Ikha "Wicked Ikha" Yansan is a bit of a boozer, an asexual flirt, and, in her words, a goddamn genius. She might be considered tall by some and is mostly of Lakota and other Sioux Nation descent, though her grandparents swear that there is also some African Ashanti in their family tree somewhere. While most of them are usually concealed by her clothes, white-outlined red and yellow tattoos cover nearly every part of her body to a varying degree. They consist of the prominent symbols and art of her people that have the most meaning for her, including red double zigzags going down both cheeks. Her hobbies include distilling gin, playing the drums, looking fine as Hell, and kicking some serious ass at chess. She's also the captain of an inter-system transport ship called Thunderbird, which sports a crew that is quite a bit more eccentric and unusual than the rather cliche-sounding name of her ship might suggest.
Her pilot and best friend, Briar, is cheerful, carefree, and obsessed with superstition and the occult, though he doesn't truly believe in any of it. Tarot card readings and the low-down on dark, obscure religious factions are his primary expertise. Secondary is building model spaceships, which line the walls of his room. He's black, of average height, and pretty skinny, with very little muscle mass from a lack of exercise. He owns one of the only pets you'll find on the ship: a tortoise named Hermes.
Soren, the first mate (he prefers the term "second in command" because as he's told her before, he's "not the Smee to her Hook" but whatever), has mostly Taiwanese ancestry and takes care of all the boring stuff like arranging jobs for them and handling the red tape and paperwork of planetary passports and licenses. On one hand, he's the adorable baby of the group due to his general innocence and child-like features and is both teased and protected in equal measure. On the other, he's a capable leader, and when he starts barking orders, the crew shuts up and listens, especially since his normal mien is so gentle.
Their head engineer is a tall, buff-as-hell, and gorgeous white transwoman named Valerie who is basically the Mom on board. She frets over the well-being of every crew member and passenger just as much as she does the ship itself and is usually the one to escort someone to the infirmary unless something's happening in the engine room. Most of the day-to-day responsibility on the ship comes from her, and it is not uncommon for the crew to respond to her kindly nagging with, "Ugh, fine, Mom." But she's not always a worrywart. Most often, she is an excitable, bubbly person who loves people and new things and especially new people.