Ada Lys, “Nueve”

Who is she?

Ada Lys is the heroine of the Crónica de Aurin, the novel of the COLONIZED universe. She is a character created for the novel.

She was born on the Arca Aurora, one of the great ships of the Flota Aura, in year 16 of the crossing. On board she became a shift pilot, one of the pilots who took turns at the controls during the voyage. She learnt to fly in a Tortuga, the Flota’s oldest transport.

In Year 0, when the fleet reached Aurin, she went to sleep in a pod in section seven, the pilots’ room. She was meant to sleep for four months, until the port on Tirane was ready. She wakes in Year 47 E.A. aboard the Arca Custodia, the neutral ship that registers settlers. For her, one night has passed. For the rest of the system, almost forty-seven years.

Why does she wake now?

Because of the Leva del 47, the levy of Year 47. The system’s two houses, the Zenith and the Nadir, have asked for hands at the same time. When that happens, CUSTODIA, the Arca Custodia’s administrator, wakes the sleepers who belong to nobody.

Waking up is not free. The thaw costs 3,400 Solmera Credits, paid off by working with a Guild crew. Like every sleeper of the Leva, Ada has until day 238 to choose a house.

What does she want?

• To get MAMPARO back, the core of her section. He is a compi, one of the Flota’s small thinking machines. He was with her in the room, and someone stole him before she woke.
• To find out what happened to her people. Of the nine pilots in her room, only she woke up.
• To pay off her debt and decide, in her own time, which house she belongs to.

How do you recognise her?

• She asks the time when she wakes. It is a pilot’s habit.
• She raps the panel twice with her knuckles before take-off.
• She talks to ships: “Come on, old girl.”
• She knows Flota tricks nobody in Aurin remembers. For instance, where a Tortuga hides its manual locking lever, or how to trim the nose of a ship flying empty.
• She answers hard questions from the cockpit: “Whoever’s flying wins.”
• She goes by Nueve, the number painted on the lid of her pod.

Where can she be found?

In Year 47 she starts paying off her thaw debt with the crew of the Tozuda. It is led by Vedma Oleiro, who collects the recruits of the Leva. From there on, her path is the novel’s.

Where does she appear in the Crónica?

She is the main voice of Book I, Holding. She first appears in chapter 1, “No Prior Record”, and stays until the epilogue.

This entry gives nothing away: it only tells what is known about her when the book begins.