Nick Vanzant
Background
Nick Vanzant is the co-pilot on the Trans Soma emergency medical rescue vessel Nightingale 229. He is 32 years old and released from Hazen rehabilitation six months ago. Nick is a former military pilot.
During the events of Supernova (2000) played by James Spader
Nick and A.J. Marley play ping-pong. Later, while getting a neuroscan from Kaela Evers, Nick comments on Flyboy and she tells him that Marley is big on 20th century cultural artifacts so they dressed him as a World War I pilot. Kaela comments on Nick not associating with the rest of the crew and then asks him about his background. She gives him a bottle of Zyracon to help him get over his Hazen addiction. While Benj Sotomejor and Nick are playing cards, Sweetie warns him that he has a losing hand. Benj tells Nick that he illegally added human traits to Sweetie and after Sweetie tells him that Nick is likely to turn him in to the authorities, Nick assures him that he won't. While Kaela is studying up on medical equipment, Nick sits down next to her and she tells him that she was in a relationship once with a Hazen abuser. An emergency distress signal is received and Nick tells them that the signal is five days old and is a direct call specifically to the Nightingale. Nick continues that the signal is from Pohl 6822, specifically the mining operation of Titan 37.
Sweetie tells them that Pohl 6822 was expelled from its orbit and is now a rogue body. Marley tells them that due to the distance they will have to make a dimension drive jump. Sweetie then tells them that the sender of the SOS is Karl Larson. They arrive at their location and find Marley's unit has malfunctioned causing him to partially fuse with the polyglass window. The Nightingale is hit by a debris storm and their fuel tanks are breached. Nick manages to keep the Nightingale from crashing and Sweetie tells him that they have lost 82% of their fuel and the dimensional drive will have to recharge. Kaela tells Nick that Marley is dead and later Nick offers Kaela some pear brandy. Nick explains the situation to the crew and a ship from the Titan operation starts heading towards the Nightingale. Benj tries to communicate with the pilot, but the ship is set to autopilot. The spaceship docks with the Nightingale and Karl staggers on board. Kaela doesn't think Karl is the Karl she knew as he appears to be in his early 20's.
Kaela tells Nick that she thinks Karl is actually his son, Troy Larson. Nick tells Kaela and Benj that due to them only having five functioning jump units, that he will stay in the shuttle when they do the jump. Nick asks Karl questions and Karl tells him that he was scavenging when his associates backstabbed him and abandoned him. He tells Nick that there is plenty of fuel left in the mine. Nick has Yerzy Penalosa check Karl's ship to see if there is anything suspicious. While searching Karl's ship, Yerzy finds a glowing orb and tells Nick about it. Kaela uses Flyboy to transfer the orb to quarantine. Karl tells the others that he heard a signal that ice miners had found something on a rogue moon and then he and his friends found the Titan colony. He tries to make a deal with the crew to sell it, but Nick makes the decision to get rid of it once they are in deep space.
Before leaving, Nick tells Kaela that he wants a return ship on the shuttle in case he runs into trouble. Nick lands on the Titan and has the rescue return shuttle deployed under the main shuttle. Nick finds a large amount of bodies in the mine and then finds Troy, who looks like a large fetus, who tells him that he and Karl found the orb, but Karl took it and abandoned him. Troy asks Nick to take him to the orb and then dies. Nick tries to contact Sweetie, but Karl cuts the signal and tells him that he killed his associates when they wanted a larger cut and sets the equipment to kill Nick. As Nick is about to reach the shuttle, Karl remotely controls it to take off and fly away.
Later, Nick radios the ship and taunts Karl. Karl manages to make it to the return shuttle and shoots a harpoon gun at what he thinks is Nick, but turns out to be the body of Troy. He and Nick start to fight, but Karl easily overpowers Nick. Kaela cuts off one of Karl's arms and Nick pushes him into a cargo cage and locks him in. Nick and Kaela run to the orb and Sweetie tells them that Karl has escaped and the orb has become unstable. Karl reattaches his arm and destroys all but one of the dimension stabilization units. Karl goes after the orb which is being held by Flyboy and Nick detonates a bomb in it. Kaela and Nick run to the stabilization units and Sweetie tells them that the object will cause a supernova that will reach Earth in 51 years and either destroy life or create a new form of life. Nick and Kaela get into the stabilization unit and after the dimensional jump, Sweetie tells them that they have exchanged 2% of their DNA and Kaela is pregnant with a daughter.
