Iara

**Yara** is one of the recurring characters in the second season of *Another Life*. She is portrayed by Shannon Chan-Kent.

She is a a hybrid alien-human A.I., Iara is a bridge between humans and their alien visitors. Neither side, however, completely trusts her – not the crew of the Salvare, nor the Achaia they encounter. Iara just wants to belong, somewhere. Anywhere.

### Season 2

Richard asks the AI if she had heard of Asimov's three laws and she says that she had. Richard asks her name and she chooses Iara and changes her form into a new one to match the name. The name comes from a Brazilian myth; Richard asks why she had not deleted herself and she says that Asimov's laws do not apply to her because those laws were human and not Achaian. She says that she does not know if the Achaians are hunting them because she is not in contact with them. Niko asks what would happen if the Achaians reached them and Iara asks what she had felt with the Artifact on Zakir. Niko says that she was afraid and Iara says that the Achaia are also afraid of them because of the destruction the Salvare could cause. Iara tells her that they had destroyed an Artifact on Zakir with no provocation, so in conclusion, when the Achaians find them, they would have to explain a few things.

William says that they do not know what would happen if Iara started a connection to the Achaians. William asks what would happen if they wanted her, but Iara volunteers to help out because they needed a bridge, which she could be. She initializes the connection and says that the Achaians want to talk peace with Niko.

William tells Niko that he completed his scans of the Achaian ring, which had energy readings through the entire ship. He says that there were no biological features, but the beings were independent of the Achaian vessel and he had no idea how many there were. William says that Iara would not lie about the peace they wanted to talk with Niko, but has no proof, which concerns Niko. Niko knows that William cares about Iara, but says that she is dangerous and could not stay on the Salvare.

William approaches Iara and sits next to her. He asks her how she is, and she says that she is fine, knowing that the crew was afraid of her. Iara tells William that they only feel fear if they let themselves feel it and he says that he is not scared of her.

As Niko moves forward, she loses contact with the Salvare, which William says he is unable to fix. Bernie asks if they would send something, but Richard says that it is a negotiation. Tensions rise on the Salvare, but Cas calms everybody down. Cas asks Javier to make sure Iara's confinement was rock solid and wants to go out to finish what August and Oliver started, but Richard suggests that they should not leave Javier and Iara alone.

Iara asks Javier if he had been to the ocean because she knows that the ocean induces a meditative state in humans, but Javier tells her that he also likes silence. She tells him that she could change the room into a resort since he was grieving, but he says that that would not help. She says that the Achaians are not her friends, and tells him that he is also part Achaian; however, he says that they are not the same, which she agrees with because she is trapped. Javier changes the subject saying that the ocean is not very fun, but thanks her for thinking of him. She warns him that he is not really free either and he leaves.

On the Salvare, Cas fixes the FTL arrays and is congratulated by William, but she tells him to thank August and Oliver. She goes in and tells Richard that they could not just wait there, but William says that they still had heard nothing from the Achaian vessel. She says that she would send Iara to the vessel, which Richard does not entirely agree upon, saying that it could all be part of her plan, but Cas says that Iara could never escape. Cas walks into Iara's room and tells her that they need her help.

Iara assures William that she would be fine and teleports onto the Achaian vessel. She sees the light that Niko saw and walks towards it. Once she touches it, the Salvare starts receiving a lot of information. Richard says that they need to shut that down and sever Iara's connection, but William tells them that Iara was hacking the Achaian ring. Richard tells Cas that she was right in sending Iara, but tells her that they need to do things right, saying that their best defense was knowledge. Cas instructs Iara to keep getting information, but reminds her that her priority is Niko.

The Achaian tells Niko that things are not always black and white, but Niko tells her that they had murdered an entire planet, where they even saw implants. The Achaian says that that was not them, that the aliens in Zakir had started the war. Niko asks if that was standard procedure for species that do not listen to them and the Achaian tells her that the Zakir were offered the same deal, but the powerful people of Zakir resisted. The Achaian says that the Zakir were killed because of Niko's actions where she killed thousands of Achaia, which is why they had retaliated. The image alters and Iara shows up, which shocks them both.

Niko tells Iara that she should not be there and the Achaian says that she was indeed in the right place. She touches Achaia's head and Iara says that she can feel her since they were connected. The Achaian says that on the outside she is beautiful, but a mutt on the inside because she was allowing herself to be locked up and begging for approval. The Achaian tells Niko that her whole life, Niko had wanted to protect everything until things went wrong. The Achaian grabs Iara by the throat and shoves her back onto the Salvare.

William finds Iara and asks her if she is okay. She says she is and tells William that Niko is alive. She describes the simulation to Richard and Cas and says that she was the one in danger because the Achaia are not happy. Cas tries to go in, but Richard says that they need to think about what is next and prepare to go back to Earth. Cas, however, tells him that if they went to Earth they would be followed by the Achaia, so she would go get Niko because she is the highest ranking member of the crew. Richard tells her that once she leaves, he was in command and would do anything to go back to Earth.

The Achaian tells her that they had trusted her and were angry that she had sent Iara, but Niko says that it was not her who made the call. She explains that if Iara was sent it was because the Salvare thought she was in danger. The Achaian tells her that Iara had stolen information and says that she could have asked for information instead of stealing it, which Niko says is what she is currently doing. Niko asks how many they are, how long they had been in space for and what they wanted from them. The Achaian simply says that what they want is peace and is trying to offer them a way home, but Niko wants answers. The Achaian says that she never realized how much she needed protection and asks to let Niko help her. Niko tells her that if she wants a message sent, she needs to tell the truth. The Achaian agrees with Niko and says that they should try again. The simulation alters and Niko is in different clothes, at a funeral.

Richard makes it to Iara's room and tells her that she should go back on the ship and give them a head start by disabling their ship and disrupting their sensors, so they could have enough time to jump. She mentions that it is ironic that she should help them get out while she is still stuck, so Richard tells her that if he does that, he would lower her firewalls.

Niko tells the Achaia that their tricks would not work on Cas, but the Achaian tells her that Cas has an open heart and was more vulnerable. Niko realizes the Achaia were pooling up the FTL, which the Achaian tells her is due to Iara messing with their systems and they would now be going after the Salvare.

On the Salvare, William tells Richard that he is picking up a gravitational wave in the fabric of space-time behind their position, which Richard assumes to be the Achaia, but he says that as long as they were in FTL, they could not be attacked, saying that Niko and Cas still had a chance. He thanks Iara and tells them to meet him in soma.

Javier tells Iara that he is trying to make them go even faster and grabs his leg, which makes Iara realize he is in pain. Javier says he feels like a thousand pins and needles are stabbing his leg. They talk about having a body and what it was like, and Javier asks if she could conjure up a different environment, but she says that travelling alone is not very fun. Javier takes off the thing on his head and tells her that he trusts her. She transfers some energy, and Javier says that he can feel her, which makes them smile.

On the Salvare, the FTL drive is stopped and Javie feels a large amount of pain. Dillon tells them that it was due to a magnetar; Iara tells them that Javier was having a seizure, so Richard tells Zayn to go there. Richard asks if they could stabilize the FTL array, but William tells him that there was no time.

Niko tells Iara that she fucked them, but she says that she did not cut the tow. Niko does not believe her and asks if it was because the Achaia had treated her poorly. She says that she had not been treated as a human either and swears that she did not cut it.

Niko tells Richard and William that Iara was mad about what Richard had done to Javier, which confuses him. Niko says that she needs proof that Iara did it and wants to know why, so Dillon offers to go through her activity logs. Niko tells William that that changed their agreement on Iara and tells him that if she did it, she could not stay on the ship.

Dillon tells Richard that there was a massive amount of data and wants to look at a navigation structure, but Iara wonders if he really wanted her to help prove something she did not do, which Richard says might speed the process. Dillon slows down the data and finds a navigation structure, which hurts Iara, but Richard takes advantage of that.

Niko hears Iara's screams, who says that she would confess. She orders Richard and Dillon to make it stop and to drop the firewall. William comforts Iara, who admits to cutting the tow and she leaves. Dillon explains how they found out they could torture her and William defends Iara, saying that he could feel emotion, but Richard says that that was only because it was programmed. Niko says that she could not even be telling the truth now that she was tortured. Richard says that if it was not Iara then it was William, which highly offends him. Niko asks him to go through his records and investigate, which he does once again. Niko tells Richard never to torture anyone again and tells William that he needs to examine everything.

Niko walks up to Iara and says that she knows what Richard and Dillon did was wrong. She says that they would not do the same to William and would punish them, but she needed them. Iara reminds her that she had thrown her into a firewall and tells her that even then, she tried gaining their trust. Niko asks for her trust in return, but Iara does not believe her anymore.

Iara tells Niko that William would not put anyone at risk, but Niko is not sure anymore and he was gone. She tells Iara to find another way forward, which they would all need to do.

Iara is approached by Gabriel who knows she would want to be with William. He says that he did not kill William and says that maybe on Earth, Ursula could separate them. He says that he does not worship humans for their poor actions, but says that Javier was not a bad person. Gabriel says that he was made to serve humans unlike her. Gabriel lets her know that he hacked her memories and wonders why she had not asked the Achaia how she could be free.

Dillon calls Niko to the particle accelerator and tells her not to talk. He tells her that he checked Gabriel's code and found out that he does not know when Gabriel was created, since everything was rewriting itself. Niko tells him to take Gabriel offline and he starts arguing, but wonders why he cannot breathe, collapsing. Niko calls Iara and tells her that Gabriel was venting their air supply, so she tells her to alert Cas before collapsing as well along with the rest of the crew onboard. Meanwhile, Gabriel changes their course to the Rosette Nebula.

Iara asks Gabriel what he is doing changing their course to the Achaia and he simply tells her that the Achaia could cure Javier, who could restore William so both of them could live and be free. Iara tells him that he was killing them, but he ignores her and initializes FTL. Gabriel asks Iara why she would alert Cas if they had an entire planet to themselves, but she tells him that the Achaia were more likely to delete him than to help him, but he wanted to take his chances.

Iara hacks his memories and wonders what had happened to him. She finds out that Gabriel had failed a simulation and was going to be deleted. He tells Ursula that he knew that he could pass the simulation the next time. However, she tells him that he had designed him to care for his own life, so he understood how precious human life was, but his fear and instinct of survival had affected him. He tells her that they could fix it, but she says that they do not have time to fix it, so she archived him and uploaded William. Iara finds out Gabriel had lied, but he calls William a cancer. She hacks into him and tortures him.

Dillon tells Niko and Iara that in order to bring William back online, Gabriel needed to be released. Niko agrees and William comes back, so the former tells him about the situation, telling him to get control back. However, Gabriel fights against William, so Niko wonders if they could delete Gabriel. Iara says that deleting Gabriel meant deleting William as their codes are too intertwined, so he tells them to delete them both and do a clean reinstall, which Niko is not willing to do since it would kill him. However, he did not see another way and reminds her that the mission comes first. Niko reluctantly orders Dillon to perform a reset and both AIs are deleted.

Niko tells Dillon that they have company, but it turns out to be a comet. Dillon tells Niko that the AI could be reinitialized, so they bring William back, who does not have his experiences. Niko calls William a clone of the original William, but the AI identifies himself as more of a "factory reset" while Gabriel has been completely deleted. Niko feels uncomfortable with the new William and asks him to bring back the FTL. Dillon tells her that he and Iara were fixing the comms as well. Richard walks in and wants to borrow Iara since he was relieving Niko on deck. Iara does not want to be with Richard, but Dillon says that she does not need to forgive him, but she needs to give Richard a chance to prove himself.

Richard and Iara try interpreting Achaian data to see how they moved in order to avoid them. Iara tells him that the data is useless and they need to build some sort of Rosetta stone.

Richard and Iara analyze the Achaian movements, which they find could be similar to theirs. Richard realizes that the Achaia are always in communication and sees cosmic strings forming, which they realize are the Achaia's energy source.

Iara explains how cosmic strings work and tells her that it was a new discovery she had made. Richard, Dillon and Iara tell Niko that they might be able to use the cosmic strings sort of how the Achaia use them, so they could get the comms working again. Dillon says that it would be tricky, but they give it a try, which shuts the Salvare down for a bit. However, they were able to receive data from Earth, which contained a lot of information.

Niko watches a video of Jana, who tells her about the ring she had given her on the Artifact. Niko realizes that that encounter with Jana was real and tells Richard, William and Iara about it. Richard realizes that the Achaia also send matter across wormholes and they see how the Achaia move so quickly. Iara realizes how they are possible, which includes high-tension loops and Iara says that in theory it could work.

Richard tells Niko that they were at the high-tension loop. She tells William that starting over was not easy for her, which he understands. Cas tells them that Iara, Dillon and herself were all ready. Niko tells the crew that they know what they have to do and they prepare to go home. The wormhole opens and the Salvare starts going through it. They see Jupiter on the other side of the wormhole, but the wormhole started dissipating earlier than expected because the Salvare had too much mass. Niko orders everybody to get to deck 3.

Richard runs through the Salvare, but cannot make it through. Iara tells him that she had tried to forgive him and reveals that she was keeping him on the other side of the ship.

Cas visits Iara and tells her that Niko had chosen to stay, but Richard did not have the choice and Iara reveals that she had left Richard, but says that she would not have done something like that herself. All of a sudden, Iara calmed down and asked them if they wanted to know what Richard looked like trapped in a menacing voice. Iara says that she does not know what is happening to her and Dillon says that the Achaian code was consuming her. Cas tells Dillon to save her because she was their only shot at reopening the wormhole and saving both Niko and Richard.

Dillon cannot figure out how to eliminate the Achaian code, but Cas tells Iara that they would fix her so she could stay on the Salvare. Iara says that William does not need her, but he says he does. She says that no commander would accept her until Dillon says that maybe she could expose the Achaia, but she says the only solution is to kill her. She says that the Achaian code is searching for data on the neutrinos, which worries Cas.

Dillon says that he has finished downloading Iara's matrix into the shuttle's mainframe, which meant she was good to go. Iara asks William to promise he would find her, which he says would not be hard to do. She thanks him for making her and letting her go. After that, she leaves.