Tura (Kathy)
Kathy's intellect and approach to life can both be deduced by a question she posed when we were studying together at university. Reflecting on the awkwardness of the steep hills in San Francisco, she asked why the original settlers had not first leveled the hills before building the city. For years Kathy's peers used the question as an illustration of her superciliousness (which it was). But she had the last laugh, because it turned out that the early leaders of San Francisco had, in fact, contemplated leveling the land; and indeed parts of the Presidio are the results of that effort.
Like the rest of the parents, Kathy's character Tura does not have an important role in the story. Tura's principle scene involves her encounter with the eagle that brings her the news that her husband has been kidnapped by Jihardan pirates. At first she reacts with annoyance to the surprise in much the same way Kathy would. But in the end, Tura -- like Kathy -- rises to the occasion and throws herself into the breach to save someone who is the prisoner of his own folly.