Qing "Twinkle" Xing

Qing Xing (Chinese: 庆星), commonly known by her nickname Twinkle, was a Pioneer aboard the AISV Cicada when it crashed on Proteus. She served as the colony's astrogator (astrological navigator) and meteorologist.

Biography

Before Chap Sovann destroyed the Old Habitat, Twinkle had never left the interior of a seabase, adhering to strict orders from Sophie. This isolation was due to an important "secret" that Sophie did not trust Twinkle to keep if she were ever reprinted. It was later revealed that Twinkle, unlike the other Pioneers, could determine their location in the galaxy based on her upbringing. She knew there was no chance of rescue, a truth she kept hidden to maintain morale or order.

During an incident in the Graveyard Caves, eight Pioneers began suffering from hallucinations induced by the Masefield. To limit her exposure to the Proteavirus and prevent infection, Twinkle voluntarily disconnected her air supply and drowned approximately 235,000 hours ago. She and Ganzo were the only two Pioneers successfully reprinted after this event. They subsequently set out together to search for the Jubilee. Her last known position was with Ganzo near the Axum Observatory.

Databank Entries

Profile

庆星 Qìng “Twinkle” Xīng

Gender: W

Mission role: Astrogator, meteorologist

Pay rate: Bagatur [hero, knight; expired Mongolian Free States trademark for a specialized/valuable worker]

Biography: Raised on the surface of ocean world Atra-Hasis. Capable of navigating by stars from early childhood. Carefully repressed fear of bottomless ocean. Can produce from memory a map of the position of thousands of major stars. Most comfortable in small groups due to shipboard upbringing.

Notes: Self-conscious, highly motivated to avoid appearance of favorable treatment. Burnout risk.

Blackbox: Hot Cave Cluster

Blackbox: 庆星 Qìng "Twinkle" Xīng

Event: Print loss

Audio: TWINKLE: "Screw me. Everyone's gone mad. Have to reprint before it gets me too—if you find this, check the hot cave base camp!"

Postmortem:

• Cause: Asphyxia
• Complications: None
• Nearby pioneers: 8
• Time: ~235,000 hours ago
• Reprint: Successful (hot cave base camp)
• Remarks: Pioneer disconnected her own air supply
• Fork Continued

Dialogue: Exposure

Found near a container next to a silver deposit, between the Axum Observatory and the Rosetta Stone.

TWINKLE: [breathing hard] Holy hell.

GANZO: [breathing hard] Yeah. Damn. Damn, we made it!

TWINKLE: When those things -

GANZO: Tailings.

TWINKLE: When the Tailings came after us all I could think was: we aren't going to reprint. This is it. I finally get to go outside and the first thing I do is die on a spear.

GANZO: Let's sort this cache into 'take' and 'bury'. Why didn't Sophie let you outside?

TWINKLE: Why didn't I ever do any work, you mean?

GANZO: Hey. You always seemed cool. I just never saw you...do anything.

TWINKLE: I'm keeping something secret. If I ever got sick and reset, Sophie wasn't sure she could convince me to keep it secret again. So...I had to stay safe.

GANZO: Ruby gets killed all the time. Really freaks me out.

TWINKLE: Yeah...she asked me to listen to a recording once.

GANZO: Thanks for tricking me into leaving her.

TWINKLE: What?

GANZO: I mean it. If we're all marked 'do not reprint', so is she. She didn't reprint. I would've gone looking for her and...

TWINKLE: The Masefield would've got you.

GANZO: I can hear the tree, Twinkle. It wants me to go into the sea and...feed myself to it.

TWINKLE: If you do that you'll never see Ruby again.

GANZO: Yeah. I know. Anyway, we can't stay here. Tailings don't like the open plains. We can build there and start scanning for the Jubilee.

Blackbox Locations

Image	Name	Location	Depth	Coordinates
	Blackbox - Twinkle (hot cave cluster)	In the Graveyard Caves	225 meters	-302487, 457398, -22501

Dialog:

Twinkle: "Screw me. Everyone's gone mad. Have to reprint before it gets me too - if you find this, check the hot cave base camp!"