21 - Re-Awakening - Part 1

'It is truly magnificent!' Hegomir Torstan exclaimed 'Their minds are linked with the consciousness of the Sleepers. Consider the profound potential of this fact.'

In the specialized medical bay of the carrier ship Euryale, equipped with a capsule control interface, two unequal capsuleers were linked to a system which simulated their link with a ship. One a lithe, feminine Amarrian with luxuriously long, almost white, hair and fine features, recently matured by her personal trials. The other, a Sebiestor, was of a more lean androgynous build and short red curls framed her boyish features. She was obviously older than her counterpart, but lacked the harshness that had engraved itself onto the young Amarrian's face. Both were wearing nondescript hospital gowns which turned them into standardized patients below their neckline.

The attending medic ignored the enthusiastic gushings of the elderly Minmatar scientist still wearing his long russet coat and looked at the holographic display which provided a constant stream of data about the condition of the two women's brains. 'It looks like they are still in a form of mental disassociation.' The balding round faced Gallente doctor observed. 'I doubt that it was such a good idea to disconnect them from their ships.'

'We had to bring them back. To study what happened to them' Hegomir Torstan replied with no hint of regret in his voice. 'In any case, for as long as they retain their communication link they will be able to talk to the Sleepers. Can you not see the opportunity this means for us?!' he exclaimed, frustrated at the lack of vision in this morose Gallente who probably never dealt with anything more scientifically challenging than emergency surgery.

'We have been promised revelations about swimming among the stars. Provide them!' An alien voice bereft of any human inflection or emphasis emanated from the speaker system of the sickbay and interrupted the potential argument about to flare up between the two men. It sounded vaguely feminine and had similarities to both Alira's determined tones and the softer, finer voice of Sylera, but it was neither.

The Gallente medical officer looked at Torstan with confusion on his face. 'How did they do that?' he wondered. 'According to my readouts they are catatonic.' he gestured to magnify the central cortex of both women in the hologram. 'And what are they talking about?'

'I don't know how it happened' Torstan replied 'But it is not the women speaking.' he paused and looked significantly at the doctor. 'It is them. The Sleepers.' Hegomir Torstan contemplated the cryptic statement with a furrowed brow..'I think I know what they want. Make sure I have a link to the women's neural interface.' the Sebiestor savant ordered and sat down behind a fluid-router console to establish a connection to the Arek'Jalaan research database. 'We will give them everything we know, and we will get even more in return.' he commented with unrestrained expectation in his voice.

The Gallente man looked at Savant Torstan sceptically, not moving, until the Matari man looked up from his console at him with unconcealed indignation. 'What?' Torstan asked irritated. 'Get on with it, or do you want that swarm of sleeper drones out there decide that they might just as well destroy us?'

Horrified the bald doctor shook his head and began to work.

***

Cedrien still had difficulty getting to grips with the scenery visible from his carrier's observation deck. Before his eyes lay the floating graveyard of hundreds, maybe thousands, who had died in their ships. The wrecks of his own defence fleet was a testimony to the inadequacy of Awakened Industries in the face of the adversary they had faced. The wrecks of the powerful Yanissary Order fleet – on the other hand – only contributed to the sense of disbelief.

Some of the most powerful instruments of warfare ever built by humans drifted shattered and flickering with plasma fire in the shadow of the vast alien structure which still obscured the light of the two suns in the centre of this trackless solar system. It was not so much the fact that this devastation had occurred, but how it had happened, which made Cedrien doubt everything he had learned about life in the Anoikis cluster.

Looking up at the vast circular complex and the dark biomechanoid shapes which moved here and there – disassembling the remnants of the mercenary fleet – made Cedrien wonder whether this was all but a cruel trick of his mind. Maybe he was actually suspended in the dying moments of his life and his fading consciousness had conjured up that surreal image before his brain would cease to think and dream for ever.

The growling, raging voice behind him seemed to confirm that he was in fact awake, though.

'Are you even listening to what I am saying?' he heard Arrakh scream as he slammed on the observation room's table with such force that the coffee service, tray and cups which had been provided out of common courtesy, jumped and clattered with the impact, spilling their hot content.

Cedrien turned and looked blankly at the tall, muscular Brutor man with his long mane of braided black hair. 'I can not explain it any more than you can.' he offered with a slight shrug and a helpless gesture. 'I am truly sorry for the losses you suffered Arrakh, but do you really think I had any control over them?' He pointed outside at the alien construct veined with pulsing light, looking more like something grown than something built.

Arrakh narrowed his dark eyes and pressed his full lips together angrily. 'If you had nothing to do with it, then why did they not attack any of your ships?' he shot back, but the worst edge was gone from the Matari capsuleer's voice.

Cedrien sat down in a high-backed chair and looked at the coffee spilled on the smooth table's surface by the outburst of his visitor, as if he could find and answer in the dark liquid. 'We have lost all of our pilots and crews who were not with me on this ship.' He looked up at the swarthy Matari. 'Two of my capsuleers got podded back to an uncertain fate out in New Eden.' Cedrien leaned forward and inclined his head slightly while looking at his guest intently. 'Do you really think, that I would have waited for all of that to happen if I had the power to summon Sleepers?' His last words were emphasized to drive home the utter impossibility of that suggestion.

Arrakh sat down opposite from the former Federal Navy officer and shook his head slowly. 'No. I don't think so.' he admitted. 'But this thing, what happened here.' he paused to shake his head. 'Nobody ever did anything like it or even heard of anything like it being done.' The Brutor looked at Cedrien with intensity. 'You must know something.' he added.

'I might know who could be able to tell you more.' Cedrien admitted and his features began to acquire a shrewd expression. 'I might tell you.' he offered and quirked his lips into a slight smile. 'For a price.'

The powerfully build Brutor guffawed. 'Your fleet is devastated, your station has no defences left and you still try to bargain?'

Cedrien shrugged. 'I know you didn't come to destroy us, otherwise you would not sit here with me.' he observed calmly. 'If you change your mind, I don't know how those things out there might react.' he inclined his head in the direction of the observation window. 'I know that there is something you would like to know, and I also know that there is something I need done which I can not do myself.' Cedrien shrugged again. 'Sounds like a perfectly viable opportunity for a bargain.'

Arrakh chuckled deeply. 'Allright, you got me listening. What is it I can do for you in exchange for your great secret.'

'I need someone to convince the Amarr Empire that we do not have what they want anymore.' Cedrien said, now with an absolutely earnest expression. 'And to make this deal more easy to swallow, I can assure you, that I can't tell you what you need to know to do that without also letting you know how all this happened.'

'Sounds good.' Arrakh admitted.

'Oh and by the way.' Cedrien added as an afterthought 'You also get to be the hero who brings back the Minmatar Republic one of their most prized scientists and very likely get a pretty nice reward for that too.'

The Brutor capsuleer crossed his powerfully muscled bare arms before his broad chest and leaned back in his chair. 'Tell me more.' he replied with a broad smile.

21 - Re-Awakening - Part 2

In an isolated system of the Intaki Syndicate, in an unregistered cloning bay,  the infomorph calling herself Sandrielle Jaunes emerged from it's liquid cradle in a new body. It was an experience she had gone through many times before. However, the fact that her most recent “death” had ripped her consciousness from inside an advanced strategic cruiser added some complications. Because of the profound link those ships offered to their capsuleer pilots, such an abrupt disconnect never occurred without mental trauma. The ship would take some of its pilot's mind with it into oblivion, leaving the capsuleer disoriented and deprived of more recently imprinted reflexes. Not quite neural damage but still the effective equivalent of a minor stroke leaving the victim with a loss of memory and certain faculties.

Still, Sandrielle knew what that felt like, and it did not account for the severity of the disorientation she felt as she stumbled out of the opening technological chrysalis that had nurtured her clone.

Even in her weakest moments, the Gallente woman had an enviable amount of control over her body, but now her senses were clouded as if she had been immersed in alcohol rather than the viscous liquid of the clone pod. She seemed to be unable to find her sense of balance. Her muscles ached and tortured her with every little contraction. Sandrielle could hardly see, and when her legs buckled under her from pain and weakness alike, she hardly managed to steady herself on a nearby instrument panel to keep herself from falling.

With a pained sigh she fell, more than settled, into a chair fortuitously standing there.

What is happening to me. What's the matter with this clone. Did something go wrong in the transfer of consciousness? Sandrielle wondered while she struggled to think coherently.

Complications in the instant transfer of consciousness from a capsule to a clone were not unheard of. Especially when it came to independently operated facilities like the one Sandrielle had been using to keep her clones off the record. However, in this day and age the statistical odds were extremely low of something going wrong on the scale that Sandrielle experienced.

Sandrielle heard an amused chuckle.

There was someone with her. A man by the sound of it.

She moved her head into the general direction of the sound, but all she could see was a ghostly blur. A smudge only vaguely shaped like a human being.

'Madame Jaunes. Welcome back. Looks like we get an opportunity to balance the books today.' the voice smugly piped at her.

He spoke Gallente, but Sandrielle recognized a distinct Caldari accent. Her brain flickered through barely recovered memories. Sandrielle tried to regain her sense of self-control while slumped in a chair. Naked, weak and exposed like on the day she lost her virginity.

'Tradesman Aluvetti.' she sighed after her mind finally managed to match the voice with a person. 'What a surprise to see you on the site of my rebirth.' Sandrielle's muscles relaxed as her mind crept sluggishly along the paths of her nervous system to re-learn how her body was working. 'I am unaware of any imbalance.” a smile appeared on her face, both tired and menacing at the same time.

'Well.' The Caldari trader began. 'I remember a day when you put me through some rather unsettling experience.' Sandrielle could vaguely make out his shrug that accompanied the next statement. 'I just thought I should be returning the favour.' He paused and the human-shaped smudge moved closer and obscured the overhead lights. Sandrielle could smell him. A spicy fragrance common to male personal hygiene products.

'How does it feel to be completely powerless?' Aluvetti asked whimsically.

'What …?' What have you done to me? How did you find my clone? Sandrielle tried to formulate the questions but her unfocused mind failed momentarily to express them in words.

'What happened to you?' Aluvetti finished the question for her. 'I am afraid I have tampered a bit with your clone.' Sandrielle vaguely saw him straightening as he stood. 'I am not an expert on this, so I have no idea how extreme the effects are, but judging from your state you are pretty much messed up.' Another chuckle followed.

'I guess even in your current state you will remember that there are people who will pay an impressive amount of money for getting their hands on you. I can actually choose between offers. Looks like you made lots of friends during your career.'

Sandrielle's hands clutched the armrest of the chair she was in. 'If I can just manage a few seconds of full control I can kill him. Naked and unarmed as I am, I can still do it.' she thought while trying to muster the necessary strength and control.

'Oooh' Aluvetti voiced with mock pity while pushed Sandrielle back into the chair when she tried to rise.'Are you trying to jump out of the chair and use your famous martial prowess to kill me despite the odds?' Sandrielle could see the smudge moving. Him shaking his head she guessed. 'I am afraid you wont manage.' the Caldari said 'I am not very sophisticated at this, but I am good enough to make sure your body and mind are practically infirm.'

Sandrielle had to concede that he was correct.

***

Deep in the massive Tomb Ship, Keram sat huddled in a blanket before a fluid router console. He cursed himself and his former pirate colleagues for forgetting to put any heating on in the cloning bay. The place was freezing and Keram was as naked as on the day of his birth.

Still, he had not bothered to get dressed. As soon as he had regained some control over his body he had stumbled to the nearby console and wrapped a blanket around himself. It had been left there by an unknown individual. Someone who had recently been sent back involuntarily to the spaceborne cloning facility. Another one of the outlaws and criminals who shared a stake in this ship hidden in the depths of an unsettled system. Far away even from the hunting grounds of the unaffiliated capsuleer alliances fighting over unclaimed space here in the Outer Passage.

The purpose of his hasted attempt to re-establish communication with the outside world was something that had been up until recently almost inconceivable to the outcast Amarrian: A deep-seated care about another human being. A Minmatar no less. All that Keram wanted to know was, whether Alira was all right.

Eventually he managed to establish a quantum-entangled communications bridge to the channels of Awakened Industries. At first he got some random comms-officer on the line who was so inexperienced with protocol that Keram had to assume he was the replacement of someone who was assigned to fill in for the person who was actually supposed to do the job. After several minutes of back-and-forth to clear up the confusion, Keram finally got through to Cedrien. He was relieved to learn that the Gallente commander was still inside the wormhole system. They had prevailed, but at what cost?

'Tell me she's all right.' Keram rasped, still hung over from his recent rebirth. A stupid thing to say, he realized a moment later. Cedrien would not tell him otherwise if Alira wasn't.

'Well, she is still in a very …' The holographic image of the bearded Gallente man inclined it's head as Cedrien groped for words. '… difficult state.' he finished.

'Define difficult.' Keram growled back. His personal feelings left no space for evasive nuances. Part of his mind was amazed at that reaction. It was not so long ago that he had lead a life where the loss of comrades – he had known no real friends – had been something he accepted with a shrug. How he had changed. Keram almost drifted off into a state of reverie, reflecting on that, but Cedrien's voice pinned his attention to the here and now.

'She is still linked with the collective consciousness of the Sleepers.' the Gallente man said. 'At least that is what Torstan tells me. Sylera is too.' The projection of Cedrien furrowed it's holographically rendered brow. 'Right now we are not sure whether we can risk to disconnect them or what would happen if we did.'

Keram pressed his lips together. 'So you are letting this Matari sociopath call the shots now?'

The image of Cedrien smirked. 'I guess he would call you a sociopath too.' The voice of Cedrien turned more earnest. 'We're grasping at straws here Keram. Nobody has ever done anything like this before. Also, maybe your transfer resulted in loss of memory, but we are basically shot to pieces out here. Almost of the civilian personnel has been evacuated. Most of the military personnel is dead. We are doing what we can here and we have very little to go on. I understand you got attached to Alira and …'

Keram cut the transmission and gritted his teeth in frustration. Then he called up the hangar registry of the Stormchasers, his old pirate crew. He needed a ship. A fast ship. Something that could slip through blockades and into wormhole space as quickly and safely as possible.

He was looking for someone still alive among his pirate buddies who owed him a favour.

21 - Re-Awakening - Part 3

A Caldari without corporate affiliation or personal business was worse than nothing. Someone who could not fulfill a valuable or productive function in the greater economic scheme was dead weight, contributing nothing to common prosperity. Such failures would be forced to pledge themselves to others so they might be given at least some role in society no matter how menial.

They would give up the last thing they had. Their freedom of choice.

Some claimed that this was virtually the same as slavery like in the Amarr Empire, but Kassina Vikkonen could not disagree more.

In Amarr society, the masters were personally responsible for their slaves. In that religious value system – which Kassina had always found strange and archaic - the slave-owners had to feed, clothe and house their thralls. The way Kassina saw it – and Caldari society as a whole embraced basically the same view – neither the master nor the slave could ever reach their full potential as human being if they were not individually responsible for their own destiny. The slaves, because they were not free to follow their own chosen path, and the masters because they were tied down by a responsibility which was imposed upon them. Both sides became restricted in their freedom of choice, and because of that restriction, the full potential of the society as a whole could not be reached.

It followed from that view, that corporate executives and directors would gain the highest reward from the business they conduct. After all, they have chosen to carry the majority of the risk. No diligent employee would have a problem finding new work if their corporation went bankrupt. A failed CEO, however, was damaged goods and could spend the rest of their lives without another chance at coming back to the top. They better had savings and shares that yield them dividends, otherwise they could drop from the very top of society's ranks to the very bottom.

That is where Tomoe Sairinen now was. After having lost all the assets of her corporation in a pointless crusade against a group of pirates and the even less sensible pursuit of that group of wormhole settlers, she had reached rock bottom. No surprise that the former young executive had pledged herself fully to Kassina Vikkonen. Not that the Deteis bounty hunter had any interest in making use of the Civire woman, but – and that was a surprise – Tomoe Sairinen was actually worth something to those wormhole settlers she had been chasing.

Or so it had seemed at the beginning.

As things looked now, Kassina was not so sure anymore.

After she had finally located the hidden space-borne settlement of Awakened Industries, she found herself between the fronts of a battle. She had decided that discretion was better for business than misplaced heroics and had decided to wait it out.

After all, she was a bounty hunter, not a mercenary.

When that alien structure appeared like a thunderhead above the fighting ships and spat out a swarm of spacecraft that looked more like living things than something that came out of a shipyard, Kassina knew that she was better off holding position far away from the engagement and hidden by a cloaking field.

Eventually the battle came to a standstill. Kassina was not quite sure who all the fighting parties were, but clearly Awakened industries had remained standing, even if badly battered and surrounded by those unknown biomechanoids which kept buzzing around the burning wreckage that remained like a swarm of alien insects.

Only then, Kassina tried hailing the wormhole corporation on the frequency she had been provided for contact. When she had received her answer she chose ten of her best men, landed her Tengu class strategic cruiser on the flight deck of the badly damaged Gallente carrier ship which was virtually all that remained of the Awakened Industries' fleet, and escorted Tomoe Sairinen to a meeting with the leader of this strange crew.

Things went downhill from there.

'I can only repeat what I have already told you a few times.' that irritatingly calm Gallente commander said tiredly. 'That contract was not issued by my corporation, but by an individual.' He stroked his close-cropped beard as if he were pondering the ramifications of that himself. 'And like I said, her ship and pod got destroyed and we have not been in contact ever since.'

Kassina leveled her pale-eyed gaze at the Gallente from where she stood on the other side of the conference table which dominated the room. Her escort platoon was spread out behind her, facing the Awakened Industry guards who stood behind their commander.

'That individual was a leading figure within your corporation. Her word should be the word of the corporation itself.' Kassina insisted sternly. The way how this man calmly ignored her obvious logic began to test her patience. He seemed to try and find a loophole so he could avoid responsibility. That only infuriated her further.

'That's not the way we work.' Cedrien Roucellis said curtly. 'We are not exactly under the jurisdiction of the Caldari Business Tribunal here.' he added.

Kassina Vikkonen pressed her lips together an took a deep breath. 'You should at least have the common decency to stand behind the commitments of your personal friends.' she suggested. If clear logic failed, Gallente can best be reached by appealing to abstract ideals. She had found that out during previous negotiations.

'Look outside.' The wormhole capsuleer gestured at the wide row of windows offering a view of the smouldering remains that were left from the past confrontation. Those enigmatic spacecraft systematically tugged and tore at the wrecks with prehensile mechanical limbs. 'Does that look like I have time to deal with some small issue like your bounty contract?'

He furrowed his brow and actually began to sound angry. 'My main starbase is in ruins. I have a fleet of Sleeper Drones around me who might decide at any time that we are their enemies after all, and the only thing that keeps them from doing so is the hunch of a megalomaniac Matari scientist and two catatonic capsuleers. Most of my crews are dead. The rest of my capsuleers are stranded out in Empire space and the one you had a contract with has not even answered any attempts to open communication with her. I don't even know where her clone is!'

He stood up and leaned over the table. Still considerably smaller than Kassina herself, he nevertheless managed to bear down on her with his angry dark-eyed gaze. 'So, you can either help me out here or you can wait until things get sorted, or you can take your ship and find your own way home.' He straightened and obviously prepared to leave.

'Aluvetti'. Tomoe Sairinen had been sitting the whole time at the conference table in front of the Deteis bounty hunter who had delivered her here. She had been staring morosely at the table's transparent surface, but at the Gallente commander's outburst she had raised her head and whispered a name.

'Mikkai Aluvetti knows where her clone is kept.' The Civire woman said, raising her voice.

Cedrien stopped and turned to look at her. 'How do you know that?' he asked with rekindled interest.

Tomoe straightened in her seat 'When I was on the trail of your corporation, my first lead was Aluvetti. I found out that he had been in contact with a number of operators running unregistered cloning services in Syndicate. Through another channel I learned that he had been looking for some wormhole capsuleer of a corporation he did trading for. Your corporation'

Cedrien looked impressed. 'That sounds promising.' He inclined his head and addressed Kassina Vikkonen again. 'If you want your money, I suggest you listen to what this woman has to say.' He smiled subtly. 'And if you find my missing capsuleer I'll pay you a substantial extra amount.'

'How substantial?' Kassina Vikkonen asked.

Finally they were talking a language she understood.