Margaret Dale is a cadet at The Pilgrim Space Academy. She is the daughter of Marion Dale and her current legal guardian is Gail Pilgrim.
History
Early Life
Maggie was born in the year 2201. Her mother, Marion Dale, conceived her through artificial insemination. The chosen donor, Jeffrey Cole, had died seven years earlier at The Battle of Heaven's Reach. Marion always told Maggie that her father had died in the war, but never went into the specifics of her origin.
She seems to have spent much of her early years accompanying her mother on various research trips. She would only have been four years old at the outbreak of the Second Galactic War.
In the summer of 2210, they were on Planet Enki in the Beta Hydri system when Maggie contracted Hydran fever and nearly died. Her mother nursed her back to health. Two years later, Maggie underwent brain surgery, supposedly to remove a tumour.
Latona Station
Marion Dale relocated to Latona research station in 2213, bringing her twelve year old daughter along with her. They weren't the only family living on the station, and Maggie befriended the other children such as Jake and Jessica.
In 2214, the station was attacked by unknown assailants. While the attack was underway, Marion told her daughter to go and find a place to hide. Maggie was later discovered in a cargo bay and rescued by Chancellor Gail Pilgrim and "The Colonel". Their vessel, Starship Quicksilver, had answered a distress call from the station.
The station exploded immediately after Maggie was rescued, and there were apparently no other survivors.
Joining the Academy
Assuming that the girl's mother had perished in the attack, Gail decided to enroll her as a first-year cadet in the Pilgrim Space Academy. She would subsequently become her official legal guardian.
Despite some initial awkwardness and hazing, Maggie quickly ingratiated herself with a number of her fellow cadets at the academy - chiefly Diane Romero, May Martinez, Kenrick Morse, Jaime Bishop and Travers Bishop.
Maggie's first year at the academy was marked by several dangerous incidents, including a suicide bombing at a presidential reception and a fire in the girls' dormitories which nearly claimed the life of May Martinez. After overhearing a suspicious conversation between two of her teachers, Professor Brian Lenke and Professor Eileen Dietrich, Maggie began to suspect that one of the faculty members was not who they appeared to be.
The real traitor turned out to be Kathy Brown, who was an agent of Fractus - the same terrorist group which had destroyed Latona Station. When Kathy and her fellow terrorists had the entire faculty held hostage in the school gymnasium, Maggie took control of Diane and Kenrick's creation - a droid named Norbert - to save the day.
Discovering her Abilities
The following year, Maggie began to make some further startling discovers. During a meditation class led by Amari Antar, she had a strange "dream" in which she witnessed the deaths of Kenrick Morse's parents when their starship was attacked by pirates, seeing the events unfold as though from his point of view.
After enlisting Diane's help to confirm that what she witnessed was in fact an accurate vision of the events, Maggie was confronted by Kenrick and immediately stepped into his mind again, seeing what happened subsequently - his time in an escape pod, his eventual rescue and the installation of his neural implant.
Shortly afterwards, Maggie accompanied to the rest of her class to the Galactic Union summit on Planet Venus. Here, she experienced another vision - this time of May Martinez's traumatic memories of being trapped by the fire at the dormitories. Maggie was just about to inform her guardian of what had been going on, when Gail was suddenly arrested and taken away by the Space Wardens for violating the Official Galactic Secrets Act.
Upon returning to the academy, Maggie received a mysterious message from her mother, informing her that she was still alive and that Maggie was "exactly where she needed to be."
Delos Station
Having been left in the care of Sabina White during Gail's incarceration, Maggie eventually decided to confide in Sabina regarding her developing psychic abilities due to the advice of Kenrick. Though Sabina was initially sceptical, she was ultimately convinced when Maggie recounted one of her dreams which revealed specific details from Gail's past and the fact that she was currently onboard a mining ship.
Along with Diane and Kenrick - the only other two people aware of Maggie's abilities - Sabina brought her to Delos Station on the Eskeri moon colony. She informed them that this was the last remaining facility of Project Triarch, which Maggie's mother had also been involved in.
Through several grueling sessions with Professor Brandt, the project leader, Maggie was able to look back into her own past and learn that her mother was the one responsible for her current condition, and that she might presently be hiding at an enclave in the Sun Systems. She also learned that Sabina had been in a sexual relationship with her. This led to a fierce argument between Sabina and Maggie, who was furious that she could have kept this a secret.
After revealing Gail's precise location to the others, Maggie slipped away from the station and concealed herself onboard a starship bound for the Sun Systems.
The Search for Marion
The vessel on which Maggie had stowed herself was Starship Athena, piloted by Calvin Kristensen and his trusty robot dog Toby. After Calvin discovered the girl hiding in his cargo bay, he immediately turned the ship around to head back to Eskeri. Maggie was able to convince him to reconsider after she stepped inside his mind and shared visions of his past.
They landed at Yamaichi City on the Forest Moon of Pan Gu. Firstly, Maggie checked in with the local Sun Wardens for any clues regarding her mother's whereabouts, but almost fell into the hands of a corrupt official named Jack Pierce.
After finding her mother's abandoned laboratory and interviewing some of the locals, she was able to discern that her mother had gone to place called Shiryō Island. Having gained access to an old plane with a robotic pilot, she set out for the island.
Shiryō Island
At an abandoned facility on the island, Maggie found Marion Dale leading a group of scientists and mercenaries. Marion immediately began to conduct cruel experiments on her, testing the limits of her developing abilities. However, Maggie quickly developed a strong psychic resistance to her mother's probes.
She was shocked to discover that Marion had been one of the founding members of Fractus, and was responsible for the destruction of Latona Station. Another disturbing discovery awaited in a secondary lab at the facility - Jake and Jessica, two children from Latona, were also being used in her mother's experiments. They were kept ignorant and sedate in a pair of stasis pods.
Maggie attempted to organise an escape, convincing a mercenary named Tyler and two scientists named Paul and Bethany to assist her. However, their escape was foiled by the arrival of Captain Vance. A conversation with Vance revealed to Maggie who her father was, and the extent of her mother's plans for her.
Gail Pilgrim soon arrived at the facility along with a rescue party. While a gunfight ensued outside, Gail and Diane Romero sneaked into the facility in an attempt to rescue Maggie. However, Diane was shot and killed by Marion Dale. Maggie attempted to save Diane by stepping inside of her mind, but found herself powerless to prevent the death of her best friend.
After letting out a blood-chilling scream and projecting a grisly, macabre vision onto her surroundings, Maggie pursued her mother out of the laboratory and shoved her over a railing into a deep chasm below, killing her. After discovering what Maggie had done, Gail stated resolutely that it looked to her like Marion "fell."
Marion's ashes were released out of the airlock of Starship Quicksilver during their return journey back to Planet Abassi. Diane was buried there following a funeral attended by her father, teachers and classmates.
Maggie's Ability
Thanks to an experimental procedure which was performed on her by her mother, Maggie has the ability to "step inside" other people's minds telepathically, seeing their dreams and their memories. Quite often, she sees their greatest fears and traumas - the things that occupy their unconscious mind.
These projections often occur by accident, without Maggie's control, but they can also be activated and controlled via meditation. Sometimes she sees things from another person's point of view, or at other times she just watches things unfold as an invisible observer. The other person often seems to be consciously or unconsciously aware of the intrusion.
Physical distance does not seem to be a limitation. If she feels a strong emotional connection with someone, she can step into their minds even from the other side of the galaxy.
Although Marion Dale hoped that the experiment would enable her daughter to become a great leader, she categorised Maggie's condition as an affliction rather than an ability, claiming that she "lacked the mental apparatus to fortify her mindspace against the invasions of others." In other words, Maggie is simply the receptacle and other people project their contents of their mental realm into hers.
However, Marion later discovered that her daughter was quite capable of creating her own mental projections.
Personality
Despite the difficulties in her life, Maggie has generally managed to maintain a cheerful disposition. She also appears to be a natural leader, easily managing to get people on her side.
She is a fan of ice cream and Peppy Photon.
Academy Crew Members
- Captain: Margaret Dale
- Navigator: Travers Bishop
- Comms Operator: Kenrick Morse
- Technician: May Martinez