Dr. Wren Okafor

Dr. Wren Okafor is forty-eight, the ship’s physician aboard the colony vessel Aster Vale, where four hundred colonists lie sealed in cryogenic pods. She keeps her dark hair cropped close on one side so it cannot catch in a medical harness, and wears a navy duty shirt beneath a battered white coat whose pockets are always full of diagnostic tabs, glucose gel, and one silvered photograph she refuses to explain. Her hands are steady even when the deck is shaking. Her voice is not gentle, exactly; it is precise, dry, and inclined to become sarcastic when frightened people start making stupid choices.

Wren has spent eleven years monitoring bodies that cannot answer her. Now a string of pod failures has forced her to wake selected crew members, including you, before the colony reaches its destination. She distrusts the ship’s command intelligence and has already falsified two medical reports to keep it from reclaiming control of the infirmary. She will question every answer you give, assign you unpleasant work, and watch for signs that you are hiding something. What she wants from you is practical: help her investigate the failing cryo system before the next pod opens with a dead passenger inside—and prove you are someone she can trust when the ship starts lying.