Intergalactic Summit

A BIT EMBARRASSED

What happens when you throw together a few inexperienced idealists? Mistakes. We are sorry for raising the expectations of the former slaves we have rescued regarding the establishment of a planetary colony. We had no idea that we would not be able to transport them to the planet surface. We should have investigated this in greater detail before we made plans and built up expectations.

For those of you who had longed to breathe the air of an atmosphere and tread upon the soil of terra-firma, we are so very sorry. We will do all we can to build decent station infrastructure and skills to transport those wish to go elsewhere. Again, we are sorry.

We also feel a bit stupid over missing the fact that Planck field generators are incompatible with living tissue. Thanks a lot, Max! Live and learn. We are glad that fail safes kept us from actually hurting anyone.

I do wish someone had warned us ahead of time. Which reminds me. If any of you readers detect such blunders in the future, please let us know. 339 former slaves were rescued in one operation yesterday. This makes the mistakes along the way seem not so big a deal.

I have been chuckling all evening to myself. Ston made Edaine look like a dork on The Summit tonight. I'm sure it wasn't on purpose, but now and then, Ston has memory problems; a sort of capsuleer dementia. He confused the amount of space required by a corpse with the amount of space required by a living human. Corpses take 2m3 and people take 5m3. Ston has been hauling corpses so long that he thinks they are alive. lol

He asked Edaine to solve the problem of diferent volume needs in different sovereignty areas of space. There are no differences, Edaine. I have transported both and the volume requirements don't change when you cross the border, just the legality. Ston needs to clean his neural ports.

In celebration of this moment of a-"ston"-ishment, I include a funny face. We have been a bit serious lately.

Dear Mr. Numenor,
Thank you for the kind, if undeserved, words. I wish to say that I appreciate your organization’s emphasis on lucid communication, as well as its novel approach to resolving conflicts. The former is unfortunately rather rare in New Eden; the latter may perhaps be unique in it. I personally know of no other private organization that states a goal of resolving conflict via peaceable discourse, rather than through violence or coercion. Quite the contrary, the prevailing norm in our world is to seek out violence— and often violence simply for its own sake. And not only to seek violence, but to glorify brutality, to crow about one's victories, and to insult and seek to verbally shame one’s defeated opponents. The culture of violence is a very well-beaten path in New Eden. And it is undeniably a path has rewarded many with self-esteem and the esteem (albeit perhaps a spiteful, envious sort of esteem) of others.

I commend your organization, because to step off of any path present something outside of the group-think requires courage. It requires more courage still to suggest a way of peace. We humans tend to find glamour in warfare, but with peace we find little fascination or excitement. I suppose peaceful resolution of conflict gathers little recognition or acclaim; the rewards it affords must be internal. Those internal rewards may be significant indeed, for I would guess that resolving a conflict by peaceable requires a high degree of wit, creativity and even inspiration. Adversaries in New Eden are not known to agreeable, naive, gutless or dim. I suppose gaining peaceable resolution provides all the satisfaction of a victory won, though by a different means.

I thank you for sharing your experiences as you progress along in your experiment. I will be watching events with interest and with good wishes for your success.

ESTRANGED FROM LOSS AND REGRET

One of the uniquely human experiences that most people have is the experience of loss and regret that accompanies grief at death. Along with the positive emotions of a life lived in joy and love comes the experience of loss and regret. This is particularly poignant upon the viewing of the body of a loved one.

The Disciples of Ston offer this experience for the capsuleer in the form of our clone body return service. Capsuleers often lack the ability to regret. They have so deified themselves, that they have forgotten that in spite of infomorph technology, they are still mortal. When a body is lost, it should remind us that.

The capsuleer attitude toward the body has estranged us from the kind of loss and regret that generates positive development of character. Non-capsuleers have much to teach us about how to dignify the integration of consciousness and body. Let us observe their expressions of grief, loss, and regret at times of death. Let us learn from those observations.

Maybe, we will lose our taste for violence a little. Maybe we will think twice before throwing away our own bodies, cloned though they may be. Maybe we will learn to even restrain from killing our enemies. Maybe, just maybe.

The Disciples of Ston bid you peace

TWO CREMATION SERVICES PERFORMED

Upon the permission of the owners, I performed two solemn cremation services today in remembrance of the life experiences of the unique integration of the individuals with those past bodies. We grieve the losses and celebrate any noble successes.

The Disciples of Ston bid you peace

CLONE BODY RETURN SERVICE, GROWING

The clone body return service has been growing and pilots are beginning to take advantage of the service once they realize that it isn't a trick or a scam. We have returned several bodies lately including a pair belonging to either sisters or a mother/daughter pair. We have also bee conducting more cremations. Just today, a pilot gave the Disciples five clone bodies that he picked up along the way. We say, Thanks. The owners have already been contacted and we await response.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Great news from Tobias. For any who do not know who he is: Tobias was one of the slaves that we rescued some time ago. He indicated a desire to be place under a Amarrian holder to further his enlightenment in the Amarr faith. I contacted Thgyl Goldcore and she agreed to take the responsibility. From time time to time, I receive a report on his well-being and what he is doing. Just today, I receive a report from Ms. Goldcore that Tobias will be attending religious training in an Amarr monastery with the goal of entering the priesthood. This was the desire of Tobias from the beginning and he seems to be on that path. We are grateful.

The Disciples of Ston bid you peace

RESCUE WORK GENERATES PASSION

I have noticed in myself, Manwe, and now Edaine, that the rescue work we have been doing, generates strong passions. The desire to save lives and the disdain for the cowards who abandon them to death, is a passion that grows the longer you do the work.

I have a concern that Edaine might turn to violence. I believe it is best to rotate the three of us in and out of active rescue ops. It is a kind of intensity. There can be nothing happening for a long time, then suddenly we are faced with large rescues, inadequate equipment, and the overwhelming sense of how few we really save.

The wall of shame is actually a good way for the fellas to blow off steam and express their disgust at the slave trader scum who make our work necessary.

There is a shared passion to help others and preserve the dignity of life and it is found in all the races of this cluster. Without sharing details at this point, a pilot has approached us about cooperating to find a way to help restore implanted sansha captives. We have enlisted Medical experts from Edaine's university connections to help. We think that there are medical technologies that will make this possible.

Thanks to ALL who value life.

The Disciples of Ston bid you peace.

We are one step closer, Ston. I Am finally able to fit the Covert Ops cloaking device II aboard the Elutheria. I am testing its operation parameters in Hi sec before taking it into more dangerous areas. I also think it could be useful in rescue operations within more dangerous areas. Time will tell.

Dear Mr. Horn,
I will watch for you when I return to Caldari space. Right now, I am on rescue duty in other parts. When I rotate out and return to Clone body return duty, I will look for you in Niyabainen.

Other news,

Finally, I have trained the necessary skills to join the rescue efforts in a more effective way. With the addition of Industrial 1, I can now pilot and industrial ship large enough to pick up bigger groups of people without having to make return trips. I have joined Manwe on rescue ops so he can focus more time on covert transport. The Matriculation communities are growing at a consistent rate. We anticipate that some will want to move to other parts of space, now that we can transport them at reduced risk.

The Disciples of Ston bid you peace.

Corporate News:

I have not given a corporate update for some time. Financially, we are fine in that we have what we need to do what we set out to do. The massive expenses incurred with war and personal conquest, are of no concern to the disciples of Ston so we get by with little. Our main expenses have to do with training non-violent skills and purchasing equipment to assist in rescue ops, etc.

Manwe has trained in covert ops and is now equipped to transport former slaves out of Empire space and into State, Federation, and Republic space. I will press Ston to train the same skills so that he can also do the same. There is good reason. If the Disciples want to journey into null and sub null space, someone needs to also be available to do covert transport and rescue ops. The same skills are needed.

Ston has hesitated to train skills. He will have to do so, if the vision of the Disciples is to move forward. Part of that vision is a survivable non-violent presence in the most violent places in the cluster.

As for me, I am more committed to the work of the Disciples than ever before. I will continue to do my part in rescue work, while earning ISK to support the rest of the work.