Translation State

Reet Hluid is a 30-year-old man who works in the pipeways on Rurusk Station in the Zeosen System, which is not part of the Radch. He was a foundling, and his history is initially unknown. He has always had violent urges to rip people apart, but besides biting a child when he was very young, he has never acted on them. Reet struggles with Familial Belonging because he knows that something about him is different. He hopes that he has found a culture and a people who can accept him when Mr. Nadkal suggests that he is Hikipi. When that turns out not to be true, Reet is furious and distressed to learn that he is actually a Presger Translator juvenile. He continues his quest for belonging and also fights for his right to Self-Determination and Personhood by requesting the right to be considered legally human.

Reet’s most significant relationship is with Qven. Although Reet has violent urges (like all Presger Translators), he always respects Qven’s boundaries and gradually earns eir trust and love. After Reet and Qven are declared human, they match and become one entity with two bodies. For Reet, this signifies the ultimate form of belonging, as Qven understands and accepts him completely.

Reet has three parents: Mom (Istver, she/her), Nana (Echemin, e/em), and Maman (unnamed, she/her). They are his adoptive parents, and they are all part of the marginalized Chirra ethnic group. They love their children, but they have always worried that Reet seems a little different. When they learn that he is a different species from them, their love for their son never wavers. Although Mom presents as especially caring, while Nana is quite verbally abrasive, both work very hard to fight for their son’s rights. They also welcome Qven into their family at the end of the story, emphasizing their belief that familial belonging is about much more than blood relationships.

Enae Athtur is a 56-year-old human. Sie comes from the Saeniss Polity, which is outside the Radch. Sie has spent hir entire life living with hir Grandmaman (she/her), a controlling, emotionally manipulative woman who constantly restricted Enae’s freedom. When Grandmaman dies, Enae starts traveling alone for the first time. Sie initially struggles to assert hir Self-Determination and Personhood but soon realizes that without Grandmaman, sie can choose exactly who sie wants to be. Sie decides to be an independent and diligent individual who will complete difficult jobs even when nobody expects hir to. 

Grandmaman leaves Enae with nothing and sells her house to Zemil Igoeto (she/her). Enae forms a close bond with Zemil’s cousin, Caphing (sie/hir), through whom sie develops hir first real sense of Familial Belonging. Enae has always felt alone, so sie envies Reet’s relationship with his three parents who love him unconditionally. For a while, Enae thinks that sie has ruined hir friendship with Caphing, but when the two reunite at the end of the story, Enae realizes that sie can return home whenever sie wants to; sie is no longer unwanted or an exile. Of the three protagonists, Enae is the least developed, and hir character arc is much more flat than Reet’s or Qven’s.

Many diplomats are involved in Reet and Qven’s case. Ambassador Seimet (she/her) is a human Radchaai ambassador invested in disproving Reet’s humanity. As a high-ranking official of the Radch Empire, Seimet wants to limit the definition of “human” for political reasons and does not want species like sentient AI to be considered people. If they were designated as autonomous protected beings, it would threaten the Radch’s power. Seimet is also deeply invested in upholding and controlling the treaty between humans and the Presger, without which all humans could die. Seimet is an antagonist who is open about her disdain for all non-Radchaai humans.

Theatt Hadarat Batonen (she/her) is a human treaty jurist from a culture outside the Radch Empire. She supports Reet’s case and wants to prevent “the Radchaai from defining human for the purposes of the treaty” (189), as the Radch definition is too restrictive. Batonen uses a mobility device because her body has adapted to low gravity environments. She has extremely long arms and legs, and she is able to move fluidly once the gravity in the committee room disappears.

Agagag (pronouns unclear) and Tibanvori (she/her) are Geck ambassadors. Tibanvori is a human who dislikes her job and appears only briefly in the story. Agagag is Geck, another Significant Species protected from the Presger under the treaty. Geck are amphibious, so Agagag is not physically present on the Treaty Administration Facility. To participate in the discussion, she pilots a biological mech suit that looks something like a large spider. She does not truly consider humans to be people, but she believes that she understands them, and she supports Reet’s case because of a past case in which a human was legally declared a member of the Geck species.

Sphene (she/her) is the sentient AI of a ship. Her consciousness is split across multiple ancillary bodies (humans whose minds have been replaced with Sphene’s AI, usually by force), space shuttles, and her main ship; in the novel, other characters interact with one of her ancillary bodies. Sphene represents the Republic of Two Systems, a breakaway territory from the Radch Empire where sentient AIs are asserting their own autonomy and personhood and looking to exist outside the control of the empire. Sphene is invested in the outcome of Reet’s case because it would establish a precedent for self-determination as a metric of personhood. If Reet can be declared human, AIs could be declared a Significant Species, which would give them the right to leave the Radch or rise up against Anaander Mianaai. Sphene’s open-mindedness about personhood is portrayed through several character choices: She is interested in using bio mechs instead of ancillaries; refers to Breq, the protagonist of the Imperial Radch trilogy, as her cousin; and is friends with Dlique, another Presger Translator. Sphene is not biologically human, but she still asserts that she is a person who deserves rights and recognition even if she is off-putting or frightening.