Hopes Quixotically

**Hopes Quixotically**, affectionately called **Quix** by her friends, is an exodeist ostracized from the Collective and a major character in the series. She is a scientist and was outcast from her people's society due to her advocacy for freeing the Vett'iri from enslavement.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Like all exodeists, Quix has no true memory of where she or the rest of her race came from, only knowing that there was a long period of time during which it felt like they "slept" before drifting into the galaxy of Spectra from dark space.

### **The Mark of Eden**

#### **Joining the Team**

Quix was first introduced as a friend of Niles when he brought Val to her for analysis given the boy's anomalous hallucinations and dreams. Studying Val intensely, she theorized that he was undergoing 'Mnemonic Synthesis', a concept where two different sets of memories, their previous set and their current set, were merging and trying to join messily.

After Val declared that he would venture into the Umbra to find answers for where he came from, Quix joined with him, Ten, and Note for the sake of research and being among the first to meet a new and undocumented species, no one having ever encountered a human before.

She helped Note and Ten fabricate spare clothing and supplies that would be needed for the journey while Val and Niles hired a team of Vaulters. Upon meeting back at the dockyard where Niles' ship was moored, one of the Vaulters, Chellor, expressed outrage at her presence due to his past experience with exodeists and the Vett'iri's history of having been created by them as a slave race.

During a game of Crooks and Crowns while traveling to the Umbra, Chellor revealed that his parents had died of the same degenerative process that all Vett'iri underwent at the end of their lives due to the Exodeists' genetic construction of them as a species, their memories gone and living their last few weeks in fear without being able to recognize their children. He then asked her why he should trust her as the rest of the crew wanted him to, and Quix revealed that her common name, "Hopes Quixotically", was given to her by the Collective because she was seen as idealistic, a trait looked down upon by exodeists, and was ostracized for her outspoken advocacy of freeing the Vett'iri from slavery.

#### **The Dead Moon**

Upon arrival at the dead moon in the Umbra, Quix and the others discovered evidence of an Imperial camp outside the temple. The *Manta* crew then descended into the temple and found the chamber where Val's Chrysalis had been. In the same room, an AI designated as Ouroboros appeared and revealed the truth that Val and Note came from the Architect civilization.

A creature living on the moon attacked them, and Quix ran with Note and Isaak into the temple's Gateway. There, Note worked on bringing the facility's connection to the Plexus network online while Ouroboros revealed to Quix and Isaak that Chellor was alone in the Armamentarium.

When Chellor ran back to the Chrysalis chamber and was nearly eaten by the viper-worm, Quix placed herself in front of him and saved his life. The two then joined the others and used the gateway to escape to the surface.

While on the way back to the Mercantile, Chellor found Quix and apologized for his behavior, asking for her forgiveness. Quix accepted, and the two had a lengthy discussion about religion, Chellor wondering whether there was such thing as an afterlife and whether his parents still existed in some form or if they were truly gone. Quix told him that, while she was unsure if any afterlife existed, she knew that the only sure thing about death was that those who loved someone would miss them when they were gone.

#### **The Cell's Attack**

When the *Manta* eventually emerged from null space, everyone witnessed the Cell attacking the Mercantile. After they crash-landed inside the station, Quix and some of the others along with Val were chased through the Scrubs. Quix, Note, and Chellor found themselves traversing platforms hanging over a massive garbage disposal. Quix threw both Note and Chellor to safety, but was tackled by one of the two cell chasing them in mid-air, the other plummeting to its death. As Quix wrestled with the cell, she urged Note and Chellor to run, but Chellor stayed and killed the cell with a climbing anchor, saving Quix's life.

They eventually rejoined with the others above ground and learned that Val had been captured by the Cell. She was rallied by Note with everyone else to board the *Manta* and chase after them to save Val.

#### **Eden**

After the *Manta* followed the Cell flagship through the energy cloud surrounding the Rings of Eden, the ship was shot down, and Quix and Chellor stayed behind to repair the ship while the others pursued the Cell and Val on foot. After analyzing the damage, Quix determined that there wasn't enough quality-grade metal to fully repair the ship from what they had scavenged, and she instructed Chellor to cut apart a section of her body's chassis for the spare metal.

With the ship's thruster temporarily repaired, she and Chellor piloted the craft through the Gate's Tear and landed near the unconscious body of Val being attended to by Ten and Note. Only after Val had woken up did everyone board the *Manta* and fly back through the Gate where Val and Note closed it, sealing the Sensus in Eden once more. The ensuing explosion of null energy from the collapsing Tear further damaged the *Manta* and stranded everyone in space for several weeks before they were picked up by a Hegemony patrol and arrested.

## **Personality**

Quix is shown to have a rather bubbly and idealistic personality, something which appears to vastly differ from other exodeists. She is optimistic to a fault, shown in her hopes that it is possible for the Vett'iri and Exodeists to make amends, as well as her refusal to give up on repairing the *Manta* in Eden.

## **Trivia**

• Quix was originally planned to have been killed off in the first book, only being spared by the fact that her death no longer made sense narratively in later outlines and drafts of the story.