EVE Fiction

(Perhaps I need to clarify: Adreena, you identified a possibility to re-establish FTL communications using the hive link. You may be facing malicious drone programming if you do but perhaps Telegram could help you in that regard. He is skilled at hacking.

Adreena has stated as such but am I getting the message correctly that all of you are going to head to the seed ship?)

"I'd agree with that, Adreena. Linking into the drone hive module could be bad call. Like turning a very bad virus loose in our systems, in a live environment, not a controlled one. And the thing is presumable advanced AI, so it could set itself up as a beacon calling drones to our location. On the other hand, that module could be useful later maybe. I've always had kind of a fantasy about developing a hack to crew with capsuleer opponents' drones. Maybe it could work on rogue drones instead. I think we should definitely hang onto that hive module and any other drone components we have, but keep them isolated and secure."



He opened comms to all of the pilots. "I think Adreena's point about isolating that drone hive module is a good one. But also keeping it secure for possible future use. Also, re-establishing FTL seems to be a primary concern. But I don't know if jumping through a gate would put us directly in Gallente space. I said Gallente space before, because there wasn't time to explain. That seed ship may have started from Gallente space 20 years ago, but it crossed through what we now call null sec. I'd have to pull up a map to be sure, but I think the Rogue Drone Regions adjoin capsuleer sovereignty zero sec space. So establishing a jump point could just throw us into a place where alliances and random shootists are trying to kill us. Getting out of this hole may not be the end of us needing to stick together as a team."



"Pardus, I'm recording some questions for Arataka. Could you get some responses from him?" He commanded his voice recorder routine to record his voice a step lower in pitch. Bass voice tones conveyed authority and assurance, so tended to set people at ease. Maybe it triggered some father-figure response. He spoke in a calm, slow voice.



"Doctor Arataka, greetings. This is call sign Telegram Sam, the fellow with the datapad earlier, speaking from the Jaguar-class frigate Tanto." His sonorous deep voice, like that of baritone singer, sounded somewhat comical even to him. He imagined the other pilots smirking.

"It appears that your slide jump experiment has relocated us all to somewhere between The Great Wildlands and The Spire. The Rogue Drone Regions. You, and all of us, are in grave danger. Any of our ship systems that involve FTL effects are down. There is no functional jump gate in this system. We don't have a way to get back to human-habitated space. If sorties from rogue drone hives don't kill us, the eventual failure of our ships' life support systems will."



"Therefore, we have to create our own way out. We have a Gallente seed ship, with a gate that may be intact. What would your suggestion be for activating the gate, to enable jumping out of this system?"



"As mentioned before, all FTL-based systems are down. What can we do to bring them back online?"


"You said that the slide jump could have put our ships, and our bodies themselves, out of phase. What effects of that? How to re-sync into phase, if needed?"



"A last question: Is there anything from your slide jump experiment that could be of use to us now?"


"For the project of re-establishing FTL and jump capability, we have as resources the four ships that were brought along with you during the slide jump experiment. We have four capsuleers, skilled and competent in ship command, advanced technologies, and space salvage operations. And of course in ship to ship combat. Or in this case, ship to drone combat. Though the drones are combat ships up to battleship size, at least. In how many numbers, we don't know. Your slide jump experiment has unfortunately dropped us right into their territory. Perhaps you heard the violence of their earlier attack." He paused a moment to let that sink in.



Sam changed to a more upbeat tone. He wanted Arataka to understand the danger of the situation, but not panic. Clear thinking was needed, not thinking muddled by pressure and emotion. "We four capsuleers are familiar with the science of FTL communications and jump gates. We only need information on how the science can practically be applied in this situation. Please think clearly and precisely, leaving as little to doubt as possible. We don't have a lot of time. Solving this problem may be your greatest achievement ever, if you can do it. If we fail, though, these four ships-- and all of the occupants in them-- will eventually suffer the natural results of a long stay in space, without power."

Sam ceased the recording and restored comms to his normal voice.

"OK all, let's see what Arataka has to say. If he can rig a 'slide jump' that semi-worked, surely he can tell us how to activate 20 year old Gallente gate deployment technology."

Hearing Adreena's announcement that she was heading to the seed ship, he sent her the coordinates for the warp spot need the ship and the one near the sun. "I'll meet you there, Adreena. Let's try not to aggro anything." He aligned and warped the Jaguar to the spot nearest the s

"I'll pass your message on to Arataka, Sam. I'm going to let you and Adreena sort out the details on this one...I'm afraid that I'm not going to be much use."

I broadcast Telegram Sam's message to the Science Deck, waiting for a reply from our 'friend'.

A brutal consideration, to be sure...it was certainly noble of Sepherim to not desire this potential technology for the Empire, at least...not outwardly.

It was easy to admit to myself that I had every intention of pulping him before I learned what a doddering idiot he was...now I kinda felt bad for him, the pitiful old man. I suppose that it was up to me what ultimately happened to him, as he was my captive. I had a feeling that Sam and Adreena wouldn't be the type to let the old man's life be forfeit...if they decided that he should live, it would be three against one...if I decided to do away with him, it would cause a dangerous rift, for sure.

At a time like this, it was certainly best to let things play out between the other three. Let them debate it all they like, reality is that I was the arbiter of the madman's fate and I am in no way beholden to the others.

I could always stash him away in a research lab...Nas would have him running off blueprint copies for the rest of his days, at least then he would be of some use to someone...or I could just space him with the remains of his Venture-class mining frigate...

...decisions, decisions...

...well, let's just focus on this seed ship for the time being, there was time to decide that petty matter, yet.

"Sepherim, while I wholeheartedly agree with you when you say that Arakata technology is dangerous... I'm not in favour of airlocking the guy. I know, from his brain emerged a new tool to wreak havoc in the cluster -like we weren't already amply provided with such things- but what he could conceive, others will, one day or the other. The best we can try to do is to prevent this discovery from spreading. And try and find inventive ways to do so. Inventive, like in "not needlesly killing". And, well, maybe we can use Arakata for such a purpose : he's an inflated fool, sure, but he's a smart inflated fool. Sort of smart. Special ? Anyway."

"As for the 'getting our ***es out of here' part... if we need a gravity well, aren't those usually provided by massive objects like, er, suns ?"

Adreena's voice climbed with exitement :

"And, oh spirits, do you realize we're going to work on a jumpgate ? A ****ing jump gate, just for us ! I mean... wow, right ? Sam, you summarized the whole thing as far as I'm concerned... down to the order I would suggest we work this situation out. Whatever lies in the seedship is an unknown and thus a danger and should be dealt with first."

Silence came over the comms for a few seconds after my question. I could almost hear them thinkin on the issue, but the first reply to come was Telegram, giving some intel on the technical side of the situation, and avoiding the question altogether. It was a practical approach to the issue, but delaying a decission on the matter would not solve the issue.



I checked on my cameras where the hive was as I heard him talking. That thing didn't make me feel at ease, precisely.

-Well, then we should indeed board the ship and take control of it. I don't have military personnel above the INS Wraith, but I've seen captain AstraPardus does on hers. Maybe they would be able to clear us a path? I'm sure minor drones and other threats will exists inside the subverted ship, and their expertise in close-combat would be most valued. I have some military training in close-combat quarters, but I haven't trained in quite some time and am quite rusty. As for the hive, I don't trust it, and I believe hacking into it would risk it infecting any ship that came in contact with it. I suggest we leave that option for the last possibility in case we don't find another way of restoring FTL communications and they indeed prove to be necessary.-

In fact, where did I store my gun? I hadn't seen it since I bought the ship. "Computer, where is my gun stored right now?"

"It is in the second bottom drawer, beneath your Navy uniform.

Yeah, that felt more or less correct. Would be a place I could have placed it indeed. Would have to pick it up. Then in came Adreena's voice, and she was the only one with the guts to actually reply to my proposal. I must admit I was surprised by it, she seemed like the soft quiet kind, I would have expected either Astra or Telegram to be the ones more vocal on their concerns and yet the techie proved me wrong.



-Indeed, captain Madeveda, others will in time replicate this technology. Such is the pace of the advancement of technical issues, but hopefully they'll do it under mutual supervision and create countermeasures. But, even if they do replicate it, those years they need to spend on it are years of peace we have all won, and countless lives saved by it. He is smart, indeed, but that doesn't mean he's the kind of smart that can prevent this from going where it doesn't have to go. Last time a smart scientist had some breakthrough in transport we got the Incursions, and the thousands of lives wasted on them attest to the price of allowing some technologies to develop.-

Then she focused on the gate, and I could see her excitement. I could almost picture her like a little girl, playing with a new toy. But I had to agree with her words, as hurried as they were, the ship should go first.

The others spoke to one another...was I hearing this right? I was the only one with any kind Marines on board? I had expected that Sepherim, with his prominent military demeanor, would have considered that to be vital, especially on an Omen-class cruiser.

Oh...right...ex-military.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to do this thing the dangerous way."

But, was there any other way to do this at this point? In this situation? Safe was out the airlock when we all undocked at Dodixie, though safe should have applied at that time. The more I thought about that, the more killing Arataka sounded appealing...or was it better to torture him by condemning him to mediocrity?

...the possibilities...hmmm...

I began to maneuver the Brown Baggin' It to dock up to the seed ship, "Marines!" the intercom buzzed with my synthesized voice, "Deploy half the force to docking bridge! Initiate breech and sweep upon docking with the seed ship! Maximum caution, Scout Pattern: Mystere09er!"

After the ship snugged up to the seed ship and the Marines were getting themselves into position, I dropped my Garde II's to cover myself. Since I had to be immoble, anyway, they offered the best point-defence.

With the other three buzzing around and everything transpiring outside of my means to affect the situation too directly, I had more time to think about how things were developing. Sam and Adreena had reacted more or less as I had predicted. Sam's response was well reasoned and logical. I liked the cut of his jib. Adreena seemed to be a bit of a young idealist...not really looking at things as Sam had, but following her heart. Sepherim was appearing altruistic, attempting to minimize the damage that the release of such an invention would cause in the cluster...but how long could that last for? Others had surely seen what happened in Dodixie...someone was assuredly looking into this from the other end. The real question that began to haunt me was...would we be welcomed back with curiosity, or would we be greeted by blacked-out Megathron-class battleships loaded with malice and greed?

If we get out of here, is it more dangerous to go back? If all else fails, I can cloak up and try to call for a covert cyno somewhere nearby...at least I'll be safe. The others will have no mad scientist...potentially no data...nothing to go after them for...and at the worst, they should have clones they can reconnect with and jump into when who ever meets us invariably pods them.

****...I gotta stop thinking so much, this is looking worse and worse...

Somehow it was the loneliest site he'd ever seen. Sam watched the Sin, the size of a building, slowly approach the even bigger Gallente/drone ship. Silent, if it weren't for the sounds generated by his ship's artificial sound physics simulator. The Gallente/drone thing with its extravagant curves and bulges, but inhabited only by circuitry non-minds. As the Sin shifted angle, light flashed through the airless space. Drone craft raced to it and around it, taking station in digital orbits. Just a shift of the viewpoint a bit to left, and there was Sepherim's equally huge Omen. In a couple of years of capsuleering, he'd never seen anything like this. Things happen fast, distances are vast, scale of things don't mean anything. The Sin giant piece of machinery closed to relatively miniscule space with the giant drone and stopped. Sam tried to imagine the scale of the tiny figures that would enter the ship. With no frame for reference, it was hard. He bet they were tinier in proportion than he even pictured.

Shee-eet. He was mostly fearless-- no, really more like decidedly reckless. But truth was, he like planets, and void situations gave him a disturbing sensation of vertigo. His stomach seemed to have an odd tight bar across it, even within the ambient pod goo. His forearms felt prickly, as if the hair were standing. Like a freaked out cat with a tail standing like a wire brush. Get a grip Sam, here we go, you're going in!

He moved the Jaguar to near the seed ship's docking point closest to the bridge and waited to hear comms from Pardus or her marines.

Edit: Added the last sentence.

As Astra's ship docked with the seed ship, I could feel tension rising again. I didn't like the idea of any ship coming into contact with that monstrosity, who knows in which way it could interface with the other and start corrupting it? But, as things were, there was nothing to be done about it, we needed that gate operational to get back home. Telegram also seemed willing to enter the ship, and I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to have another experimented mind analyzing the metallic behemoth, or it would only be added danger of another ship succumbing to the beast.

However it was, time would tell. So I kept my local scanner running, trying to make sure nothing came that could harm their docked ships, or Adreena's.

"It looks like the path to the bridge is clear, no activity in the immediate area. Marines are reporting an atmosphere, but low temperatures and something is affecting comms signals at range." I stated to the others in the open comms channel.

Something about the inactivity and the comms interference didn't sit well with me, but all that bandwidth being capitalized on by the drones, was a likely candidate. The quiet, however...