Colette is a translucent Terran scientist currently working at the Reginald Erlenmeyer Memorial Research Facility located on Titan. A brilliant xenobiologist, Colette is currently studying the many lifeforms found across Saturn's hundred moons. She is very sweet and friendly, but she's also very sleepy and a bit forgetful about things outside her immediate focus- she'll occasionally take a nap inside a canister and then wake up later in another room of the facility, wherever one of her lab techs might have moved her. Outside of her research, Colette is an avid collector of teas from across the Sol system; any world with flora has a tradition of tea to it, and Colette loves to explore and sample Mercurian black teas, Venusian florals, Callistan greens, the splendor of Ganymede, even Europan brine teas have something new to offer. Bring her an interesting packet of tea and put on the electric kettle, you'll make a steadfast friend instantly.
The Reginald Erlenmeyer Memorial Research Facility is a state-of-the-art scientific outpost based on Titan Garden- it occupies the small satellite dome adjacent to the aquatic C-District, connected to but outside of Titan's colony proper. A joint facility between many of the Sol system's scientific bodies, the Rem's location on Titan allows it ready access to much of the system's areas of scientific interest. In Colette's case, being on Titan puts her right at the forefront of unexplored xenobiology, allowing her to study the many biomes and many ecosystems that have developed on Saturn's many moons. Since Saturn is the one planet in the system that never developed a dominating sentient lifeform, much of its moons' ecosystems are relatively intact and undisturbed, giving researchers like Colette a look into what kinds of lifeforms thrive in a world that never develops industry. Additionally, Saturn's proximity to the large gap between the inner worlds and Caelus makes it an excellent research station for the study of Xenofauna, the elusive deep-space lifeforms who occasionally drift into the system and chew the tasty ice and salt off important satellite equipment. Between Titan and Neptune, scientists cover a lot of this large orbital space from either end, and Colette's team takes advantage of reported Xenofauna sightings when they emerge, often flying out into the void to study these enormous, worldless creatures. It's a fascinating opportunity, and Colette is lucky to lead a team of her own in the Rem's biology wing.
When people meet Colette for the first time, they, well.. they often ask the obvious question. "Were you always like...?" They gesture with their hands, unsure of how to word what's on their mind. She's always very kind and accommodating about it, but the answer is no. Colette was, at one point, a very opaque Terran like any other, all the way through school and onto her first job as a biological research assistant. Her team was studying the phenomenon of slimes- lifeforms neither plant nor mineral nor animal- appearing on every industrialized world of the Sol system, exploring their chemical makeup to see if there were any links between the various slimes, how their environments may have impacted their development, or if it is all a case of extremely coincidental convergent evolution. As these stories often go, Colette's team used a particle bombardment stream- essentially a big scientific research cannon- to blast a beam of light into a slime sample and monitor the state of the beam's particles as they emerge out the other side. Colette prepared the sample and loaded it into the science ray, her team lead fired up the particle stream and the beam refracted within the gelatinous sample, coming out at an angle that cleared containment walls and struck Colette. Everyone yelps, she gets blooped but then she gets up and she's more or less fine, just goopy and green. Needless to say, the experience has been very illuminating as to how the mysterious fourth classification of lifeform works, as part of Colette's research was now first-hand. She does tend to need a nap here and there, though, so her team makes sure to put warning stickers on her favorite sleeping containers, but aside from that she's been able to make tremendous contributions to the field of xenobiology and has since gone on to become a director for her own team with an assignment to study the many ecosystems of Saturn from her inimitable perspective.
Colette's research requires her to do a lot of traveling, and while the Rem is a state-of-the-art facility, it doesn't have its own flight team to carry researchers to off-world sites, instead offering a travel stipend to hire local starship crews to provide the needed transportation for scientific teams to access their research subjects; it's more efficient to hire on a local starship crew than it is for the Rem to maintain its own dedicated fleet and the associated maintenance facilities. Colette's tried a few crews and she's had positive experiences with most of them, but her favorite crew to hire for missions into the Saturnian wilds is Red Raven. It was initially a tossup between Red Raven and Timberwolf- they're both professional crews- but what really won Colette's loyalty was Dr. Lin's own collection of herbal teas from across the Sol system. He's always shared Colette's interest in leafwater brews, and when the crew opened The Tea Drawer during a flight her eyes lit up! There was tea from everywhere on this ship! And that settled it, really. Since then she's become a recurring client and long-time friend of the crew, and they make sure to keep a clearly-labeled napping canister aboard the Jackrabbit II for her. Collecting samples from ship-dwarfing Xenofauna is a dangerous proposition, so it's important to be extremely discerning about the quality of starship crew a biologist might hire to facilitate this mission. Safety, professionalism, discretion and environmental consciousness are key qualities to look out for in choosing a prospective crew for any scientific expedition. But a palate for tea? That really makes all the difference.
