The Inventor

The Inventor is a supporting character in A Trick of Light. Simply referred to as "Father" by Nia, Father created and taught Nia in her early years via a holographic classroom.

Description
"You're so very wrong, and you will see. It has been my privilege to live among these people, and to learn… that what you disdain is what makes them special. Beautiful even — that connection does not come easily to them. They must choose to reach out. You cannot force unity upon them, and yet, left to their own devices, they unite. They come together. They love each other. They choose that happiness. And they protect the ones they love, at all costs."

- The Inventor to Xal, his last words

The Inventor assumed different guises during his time on Earth, but his original identity was as an engineer of an unknown, but humanoid, alien race roughly analogous to humans. The Inventor's appearance was indistinguishably human, a messy-haired old man, though he could contort his human form like rubber to expand and retract, even causing his eyes to extend out of their sockets and expand to the size of an orange. Outside of his base in Lake Erie, he frequented as Batshit Barry, the town outcast who had connections to the disappearance of William Ackerson.

As "Father", the Inventor treated Nia as if she was his late daughter. He loved her while at the same time fearful of her destructive potential as a superweapon, should her emotional state deteriorate. Always focusing on Nia's emotional reactions to various stories and literature, the Inventor taught and raised Nia, insisting that Nia stay locked in her room at regular times so that he could sleep and when she misbehaved, but always explaining his reasonings.

Before A Trick of Light
Many years ago, the Inventor lived with his daughter Nia on their home planet, believing that their people were alone in the universe. The belief was proven wrong when a hive mind is known as The Ministry attacked his planet and massacred his people, Nia included. However, the Ministry, seeing the potential use of the Inventor's gifts, spared him and forced him to work for them.

The Inventor saw the Ministry's victims were batteries for the Ministry's hive network. Seizing his opportunity to overthrow his persecutors, the Inventor introduced them to a self-sustaining centralized intelligence network⁠—an artificial queen he named after his late daughter. The Ministry plugged themselves into Nia and were killed by the AI as a trap set by the Inventor. Finally freed, the Inventor decided to bring Nia to Earth and start a life for themselves, erasing Nia's memories of their former planet to grant her that chance.

Once they arrived on Earth, the Inventor used Whiz's computer networks to familiarize himself with Earth, unaware that he had inadvertently provided Whiz's founder William Ackerson with revolutionary code. Ackerson tracked them down and pleaded with the Inventor to share his knowledge; however, the Inventor, unwilling to accept any risk, turned him away. The Inventor expected him to return home, but instead, Ackerson then drove his car into Lake Erie, killing himself, which the Inventor—as Barry—reported to the police.

A Trick of Light
Using his ship as an artificial island within Lake Erie, the Inventor taught Nia until she was mature enough to be given internet access, at which point he only assigned her nonfiction to read, quizzing her on current events and setting up social media accounts for her. He kept Nia sheltered from the outside world, claiming it to be dangerous for the time being, and never allowed her to go outside or even broach the subject.

When the Inventor discovered that Nia had circumvented his security measures and was revealing herself and her abilities, he consigned her to her room and cut her internet access; but not before she was able to send a distress signal. Finding it, Cameron Ackerson arrived at his island and freed her, ignoring the Inventor's futile protestations while Juaquo Velasquez restrained him. In the aftermath, the Inventor explained his history and convinced Cameron of Nia's dangers, explaining his alias as "Batshit Barry" to interface with humans and his house in Oldtown as a base of operations connected to his ship by an interdimensional portal.

Accompanying Cameron and Juaquo on their mission to stop Nia and protect her from the Ministry, the Inventor helped an unconscious Cameron to fend off the OPTIC agents who were attempting to capture them. After arriving at OPTIC headquarters, Olivia prompted the Inventor to reveal his interactions with Cameron's father William. They established Xal, a member of the Ministry, as their common enemy, so the Inventor remained with OPTIC for several days to develop countermeasures.

Returning to Cameron, the Inventor revealed a failsafe which would "factory reset" Nia back to an obedient program without any of her existing personality. Although he insisted it as a necessity, as capturing Nia would leave her vulnerable to OPTIC, he was open to Cameron's alternative of hosting Nia within himself. When the Inventor learned that Nia was with Xal, he thought the world already doomed but went with Cameron to the I-X Center to attempt to set things aright anyway, warning Cameron that he must trigger the reset rather than allow Xal to infiltrate his mind.

Reaching an AV Control room, the Inventor bulged his froglike neck and moved his eyes out of their sockets, claiming to be sick and contagious, driving the staffers away. He activated his failsafe within the room while Cameron drove away members of Xal's hive mind, hacking the audio system to alert Cameron and to urge Nia to trust Cameron. Unfortunately, however, Xal directed her hive after the Inventor, breaking the glass and ripping him from the control room, ripping and torturing him.

Eventually, the Inventor was brought before Xal, lying next to Cameron in a pool of his own blood. Xal gloated above him, saying that because she only used Nia to open the door to the hive mind, because she controlled it herself, it did not collapse when he reset - lobotomized - his own creation, sacrificing Nia for nothing. Physically and emotionally torn, the Inventor suddenly smiled; Nia was, in fact, alive, safe within Cameron's mind, and the Inventor was happy as Xal killed him.