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JONAH SPARKS:
Jonah is the shipmate of the Yancy Darrow. He is the oldest Simulacrum in space. Because of budget cuts and the volatile nature of the Yancy Darrow's ownership, Jonah is stuck with the sim he had years and years ago-- the body of a nine-year old boy.
When Jonah was three years old, he was diagnosed with Marks-Ulrich disease. MU causes the neurons and glials to reproduce rapidly, producing painful sensitivity to all stimulus. Jonah was placed in a early version of a stasis bath to keep him alive. The government approached Jonah's parents and proposed a long term solution to his disease. His nervous system, along with afflicted MU cells, was stripped out of his body and placed in a housing while the government studied the behavior of the disease. The templates that they gained from observing Jonah are still used in the nanotechnology that makes Shipmate technology possible. Jonah was nine when the first simulacrum was built and he was able to be with his family again.
When he turned ten, his parents were killed in a car accident. Being truly a ward of the state, his body having been constructed by taxpayer dollars, the government took him under their wing. Or rather, placed him under the wing of Captain Yancy Darrow. Darrow had been recently commissioned to make a survey of the far planets; Jonah was his Shipmate. It took six years for Jonah to completely grow into Darrow's ship; and in that time, he received a superb practical and theoretical education.
Education was cheap; a new body was not. A simulacrum costs about as much as a new starship. And Jonah did not seem to mind his perpetual boyhood-- he revelled in it. With no body to produce hormones, he never hit puberty. This concerned Yancy Darrow very much. He and Jonah argued about it on several occasions throughout their voyages together. ("Grow up, Jonah!")
Yancy Darrow died of lung cancer when Jonah was technically 40 years old. Jonah was given the opportunity to change ships, but declined. He served the next captain, Anastasia Milokov, just as well as he had Darrow-- rumors persisted that they even had an affair of sorts. For whatever reason, Anastasia requested a new command, and Jonah did not follow her. By the time she left, the Yancy Darrow was getting old. The government sold the ship to Clegg Applied Sciences. Jonah was again given the opportunity to leave the ship, but declined. Darryl Tolman used the ship for the first secret trials for the Tolman engine. Although the tests were later moved to a larger and more updated vessel, Tolman did not uninstall the hardware on the Yancy Darrow.
The Yancy Darrow was sold to a Chinese emigration company, which went bust after conducting a few colonization runs. It just wasn't big enough to bring in enough paying colonists. Natalie Caldwell purchased it, refitted it, and kept Jonah on as shipmate.
JONAH'S PERSONALITY:
Jonah is intelligent, plucky, and overall pleasant. Despite a life filled with pain and misfortune, he retains his optimism and can-do-ness. He is fond of ancient movies and quotes them often. Jonah is more than 100 years old; he finds it convenient to play the nine-year-old-who-knows-too-much.
Jonah's attachment to the Yancy Darrow goes deeper than the nanotechnology that connects it to his nervous system. Jonah is pathologically loyal to the ship. It is not known exactly why this is, and Jonah has not seen fit to share his reasoning. His unique status as oldest living simulacrum has led him into contact with a number of psychologists-- their answers range from abandonment issues to simple bullheadeness to an intense fear of change to agoraphobia.
JONAH'S APPEARANCE:
Jonah's simulacrum is stocky with loose, curly blonde hair, and dark eyes. Fashion-wise, he leans toward denim overalls, baseball caps, and t-shirts advertising movies and music groups no one remembers.
ANGELA LYTTON:
Angela is one of the mechanics on the Yancy Darrow. She comes from Earth, the second of three children. Because her parents willfully broke reproductive law to have their third child, Angela's father lost his job as professor of mechanical engineering at Utah State University and was unable to get another one. He moved his family to Salt Lake, and got odd jobs fixing cars and appliances. Angela helped him, and picked up much of what she knows from spending time beneath old street beasts.
Angela had the rare opportunity to get a full scholarship to MIT. Her father and mother helped her change her name from Bulwer to Lytton-- and she never looked back. Academic life was not for her-- she grew bored with professors' egos, bored with academic debate on useless, untestable theories, bored with... well, she was just bored. She took a summer internship at CAS, which led to a job on the Pan-galactic space station in the Horsehead nebula, which eventually led to a job offer on the Yancy Darrow.
ANGELA'S PERSONALITY:
Angela is aware of her own physical attractiveness. She is also acutely embarrassed by it. The cute girls were always the ones mocking her for her family’s size, or for her brains, or for her second-hand clothes… Angela takes steps, somewhat unconsciously, to make herself less attractive, and in her mind, a better person. She does not feel comfortable in clean clothes.
Angela’s family was strictly religious (Mormon). She is not sure how she feels about God, though it is something she thinks about often.
Angela is chagrined by her large family. She loves her parents, but finds speaking with them intimidating. She feels guilty for giving up her last name, feels guilty for being embarrassed by them, guilty for not being comfortable around them… All in all, when it comes to her family, Angela is a nervous, guilty wreck.
Angela’s single greatest personality trait is her generosity. It is ironic that her greatest strength stems from an upbringing which she finds personally embarrassing. Being raised in a climate where openness and sharing were not only mannerly but necessary, Angela finds it second nature to help out, pitch in, etc.
Angela is a brilliant mechanic. She is a tenacious problem solver—her favorite leisure time is solving logic puzzles.
ANGELA'S APPEARANCE:
Angela wears shapeless jumpsuits, cuts her dark hair short, and unconsciously forgets to clean her hands. Her fingernails are bitten short.
JANUARY KARL:
January (so named because of the month he was born) was raised in a wandering Catholic orphanage that went from world to world, retrieving stray boys, teaching them a trade and faith, and depositing them on another world. Both trade and faith stuck with January; he briefly considered going into the priesthood, but couldn’t commit himself to lifelong celibacy. When he graduated from the orphanage’s computer training classes, he signed on with the nearest military he could find—which happened to be the fledgling United Galaxies Compact.
When he came out of the military nine years later, January was something of a jack-of-all trades. He could have easily made a career out of military, but cited philosophical differences as his reason for leaving. And when he left, he also left his biometric tracking tag, along with a good chunk of his inner thigh. Wherever January Karl was heading to, he didn’t want the military to bother him there.
Where he headed to was a Clegg Applied Sciences base in the asteroid belt. He got a job working on their computer infrastructure. From there, it was a short leap to snagging a position on the Yancy Darrow. He and Jonah were fast friends.
JANUARY’S PERSONALITY:
January is… there’s no other word for it, cool. Not a poseur, not elitist or standoffish; he is level-headed and easy going. He is a perfect foil for Jonah’s exuberance.
But still waters run deep. January has worked hard to overcome a bitter temper and a deep enjoyment of physical violence. He did not leave the army because he disliked the violence, so much as he found pleasure in it.
January is a renaissance man. Everything interests him.
JANUARY'S APPEARANCE:
January is the tallest person on board the Yancy Darrow. He is built like a swimmer, with a thick chest and narrow waist. He has begun lifting weights to bulk up more and to help work off his aggression. He has black hair, cut rather sloppily, and a goatee (though no mustache). He prefers dark greens and blacks, and always keeps his clothes pressed and very neat.
WILLIAM HARRIS: Captain of the Yancy Darrow. He is precise, analytical, and devoted to being an effective leader. Mostly, he succeeds.
William is lean from running (avid marathoner), approaching fifty. He is balding, and has recently decided to cut off all his hair and be done with it.
He is somewhat of a technophobe.
NATALIE CALDWELL: Owner of the Yancy Darrow. She is shrewd, manipulative, and charismatic. She believes in the great destiny of mankind, and would sell her own children’s blood to see it accomplished within her lifetime. It has become increasingly difficult to work with her since she turned forty…
Natalie is a handsome woman, elegant and proud and more than a little aristocratic. She is not afraid of getting in the trenches with the troops—but really, that’s what troops are for, isn’t it?
Natalie’s hair is turning gray—she has let it grow out into what can only be described as a gorgeous mane. She is going a little stout, but not soft, exactly… Her eyes are keen and blue, and it is a point of pride with her that she has the best eyesight of anyone she knows.
THE YANCY DARROW: The Yancy Darrow is a small survey vessel. Because it was expected to take long voyages anyway, it has withstood the tests of time fairly well. Its greatest advantage is that it can make interatmospheric landings, and can maneuver within gravity as well as outside it. Much of its survey equipment was offloaded to make way for cargo space and stasis baths. In addition to new cargo holds, the Yancy Darrow sports two light security ships (Both Raven class Harriers); and four torpedo tubes. These were added to deal with the increasing threat of partisan fighters.
SERAFINA BULWER: Serafina is a middle-aged woman, about 49. She is fit and strong—she shows her Hispanic heritage very strongly. She is beginning to show signs of aging and stress: crows feet at her eyes, grey hair… Raising four children in a world that looks down on parents who have even two has not been easy.
Before she met and married Robert Bulwer, Serafina Guadelupe Jiminez was an accountant. She retains her head for numbers and tax law by assisting poor families in her neighborhood with their taxes and small businesses.
Serafina is indomitable. She comes off at first as motherly and over-protective and emotionally sensitive; but she has a backbone of steel, and enough resolve to move mountains. She utterly trusts her husband Robert.
ROBERT BULWER: Robert is 55, and a dead ringer for Paul Newman. He is still an avid cross-country runner, and wakes up every morning early to train.
Robert was not the first choice for professor of mechanical engineering at USU. He has never been the smartest, or the most charismatic… but he has shown himself to be the hardest working professor in the history of the school. His department head fought very bitterly with the school’s decision to release Robert to maintain their accreditation.
Robert is patient, cautious, and methodical. He makes up for genius with persistence.
EFRAIM BULWER: Efraim is thirteen and solidly in the throes of adolescence. Everything female interests him. He is wiry and sarcastic; he revels in his family’s outsider status. He once worshipped Esteban, his older brother; but since Esteban has started blaming the family’s problems on Angela, he feels more conflicted than anything.
Efraim is smart—not a genius like Angela, but neither is he as gullible. He enjoys building things—his pride and joy, kept fiercely guarded from his friends, is a working robot.
EMMANUEL BULWER: Emmanuel is boisterous, juvenile, mischievous, and cunning. In short, he is 9 years old. He is oblivious to the family’s difficulties, being the youngest member of the Bulwer clan, and has never known anything but poverty. Emmanuel is skinny, frequently unkempt, and has shaggy hair that can’t decide whether it wants to be straight like Serafina’s, or curly like Robert’s.
Unlike Efraim, Emmanuel has never liked their older brother Esteban.
ESTEBAN BULWER: Esteban is around 30 years old, stocky, and tall. He looks very much like Robert, his father. He is the oldest of the Bulwer clan, and feels it’s his responsibility to keep the rest of the children in line.
He is overbearing, presumptive, and gets angry very easily. He is also extremely loyal, devoted, and loves his family deeply.