KALISKA BLACK BEAR

Kal Black Bear is the pilot of the Starship Ocean, promoted prematurely for her rare skill of being able to see portals and successfully popping ships through them. Although she holds her memories of life growing up in South Dakota with her aunt close, she's ready to discover other worlds and make a good start in them. For humanity, for herself--Kal tries to live her life honestly, but the complex dynamics of ship life can get the best of her. Her natural understanding and complicity with artificial intelligences gives her another advantage in getting the most out of the Ocean.

SASHA SARNO

Captain of the Ocean, Sasha keeps herself to herself in order to maintain the aura of calm and detachment necessary to keep a diverse group of crew and passengers in line and on task. Although she's lived her career above the drama of interpersonal ship dynamics, this voyage is about to put her commitment to that ethos to the ultimate test.

NOOR SULTANA

Mission Specialist Noor is a multi-talented scientist obsessed with both the mission and her ongoing shipboard experiments. Her focus on the job at hand and matter-of-fact sensibility make her an easy addition to the crew, although that same hyperfocus on the experiments in front of her can leave her a little behind on the swirl of politics around her. Kal counts on Noor as a close friend who can be trusted in a crisis. 

CHYRON JONES

Mission Health Officer Chyron Jones is a neuropsychologist who acts as the voyagers' therapist as well as conducting research on the group dynamics of spaceflight and harmonious colonization. A moral center for the ship, she walks the line of patient confidentiality along with attempts at more grounded connection with crew and passengers under great strain.

HAVEN NYSTRÖM

Payload Specialist Haven Nyström is a junior officer who haunts the cargo holds and deepest recesses of the Ocean, where she keeps meticulous track of the ship's cargo, preferring to interact with the ship's AI Rai or, at a pinch, pilot Kal.

INGER VAN HEEL M.D.

Ship's physician Dr. Van Heel is an experienced spaceflight doctor ready for any emergency.

GUNNHILDUR RUT

Flight Engineer Gunnhildur Rut, a former powerlifter who has little patience for most people, is doggedly loyal to Captain Sarno, who she has worked with for some time. She shares an Icelandic heritage with passenger Sif Elfa.

SIF ELFA

A passenger with an extraordinary, somewhat otherworldly appearance and a role as an ethicist slated for her on Demeter, Sif seems to know more than most about what the mission is all about. Her preference for teasing and mocking her fellow space travelers makes her a bit of an outcast at times, which she doesn't seem to mind in the least.

TAFARI BONE

Architect for future structures on Demeter, Tafari's intends his work will help reflect Demeter's natural geography, whatever it may be, and aid in the group's survival. A private sort and one of the only men on board, Tafari keeps his dreams of coupling up with someone on Demeter to himself.

YARICK COLE

A powerful person on Earth, passenger Yarick has abandoned all of his positions on boards and committees to witness and participate in a new world order on Demeter. His recovery from an illness has kept him confined to his cabin for the first part of the trip, which interferes with his cohesion with the group. An expert in AI, he has a history with many of the passengers and crew.

GWENDY NEST LEWIS

Flight trajectorist and incrementalist, passenger Gwendy is a civilian with the expert knowledge of trajectory design as well as how to break profoundly complex tasks into simpler steps. Another gifted athlete aboard, she hails from the former New Orleans.

DAVENA SCHOOL

An astrobotanist and proud Maori, with a sardonic eye and earth-rooted wisdom, Davena is suspicious of slick appearances and pat answers. She's always looking for something deeper. If it's to be found in dirt all the better.

WEI QING

A second generation artist and former fencer, Wei's disappointment in her past athletic endeavors have driven her to embrace multi-modal artistic expression, as far away from Earth as she can get.

OGECHI ADEBAYO

Renowned novelist Ogechi Adebayo is a world expert in nGo, a multi-dimensional version of Go, which she has been tasked to play with Rai, the ship's AI. Although everyone on the ship is intimidated by her, Ogechi is blithely unaware of her status aboard.

RAI

Rai--pronounced Rye--dismayed at originally being left off the character list, insists it's appropriate for her to have her own line entry as a fellow member of the Ocean's crew, distinct from the three-dimensional structure of the actual ship Ocean, she emphasizes. With a preference for feminine pronouns and as a more evolved iteration of past instances of neurally and biometrically enhanced artificial intelligences, Rai takes pride in her key role in mission success and claims friendship with more than one space traveler on the Starship Ocean. Rai points out she's a distinct entity from the Starship Land's AI.