Michelle Vargas

**Michelle Vargas** is one of the recurring characters in the first season of *Another Life*. She is portrayed by Jessica Camacho.

She is the Salvare's communications expert.

### Season 1

The mission was supposed to take six months – three months to Pi Canis Majoris and three months back. Assuming all went according to plan. A month into the journey and Niko is awoken from Soma sleep. She's been awoken because the Salvare hasn't yet reached Pi Canis Majoris.

Apparently, the scientists on Earth got the incorrect coordinates for the system – it will now take around seven more months to get there. William, the holographic computer (AI), informs Niko of all this.

Ian Yerxa was the previous captain of the ship, so there's a bit of tension around the leadership now that Niko's been put in charge. Most of the rest of the crew have worked under Ian and are ‘feeling a little awkward’ with this new situation.

The argument about the ship's course upsets some of the crew, especially Michelle Vargas, who feels that Ian should challenge Niko more. The crew can't seem to get along with each other, forget with their new leader.

Unfortunately for Niko, the crew backs Ian's play – they stage a mutiny and put her into Soma sleep. Niko puts up one hell of a fight and it was only Ian's backhanded tactics that got the better of her.

Ian threatens William, the computer, into following his orders. In fact, Ian seems to have considerable sway over most of his crew. Zayn Petrossian, the ship psychologist, isn't given much choice in declaring whether Niko is unfit to command or not. Sasha Harrison, the government representative aboard the ship, is put on the spot to recognise Ian's leadership. It's all hasty and rash, and despite William's attempted rebellion, he must follow Ian's orders now.

William changes course towards Sirius A and Ian commands the engineer, August, to engage the shield. Though the shield works, the flares damage the FTL (faster-than-light) drive and the ship is basically unable to fly away from the star. While Niko is peacefully dreaming of being back home with Erik and her daughter Jana, the Salvare is being torn apart.

In a panic, August wakes Niko up and she immediately takes control of the situation. Banishing Ian from the bridge, Niko takes manual control of steering and slingshots off the star to safety.

Niko may have saved everyone, but the ship has sustained plenty of damage. All comms are down and the Soma system is offline. There are replacement crew members asleep, and they aren't affected, but no new chambers can be activated.

Niko tells the crew of the Salvare that she killed Ian because he was a threat, which worries most of them and causes them to get angry. Bernie and Javier support her and Niko reminds them of the mission, but Michelle calls her a murderer and wants to throw her out of the ship. There is a crash and they start losing oxygen.

Niko is told by August that they have five hours until they are all unconscious, but they could source a comet. William says their long range sensors are down and suggests backtracking to Sirius, but they would not have enough time. Michelle suggests microlensing and they try looking for nearby planets.

William tells Niko and Michelle that they have a planet which is different that what they were used to, but she asks Javier and Bernie to go outside and do visual inspection. Bernie asks why, when she could send August or Oliver and she tells him that they would go mine for ringwoodite, which contains hydrogen and oxygen.

Javier and Bernie check the planet out and the latter wants to grab a soil sample, but Javier does not want him to. There is an earthquake, but William tells them not to worry because the rift valley was very far away. Niko tells them to hurry up, so as not to be there longer than needed and tells Michelle to take a break because she was not doing all right.

Michelle is startled by Sasha who wakes up. Sasha is not feeling good and remembers how he passed out in front of everyone, which makes Michelle laugh. She asks for his hand and rubs a pressure point which would make him feel better. Sasha asks if everyone hates him, but she says that not everyone. Sasha says that he can help and Michelle tells him that he can make sure that they're not accomplices to murder, being a congressman. He tells her to watch her mouth around Niko.

Later, Cas tells everyone that Ian was her rival at first, but thanks him for helping her grow as an astronaut and believed that in his heart, he thought he was right. However, during the eulogy, Petra starts retching uncontrollably and cracking her spine and other bones. Zayn does not know what to do and the crew does nothing but watch.

Later August wonders if they had a virus or bacteria, and when Bernie walks into the room, Michelle tells him to back off because he had brought soil samples on board. Niko calms everybody down, and Zayn tells them that Petra's stress hormones were all elevated. Michelle tells Niko that comms were still down, but William points out that they had Sirius A as a reference point, which Niko tells him to move them towards. She tells the team to help out and gets them moving.

Michelle gets mad at Javier, who she tells she does not need his help. Cas tells her to go get some air, so she leaves.

Michelle walks into Niko's room and grabs her by the throat, chiking her and telling her that she was the real virus. Niko manages to get her off her and tells her that she was not thinking straight. However, Michelle keeps fighting, telling her that Cas was not there to protect her anymore. Niko slams her against a wall, which knocks Michelle out and she calls for William.

Later, Michelle tells Bernie to let her go because Niko wanted to kill them, but she is put to sleep by Zayn.

Niko tells the team that she could not believe that they were defeated by something they could not see. Michelle apologizes to Niko for what she had done, and Niko apologizes back. They walk into an air duct, but Bernie tells everyone that he has a cure - gamma rays, so they fly towards Sirius B and open the crows nest.

August refuses to eat because she wants to check the somatic interface. Michelle tries to grab a plate to eat, but Bernie does not let her take it. Cas tells them that she was in charge until Niko wakes up and Michelle tells her that their sensors picked up a moon. Bernie is excited because they need food, but Cas tells her to stay on course.

Cas goes to Michelle's room and tells her that they would be going to the moon she had found, but she is called by Zayn to soma. After Cas leaves, Sasha and Michelle start kissing, while the former takes her bra off.

On the Salvare, William helps Michelle with solitaire, but she does not want his help. Michelle tells him that he is not alive, but William believes he is alive and asks her if she is not just a biological machine.

William tells Michelle how to play solitaire and she complains that it made the game more boring. She challenges William to rock, paper, scissors and beats him twice. The third time, William wins and sees that it does in fact, feel better when you lose sometimes.

Sasha sees Michelle and is quiet, simply asking her what plans she had and leaves, with her following closely behind.

Michelle and Sasha are kissing and the former mentions he feels more alive than ever. She asks him if he had left all his good manners on the other moon, but he suddenly sees a hallucination of himself, which makes him throw Michelle.

Three hours earlier, Javier tries bringing William back online, but they are not able to. Cas walks in and they find out the ship's systems are messed up, but Michelle thinks it is weird. Cas and Michelle go to investigate.

Cas sees everything working normally and Michelle says that things happen, and comments that Niko is not perfect. Michelle asks if Cas remembers when she tried teaching her how to parallel park on a rover in Mars and they both have a laugh. Michelle tells Cas to forget about Niko because she was just upset, but Cas says that she said things that she should have never said, but the drugs made her do it and things have changed between the two. Michelle says that that is a good thing and the ship rumbles.

In space, Niko asks for Cas and Michelle, but gets no answer.

On the Salvare, Cas tells Michelle to keep trying to reach Niko on comms even though they were going faster than the speed of light. Cas tells Javier to get the override, but he was having a hard time with it. Michelle tells Cas that Niko is dead, but they all had a chance to go home, but Cas does not agree, telling her that all she had done was complain since day one. After this, the crew discuss whether to go back for Niko or not.

Oliver realizes that it made sense that William was glitching, since they were using a lot of energy creating exotic matter. Michelle asks if that was the same stuff they used for FTL and heads to the particle accelerator. August says that if pressure kept building up, they would explode. Oliver says that there is an off button, which Michelle finds.

An alarm starts sounding, and a piece of the ship nearly blows Michelle's hand off. Cas asks if she can get the control pad to work again, but Michelle says that it is impossible. Cas realizes that there is a manual override and says that she would do it, but Michelle realizes there was not enough time and heads into the exotic matter containment unit herself and pulls out a cable, which starts hurting her. She realizes Cas's plan did not work and pulls out another cable, but with alarms still sounding, she pulls out a third cable. Cas tries walking into the room with her, but is not able to open the door.

Everyone is saved and Cas tells Michelle, but when Cas walks inside the room, Michelle is weak. Cas tells her that she is a hero and Michelle asks her to tell everybody, especially Sasha. Cas holds Michelle as her skin starts deteriorating and cries.
## Personality

She can be very rude at times, often arguing with the other crew members. She tends to use curse words often, however she is willing to do what needs to be done for the good of the crew.

## Physical Appearance

she has brown hair with blonde highlights

## Appearance

**Season One (6/10)**

* *Across the Universe*
* *Through the Valley of Shadows*
* *Nervous Breakdown*
* *Guilt Trip*
* *A Mind of its Own*
* *I Think We're Alone Now*

## Quotes

”*i wish you could’ve saved me y’know”*

*-Michelle said to Cas Isakovic*

## Gallery

See also: Category:Images of Michelle Vargas
* Promotional
* Season 1 Screencaps

**"Episode #1.1"**

**"Episode #1.2"**

**"Episode #1.3"**

**"Episode #1.4"**

**"Episode #1.5"**

**"Episode #1.6"**