Thom Seldridge is a Prospector on Gateway and each day at 20:00 he frequents at the Blue Hell bar.
As an experienced prospector, he is also a proctor of the newcomers. Instead of handing them a DataMan, he jokingly uses to leave them a blank book titled "What we know about the Heechee".
He leaves a message on the Gateway Protagonist's PV commset to meet in the bar the first night on Gateway Station (per his message on the PV commset). Thom is an important source of information and clues, about the station. He then begins to expect to be bought a drink. He then tells about the Orion Program, handing a Gateway Corporation memo about it, and how to meet Terri Neilson.
When h e is bought another drink, he introduces Nubar Kamalian.