A spacer aboard a civilian jumpship.
Spacers were engineered beings[1] used to operate the Imperial jumpships.[2] They were created around 11,640 Era Imperial, and began their service to the Galactic Empire.[3] A migratory people, Spacers lived on starships their entire lives.[4]
Cybernetically augmented, Spacers have enhanced physiologies that allowed them to stay awake during faster-than-light jumps.[4] Circuitry was embedded in the Spacers' carbon-silicon skin and clothing that inhibited their neural pathways, slowing their thought processes and motor functions as time passes.[4] This allowed Spacers to remain awake during a jump,[2] able to process the discontinuity that a normal Human mind could not understand.[1] Because of this ability, they served as navigators on jumpships throughout the Superluminal Armada.[4] Spacers continued to augment themselves, upgrading hardware and removing organic systems so that some parts of their bodies were hollow structures.[4] This led some people, like Cleon XIII, to barely consider them to be Human.[1]
The Empire maintained their hold on the Spacers by controlling the mining and distribution[5] of the micro-nutrient opalesk,[6] which the Spacers required[5] due to their modifications. The Galactic Empire took ten percent of the Spacers offspring to work on and navigate their vessels in exchange for providing them with opalesk.[6]
The Spacers maintained a huge starship known as the Home-Swarm, and their genetic engineering was constantly being perfected.[3] Prior to around 11,402 Era Imperial, Imperial ships such as the Invictus used jump cradles since spacers had yet to be created.[7]
Known Spacers[]
- She-Bends-Light; navigator aboard the Shining Destiny[5]
- She-Shines-Brightly; navigator aboard an Imperial transport[3]
- She-Is-Center; a representative aboard Home-Swarm[3]
Appearances[]
- Season One
- "The Emperor's Peace" (First appearance)
- "Barbarians at the Gate"
- "Death and the Maiden"
- "The Missing Piece"
- Season Two