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#Character

Miryana Dorense

Miryana Dorense is an astronomer selected for the five-person research team to intercept SYMMETRY in 7354. A young red-haired woman (approximately 25 years old), she has already established an impressive career in astronomy — not just for her age. Despite her accomplishments, this is her first non-routine space mission with personal control and responsibility. Tomas suspects this is true for most of the team.

Appearance

Expertise

Astronomy — the study of celestial objects, space, and the universe. Critical expertise for:

Impressive career already established — despite her youth (~25), Miryana has achieved recognition in her field.

Experience

First non-routine space mission: Miryana has been to space before, but only on routine trips where she lacked personal control and responsibility.

The SYMMETRY intercept mission is her first where:

Tomas suspects most of the team shares this lack of non-routine mission experience — they are skilled scientists, but this is everyone's first encounter with the unknown.

Role

SYMMETRY intercept team member — one of five researchers selected by the Royal Research Guild to travel to space and study SYMMETRY during the 2-3 hour research window before it passes out of range.

Mission parameters:

Story Arc — SFL-TA

Year 7354 — SYMMETRY Intercept Mission

Palace roundtable (SFL-TA Chapter 3): Miryana was summoned to the Royal Palace for the mission briefing led by Styvin Fring-Warpine. When a young scientist attempted to withdraw, Styvin froze him in place — deterring anyone else from questioning the mission.

Launch: Miryana boarded the research ship with the team at the regional spaceport on Lukyr Prime. The ship launched with barely 30 minutes of preparation, using ion thrusters to reach the interception point in 23 hours.

This is her first space mission with personal control and responsibility — a sudden and intense introduction to non-routine work.

Zero gravity adjustment (SFL-TA Chapter 4): Miryana follows Byran Kale after departure and is present when he disables the ship's audio surveillance. She stammers uncomfortably when Byran expresses anti-Empire sentiment: "I mean, yea, but it's all in service of the, uh, Empire?"

Living quarters (SFL-TA Chapter 4): Tomas finds Miryana in the ship's living quarters, strapped to a bed to avoid floating in zero gravity, reading on a tablet. She's reading about "7354-9100" — SYMMETRY's official minor celestial body designation assigned by the broader scientific community.

Suppressed knowledge revealed: Miryana reveals a critical fact the Crown has hidden:

"People figured out [that it was intelligent design] alright. The Crown just didn't want people publishing it. It was pretty obvious to people taking closer looks, though, as its orbit contradicted itself in ways that clearly indicated manual disruption."

This confirms the scientific community had already identified SYMMETRY as an artificial object — but the government actively suppressed publication. The intercept mission is a response to something the Crown already knows and is keeping secret.

Interest in the Glowing Element: Miryana expresses she would have loved to see The Glowing Element in person, calling it "beautiful" based on photos. Tomas agrees it is beautiful but warns it's "unpredictable, and up to some really weird things." Tomas mentions its preliminary atomic designation: 114-311.

Misses gravity: Miryana jokes about missing gravity. When Tomas says "let's hope this mission is quick," she responds: "Let's not jinx it."

Quietly withdraws (SFL-TA Chapter 5): Miryana accompanies Tomas when he calls the team meeting about the energy readings and spatial disruptions. She is present for Byran Kale's outburst and subsequent departure. At some point during the storage room investigation, she leaves without anyone noticing — Tomas only realises she is gone later.

Found on the bridge (SFL-TA Chapter 6): Tomas finds Miryana on the bridge with Byran Kale, apparently working at the control consoles. They claim to be verifying approach vectors Mera Serenol already computed. Whether Miryana was a willing collaborator in Byran's course sabotage or a coerced participant is unknown.

Causal loop: Miryana is caught in a SYMMETRY-induced causal loop — her physical body repeats the last approximately 10 seconds every 11 seconds, while her consciousness is continuous and always aware of each repetition. She glows a bright white as each loop resets. Her vocal cords are not under reliable control, making coherent speech nearly impossible. Every physical action she takes requires extraordinary coordination — she must execute her intended movement ten times in succession before it stands uncorrected.

Intervention against Byran: Despite her condition, Miryana intervenes when Byran Kale attacks Kristopher Yette: she floats at high speed and grabs him, attempting to restrain his firing arm and push him against the wall. Her loops cause this intervention to repeat in a 2-3 second rhythm. Byran — initially equally disturbed by the phenomenon — eventually predicts the timing and deflects her. After being stunned, Byran's final word is "Why?" addressed to Miryana — implying he considered her an ally and was betrayed by her intervention.

She disappears again after Byran is restrained. The double notes: "We still don't know where her loyalties lie."

Chapter 7 — Derealization:

Talks with the double: While Tomas and Mera go to the common room, the double volunteers to stay with Miryana in the crew quarters — offering to help her cope, drawing on her own anomaly experience. Miryana appears to have accepted this arrangement. When the crew arrives at the common room for the general assembly, Miryana and the double are already there, talking quietly. Miryana is very uncomfortable.

General assembly — muted presence: During the SYMMETRY strategy debate, Miryana clearly wants to contribute — a thought is visible on her face — but her loop makes speech impossible (words repeat ten times alongside her body). She holds back, allowing others to speak.

Loop stops during Tomas's anomaly: When Tomas's derealization anomaly begins, the entire crew freezes — and Miryana's causal loop stops simultaneously. She is still, like the others, eyes tracking Tomas. She does not appear glad that the loop ended; whether this is because the anomaly is frightening in a different way, or because stopping the loop had some unpleasant effect, is unknown.

Chapter 8 — The void and the probe's thoughts:

Miryana was also drawn into the white void. Her experience was the most unusual of the four: she did not encounter cities or natural landscapes but heard whispers throughout the void, which she eventually 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 acquired a brown-white bird companion during the void, which sits on her shoulder and looks at everyone with curiosity at the reunion.

At the convergence point, Miryana perceives the environment as space — an open starfield — not the meadow, concrete, or void that her crewmates see.

She is the first to identify the central structure as the probe. When Kristopher Yette asks how she knows, she explains the probe-thought whispers. She shares one excerpt: "Lives, intruding on the processor. No harm. Lives, intruding on the processor. No harm…" Her interpretation: the probe recognises the crew as living intruders but is not hostile. Kristopher asks to read the full document; she hands him the papers.

What happens to Miryana during and after Kristopher's contact with the probe is not shown from her perspective.

SFL-TA Chapter 9 — Epilogue

Current status: Miryana is reported to be doing well after the crew's return to Lukyr Prime. What happened to her during the reality collapse and how she returned to Prime is not detailed. The fate of her bird companion is also unknown.

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.

Byran Kale — fellow team member; technician specializing in spaceship maintenance.

Open Questions

  1. What astronomical research has Miryana done to establish her impressive career?
  2. Was Miryana a willing collaborator in Byran's course sabotage, or was she coerced?
  3. Why did she intervene against Byran despite apparently being his ally?
  4. What was in the full collection of probe-thought notes she wrote down? Only one excerpt was read aloud.
  5. Did she hear the probe's final communication ("Forgive me" / "I am all that exists in two halves") — or only earlier fragments?
  6. What happened to Miryana during and after the probe contact? Did she wake beside the others?
  7. What happened to her unnamed bird companion?

Sources

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