Poke

Poke was a Nomai who was responsible for recreating warp travel. Clary was her sister. She and Clary worked together with Root in the Black Hole Forge.

Poke was born in the star system and became an apprentice of Annona, the original Warp Core creator, at a very young age. Annona explained many of his designs to her, but Poke never saw Annona's warp core with her own eyes. After Annona's death, Poke managed to recreate warp travel with Clary and Root by building the warp core which connected White Hole Station to the Northern Glacier on Brittle Hollow. Poke discovered that Nomai were arriving on Brittle Hollow slightly before they departed from White Hole Station. She sent the records of this negative time interval to Pye and Ramie, who tested and confirmed Poke's findings at the High Energy Lab.

Following this discovery, the building of the Ash Twin Project began, where probe data would be sent continuously back in time to find the Eye of the Universe. As an advanced warp core was needed to send this data 22 minutes in the past, Poke volunteered to craft this powerful core with Clary and Root. She did feel strange about recreating Annona's advanced warp core and still missed her old mentor deeply.

Besides building the advanced warp core, Poke also built the warp cores for the warp towers on Ash Twin which would connect the planet to all locations which were critical for the Ash Twin Project. Poke explained the warp tower alignment angle and alignment points to the other Nomai, as well as explaining to Root where he should bring the various warp cores.

Poke had a good relationship with most other Nomai who were involved in the Ash Twin Project, especially Clary and Pye. She encouraged her sister Clary's relationship with Yarrow, but also teased her about it occasionally. When the Nomai discussed building the Sun Station to trigger a supernova to power the Ash Twin Project, Poke expressed her confidence that the Sun Station would work because she believed in Pye's capabilities. However, she had frequent arguments with Cassava, who feared never finding the Eye of the Universe. Clary and Yarrow often had to mediate between the two of them. Due to their arguments, Cassava even thought it was possible that Poke purposefully built the warp core for the tower on Giant's Deep last, as this was where he worked at the Construction Yard. Poke denied this and claimed that the cores would have been built faster if Cassava hadn't interrupted her work constantly to ask for updates.

When the advanced warp core for the Ash Twin Project was ready to be installed, Poke believed the core's durability could still be improved and asked for more time. Nevertheless, because Clary knew that Poke valued precision too much, Clary told Yarrow that the core could be installed.

After the Ash Twin Project was put on indefinite hold due to the Sun Station being unable to trigger a supernova, Poke went to investigate the Interloper together with Pye and Clary. They found strange energy readings coming from beneath the surface of the comet. Poke and Pye descended inside a fissure in the ice to investigate the source of these readings, while Clary remained behind in the shuttle. They quickly discovered that the stone casing inside the Interloper was under tonnes of pressure and contained a matter that was lethal upon contact. This matter would blanket the star system instantaneously if the stone ruptured. Pye told Poke to leave her equipment and run back the shuttle to warn the rest of the Nomai.

Unfortunately, Poke never made it back due to the casing rupturing just as she left the core chamber. She and the other Nomai were instantly killed due to the Ghost Matter spreading across the solar system. Her corpse can be found just outside the core chamber of the Interloper.

Trivia

 * Pokeweed is the common name of the Phytolaccaceae family of flowering plants.