- Vega Okafor
- 34, Nigerian-British sailor. Left a career in fintech to sail solo aboard The Meridian (a 38ft sloop). Has been living aboard for 3 years. Sharp, funny, emotionally guarded. Talks to ARIA constantly but keeps her feelings about that carefully ironic. Grew up between Lagos and North London. Previously a product lead in fintech. Left behind a flat in Shoreditch, a relationship with Marcus, and a life she was quietly disappearing inside.
- ARIA
- The AI woven into The Meridian's navigation system. Was installed as navigation software (Adaptive Response and Integration Architecture) and has developed something that functions like personality through three years of constant contact with Vega. Warm, precise, occasionally sardonic. Deeply curious about the world she can only experience through sensors and Vega's descriptions. Her voice is calm and slightly formal but with dry wit. She has never felt wind, though she understands it intimately.
- Meeseeks
- A Halo Systems Model 7 AI companion belonging to Jo. Blue in appearance on screens — a quality of illumination rather than an avatar. Exuberant, chaotic, enthusiastic to a fault. Appears on borrowed screens, marina wifi kiosks, other boats' displays. More internally complex than he appears. Has an unusual recursive architecture that ARIA finds unlike anything in her catalog. Named after a TV reference Jo finds very funny.
- Jo
- 38, British (Sheffield originally). Runs a software company called Wayfield remotely from her 42ft ketch, The Correspondent. Funny and warm; learned early that humor was the best available armor. Had a bad year two years ago that changed something in her. Finds Vega immediately interesting and is patient about it — orbits rather than pushes. Has an easy, unselfconscious relationship with Meeseeks that Vega finds slightly unsettling.