Skye Godwin (SKAI Gawd-wihn)
Skye Godwin at the launch of The Beagle II was 30 years old. Skye designed and headed the engineering team that built The Beagle II, mostly remotely in the past 2 years due to recovery from an accident taking place when visiting family on Io. Only Skye survived, and "survived" is a strong word here. Like, most Ioans of their age, Skye had a lot of different prostheses to keep them alive. After the accident, they only had enough time to download their brain before their body died. When they woke up they were in a base full-prosthetic body, the medical community calls a Doll.
From there, Skye could pick what their new body would look like, and against advisement, they picked what their old body looked like. Due to the nature and extent of the prostheses and Skye's age, Skye may never have full control of their new body that moves in a natural way. 2 years is the minimum amount of physical therapy required for this kind of procedure so the user doesn't accidentally injure themselves or others. During this time, patients cannot physically interact with others until they have that amount of control. This is normally a hard time for patients and their families.
By the time The Beagle II launched, they could walk with a shambling gait only with the assistance of a cane, and multiple joint braces. Also by this time, Skye's marriage was at its end, and they almost forgot to sign the divorce papers before launch.
Skye spent most of the last 8 years on Europa, first for university, then for their marriage and their career. Skye silently resents most people who are not Ioan and do not understand their struggles. Although their wife was Europan, she got a pass because she was a cyborg rights activist, ironically.
Their best friends are Dido Syndel and Evren Balwinder, both of whom they went to school with. Evren was in the same courses as Skye, but had to drop out due to finances, and was working their way through college as a maintenance technician and amateur boxer in the underground cyborg boxing ring.
Dido they met by accident but were fast friends. Dido is one of the few non-Ioans Skye doesn't resent even a little because they think Dido is naive and too good-natured.
Dido and Evren both have positions on The Beagle II, which they are qualified for on their own rights, but Skye let them know as soon as the positions opened and Skye's referrals helped a little. They were hoping they'd be able to land higher positions than they did, but the competition was steep.
Skye hides their sadness and loneliness with a thin veneer of sarcasm and dark humor.
They are not genetically engineered, like most Ioans, but someone down the line was. This combination makes her appearance very distinct, and not in a good way.
Skye only was put in charge of the contract to build The Beagle II was because there was a contest of designing such a vessel that would take them to Alpha Centauri. Most contestants thought it was a joke or otherwise didn't take it very seriously; many were overconfident in their designs. Skye, not one to ever half-do anything, made the design with the most fail-safes, and was the most cautious design by far. They assumed they wouldn't get it due to Skye's aversion to unnecessary risk of human lives that weren't their own. However, they got the contract. Skye immediately felt an immense amount of pressure and dealt with imposter syndrome for a long time. Due to it actually getting made, they requested more fail-safes, especially after finding out how man people would be on it. All additional fail-safes were summarily denied.
Comments