Intergalactic Summit

Nope. And I never claimed to be.

And I was able to poke holes in this. I can only imagine what the actual experts like Little Fish are thinking out there.

Except, in this case, the attitude of not questioning the authority about the dubiousness of the treatment does not just affect you and your own, or just the State (because if that were the case I would have just let it be), it is affecting everyone else, including potentially me and mine. Of course, I'm going to question it.

You have a flaw in your thinking, it's your problem whether you want to fix it or not. However, if that flaw is affecting everything else, that also becomes my problem.

I promise you, if Caldari intransigence and paranoia flares up badly enough to be everyone's problem, the CEP will care. Because the Empire is part of 'everyone', and the absolute last thing they want is the Empire finding any reason for common cause with the Federation against the State, even if it's only in the arena of political bickering.

You never know where being on the same side of empty bickering will lead, after all.

A good way of alerting the authorities of any percieved error, would be contacting them directly.

Thanks for assuming that wasn't done.

Well, first, I'd like to refute one of your core assumptions:



My frustrations do not, in fact, come from any illusion of control. My frustrations do come from my expectations, though: my expectations of competence, of intelligence, and of responsibility on the part of those in power. Note: 'those in power' is an external group there. Because it's certainly not me. I have no control over any of the empires. I have no control over the SoCT. I have no control over any of this, and I haven't claimed, at any point, to think that I do.

So I'm not exactly sure where you're getting that whole 'an illusion of control' thing. I have, by design, control over a very small set of specific boxes. The survival of mankind and the safe development of medical technology ain't in those boxes. With regard to what is actually in those boxes, there is no illusion: I have control. My decisions are the ones that are final. With regard to literally everything else in the cluster, I do not have, nor do I claim, control.

And for the record, whether or not I blow up and die following any given undock? Not in my box.

On those matters, I may try to exert influence, I may attempt to effect the outcome in specific ways, but no, I do not have control. But from your other statement, I think it's pretty easy to see where you get your own misconceptions.



You think we're the 'elite of the elite', that we have power 'in ways that mankind barely understands'. That's nonsense. You know what power we have? We have the power to kill. And keel killing. And keep killing. And I promise you, if there's any power mankind understands, it's the power of violence. We are humanity's ID, seemingly empowered to do... what, exactly? Lash out with violence for all eternity? @whee. There's some exciting crap, right there.

Violence is viscerally exciting, sure... but once you get past the adrenaline... no. Continued, repeated, endless violence... it's pretty damned dull, to be honest. How many of us get to a point where even dying is boring?

That's not power. That's hell. That's a living death, where nothing really matters and nothing really has the power to stir you to a semblance of actually living anymore. That's not being elite, either, it's being... alone.

Honestly, what the hell makes you think we're the elites of anything? With the exception of a very few, we're cut off from normal society, under strict controls by CONCORD on our behavior and even on just what we get to see around us. We exert, for all our grandiose claims, no real power over the cluster, no influence. The empires use us for an undying bloodsport to entertain their elites and channel the rage of the masses. Beyond that... they don't want to hear from us. The Inquest capsuleers can pat themselves on the back for their voting all they like, but ultimately, those resolutions are only as binding as the empires want to let them be. If the State decides tomorrow 'nah, not doing that 'release all the information' thing' there is nothing you can do about it.

And yes, capsuleers were instrumental in securiting the cure, in making sure it wasn't stolen or destroyed by terrorists on the Keepstar.. But you know what?

That had nothing to do with being capsuleers.

Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. That could've been any groupf of baseliners and they'd have had the same chances of pulling it off. Anyone use your jacks to hunt down Akira? Flush out the Vulture while you were in the pod?

So elite. So powerful.

Stop projecting your own assumptions and conceits on the rest of us.

That has a history of getting me tasered.

Interesting ... so 0410's a tailored counter. No wonder they were talking about it like an antidote. It like a key for switching a (horrifying) weapon off.

I question the effectiveness of the sterilisation measures employed.

Blowing the infected areas out into the vacuum of space might have seemed like a good idea, and it might kill the active form of the Kyonoke agent, which can only survive a few hours without a host.

However, do remember that the Kyonoke agent is capable of persisting under extreme conditions for years, possibly even decades, in it's dormant form.

So, Genolution et. al. have blown the exposed areas out into space, with the potential to disturb via air currents, dormant Kyonoke agent particles, and surround the station with a cloud of them, allowing them to adhere to passing ships, or be intentionally collected by persons of nefarious intent.

And this seemed reasonable ?

I am somewhat doubtful that this will be the end of this particular outbreak.

Which will be easier because... wait for it... all of the information about 0410 has to be released! Honestly, sometimes I love the irony of humanity.

And for the record, no, I'm not saying that transparency is a bad thing. I very much agree with that measure and think you guys were right to pass it. At the same time, I'm kind of throwing up my hands in a 'yep, we're still boned' kind of way. Sometimes, it seems like we can't win for losing.

You just gotta laugh, you know?