Mourning Star (Vehicle)

The Mourning Star is the planetoid-sized, Gothic cathedral-like space vehicle used by the Mourners,^[1] a sect dedicated to perform funerary rituals for very great things in the universe^[2] like civilizations and planets destroyed by war.^[1] As the Mourners are non-violent themselves,^[3] the Mourning Star lacks any weaponry,^[2] thou it does have cloaking technology^[3] and warp engines so as to quickly escape any attackers,^[4] as well as sensors to find cosmic residue of individual beings.^[5] It does have several religious artifacts onboard^[2] as well as statues of beings of unclear species that are likely shrines to extinct people or races.^[1] Its decks are quite macabre and unsettling to several individuals,^[3] thou the Mourners themselves rarely reject any visitor who wants to join them and attend their services,^[1] giving them supplies they may need including air, food and shelter.^[3] Another advantage of the mobile base is that it allows the Mourners to reach distant places in space where they have detected the need to honor victims of a catastrophe.^[3]

The Mourners perform some of their funerary services within their ship, in decks where many attendees can sit and listen to the empaths and officiators honoring the dead.^[1] At other times, however, the Mourners go ashore and have the funeral elsewhere if the deceased willed so, or if they do not know the deceased's will about it but consider that to be a better arrangement.^[2]

The Mourners took their ship to Earth to spontaneously officiate a funeral for cosmic being Eon, where they met Quasar.^[2] Not much later, the Mourners went to the Pama System after the Kree-Shi'ar War so as to commemorate all the Kree victims; there, they were detected by Eon's daughter Epoch, who reported their presence to Quasar; Quasar, along with his allies Her and Makkari entered the Mourning Star and introduced his friends to the Mourners; the Mourners welcomed them to the Mourning Star. Their funeral for the Kree was eventful as the Mourners discovered that the Kree souls had not died fully, prompting Quasar and his friends to investigate.^[1] Quasar liberated the souls, and Her and Makkari returned to the Mourning Star to tell the Mourners. There, they discovered that the Mourners had "Listeners" able to perceive the scream of those dying, yet failed to help them before they died - the Mourners claimed to be unable to do anything but honor their passing, that being a duty and a burden to them.^[3] Going to the Scadam planet, whose population was being obliterated, Her left the ship and tried to help the Scadamites against the invading Black Fleet;^[5] meanwhile, onboard the Mourning Star, Makkari heard from a Mourner about the Grosgumbeekian species, which was of Makkari's interest.^[4][6] The Black Fleet was destroyed by a power that the Mourners initially believed to be Her's, but the Mourners escaped the system to protect themselves, returning later to recover Her.^[4] Her was quick to leave that company,^[6] and the Mourners took Makkari to Grosgumbeek in the Mourning Star.^[7]