Gila

Gila is the crew boss of the salvage and impound yard on the edge of Borosevo, operating under the authority of House Mataro and the county of Emesh. She is physically distinctive: her head is balding, scabbed, and covered in uneven patches of black-and-gray hair; her face is squashed; a wine stain spreads across her nose and one cheek. She wears a stained jumpsuit with peeling green Mataro County service patches on the shoulders. She is, in Hadrian's assessment, as plebeian as they came.

Gila knows her ships: she rattles off specifications, knows the history of individual manufacturers, and has practical knowledge of what the county will and will not accept in trade. When Hadrian visits the yard to scout available ships, she gives him better treatment when he presents himself with a vague palatine air, and walks him through the inventory — including an Andunian freighter and an Uhran deltoid lighter with a crimson hull worth 3.2 million Imperial marks. When Hadrian produces the Marlowe ring and offers a land title to twenty-six thousand hectares on Delos in lieu of payment, Gila's initial wide-eyed surprise narrows into suspicion, then shifts to visible fear when Hadrian nearly snaps at her not to touch the ring. She bows with surprising grace, addresses him as "sire," and concedes that trading offworld holdings is above her authority — accepting a hold on the ship while the deal is referred upward. Her motivation is straightforward: her commission on a 3.2-million-mark sale would be substantial.