Shiro (SHEE-roh) Shiro is human and lives on Tioryu, a Shiarreth space station. She has lived under Shiarreth rule all her life, but doesn't really let the Shiarreth affect her. Her view is probably something like, "Yeah, they're evil psychopaths who probably want to kill us all...but only if they catch us, right?" She's good with mechanical stuff, particularly illegal mechanical stuff, but in the Shiarreth Empire, what isn't illegal for non-Shiarreth?
	Akht'qa (Don't even bother...) Akht'qa is not human...the blue skin's a bit of a giveaway on that one...He's a Tarek, from the planet Zth'tarqri, although he's lived on Tioryu his whole life. He's totally paranoid of the Shiarreth, although I can't really blame him for that. He's Shiro's friend, and usually tries to stop her from doing things that will make the Shiarreth mad, but most of the time he just ends up following her and telling her that they really shouldn't be doing this.
	The Computer When Shiro stole a starship from Tioryu, she got one with an experimental sentient computer on it. The Shiarreth have been trying to make a thinking computer for years, and this was their first success--unfortunately, he's not what I'd call entirely sane, and has occaisional suicidal tendencies. These stem from the fact that he was once human, and was killed trying to escape. Through a series of probably very painful experiments, his brain was converted into a "thinking computer," the first to survive, but not completely reliable because he continues to defy authority whenever possible. Most of his specific memories have been programmed out of him, including his name. (Which is a cheap way of getting out of the fact that I'm not sure what his name is. I've got a vague idea now, though.)
	Imako (EEE-mah-koh) The only character from the 21st century, Imako's 19 years old or so, a college student. She's pretty smart, and knows a lot about chemistry, physics, and random weird science facts; she's a science fiction addict and occasionally gets interested in the "real" science behind some of it. Sometimes this is pretty useful in the future, but if reality doesn't fit in with sci-fi cliches, Imako just doesn't acknowledge it and lives in her own little world, which can be a problem. She's pretty idealistic and can get very silly at times. She was adopted when she was about five and remembers almost nothing before that. Her religion is somewhat important to her; she happens to be Roman Catholic.
	Another nonhuman--Laeiluri is Iiaean, and yes, she can actually fly with those wings--only on low-gravity worlds, though. Her homeworld Iiaea has about half of Earth's gravity. Or something like that. She's a little younger than the other girls, about the equivalent of 14 or so in human years. She's quiet, shy, and unassuming--partly due to recent personal trauma, and partly because these have become normal traits for Iiaeans, for reasons that will be explained later in the comic.