Intergalactic Summit

Tick-tock said the clock,
bashing 'gainst the wall;
Tick-tock said the clock,
watching as you FALL

Hilen... so long forgotten... so far away; so not so far astray.



Knocking, knocking, on the wall; who will let me in? Knocking, knocking, on the wall; did you find my skin? I gave it to a man one day as he asked me for the time; I gave it gladly, in exchange for mine. Sleeping, sleeping, I did find that I did not know whom to mind. Not the doorman, not the architect, not the man behind the lie. To tell the truth, I lost mine too, and did not have the time.

Vieve, my dear, you have the answers but no questions.

The conceit herein must be that we accept your authority on your word alone, while you offer nothing in return. "Don't play here because I said." Speaking for CONCORD no doubt. Oh yes, of course! Silly me.

The Sleepers, you see, aren't dead. They aren't voiceless. They aren't helpless. They just look at us in a different way than we look at them. If an infection invades your body, you don't speak to it. You remove the source of infection. That's what DED is concerned about. If this is not Hilen Tukoss, who could it be? Who could have that kind of access? None of those answers are in any way, shape or form "good".

You also know, Vieve, that the list of possibilities is very short as to whom this could possibly be. The thinker, the adventurer or the dreamer? Or maybe one more who has to be around because his actions speak louder than words. The one who opened the door.

As they say, nothing comes without a price, and what was his price for entrance?

Knocking, knocking, on the wall...

But if it was sisters surely they'd be able to impersonate him without all that hexadecimal stuff. The communications we've received from the fake Dr. Tukoss (assuming that this one's real) suggest an alien intelligence imitating our speech. In my opinion at this point the most likely suspects are either Sleepers or some other group that we haven't met yet.

I might have the wrong idea about all this, I've only just started following the Arek'Jaalan project and I've been absent from galactic affairs for a while. I don't have access to the same resources as some of you but if I happen to find myself in a Wolf-Rayet system I'll certainly keep an eye open for anything suspicious.

I believe you to be half right, Mademoiselle MacLeary.

As has been previously pointed out, we are dealing with at least two unknown parties in this - Dr. Tukoss' captors, and the occupants of the heretofore unknown system identified in the first transmission.

I would like to expand upon Monsieur Antolliere's suggestions. As he pointed out, the fact that the original message sender was under the impression that we (capsuleers) were behind the colonization of these systems indicates that those responsible for said colonization operate within New Eden. Of interest is the second message's use of the phrase "particular interest." Why is it that this system interests him so? Is this colonization of a greater scope than standard operations of capsuleer organizations in high-class wormholes? This would necessitate considerable resources, as well as the influence on other organizations to keep things quiet.

Also, to access these systems would obviously require cutting-edge scanning technology and the highly-trained personnel required to use it, or it would already be a regular hangout for one capsuleer organization or another. My first suspicion was that one Empire or another was doing surreptitious business in unknown space. Yes, Commander Kim, my earliest suspicion was in fact the Federation, but let us not forget that our own State has a history of creating colonies in secret.

It struck me, though, that the Servant Sisters of Eve are better poised to be in this position. It is ships of their design to which capsuleers turn first when embarking upon an exploration mission. This gives them the equipment necessary and the piles of ISK that keep flowing in as we continue purchasing exploration craft.

This indicates to me that, yes, the Sisters do play a significant role in this, but not the role you believe. They occupy at least one of the Anoikis systems of which we were unaware. The identity of Dr. Tukoss' captors, however, I cannot elucidate.

Perhaps this is out of place but...

Asking a Sisters of Eve personnel if the Sisters are conducting covert operations which may or may not have involved the capture of a certain doctor is not likely to net you anything other than a denial, truth or not. Further, it could alert them to suspicion and make the entire situation even more delicate.

I suggest keeping suspicion to yourself and simply watching with a more wary gaze for the answers you seek.

You're a silly.

Thanks! It's nice to see you too!

Well, like kinda see you! I'm still stuck in this station thing using my datapad to catch up on things. It's like some kind of medical room or somethin'. I can see my sisters cryo-pods, they still asleep. Well, all except Erica 'cause like she woke me up.

I can see her kredit card too! It's sitting on a table across the room. Can't wait to get my hands on it haha.

Sure thing Mista Anslo!!

You do not need to be smart in order to follow instructions. Following instructions does not require asking questions. Questions hardly ever lead to answers that you want. If you don't want answers how can you be disappointed?

Unit A requests X information from Unit B. It either gives the information or it doesn't. It does not give Y if X is what is asked for.

I like drones. They're far more reliable than people. People ask questions. People get disappointed. People take away your paints. They said I could have my paints back if I helped answer the questions but I never got my paints back. Do you know where they are? I would really like my paints back.

A portion of rogue drones, captured and "tamed" by some entity? Now that makes sense.

People probably sold your paints for profits long time ago. I'm sorry.

Apologies for my prior interactions. I'm still adjusting to new medication and the guards have finally been told to point their weapons elsewhere.


Obviously packet loss due to using burst transmission as opposed to standard transmission. I would surmise that this is due to time limits and an attempt to get a message out as quickly as possible. Poor man obviously has to resort to crude methods. I mean, emergency FTL channels? Really?

Perhaps we should wait until Mr. Tukoss can find a stable node that he actually knows how to use. Though I must say, it's odd that he knows that there is previous transmissions and that those transmissions are clear, while this one is not.

If he knows of the prior communications, how was his ID used?
If this is the same transmission technique as the previous messages, why is this one garbled?

It points to two things. First, the previous communications can be seen as hacks of CONCORD systems. If this is Rogue Drones, as has been previously asserted, this would explain pretty much everything. We know Rogue Drones have the ability to "brute force" hack stargates, and have at least passing familiarity with CONCORD systems.

Second, we can compare and contrast this message to the previous ones. This one seems more like the good ol' Hilen Tukoss we love to despise. The previous ones do not. The previous communications are cold and emotionless.

Finally, aside from the two conclusions above, we should perhaps not try to "fill in the blanks". It's not like his message has brought up new questions. It hasn't. It's only highlighted concerns previously addressed. Even our resident DED mouthpiece/tool Ms. Creston is echoing what others have said.

We've got nothin' we didn't have before, ladies and gentlemen.

And then there's the most important concern of all. I still don't have my paints. They're a nice shiny bright red. They change color when you use them though, so the art is only able to be appreciated for a short time. I really miss my paints. It's a complete travesty that I am not aloud to follow my muse, that sweet little voice incessantly nagging and pleading and screaming, don't you think?