Growing up on poor Belter mining ships meant that Naomi's early life was lived on a knife's edge: nearly suffocating, starving, and becoming marooned were regular occurrences throughout her childhood. Self-educated with multiple advanced degrees, and having risen to the rank of Chief Engineer aboard the ice hauler Canterbury (which supplies water for the Asteroid Belt's residents), she appears to be a model Belter success story, though she carries with her a secret pain. She is cagey about her past, even with her closest friends. She abhors violence, but has witnessed enough injustice to understand the necessity of it. Her complicated relationship with violence and her troubled history have lead to an unlikely friendship with the Canterbury's mechanic, Amos Burton.