The last service at Farthest Light

All those that stayed on their post till the last evacuation vessel were gathered in Farthest Light chapel. The clergy and monastics of the Little Sisters of the Most Holy Sword were present. Also some station personnel that did a last sweep through the station attended. The burly barkeep of Farthest Star was still here, eyes wet now that the capsuleer bar has been dismantled and parts shipped off. Some pilots who fight in the battle in a few hours time were also here. I've only seen the pews soo full on one occasion, Luna and Franco's wedding...

The service was sober, and yet intense. There are three relics that sanctify the chapel: a book from Scripture, an artifact dating back from around the time the Gate must have closed, and a relic from saint Junip.They were all transfered to travel reliquaries, according to the prescripted rite of Translation of Relics. 

They were brought in procession to the blockade runner vessel that will fly them to safety, along with the clergy and the last station personnel. I followed in the Ratakh Hubrau.

Now only the pilots and their volunteer crews -knowing very well the risk- remain in the station. Maybe all in all a few hundred souls will spend a short tense night in this vast station, made to easily house tens of thousands.

I felt anguish as I closed the doors of the chapel, maybe for the last time. I will not sleep tonight, rather I will keep a vigil and pray for our soldiers.

Taking in a refugee

I docked up at Farthest Shore. The station looks battered and bruised, but at the same time there is a buildup of energy, nanites ready to repair it.

I don't have a lot of stuff here, mostly artifacts I gathered while exploring the system. I've loaded it all up in the Ratakh Hubrau, double checking that its cloaking modules and warp core are in perfect working order.

Luna has asked me to hold a service at Farthest Shore's chapel and perform a rite of Translation of Relics. The relics that sanctify the chapel will be moved to safety. They will be evacuated along with the clergy that is still around and the last of the station personnel evacuees. As these logs that you read are public, I will not write more about it today, but report on it tomorrow, after hopefully everyone is safe and sound in highsec Empire space.

I've taken on a refugee too, and she will accompany me home in the Ratakh Hubrau.

I found her in a part of the station that was already evacuated, or rather, she found me. 

As Brother Sarachem did not answer my call, I went to check if he is not meditating in his hermit's cell and missed the evac. He chose to live in a part of the station that is rather derelict even in normal times. But now, with the evac, it is downright ghostly there. There's no-one around, and many parts are already in low-power mode. Expensive enough stuff that can be moved has been removed, even from the walls, so some parts look as if they were ransacked.

The doors to Sarachem's cell were powered off, so I had to pry them open. He wasn't there. I couldn't decice what to do with his stuff, but in the end I decided to leave it there. There wasn't much in his ascetic cell anyway. 

I met her when I walked back through the abandoned passageways, not far from the hermit's cell. A scrawny cat, most probably a feral thing that hid in unused spaces. She came up to me and lept up, jumping on me and meowing. Purring when I picked her up, bumping her head against me. 

Animals feel when things are wrong, I am sure this kittycat feels the danger now. Maybe on a normal day she'd shred me if I tried to pet her, but now she treated me as if I was Gheinok himself. 

The other thing is, cats and kittens are my soft spot. They sense that as well. So I could not leave her behind... I brought her on board and fed her. I still have to find a name for her. I lean towards Gates, or maybe Farthest Cat, or maybe I'll ask for suggestions at the next callsign ceremony.