Intergalactic Summit

Everything I seem to read on this autopsy and the questions / comments afterwards seem to be pointing to this being a sleeper designed and 'built' construct using something related to Jovian biology though sufficiently different to say it is not Jove.

This would indicate sleeper driven inorganic technology having to fill in certain functions with biological material where necessary. The Seekers being the masters and the drifter pilots the semi-biological slaves.

What if we are looking at this the wrong way round, and the primary source behind this was once biological, but has supplanted more of its own biological function with inorganic enhancements?

There appears to be some relationship to Jovian genetics, though at the same time different. Such differences left to nature should take a long time to come about and may indicate some 'common ancestor' splitting into two different species.

Bio-genetic engineering though could accelerate these changes to make an originally Jovian being, different in a few centuries to appear "related to Jovian but sufficiently different to not be Jovian". This then brings up the question who or what would want to engineer such a transition. So far, the answer has been the sleepers, again though, I propose we are jumping to the wrong conclusion.

The Jovian disease had a profound effect on their society, yet one thing I have not seen considered is that within any given population there are, more often than not, some individuals with a natural immunity to any given disease. This often manifests itself in one of two ways -

1) Some individuals simply do not catch a given pathogen due to immune system response, or a genetic predilection to negate the effect of the pathogen.

2) Some individuals carry the disease without ever showing or developing symptoms, or not succumbing to the full effect of a pathogen that is fatal to other individuals.

If the second proposal was the case with a group of Jovians, as it has been with the vast majority of populations throughout bio-history, the Jovian Directorate would need to cast out these 'diseased' individuals to stop any further spread by such carriers.

It would seem against Jovian tradition to simply kill off those infected and instead more likely that an enlightened race may simply have banished these individuals, perhaps sending them far enough away (so they thought) to not be a problem any more - cast them out to "DRIFT" among the stars.

If such a population of Jovian outcasts did exist, it is possible they may have needed to bio-engineer themselves for a number of reasons. At this point a number of scenarios are possible -

A) Their immunity to the disease was only partial, and some symptoms still existed so they have bio-engineered themselves to a point where they are sufficiently non-Jovian, that the disease no longer affects them at all.

B) The disease mutated within this isolated community (another common biological event in restricted populations) necessitating bio-engineering to keep themselves one step ahead of the disease, to reach a point we see them in today.

C) The Jovian disease is known to have affected the mind, and it is possible they were driven mad enough to experiment on themselves in an attempt to ‘improve’ themselves into super-beings.

D) The bio-engineering was carried out by someone else; yes, possibly the power behind the seekers, or an entity with possible links to the Jovian Directorate – looking for subjects to experiment on to find a final cure for the disease.

At this point, the possibilities for conspiracy theories expand like gas from a supernova, but let us try to look at evidence. Both seekers and drifters appeared after the explosion that heralded the arrival of Thera – clearly this is no coincidence. What was most surprising about this new location was that the ‘humanitarian’ organisation Servant Sisters of Eve already had established bases there.

If all of these facts are linked, together with the theories above about the origin of the Drifter pilots, it would suggest that the sisters may have been working for the Jove directorate, either providing aid to their outcast brothers, or being actively involved in experimentation to find a cure for the Jovian disease. It is also interesting to note that it has been reported all gates in Jovian space seemed to go offline once Thera appeared – accident or defensive lockdown? CONT .............

I choose the side that has the better payout.

Welcome to the IGS.

You forgot to give him a Fishystick...

Don't be.

The thing about it, the thing is, that there have been so many hypotheses over the last several weeks, that I think most people are getting a little burned out by them.

Realistically speaking, there is much we don't know. We can guess. We can try to extrapolate, but a lot of what we've come up with has been proven false by the next round of hard data we've been able to get. Even now that a Drifter body has been secured, it has raised far more questions than it answered.

Are the Seekers controlling the Drifters? Are the Drifters controlling the Seekers? Are they symbiotic? I could make arguments for each, but I don't think any of them would hold water.

TL;DR Enemies or not, hostility was inevitable. No way to prove hypotheses without having concrete evidence.

Sinjin Mokk and Evi Polevhia are right.

Suppositions, hearsay, rumours, and deductions are all fine and dandy, but there's no tangible evidence to anchor any theory. I like your idea about SoE working to find cure for the Jove, aligns well with their humanitarian mission.

As for whether or not Seekers/Drifters (let's treat them as a single entity for now) are truly our enemy, I think it's a moot point since we were on a collision course towards mutual hostility right from the get-go.

Seekers appeared unannounced, making no communication attempts and sniffing out information. They were not overtly aggressive, but defensive towards us finding out more about them and what they're looking for.

When Drifters rolled on the scene, the aggression increased towards capsuleers. We were being destroyed and podded simply for being present in the area of their interest. And then it snowballed from there.

Any time we learn something new about them, they respond with force. Autopsy results were answered with an unwarranted attack on the DED station. Introduction of new reverse-engineered technology in the form of Entosis Link from Carthum Conglomerate resulted in roving gangs of Drifters all over the Empire space, which, in turn, forced Amarr Navy to mobilize in defense.

While I agree that the Seekers/Drifters weren't our enemies in conventional sense (i.e. Sansha's Nation), an aggressive response to their presence was inevitable due to their own nature. It is not a clash of ideologies as much as it is a conquest of assimilating new technologies.

But to understand it all better, we need to find out how SoE, Thera and Caroline's star are actually connected.