EVE Fiction

I want to preface by saying that tinfoiling shouldn't ever be done believing you're right, since you probably aren't; that said, you can think of all sorts of possibilities for interesting "maybe"'s when you look back at info we've seen before.

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The Kyonoke Speck was originally uncovered when drilling into a massive asteroid, during mining operations. The Pit's chronicle makes the suggestion that the Speck could be unnatural or man-made in some ancient time; and after all, the speck would have had to be found within something, or released from wherever it lay in wait.

Re-reading about the Pit Asteroid and thinking about that made me remember something from the "The Burning Life" EVE Novel; the place where the main character met Hona (introduced in the "Black Mountain" series and later appearing in another chronicle). What appeared to be a giant asteroid was in fact an ancient Jove structure, deep within, where Hona and her followers lived.

Changing focus, to the Jove Disease: the always-fatal Disease is present in all Jove and is neurological and genetic in nature as far as we've been able to know, persisting through infomorph transfer and is inevitably started in the body of a Jove, inescapably. Going back in time to its first appearance, at the end of the Second Jove Empire, the Disease surfaced and propagated across the whole Empire ridiculously fast. It's well-known that the Jove were modifying themselves on a genetic level, but it's funny to suggest that they all did it exactly the same way, and that the disease suddenly sprung up everywhere at once;

Instead, it seems like there were outbreaks of the disease that spread rapidly and ended up killing off the vast majority of the Second Empire's citizens, with the surviving few getting together after the collapse and moving to their last home. However, the disease presented and spread regardless, slowly killing any Jove inevitably, if they didn't die in their Fetus tubes pre-birth. The first appearance of the disease looks far less like a solely genetic affliction, more like it was caused by some spreading pathogen of some sort.

Looking back to the Kyonoke Speck: the chronicle details it as being a protein strand that can lay dormant for an undetermined amount of time, even within the body of an unsuspecting victim. Upon becoming active, the Speck moves into the brain and begins to germinate, then spreads to neurons, rapidly causing loss of control of body functions and the painful the death of those infected, also spreading extremely easily to those in proximity.

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Back to the Jove disease again: the Disease also cannot be avoided by cloning or moving to a new body, as it is a neurological disease and, as we're told, genetic in cause; however, it also spread rapidly externally, outside of the body, during the second empire and killed very rapidly, leaving a small number of survivors. There's a parallel that could be drawn to Kyonoke here, should it prove transferable through scans as well; and if that ends up being the case, the possibility of the two being related could be considered more seriously than in this post (which I only started thinking about after making a dumb joke to someone).

If I had to make any sort of connected timeline (again, I don't think any of this is true by any means, but it's a lot of fun to think of the "what if?"'s in stories), it'd go like this:

The disease spreads through the Second Jove Empire, killing rapidly and causing the breakdown of the Empire.

One ancient Jove asteroid colony, like the one Hona lives in, is infected and abandoned like all the rest of the Empire

Sealed within, for thousands of years following, is the (dormant) original, rapidly killing first appearance of the Disease

That is, until it is stumbled upon during mining operations into the asteroid, unaware that within is the abandoned structure

Once again the Speck was contracted and spread, killing the crew and the subsequent teams investigating

The pit was then sealed off, with one early incident allowing the escape of a now long-lost shuttle carrying the Speck

Present day, the Speck has begun again, with over 1.2 million infected and likely rising despite quarantine efforts

Were the surviving 2nd empire Jove who went on to found the Directorate actually lucky, with some resistance where the protein was eventually produced by their bodies because of a genetic defect, but did not kill instantly? Does the genetic part of the Jove Disease actually lead to the creation of a protein (now different from the original disease, generated and spread the same way regardless) that spreads to the neurons and starts the depressive, eventually fatal state? Was the Pit actually an ancient Jove asteroid habitat? Could any of this actually be true or related to Kyonoke?

Hell if I know: I don't believe any of this is true - it's just spitballing and coming up with ideas. Anyone who wants to join in on this chaos should absolutely join us in the Lore channel on slack if you

Kyonoke Disease is a prion. It's airborne BSE or Kuru on overdrive.

Jovian Disease is a genetic disease which causes a deficiency (probably serotonin) leading to ennui and death.

I do not believe they are the same thing.

Also, I personally believe a prion disease is one of those things an Empyrean wouldn't want to catch not because the prion will be copied into the next clone, it's because the prion leaves behind physical nerve and brain damage (spongiform encephalitis). Considering that the neural burn scanner functions by capturing a snapshot of the brain, that means that the damaged brain state will be transferred to the new clone, resulting in an uninfected but brain-damaged clone. On the upside, the capsuleer won't die from the disease, but on the downside, he is now having a permanent neurological disorder that will always be with him.

Funny thing is that Drifters collect corpses for reanimation. So I think they would be perfectly happy unleashing Kyonoke on the populace. Less enemies and more bodies.

MosDef. I know I'd at least lose a couple of weeks or months rather than live with permanent brain damage if it were possible.