Claudia

Update

In Return to Serenity we find out that Claudia IS the Pirate Queen of Serenity's Reach. Realizing that she had an impending coup, she took advantage of the Team’s obvious prowess (and personal vulnerabilities) to spirit her away from Serenity under the guise of being “handed over” to Dee. She was able to suppress her memories by mystical means, becoming her very own sleeper agent. Upon returning to Serenity, her well placed intel and meta systems alerted her to what was going on and reinstated her memories. Hunt began to search for her, only to find out that she had been with them all along.
While serving on the ship, she showed herself to be an excellent crew asset - a pretty good cook, a good ear for the pirates, easy on the eye, never forward or flirtatious but quick to smile, but also known to be reasonably good with her hands and quick on her feet (never taking kindly to being called wench, she had to put down a pirate or two to make it known that she was just another crew member - nothing less, nothing more). She was even a pretty decent medic. She was respected by the non-officers (the general crew) and was pretty good at doing what she was told, typically doing enough to make people content with her level of work. When not needed, she was close to invisible. She respected Dee and never tried to pressure him. Though she worked for him personally, she made sure she took care of everyone on the ship and didn't mind being seen as "the Ship's Pet."
This was a pretty easy persona for her to maintain; on top of her low key mystical abilities which fortified the “image,” she got her start as a "spotter" working for Clan Rilanaus at the age of 12. She advanced the ranks quickly, always able to be whoever they needed her to be, while staying true to her own personal North.
Unfortunately, leadership made her sort of hard, edgy. Though not wantonly bloodthirsty, the life of Folks had started to lose value to her. These past few months on the Lady of the Blue allowed her to let go, remember, and reevaluate who she was and what she was accomplishing. For the first time in a very long time she was able to "serve" under a very competent leadership she could trust. Watching the crew step into situations that wasn’t theirs time after time again caused her to remember that there were some good people left in the Sea. She’s not ready to step down as the Dread Pirate Queen but she knows that there are positive (or at least less harmful) ways to motivate people to get them to stay in line. It will require some work, but she has really does have the best interest of her sector at heart.

Original Post

Claudia was a spotter who worked for The Pirate Queen of Serenity's Reach at Port City on Serenity. She was the one who originally got the characters to take their first job running a quasi-legal shipment for her (central to the entire We've Not Been Properly Introduced (Story) storyline).
When things went sideways, Debreu gets ticked and upon return to Port City goes hunting for the Pirate Queen; Claudia is the first logical link. She gets them in touch with her, but things go further awry.
Claudia's role as a lower echelon player becomes evident as she is given to Dee at the end of the negotiations before they head off to complete their mission.