Miriani - Lydia Martellato

Lydia Elaine Martellato was born in 2340, the youngest child of the mobster pilot Victor Martellato and his fourth wife, Francesca. Like the rest of her siblings Lydia endured a childhood full of abuse from her tyrannical father, and her beloved and gentle mother mysteriously disappeared when she was nine. As she had no contact with the children Victor had with his previous wives, the duty of protecting little Lydia from their father’s harm fell to her elder sister Catelina. However, as Catelina was a pacifist and Lydia was quick to protect those she cared about, she often protected Catelina from their father’s harsh words as well.

The two sisters became very close. Victor Martellato believed that piloting should be reserved for men and that a woman's place was in the home rather than in the starships. He denied Catelina the opportunity to go to the prestigious piloting school to which he sent his sons Allon, Lance, and Alexander Martellato on the basis of her gender, as he said "A woman pilot is a waste."

Catelina made the difficult decision to move out and use what little money she had to fund her tuition to a much less highly regarded piloting school, figuring a piloting license from anywhere would be better than no license at all. Lydia supported her sister in her dreams to become a pilot, although without protection the abuse she suffered from her father dramatically increased in severity.

Not long after Catelina became a pilot she fell ill with a strange illness which eventually resulted in her death. Lydia managed to break free of her father's clutches and cared for her sister, as the only member of the family who could seeing as she didn't know she had other siblings. While she was dying Catelina told Lydia about the rest of their family and urged her to go to the pilot school that their brothers attended. Catelina’s final request was that Lydia graduate and find Allon, Lance, and Alexander to fix the broken family in a way that she was never able to do herself.

Lydia honored her sister's wishes and masqueraded as Matt Martellato for the duration of her training. She wrote her father a letter to tell him that Matt was the result of one of his many extramarital affairs, and demanded that since Victor had not supported him or his mother at all the least he could do to redeem his honor would be to pay for the best pilot training money could buy. Not being the brightest of men and terribly vain about his reputation, Victor did pay for "Matt" to attend pilot school in full in the hopes that another Martellato son might follow in his footsteps.

Lydia managed to score high marks in most of her classes, all the while never letting on that she was actually a girl in case her father ever enquired about his illegitimate son's progress at the school.

Once she had her license Lydia was free to resume her life as herself. Of course Victor was enraged when he learned of her deception, but as she already had her license and he had retired from piloting there was nothing he could do to harm her any longer. Lydia was then free tofly about the galaxy and start building the life she and her sister had always dreamed of.

Lydia has since united with her brothers and is a proud member of the Alliance of Interstellar Expansionists. She is known to be trigger happy when it comes to praelor and can be quick to anger and sharp words when provoked, but she loves socializing with friends and meeting new pilots from all three alliances. In addition to gunning down praelor, her favorite activities include asteroid hauling and sarcastic banter.