Spensa's great-grandmother
| Spensa's great-grandmother | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Died | [1] | ||||||||
| Abilities | Cytonics | ||||||||
| Homeworld | Unknown | ||||||||
| Universe | Cytoverse | ||||||||
“A warriors choice... To sacrifice. A warrior is nothing if she has nothing to fight for. But if she has everything to fight for... well, then that means everything, doesn’t it? ”
Spensa's great-grandmother is an engineer on the Defiant and the fleet's cytonic hyperdrive. She is married to Spensa's great-grandfather the mother of Becca Nightshade.[1]
Due to her cytonic abilities, as well as by virtue of being part of the engineers of the Defiant, Spensa's great-mother is resented and feared by the other occupants of the fleet. Gran-Gran implies her mother was the only cytonic aboard the Defiant, and the only one able to jump the fleet using faster than light travel.[1]
Abilities
Spensa's great-grandmother was a cytonic who could connect with the Defiant's engines, allowing the fleet to travel large distances using faster than light travel. It is likely she was the only one with cytonic abilities among the engineers on the Defiant when it crashed as she was the one who responsible for choosing, and moving, the fleet to Detritus. Her powers are genetic and she passed them on to her daughter Becca.[1]
History
Spensa's great-mother travelled as part of the Defiant Fleet prior to its crash onto Detritus. As her cytonic abilities are genetic, and the engineers were feared for their abilities, it is likely that her parents were also engineers aboard the Defiant and she was born on the ship. However, it is implied by Gran-Gran that those in the engineers were the first humans to reach space, making it possible that Spensa's great-grandmother was born on Old Earth.[1]
At some point she married Spensa's great-grandfather. It is unknown as to whether Spensa's great-grandfather was a part of the engineering corp before he married his wife, or if he was brought into the group through their union. The pair worked together in the engine room, with Spensa's great-grandmother using her cytonic abilities to jump the fleet. The pair had a child, Becca Nightshade, while aboard the Defiant.[1] As Becca grew, her mother began teaching her exercises to help hone her cytonic abilities, which Becca would practice while sitting with her parents in the engine room.[2]
The day the Defiant crashed, Spensa's great-mother was with her husband and daughter in the engineering bay. After an explosion occurred on the bridge the captain called down in an angry panic to relay orders to Spensa's great-grandmother, which she refused. The engineers sided with the scientists to defy the military and command staff, and Spensa's great-grandmother chose to bring the fleet to Detritus, using her abilities to perform faster than light travel. However, the jump she made proved to be beyond her capabilities and she died. It is unclear whether she was killed because of overuse of her abilities or because the ship crashed into the planet's surface.[1][3]
Decades after her death, some within the DDF believe that Spensa's great-grandmother brought the Defiant to Detritus specifically because it was what the Krell wanted.[1]
Relationships
“I remember demanding to know why Mother had left us. I felt betrayed. I’d been too young to understand the choice she’d made. ”
Gran-Gran resented her mother following her death, as she was too young to understand her mothers choices. At some point during Gran-Gran's life, she accepted the sacrifice her mother made, and now views her mother as a warrior who made a courageous choice. Spensa's mother prohibited Gran-Gran from telling Spensa about her great-grandmothers abilities, a request that Gran-Gran upheld until Spensa brought up the defect and how she thought she might have it.[1]