Rachel Lucas

Picture by well\_dipper

### Particularities

Has an elaborate, braided & teased mohawk. Wears clothes tight-fitting enough they're not gonna catch on anything but loose enough to hide weapons.

## Quotes

### Quote #3

I’ve been with more than one pack. The only person you have to stick to is yourself. Everyone else will let you down or die.

## Background

Rachel Lucas, despite her instinctive bio-psionic healing ability and pistol skill, spends her days at planet Duranga's Cortex Cantina, drinking, and gambling, and talking with Mike, who is really annoying. That's because Deckard, her husband, is leery to have her on runs to the nearby Graveyard, where he procures weapons: it attracts all kinds of spirates ... like all of Duranga itself, to be honest.

Rachel steadfastly denies that she is psionic, even in the face of evidence such as Blue's insistent remarks on Echo Spot, and claims that it doesn’t matter anyway. She finally confides to Ludwig Van Pelt, who has also been ostracized for having similar abilities, that *It just happens*, and the reason she is uncomfortable saying she is psionic is that her family is not comfortable about psionics.

## First encounter

Rachel Lucas was drinking, and playing cards, and winning, in her regular haunt, when a group led by a human and a 7-foot tall red alien came to her looking for a weapons expert. She was ready to lead them to Deckard when a handful of members of the local gang known as Vermilion Vipers approached and started a shootout.

This was not the first time she was involved in a fight in her bar. She hopped behind the bar, from where she agreed with the bartender to intervene in exchange for another clean tab.

## Crew member

Rachel joins, for a fee, the crew of the Bat'leth to help them retrieve two weapons for Tsarin. She brings her skills at spotting *danger!* while dual-wielding a torch and a pistol, and at firing the latter when necessary. She is also a natural leader, a co-captain who talks at least some sense into Kika and Theea, at least some of the time.

Rachel has to stay on the ship when it pays an urgent visit to the Andartan fleet and immediately afterwards proceeds to rescue Conrad from a slavers' ship. She shows real leadership in organizing shelter and managing supplies during the time the twenty-odd freed slaves spend on board the Bat'leth. When she finally lands on Duranga again and reunites with husband Deckard, she is back on the Bat'leth after only two days. She gives no explanations but asks Theea to send a message in which she only says she is sorry to undisclosed recipients.

When Conrad asks if they are going to drop Rachel, who has been crying and drinking and singing really badly since her return from Duranga, somewhere, Theea answers that: *She basically took over my room and she's definitely staying with us for a little while. She has a good head on her shoulders but she's really bossy, so watch out for that*.

With time, Rachel becomes slightly more open about her psionic abilities, healing her crewmates, the slaves they saved and even Tsarin.

Days after meeting her, Conrad wonders whether Rachel (who is not present) hates him. Theea's answer:

> *I think Rachel has a distaste for just about everybody.*
>
>

## Why Rachel left Duranga after her return

On the possibly one-way trip to the Pramissan sector, Rachel tells Xe'anna why she unexpectedly left Duranga so soon after her return.

Her family didn't approve of her marriage with Deckard because they had intended an arranged marriage for her. Deckard had a wife before Rachel, and a kid. The kid was a psionic, remained untrained and eventually torched: Deckard had to stop him.

When Rachel returned and Deckard found out that she was a psionic too ... Rachel breaks down, crying on Xe'anna's shoulder. When she stops, she just says: *I'm sorry*. She's sorry because *Any second, I could just go off [...] I could kill all of you.*

## Manning the guns on Tsarin

When Tsarin reaches the Pramissan sector, Rachel understands that, to be of any use in the upcoming battles, she will need the same bond with the ship her crewmates already have.

She asks Ary to *just do the thing*; acquires a nice tattoo on the sides of her head that makes her look badass in the process; and "gets" the guns' neural interface.

She doesn't use her new capability to reach out to the others, on the contrary, she *definitely shuts down the doors with iron bars*. Whatever she may think, she states that *It's not a big deal, OK*.

And thus, in Conrad's terms, *A new instrument joins our orchestra.*

## Space TV tastes

*Rachel has a soft spot for romance soap opera kind of shows*, such as *Tritium Days of Our Lives*. She is discreet anout it though: When she gets Oxana to play an episode for her, she wants to be sure nobody will know.

## A cool tattoo

After seeing Ary's tendril randomly color-wave in her sleep, Rachel stares at the tattoo on her head in a mirror, and her brain uses telekinesis to move it, instinctively.

She starts making cool designs in her mohawk: *It's great*. She also moves the glow into her irises, which will make her vision a little funky, especially at night. At any rate, Rachel would move it if she were trying to sneak.

## Notes

1. ↑ See Ep 15.
2. ↑ See Ep 19.
3. ↑ See Ep 22.
4. ↑ And, very probably, cheating.
5. ↑ *X-Files*-like.
6. ↑ See Ep 16 and Ep 17.
7. ↑ See Ep 24 to Ep 27.
8. ↑ See Ep 27.
9. ↑ See Ep 24 to Ep 28.
10. ↑ See Ep 29.
11. ↑ See Ep 29. There was another reason too: Bluejay becoming a permanent member of the cast.
12. ↑ See Ep 29.
13. ↑ *NftE*: @ImpInMyHead, in chat, came up with this very à-propos show: *So You Think You Have Psionic Talent?*
14. ↑ See Ep 30.
15. ↑ See Ep 30.