Matilda ‘Mattie’ Williams
+ Optimistic, Adaptable, Calm
- Secretive, Tactless, Noncommittal
There are those who like to figure out people, and those who like to figure out machines… No prizes for guessing which camp the software engineer falls into.
Its not that Mattie is bad with people- two big components of her job are communication and teamwork- just that the intricacies of social relationships aren’t exactly her forte.
Mattie was raised in foster care and was frequently moved around. She wasn’t exactly a badly behaved child, but she did have a couple of bad habits- she often talked back and was prone to sneaking out at night.
Space was easy to dream about, because no matter where you went it was always there. A ranch house in the middle of nowhere or a too small apartment at the top of a high rise in the city, all she had to do was look out her window.
There was one family who she found more interesting than most- when she was twelve her foster father had an expansive home study, and when it was determined that she had to leave Mattie took one of his books on complex numbers.
Her determination to understand it was what started her fascination with all things related to maths and science, and technology too a little further down the line.
The four years she spent at university studying software engineering were the longest Mattie had spent in one place and it didn’t take her long to realize she wasn’t exactly suited to living that way.
So once she graduated Mattie packed up, and she’s been travelling around Australia ever since, picking up software freelance software engineer opportunities as she goes. There is always new technology emerging, and the demand for her line of work is only growing so she’s got a lot of experience under her belt.
As soon as she learned about Maxtor she started applying for low level jobs as often as they popped up, eventually landing herself a position as part of a team who were tasked with figuring out why none of their equipment could maintain contact within the atmosphere of 9895-Vierra.
This team was eventually scrapped after yielding no explanation, and initially Mattie was heartbroken.But then they offered her the chance of a lifetime- join an expedition onto the planet! She can’t quite believe her luck, and she’s beyond excited to be venturing out into the unknown.
True as a software engineer she probably won’t be on the frontline- it’ll be a lot of algorithms and data management and computer security, but Mattie is good at her job and this is a chance to do what she does in entirely uncharted territory.
Yeah she gets why the mission is a big secret too- probably not a good idea to be telling the public about a new planet before you’ve even figured out what’s on it, right? But it’s a good thing Mattie doesn’t really have any close friends, because if she did, she’d definitely have spilled the beans by now.
But that’s the biggest drawback of her life on the road- she’s always resisted forming any long term relationships, everything with Mattie is easy breezy.
She knows being on this mission will force her to spend a lot of time in close quarters with a bunch of strangers, and Mattie isn’t sure if she’s dreading or looking forward to the sort of bonds that will be created as a consequence of that.
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