Ruth

### Relatives

Lord va’Rin (uncle in law)Milly (aunt in law)Lady Sa’rin (mother in law)Lord Va’rin and Milly’ three children (cousins)

## Physical Appearance

### Build

Slim

Ruth is a main character of Corsairs: Straik and mated to Straik. She first introduced in Corsairs: Adiron and is one of four people awake on The Buoyant Star.

## Appearance

She is described by Jade as looking like an "old school" goth. She is tall with long legs and long back hair. She has moonlit eyes, a narrow chin and a square face

## Personality

She is cranky, but smart and good with her hands. She has a tendency to declare she hates everything. She has a very strong sweet tooth and loves coffee with lots of sweeteners. Ruth and Straik’s personalities very much mirror each other; making them a perfect match of strong wills and quick wits

## History

### Cloning

Ruth is an illegal human clone created from an outlawed process called host-cloning, the process in which the original host would be killed in the removal of brain tissue and biological matter in order to make multiple replications. People created through this process often don’t realize they’re clones and tend to have memory gaps since the brain tissue used to clone them will have only parts of the host’s memories. Ruth, in particular; has many memory gaps such as knowing general things like baseball and hotdogs but not remembering her mother’s name or what she did for a living. Ruth was designed to be a breeding slave; her genetics slightly altered to allow inter-species pregnancies. Ruth wasn’t the only clone, Ruthie was also created with the same process; suffering with memory gaps as well. Sometime after her cloning, Ruth was put aboard a cargo ship named The Buoyant Star along with over 160 other slaves and clones in stasis sleep.

### The Buoyant Star

Ruth was awakened from stasis along with three other women by szzt pirates who committed a mutiny aboard *The Star* in order to “amuse the crew.” Some time after Ruth was awakened, another mutiny broke out between the pirates, splitting the crew in half. Most of the pirates snuck out of the ship in the middle of the night with 20 stasis pods while the two remaining crewmen abandoned ship in fear of the other pirates coming back or being caught by authorities; leaving behind the four women and the remaining 132 sleeping people stranded.

### Corsairs: Adiron

Ruth, Jade, Alice and Helen spent three years aboard *The Star* figuring out how some of it worked. They survived by bringing in cruiser ships to board them by sending out a distress beacon, putting on “slave” outfits to get their targets guards down, locking their victims in a room while filling it with gas that causes temporary memory loss, stripping the cruisers of any supplies and then sending their victims back into space. When *The Darkened Eye* finds them with the beacon the women sent out, they try the same trick on Straik, Kaspar and Adiron. Their plan goes well until the end when an electric current sent out by the other ship knocks the women out cold and their all taken prisoner. Aboard *The Eye,* the women are interrogated individually. Ruth gets interrogated by Straik, but she remains silent the whole time. Helen ends up telling the whole story. While Straik and the Va Sithai brothers try to figure out what to do about the women and the people in stasis. Ruth and the women ask if they could return to their ship in order to discuss their options and then give their answer in the morning. The men agree with Adiron accompanying them as their “hostage” to insure there’s no distrust. During the night, Ruth snuck aboard *The Eye* to spy on Straik. While Ruth was hiding in the ducts of the ship, Straik decided to go talk to his uncle about what to do about his situation. He ends leaving the brothers and the women behind and taking off for Risda III, unbeknownst to him that Ruth was still on board his ship.

### **Corsairs: Straik**

Ruth spends a week hiding inside Straik’s ducts. She gets help from one of the a’anni clones named Dopekh who becomes a good friend to her but also has a strong loyalty to Straik; conflicting him greatly. While Straik leaves his private quarters, Ruth sneaks in to sabotage his clothing and decides to take a bath due to being in the dirty ducts for a whole week. Straik catches her taking a bath and a confrontation takes place between the two with Ruth stabbing him in the shoulder and Straik handcuffing her to his bed; getting head butted during the process. Ruth then gets interrogated by Straik who believes her trying to start a mutiny against him and wants to know who else is behind it. She reveals nothing, even when he turns down the heat and eats in front of her in order to break her defiance. His methods bear no fruit since Ruth isn’t leading a mutiny and has no information to give him. The next day, she decides to lie to Straik by telling him she snuck on board because she and Dopekh are in love; covering up the fact that Dopekh is actually gay. This false information doesn’t fool Straik, but he decides to try a new tactic of getting her guard down by gaining her trust through food and drinks. During the interrogation, Straik’s mother tries to video call him. Ruth is hidden in Straik’s closet during the call and hears the whole thing. She hears Lady sa’Rin tell her son to hide the evidence of the family’s ties to illegal slave trading and cloning by killing everyone *The Star.* Straik refuses to do so, stating he doesn’t kill innocent people. This statement allows Ruth to trust him a little and the two form an uneasy truce as well as an attraction to each other.

Ruth and Straik continue their confrontation/flirtations the next day, Ruth even fixes Straik’s patchy haircut. The two get more attracted to each other while still keeping their guards up. While waiting for Lord va’Rin to respond to his calls, the ship gets attacked by assassins hired by Straik’s mother, causing the ship to flee into deep space.

While in hiding for the next few days, Ruth and Straik’s relationship begins to blossom. Straik even brings her along on Prefalon Space Station during a refueling errand when she begs to go with him; disguising her as a “naughty” slave while buying her new clothes and sweets, the two grow even closer. After the ship leaves the station, Ruth eats a box of sweets lined with poison sent by Lady sa’Rin. She becomes gravely ill from the affects and slips in.and out of consciousness for a week. When she finally starts to recover, Straik goes after the pirates who slipped her the poison; pleasing an equally vengeful Ruth. The turn of events makes both Ruth and Straik realize their love for each other. When Ruth is well enough, Straik takes her for a short vacation to the beach planet; Jirri IV, and the two consummate their love and legally marry.

After three months on Jirri IV, Ruth and Straik return to Prefalon; discovering a woman named Ruthie who is the spitting image of Ruth. With the possibility of either being a clone of the other, Ruth is sent into a state of despair after learning of Ruthie’s existence and doubts whether she’s a real person. After being reassured by Straik that his feelings for her has remained the same and after spending some time with Ruthie, both women decide to figure out who’s the clone or the real deal. The procedure proves that both women are clones and that Ruth is two months pregnant with Straik’s child. Though a shocking revelation to the couple, both are happy about the pregnancy.

Some time later, Ruth and Straik return to Risda III and are shocked to see *The Star* in Risda port; meaning the Va Sithai and Ruth’s friends are there as well. After Straik is taken to be interrogated by the brother’s, an angry Ruth reunites with her friends and learns that Jade and Alice are also pregnant. When the whole group meet up for dinner with Lord va’Rin, they all decide to put and end to Lady sa’Rin’s slaving/cloning operations while. After saying goodbye to her friends and agreeing to meet up again on Jerrok’s junking station, she returns with her husband to their ship.

### **Corsairs: Mathiras**

Ruth is mentioned a few times in Corsairs: Mathiras. She stays out of the public’s eye while Straik exposes his families involvement with slave trading since she’s an illegal clone and Straik refuses to put her and their baby in jeopardy.