Cora Sabino

Cora Sabino (formerly Ortega) is a 21-year-old woman that became Ampersand's interpreter and close friend during the events of Axiom's End. At the start of the book, she is living with her mother, Demi, and her two siblings, Felix and Olive. Her father is notorious whistleblower Nils Ortega, and her aunt is ROSA employee Luciana Ortega.

Prior to the events of the first book, Cora had recently dropped out of University of California Irvine, where she was majoring in Linguistics. Since then, she seem to have been working as a temp, a job her mother helped her get. At the start of the second book, Cora is in the ROSA payroll, working as Ampersand's sole interpreter and advocate, and she lives in her own apartment, not far from where she works.

Appearance & Personality
Cora is 5'5" tall, and weighs about 110lbs. She is described as having light brown hair and hazel eyes.

Cora is a curious, inquisitive woman, as demonstrated by her interest in knowing more and more about Ampersand and amygdaline civilization. She is shown to be caring, especially to her brother and sister, and she feels she must care for them, probably due to the vacuum left by her father. She loves to play the guitar, and seems to like Ani DiFranco and The Beatles.

She is, nonetheless, a very anxious person, and that seems to reflect deep insecurities. She demonstrates a deep-rooted tendency towards escapism. An example of this is a sequence in which she hides inside of a cabinet in NORAD, and proceeds to re-live some of her childhood trauma, all the while wanting to escape, like Princess Leia, to "a galaxy far, far away".

After the events of Axiom's End, Cora's behavior and traits drastically change, as she deals with severe traumatic responses, such as panic attacks and vivid flashbacks.

History
Cora had a girlfriend in high school for six weeks.

Her father became a prominent figure c. 4 years before the events of the first book.