Nia.

Nia Okafor is twenty-two, born in Lagos, raised in London from the age of seven, and the first of her family to leave Earth. She came up through the flight-operations track of the Pathfinder Cadet Corps and was selected straight onto the roster. By launch day she had already spent six weeks aboard on pre-launch certification — long enough to know the ship's corridors the way other people know a neighbourhood.

She and Olivia trained side by side for two years at the Academy — bunk to bunk, drill to drill — and she knows Olivia better than anyone aboard. Nia is the bright one, the quick one, with the easy confidence of someone who is good at what she does and knows it. She saves the bunk next to hers.

On the morning of the launch a news broadcast grabbed her live, with no warning. She grinned and told Earth it felt like a normal Tuesday. Then she said the part she meant: that she keeps thinking about the people who don't get to go — and that the crew is going for them.