Amur ‘Bessie’ Ness age 893.

Head of Dakur Technologies since the ascension of her parents at the age of 621 (young for a Dakurian). The Dakur structure is such that she assumes the role of figurehead, the equivalent of queen, with all the vast privilege and fathomless lack of freedom that entails. Having assumed the awesome responsibility of Dakur before her debutant ceremony she is effectively housebound. She’s never left the nest of Dakur, ever, and never will…so she reads…and reads…and she dreams.

Vince Vance age 46

Youngest racer to have won the Endakaar 5000 (age 12) and the oldest (age 42) and the only racer to have been disqualified in disgrace twice (age 12 and 42) and in between and either side: a mercenary, a haulage facilitator, a pigeon fancier (un-convicted), a pirate, a Major General in the Bandarian army (peacetime), a deserter of the Bandarian army (wartime), a shepherd, a president, a primary school teach and a traffic warden (though he leaves that off his resumé)

Right now, he harvests Tantalum…we’ll get to that now.

This is Dakur’s latest pet, the Evolver, Evie to its friends. Rumoured (by those that know of its existence) to be faster than hereditary hair loss and a much bigger turn on for the ladies. Outfitted to scoop the naturally occurring element Tantanithide from the spaceways it is the only vessel fast enough to atomize it into its usable form, that Dakur prizes do dearly: Tantalum.

With a large enough supply of tantalum, Dakur’s jump drive will enable travel to any point in the galaxy to be instantaneous; marginally faster than Vince flies.