Miocene

Miocene is a human who has appeared in numerous Great Ship stories. In most stories she is the First Chair Submaster of the Great Ship.

Early Life
Miocene was born on an asteroid in Earth's solar system. At a young age she won a full scholarship to the Belter Academy, where she befriended Liza. She began a career as a starship captain, eventually acquiring her own Streakship. At one point, she was tasked with transporting an ancient recorded memory of one day in Earth's solar system during the Miocene era. She delivered this cargo to Earth, and on the trip she repeatedly entered the recording and explored the solar system. This led to her adopting the name Miocene. She would later have the recording stored in a warehouse on the Great Ship.

She was part of the original human mission to reach the Great Ship.

Submaster on the Great Ship
As First Chair Submaster, Miocene is the second in command of the Great Ship.

Marrow and the Wayward Rebellion
(Spoilers for Marrow)

Miocene was the highest ranking of the Captains sent to explore Marrow. When they became trapped there, she became the ruler of the Captains' realm. In order to escape Marrow, an industrial civilization would need to be built. Miocene ordered every female Captain on Marrow to have a child, and her son Till was the first. Till believed that the children born on Marrow were the reborn souls of the Ship's Builders. When Washen and Diu confronted Miocene about his teachings, she refused to believe it.

Eventually there was a confrontation where Miocene stabbed Till. Till and all of his followers left the Captains' realms and former their own society, the Waywards. They grew in numbers quickly, and soon they were the overwhelming majority of humans on Marrow.

Miocene and Washen eventually escaped Marrow and confronted the Master Captain via hologram. Miocene was furious that they had been sent away and abandoned, but the Master Captain denied sending them anywhere. Soon it was revealed that Diu had arranged for them all to be marooned on Marrow. Diu was killed by Till, who attacked Miocene but kept her brain alive.

After gaining a new body, Miocene joined forces with the Waywards. She would eventually use her knowledge of the Ship and an enormous army of Waywards to seize control of the Great Ship. The Master Captain was taken prisoner, and Micoene declared herself to be the new Master Captain.

Micoene was forced to surrender after being lured into a trap by Washen, who threatened to dump enough hydrogen into Marrow to destroy the Wayward civilization. They found that the Bleak, or the entity at the center of Marrow, was controlling the Ship and piloting it toward a black hole. Miocene was able to sever the Bleak's control of the Ship by using machinery that controls earthquakes on Marrow.

Miocene was killed when she was vaporized by a Wayward soldier's laser after she tried to kill Till.

Dragon
(Spoilers for The Dragons of Marrow)

In The Dragons of Marrow, Miocene is one of the Dragons ruling Marrow. Like the other Dragons, she is connected to Marrow's cycles in such a way that if she dies, everything on Marrow will be incinerated and the planet crushed by the buttresses. Although Miocene was killed in The Well of Stars, it seems that things buried in Marrow can pass between universes, and this is a version of her that has survived. The Dragons are thought to have lived on Marrow for billions of years.

Appearances

 * Hoop-of-Benzene
 * Flattering the Flame
 * Camouflage
 * Conversations in the Dark
 * The Cryptic Age
 * Nameless He
 * Marrow (novella)
 * Marrow Redux
 * Marrow (novel)
 * The Dragons of Marrow