15 years ago ...
'Hello, my
name is Tenshin. You don't look Intaki. Are you from here?' The young
man strapped into the seat next to Keitu smiled with his thin but
smoothly curved lips and his narrow eyes reflected the smile with a
dark glint.
This look in his eyes made something
stir inside of Keitu. Something she had never felt before in exactly
that way. It tingled most pleasantly. Almost enough to make her
forget that she was not Keitu anymore.
She made herself remember that she now
was a Gallente woman called Sandrielle Jaunes. That woman was a
capsuleer too. Unlike herself, that woman had not survived being shot
down in her craft. It had been long ago, in a time when more errors
happened with capsule technology than today. The transfer system of
that unfortunate capsuleer had malfunctioned when her ship had
crashed on the planet below. Her body remained dead and but her mind
was caught in a timed-out transfer buffer. A forgotten casualty of an
insignificant border skirmish with the Caldari State which was swept
under the rug by political interests at the time. Back then, the two
interstellar nations were formally at an uneasy peace, and the
Gallente government had – as of yet – no interest in letting the
conflict flare up.
Thus politics had made a missing person
out of Sandrielle Jaunes.
Since all official records had been
buried, it had fallen to the Ida nuns to preserve the capsuleer
infomorph of the Gallente woman for many years, since it was part of
their belief system that a spirit should not be allowed to die, even
if the physical body had. It did not matter to the nuns' faith
whether the spirit in question was something abstract or something
that could be stored on a wetware mainframe.
So, when the time of Keitu's departure
came, they made it a gift to her, and thereby gave that spirit a new
lease of life.
The whole night before Keitu said her
last goodbyes and took the road into town one last time, she had been
linked to the datastore which held the capsuleer's mind. Through her
own neural interface, she absorbed all of what had been Sandrielle
Jaunes: Her youth as ambitious girl in a strongly patriotic family.
Her enlistment with the Federation Navy, motivated by a profound
conviction and idealism, and of course the prelude to her death when
she confronted Caldari Militia capsuleers in the then increasingly
secessionist Intaki Syndicate.
'My name is Sandrielle.' she replied
with a truthfulness that had been ingrained to the point where it
became reflexive. 'You are right. I am Gallente. But I want to
support the cause of the Intaki.'
The young Intaki man – if at all,
then not much older than Sandrielle herself – seemed to dwell on
the smooth lines of her neck to a degree that made her feel
uncomfortable and excited at the same time. The tingling sensation
increased and filled her with a strange warmth that welled up from
below.
'What is it?' she asked. Uncertain what
else she could – or should – say when Tenshin's gaze met her
eyes.
'It's just …' the bronze skinned
young man now looked over her face in a slightly impressed way, and
Sandrielle felt like blushing.
She decided it must be because they had
broken atmosphere and were now floating in open space aboard this
personnel transport she shared with a hundred other volunteers who
had come from the small town close to the convent to sign up with the
Rasenzoku capsuleers, to defend their home.
'You have those implants. You are a
capsuleer!' Tenshin said.
Sandrielle could see how he tried to
regain composure. The awareness training of the Ida order had taught
her to read the most subtle hints of body language and minutiae of
change in facial expressions or voice. She noticed his increased
depth and decreased frequency of breath. A sign of someone trying to
compensate for excitement. There were signs of a conscious effort to
relax the eyelids, so as to not make an appearance of fear or
astonishment. Finally there was that clearly forced but yet
deliberately casual smile.
'And you are beautiful.' the Intaki
added.
Sandrielle sighed inwardly. Really? Had
he taken all that effort to seem in control just to deliver that
line?! She had to smile nevertheless and found it endearing in an
amusingly clumsy way.
'Thank you.' she said and now allowed
herself to blush. She had been taught how to react strategically to
play off of the expectations of another person, but this was not
quite what she did here. It made her feel strangely exhilarated to
see the boy's smile beam when she responded to his flattery in this
way.
'It must
be the feeling of being back in open space again
after so long.' she thought.
'I have always been dedicated to the
Federation's cause, and for me the Intaki deserve the same support as
all of us.' Sandrielle sidetracked the conversation and composed
herself with a subtle breathing exercise. 'Unfortunately the Gallente
Federation does not want to get officially involved in a conflict
with capsuleers, so I decided to volunteer to join the Rasenzoku.'
Tenshin nodded. 'I am sure they can use
a capsuleer like you.'
He frowned slightly and looked down. 'I
am just a crewman with experience in navigating long-range hauling
ships.'
He faced Sandrielle again and smiled at
her in a way that she found very fetching. 'Maybe I could become a
crewman on your ship.' enthusiastically he grabbed her hand. 'I am
sure they will give you your own ship.'
Sandrielle was suddenly forced to
remember the nameless girl she had been before the nuns rescued her,
and the destroyed girl she had been before that. Back when the Hive
took her.
She cast her eyes down. 'Maybe.' she
said somberly.
Poisonous memories now quenched the
warmth and the tingling inside of her, but when she looked up again
and saw the light in the handsome boy's dark eyes, she still smiled,
and the warmth inside of her slowly rekindled.
The present day ...
'Any friend of Sandrielle will always
be welcome on my ship.' the Intaki commander said as he shook hands
with Cedrien and Keram. 'Please have a seat.'
The commander's quarters were small and
cramped. Nothing like the spacious suites Cedrien knew from similar
ships that were in service with the Gallente Navy. Of course, judging
from the implants that were visible at the base of the dark haired
man's skull, the commander was a capsuleer and therefore not in need
of much in terms of personal shipboard comforts. Still, most
capsuleer pilots were self-indulgent enough to set aside the best
quarters on any ship they flew, just in case they wanted to meet
someone in person or just unwind while there was nothing better to
do.
It was very obvious, though, that this
recon cruiser was first and foremost a warship.
Even inside, it bore the scars of
battles.
They had passed through corridors where
some of the lighting didn't work. Much of the ship's interiour
structure looked like it had been subjected to recent and very
haphazard repairs. Every available space they had seen while on board
had been crammed full of ammunition, backup systems and unassembled
combat drones. If not that, surplus space had been rededicated to fit
heavy armour and bulkhead reinforcements. Damage control systems were
distributed throughout every section of the ship and the crew had
been reduced to a bare minimum as usual on a capsuleer controlled
vessel.
The Intaki commander looked like a
reflection of his own ship in human form. Once he must have been a
handsome young man, but the memories of many hard fights had drawn
deep lines into his features. Long deployments in space had made him
look thin, almost haggard, in appearance.
'My name is Tenshin Noy, Recon
Commander Second Class of the Rasen Zoku and I am an old friend of
Sandrielle myself.' the Intaki said after seating himself behind the
small desk of the ready-room. 'Probably even more than a friend, if
anyone could claim to have come that close to that woman.' he added
with a wistful smile.
Cedrien stroked his beard and raised a
brow. 'I have been aware that Sandrielle had friends within
Rasenzoku. I never knew it was that personal.'
'So you been shagging her when she was
younger and even hotter?' Keram asked rhetorically. 'Lucky
bastard.' the Amarrian added with envious emphasis.
'Lucky in more ways than one.'
Commander Noy replied with a smirk. 'Sandrielle provided the Rasen
Zoku with inside knowledge about the Hive. Knowledge that helped us
drive them out of the Intaki Syndicate space back then.' he
explained. 'She also made it look in a way that much of the credit
went to me. Thanks to her the Rasen Zoku made me a capsuleer and
Recon Commander.'
He sighed then. 'Unfortunately luck
left us not long after she did.' Tenshin Noy paused there as if he
was considering to elaborate on the reasons why Sandrielle left the
capsuleer alliance.
He decided against it and continued.
'We drove the offensive onward against the Hive. We thought we had
already beaten them.' The Intaki frowned and the lines on his face
seemed to deepen. 'In our arrogance we declared ourselves the victors
of that war, and indeed, we had liberated the Intaki people from the
threat of the Hive. Like many other Intaki who had joined, I
considered that a genuine success.'
Tenshin Noy pressed his lips together
to a thin line. 'But as we pressed further into the depths of Cloud
Ring we got surrounded by their numbers without even realizing it.'
Tenshin Noy paused as if reliving those
painful memories. 'Only a few of us got out of there. The Hive did
not just destroy our ships. They boarded them and took both crews and
capsuleers. Those they could not turn were executed. Now all that
remains is a nomadic fleet of scavengers with no space to call their
home.'
'Still...' he drew himself up and
opened his arms. 'I owe much, if not all, of what I have achieved to
Sandrielle Jaunes.' Commander Noy leaned forward on his desk and
looked at the two Awakened Industries capsuleers intensely. 'Now, you
say she has been captured again by the Hive.' his jaw clenched. 'You
do know that it is highly likely that she is already dead?'
Cedrien nodded. 'Yes, we are aware.' he
gestured sharply when Keram opened his mouth to interject. 'We also
owe a lot to Sandrielle. I don't expect you to know what life beyond
New Eden is like, but trust me when I tell you that for us out there,
every single person counts, and while we see a possibility to help
them, we will not abandon
them.'
Recon
Commander Noy smiled sadly. 'I can understand the way you feel about
this Captain Roucellis, and I would be prepared to lay down my life
if I knew it would save Sandrielle.' he shook his head then. 'But
what can I, what can all of the Rasen Zoku even, do against the power
of the Hive?'
'Oh
don't worry.' Keram said with a broad grin. 'We've got a plan. It's
crazy …' he shrugged, but then narrowed his eyes mischievously. '…
but believe me, they wont see that one coming.'
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