Barlow is very protective of (though most of them were destroyed in the crash). Barlow interrogate Alek, who determines that he is not much of a threat and assigns the two of them to watch the secret cargo, which turn sout to be eggs that Dr. However, he fails to convince Deryn of his story, and she sounds an alarm, resulting in his capture. Deryn is knocked out by the crash, but is revived by Alek, who brings medicine and claims to be a Swiss villager. In the air over Switzerland, the Leviathan is attacked by German planes and crashes in the Alps - incidentally where Alek and his men are hiding. Barlow takes a liking to Deryn, and Deryn becomes her unofficial 'cabin boy'. Barlow is a woman, and worries that, as another female, Dr. Nora Barlow, and her secret cargo, to Constantinople, though nothing further is explained. While she is serving on the ship, the Leviathan receives its first mission: to transport a top British scientist, Dr. Deryn becomes a temporary midshipman aboard the Leviathan, and later passes the exam with ease. In the first part of the test, she gets stranded in the air on a Huxley and has to be rescued by the Leviathan after she floats for hours. Since then, Deryn was primarily raised by her mother and her aunts, who do not approve of Deryn's tomboyish personality and interests.ĭeryn is first introduced in chapter three of Leviathan, waking up after studying to take the midshipmens' test the night before she plans to take it. Her father was awarded the Air Gallantry Cross for his bravery, after he pushed Deryn out of the flaming hot air balloon. Her father, Artemis Sharp, died in a ballooning fire when she was twelve or thirteen. She has an older brother named Jaspert Sharp.

Her age is given in Leviathan as 'barely fifteen', placing her birthdate sometime in late 1898, or more likely, in 1899. Deryn was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld