Karina Mulroney

Subject (or possibly victim) of an experimental cost-cutting initiative by the National Astronomical Voyage/Exploration League. Selected for having few living family members and a minimum of other personal connections, Karina was told she would be testing an experimental new type of ship’s computer but was misled somewhat regarding the exact details. The short version is that now, her disembodied head has been installed in a starship as its main CPU and its crew is a horde of ambulant units cloned from her DNA and physically re-engineered depending on their purpose. Since there’s only one actual crew member they only have to pay one salary, and Karina can be fed an inexpensive nutrient sludge as the ambulant units can’t actually taste. Though she tries to make the best of her situation since there’s no way to reverse it, she’s most certainly not actually happy about it, and NAVEL’s main concern right now is keeping her from noticing she is now, for all intents and purposes, literally an armed starship and can leave with their investment anytime she likes (which she is more or less always on the verge of; even when she was just a simple engineering major she had issues with their politics and being on the inside has only exacerbated them).

Pictured here are Karina with the exterior of the spaceship and the three core unit variants; the default, unmodified clone or “clerical” unit, the miniaturized “maintenance” unit, and the “supply” unit, given increased size and muscle mass for heavy lifting. She has a database of other, rather more exotic and specialized models that can be engineered as required. The color of the right shoulder on the uniforms the ambulant units wear is a rank indicator; since Karina was a civilian volunteer, green was introduced especially for her.

Category: 2012, Scifi, WTF