SHIP

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Reality-791 sentient energy form (former stellar body)

Occupation: Assistant/partner

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Star-Lord (Peter Quill), Starlord (Sinjin Quarrel) (partners);
   Master of the Sun (possibly the leader of her race);
   Widgets (self-extensions);
   Aletha, Trinity-That-Is-One, Kip Hölm and Sandy, the people of Cymoril

Enemies: Harith Damyish, Haalmhad race, Lorq, Kyras Shakati, Slavers, Symbion (planet), unidentified race

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Aurora, 'Rora, Caryth Halyan

Base of Operations: Mobile throughout the universe;
    formerly Bovric, R'Ralmis, an unidentified solar system

First Appearance: Marvel Preview#11 (Summer, 1977)

Abilities: Ship is a highly powerful sentient energy form. She most often exists in the form of a starship, but can alter her structure into many different forms. She can fly through air, space, and water. She possesses many of the conventional starship accessories, including shields, energy blasters, advanced sensors, replicators (able to form any kind of food, drink, etc.), and hologram projectors.

    Even if completely destroyed, she has, under some circumstances, restored her form, since her true form is her consciousness.

    In addition, she takes on a number of feminine characteristics, such as a mothering type instinct for those she is partnered with. She has also felt deeper attachments, and even lover for her partner(s).

    Among her many forms are the warship image to the above left (with her semi-holographic human form, 'Rora (discussed later under abilities), taking a wolfen appearance at the same time), a Sikh'aar gunship, ...

a Kinderish merchant ship (seen to the right); and she has proven created a human form, which she can then animate and take as a host, notably her form as Caryth Halyan

    Ship has also demonstrated the ability to radically alter her form while remaining functional. When she had to travel from orbit to near the surface of Cinnibar in less than two minutes, Ship allowed her form to stretch and flow into an elongated form (like a silver needle). By the time she had reached Shakati's floating palace, Ship had assumed a form resembling a hot-air balloon and sucked Star-Lord, Kip and Sandy into her. In this "balloon" form, Ship's hull seemed to be only inches thick (at least at the part where the opening into her was located) but her interior was comfortable even though her outer surface was glowing red-hot from friction. Also, after closing into a sphere, Ship was able to withstand a multi-megaton fusion explosion which detonated "a moment later" as EXTREMELY close proximity. At that range, Ship should have been pulverized by the shockwave or incinerated by the heat but she (and her passengers) were completely unaffected by the explosion.

    Ship can make herself invisible to both living beings and to sensors. On at least one occasion (Marvel Preview#11), Ship could approach a slaver starship without being detected. Then, when she was a mere one hundred kilometers away and directly in front of them, Ship allowed their sensors to detect a contact, one which seemingly appeared out of nowhere, by allowing Star-Lord (who was within her) to become visible while she remained invisible. Finally, while the slavers were distracted by seeing a man floating in space, Ship became visible herself and opened fire.
    On at least one other occasion (Marvel Preview#18), Ship demonstrated her invisibility trick again when, while under attack by Quan-Zarr's remote-automatic fighters, she maneuvered them into surrounding her and then became invisible and quickly changed her position, letting the fighters' automatic sensors lock onto the only targets now available (each other) and open fire.

    Ship possesses a certain amount of telepathic ability. She could monitor Kip Holm's Windrunner trance and identify people and places that he "saw" while in his trance. Her "empathic rapport" with Star-Lord may be another manifestation of this ability.
    Ship communicated telepathically with Sinjin Quarrel, a Probiti who had low-level telepathic abilities. Sinjin had found Ship after sleepwalking into the forests of Bovric, apparently because Ship had dreamed that she was calling to someone.
    Ship demonstrated a vulnerability to more powerful telepaths. When Lawgiver Harith Damyish came too close to her, Ship was unable to bear his presence (in her holographic form) and had to withdraw back into her core. This seems to indicate that Ship's consciousness was somehow present within her hologram form.

    Ship has always been able to speak to other beings through sound or radio communications, either as a starship or through her Widgets. However, her ability to more directly interact with others has varied over time. One one occasion (Marvel Preview#11), Ship manifested within her cockpit as a three-dimensional image of a woman but that image was unable to physically touch Star-Lord. In desperate circumstances (Marvel Preview#14), Ship sub-divided her consciousness and place most of her "self" into a mechanoid humanoid body while leaving some of her "self" within her starship body, but this procedure was difficult and dangerous. In another instance (Marvel Preview#15), Ship appeared within her cockpit in the form of a human woman apparently able to grasp Star-Lord's hand in hers, suggesting that this form had some physicality to it.
    During her association with Sinjin Quarrel, Ship/Aurora could generate a hologram of a woman within her starship body. This hologram appeared to function as the center of Ship's awareness, and it disappeared when the presence of a powerful telepath forced her to withdraw back into her core. Presumably this "core" was a section of her starship body (possibly the computer system which normally "contained" her consciousness) that was protected from outside influences. When Ship changed the shape of her starship body, her hologram form changed to match it, as when she became a Kinderish while changed into the shape of a Kinderish merchant ship. Ship was also able to manifest two separate Kinderish hologram forms simultaneously and use them to carry on to separate conversations when she needed to communicate with two different traffic control officers at the same time.

    Among the equipment which Ship carries aboard/within herself is a "hypno-probe" (as seen in Marvel Preview#11). This electronic device, when placed on a subject's head, allows Ship to neutralize any mind shields the subject might possess and induce a hypnotic state during which the subject will remain calm and truthfully answer any questions asked of him/her. Although it is not physically connected to Ship, the hypno-probe must still be considered to be a part of Ship since she must have created it out of her own basic mass (like the Widgets).

    On one occasion (in Marvel Preview#15), Ship generated intense heat ("A thousand Centigrade and climbing") from her outer hull while keeping her interior (where Star-Lord was) comfortable. The heat output was (allegedly) the result of a "controlled matter-to-energy conversion" created by Ship "(molding) the primal fabric of space itself like a master sculptress." This tactic is extremely dangerous because if Ship were to make even the slightest slip, her body would become "a small scale super-nova" that would totally destroy her and her surroundings.

    Ship can create Widgets--small, mobile droids able to scout out situations, gather information, and then return to her. Widgets can play cassette tapes, use laser surgery (laced with antibiotics) to treat minor cuts, and can operate autonomously when unable to communicate with Ship herself.

    The full extent of Ship's abilities, as well as her limitations, remains to be seen.

History:
(Marvel Preview#15 (fb)) - The entity known as "Ship" was once a sentient star: a Yellow Dwarf, whose solar system held eleven planets, two of which had begun to develop intelligent life. However, it became a pawn between two rival forces from another star system, and one of these sent a bomb into the center of her, forcing her to go super-nova, destroying her solar body, the rival starships, and all of the planets in the system.
   For an uncertain period of time, she somehow existed as a consciousness without form. Eventually, she was found by the Master of the Sun, who brought her to his base on R'Ralmis and helped her to find inner peace.

(Marvel Preview#4 - BTS?) <February 9, 1990> - The Master of the Sun transported Terran astronaut Peter Jason Quill from Space Station Eve to a city in space (presumably R'Ralmis) and transformed him into the Star-Lord. The star's consciousness may (or may not) have been present during the transformation.
 
(Marvel Preview#15 (fb)) - As the newly-remade Star-Lord stood before them, the Master of the Sun asked the star's consciousness (which may have been visible as a spiral of energy beside his throne) what she thought of "the lad." The star replied that he was young and beautiful and yet so lost and alone that it hurt to look at him. The star then speculated that Quill was like her and stated that she knew that he needed her as she needed him. The Master of the Sun then told her that to wait would be a sin and to go to him and so, with the Master's aid, the star reshaped her 'self' into a physical form to which Quill could easily relate, that of a sentient starship.
 
(Marvel Spotlight#6 (fb)) - The Master of the Sun introduced the former star to Peter Quill as "Ship" whom he described as a very special living being who was in complete control of her molecular structure and thus could alter her form at will. When the Master stated that, in deference to Star-Lord's needs, Ship would most often take to form of a starcraft, Ship mentioned that she had already forgotten her true form. After that, Ship became Star-Lord's transport and, later, his friend.

(Marvel Preview#11) - Ship assisted Star-Lord in his assault on the Slavers. She then transported Star-Lord, and two of those recently freed (Kip Hölm and Sandy) to Cinnibar to gain vengeance on Kyras Shakati, who had sent the Slavers. She rescued the three of them and escaped Cinnabar when Shakati's entire base exploded. She brought them to Sparta, but was shot down by starships under the control of Gareth, Emperor Jason's uncle and would-be usurper. She crashed on the surface of Sparta, but saved the lives of all aboard and was present when Emperor Jason revealed that he was Peter Quill's biological father. Ship later left with Star-Lord after he turned down Jason's offer to become heir to the throne.

(Marvel Preview#14) - In the form of a Sikh'aar gunship, Ship was shot down again, this time by a squadron of Lorq starfighters, and they crashed on the planet Ferrol.

Star-Lord was badly injured, and Ship created a human form to operate and save his life. When he revived, she pretended to be a woman who had found him, and named herself Caryth Halyan. Star-Lord and Caryth explored the planet, searching for what the Lorq had been after. She attempted to seduce him, but found the feelings this generated to intense for her, and so she broke it off. They encountered and saved the life of the Trinity-That-Is-One and its insectoid symbionts, and Star-Lord provided a water source to keep them alive. Then the Lorq attacked anew, slaying Caryth and destroying Ship before he could fight them off.

Ship, however, as a being of primal energy, was able to reform. Star-Lord guessed that she had been Caryth.

(Marvel Preview#15) - Ship sensed the destruction of the planet Carillon at the hands of the Haalmhad. Furious over such senseless destruction and feeling a connection to the destruction of her own star-form, Ship went on a mission to stop the Haalmhad. She and Star-Lord disabled the Haalmhad homeship, saving their next target, the planet Cymoril.

(Marvel Preview#18) - Ship sensed an immense power source (the Power Rod) on Redstone and sent Star-Lord to investigate.

(Marvel Super Special#10) - Ship and Star-Lord were pulled through a warp associated with a black hole and were separated. There Star-Lord met an alien race living on a massive, planet-sized ark. Their leader, Noah, initially claimed that they were the last remnants of the human race, having come from 3 million years in the future. However, another member of the race, Aletha, revealed that they were aliens, using illusions (which they called "smoke") to appear to be human. Aletha revealed that "Noah" and his allies had actually sought to use Star-Lord's knowledge to conquer Earth and take it for their new home. With Star-Lord's aid, Aletha and the rest of the people of the ark overthrew Noah and his warlords, so that they would then live on the ark for the rest of their lives.
After a brief affair with Aletha, Star-Lord was then reunited with Ship. As they left the ark, Ship revealed that she had been linked with Aletha for the course of their adventures.

(Marvel Spotlight II#6) - Star-Lord sensed an attack on the Master of the Sun and rescued him. However, the Master instructed them to return him so he could accept his fate.

(Marvel Spotlight II#7) - Star-Lord and Ship traveled to the planet Heaven, where they tried to save Thorn from Shreen and allow Thorn to regain his wings and return to the Cloudlands. Ultimately both Shreen and Thorn died, a result of their debts of honor.

(Marvel Premiere#61) - Star-Lord investigated the planet "Symbion" (see comments). The planet, a sentient being, tried to form a temporary symbiosis with him, but he mistook it to be a parasitic creature. He broke free of its clutches and planned to destroy the planet to prevent it from taking other victims. Ship talked him out of it, and he left the planet behind.

(Starlord#2(fb)) - Ship, and presumably Star-Lord, were caught in the pull of a black hole. Ship narrowly escaped destruction by "slingshotting" around the gravity well, but she crashed on the planet Bovric.

(Starlord#1-3) - Twelve years later, Star-Lord was still missing, and Ship had no memory of what had happened to him. Ship encountered and trained the Probiti (a race/group of telepaths) Sinjin Quarrel to be the new Starlord until they could find the original. She also assisted him in uncovering a plot of lawgiver Harith Damyish. This adventure took them to R'Ralmis, where they learned it to be the source for the Element Gun, and saved it from iatrogenic damage. They then traveled to Holmrig, where they broke up an alliance between Glazgon and Damyish, and exposed Damyish as a Probiti.
Sinjin named Ship " 'Rora" short for Aurora, goddess of the dawn.

(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Ship and Peter Quill were reunited. Sinjin Quarrel's fate remains unrevealed.
 
(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, after an abortive attempt to bring Peter back, Ship met with Kip Hölm and revealed that, since they had last met,  "Star-Lord and Ship (had) roamed from one end of the galaxy to the other - - and beyond - - always searching, never at peace, Peter driven by his insatiable curiosity, Ship by her love for him."
 
(Starlord Special Edition#1: Epilogue) <70 years after the events of Marvel Previews#11> - On the last night of the year-long celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of Emperor Jason's coronation, Kip Hölm told his children the story of how he, their mother, and Emperor Jason had all first met Star-Lord and Ship. After having sat through this retelling, the children nodded off and Jason announced that he would abdicate the throne. However, later that night Star-Lord returned to see Jason, with Ship present, too. Sandy and Kip came to Jason's bed and found the imperial signet ring and Star-Lord's helmet, as Jason and Star-Lord, with Ship, took to the stars.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

    Marvel Super-Special#10 was published in Winter of 1979, which would place it between Marvel Preview#18 and Marvel Spotlight II#6. However, the trip through the black hole seems to connect it to the disappearance of Star-Lord discussed in the 1996 Starlord series. I see two possibilities.

• Marvel Super-Special#10 took place in the order that it was published, Star-Lord and Ship returned to their original location, and there was a completely separate black hole adventure that led to Star-Lord's disappearance.
• Marvel Super-Special#10 took place after Marvel Premiere#61, making it the last known Star-Lord adventure. A portion of Ship's mind (and possibly her form as well) was pulled into the Black Hole with Star-Lord, and she eventually recovered her mind by linking with Aletha and by rebuilding herself from the ark. A separate portion of Ship escaped the Black Hole, crashing on the planet Bovric, where she was found by Sinjin Quarrel, with her memories damaged.
• In my opinion, there seems to be no connection between the black hole mentioned in the Starlord miniseries and the black hole which Aletha from the Ark used to create the "fusion vortex" which brought Starlord and Ship to the Ark, and creating such a connection wouldn't help.
  --Donald Campbell

A few more comments by Donald Campbell

• Although Ship's "Caryth Halyan" form looked and (apparently) felt like a human woman, "she" was actually a mechanoid and thus not really composed of organic matter.  Alternatively, it's possible that Caryth's body had an outer layer of synthesized living tissue over her metal endoskeleton (like a Terminator).
• The idea that Ship had forgotten her true form is something that was added by writer Doug Moench and is inconsistent with earlier stories. The best in-universe explanation that I can think of is that Ship didn't want to mention to Peter that she had been a star because that would have required her to talk about her extremely painful past. So, she just lied about not remembering her past form.
• Although the fact that Ship's primal state of being is energy meant that the Lorq's weapons could not have actually destroyed her, they were able to disrupt her consciousness so much that she was no longer really "alive" in any sense. It was only thanks to the powerful alien known as the Trinity-Who-Is-One, who healed her and restored her energy, that Ship was able reform (actually, create a new physical form for herself) by again transmuting some of her energy into matter.
• Ship once claimed that her Widgets were "designed and built from the same scientific foundation the Master of the Sun used when he created me." It may be that the Master of the Sun taught his technology to Ship so that she could use it to create her physical form.
• When Sinjin Quarrel found Ship on the planet Bovric, she and Starlord had been missing for twelve years. However, when Ship later revealed that she had crashed after escaping from a close encounter with a black hole. Sinjin speculated that the time-dilation effect Ship would have experienced near the event horizon of the black hole could have slowed time down for her. Accordingly, despite having disappeared twelve years earlier, Ship could have spent years (which passed like minutes to her) near the black hole before crashing on Bovric only a few years (or months) before Sinjin found her.
• It's probably also worth mentioning that Ship's starship hull is composed of "organic steel." What exactly this substance is or how it differs from normal steel has not yet been revealed.

    You can see Donald's Ship-616 profile's comments for clarifications on the different versions of Ship and the convoluted chronology that led to the different versions of Ship. This comment is thus no longer relevant, but it was when this profile was written...

• Ship initially described herself (in Marvel Preview#15) as having taken the form of the Ship to work alongside Peter/Star-Lord. In the Inhumans series, Ship is seen as the ally of Jason of Spartax.
• The ship with which Jason crashed on Earth (in Marvel Preview#11) is distinctly different from Ship's form, but in Inhumans IV#1, Delphos saw Ship crashing and "dying" on Earth. Since she had survived the destruction of her physical form before (and did so again later), it seems likely that she could have again. She may likely then have returned to the Master of the Sun, awaiting a period when she could be returned to solid form. It would also seem likely that if this is the case, that when Jason rebuilt his ship, it was just a mechanical device, no longer inhabited by the consciousness of Ship.
• Luis Dantas backed me up on this: This is actually hinted at by that issue's line where Jason mentions to his earthly lover (Starlord's mother) that his ship is "imperfect."  Granted, there are many other, more mundane reasons why the fixed ship would be imperfect, but it still fits in nicely with your interpretation.

Profile by Snood. Updates, image upgrades, and expansions by Donald Campbell.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Ship, companion of Star-Lord-791 ("classic Star-Lord), aka 'Rora/Aurora, has no known connection to:

• Ship, the being that escaped the Celestials and traveled to Earth to become the temporary base of X-Factor; and who later had its programming merged with Nathan Christopher Summers when he was sent into the future, becoming the Professor as Nathan became Cable; and who eventually evolved into the being known as Prosh, @ X-Factor I#; New Mutants I#??; X-Force#39
• Aurora, Olympian goddess of the dawn, not yet seen in the MU
• Aurora, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, of Alpha Flight, @ Uncanny X-Men#120
  
  and she should not be confused with:
   
• Ship-616, used by Star-Lord-616 prior to its apparent destruction--Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord#1
• Ship from Reality-616, aka Soulship, a sentient starship who is the companion of the now-exiled Spartoi Prince Jason of Spartax -- Inhumans IV#2

Ship's Widgets have no known connection to:

• Widget, the mental essence of Kate Pryde from Earth-Days of Future Past, sent back to the modern era, but initially trapped in a series of progressively more advanced robot-like forms, @ Excalibur I#1

Marvel Preview#11, page 13?, panel 4 (Widget)
Marvel Preview#11, pages 31-32? (Ship near Sparta)
Marvel Preview#14, page 1?, panel 4 (full, black and white image)
Marvel Preview#14, page 4?, panel 4 (Ship as Sikh'aar gunship)
Marvel Preview#14, page 10?, panel 5 (Caryth's body before ?cosmetic modifications?)
Marvel Preview#14, page 17? , panel 6 (Caryth Halyan)
Marvel Preview#14, page 37?, panel 3 (Ship reforming around Star-Lord)
Marvel Preview#15, page 13? , panel 2 (original star form)
Marvel Preview#15, page 25?, panel 4 (Ship being inspected within Haalmhad worldship)
(all of the above reprinted in Star-Lord: Worlds On the Brink#1)
Marvel Preview#18, page 14?, panel 4 (Widgets -- including open portal -- with Ship)
Starlord#1, page 9, panel 2 (full 'Rora human form)
Starlord#1, page 10, panel 3 (another choice for Aurora - straight-on face)
Starlord#2, page 2, panel 2 (main/color image)
Starlord#2, page 29, panels 5-6 (Aurora plus Ship in warship mode)
Starlord#3, page 2, panels 5-6 (Aurora plus Ship as Kinderish merchant ship)

Appearances:
Marvel Preview#11 (Summer, 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), John Warner & Ralph Macchio (editors)
Marvel Preview#14-15 (March, 1978 & June, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Rick Marshall & Ralph Macchio (editors)
Marvel Preview#18 (Spring 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (pecnils), Bob McLeod (inks), Rick Marshall & Ralph Macchio (editors)
Marvel Super Special#10 (Winter 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Rick Marshall (editor)
Marvel Spotlight II#7 (July, 1980) - Doug Moench (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Premiere#61 (August, 1981) - Doug Moench (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Starlord Special Edition#1 (February, 1982)
Starlord#1-3 (December, 1996 - February, 1997) - Timothy Zahn (writer), Dan Lawlis (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 09/05/02

Last updated: 05/18/14

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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