Time to Orbit: Unknown / Characters

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Third crew

The current crew, as the story begins, revived unexpectedly partway through their journey to Hylara. As such, these are our main characters.

The crew as a whole

Aerith and Bob: The crew's names range from the relatively commonplace (Lina and Sam), to the rogue-but-conceivable (Tal and Aspen), to the more traditionally sci-fi (Tinera, Denish, Adin, Keldin, Celi, Sunset, Renn, the Public Universal Friend). Justified somewhat, as they're all from different cultural backgrounds.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Oh boy, do the crew seem to have this by the spade. Almost all of them are experts in some sort of field, and the crew regularly use their expertise to analyse situations and figure out solutions to whatever emergency they are facing now.
Badass Bookworm: Just about everybody on the ship seems to be an expert in some sort of field, and they use this knowledge to pull off all sorts of badass feats.
Badass Crew: They're a crew. They're badass.
Bio-Augmentation: It's mentioned that most people in the period the story is set in are genetically engineered in some way; Martians are noted as being strange for their non-augmented nails, for example. More specifically, we know that the Arboreans on the crew all have the DIVR geneset, intended to help them breathe better and survive exposure to cold water as they tend their colonies, while we also know that the Tarandran crew members have been genetically modified for attractive facial features.
Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: Depends how you see it, but the genetic modifications inflicted on the crew members revived from CR 1 and CR 5 probably count as this. They may confer longer lifespans, with less effects from ageing, but they also increase the risk of certain cancers, and may leave the crew members mildly immunocompromised.
Boxed Crook: Most of the crew of the Courageous are convicts, coerced into signing up as cheap labour, once the ship reaches Hylara.
Closest Thing We Got: Most of the crew end up taking at least one role that they are only minimally suited for, simply by dint of being the best candidate that they have, especially in the early days, when there are less crew members. Even later, several of them mention that they are not really experts in the field they have been thrown into.
Conditioned to Accept Horror: The whole crew becomes depressingly relaxed about putting dead bodies into freezers for safekeeping. Aspen regularly Lampshades this.
Explosive Leash: The kill switches that the convict crew have installed.
Field Promotion: None of the colonists were supposed to be woken at all, now they're all awake and serving as emergency crew for the Courageous.
Free-Love Future: This seems to be par for the course, at least in some of the crew's cultures. Arborea, in particular, is not described as being a pair-bonding culture, and having multiple partners is apparently the norm there. Even within pair-bonding cultures, monogamy is not apparently a universal rule, with Lunaris having the idea "nosoking" (ie. no-strings-attached casual sex). Gender and/or sexual orientation also does not seem to be much of a factor, thanks to the Speculative Fiction LGBT nature of the setting.
Genetic Adaptation: The Arboreans are noted to have modified their colony's gene pool early on, notably with the DIVR geneset, which confers various advantages to people working in floating forests (as well as a citrus allergy, but you win some you lose some).
Got Volunteered: What happened to the convicts on the crew.
Longevity Treatment: Whether intentional or not, this is one of the effects of the CR 1 and CR 5 genetic modifications.
Mr. Exposition: Crew members trade off giving exposition, depending on whose specialty is most linked to whatever the current disaster is. They're all knowledgeable enough in their respective (very technical) fields that this feels natural.
Multinational Team: Though the majority of the crew are Texan, the main characters also include an Arborean, a Lunari, some Tarandrans and some Public Universal Friends (who are considered as nationless). The previous crew also definitely had at least one Japanese-speaker in Kinoshita Keiko.
Naked on Arrival: The colonists are naked upon their emergence from chronostasis. This doesn't pose many problems, thanks to...
No Nudity Taboo: Not explicitly stated, but Aspen has to remind themself early on that the Texans have a nudity taboo, which very much suggests that nudity is, if not an everyday thing, at least a normal, non-shocking thing for the non-Texans on the crew.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Most of the crew's scientists are forced to work in fields that are not their specialism.
Properly Paranoid: The crew members keep thinking of things that might go wrong on the ship. Due to the nature of the ship, this is not exactly un-realistic.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Half the crew are convicts and none of them expected to end up having to crew the Courageous.
Resurrection Sickness: Some of the crew are worse affected than others upon waking from chronostasis, but almost all of them are unwell for a while.
Science Hero: Our heroes are mostly scientists and engineers.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: The crew's actions and experiences have clearly taken a toll on them.
The Slow Path: The crew, once awakened, cannot be put back into chronostasis, meaning that they will have to be awake for the remaining five years of their journey to Hylara.
Speculative Fiction LGBT: Most of the crew, to some degree. Modern terms for sexual orientation don't seem to be a going concern any more, and a casual queerness appears to be the "default" for this period and setting, when it comes to sexual and romantic encounters. Also, an extra gender, brennan, exists in this world, using ke/kem pronouns, while Aspen goes by they/them, and the Public Universal Friend goes by it/its, though this is more of a religious thing and not necessarily a gender identity thing.
Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: For a crew of mostly convicts who weren't supposed to be manning the ship at all, they do a surprisingly good job of it. At least, given the circumstances.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: At times, especially once Keldin Sands becomes the Captain.
There Are No Therapists: A fact much bemoaned by Aspen, who would love there to be a real psychologist on board. To be fair, the official system does obviously value therapy, and the crew do what they can with what they've got - they've just not got the resources or ability to revive a qualified psychologist, so you end up with Aspen (a sociologist) and later Renn ( a proponent of Lyman Projects) as your best possible options.
Trauma Conga Line: The crew really go through the wringer.
True Companions: The crew - especially its first incarnation - are notably close, and very protective of each other.
Unfazed Everyman: Nobody seems to freak out upon being revived, despite the obviously unideal circumstances. Possibly justified due to the Javelin selection process weeding out the sort of person who would immediately freak out. Still impressive, though.
You Can't Go Home Again: Earth and Hylara are simply too far from each other - multiple lightyears - for communication, or any kind of return to be possible, especially once you factor in the time that the journey takes. Plus, it's incredibly dangerous to go into chronostasis more than once, meaning that the colonists, once they have arrived, have no practical way of making a return journey. And even if they did, by the time they arrived, all their loved ones would be long-since dead.

Aspen Greaves

The story's protagonist and narrator. The first colonist to be woken up as an emergency Captain for the Courageous (and every other role, at first).

The Aloner: They start the story completely alone, and spend quite a while hanging around the ship before reviving any other colonists.
Benevolent Boss: They seem pretty reasonable as acting Captain.
Blessed with Suck: Their DIVR geneset makes them the most likely candidate to survive and recover from revival. Unfortunately, this means they're the one landed with emergency command of the Courageous when everything goes wrong.
The Captain: They are made Captain upon their revival from chronostasis, and retain that position for quite some time.
Celebrity Is Overrated: They certainly don't seem to relish their status as "the Aspen Greaves" and react uncomfortably when people bring it up.
The Chains of Commanding: While serving as Captain, Aspen is the first to suggest that somebody better qualified be revived to take the helm. The weight of the decisions they are forced to make clearly takes a toll on them.
Closet Geek: Not a Zeelite, like Tal, but they have a common interest in pre-Neocambrian zombie movies, and pre-Neocambrian culture more generally.
Commonality Connection: With Tal, thanks to their shared interest in pre-Neocambrian culture. Also with Adin and the first Public Universal friend, both of whom have an Arborean background, even if they aren't fully Arborean themselves.
Constantly Curious: Even when not on the clock, they can frequently be found investigating the various mysteries around them onboard the Coruageous. Even when Sands points out that they simply need to reach Hylara, Aspen continues to investigate.
Crew of One: Aspen is the only crew member, filling all spaces in the crew roster, upon their revival.
Dark and Troubled Past: They (very) indirectly caused their sister's death, leading to a chain of events where they threatened the Javin programme's CEO with a knife.
Deadpan Snarker: It's subtle and very deadpan, but their narration absolutely has a snarky streak.
Determinator: Aspen is determined to explore the Courageous solo, including crossing the outside of the ship while still suffering from the aftereffects of chronostasis, and it takes breaking several bones to slow them down.
Due to the Dead: More than the other crew members, Aspen is careful about how they treat the dead onboard the Courageous. They preserve dead colonists' bodies in freezers, since they don't know what the colonists' final wishes for their bodies would have been, are the first to suggest holding a funeral for dead crew members, and even wish to preserve part of Captain Reimann's arm to memorialise him, upon the ship's arrival on Hylara. This may be linked to their Arborean background; Arborea, we learn, has a very specific funerary culture that involves butchering, consuming and preserving part of a loved one's body. Knowing they will never return to their cluster, Aspen even had a rib removed, in order to give their family something to bury.
Famed In-Story: Aspen can travel across tens of lightyears and a century of time; only to meet someone, be introduced, and get asked "are you the Aspen Greaves?''.
Family Theme Naming: All of the Greaves cluster, and potentially all Arboreans more generally, have plant names.
Fan of the Past: They're a big fan of pre-Neocambrian cultures.
Farm Boy: Arborea is an agricultural community, and all Arboreans are expected to help out.
Foil: To Sands, in a strange way. Certainly, their respective approaches to being Captain complement each other. While Sands is proactive, seeing his responsibility as primarily to the colonists, Aspen is more cautious, acting primarily to preserve the life and well-being of the crew. Sands even points this out - he values and relies on Aspen partially because of their differing approaches and strengths.
Green Thumb: They're good at gardening, thanks to their Arborean background.
Guilt Complex: They routinely seem to blame themselves for just about everything that goes wrong on the Courageous, both things it would be reasonable to blame themselves for, and things it wouldn't. And that's before getting into the guilt they have about everything that happened with Acacia...
The Heart: They are clearly the lynchpin that holds their original crew together.
Heartbroken Badass: They are clearly grieveing (and fleeing the consequences of) Acacia's death but they're still a badass.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Aspen is prone to self-criticism, largely tied to their guilt over Acacia's death as well as their sense that they are not cut out for the job thrust upon them by the ship's AI. Ironically, they are quick to nip this in the bud when other crew members such as Adin talk this way about themselves.
Honest Advisor: They play this role for Sands, and Sands explicitly consults them in order to get a different, honest perspective.
Humble Hero: They regularly are very humble about their own achievements, to a point that veers into Heroic Self-Deprecation.
Hypocrite: Their insistence that other crew members shouldn't blame themselves for deaths that happened on their watch contrasts with Aspen's own approach to Acacia's death.
I Let Gwen Stacy Die: They are haunted by the death of their sister, Acacia.
I'm a Humanitarian: A rare heroic and unproblematic example. Arborean funereal customs require this, a fact that Aspen knows not to mention around non-Arboreans. After the crew hold a funeral for dead former crew members, Aspen feels strange until they've eaten some meat from the stores, as a replacement.
It's All My Fault: They have a tendency to blame things on themselves, and see themselves as unforgiveable.
Jumped at the Call: Aspen's books suggest this as a mechanism driving migration, which they call the Exodus Phenomenon. In their own case, though, it's more complicated. They claim to have been "bitten by the bug" but in reality, their decision seems to have been influenced strongly by guilt and feelings of no longer belonging in Arborea after their sister's death.
The Leader: Even after they are no longer Captain, Aspen is still the de facto leader of the crew, and the one they turn to when making decisions.
Locked Out of the Loop: By the initial crew members, at least at first, regarding their status as convicts. They figure it out, eventually.
Made of Iron: Aspen recovers from chronostasis and seems to generally have a high tolerance for changes in pressure and oxygen, due to their DIVR geneset.
Major Injury Underreaction: Possibly justified thanks to future technologies such as "bone cement", but Aspen seems more irritated than anything when they break multiple ribs and their arm when trying to block off an air vent, early on in their Captaincy.
Moral Myopia: They have their blind spots. In particular, Sands and the Public Universal Friend both criticise them for their attachment to the revived crew and willingness to protect them at the expense of the "sleeping" colonists. Aspen also has some of this in their backstory; in particular, they are accused of having been naive for thinking that prison laborers encountered on their brief spell on Luna were any "freer" or "better off" than the convicts on the Courageous.
My Greatest Failure: Acacia's death, caused when Aspen persuaded her to attend a debate, even though she was thinking of stepping back from the spotlight. Aspen's security detail picked up on a threat and forced them to delay their travel to the event; afraid that Acacia would simply not attend, Aspen didn't warn their sister, who was caught up in the attack that followed.
Number Two: Once Captain Sands is revived. It should have been Tinera, going by rank, but this thankfully doesn't become a source of any major tension.
N-Word Privileges: Aspen describes themselves as a "dryad". When Sands tries to correct them, they tell him that they're allowed to use the word.
The Paranoiac: A tendency first seen when Aspen thinks that the crew are hiding something from them, and a paranoiac tendency continues to rear its head at various points thoroughout the story. To be fair, these seem to be a case of Aspen being Properly Paranoid, as the crew are initially hiding their status as convicts from their Captain. And more generally, there's no shortage of causes for paranoia onboard the Courageous.
The Professor: Not much is made of it, but as well as being a pop sociology author, Aspen was also a professor, in their past life.
Really Gets Around: Drifting in and out of sexual relationships seems to be the norm in Arborea, and Aspen is quick to suggest or accept offers of no-strings attached sex, which is always presented very casually in the narration. They sleep with Tinera, Adin and Tal, at the very least, and make an offer to Sands, only for him to reveal that he is married, and thus uninterested.
Relative Button: Don't mention Acacia's death around Aspen.
Rule of Symbolism: Whenever Aspen's gardening, expect some kind of low-key metaphor for how they see themselves. It's not made explicit, for example, but the dandelions' instinct for survival, mirrors Aspen's own drive to survive. Similarly, Aspen's activities when weeding mirror their careful management and "weeding out" of potentially dangerous views among crew members.
Sibling Yin-Yang: According to Aspen, they and Acacia played this up for publicity purposes. In reality, they apparently agreed on most points, but that didn't sell as many books or get as much press coverage.
Spell My Name with a "The": They are periodically described as "The Aspen Greaves", much to their distaste.
Super-Toughness: The DIVR geneset confers various advantages, including resistance to changes in pressure and temperature, and a quicker recovery from chronostasis.
They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Aspen rarely wishes to talk about their past, and in return refuses to snoop into their crewmates' pasts. They are quick to emphasis the "fresh start" nature of the colony - perhaps motivated by their poorly worked-through desire to escape their past, and in particular their guilt over Acacia's death.
Undying Loyalty: Aspen is very loyal to the initial crew members, going so far as to eject Chronostasis Ring 1 in order to save Denish's life, when he gets stuck there.
Unreliable Narrator: The story is presented from Aspen's point of view, complete with all of their blind spots and interpretative biases. In particular, there are occasions where they are either wrong about the nature of various inter-personal dynamics that exist onboard the Courageous - such as the fact that Sands doesn't hate the convicts, but is afraid of them, and just downplays this around Aspen, out of a sense of admiration.
Workaholic: Downplayed, but they seem to spend a lot of their free time working, or investigating the mysteries of the ship, and in particular seem prone to trying to work when they really should be resting up, medically.
You Are in Command Now: The whole premise, at the start, is that Aspen has been woken up and left in command of the Courageous.

The Public Universal Friend 2

A Public Universal Friend, initially revived to serve as Senior Medical Officer.

Adin Klees

A Texan, initially revived to serve as Senior Maintenance Officer.

Tinera Li Null

Tinara Li Null

A Lunari, initially revived to serve as Logistics Officer.

Denish Calhurn

A Texan, initially revived to serve as Senior Engineer.

Tal Smithson

A Texan, initially revived to serve as Senior Computer Technician.

Lina Chisholm

A Texan, initially revived to serve as an additional doctor, alongside the Public Universal Friend.

Keldin Sands

A Tarandran, initially revived to serve as Senior Engineer, as well as replacing Aspen as Captain.

Sam Sareff

A Texan, initially revived to serve as Senior Nevigator.

Sunset of Sirius

An inhabitant of a space elevator service colony, initially revived as an additional science officer.

Celi Tate

A passenger of unknown origin, initially revived as a new Senior Medical Officer.

Public Universal Friend 6

A Public Universal Friend, initially revived as a new Senior Maintenance Officer.

Renn Sunn

A Tarandran, initially revived as a new Senior Psychologist, replacing Aspen.

Heli Graf

A Texan, initially revived as a new Science Officer.

Second crew

The official crew of the Courageous who were assigned to be awake during the second half of the voyage to Hylara.

Posthumous Character: Aspen is awakened at the start of the story because there is no one left alive on board; therefore the one thing the readers know from the beginning is that the second crew are all dead. Though they didn't all die at the same time or for the same reasons.

Second Crew Members

Joshua Reimann

The Captain of the Courageous from the second crew, and a major factor in the current state of the ship.

An Arm and a Leg: He cut off his own arm to prevent the AI from tracking him by his ID chip
Ax-Crazy: Literally; after suffering a psychotic break he ran amok with an axe, destroying several ship components and beheading various sleepers.
Despair Event Horizon: He cracked after discovering that his secret lover, one of the sleeping colonists, had been taken over by the AI and would never awaken.

Lien of Cassius

Logistics Officer on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the front half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

Kinoshita Keiko

The Senior Psychologist on the second crew of the Courageous, and later Captain in the back half of the ship, after Reimann's breakdown.

Better to Die than Be Killed: Trapped after an accident, with no one awake on the ship who can help her, Keiko commits suicide by nitrogen asphyxiation rather than slowly starve.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As a lone woman survivor and psychologist forced into the role of 'Captain' where she struggled alone before meeting a terrible end, the reader's sympathies are originally with her until it turns out that she was directly complicit in the experiments on the Courageous, didn't care who died, and presented this false smile to her crewmates while 'counseling' them, which she wasn't qualified to do.
Dying Alone: As the only person left awake and alive in the back half of the ship.

Krysin Lemaine

An assistant psychologist on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the front half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

Holf Oglo

Senior Medical Officer on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the front half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

Leilea Arc Hess

An assistant engineer on the second crew of the Courageous, and the final survivor in the front half of the ship.

Sandra of Signus

Science Officer on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the front half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

Mohammed Aziz

An assistant science officer on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the back half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

Claire Rynn-Hatson

An assistant science officer on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the back half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

Ash Dornae

Senior Maintenance Offier on the second crew of the Courageous, trapped in the back half of the ship after the incident with Reimann.

First crew

The official crew of the Courageous who were assigned to be awake for the first half of the voyage to Hylara and then enter suspension.

First Crew Members

Sienna Kae Jin

Captain on the first crew of the Courageous.

Ovlo Astur

Senior Engineer on the first crew of the Courageous.

Ro Da-Bin

Assistant engineer on the first crew of the Courageous.

Richard Rynn-Hatson

Assistant engineer on the first crew of the Courageous.

Earl Harriet

Senior Medical Officer on the first crew of the Courageous.

Lex Maeryn

Gardener on the first crew of the Courageous.

Xanthe of Cassius

Senior Psychologist on the first crew of the Courageous.

Note Waveskimmer

Member of the first crew of the Courageous.

Others

"Amy"

AI of the Courageous. Not sentient, but sometimes acts as if it is. Possibly because it's stealing its charges' brains.

Dor Delphinum

A very rich man, and the backer of the Courageous' project.

Acacia Greaves

Aspen's sister. Killed some time before the story begins.

Fir Greaves

Aspen's sibling, an engineer on the Javelin Project.

Characters / Time to Orbit: Unknown

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