Mockingbird Squad

CO-009 · Field Assessment

Beautiful, identical,
and loyal to one person above all others.

The Mockingbird Squad performs Valet, Security, and Defense Services aboard Carriers Outriding. They are a bevy of beautiful, ageless clones, spliced with genetic traits drawn from a million intergalactic species. Little is known about them publicly except that they are said to be friendly off the clock, and that a persistent — though unsubstantiated — rumor holds that they are legendary in bed.

Theodore views them, initially, as "painfully glamorous and unapproachable." Over time, they develop a preference for him over other members of the staff. This preference is, in the Mockingbird Squad's particular register, indistinguishable from the way they treat everyone they like: with the silent, focused attention of beings who have decided you are worth watching.

Their primary loyalty is to Captain Annalise Bellar, which is the kind of loyalty that does not require explanation or maintenance — it simply is. After Outriding's death, this loyalty is tested in the sense that they are offered a choice about what form it takes. They choose to become her personal mercenary force. The choice is unanimous. There is no record of deliberation.

By modeling themselves on the android Billy Liar, they induce a real transformation in both themselves and in Annalise and Karnides. They evolve. What they become, nobody on the station had a word for.