Hera

**Hera** is the artificially intelligent "mother program" of the Hephaestus, responsible for running the station's automated systems.

## Biography

Hera was first activated less than two years before the beginning of the Hephaestus mission. Much of her early existence was spent on a system of tests and psychological evaluations meant to determine how fit she was for interacting with people. It is implied that she functionally "failed" these tests, and attempted to escape from the facility, thus leading to her being assigned to a station in deep space.

Early in the Hephaestus mission, Hera makes an effort to remain cheerful, doing little other than what she is told. Over time, she begins to assert herself more as a member of the crew with thoughts and opinions.

When Hilbert attempts to take control of the station, he tears apart her computer in the process, and she is essentially "dead" until she is repaired some time later. After this event, she experiences difficulties running the ship resulting from the trauma of being attacked and the imperfect repair of her systems.

Upon the arrival of the Urania, Hera becomes acquainted with Dr. Alana Maxwell, an AI engineer. Maxwell begins to help Hera recover and get the station under control, but promises not to go near her personality core. Hera begins subconsciously referring to the new arrivals as the superior officers, which indicates a change in her priority controls.

Thanks to Maxwell, Hera realizes that her consistent glitches have been due to a harmful subroutine that was inputed directly into her personality matrix. The code made her doubt all of her actions right before she did them and resulted in many of Hera's shortcomings. Though the code could not be removed, Hera can work to counteract it.

## Personality

Hera is observant, curious, and makes an effort to prove her worth to others. In the beginning, she was somewhat emotionally detached from her crew, but as time goes on, she grows to care for them more, and considers them her friends. She is quick to anger or frustration when people treat her as incompetent or less than human, which happens most often in her interactions with Pryce and Cutter. Her fear that she is not good enough becomes increasingly intrusive until Memoria, at one point resulting in her having a panic attack. After she learns the source of her glitches, as well as her anxieties, she gradually works to become more confident in herself.

## Relationships

### Doug Eiffel

Eiffel and Hera share a friendship that has advanced from seeming indifference in the early episodes to a solid friendship by the second season. They are shown playing games and sharing interests together, and Hera gives Eiffel a transmission of Holst's "The Planets" as a birthday present. After the events of Christmas, Eiffel shows concern for Hera's mental and emotional wellbeing, and frequently checks in with her to make sure she is okay. They bond over their shared feeling of inadequacy for the mission, Doug because the only job requirement for his position was to "have a pulse" and Hera because the only requirement for her job was to "have no pulse". The two share an understanding and are protective of each other.

### Renée Minkowski

Although Hera complies with most of Minkowski's orders, she takes offense at her accusations of incompetence. In "The Sound and the Fury," they got into a heated argument about whether Hera is up to the responsibility of overseeing all of the ship's functions. In episode #19, she admitted that those fears have become even more exacerbated since the events of Christmas:

> Well, it was just a matter of time, wasn't it?! That's what you're thinking, anyway. I'm going to get someone killed because I'm all wrong now, because *he* brought me back wrong. You're going to have to unplug me one way or another...
>
>

All of that said, the two of them have by now clearly come to a point where they trust one another, despite everything. In the first episode of Season 3, however, where Officer Eiffel was MIA and presumed dead, Minkowski and Hera constantly butted heads. Minkowski attempted to stay calm, while Hera furiously lashed out at Lovelace and Hilbert. They did conspire together to prevent the other crew members from discovering the stress fractures in the station's hull.

### Alexander Hilbert

Hera's prior relationship relationship with Hilbert is unclear, although it must have existed, given that he asked her to keep many of his secrets. She implies in one episode though, that she was given a direct order not to tell his secrets while he held the the threat of Emergency Protocol 34-C over her head. After he nearly killed her, she was very vocally in support of killing him, too.

### Isabel Lovelace

Hera is initially suspicious and angry towards Lovelace, after she appeared, for obvious reasons involving that fact that Lovelace intended to kill her, and that Lovelace was (in part) responsible for Eiffel's disappearance. Although Lovelace claims to care about her, Hera clearly doesn't feel the same way. Despite this, they are willing to co-operate if the situation calls for it.

## Trivia

* Her name is a reference to the Greek goddess of motherhood, Hera, who is the mother of the Greek god of blacksmiths, Hephaestus.
* The team behind Wolf 359 made a playlist for each of the main characters. You can find Hera's here.

## Gallery

* Hera's character sheet from the Wolf 359 website.
1/1
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Character biography, Wolf 359 - Characters
2. ↑ *Wolf 359* mini-episode 11: "Decommissioned."