Ming (Transit)

During the 2110s, Ming was a woman in her fifties who worked for the Sol Transit System as the Chief Controller of the Interstitial Mass Transit System. During the Stunnel Incident she was elevated to STS Director General. She was often called "Ming the Merciless" (PROSE: Transit) after the early-20th century fictional villainess. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Ming was English, and referred to her ethnicity as ninth generation Bradford Cantonese. She was a partner in a polygamous marriage and resided on the Isle of Dogs.

After the Stunnel Incident, she became Director of the Butterfly Wing temporal research project, based on a space station owned by Harare Power Systems located in the vicinity of Europa. She resided there with her Number Two Husband until the base personnel were forced to evacuate when the project's Chief Scientific Officer detonated its reactor to power the first time jump and destroy all the accumulated research.

She lived in a restored maisonette that was one hundred fifty four years old by the time of the Stunnel Incident. It had avoided demolition over the years due to some complication in the planning process. When Ming began working for STS, she bought into the top floor; through a variety of means she eventually purchased the entire building and exchanged favours to get it restored and placed under a Protection Order.

As a member of a polygamous marriage, Ming had multiple husbands. Her "Number One Husband", Fu, married Ming in the 2090s in a traditional ceremony, after which they spent the night in the bridal suite of the Hotel Metropole. After thirty years they retained a taste for sex on the floor. Fu resided in a flat shared with "Number Two Wife", Bridgette. Ming's "Number Two Husband", Achmed, was a German architect working for a public works company of which Fu was the managing director. The marriage produced numerous children, aunts (including Shmoo), and grandchildren. (PROSE: Transit)