Concepción Querales was the captain of El Cavador and the matriarch of the Querales family.[1] She was first introduced in Earth Unaware.
History[]
Past[]
Concepción was the daughter of a plantain farmer in Venezuela. Eventually, she came into possession of El Cavador and started a free miner crew. The crew of El Cavador used to mine in the Asteroid Belt, but after being subjected to aggressive bumping by mining corporations like Juke Limited, the crew moved out to the Kuiper Belt.[1]
Earth Unaware[]
After many years of being settled in the Kuiper Belt, in 87 BX Concepción and other elders on the ship noticed that Victor Delgado was becoming too close with his cousin Alejandra. After deciding with the council that Alejandra should leave with a visiting Italian clan, Concepción met with Victor about what happened in order to give him a chance to say goodbye to Alejandra.[1]
Later that day, Victor and Edimar, Alejandra's sister, came to Concepción with evidence of an alien ship heading towards the solar system. Concepción said that they needed to consult Edimar's father, Toron, and that she would call a council meeting on the subject. At the meeting Edimar, Toron, and Victor discussed the evidence, and the council decided to send a laserline transmission to Weigh Station Four, the Italian clan, and a nearby Juke Limited ship called the Makarhu warning of the alien scout ship.[1]
A week later, the Makarhu bumped El Cavador off the asteroid they were mining. During the attack, Concepción told their computer expert to hack the Makarhu and copy their files. Concepción then decided to go to the Italians for help, however Edimar predicted that the Italians would have encountered a pod from the alien ship by the time they arrived.[1]
When they arrived at the site of the Italian ships, there was nothing left intact. Only nine survivors were found, but those nearly died due to lack of oxygen. Concepción became worried when it was learned that the alien pod turned around to attack El Cavador. Toron, Segundo, and Victor attacked the alien pod from the quickship that they modified and used to look for more survivors, saving El Cavador.[1]
After saving the nine survivors and looking for more, Concepción and the council decided it was time to leave and to head towards Weigh Station Four in order to use their laserline to contact Earth about the aliens, which had been named by the Spanish-speaking crew as hormigas. However, Weigh Station Four was destroyed by a gamma plasma burst from the alien ship before they arrived. Victor suggested that they send him to Luna in a quickship with a data cube to warn Earth of the impending disaster. Concepción and the rest of the council reluctantly agreed.[1]
The next plan was to contact any other ships that could help attack the alien ship.The only possible contacts were Lem Jukes, captain of the Makarhu, and a WU-HU corporate ship. Both agreed to help , and Dr. Benyawe from the Makarhu's crew decided to call the hormigas Formics as a more official name.[1]
The plan of attack was to put all woman and children aboard the WU-HU ship with information on the Formics. The Makarhu and El Cavador would attack the Formic ship by sending men to the surface of the Formic ship and placing mines to destroy the hull. The attack ended in disaster by an accidental explosion. The Makarhu left the scene when things took a wrong turn, and El Cavador with Concepción aboard was destroyed by the Formic ship with a gamma plasma burst.[1]