Another hurdle

For us, capsuleers, it is so easy to obtain a clone that it has become almost a reflex to discard and install clones in stations.

So I thought I would be easy to get a clone for the Takmahl corpse to transplant the cybernetic implants to. These ancient implants are tailored to interface with her specific genotype, but can't function on the degraded corpse. So, just get a new body, right?

Well it is not that easy. You can't get a clone of someone else. You can only have yourself cloned.

In the early days of cloning technology, there were some horrible scandals. It is said that most innovations are immediately abused to satisfy some depravities of the human mind in a new way. This has also proven true for cloning. For a hefty price, one could buy a clone of a famous holoreel star. Stalkers with money had their victim cloned. Such cases of abuse of the technology resulted in strict laws.

I inquired both with Poteque Pharmaceuticals and with Zainou (the biggest market players in cloning), but neither companies were willing to help me obtain a clone based on the Accadis DNA.

Astrometrics

My little retreat in New Eden comes to an end, I must return to Mehatoor. I came out of concern about the Equilibrium of Mankind's obvious interest in the gate, but found no trace of them.

I did find a single trace of Takmahl, but a single artifact is not enough proof that there was ever an expedition.

I did do some triangulations of the Gate again. A previous attempt from within New Eden only revealed that the Gate is more than 6000 AU away from the star.

But now that the Gate has become visible from Promised Land, the neighboring system, a better determination is possible. Our ship's sensors now seem able to pick up its image there, but not in Central Point or Canard, the next nearest systems. Only thing visible in Canard is White Sky pirates picking on lost Gate tourists.

This is how it looks like from Promised Land (near the New Eden Gate, also visible in the screenshot):

The New Eden star is also indicated in the picture. Using the tactical display, it's possible to determine the angle between New Eden and the Gate as seen from Promised Land (about 15 degrees). Similarly, the angle between Promised Land and the Gate can be measured from New Eden. Given the distance of slightly over one light year between New Eden and Promised Land, it is then straightforward to get the distance between New Eden and the Gate.

Result: about a quarter of a light year. Much less than the servant sisters lead us to believe. 

A caveat. I've noticed that our display distorts space, especially in the direction orthogonal to the plane of the tactical display. This could affect the measurement, but I don't think it would be to a point that we'd get to the three light years suggested by the Sisters. I'll be sharing my findings with the Kor-Azor science outpost recently installed in New Eden.

Off course

Today, after my measurements of Eve Gate activity, I decided to drop by Goner Sarachem. He was again in his corvette flying to the gate at subwarp speeds, and sometimes I like to journey with him for a little while.

I found him more unresponsive than usually, and what worried me most, he was not flying towards Eve Gate! How has he gotton off course? I checked my astrometry, and it was no optical illusion, he was flying in a wrong direction. 

I tried to grasp his attention by orbiting his ship and by sending out communications. Even bumping his ship didn't wake him. He must have been in very deep meditation.

That, or he was drunk driving today.

Encounters

There's something special about the capsuleers that one meets in New Eden. They're not doing their usual activities - be it battle or industry. Rather, they're searching something. Sometimes they're trying to find out something about themselves. 

Like professor Moriarty. I met him here a while ago and now that he's no longer in New Eden I kind of miss him.

But still I'm having nice and interesting conversations. A man who plans to see all the sights in the cluster, and has made that the goal of his existence. A woman who entered New Eden via a wormhole but feels very uncomfortable when not in a wormhole system, because her name appears in local. A new recruit for SFRIM, with whom I've had a long discussion on the essence of faith, sitting in the Farthest Shore's chapel in the light of the Gate. She asked interesting questions that challenged me intellectually, such as whether slavery is necessary for reclamation or how slavery helps the reclaimed to find God.

Pot shards

I am enjoying my time doing field work in the New Eden system. The sight of the gate calms the mind. I have to confess that it feels a bit like a vacation...

I stumbled on something very curious in a relic site: a Takmahl artefact. A gyro ballast. It's nothing quite impotant, it would be like finding pot shards on Aphi. What's weird is to find such a pot shard in an excavation on New Eden I. It doesn't belong here - the common belief is that the Takmahl influence didn't extend very far outside of the Araz constellation.

Could it be brought here by visitors later on? Maybe, but the Sabik ruins where I found it did not seem looted before, and date from the late Takmahl period. It is not unthinkable that the Takmahl organised explorations, expeditions to far away regions. It would take them many years in their cryoships, but that did not stop them before.

Anyway, one "pot shard' can be a coincidence, I must go and search for more evidence if I want to make this claim.

Twice good news

Good news arrived to today! I received the finalized paperwork from the Amarr Civil Service allowing me to bring the Takmahl corpse from my archeological expedition into the station, and to do research on it. My next step, as soon as I return from my visit to New Eden, will be to procure a clone into which I can transplant the cybernetics and hopefully be able to read them out.

Other good news that came to my attention is that a joint fleet of capsuleers from several empires achieved a major victory over Kybernauts in Pochven. LUMEN was present, including lord Sakakibara, and joined a vast international coalition with amongst others... Electus Matari. Even though I am happy that we band together against our common enemy and even though I hope this will lead to constructive peace talks, it still feels very awkward. I fear it will widen the rift between the traditionalists and the reformers in the Empire.

Ni-Kunni dinner

If you had told me a year ago that I would have a Ni-Kunni dinner in the illustrious company of several prominent Holders of the Empire and the Kingdom, I would have laughed at you. Add to that a number of prominent personalities - one of them (ms. Therese Isimazu) dealing the death blow to Chakaid's Titan, and I would have been very worried about your sanity.

Yet it happened yesterday. 

Lunarisse invited these esteemed guests to her uncle's restaurant in the Souk in Tanoo, this is a Ni-Kunni nomadic trading enclave. I was allowed attend as well, and it was magnificent. The food was delicious: the eels brought back childhood memories. There was a Ni Kunni food store close to where my parents lived and my mother would get live river eels and prepare them on special occasions. 

The company at the dinner was far beyond what any commoner would deserve or hope for. The discussions were stimulating and intellectual - I talked with a Minmatar elite soldier, Eran Mintor, and with Aria and we debated how the existential dread differs between baseliners and capsuleers given their lessened mortality.

I wish I could have shared the story of this evening with my parents, commoners like me who never in their life met a Holder.

Our discussions also turned to the treacherous attack of the Triglavians and their collaborators on the rescue convoys to which I participated. It is a topic that I also hear discussed of late by the baseliners in Mehatoor. The rumor among them is that this latest horrendous acts have driven lord Reginald 'Triangloktonos' Sakakibara to take up the sword again. He's a tactician and fleet commander of the Edencom Defense Initiative and Lumen, and he gained renown during the Triglavian war due to his relentlessness and endurance. It earned him nicknames such as 'the Bane of Triglav' and 'the Lion of Kothe'. Verily, the Kybernauts will rue the day they set alight unarmed transports.

Hope extirpated

Yesterday, May 14th YC123, I heeded the call to help in a rescue effort. The Arataka Research Consortium (ARC) planned to evacuate refugees from the Triglavian occupied systems. ARC knows the region well, they do research on the changes occurring in the occupied systems, and they have my esteem and trust. Moreover, this was a fleet that I could participate in without breaking my vow of non-aggression. It felt as a good way to contribute.

The fleet was mustered in Isanamo by a commander with callsign "DutchGunner". She is a kind and (at that moment still) cheerful person. Volunteer pilots had come from all over the cluster. There was a spirit of camaraderie stronger than the rivalry between our nations, offering a glimpse of a united humanity. And yet, one of us had hidden plans to bring marines and establish a military presence. I am sure that had this been known, this pilot would have been kicked out from the fleet.

This collaboration was reflected in the industrial vessels of the fleet: from each empire there was at least one industrial. I flew a bestower. It was shield tanked, which is not my strong suit - I am more of an armor person. Its expanded cargo holds contained planetary vehicles and a shuttle, and no weaponry whatsoever. The ship itself was unarmed.

Of course there was tension, but it was not between races, rather it was tension about the mission. We had just received news that the diplomatic negociations for safe passage through kybernaut patrolled areas had failed. We had a minimal amount of escort vessels and logi support, it was clear that the mission's success would depend on luck as well as on the mercy of the occupation forces.

Our first destination was Otela, a system held by Perun clade. When we arrived, the fleet was split up. I didn't feel too comfortable about spreading our forces thin, weak as we already were, but it is not my role to question a fleet commander. I was assigned Otela V.

There was a substantial Triglavian (non-capsuleer) fleet in orbit about Otela V, but they did not engage me, or the ship that was escorting me. I started the rescue operation, and the first groups of refugees had just arrived, when without any warning, the Triglavian fleet opened hostilities. I think they primaried my transport first, I was targeted by their entire fleet. The logis were unable to help with the massive amount of firepower, and the industrial was lost with all hands. There was no time for escape pods. I managed to warp off my pod, reshipped in a corvette and awaited orders.

The rest of the fleet also came under attack. We received the order to retreat and make our way back to Caldari highsec space. I managed to jump to Obanen but on the Caldari side of the gate, a Triglavian gate camping fleet was waiting. I got podded.

It seems that the hostile reaction came when the pilot who had brought contraband was exposed. Or, who knows, this pilot was an agent whose task it was to give a cause for the attack. Today, as I write this report, another rescue operation is underway. This time, I think the escort will be stronger, and I will pray for success of this renewed attempt.

Switching ships

I returned to the New Eden system, determined to go on patrol to find out if there are any Equilibrium of Mankind bases. 

It was the first time I put the Ratakh Hubrau to use. I found this Astero class vessel abandoned in New Eden several months ago. Being unable to fit a covert ops cloak at the time, I left the ship in my hangar at the Farthest Shore. 

Meanwhile, I have become very accustomed to the Indagatrix, my trusted Anathema class exploration vessel. Switching to a new vessel is like getting a new pair of shoes. You miss the comfort of the well-worn craft you know. I don't know how else to put it than that the ship has adapted to your brain much like a shoe adapts to the shape of your feet if you use it a lot. A new vessel needs breaking in, it is more rigid and less comfortable at first. You notice things that bother you, like a sore spot in the new shoe. I find myself hurting at the lack of CPU in the Ratakh Hubrau when compared to the Indagatrix. 

So I took it out for some sight-seeing first, visiting the new Kor-Azor research station and the SOE station in orbit around New Eden I. I didn't do any long-baseline triangulation of the gate from the nearby system of Promised Land: there was a fleet of twenty-five capsuleers cavorting around with unclear purposes. But I completed reconnaissance of the New Eden system. No trace of the Equilibrium of Mankind, but there were quite some Blood Raider and Drone sites. And then I returned to New Eden: that was enough for a first hike with the new shoes.

Back to New Eden

I could not shake the feeling that there is some sort of danger for the New Eden system, coming from the Equilibrium of Mankind. Lunarisse is also concerned. So I will follow my hunch and go over there again. 

Even if my worries turn out to be without foundation, it will give me the opportunity to complete my triangulations of the gate using nearby systems as well as the New Eden system. From within the New Eden system I could only find a lower bound of 500-1000 AU to the distance between the star and the Gate. Now, with interstellar baselines, I can probe much deeper into space.

I will drop by Amarr for some shopping first, to get new exploration gear to fit the Ratakh Hubrau which I left in Farthest Shore. No-one came to claim this abandoned vessel that I retrieved, so I cannot safely claim rights to this salvage.

My HR interview

I met the HR manager. Honestly, I have no clue what to make of this. So I'm just going to log the literal record of the conversation, without comment.

 

----

HR manager recites in a monotonous voice: "The overall purpose of Human Remains management is to ensure that an organization is able to achieve success through its corpses. The purpose of today's meeting with you is to have an open, two-way conversation to agree on a strategic approach to the effective management of your corpse and to set some goals for you to help your corporation gain a competitive advantage through your corpse."

 

HR manager says in a more enthusiast voice "Our slogan is: we put the corpse in corporation! "

Theodosius Savnar: "There is only corp in corporation, not 'corpse'. The 'se' is missing."

HR manager starts taking notes. "I sense a negative attitude, mr. Savnar. You would be surprised how many corpses there are in an average capsuleer corporation."

HR manager: "Now, tell me a bit about your corpse."

Theodosius Savnar: "Err, well... I found it during an archeological expedition of a Takmahl system in the Araz constellation, it has been well preserved and I would like to reactivate it and read out its cybernetic implants."

HR manager: "How does your corpse fit in your company?"

Theodosius Savnar is tempted to answer "sideways, in a coffin" but then senses that humor may not be appropriate here. He remains silent, thinking, as he has no idea what this question could even mean.

HR manager:  "Let me rephrase this: How would your corpse be an asset to your company?"

 

Theodosius Savnar: "... from... the knowledge we gain from it?"

HR manager:  "Can we agree that this focuses strongly on the short-term advantages of onboarding your corpse? Let's explore the overall picture a bit: How would you know your corpse is successful at helping the long-term goals of your corporation?"

Theodosius Savnar blinks. "Ah, well I have to admit this is a bit of a project of myself rather than of the Societas as a whole. I am given the liberty to pursue my quest, which was given to me in a visio-"

HR manager interrupts, "Sorry to interrupt - and I am so glad we have this conversation, mr. Savnar, it is quite needed I see. I would like to suggest that we work together to come to an answer to my question. Let's start here: what would you say are your corpse's greatest strengths and weaknesses?"

Theodosius Savnar: "Strength: intact Takmahl implants, weakness: decay. The leg fell off."

HR manager:  "Decay is bad. How well does your corpse handle pressure?"

Theodosius Savnar: "Quite well, I think."

HR manager:  "In that case it would be good to find the ideal pressure level for conservation in an inert atmosphere. Can we agree on that action point?"

Theodosius Savnar: "Sure."

HR manager:  "You say that your corpse will be involved in a project for which you have sole responsibility within your department. Now, let's try to think about how that links with the other departments. What role will your corpse play in the team?"

Theodosius Savnar: "I ..."

HR manager:  "There is no 'I' in TEAM, mr. Savnar."

Theodosius Savnar: "There is no 'corpse' either."

HR manager:  "Your response suggests negative emotions, please try to keep this two-way conversation open and constructive."

Theodosius Savnar: "It will be a nice asset for the medical team... department?"

HR manager:  "Good, I note that besides contributions to R&D there is also separate value to the medical department. Well our time is almost up, mr. Savnar, but I think there are still a lot of things to discuss, so another action point that we can agree on is a follow-up cadaver empowerment talk and a corpse performance review for next quarter."

Theodosius Savnar nods, pretending to understand.

HR manager says with forced enthusiasm "Let's proactively empower your corpse's valorisation trajectory together!" and hands over the document with action points.

HR manager also hands over a flyer "Show this to your director or directrix and talk about hiring an HR professional, it will greatly benefit your organisation".

 

HR manager: "You will hear from us. Goodbye mr. Savnar."

SFRIM needs an HR manager

Finally, the DoD office reopened. I went to present all the documents I have gathered. It was the same nasty clerk as before. I showed that I had obtained permission from the closest living relative of Layla Accadis. He typed for five minutes on his computer, asked for my marital status, and asked if I was member of a capsuleer corporation. 

 

I admitted that I am celibate and member of SFRIM.

 

The obnoxious man then told me that the Amarr Civil Service has observed that some capsuleers seem to have an unhealthy fascination with corpses. Corpses are collected for unknown sinful purposes, and not put to good use. He mentioned in particular some members from our alliance who may have a severe corpse problem but are still in denial.

 

Because of this particular penchant of some capsuleers, there is now a policy to encourage every corporation to have an HR department, that is, a "Human Remains" department. Capsuleers collecting corpses should then schedule a yearly interview with a Human Remains manager. Before my authorization can be granted, I too should first do an interview with the HR manager of our corporation before everything can be finalized.

 

I told the man that as far as I know, SFRIM does not have a Human Remains manager. 

 

It appears that in such case, an HR manager will be provided for you by the DoD. I will have to make yet another visit to yet another service to obtain yet another paper to append to my growing dossier. Will this administrative torture never end? The clerk could not schedule the appointment for me, I can only do this via GalNet using some code that he generated for me.

I hope that after this last hurdle, I will finally get the permission to unload Layla from the Indigatrix...

 

 

((ooc credit: linking HR to human remains comes from a book by Andrew Wyndham. I couldn't resist: I think this perfectly fits in a capsuleer context.))

A day of hope and horror

Where to begin?

Maybe with a glimmer of hope. The war between the central powers seems to be averted. The identity of the terrorists who bomb our planets has been revealed: a cult known as the Equilibrium of Mankind, whose aim with these attacks is to start this cluster-wide war.

Their origins date back to the time of Emperor Armani I, two thousand years ago. Around that same time the Sani Sanik would flee Amarr in cryoships. Also Equilibrium of Mankind, led by Ocilan Ardishapur, was found to be heretical and persecuted. They went into hiding, and no-one believed till today that they could still pose a danger.

Everyone was wrong. Yesterday, they had a Titan fleet bringing horror to Kahah… one of the leaders of the orbital bombing attack was none other than cultist Alar Chakaid, who escaped from the Theology Council’s prisons. He was killed in the counter-attack.

Why do they come out of hiding now, one wonders? I think it is no coincidence that the presumed death of the cult’s leader Ocilan occurred exactly 2000 years ago (according to some sources, since the precise date is debated). It is not uncommon for doomsday cults to believe in “second comings” of their leaders to bring about armageddon. There was already a broadcast of a message claimed to be from Ocilan…

I think they pose a particularly grave danger for our Farthest Shore base.

Eve Gate has a special meaning for the cult. According to their beliefs, we should never have gone through the gate, and its collapse is God’s punishment. When most life will be exterminated in the cluster, the gate will open again and allow the chosen ones (guess who that would be) to return to paradise. My feeling is that they’ll want to set up a base camp and not tolerate others to be near the mouth of God.

New DoD appointment

About a month ago, on April 10th, I expressed my worries about outsourcing war to private military contractors.

 

Now, after another planetary bombardment, a patterns develops involving private military contractors. It seems increasingly unlikely that the terror attacks were organised by any of the four central powers, given the similarity of the attacks perpetrated by contractors for the different powers who have different doctrines.

 

If you outsource war, you lose peace.

 

I have no doubt that these patterns are noticed also in the highest circles. I hope it gives arguments to those diplomats who want to de-escalate conflict.

 

Now that the first shocks of the terror attacks have been absorbed, the Amarr Civil Service is slowly re-opening also its non-essential services such as the Department of the Deceased. I have been granted a DoD appointment tomorrow. I have collected all the documents necessary, including the Book of Records lineage certificate and the transfer authorisation from the nearest-of-kin, so I hope it will now go smoothly.

A surprise invitation

My insignificant documentary on the Khanid may not have gone completely unnoticed, as I was invited to the court of lady Ithiria Deritan, Holder of one of the most important houses in the Kingdom, and Duchess of Fekhoya. 

 

When I got this invitation, I found it hard to believe that such honor had been bestowed on me... Before I became a capsuleer, I had not met any Holder in person. For a baseliner who does not work at court, there is no reason to expect such a blessing. Even now, when I am face to face with nobility, it makes me nervous, although less so than my very first time, a memorable meeting Lord-consort Shutaq-Newelle.

The estates to which I was invited are beautifully and tastefully arranged, with a nice courtyard to wait. Security was much less paranoid and much more polite and discrete than on the Lok'ri estate. I was brought to a lounge, where tea was served and where I had a conversation with the Duchess.

 

She is kind and gracious, and shows concern for commoners. We talked about many topics, including books. She is the author of the best-selling "Holder's Handbook", describing the proper treatment and management of slaves. Many young Holder heirs would do well to read it. Oh, I must also remember to send a copy to mr. Nauplius. 

 

And, to my great joy, the Holder's Handbook might get a new and expanded edition! With all that happened in the cluster, an update is in order.

 

The Duchess was also saddened by some harmful rumors that her competitors spread. Noble houses fight each other often by undermining each other's reputation. However, the slander spread at the expense of house Deritan is of exceptional intensity. Now that I have had the pleasure to meet the Duchess, I can vouch that in our interactions she was righteous in the faith, devout, and compassionate. Also her actions speak for her: she sent help to Tanoo in the immediate aftermath of the recent terror attack, even though the Duchy of Fekhoya itself needs its resources to mobilize.

 

I look forward to meeting the Duchess again, and to assist in what humble way I can in realizing and promulgating a new edition of the Holder's Handbook.

The eve of war

There has been another terror attack, yesterday. This time it was Girani-Fa, and the vessels were from the Federation. The images of the attack were broadcast by Amarr Certified News without commentary, live.

This second strike shattered my belief that the attack on Tanoo was an isolated freak incident, launched by a Brutor general who lost his or her mind. The harsh reality dawned upon me and those who were watching the events unfold with me that a war has been declared against the Empire. 

We are mobilizing. Shore leaves have been cancelled. Fleet commanders are taking stock of their ships, and commoners are taking stock of their pantry. Indeed, the baseliners, usually unfazed by wars between capsuleer corporations, are panicking this time, and hoarding supplies.  

Everyone is tense, keeping an eye on the newsfeeds, waiting and hoping for guidance from the Empress. 

Also in capsuleer channels, everyone is on edge. Hawks are quarrelling with those trying to understand why the Republic and the Federation deny involvement in these acts of war. All sorts of conspiracy theories about the true intent of the attackers go around. Lord Shutaq-Newelle reminded us about our proper roles, countering these speculations with an admonishment, "Shut up and man your posts". Today we balance on a cusp between war and de-escalation, but what will be decided seems indeed out of our hands.

Terror in Tanoo

Yesterday, at about this time, terrorists launched a suicide attack on Tanoo, using indiscriminate orbital bombardment to sow death. Even if many rounds landed in the sea due to bad aim, it led to many casualties.

I am shocked, and sad, and a bit scared. Scared because the strange attack seems to have but one aim: force us into all out war with the Republic. At the moment, the news points to a rogue faction within the Brutor Vanguard. A crazy admiral who took matters in his or her own hands.

It doesn't convince me. There was also an attack on Inis-Ilix, where Chakaid is held, accused of Blood Raider sympathies. While our forces were fighting the dreadnoughts bombarding the planet, a raid was conducted to free the prisoner Chakaid. This would not be the first time the terrorists side with the Blood Raiders. There is more going on, and I pray all night and all day today for everyone to exert restraint and investigate before acting on an urge of revenge.

On a personal matter, the Amarr Civil Service closed for two days following the attack. I have now all the documents I need for the DoD but I will still have to wait to go back...

Human nature

I traveled to Akhragan, and found the Accadis family willing to meet with me. They are commoners, and Uldryk and his wife both work as clerks in a company that ships farming equipment. We made an appointment in the evening after dinner, at their house. I declined a kind invitation to have dinner with them, as I did not want to engage in small talk before or after my strange request.

It was a difficult conversation. They had not seen a capsuleer before, and did not trust me. 

 

Moreover, at first, there was a very painful misunderstanding: they thought I had come to tell them about their daughter, Talya, who has been abducted by the Sansha now many years ago and who has never been found. So, when I started talking about Layla, they thought their daughter's corpse had been found. 

 

Once that misunderstanding was out of the way, and the shock was absorbed, I could explain my quest in more detail. But my story about a Takmahl who died a thousand years ago sounded like total nonsense to them, I think they took me for a madman. Hearing myself explain this to bereft parents made me sound like a madman to myself as well. 

 

What stupid request am I bothering these people with? Of course it makes no sense, and of course it would look to them as if I am torturing them and dragging them into some silly game designed purely for my own pleasure. I felt guilt and embarrassment. I could sense they just wanted to kick me out of their house, but did not dare to.

My sense of guilt was lessened, and my sense of embarrassment was increased, when Uldryk asked whether there would be an inheritance from this Layla. Maybe he meant it as a rhetorical and cynical question. Or perhaps he thought that there is a profit to be made from the madness of a capsuleer. Or maybe Uldryk was simply asking a price to cooperate in my games. 

 

And, to be honest, Layla's Takmahl cybernetic implants are worth quite some money to industrialists who can repurpose them. A Takmahl phrenic appendix alone is worth easily half a million ISK. I hid my disapproval of this materialistic turn of affairs, and swallowed my pride. I offered them half a million ISK. A fortune.

The mood changed instantly.

 

Uldryk opened a bottle of whisky he had kept for a special occasion, and insisted I drink with him. I remember the whisky tasting with Ishta and how sick I was afterwards, so I only accepted a very small shot glass. After downing a rather tall glass himself, Uldryk slapped my back and joked with me as if we had been old friends. He gladly signed the papers recognizing his genealogical link with Layla and releasing the corpse to me for scientific study. 

 

I transferred the lump sum and when he saw the money appear on his account, he took his wife in his arms to dance in joy. When I left, clearly it was only Uldryk's wife who was still thinking about their daughter.

A name and a system

It has been a very busy few days. I have been working with Keeper Thadron on the information I retrieved from the Book. I still feel somewhat dazed by my visit, it is hard to grasp the immensity of being surrounded by the history of our holy people. Thadron says it is quite common to remain overwhelmed for a couple of days.

 

The information was exactly what Keeper Thadron needed, he has to the best of his abilities tracked a common ancestor for the heretic Accadis branch and those that remained faithful. From that common ancestor, he worked his way forward, according to the hereditary laws appropriate for the time and place, until he arrived at one name: Uldryk Accadis, who lives on Akhragan III.

 

The fog of time and heresy does not allow for absolute certainty that this is the closest living relative, of course. But having formal paperwork signed by a Keeper and approved by the Book authorities is all that will matter to the Amarr Civil Service's clerks at the Department of the Deceased.

 

Of course, now another difficult task awaits. I have to visit this Uldryk identified by Thadron, and obtain written permission to work on Layla's corpse. Oh, what difficult task did I assign to myself? I have no idea even how to start this conversation.

 

The good Record Keeper had a gift for me, as we parted. He's done a quick genealogical research on my own family, and gave me a holocube with which I can project a galaxy of people and their links, that are part of my own lineage throughout the ages. This kind gift touched me deeply - we promised to stay in touch, and Keeper Thadron agreed to come to visit Mehatoor.

Sorting through the records

 -report continued-

 

Over breakfast, I asked Guide Maslan about the light. Rather than giving me a straight answer, she told me another of their tales. Elleka claims that long a ago, a family of Sani Sabik hid in the depths of the Book, fleeing persecution. They survive from eating the leather of the book bindings, and feast on rats and on the occasional visitor they can catch, although they are wary to eat Guides, afraid of the repercussions. My Guide also claims that in the area up where I saw lights, there is a statistically significant anomaly: too few rodents. That, according to her, is hard proof of the hidden Sabik. She says they reverted back to a feral state, and in the passing of generations have grown inbred and became horrorible to behold.

 

I objected that if the system can detect vermin, surely they can detect human beings wandering about. She just scoffed, telling me it's easy to avoid the cameras. I was not reassured. You see, in these inner layers of the book there is no telling that it was morning, it is always dark except for the spot of motion-activated light where you are. So, it again felt like a campfire tale, for breakfast.

 

We made it rather soon to my destination the second day. Keeper Thadron had given me a list of records to check. Every record contains basic data such as date of birth, partents, marriages, children, date of death. If the children on the written record do not match the digitized version, this means either an error or one of them got stricken. I could check this by locating the "missing records", and verifying if the line containing that name was indeed crossed out. My task was to tally up the missing branches of the Accadis lines.

 

Although my Guide was doing some maintenance in the neighborhood, I did not feel safe. Also, I was not comfortable. There were not chairs or desks to sit at, so I had to stand or sit on the ground and walk about to find the records within the confines of my section. I'm embarassed to admit I hid when the lights came closer, and only came out of hiding once I could see that it was Guide Maslan who had come back to my spot.

 

I took me four or five hours to complete the task, handling each book with records carefully, with gloves, and putting one back before taking another. But in the end it was a success, there was indeed one of the lines rife with heretics. If any Accadis would have fled Amarr on cryoships, it would be these ancestors. After I collected my documentation, we made our way back. This took the entire rest of the day, as Guide Maslan navigated a route that allowed her to pick up dead rats from some traps.

 

It was a strange sensation to be in there, and stranger to exit it back to the outside world. As if I had jumped into some strange pocket universe, with its own physics and its own concept of space. I am deeply grateful I had this unique experience, one that I will not likely forget. 

-end of report-

A night at the toilet

-report continued-

We spent quite some time repairing the collapsed stack, and I must have seemed been a bit annoyed at that, because my Guide explained that for her, this is a short "expedition". Usually, they stay about a week inside, doing several repairs and other maintenance work. 

We continued our way deeper into the Book. The smell of old paper deepened - records are kept on special acid-free paper that stays good longer. Amazingly, paper and parchment remain one of the most long-lived way to store information. Magnetic tapes, spintronics, optical storage, all the modern techniques turn out to have a shorter lifetime. Only chiselling something in rock beats paper.

The day ended with some climbing. Using the scaffolding and the stacks rather unceremoniously, Guide Maslan clambered all the way up to the ceiling to replace a broken light. After that, we made our way to sanitary station C13-4R4. It’s a toilet in what used to be a visitor’s area, before the area was swallowed up by the ever expanding records. It is still functioning, there are some sinks with running water too. We set up camp for the night and ate a simple dinner. No cooking on fire, since the fumes are not good for the records.

It was hard to catch sleep. Sometimes, you see lights going on in some distant part of the Book. Are there others supposed to be here? Guides working late? Or do the motion-automated lights get triggered by accident? By rodents? Then there were noises. Creaking wood. Something that sounded footsteps. Guide Maslan was sound asleep quickly enough and I did not want to wake her. It was not a comfortable night, my imagination was fueled by the stories of the Keepers about zombie librarians roaming the stacks.

-to be continued-

In the hallowed halls

-report continued-

The "outer layers" of the Book consist of a series of large halls. When they were new, these halls were reading rooms to which Keepers would bring requested records of the dead. The walls were lined with colossal shelving units, all the way up to the high ceiling. These once bore the weight of the living.

As the exponentially growing population caught up with the available space, more shelving was built, and the reading area contracted to a small island and then disappeared altogether. All this took place with a regrettable lack of planning, so it grew organically and there is now no neat rectangular grid of bookshelves. There are some straight sections that seem to go on endlessly - the scrolls and books extending as far as the eye can see into the dark, as the Book is not lit up all the time, and light only switches on where you are. You'd be a little island of light making its way in a ravine between steep cliffs of books.

Scaffolding divides up the halls horizontally, making new 'floors' connected with ladders or simple stairs. The first destination for my Guide was a corner that stored records of some lower Kador houses, and where a rodent alarm had gone off. No-one knows how rodents get into the vault that is the Book, or maybe they don't and the Book is like an island cut off from the rest of the world, where strange species will in time evolve and adapt to digest paper and parchment. Of course, the Guides have their own tales about the hidden fauna and warn about mystical flying killer rabbits. Reality is more prosaic: traps were set, using some Gallente cheese and Caldari nuts, to catch the rats.

Our next destination was a collapsed stack. Shelves have cracked and spilled their books for several floors: as the content of one shelf dropped on the one below it, it created a domino effect. I helped and sorted the books that had dropped all about while Guide Elleka Maslan replaced or repaired the shelving. The new materials that she carried along were put in place, but she is not relieved of burden, as the broken pieces cannot just be left behind but must be brought back.

-to be continued-

Entering the book

Dear reader, it was such a blessing to be inside Scripture, to be surrounded by it. I was successful in retrieving the information that I needed, but it took some effort. I have taken some notes, which I plan to transcribe to this log in the coming days.

The older parts of the Book are well defended and cared for. Looking at the building visible above ground one would never guess the massive defenses in place, nanite and plating reinforcements, shielding, heavy artillery placed in the neighborhood, and a garrison of elite soldiers about which I am not allowed to give any details.

 

Of course, you cannot enter the building from the front door above ground. That front door is just part of the facade - on the other side is just the wall of a massive vault. There is only one entrance, underground. You enter via a vault door leading into an old basement of the ancient building.

 

You do not enter before you have been thoroughly screened for weapons or explosive devices. I had to wear a tracking device at all times, and a subcutaneous chip that  can release a strong tranquilizer. Some people get so overwhelmed by their visit they become psychotic and have to be stopped. Also, it is yet another fail-safe against terror attacks.

 

Once the vault door closes behind you and your Guide, you feel as if you have entered a new world. There is a certain smell of old books, old paper. Not moldy - the atmosphere is controlled - but... dusty? The smell of old books is hard to describe, but anyone who has been to an old library and wandered between the stacks will recognize that smell. Or you could take an old book, one that has been on a shelf for a long time, and then open its pages and sniff it. That cherished smell, the librarian's favorite perfume, was my first sensation in this holy place.

 

My Record Guide was carrying a heavy backpack, almost larger than herself. Along our route there is a stack that has collapsed, and she was carrying materials to build new shelves. Elleka Maslan is small yet wiry and must be very strong - I felt ill at ease to be carrying so little weight while she took so much.

-to be continued-

Preparations

I received a briefing about our visit this weekend. 

To my surprise, we will spend the night in the Book, and I need to bring a sleeping bag, food and some toiletries. It takes some time to get to the spot I need to be and to get back. Also, my appointed Record Guide, Elleka Maslan, will do some other repairs and maintenance on our route. 

So we will camp near sanitary station C13-4R4. There is running water. It used to be a toilet for visitors when that part of the Book was new and still not filled to the brim with records.

I will not be able to communicate from inside the book with the outside world, so probably will not be updating my log in the next few days.

Tales of the Keepers

My visit to the Book has been fully approved, and the necessary paperwork stamped and signed. I can enter with a Record Guide on Saturday morning, and have permission to stay up to three consecutive days in some selected sections.

To celebrate this, Keeper Thadron and some of his colleagues took me out for dinner and drinks. We first went to an area close to the Book, with a lot of small restaurants and bars. After a simple but tasty meal, they brought me to their usual after-work bar.

The Guides and Keepers have a vast supply of legends and tales about the Book of Records, and especially about the vast labyrinth of bookcases and scroll racks. I think they were trying to impress me with their campfire stories, knowing that I will enter this harrowed collection soon.

They told me about poor souls that get lost in the Book of Records and never return. And they have a legend about a cursed Keeper who mislaid a scroll and is doomed to forever wander the halls in search for that elusive scroll. She continues to search even after her death, as a ghost.

All this they claim with a certainty that grows stronger after each round of beers.

I asked about the legend of the tree at the heart of the Book, with a carving from our prophet Dano Gheinok. In their minds, its existence is a self-evident fact. Even though no-one of those present ever saw it with their own eyes, they believe old Guides that claim to have seen it.

The tale the Keepers believe is that St. Gheinok, when he arrived on what we now call Amarr Island, created two settlements. The first one he dedicated to God. The Keepers situate it near the Grand Basilica since that is where Dano Gheinok also built the first church. The second one he dedicated to his love, Marie. The tree stood in a garden at the edge of that second settlement, where nowadays the Book of Records stands. The second settlement turned out to be on more fertile land and in time became more succesful than the first, and it grew to eventually engulf the first.

I pointed out that this story is meant as an allegory indicating that dedicating one’s life purely to God is more difficult than dedicating it to worldly love but that in the end the two can merge. Keeper Thadron and his friends were almost offended, they believe in their tale as literal historical fact.

They added that since the second village was dedicated “to Marie”, or “à Marie” in an old tongue, its inhabitants were soon called Amarrians. And that, in their legend, is the origin of our name, Amarr.

At some point one Guide who had been pouring beer down his throat as if there was a small black hole in his stomach, climbed on the table and with a grand sweeping gesture proclaimed that “All of this great galactic Empire is nothing more than a lovestruck guy’s attempt to impress his girl!”. We quickly forced him back down from the table and concluded our evening out, blaming his blasphemy on drunkenness and a partially Gallentean ancestry.