Rachel Burrows

Rachel Burrows was a synthetic who was raised by her adopted parents Emmett and Lisa Burrows. While not one of the most advanced models of her time, Rachel seemed remarkably like a real child to River.

Early life
Rachel's parents bought and adopted her after they had been unsuccessful to have a child in their youth and had become too old to adopt a human child. In order to do so, they spent much of their own wealth and had to move to a small, but more affordable, house on an island off the mainland. (AUDIO: Five Twenty-Nine)

The end of the world
On one night, River Song turned up at the door of Rachel and her parents' house, claiming to have washed up on the island following a shipwreck. She Spent the night and the next day getting to know the Burrows and eventually divulged to Rachel how she had come from the future where she had met Rachel as one of the sole survivors of a dying Earth, and had wanted to find out how this had happened.

The next day, a radio broadcast alerted the household that at exactly 5:29, the world was being wiped out, time zone by time zone. River eventually resolved to try to save the family, bringing them out to sea along with Steven Godbold in Steven's boat. Sailing west, they an already dead time zone before 5:29 reached their place, but Steven was killed when he fell into the water, revealing that everything in the area was deadly to the touch.

Eventually, unable to save anyone else, River hooked Rachel up to the generator aboard the boat to help boost her through the deadly five twenty-nine as it came across its second cycle. River then used her vortex manipulator to escape while Rachel was deactivated and her parents killed. (AUDIO: Five Twenty-Nine)

Some time later, Rachel was reactivated when she was found by River Song, albeit earlier in River's own life. Thanks to her, River managed to find a trace for her investigation about what happened to Earth, and went on meeting Rachel. (AUDIO: The Unknown) She then left Rachel with the crew of the Saturnius before using her vortex manipulator to travel back to meet Rachel before this all happened. (AUDIO: Five Twenty-Nine)

A brave new world
Feeling responsible for her, River went back to retrieve Rachel, in order to teach her what it means to be an immortal. She brought her to a planet and used her vortex manipulator to jump through its history, so she could see how the people eventually brought on their own destruction, in spite of their efforts to help them. Rachel at some point rebelled and tried to change history, but found out she couldn't. However, River brought her to the moment in time they started their journey, and together they did effect a small change that did not change the future of the planet, but allowed its people to find a solution to survive: when the planet was eventually destroyed by a solar flare, they built rockets and left it for a new home. Rachel then expressed a desire to stay and help the people in their new life. (AUDIO: Slight Glimpses of Tomorrow)

Rachel met the three members of the colony ship and persuaded River to leave her there to help them, although she promised to call her if she needed her. She formed a deep bond with one of them, Aaron, but was betrayed by the other two, Linus and Bryson, who connected her to the computer ship and used her as a navigator in their stead. Rachel drove the ship for 497 years, before a breed of "zombified" electric eels invaded the ship and threatened the life of the colonists. Rachel retrieved her memories and called River; with her help and that of Aaron, they managed to save the colonists' life. Rachel then elected to stay with the colonists and Aaron and help them to build their new world. (AUDIO: A Brave New World)