The Galaxy, and the Ground Within characters

Appears from the start

The Laru owner of the Five-Hop One-Stop, a small independent waypoint on the otherwise worthless planet Gora. Laru are large, long-necked, furry creatures who walk on four limbs and rise onto their hind legs to use their hands. Ouloo has built the place up from almost nothing, worries constantly about whether it is good enough for its guests, and takes genuine pleasure in feeding travellers of every species correctly. She is raising her child alone and has never travelled off Gora herself.

Appears from the start

Ouloo's adolescent child, who helps around the Five-Hop under protest and is relentlessly curious about every traveller who passes through. Laru do not settle on a gender until they choose one, so Tupo is referred to as xe and xyr. Xe collects things, asks questions other species consider rude, and resents being managed like a child.

First appears in chapter 2

An Akarak, a member of a small species that cannot breathe the atmosphere most Commons worlds share and so moves around inside a purpose-built mech suit. The Akaraks lost their homeworld to Harmagian expansion generations ago and were never given the means to qualify for Commons membership, so they live aboard ships, scavenge, and are widely treated as thieves. Speaker is patient, articulate, and unwilling to let a comfortable conversation stand uncorrected. She travels with her twin sister.

First appears in chapter 3

A Quelin who designs immersive sensory simulations for a living and travels in a comfortable, well-appointed ship. The Quelin are an armoured, many-legged species with rigid laws about purity and conformity, and Roveg is an exile: his shell carries the mark of his conviction, and he lives outside their space by sentence rather than by choice. Cultured, talkative, and generous with his hospitality, he is travelling toward an appointment he has waited a long time for.

First appears in chapter 4

An Aeluon cargo captain running supply routes for her species' long war, stopping at Gora between tunnel hops. Aeluons are silver-skinned and communicate partly through colour patches on their cheeks, and they keep their personal lives private. Pei is capable, blunt, and used to command, and she is carrying two things she does not discuss: her body is entering the fertile state her people expect her to act on, and she has an attachment outside her species that would not be forgiven if it became known.

First appears in chapter 5

Speaker's twin sister, who remains aboard their ship in orbit while Speaker goes out among other species. The two of them divide the work between them and talk almost constantly over the comms.

First appears in chapter 8

A human ship's captain, mentioned but never present, with whom Pei has kept a long private relationship. Aeluons do not accept attachments outside their own species, so it exists only in the gaps between their routes, and what to do about it is one of the questions Pei has brought to Gora with her.