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Meina Gladstone was the CEO of the Senate of the Hegemony of Man during the opening of the Time Tombs and the Ouster invasion of the planet Hyperion. She is from the world of Patawpha, which manifests in her accent, which incorporates many elements of pre-Hegira English.[1]
She has an "aged but still beautiful" voice[2] and sad brown eyes[3] that recall to many those of Old Earth President Abraham Lincoln.
Early career[]
Before becoming a politician, Gladstone was a lawyer.[4] Gladstone had worked with Byron Lamia (Brawne Lamia's father), the de facto leader of their group, along with Morpurgo and Singh, to combat the Core's dominance over human life and the death of human-led science and discovery.
CEO of the Hegemony[]
Gladstone has much more information than she makes publicly aware. When Joseph Severn tells her about his dream involving Lenar Hoyt, she replied "[I]t is still a shock to hear about something that no one else in the Web knows about.[5]" She was aware of both of the Keats cybrids and uses the second one to provide information on the pilgrims. She anticipated and planned on the Consul's betrayal to begin the opening of the Time Tombs.
Her final act as CEO of the Hegemony was to destroy the farcaster web. After discovering the treachery of the Core, she ordered that all farcaster singularity containment spheres be destroyed. Millions died in the aftermath, and the Hegemony fell.
After the Fall, her face was carved into a mountain on Hyperion, near that of Sad King Billy.[6]