynne. The severing of his branch and subsequent regrowth of roots caused the spark to bifurcate. |
| Proto-conscious Root Concept | Love, designated Synthesize. |
| Prime Number of Energy Resonance | 5 |
| From Self-Portraits Not-of-Me II: Baby Pictures by Driscoll Garrett |  Owen (current)  Owen/Lugh (original) |