Chaya Arnowitz

Chaya Arnowitz, a researcher with the Shah-Ar project, was one of three employees working on the top-secret project who were involved in acts of mass murder.

Vacationing alone at the exclusive Sun-Ra Resort in the O'Neill belt, Arnowitz had spent the morning of 23 September 2146 floating in the resort's no-grav ocean. She suddenly began to stab nearby tourists with a piece of razor-sharp coral, causing widespread panic throughout the resort. After killing 12 of her fellow holiday-makers, Arnowitz slit her own throat. Witnesses reported that she had had no contact with other people -- one minute she was drifting peacefully, the next she was on the rampage. There appears to have been no motive for the attack.

Arnowitz was a renowned professor of particle physics at Tel Aviv University and a member of the original research team that prototyped the Shah-Ar drive. The attack was completely out of character, and attributed to psychosis caused by exposure to radiation or other substances while working at the Tel Aviv Propulsion Lab.

The tragedy -- as well as similar atrocities carried out by Emil Sturman and Yussl Jacobs -- ultimately led the Israeli premier, Yakov Kanter, to disband the Shah-Ar project in October 2146.