EVE Fiction

Binary Stars in Orbit

My eyes ached, having not seen the light for who knows how many days. It didn't help that the showers were so brightly lit. The warm streams of recycled water were refreshing and relaxing as they washed down my flesh, sticky with all that pod goo. What is that stuff made of, anyway? Nas would probably know, she's got an attention to detail for such things...

'I'm going to have to get one of the crew engineers to install a dimmer in these damned showers.' I sneered at the thought, wishing I had the foresight to have that done some time ago. I toweled myself down, taking care not to get any terrycloth caught in the ports of my implants. That was a pet peev of mine, I hate pulling lint out of my ports before plugging in.

I sluggishly dressed myself, my muscles feeling slight atrophy from not having been used for days. It's my own fault...I should dock up a little more often, I just have my eyes on the prize. Time to get an update on the progress... I walked out of my personal quarters aboard my Dominix-class battleship. One of my logistical staff was there to meet me with estimated costs for repair and replacement of drones; it was just a formality, really. The alliance always footed the repair bills and I had some drones stocked...all useless data, a waste of time. I thanked him and send him on his way, as always.

Making my way off the ship, the crew moved past me and around me, talking amongst themselves. Some always seemed to be in awe of me, some payed me no mind. I didn't care, they were all here to do a job. As long as they continued to do what I required of them, I was satisfied and saw to it they were taken care of.

Arakynthos Station was always bustling with activity, as most corporate stations are. All those offices, all those paper-pushers, and desk-jockeys running about and making appointments for this and drafting invoices for that. It was all noise to me, I just ignored it as I relaxed in the station taxi. The drivers always tried to make excited small talk with capsuleers, asking endless ammounts of obnoxious questions. I think he got the hint that I was tired.

I finally had gotten to my Captain's Quarters after what felt like an eternity amid the normal folk. I felt so detatched, I always felt so detached...

"Ah, there you are!" came a voice from further inside, "Progress is coming along well, it will only be a few more days before you can start interviewing fighter pilots and drafting crew." It was my baby sister, Nastrata, she was the more industry-minded of the two of us. She had been supervising the construction of a Thanatos-class carrier for me.

"I'm glad you're here, Nas. We have to talk..." I said to her, mustering a scolding tone.

"What's the matter, Astra? I've proceeded as you asked, I even saw to it that the blueprints would be ready in advance, Si and Kensai have helped quite a..." she was clearly at a loss, but I cut her off to save us both time.

"Look, we're going to be deploying soon. Now, I don't know what is going to happen, but there seems to be a lot of activity in the region, lately. I want you to move your research operations out of the system, for your own safety. You can't risk losing all that investment, again. Last time really hurt, it hurt us in the billions..."

Nas crossed her arms and huffed. Her soft, warm expression turning into something that more closely resembled a little girl who was just told that she couldn't play with the big kids, "I'm not afraid of a few reds, I never have been. I'm not going anywhere."

"Nas..." I started to counter, "...this time it isn't our tower. This tower belongs to the corp and doesn't even have any guns anchored! You won't be able to defend yourself if it gets hit, and you'll lose jobs if it gets reinforced. I'll ask one of the directors if there is some lowsec system we can anchor an R&D station in, for you. Something out of the way..."

Nas laughed at me, almost playfully...gosh, I hated it when she did that...it really grinds my gears, "Oh, go to lowsec where all the pirates play? I'm staying. Besides, who is going to come here and attack us? We're probably the safest that we've ever been, now." She sighed and dropped her arms, turning to the viewport, "Anyway, we don't have the funds to buy another control tower at this point. Even though I really would like to set up a little station, we can't afford to...we need to get back on our feet, Astra. I miss how things used to be..."

I walked to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Yeah, me too..." I, too, sighed, thinking back to how things were only a couple years ago, when we were sitting on the top of an alliance. I had gotten us into a position of prestige, but it was a flash in the pan. I blamed myself, for not being able to do more...was it really my fault? Probably not...but that didn't matter.

"Well, we'll get back there, eventually, Nas. Just keep volunteering to build capitals for the corp and I'll do my best to do what Si appointed me to do and we'll be sitting pretty in no time, just like we used to...I promise." But should I have promised that?

"Time will tell, Astra...I guess we have a fresh start, here...back in our first corp...back with Si and the others." Nas said, brightly. She always had a way of picking up our spirits, her eyes shined with a wounded hope.

"Yeah, Nas...we'll do our best." I smirked, and nodded. We stood, shoulder to shoulder, staring out the viewport at my Dominix-class battleship, what an ugly ship. I was looking forward to mothballing her and getting back in a carrier. I was looking forward to a lot of things, and I knew that Nas was, as well. We were never the type to sit idle, when things needed to be done. When New Eden kicked us down, we always got right back up and laughed. We have each other, we have good friends...we have the all the time in the world. We capsuleers are immortal, so they say.

It was great reading all of your stories guys and gals! :D

I'll be doing the judging this weekend. Let you all know, and good job for all participants. I have enjoyed reading so far!

Preliminary placings right now, I have not been able to read all of the posts just yet, some won't load on my current connection as I am out at work. But here are the Preliminary results thus far.

1st: AstraPardus/Nastrata
2nd: Kraiklyn Asatru
3rd: Not chosen

This is likely going to change before the weekend arrives. I still have a few more to read but I have enjoyed the entries so far. Good job everybody, I shall keep you up to date on the judging process of the contest. And I am also announcing now that another contest will be starting up in about a week. I hope to see more submissions for that one

Alright, I wasn't sure if both accounts belonged to you. I shall change it, and I appreciate the honesty. Well written either way :D

Congrats to the winners, I enjoyed reading all the entries, look forward to the next contest :-)

I apologize for the delay on the final winner of the contest. I had some issues come up in life outside of New Eden. I will be announcing them as soon as I am able to have more than 5 minutes and can finalize the decision. I will also be dealing out the rewards then. I apologize for any inconvenience for anybody.