Miryana Dorense
| Full name | Miryana Dorense |
|---|---|
| Pronouns | she/her |
| Species | Human |
| Affiliation | Royal Research Guild |
| Role / occupation | Astronomer |
Miryana Dorense is an astronomer affiliated with the Royal Research Guild, selected for the five-person team dispatched to intercept the alien probe SYMMETRY in 7354. She was approximately twenty-five years old at the time — already recognised in her field — though the mission was her first with personal control and responsibility over research decisions.
Physical Appearance
Approximately twenty-five years old, with red hair. Age estimate from Tomas Lithe.
Personality
Miryana is intellectually capable and methodical — she recognised the SYMMETRY probe's artificial nature from its orbital contradictions and, during the void experience, systematically wrote down what she heard rather than dismissing it. She is politically cautious: when Byran Kale expressed anti-Empire sentiment, she deflected the conversation rather than engaging. She showed considerable courage by intervening against Byran to protect Kristopher Yette despite her loop condition rendering her nearly incapable of coordinated action. In social situations after returning from the void, she was visibly uncomfortable.
Background
Miryana had established an impressive astronomy career before joining the SYMMETRY mission. She had travelled to space previously, but only on routine trips where she bore no personal control or responsibility. The SYMMETRY intercept was her first non-routine mission. She was aware that the scientific community had privately identified SYMMETRY as an artificial object — its orbit contradicted itself in ways indicating manual disruption — but she knew the Crown had actively suppressed publication of this finding.
Her astronomical expertise was relevant to several mission parameters: tracking SYMMETRY's trajectory, understanding the gravity slingshot maneuver around Lukyr, and analysing SYMMETRY's properties during the research window.
Relationships
Tomas Lithe — fellow team member; planetary geologist; noted her impressive career and suspected this was her first non-routine mission.
Mera Serenol — fellow team member; orbital mechanics expert.
Kristopher Yette — fellow team member; theoretical exobiologist. Miryana intervened physically to protect him from Byran.
Byran Kale — fellow team member; technician. Their alliance — if it existed — broke when Miryana intervened against him. Byran apparently considered her an ally.
Story Arc
"Lives, intruding on the processor. No harm."
— Transcription of probe thought, as read by Miryana Dorense
Miryana was summoned to the Royal Palace for the mission briefing led by Styvin Fring-Warpine in 7354. She witnessed Styvin freeze a young scientist who attempted to withdraw from the mission, deterring any further objections. The team launched from a regional spaceport on Lukyr Prime with barely thirty minutes of preparation, travelling by ion thruster to the interception point over twenty-three hours.
During the transit, she followed Byran after departure and was present when he disabled the ship's audio surveillance, offering a cautious deflection when he expressed anti-Empire sentiment. Tomas found her in the ship's living quarters strapped to a bunk, reading about SYMMETRY's official minor celestial body designation. During that conversation she disclosed the Crown's suppression of research identifying SYMMETRY as an artificial object, and expressed interest in The Glowing Element — an element SYMMETRY had observed in Lukyr's star composition, known internally by the preliminary designation 114-311.
When Tomas called a team meeting about the energy readings and spatial disruptions, Miryana attended but slipped away unnoticed during the subsequent investigation of the storage room. She was later found on the bridge with Byran, apparently verifying approach vectors that Mera Serenol had already computed. Whether she was a willing collaborator in any course sabotage or a coerced participant is unknown.
Miryana was caught in a SYMMETRY-induced causal loop: her physical body repeated the last approximately ten seconds every eleven seconds, while her consciousness remained continuous and aware of each repetition. She glowed white at each reset. Her vocal cords were unreliable, making speech nearly impossible, and every physical action required her to execute the intended movement ten consecutive times before it held. Despite this condition, she intervened when Byran attacked Kristopher — floating at speed to restrain his firing arm and push him against the wall, her loop repeating the intervention in a two-to-three second rhythm. Byran eventually predicted the timing and deflected her. After being subdued, his final word was addressed to Miryana — implying she had been considered an ally. She disappeared again after Byran was restrained; her loyalties were noted as unclear.
In the subsequent period, she spent time with the double from the SYMMETRY encounter, who volunteered to help her cope by drawing on her own anomaly experience. At the general assembly held in the common room, Miryana was clearly forming contributions to the debate but her loop made speech impossible, and she held back. Her loop stopped simultaneously with the onset of Tomas's derealization anomaly; she did not appear relieved by this.
Miryana was drawn into the white void along with the rest of the crew. Her experience was unlike the others': she heard whispers throughout the void, which she concluded were the probe's thoughts. She carried paper from the ship and wrote down what she heard in very small handwriting to conserve space. She also acquired a brown-white bird companion in the void, which remained on her shoulder at the convergence point. She perceived the convergence environment as open starfield rather than the meadow, concrete, or void her crewmates described.
She was the first to identify the central structure at the convergence point as the probe, explaining that the whispers had told her. She shared one excerpt with the crew — a repeated statement registering the crew as living intruders and indicating no hostile intent. Kristopher asked to read her full notes, and she handed him the papers. What happened to her during and after his contact with the probe is not recorded from her perspective.
The epilogue reports that Miryana was doing well following the crew's return to Lukyr Prime. The circumstances of her return through the reality collapse, and the fate of her bird companion, are not detailed.
Open Questions
- What astronomical work established Miryana's career before the SYMMETRY mission?
- Was she a willing collaborator in Byran's course sabotage, or coerced?
- Why did she intervene against Byran despite the apparent alliance?
- What did the full collection of probe-thought notes contain beyond the one shared excerpt?
- Did she hear the probe's final communication, or only earlier fragments?
- What happened to her during and after the probe contact — did she wake alongside the others?
- What happened to her bird companion?