Paul Thomason

Paul Thomason was born March 5, 1975, the younger son of Victor and Anna Thomason. He would spend his entire life working for the family business as it evolved from Thomason Tool & Die to Thomason Holdings. He would become president of Thomason Holdings in 2032, remaining until his apparent suicide in 2037. Among his many legacies is the creation of Thomason Shipbuilding, created after Project Aurora.  

Early Life

Paul would be remembered as a self-assured, rambunctious child. This created difficulty at school, where he was frequently disciplined for acting out in class. Teachers would comment that they wished he was more like his older brother Roger, who was charming and never caused any trouble.   As he entered adolescence, his self-assurance became arrogance, and he gained a reputation as a bully. In 1990 at the age of fifteen he avoided sexual assault charges by announcing he was gay, supported by a number of boys who reported that he had made advances. He would spend that summer with his grandfather Calvin, where he discovered that he enjoyed fitness and manual labor. The following year he would start working at Thomason Tool & Die, spending an increasing amount of time with Calvin.      

Personal Life

Paul would purchase the Victorian house where he would spend the rest of his life in 1993 by taking out a loan, cosigned by both Calvin and Victor Thomason. At the time he purchased it, the house had been vacant for over twenty years and was considered by most of the community as an eyesore. He would spend most of his free time working on rehabilitating the house, gaining the respect of the community for his commitment to the job and the quality of the work he was doing.   The sudden deaths of Roger and Janice Thomason in a gas explosion in 1997 threw everyone but Paul into shock. As he had been home at the time and lived next door, he was one of the first to arrive on the scene. It would be Paul that brought Andrew Thomason home from school, Mark having run back at the sound of the explosion. To the surprise of everyone, Roger had asked that Paul raise his children in the event anything had happened to him.   Andrew and Mark Thomason would each have vastly differing opinions of Paul as a parent. Andrew got along with Paul, largely thanks to their shared love of fishing and hunting. He would also help with the ongoing rehabilitation of the house. Mark, on the other hand, had been witness to the death of their parents and was clearly suffering from trauma which Paul was unable to handle. He would rarely leave the unfinished attic room he had chosen to spend his time in, ultimately moving into the space. When Mark ran away in 2003, Paul merely said he would return on his own eventually.   Paul would gain a reputation as a philanderer, constantly changing partners in favor of a new one, with a clear preference for men in their early twenties. There were very few that he would spend more than a few weeks with, and rumors would persist that the reason Mark had run away was because Paul had made advances towards him. The sole exception was his relationship with Maxim Volkov from 2034 until Paul’s death in 2037.   With Victor’s death in 2032, Paul would become president of Thomason Holdings, as well as executor of the trust Andrew had left for his son Leon in 2031. Paul would push Leon to excel in everything, pointedly refusing him a position on the Board of Directors in 2036, only to be overridden by the rest of the Board in 2037.      

Death

On the morning of June 30, 2037, Leon Thomason would discover Paul hanging from a rafter in the attic of his home. Laying on a table was a note describing the depression he had suffered since his teenage years, culminating in the death of Victor in 2032. Many would comment that he had not acted the same since Victor’s death but had attributed this to the pressures of running a multinational corporation. The note also referred to Andrew as “my only son,” indicating the close relationship they shared. The Birch Harbor coroner ruled the death a suicide, in spite of several members of the Birch Harbor police observing that it was very convenient timing for Leon.      

Career

After graduating high school, Paul would work full time at what had by then been renamed Thomason Manufacturing. He would gradually work his way up from his humble start sweeping floors to CEO of Thomason Manufacturing. In 2031 he would leave this position to join the Board of Directors of the newly formed Thomason Holdings, becoming president with Victor’s death in 2032.   Thomason Heavy Industries would participate in Project Aurora, the multi-corporation collaboration to build the first human FTL capable ship. Under the agreement, Thomason Heavy Industries would construct the framework for the ship, the complex jump drive, as well as handle final assembly. When the ship was completed in 2035 Thomason Heavy Industries would only be given credit for final assembly. The next day Paul announced the creation of Thomason Shipbuilding and had the hangar immediately repainted with the new name.      

Legacy

In business Paul would be remembered as a corporate magnate who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. He was known to use his large physical size to dominate conversations by getting extremely close to those he was negotiating with. Though largely remembered as a footnote in history, it was Paul that oversaw the education of Leon Thomason, who would go on to expand Thomason Holdings and play a key role in the formation of the Terran Imperium.      

Legends and Rumors

Following Paul’s death in 2037, Leon Thomason would ask that the case of the death of Roger and Janice Thomason be reopened. During detailed forensic analysis, it was found that a water pipe had once connected Paul’s house to that of his brother, and that Paul had installed new gas lines within the house the week before. Inspecting the inside of the long disused water pipe it was found that the sediment on the bottom of the pipe had been disturbed. Investigators speculated that this was likely a wire of some sort, and it seemed to have been hastily removed as the threads on the end of the pipe appeared to have been cross threaded. In their final report they did not reach any definitive conclusions but stated that had a more thorough investigation been done at the time this would have certainly raised suspicions and led to more questioning.   Further suspicion would surround Paul’s death, especially after Leon hired Maxim Volkov as his personal assistant, a position Volkov had not held for Paul. This hinted at some sort of arrangement, especially as Leon had visited Paul the day before his apparent suicide.       After Paul became president of Thomason Holdings, it was widely rumored that he forced Leon to perform sexual acts for his amusement, at times offering him as part of corporate agreements. Eric Carruthers, the third Director of the United Earth Alliance, would refer to Paul as “that pimp,” and privately commented that Leon “would whore himself out to anyone that would help him get ahead.” It was Leon that would introduce Paul to Maxim Volkov, an act many believed was intended to give Paul a new partner and leave Leon alone.      

After Death

Paul’s Victorian house would be donated to the Birch Harbor Historical Society in 2038, who initially used it as a rental property. With the election of Mark Thomason as Hilt in 2365 (931 MY), the house would be restored to its original condition as part of the Thomason Historic District.   Spoiler for Enmalex Wars, Book 4               Spoiler for Enmalex Wars, Book 5