Arkady Patel

Arkady Patel is the first mate of the Iris II and was previously the first mate of the Rumor before it was destroyed. She does a number of jobs aboard the ships and for the crew, including computer and other technology support as well as protection. Many of her skills are self-taught and she speaks four and a half languages.

Arkady's personality tends to be quite prickly, and she is very wary of people she doesn't know well. Even with people she is close to, she is often uncomfortable talking about her true feelings, and will deflect with sarcasm. While Arkady doesn't share some of Sana Tripathi's more idealistic views, she cares for others and is uncomfortable with the violence she's been a part of in the past.

Early Life
Arkady was born on Cresswin Landing, an artificial prison planet. While children between prisoners at Cresswin were an unintended consequence, they weren't unusual. Arkady was given an education through the eighth grade, but there was no high school on Cresswin, so most of her post-grade school education consisted of opera and other theater through Cresswin's theatre troupe. She has multiple siblings, but more is not known about them.

In 2178, aged fourteen, Arkady participated in the Cresswin Uprising along with Sana Tripathi (who did not know who Arkady was at that point). Despite having to carry out the uprising early due to a suspected double agent in their ranks, the prisoners were successful - but did not have enough food and resources in place to support the planet, something that would have been extremely tough to endure. Arkady later joined the IGR military when the Dwarnian-Human War started. Her unit was known as Sky Corps 77. After the war, Arkady ended up working as an IGR guard on Telemachus, where she was reunited with Sana Tripathi.

Because Cresswin Landing was barren, the first time Arkady saw a tree was when she was eighteen years old.

Aboard the Rumor
Sana and Arkady reunited in approximately 2188, but it is not clear if this is when they started traveling in the Rumor. Krejjh and Brian Jeeter joined the crew in 2189, so the Rumor had been built by that point, but what happened in the interim is currently unclear.

As Arkady is adept at cons and other sorts of scams, either to extract information or to protect herself and others on the crew, she often takes the lead in such operations. Her introduction to the story is as Kay Grisham, a fictional IGR ship captain who talks Violet Liu through resetting the Iris systems and reconfiguring the ship to fly itself to the Rumor's coordinates. Because Violet figures out that Arkady-as-Kay is not being truthful with her, their eventually in-person meeting on the Rumor is fraught, and further complicated by the numerous visible weapons that Arkady carries even while on the ship.

When the Rumor docks for resupplying, Arkady tends to go out to meet contacts with Sana, as she is the crew's "muscle" and is able to stand up to people who try to pull one over on the crew. While the ship is in flight, her main job is to keep watch over communication systems and other technology, and she does many odd jobs such as assisting Sana with repair work. When the crew gets into dangerous situations, such as the interaction with guard Officer Harrison, Arkady is usually the one who takes on the violent tasks of attacking and potentially killing people who endanger the crew. She is often withdrawn after these incidents, avoiding other members of the crew, especially Violet.

Arkady enjoys music, theater, and plants, and shares these with those she cares about, such as Sana and Violet. Even when sharing these things she enjoys, Arkady is still very closed-off and does not enjoy sharing her feelings. She gets defensive when people point out that she obviously cares about other people and wants to share these things with them. Once she trusts people, she is very protective of them, as seen in her desire to look out for Brian and Violet when running into those that would hurt them.

Throughout season 1, Arkady and Violet grow closer and both seem to develop romantic feelings. In Off the Air, after the crew makes it off New Jupiter, Violet confesses her feelings to Arkady, who is initially either oblivious or intentionally deflecting. Eventually she asks if Violet means "dating in the romantic sense," and they return to the kitchen and the rest of the crew hand-in-hand. Arkady was confirmed to be grey-asexual by creator Jessica Best in a short story released to Patreon supporters and in a Twitter thread which also hinted that this would be included in Season 2 of the show.