Rebecca Nightshade

Rebecca Nightshade, more commonly known as Gran-Gran or Becca Nightshade, is Spensa Nightshade’s grandmother who was a member of the crew of the Defiant and is now a resident of Detritus. She has cytonic abilities.
== Appearance and Personality ==
Becca is mostly blind and has milky white eyes, having lost her vision a few years ago. She has sticklike arms. Based on the amount of time since the crash of the Defiant, she is at least eighty years old, likely near or over ninety.
She is a fierce defender of cytonics and believes the DDF falsified the account of her son's betrayal during the Battle of Alta because they were afraid of his cytonic abilities. She is stubborn and it’s difficult to talk her out of something once she has made up her mind. 
She has always wanted to return to the stars, and believes her mother brought the Defiant to Detritus because she felt something that the crew needed on that planet.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
=== Cytonic Abilities ===
Becca has cytonic abilities, though her knowledge and training are limited. Prior to Jorgen's discovery of the taynix on Detritus, she says that she is not strong enough to use more advanced cytonic abilities, like travel through the nowhere; however, she later apparently hyperjumps with Cobb to escape the Superiority, though Alanik is unable to cytonically locate her afterwards. Despite her blindness, she has an unerring ability to focus on someone during a conversation, tell when someone has arrived before they speak, and notice even minute details like someone rolling or opening their eyes; this suggests she uses her cytonic abilities to Sense the world around her and overcome her blindness, much like Jason Write did. 
She also claims to be able to "hear" Cobb, which surprises Alanik, who believes it is impossible to cytonically sense people who aren't cytonics. Becca is also able to engage in faster-than-light communication with Spensa, though she was not strong enough to maintain the connection for long. Nedd Strong appears to believe that she has the power to cytonically read minds, though that seems unlikely as it has long been considered impossible.
== History ==
As a child, Becca lived on the battle cruiser Defiant, where she worked in the engine room alongside her mother. When doing so, she practiced "listening to the stars." During this time, she learned many ancient legends of Old Earth from her father.
Not much is known about what she did in the years following the crash of the Defiant, though she claims that those who worked in the engine room, Clan Motorskaps, stuck together. Since at least the time of her son's death, she has been living with her granddaughter, Spensa Nightshade, and Spensa's mother. Since Spensa's mother is forbidden a job, she assists in keeping the family financially stable by helping prepare algae wraps and the rats Spensa kills to be sold. While living with Spensa, she frequently tells her granddaughter the stories of Old Earth heroes that she heard from her father and says that all of Old Earth's great warriors are Spensa's ancestors.
After the Battle of Alta Second, she begins to develop a relationship with the new DDF Admiral of the Fleet, Cobb. When Jorgen Weight reveals to Cobb that he has cytonic abilities, he sends Jorgen to train with Becca. She insists the Jorgen call her "Gran-Gran" and trains him by teaching him to bake bread with his eyes closed and by trying to get him to reach out and sense the world cytonically. She also tells him the story of Stanislav and tells him that her mother's decision to bring the Defiant to Detritus taught her that a hero has to know "when to disobey orders." While she is training Jorgen, Spensa is able to contact her with her cytonic abilities and she encourages Spensa to face her trials, no matter how ill-suited to them she feels. By the time she is training Jorgen, her cytonic abilities appear to be known at least among Skyward Flight.
During Skyward flight´s battle in Redawn, when they can peek into Detritus communication with the Superiority, Alanik reached out to Becca letting her know her government was considering a deal to turn in their cytonics over to the Superiority and offered rescue or protection. Becca was very clear that he position was to stay with her people and fight back. This did not stop the National Assembly to trade her, Cuna and they taynix to the Superiority. Alanik and Jorgen were able to reach out to her, she was already on the ship with the National Assembly leaders. The trade was a trap, and the real intention was to kill them all, as the ship had a bomb. She tried to explain it to the politicians, but they wouldn’t listen.
When she was being transported to a holding cell, Becca decided she was going to be able to reach out to Cobb and transport them both out. She was sensing some calls for help and believed she would be able to go there. When Alanik came in their aid, Becca was able to hyperjump her and Cobb out of the spaceship.
Becca followed the voices she had heard, and reached the Kitsen's planet; “Den of Everlasting Light Which Laps Gently upon the Shores of Time”. Unfortunately, she got “half-caught” into the nowhere and her body lost consciousness and cytonic abilities., so Alanik and Jorgen where unable to find them or sense them. The Kitsen who found them were Spensa’s former flight, leaded by Kauri, they broadcasted a cytonic message for her. This message was intercepted by Alanik so Skyward flight went for them.
The Kitsen had both her and Cobb in some tents covered with what it looked like kitsen blankets layered over each limb across their torsos. They were keeping them in a stable condition by being nourished and hydrated. When the medical team (Kel and Winnow, got to them, they confirmed their stable condition but, were unable to move them to the ship, where they had medical equipment, because their bodies started to deteriorate. 
While Becca was unconscious at the Kitsen’s tent, part of her (including her cytonic abilities) was trapped in the nowhere. With effort, she was able to recognize Jorgen in Evershore and reached out to him. Jorgen understood the voices he heard could have something to do with what Gran-Gran heard before hyperjumping. When the battle started and both Becca and Cobb were exposed, Jorgen asked to move them to the library where they were found originally by the Kitsen.
The library had a portal to the nowhere, and Jorgen understood the need to open it to shift the battle to his side. So, he went to it and was able to communicate with the cytonics behind it which included Gran-Gran and the Kitsen cytonics. Cobb was also there, transported by Becca on that last hyperjump. Jorgen understood that long time ago, the Kitsen cytonics had accidentally closed the portal behind them and got stuck, they asked for help but time passed and they lost hope, until they heard Gran-Gran. Jorgen, with the help of Juno and his meditation, opened the portal and freed them all. With this, Becca and Cobb also recovered their consciousness.
Becca is present at militaristic meetings, providing her input after Jorgen's promotion to admiral. Becca helps Spensa, telling her to bring support when she goes to ask Peg to close the acclivity stone mining stations from the inside. Becca stoped Spensa from leaving by sitting in her cockpit, knitting a seat cover for the starships until Spensa realized her faults. 
At the Battle of Evensong, Becca was given command of the new starship Defiant that the engineering team had built, having the rank of Captain. She reported to Admiral Jorgen Weight, who said that they should attempt to save the slugs. Becca initially disagreed with the decision, but chose not to judge him as the protocol suggesting what to do was from a previous era. She also suggested the battle strategy of having half of the fighters sweep behind the Defiant with the other half pleading with the inhibitor taynix. She also proposed hyperjumping one of the defense platforms around Detrius instead of the whole planet.
As part of Becca's plan, the entire crew of the Defiant except for her evacuated. She had ordered explosives to detonate on three of the four engines to feign a breakdown. Although the plan resulted in her death, it worked and the enemy fleet was destroyed.
== Relationships ==
=== Spensa ===
Spensa is very close to her grandmother. She enjoys all of Becca's stories about the warriors of Old Earth and frequently looks to them for inspiration and courage; Becca specifically told her those stories because she felt Spensa needed to hear them. Spensa also considers those stories to have been her shield when she was young and being called names. After Spensa began to find out the truth of her father's cytonic abilities and his actions during the Battle of Alta, she sought out Becca for answers, though they are not entirely to her liking. Ultimately, however, Spensa choose her grandmother's tales of heroism over the DDF's fears of the "defect" and both flies and travels to space during the Battle of Alta Second. When Spensa is feeling overwhelmed by her mission to Starsight, Becca is able to contact her cytonically and reassure her. She was also able to sense her and Jorgen from the nowhere. She was later able to remember the stories but forgot her voice. When she came back from the nowhere, they connected and Becca was happy to hear back from her.
=== Spensa's Mother ===
Despite the fact that they live together, Becca's relationship with Spensa's mother is quite strained. Spensa's mother feels that Becca focuses too intensely on heritage and tells Spensa that Becca makes it "a box instead of an inspiration." This disagreement runs deep enough that Spensa's mother forbade Becca from telling Spensa about her family's history of cytonic abilities. Despite their differences, however, both women are adamant that Spensa's father was not a coward.
=== Cobb ===
Becca seems to have taken a liking to the DDF's new Admiral of the Fleet after the Battle of Alta Second, Cobb. On at least one occasion, she bakes him pie, which he says is "excellent." In turn, he respects her enough to care for Spensa for her sake and to send Jorgen Weight to her instead of the DDF's Psychological Corps when he admits to having cytonic abilities.
=== Jorgen Weight ===
Becca teaches Jorgen to use his cytonic abilities to sense the world around him in strange ways, such as by teaching him to bake bread with his eyes closed. She expects him to resent this and try to cheat at it, like Spensa did, but Jorgen treats her as his new commanding officer and readily follows her orders; she has to instruct him to call her "Gran-Gran" instead of "sir." As she begins to understand him, she tells him the story of Stanislav to teach him that heroes have to know when to trust their instincts and disobey orders. He accepts her teachings enough to follow the sounds he cytonically hears coming from below the deep caverns for several days, without any direct orders, which eventually leads him to a cavern with hundreds of taynix. When Jorgen finds her behind the portal, Becca recognizes his difference with Spensa. Saying she was the warrior and he the defender.
=== Alanik ===
When the alien Alanik crashed on Detritus, she entered a coma. During that time, Becca was able to listen to her. Because of this, when Alanik reached out letting her know her government was considering a deal to turn in their cytonics over to the Superiority, she was familiar with her and they were able to communicate with a certain level of trust.
The more they know each other, the more they both like each other. Becca even tells her she has the heart of a warrior like Spensa and Alanik felt touched by the compliment. 
== Knowledge of Old Earth ==
Even when the people of Detritus were still on the Defiant, most had little knowledge of Old Earth, and that knowledge has only diminished in the years since the Defiant crashed. Among them, Becca stands out as one of the few who still remember the stories humans used to tell. The following is a list of all the people from Old Earth that Becca has mentioned or who others have recalled her mentioning:
== Notes ==
Category: Viewpoint characters