Clanclan, Aisha

But then, as her ship was on its way to Blue Heaven, Aisha got caught in in the middle of an Outlaw chase. Hilda's ship, Horus, (with Gene, Jim, and Melfina inside with her) were trying to escape from several other Outlaws (hired by the MacDougalls)... and the Orta Honehone was in the way! Aisha tried to throw the weight of the Empire by demanding the ships get out of the way, but she didn't realize that Outlaws answer to no one but themselves. Aisha had to order the ship to move aside so Horus could get past... but when a small asteroid hit the ship, she got angry and gave the order to fire. Though she would eventually capture the pursuing Outlaws, Hilda and company got clean away.

When word of the fiasco reaches the home planet, Aisha is stripped of her rank and reassigned to Blue Heaven to gather information on the Galactic Leyline. Dejected, Aisha wandered the space colony. Then, when Gene returned, she learned that he knew Hilda, and she confronted him, chasing him all around with Ctarl-Ctarl ferocity and relentlessness... until she ran out of energy. Hoping to learn more about the Leyline, Gene takes her to dinner, and before Aisha can turn the tables on them, Gene KO's her and leaves her with the bill.

Aisha doesn't catch up again until the Heifong Space Race, where she commandeers a passing Ctarl-Ctarl patrol vessel and pursues Gene all throughout the race. Eventually, Aisha learns that Gene is looking for the Galactic Leyline, so she happily makes herself part of the Outlaw Star's crew.

As Jim described them once, the Ctarl-Ctarl are sort of a cross between a human and a tiger. Aisha, typical of her race, is very proud, very direct, very aggressive... and very tough. Few things phase a Ctarl-Ctarl (surviving a #12 at point-blank proved her point on that account). Even in humanoid form, they are much stronger than most other races, and they have high tolerances for extremes (for example, she doesn't consider hot springs hot unless the water's boiling). Things gets even worse when they need to morph into their beast forms, where their awesome power is magnified even more and can be further boosted by the light of a moon. The only problem with the beast form is that it's hypermetabolic, allowing only a brief period of transformation... and requiring a healthy meal afterwards to recoup the lost calories.