Tessa Dasarius (aka Tedessa Dazar, born 345 IE) was the CEO of Dasarius Interstellar in 429 IE. Her father was Claudius Dasarius, the previous CEO of the company.*
In 412 IE, she and Quentin Austin, a young Naval officer, conceived a son after a brief fling. They married and named the boy John Tybalt Austin, despite the Dasarius tradition of naming the heir to company for the Dasarius family. She named the boy for his paternal grandfather and a favorite uncle of hers.
As CEO, Tessa was considered a fair manager. Except for those dismissed for violence or theft, even fired former employees found Dasarius influence working in their favor under Tessa’s tenure. It was considered better to be fired for cause from Dasarius than to get a promotion at another organization.
In 429, after too many incidents of vehicle theft, sexual mischief, and drunkenness, Tessa agreed with her husband to send JT to a military school to straighten him out. When the boy ran away and became stranded on Amargosa, Madam Dasarius and her ex-husband agreed to leave the boy there until the next scheduled visit by a Navy vessel, scheduled for four months after JT’s arrival there. The couple decided to have him placed in the custody of John Parker, a former Marine, local constable, and farmer. Parker was to put the boy to work on his farm and deny him any of his usual privileges.
Tedessa reluctantly agreed to Parker’s proposal to let JT stay with his family until the boy turned eighteen. She sent her son a message, however, tearfully expressing her disappointment and how badly his rejection hurt her.
When the attempt to retake Amargosa failed, Tessa made it clear to Quentin that she did not blame him. Instead, she offered to bring all the resources of Dasarius Interstellar to bear to help him in the aftermath. However, when it came to light that Dasarius Interstallar owned Hatch, and by extension, JunoCorp, she became emotional, both for the threat to her company and, more importantly, her unwitting complicity in her son’s possible death.
Austin returned to her estate just prior to the operation at Anacreon. There, she revealed that she began dating Marcus Leitman. However, she broke up with Leitman after discovering he had been using Dasarius Interstellar ships without authorization and his tryst with the reporter Brianna. Unaware of Brianna’s murder, she told Leitman he would be locked out of Dasarius assets while she went to Demeter to visit her former in-laws, taking her remaining children. She then cut off Leitman from all Dasarius assets, essentially severing Juno’s ability to use Dasarius resources for its goals. In gratitude for use of Compact One to visit Hanar and Amargosa (and hopefully, her son), she provided funding for the Thulians to build a clinic for permanent rejuvenation on Amargosa.
Following the Liberation of Amargosa, her relationship to JT did not improve. The two seldom spoke. Tessa did express disappointment that JT remained on Amargosa and went to work for the provision government, then the Navy.
*Gimme Shelter, in current editions, refer to Claudius Dasarius as Leonidas. However, in later books, including Checkmate, he is referred to as “Claudius.” While JT implies a close relationship between his mother and grandfather to Governor Croix, Tessa and her father were, in fact, estranged for decades. Beginning in Storming Amargosa, JT regularly mentions that his grandfather is not only an idiot, but there is a Wikipedia Britannica article on the subject.
Appearances: Gimme Shelter, Broken Skies, Storming Amargosa