This describes the major characters in order of appearance. For a condensed chronological explanation of events, see the story recap page.

Juni Melrose

• Species: Kayohash ("spadetail")
• Gender: Neutrois
• Occupation: Science officer (Organeer, 1st class, specialization in physics), reporting directly to Tamu Haring
• First appearance: #1

Officer Juni Melrose is one of eight science officers who work for Tamu Haring. As a physicist it was primarily involved in making important decisions for keeping Unity running and its millions of occupants safe. However, due to various circumstances which are not entirely clear, its long-term declarative memory was suppressed (after a neural imprint was uploaded to a data node for the purposes of a forensic neurochemical simulation). While it has managed to recover a large portion of its memory (largely by accident), it is still trying to figure out its past, present, and future.

As a Kayohash, it has a sense of electric current (electroreception), which is uncommon among most species, and which most others mistake for an acute sense of hearing (including Juni itself when it was unaware of its own capabilities). Juni in particular also has a form of synesthesia which ties its electroreception with its senses of scent and language.

Juni is bilingual, speaking both Hiero and Kajoshi.

Liam Goldberg

• Species: Demekag
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Attending physician
• First appearance: #3

Doctor Goldberg was unlucky enough to be the attending physician on duty when Juni was brought to the hospital after it had a post-memory-suppression seizure. Due to the general secrecy surrounding the series of events, he has been kept almost entirely in the dark, and as Kayohash physiology is largely unknown to modern medical science (aside from being vaguely mammalian), Dr. Goldberg doesn't really have much to work with. His primary concern for Juni is that it works too hard.

Sam Roarke

• Species: Aikengyu
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Government agent, freelance body-guard
• First appearance: #6

Sam Roarke is perhaps Juni's oldest friend, from when they were in school as children. As they were both socially-awkward and gender-ambiguous, they hit it off very well. As an Aikengyu, he was born in a litter of four identical quadruplets; he is very close to his sister Cynthia (with whom he gets along very well), although he has more or less been shunned by the rest of his family.

Edward Lombard

• Species: Pitrid
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Peace officer, Captain 1st Class
• First appearance: #9

Edward Lombard ("Ed" to his friends and close associates) is Sam's superior officer. There is some question as to where his loyalties lie; apparently he is the one who attempted to kill Juni, and later had his subordinate officer Tanya Harris attempt to finish the job. Apparently he was also acting under orders from Juni itself. Modern relationships can be so confusing.

Kali Rosha

• Species: Cuttleslug
• Gender: Cyclic hermaphrodite
• Occupation: Journalist, Southern Daily Axis
• First appearance: #17

Kali Rosha is a somewhat-nosy and largely opportunistic journalist, with strong anti-oligarchy tendencies. Kali has been known to be helpful when faced with the possibility of a very juicy, exclusive story, as cuttleslugs thrive on moisture. Kali is pair-bonded with a spouse, Kila.

demiJuni

• Species: Neural simulation, Kayohash
• Occupation: Disembodied persona
• First appearance: #46, #97

In order to study Juni's mind, Tamu had a neural imprint taken and stored in a data node. Various simulations and experiments have been run off of this imprint, generally leading the simulated personality astray. One of these simulations managed to directly communicate with Juni's brain (via its electroreception), both awakening some of Juni's latent memories and adding some of its own. While it's unclear as to whether Juni itself was actually insane when the snapshot was taken, the simulation has certainly gone off the deep end, but then again, in its situation, wouldn't you?

There have actually been several instances of demiJuni, all spawned from the single brain scan approximately one round before Juni's post-suppression awakening. Most have ended up becoming corrupted (one in particular quite spectacularly after an encounter with the original Juni); the one launched shortly after an apparent assassination operated somewhat differently, thanks partially to actions completed by Lt. Sasha Tzernikov (under orders given by a pre-amnesia Juni).

The final incarnation of demiJuni would eventually learn to copy itself into various human computer systems; after a time, it renamed itself Zero, with its copies taking on monikers reflecting their order of activation. The best-known of these copies is Seventeen, who inhabits one of the robot drones in Kajoshu and serves as demJuni's eyes into Juni's childhood village.

Tamu Haring

• Species: Umago
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Oligarch, regent, experimental psychologist
• First appearance: #52

Tamu Haring is one of the members of the para-militaristic academic oligarchy which more or less comprises the de-facto government within Unity. As a representative of this governing body and specifically the dean of science, it is very important to him that people believe the same truth that he does. He has a tendency to experiment on others, but in his old age his experiments have gained greater consequences while being increasingly less-well-considered. He has also gotten rather paranoid about a possible governmental overthrow, which could be disastrous to the entire population of Unity.

Chandra/Kandra Corentin

• Species: Dromaiu
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Science officer (sociology/linguistics), reporting directly to Tamu Haring
• First appearance: #56

Chandra and Kandra Corentin are (fraternal) twin Dromaius, hatched from the same egg. One of them is autistic and non-functioning (and extremely clingy towards the other), whereas the other is not. They are inseparable, with one of them acting as the voice of both. Almost nobody is sure which is which, perhaps not even themselves. Their primary goal at the moment is to decipher the information repository the Kayohash found in order to better understand the world and its history.

The functional one has very little patience for the autistic one's antics, and has a tendency to pluck his feathers out in frustration. We all have to cope somehow.

subJuni

• Species: Subconscious whisper
• Gender: Neutrois
• Occupation: The back of Juni's mind
• First appearance: #61

Not really a separate character per se, this fabrication of Juni's subconscious is a result of its interaction with demiJuni — or perhaps they are memories which run deep below. It mostly appears in the glimmery space between sleep and waking.

Sasha Tzernikov

• Species: ,' ".~ (Campon)
• Gender: Worker
• Occupation: Science officer (Lieutenant, 3rd class, unspecialized), lab technician
• First appearance: #70

Sasha helps to run the equipment that Tamu needs for his experiments. As an arthropod, she has to speak through a translator which intercepts electrical impulses in her thorax and transmits the translation to all nearby data nodes; in this same way, Juni can understand her as well, albeit imprecisely.

Cynthia Roarke-Fanning

• Species: Aikengyu
• Gender: Female
• Occupation: School teacher (on maternity leave)
• First appearance: #79

One of Sam's littermates, Cynthia is the only family member who is still on good terms with him. She and Sam support each other rather a lot; he has been under a lot of stress with the ongoing Juni situation, and she has recently separated from her husband, leaving her to care of their pups.

Eugene Rumio

• Species: Kayohash
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Hunter
• First appearance: #104

Eugene was ostensibly hunting for food when he came across an unconscious Juni, who was apparently being attacked by what he thought were large bugs. Like most young Kayohash who still live in Kajoshu, he is a bit naïve, but certainly not stupid. Also like most Kajoshu Kayohash, he only speaks Kajoshi.

Hira Melrose

• Species: Kayohash
• Gender: Female
• Occupation: Broodwitch
• First appearance: #113

Hira is Juni's mother. As a broodwitch she tends to the other Kayohash eggs for the village, and also acts as a folk-remedy doctor of sorts and a spiritual adviser, and is the closest thing the village has to a leader. She is semi-fluent and mostly-literate in Hiero, although Juni never writes. The other villagers call her "Mother."

A broodwitch is expected to not breed with (and thus give preferential treatment to) any of the village males. As such, she had Juni via parthenogenesis. (And anyway she's "not into males.")

Tsan Rumio

• Species: Kayohash
• Gender: Female
• Occupation: Hunter, amateur explorer (deceased)
• First appearance: #116

Tsan Rumio liked to explore. She was the first Kayohash to find the Homin information repository, which she thought was a shrine for the communication with the dead due to the ghostly voices it put in her head. Somehow she managed to recruit other Kayohash to visit this "shrine." When the Southern government took the repository away, she and her followers committed suicide out of despair. She left behind a single child, Eugene.

Tanya Harris

• Species: Octona
• Gender: Female
• Occupation: Government agent, sniper, 1st class
• First appearance: #152

Agent Tanya Harris prefers to keep things as straight and to the point as the Coriolis force allows. If she intends to kill you, you won't get a second chance. As Ed Lombard's tactical support, she was responsible for firing the weapon which nearly missed Juni's head. She has some sort of what-passes-for-friendly rivalry with her fellow agent Sam Roarke.

Unity

• Species: Rama-type interstellar vessel
• Length: 400 kilometers
• Radius: 50×10³m
• Surface tangent velocity: 500m/s
• Centripetal acceleration: 5m/s²
• Forward velocity: 0.027c
• Propulsion/power source: Stellar-fragment hydrogen fusion replenished via ram scoop
• Age: ???

Built by the Homin, Unity is some sort of large interstellar vessel, designed to sustain a population for millions of years. So far it has been fulfilling that job quite nicely, even with the occasional minor asteroid impact. As most of its occupants have only ever seen the inside of this ship, they only have a vague notion of what's outside.