Captain Meera Yen - Dmitri's mother and the former Captain of the TRS Cairo, a Valorous-class that she and her entire command staff defected with ten years before the start of the first story. She has now been given command of a Nyx-class, the LSS Sphinx. There is going to be some fairly awful stuff that will surface about why she made the decision she did. Mostly, she was actively abused by both her biological family and then by her husband's extended family until she gained command rank and the combat experience to end the physical abuse. She took steps to ensure that her husband would get Dmitri into the Navy as an officer, and that his position in the family business was secure enough to survive, and then she defected. Dmitri knows none of this at the start of the story. In fact, he is most likely to deeply resent his mother for a majority of the pre-Fall parts of the story.
Senior Cadet Malachi Anvarson - A cadet in his third year on the Moskva who seemingly recognizes Dmitri's instinctive Focus use and takes him and the whole main crew under his wing. Goes a long way to keeping Dmitri out of the hands of the Psychotronics Institute.
Cadet Bao Wang - one of the top five; rival to Saya; deeply gifted tactician though he struggles to grasp big-picture considerations.
Cadet Saul bin Abbas - one of the top five; rival to Ishaan