Maya Sundaresh was a Golden Age scientist who joined the Ishtar Collective with her partner, Chioma Esi, in order to study the ruins left on Venus by the Traveler’s terraforming of the planet.1 During her time at Ishtar, Sundaresh was part of a research team that included Drs. Esi, Duane-McNiadh, and Shim. While studying a captive Vex unit, the researchers found several hundred identical copies of themselves within the Vex network.2 This led to the research team contacting a Warmind, allowing them to safely extract 227 copies of themselves from the simulation and, after a unanimous vote by the recovered copies, disperse them into the Vex network as explorers.3
The 227
Some of the simulated Vex researchers, or “two-two-seven groups,” came into contact with Praedyth, a Guardian who had become trapped in time within the Vault of Glass.4 Several copies of the team entered the Vault; once inside, they began sending messages from the Vault to the “ends of the Vex networks.”56 Encouraged by their experiments, and following the awakening of the Undying Mind, Praedyth and one hundred eighty-three copies of the Ishtar team attempted to escape “beyond the network to physical reality.”67
One of the 227 copies of Sundaresh was captured by the Vex and experimented on.8 Posing as the original Maya Sundaresh, this copy infiltrated Clovis Bray’s Europan research facility. During an organ transplant, this Sundaresh vivisected and tortured Clovis for information about Clarity Control’s location; however, Elsie Bray intervened and saved her grandfather’s life. Following this event, Elsie tracked down the “real” Sundaresh, who told Elsie about the power of the Vex and warned her against Clovis’ folly.8
Other Experiments
While at the Collective, Sundaresh also conducted other experiments, including using Vex radiolaria as a ship coolant.9
At one point, the Ishtar Collective and Clovis Bray worked together to build Soteria, the Augurmind, an AI designed to aid in extrasolar colonization efforts; Sundaresh was the team lead.101112 In her efforts to locate habitable worlds, Soteria began tracking a mobile anomaly that interfered with her simulations.12 The AI communicated with Rasputin and also began disobeying direct orders from Bray; ultimately, Bray executed a PILLORY order and had the AI sequestered, though Soteria managed to fragment herself before being pilloried.10111314 Following this, Sundaresh resigned and ended the professional relationship between Ishtar and Clovis Bray.11
Some time after she left Ishtar, Sundaresh was stationed in Lhasa, Tibet, researching the Vex.15 The scientists at Lhasa created a machine called “the Device,” a machine modeled after the Vex gateway systems seen on Venus. Sundaresh then began the CHASM records as documentation of the Device and its effects on the surrounding scientists.15 When she resigned, Sundaresh left the log behind, though the group that eventually became the Future War Cult continued the record through the City Age.1516
At some point, Sundaresh and Esi joined an Exodus Indigo colony ship.1718 The colony ship was attacked by an anomalous object; utilizing a Vex distress signal, Sundaresh was able to camouflage the ship. In an attempt to flee their attackers, the colony ship followed the Vex signal to its source.18
Sundaresh and Esi were two of the founders of Neomuna, a Human colony on Neptune.19
