Hiroko Ai

Hiroko Ai was an important member of the First Hundred, the founder of the Areophany movement and a mysterious leader that left none who came into her contact untouched. Genetic mother of Kasei and Nirgal and potentially many others.

Hiroko Ai
Positions Biotechnologies expert
Affiliations First Hundred, Areophany, The underground
Gender Female
Appearance  
Birth ca.1993
Japan
Death ca.2124 (alleged)
Sabishii
Ancestors -
Descendants Kasei, Nirgal, others
 

Pre-Mars life

Hiroko was born circa 1993 (perhaps after 1994) in Japan and was the youngest of the First Hundred. She studied in Oxford, where she and Desmond Hawkins became close friends. She became a world-renowned biosphere designer. She was able to free Desmond from jail and hide him in the Ares.

The Underhill years and the creation of Areophany

She was the head of the farm team in Underhill. As she developed her worldview and the ideas behind Areophany, she made her team into a very tightly knit group that was separate from the rest of the First Hundred. Areophany was to be based on love of each other and love of anything living, a mystical worshipping of viriditas, the greening power of nature. She had a strong leadership, she exhibited love and was warm with everyone, but not more so with anyone in particular. Hiroko and her team developed in secret in vitro procreation techniques, which led to the birth of the first Martians in secret in the Underhill farms -- children made with genetic material of the First Hundred, often without their knowledge (for example, Kasei was the genetic son of Hiroko and John Boone).

She drew the original Areophany team into hiding in Dolmen Tor, from which they built Zygote and moved there. Their disappearance fueled rumors on the surface of the existence of a hidden colony. She kept contact with Sax Russell, whose love of life and terraforming made them allies and friends.

The Underground

After the revolution of 2061 she took many revolutionaries under her wing, in and around Zygote. She became the moral center of the undeground; her sensual and esoteric image propelled her into a mythical status among Martians. She was the genetic mother of Nirgal. In the Dorsa Brevia convention, she supported a non-violent "aerogel revolution".

Alleged death and sightings

She was said to have been killed with the entire Areophany team during the burning of Sabishii prior to the independence revolution. Ever since then, multiple rumors and alleged "sightings" have entertained the idea that she survived. She would have founded the city of Hiranyagarbha, or kept wandering with the Areophany team, or brought aid back on Terra after the 2127 flood, or settled in another isolated Zygote underground city, or even left for another solar system. Sax kept believing of her survival when everybody else stopped doing so.