The grand hall

The yacht descended into the open dome of Mezagorm, "the vision of God" - or more accurately the vision of the mad emperor who thought he was God. As it went deeper into the structure, it revealed a stunning view: the center of Mezagorm consists of a vast emptiness, a hall of such mind-boggling proportions that its bottom surface can easily encompass an large modern metropolis. 

Mezagorm is built in epicircles upon smaller epicircles, dancing around, encircling, and spiraling out of this central grand hall. There is a fractal flavor to the entire architecture - the structures around the circular grand hall are also circular, containing and being bordered by other circular structures and habitats. The circle is a holy symbol in Amarr, depicting universal harmony with God and perfection; circles are everywhere here.

I am impressed by the immensity of this grand hall. I tried to take a picture (above) but it cannot really give a sense of scale. It is larger than any hangar I have ever seen - the light gray layered structure you see as a central band at the back is several kilometers in height, the height of a mountain. All of the (at that time already vast) population of Amarr could gather there to worship the mad emperor at its centre, that is the true meaning of this heretical 'vision of God'. The floor plan is divided in twelve sections, like a clock face, for the twelve major houses in the Empire that the mad emperor wanted to elevate to his privy council, and to which all other houses would be subservient.

This is going to take some time to scan down, and it will put the sensitivity of the scanners to the test if I am ever to home in on the quarters of the Tetrimon garrison of thousand years ago...

The plan: follow the radio-isotope fingerprints

We have at last arrived in Shastal. Today there are no excursions yet. Probably the local pirates have to be bribed properly to leave us alone. Meanwhile, we can take in the views of Mezagorm from space. 

I am preparing the measuring equipment that I brought along; these are very sensitive detectors for remote radio-isotopic fingerprinting. 

All the stuff around us contains trace amounts of various radioactive isotopes. The radiation from their decay (or decay chain) can be used to identify these isotopes, and for gamma radiation and neutrinos this can be done at a distance by modern equipment. 

Now, a signal from a single radio-isotope does not tell you much, but you learn much more if you look at the ratios of their signals. Take for example lead; it is always a mixture of a decent number of different isotopes. The precise isotope composition of any piece of lead is determined by the time and place where the lead was made - so it gives you a fingerprint to locate its planet and time of origin, and the more isotopes you include the more accurate you can pinpoint its origin, down to the very mine where the ore comes from, as long as this mine is listed in a sample database. 

Even with remote detection, advanced scanners can perfectly distinguish between materials containing heavy metals from the mad Emperor's era, and similar materials created in the Empire a thousand years later, when the Order of St. Tetrimon was perhaps still using some hideout in this station. They are sure to have left some stuff behind - even if it's just matter somewhere in a trash compactor on station. 

So, the plan is to use the scanning equipment to guide me to the spots in the station - off the touristic track - that have been used by the Tetrimon, perhaps as a relic vault.

A bit of mathematics

Dr. Setun joined us again at one of lady Adelath's tea and cookie confession sessions. Dr. Setun works as a sedative for the old lady, she confessed as much on an earlier occasion. And indeed, she nodded off while he started explaining why Triglavian base-3 computation is superior. Even mister Maulus took a nap, on her lap.

I listened. To me, there is something suspicious about his idolization of the Triglavian system. Perhaps, as a codebreaker during the war, he has been exposed too much to their corrupting influence.

Anyway, here is his argument. Remember that our decimals are base-10 numbers, while our computer bits are base-2 numbers. Some claim we just picked the number ten because that is how many fingers we have, so it is easy for finger-counting math. The first computer builders picked binary because in essence they worked with switches that can be on or off, just two values.

In general, you need more digits to represent an arbitrary number, if you use a smaller base. The number 82 has two digits in decimal, but in binary it is 1010010 : that is seven digits long. In a general base B, the amount of digits required to represent a number N is given by the base-B logarithm of that number, log_B(N). Or, to be precise, the first integer larger than that value.

So, it seems that a larger base, with its fewer digits, is more efficient at storing and manipulate numbers. However, there is also a cost: any digit can take on B values. There are more different symbols in our decimal system than the 0 and 1 of the binary system. So, the overal cost is actually B log_B(N). Now, if you try out several values for B, you will indeed conclude that B=3 gives the lowest cost. Note that, if you do not restrict yourself to integers, the function B log_B(N) becomes minimal when B equals St. Euxon's Holy Constant e=2.71828... for which 3 is the closest integer.

I tried to refute his argument, by claiming that most operations involve two-digit gates, for example addition or multiplication of two numbers. These kind of gates are characterized by B2 entries. So, for computation, B2log_B(N) is the function to minimize. For that case, actualy B=7 is the best number system. 

Hopefully we are not invaded by the Heptavians next.

Mister Maulus

The lady Adelath has been stalking me, requesting I visit her for confessions at least twice a day. Since she confesses more rapidly than she can sin, these sessions become tea-and-cookie parties during which she tells me about her life while I try to shift around on my chair to avoid her pet furrier biting my legs. 

She calls her furrier "mister Maulus", a name given to it by her late husband. She claims that it got this name because as a pup, it would always run away with the holoscreen remote and hide it out of her reach. She considers that electronic warfare. I would like to propose another explanation, related to the verb "to maul" and rabid furriers, but I restrain from making such comments seeing how fond lady Adelath is of her pet.

Lady Adelath has taken almost permanent residence on this cruise ship and knows all the gossip about the staff and the captain. She claims that the captain lost his crew and civilians that he had orders to evacuate, during the Triglavian war. He made a wrong decision, and is now consumed by guilt. Being not of the faith, he cannot be helped by the rite confession...

Table guests

I avoid the main restaurant. It is buffet style, and this seems to bring out the worst in tourists on the cruise. They feel they have to eat as much as they can, it is as if they want to digest at least the ticket prize worth of food. The display of gluttony is too much to take.

My capsuleer status saved me. I got an invitation to have dinner at the captain's table, which is in a fancy restaurant on one of the observation decks. I met some interesting people there. 

The captain is a Caldari Navy veteran by the name of Olkaanen. He appears neurotic - probably that is why he is no longer with the navy but flying a tourist boat. Something happened during the Triglavian war that jarred him, but it is not clear what. 

There was another guest with a Triglavian link: a Gallente mathematician, dr. Michel Setun. He specializes in ternary computing - in which numbers are not base-2 but base-3. So data is not just ones and zeros but also twos. Dr. Setun claims it is superior. He was assigned to a code-cracking team during the Triglavian war.

The third table guest was another Amarrian, and elderly lady, Dame Agatha Adelath. She has no remaining family (or perhaps she cut ties with them), and she spends her retirement on such cruises in order not to be alone. She was quite excited that an Amarr friar was around, she has been trying hard to accentally run into me ever since the dinner.

The Princess of the High Seas

Being used to Amarr ship designs, I find the Victorieux Luxury yacht to be a particularly ugly hull. Clearly, it is not built for those on the outside, looking at it - rather, it is built for those inside, looking out.

The Princess of the High Seas (oh so inaccurately named as it would sink immediately when it would try to land on any planetside body of water) boasts five observation decks - one with a large buffet restaurant. It also has four gardens, a beach hangar with cocktail bars, six holoreel theaters, a host of restaurants all themed differently, two shopping "avenues", and a planetarium. I consider the latter to be an insult to the universe; why  display the stars as small light spots in a dark room when you can just look outside? It is a bit like building a pool at the seashore; also that is an insult, but to the sea.

You may have guessed from the log entry thus far that I am a bit grumpy.

The cause of my grumpiness is that I am constantly disturbed while I am patiently waiting in my quarters till this cruise arrives at Mezagorm. Several times a day, staff from the entertainment crew comes to ask me if I do not want to join in some games or swimming or sports or whatever other nonsense they invent.

All aboard

I boarded the cruise, and brought along several crates of equipment. The staff did not seem to surprised, I think they are used to some of their passengers bringing a lot of luggage. Opera divas, or moviestars, or New Caldari CEO housewives on a shopping planettrip, yes, but and old friar? Well, they did not bat an eye.

Mr. Firth did not join me. He must suspect that this is not a holiday - I never indulge in such frivolities. But ever since my short stint in the war zone, we have an Understanding. When I am out exploring in the Indigatrix, he joins. All other sorts of wanderings, I can do unsupervised. 

I have to say that he (and I think his superiors at the MIO) must be particularly happy. I handed in some potentially very useful weapons - the biodroid. And I did a security survey of the Eve constellation. All very laudable, from my political officer's point of view.

What I am about to explore next, might not be...

Tickets in the mail

I received a letter, including my ticket for the space cruise that I booked to Mezagorm. The letter listed a few possible departure dates from which I can choose. As soon as I validate the ticket with the date of my choice, the booking is confirmed. I took the earliest possible date and made arrangements with mr. Jensen for the library.

I am not looking forward to mingling with foreign tourists in the close quarters of a cruise yacht. I asked for the simplest, barest cabin. It still comes with a jacuzzi and a massage bed. I do not need that, I am used to a monk's cell! All these luxuries tend to detract one from one's duty. But this is the only way to be granted access to the ruins of Mezagorm, so I will endure the ordeal and the complimentary caviar and champagne breakfast.

Foundation day YC126

Yesterday we celebrated Foundation day. It marks the building of the grand basilica of St. Gheinok, which itself was constructed over the very first church, built by prophet Gheinok himself. 

We know accurately when the grand basilica was constructed. However, the date of the founding of the original church on that site is only known approximately. No wonder: it is a staggering fifteen thousand years old! An unimaginably vast timespan separates us from that time, the time of Gheinok. Thoughout all this time, the faith has been passed on, protected from its enemies, spread to the stars. Now it is in our hands, and it is our turn to protect and pass on this most precious gift.

I returned to Amarr for this year's Foundation day celebrations. I again did some history tours for capsuleers, this has become somewhat of a tradition now for me. It allows me to combine my yearly pilgrimage to holy sites such as Mekhios graveyard and Empress Jamyl's titan with the desire to spread the faith by bringing others along.

I was happy to see that there is now also a tour of low-sec sites, Maria took care of that - she is after all experienced in navigating somewhat more lawless space. 

My only disappointment this year was that there was no specific address from the court to capsuleers. It is always rousing to hear the Empress speak to our kind specifically. Perhaps next year.

Metenox

A new age of colonization, that is what they call it at Upwell. 

This new age seems to be happening right here in the Eve constellation. Gone are the old ways: the space stations where civilian and capsuleer ships could dock, where people could meet and trade and socialize, they have all but disappeared. They have been replaced by this monstrosity:

The Metenox Moon Drill. There are a dozen of these new structures that popped up all over the Eve constellation since my last visit, with probably more to come. The few old Athanor stations have all but disappeared. 

These moon drills are fully automated, and populated by a clone work force. But, contrary to the cheerful advertisement, these things do not bring any real colonists. The clones are being shipped around like machine parts, they have no permission to wander off and build a life on one of the planets in the system.

I have not seen any mining fleets any more. The automation and remote control of the Metenox drill brings with it corporate laziness. In fact, I have not seen many capsuleers around in space any more in these far flung worlds at the edge of the Empire. There was a State scientific exploration fleet visiting Eve gate (and, I suspect, checking up on Sedition's activities), but there was nobody of the corporations in control of the moon drills.

Hopefully they will not automate exploration next...

New neighbors

After being released from quarantine, I went back to the Eve constellation, to see the changes. Before going on a biodroid hunt with my LUMEN friends (and being shortly quarantined), I had noticed that the stations belonging to Gjallarhorn Incorporated were under attack from a coalition led by Sedition, without doubt with the blessing of White Sky. Some stations were already laid to waste, with other in reinforced state. The obvious reason for kicking out Gjallarhorns seems to be that they left the No Forks Given alliance. 

Indeed, upon my return, all their stations were gone. The new inhabitants that took their place appear to be a corporation called Cream Popsicles, from an alliance called Churn and Burn.

The updated report on the structures in the Eve constellation can be downloaded here.

As for the Gjallarhorns, it turns out that they have now associated themselves with Purple Helmeted Warriors, who have a presence in Derelik and Providence. 

The Gjallarhorns have headquarters now in Gamis... so, it appears they will become our new neighbors.

Hopefully peaceful ones.

Quarantine meditations

I find decontamination procedures very unpleasant. Especially "deep clean" ones with nanites, first of our suits and afterwards we got them off, also of our bodies. For biohazards this is followed by a quarantine period to test if any remnant entity grows, to a size it can be detected. If that's the case, the decontamination step starts again.

Meanwhile, one has to wait. I made good use of this time to get a first quick view on the biodroid's data. This reveals that the Takmahl used large ocean farms to grow biomass in the form of plankton which would be turned into all sorts of product, from food to cloning to petrochemicals. Barney the biodroid was an enforcer on one of these ocean farms, overseeing slaves working there. 

These farms were truly immense. As they grew, they needed more slaves. Which in turn required more biomass from which to produce new clone slaves, which required larger farms, which... you see where this is headed. It becomes a silly self-sustaining spiral which ultimately grows completely out of control. 

One wonders, why was this growth not capped, or reversed, by Takmahl Imperial decree? I've found some proof in the data that minor holders shared ownership of such gigantic farms via a sort of shareholder system, and they demanded ever more return on their investment. So, growth was purely for the sake of growth. Growth of the ocean farm industry was deemed good, capping the growth was never given any thought, it was economic anathema. Such a system is inherently unstable: when somewhere disaster strikes, the whole edifice collapses. I conjecture that this contributed to the downfall of the Takmahl.

There's a lesson for the modern day to be learned from this, as we are on the cusp of growing our own clone slave cohorts to man new Upwell industry structures. Which extract resources from which we can grow more clone slaves. Which... well, you get my point.

Boarding a biodroid

-continued from July 26th-

Some remaining engineers -now mummified corpses- had locked themselves in the control room and barricaded the door. Ishta bypassed the door to the engineering control room via a service tunnel, and it is a good thing that she did, even though she got a leg injury while crawling through. The door was rigged with all sorts of explosives, including an antimatter device that would certainly take out several floors of the station.

With the Takmahl biodroid controller in place in the control room and activated, Aria was able to transfer her consciousness to the biodroid, much in the same way as we board a ship and gain control over its functions. 

Well, there was a little snag: the biodroid's system identified Aria as being eight years old - the number of years that passed since her infomorph was sabotaged. The biodroid, naming itself Barney, conversed with Aria using children's rhymes. Not visible to us, Barney appeared only to Aria, like the ship's AI "Aura" appears to us when we command a vessel. She managed to pacify the biodroid and steer it to the hangar of the Indagatrix, where it remained inoffensive.

Meanwhile, Prince Seraghis managed to collect a sample of the versipellus entity, as per the MIO's instructions relayed by mr. Firth. We were able to extract from the station. Upon our departure, some instability set off the antimatter device, probably destroying the rest of the fungus, albeit not the entire station.

As we were certainly carrying spores on our suits - and on all material we retrieved from the abandoned station, an unpleasant decontamination procedure was due in the lamp's Medbay. Also unpleasant was that we had to surrender all material to the MIO - I would have liked to study Barney in more detail, even though I was able to download a lot of information stored in its memory. It will take some time to research all this new information but I do not doubt it will shed new light and give new insights into the history and customs of the Takmahl civilization.

Phytodendrite Versipellis

-continued from July 25th-

The Blood Raider station where we hunt for the biodroid was used not just to store loot, but also to develop bionic weapons. That is probably why they brought the Takmahl biodroid there.

However, a biodroid running amok was not the reason the station was abandoned, or lost. It was one of their other weapons which got the better of them. They developed a lifeform looking like an orange fungus, the "phytodendrite versipellus". It consumes those it infects and grows quickly when hydrated, spreading out some sort of tendrils. It weaves it to mimic the form and voice of that which it consumes. It releases spores that spread it to new hosts. It can survive for a long time in a dehydrated form. The biodroid awoke it by watering it using the fire suppression system, in an attempt to stop us. 

We planned to bypass it altogether (it was concentrated on the medbay level), and our suits would keep us free from contagion. However, at that point, mr. Ivan Firth, used his prerogative as political officer of the Indagatrix to order us to take a sample back. It appears the MIO is interested in the fungus as well as the biodroid.

I saw my hopes vanish of keeping the biodroid for academic study... we'd have to hand it over at the closest MIO station. Still, I planned to learn as much as I could from it in the little time that it would be under our control. 

For that purpose, Ishta still had to get to the engineering control room in our sector.

-to be continued-

Return to the Takmahl biodroid

Our operation in the abandoned Blood Raider station in Nalnifan was a success. 

Of sorts.

We did capture the biodroid, but I had to hand it over.

But let me start at the beginning. The plan was to make our way to the command center in order to locate and confine the biodroid remotely from there. The command center was in a part of the station that no longer has power, in a sector rather far away from the biodroid. We could access that dark sector via an elevator shaft that connected to the ship hangar. 

The team, led by Aria Jenneth, had all the necessary expertise. Prince Seraghis was able to decipher the ancient Aridian glyphs to find our way. We did not encounter many obstacles - the lack of gravity in this section of the abandoned station allowed us to bypass the use of the elevator. There was a short skirmish with a dormant sentry drone that woke up - Ishta took it out with a programmable missile we found in an armory. The timing of the missile was in 'heartbeats' - this must be a nod to the Sabik obsession with blood.

As we diverted power from the lone working reactor to the command center, the biodroid noticed our presence. It went to an engineering control substation in its own sector of the station, and took over what station services that it could. Gravity, emergency electrical (including the elevator), fire suppression, maintenance drones... it tried to use all of it against us.

This also offered an opportunity - with the biodroid connected to the station's mainframe we did not need to plug in the Takmahl biodroid controller directly into its cerebral slots. In stead, we can use the connection with the station to link the controller to the droid. This could be done via the engineering control substation in our own sector.

At that point, the MIO interfered.

-to be continued-

On the way out

On my way out of the Eve constellation, I noted a large fleet present in Promised Land. A fleet from Sedition - an alliance working for the Federation in their war zone. What are the Gallente doing so deep inside the Empire? 

I noticed that they have some Metenox moon drills in the constellation, in Exit and Gateway, but as you can see this is not a mining fleet (note Eve Gate in the background: it can be seen from Promised Land as well),

Stealthily, I followed this Loki fleet around, and found that they are the ones attacking the structures of Gjallarhorn Incorporated. I caught them in the act:

After the Fortizar "Midgard" was turned into rubble, and most of the fleet had cynoed to where they came from, I asked stragglers what was going on, but they were very tight-lipped. As to my question who will now take control of these systems, they answered "who knows", suggesting that they are only here for vandalism.

And so, my three-day old scouting report is already outdated. After the mission in Aridia, I'll head back to see if the Sedition moved in and placed their own structures. And I'll update the scouting report.

Opportunity

An opportunity presents itself, for which I need to return with haste to Aridia.

A while ago, I found an abandoned Blood Raider station in that region, apparently used for collecting Takmahl artifacts and loot. The station was on the blooder highway towards Delve, and in it I encountered a functioning Takmahl enforcer biodroid. I know of no other functioning unit, so this represents a truly unique opportunity to learn more about this doomed civilization.

However, I had no luck capturing the biodroid. Several attempts resulted in my clones expiring, and the frequent awakening in medical clones at the Lamp raised some red flags. Friends advised to wait until I could get help to tackle the problem. So, I postponed further attempts, and as the matter was not urgent, it was put on the back burner and dropped from my attention. 

However, my friends remembered their promise, and as it turns out now there is a short window where all members of an elite team are actually free in their otherwise busy agenda.

Aria and Ishta from our Societas, and Prince Seraghis, pacifier of much of the Aridia region, have agreed to help me capture the Takmahl biodroid. The plan remains the same: use a Takmahl biodroid controller to either power down or control the droid. This time however, we plan to avoid direct confrontation (which did not work out well) and try to enclose and then incapacitate the droid remotely using the station's command center.

I am lucky with such a truly stellar team, and confident that we will succeed.

The Black Chapel

The New Eden system is a dead-end star system with a single, barren, moonless planet orbiting its sun. So, there is not much mining or colonization going on. Yet it is often a busy system as explorers, pigrims and adventurers have been traveling towards Eve Gate since time immemorial. There is something mesmerizing about these dancing wisps of plasma, something enticing and inviting like a siren's song that draws you near.

During the capsuleer age, possibly the "Goners" are those that got the farthest using subwarp propulsion. They are pilgrims, who use corvettes to slowboat towards Eve Gate in complete solitude for the rest of their lives. They reached spots just under thirty AU away from the closest celestial body. When there are Goners around to continue their journey, anyone with decent enough scanning skills to probe down their corvettes can make a bookmark. 

The Death Korps of Krieg. must have gotten hold of such bookmarks.

At about 20 AU from Promised Land Gate, in a straight line towards the last recorded Goner locations, they built a secret outpost. This places the outpost outside of d-scan range for visitors to the system. 

It is a hidden Athanor refinery without a moon in sight - suspicious to say the least. And it is named "The Black Chapel", which also bodes ill for visitors. I would not be surprised if it turns out that they have been corrupted by some heresy and built a place to hold demonic rituals and blood sacrifices...  We ought to destroy it.

PS: My survey of current structures in the Eve constellation can be found via this link. I will make a new version when the dust settles down after the conflict between White Sky and Gjallarhorn Incorporated.

PPS: Updated version can be downloaded here.

Scouting Eve constellation

The Eve constellation is rather quiet - nothing unusual there. Eve gate - the Mouth of God - is still as radiant and beautiful as I remember it. I took a picture from a spot near the Kor-Azor and Sisters of Eve research complex orbiting New Eden I.

But perhaps the quietness is just a lull between periods of combat. I saw many stations reinforced or being unanchored on my way here. The focal point seems to be the system of Promised Land. There is a stellar observatory, and a joint Edencom - Imperial Navy fleet patrolling the system. This provides a certain security for miners, and leads to improved mining yields. 

Most operations belong to "Gjallarhorn Incorporated". They have three Athanors, a Fortizar and a Raitaru in Promised Land. All of these stations are reinforced, facing shield timers two days from now. This corporation describes itself as "farmers during the farming season, and fighters during fighting season", and base themselves in low security space. They used to be part of the "No Forks Given" alliance, up to, well, yesterday! While their stations are reinforced in Promised Land, the stations closer to Exit are being unanchored.

The culprit is likely to be our former nemesis in Genesis, the "White Sky" vandals. Nowadays they are represented in the constellation by a group that calls itself "The Death Korps of Krieg.". The dot at the end of the name is important to distinguish them from some other barbarian alliance. Here is what little information we have about them:

The Death Korps of Krieg are Imperial Guard Regiments raised from the world of Krieg. Notoriously grim and fatalistic warriors, they seek to atone for their planet's past rebellion by dying glorious deaths in service to the Imperium. For this purpose, Death Korps regiments routinely request to fight in the galaxy's deadliest warzones, grinding their enemy down through long battles of attrition and siege warfare.

Charming. 

Also, I have not heard of any planet called Krieg in the Empire. At first I thought it was a nickname nickname, or some dialect? But, more likely, they do not refer to the Amarr Empire. Rather, I think Krieg is a world controlled by the barbarian kingdom that calls itself "the Imperium".

Return to the Gate

Mozzidit is a few jumps away from the Eve constellation, which has the New Eden system where Eve Gate can be seen. It has been a while since my last visit. 

I used to spend quite a bit of time there, trying to reach the Gate or at least triangulating it to get better idea of the distance to the Gate. Sadly it lies too far away to reach at subwarp speeds. There is a Kor-Azor led scientific station in the system to study the Gate, as well as an outpost belonging to the Servant Sisters of Eve. 

The theory that I was investigating at that time was that Ilash Toth's expedition was taking the Ametat and Avetat to the Gate in an attempt to unlock it and enter the supposed paradise that lies behind it. The expedition stranded on the way to the Gate or was intercepted by the Jove - both versions of the story go around. 

I was helped at the time because LUMEN owned a station in that system. "Farthest Shore" was the perfect base of operations for me; and in fact it was because I was allowed to use the station that I started to trust the Societas as a force for good. However, these investigations were cut short when our station was destroyed...  

Being in the neighborhood, I feel compelled to go back there and see how the constellation is faring now, and who its current inhabitants are.

Booking

I quickly found the offices of Galactic Tours; the Eve Travel station is well organized. At first, the salespeople at Galactic Tours greeted me very warmly, and gave me a ton of brochures. 

When I told them what I was interested in, they were surprised, to say the least. And they got very nervous.

"It is not a usual cruise for an Amarr priest, are you from the Tetris Order?" (firstly, I am not a priest, but a friar; and I assume they meant Tetrimon in the second part). Even though they did not appear to trust me, in the end they booked the cruise for me. They made very sure to tell me their paperwork is in order, and showed me the permit.

I asked for a simple cabin, but they only have a luxury suite available on the next cruise which, by the way, does not leave very soon. Perhaps they thought the price bump would deter me? Before I became a  capsuleer, it would have been completely impossible for me to pay for this; but for a capsuleer it is loose change...

Anyway, I now have a ticket for the Mezagorm cruise.

Mozzidit

The Eve Travel agency - named in honor of a travel blog by a famous capsuleer explorer - is a hub for tourism agencies and travel companies that cater to the (rich) beyond-borders interstellar traveler. The station itself is a rare one not built by Upwell or the empires:

Here you see it, orbiting above Mozzidit VIII, one of three beautiful oceanic world in this system. In the background, a large cyclone can be seen raging on the southern hemisphere of the planet. To its left is a storage pad and to its right is a shipyard with several tour vessels and a research vessel. 

The station is close to a strange object also in orbit around the planet: a rock arch with a broken asteroid  geode containing bright orange crystals inside. A dust cloud is present around this structure, giving it a mysterious air. This location was chosen for the station, no doubt to put the potential customers in the mood for exploration.

The dust cloud is due to the tidal forces of the planet, that very slowly break up the formation and over many millions of years will reduce it all to rubble. This means that the megalithic structure is probably a young(ish) formation, certainly less than a hundred million years old. But how could two very different types of asteroid be captured by the planet's gravity in exactly the same location, immobile with respect to each other? 

Also, the composition seems somewhat deliberate to me, like an eye under an arched eyebrow or a pagan symbol. So, who knows, it could even be much younger and has been placed in orbit by a civilization that has now vanished.

Let me dismiss a cynical impulse in me that whispers that it could have been placed there by Eve Travel Agency's marketing department though they deny knowing its history...

A billion beats

Amarr is on the way from Mehatoor to Mozzidit, where I am headed to book myself the cruise to Mezagorm. So, I took the opportunity to visit the Imperial History Museum again, and in particular its extensive library. Being surrounded by the embrace of old bookshelves, filled with books from floor to high ceiling, gives me a sense of safety and inner calm, a feeling of comfort and belonging. 

Unfortunately, there is not much available to the general public about the mad emperor or his megalomania. This lack of information stands out, like a stain that has been removed with a detergent that is so powerful it leaves behind a conspicuous bleached-out spot.

In such a magnificent library, I cannot help but being distracted by beautiful tomes and browsing them, even if they have nothing to do with my current interest (or if, as today, I cannot readily find the information I look for). I came across an old book on mammalian biology, and there is a table that struck me; I put it into this little graph:

I think I had heard about this before, but never given it much thought. It appears that the heart has about one billion beats before it gives out. 

This is true across most species - whether you look at a mouse, with a short lifespan at a hectic 600 beats per minute, or a whale, that lives 90 years but with a pulse averaging only 20 beats per minute. This countdown clock ticking away in our chest is a potent and constant reminder of our finitude: beasts and humans alike have been given a Divine life-gift of one billion beats.

Well. We humans are a bit of an exception. At 50 beats per minute, our expected lifespan according to this rule is about 40 years. We live much longer, as we have learned to mend, maintain, and ultimately replace our heart with cybernetics. But even within our own species, there is a correlation between pulse rate and lifespan - those that live stressfully with high pulse rate tend to live less long that the sportive type with a low pulse. Of course, correlation is no causation, and your heart may be good up to a couple of billion beats... but not that much more.

Space Cruise

I went to the website of Galactic Tours, and found the following flyer (I diligently censored names that should not be spoken nor written):

Explore the Mysteries of Mezagorm! 

Join Galactic Tours on an unforgettable space cruise to the abandoned city of Mezagorm, built by the mad Amarrian Emperor Zaragram.

Highlights:

• Exclusive Access: Step inside the haunting ruins of Zaragram's celestial wonder!
• Guided Tours: Expert-led explorations of the city's fascinating history and secrets!
• Luxury Travel: Travel in style and enjoy top-tier comfort aboard our state-of-the-art Victorieux Luxury Yacht!
• Free Time: Enjoy personal time to wander and discover the ruins at your own pace! 
• Unique Photo Opportunities: Capture breathtaking scenes of the abandoned city and the stars beyond!

Book your adventure today and journey to a place where history meets the stars!

Galactic Tours – Making the Impossible, Possible.

Call your travel agent now or book in person at the Eve Travel Agency in Mozzidit!

It sounds rather unimaginative as cruise ship advertisements go, and it has an annoying overuse of exclamation marks. The colors of the flyer were also screaming and painful to look at. 

But since the DGCHP does not seem to hand out permits to individuals to visit the ruin, I might as well take the only "official" tour that exists.

Galactic Tours

The Amarr Civil Service is perhaps not the natural biotope of a friar of a comtemplative order, but nevertheless I do not dislike being there. I do not feel ill at ease among the vast registries and archives, and I think I have a bit a knack at navigating administrations.

So, the point-blank refusal for a permit was not going to deter me. As I could no longer get in touch with anyone at DGCHP (due to lack of staffing you can only submit requests once every three months), I started searching in the records whether anyone had gotten a permit before. This can help me give a valid reason to get a permit at the next application round.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not) there is no record of any Amarrian ever getting a permit. 

However, in recent times, one permit has been issued. It went to a Caldari company, Galactic Tours, affiliated loosely to the Nugoeihuvi Corporation. 

The amount they paid for it is censored, but the length of the black bar shows that it must have been rather astronomic.

Inaccessible

The Amarr Civil Service information center in Riavayed looks unsettlingly like the city of God. Except that it is of course a fully operational station, and does not have quarries and workers habitats nearby.

It turns out to be not so easy to get in touch with the Directorate General of Cultural-Historic Patrimonium. You cannot drop by or call to make an appointment to meet someone in person. First, you should submit your question via a website, at which point an 'expert' will decide whether it can be answered via mail or whether it warrants a call or even an in-person appointment. How they decide is not explained. They claim -like many services- to be understaffed and overburdened, and these hurdles are the result.

The problem is that their website does not work, it is down for maintenance and it is impossible to submit any question at this point. I think it has been down a while. I tried calling them, but only got a low-level AI on the line telling me to use the website to submit my query. 

I found one loophole, while questioning the AI chatbot. Apparently, if you are unable to use the website because you are blind, then you can record your question via the call. A strange way to define exceptions, as now also the seeing cannot use the website? Anyway, I told them I had trouble seeing the correct website (using a very broad definition of 'seeing'), and could record my query.

After several days, I got a call back, telling me flatly that my permit is refused. Exploration or scientific research is not a valid reason to go poke around in Mezagorm. When I asked why, I was told that since it has already been completely explored and documented, there is nothing left to find there any more. All objects of any scientific or historic value have been taken, studied, and purged a long time ago. There is no reason for any faithful to visit the site. Case closed. Mezagorm is inaccesible to the public.

The DGCHP

I returned to Mezagorm, and waited for a quiet moment when the Blood Raiders were not present. I will definitely have to deal with them if I ever want to do a long exploration of the ruin, as the Indagatrix cannot stay cloaked in close proximity of the ruin.

But for now, there is another hurdle. As I approached the structure, I received an automated message "Access forbidden without DGCHP permit".

My political officer Ivan immediately insisted we should get this permit first.

We had to look up what the DGCHP is. It turns out to be the Directorate General of Cultural-Historic Patrimonium, one of the many agencies part of the Amarr Civil Service. 

Their website says: "The Directorate-General of Cultural-Historic Patrimonium oversees built architectural and archaeological heritage and performs conservation, exercising a normative, regulatory and supervisory function, defining and disseminating methodologies and procedures for intervention in Cultural Heritage, monitoring, technically supervising and adopting, whenever necessary, the measures provided for by law."

The universal translator was of no help to understand what this actually means. Luckily, there is an Amarr Civil Service information center around Riavayed XI, just two jumps away.

Royal mail

Do these people in the Vale all communicate with deep-space pigeons or horseback messengers? 

Today I received another message that took a very long time to get to me. This time it is a royal missive! From king Basil Vulpine, supreme ruler of the Grassbladians, no less. 

Hi Theodosius,

apologies for the tardy reply but life has been busy. For reasons I haven't had a chance to look up yet your alliance is red to us. Normally we wouldn't provide temporary blue standings anyway but I figured I'd make you aware of the additional wrinkle.

This being Null-Sec you are of course free to be a free spirited explorer anyway so long as you don't mind people potentially chasing you and sending you back to your clone bay.

Best Wishes,

Basil Vulpine

He is surprisingly informal with me. This shows the prestige one has, as an Amarrian cleric, in the outer worlds. So, apparently LUMEN is red to the Grassbladians. No wonder the peasants were afraid of me. Now, curiously, the Grassbladians appeared neutral to me, so I wondered where all this fear and trepidation comes from. I must ask Lord Pitoojee or Amicia Cora from the diplomatic corps if I see them. Meanwhile, I wanted to reassure king Vulpine that the Imperial fleet is not bearing down on his realm, so I started a letter,

Your Sublime Royal Highness, King of the Grassbladians, Illustrious sovereign of the 88G-M4 constellation, Lord of FMBR-8, Duke of FH-TTC and Khan of MQ-O27,

but then I remembered the other Grassbladians told me he prefered to be addressed as Basil. Perhaps he is an egalitarian, and this is the perverting result of being closer to the influence sphere of the Federation than that of the Empire. Or it is related to "Basileus", an ancient word for king. Anyhow, I decided to start with 

Dear Basil,

It sounds wrong to address a king, even a barbarian king, in this way. 

Thanks for your answer! I have already completed my exploration of 88G-M4. The view of the Jove nebula is very nice! I also enjoyed a few pleasant conversations while exploring, please give my greetings to Dr. Rebot.

I do hope this will be understood as I meant it: a compliment. Hopefully it is not interpreted as an act of treason by dr. Rebot, leading to him being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Members of your corporation showed as neutral to me, so I hope in the future relations between our alliances will improve! 

As a token of rapprochement, I have left a gift of Pax Amarrias (books) in a jetcan in front of your Astrahus in JZV-F4 when I returned back to the Empire now already a while ago. If you need more, let me know.

Kind regards,

Brother Theodosius Savnar

See? Proselytizing and diplomacy can go hand in hand.

Raiders in the ruin

How should we deal with the architectural legacy of an evil dictator, a mass murderer? Should it be dismantled and erased, should it be kept for historians to study, or should it be used to educate the public? 

For most of the mad emperor's legacy - his actions and writings, even his effigy - the first choice was made. He was erased and his name stricken from the Book of Records. His actions were undone.

Yet this option was not chosen for Mezagorm, the palace-city of the mad emperor. Perhaps it was too much effort to blast it to pieces, as it is a large and sprawling structure, with quarries and worker's housing at the perimeter. Or perhaps it served another purpose, as I hypothesized earlier... However, nowadays, it is just left to decay in space, all but ignored. No garrison protects it any more from prying eyes. 

In fact, it has become a playground for hoodlums and blood raiders to hang around. 

I went to visit the site today - Shastal is not very far from Mehatoor - and to my dismay found a small blood raider fleet ambling about, doing their dealings. The picture shows one above the main entrance leading to the inner part of the palace-city. I think it is an outrage that these blood raider ships are left alone!

Cryptic message or nonsense?

I am back from my Jove expedition already a little while now. To my surprise, another "contact", one of the people that allegedly went into Jove space, answered my mails from back then.

In gibberish. 

I already thought the first contact I talked to was very disconcerting, but now I am really at a loss how to respond. He wrote:

We put Inducer in because of the CCP robot problem. I think this is a BUG. After inducer, there is no communication inside. We can only go to 21-U. This BUG has been fixed and nobody can go anywhere anymore

That is it. That is the entire message. The message was in Amarrian, so I think he must have used the universal translator, which may have had severe problems finding the right words. What does he mean with Inducer ? And what is a CCP robot problem ? Probably a rogue drone infestation.

I checked out if Inducer could be a person. There are only five capsuleers with "Inducer" in their callsign. They are all quite colorful (one is called "Diarrhea Inducer") but none of them are part of a corporation related to that of my second contact. So Inducer might not be a person with whom they lost communications in TO21-U, but some piece of equipment to fight the rogue drones.

Another possibility is that there is some sort radiation out there in Jove space that corrupts capsuleers' minds. Something there that drives them to madness. This particular contact has been extremely active in TO21-U, with a large amount of kills to his name. Spending much time there might have exposed him to a larger dose of whatever radiation boils the mind...

A new hypothesis

A book I just read drew my attention back to this other theory about the Ametat and Avetat, a theory unrelated to the Takmahl.

A while ago, I looked into the possibility that the Ametat had been taken and hidden by the Tetrimon order who did this on behalf of the Council of apostles when things started to go bad for them during the Moral Reform wars. I visited the Tetrimon fortress Teakh Tak-Teakh on Ibani VI but did not get any useful information there, so I sort of put that lead on pause.

However, while recently reading Edilon Macke's new (massive) book on the history of the early Tetrimon, I was struck by the strange connection that they seemed to have with the palace of the mad emperor. This palace - a megalomaniac space structure called the 'city of God' - turned to ruin soon after Saint Tetrimon killed the mad emperor. 

The site was guarded by Tetrimon knights and placed under the supervision of the Council of Apostles, in order to prevent cultists or followers of the mad emperor to use it as a pilgrimage destination. This control lasted way longer that necessary - there was a garrison for about five centuries! Guarding these ruins ended after the Moral Reforms, when the Council of Apostles was disbanded, and the new councils took no interest in these ruins.

So, I am starting to think that this could have been a good hiding place for the Tetrimon or the Council of Apostles to stash anything they did not want Heideran V, the Reformer, to find. No-one would suspect that the Tetrimon hid their precious loot in the very place built by the enemy of Saint Tetrimon!

The difficulties of proper censorship

People don't quite realize the hard work that comes with being a librarian in the Empire. For example, the Theology Council or the Ministry of Internal Order decides to put a new author on the Index of forbidden works, Kámi Diá. She writes agitating essays and poetry about the Turnur incident, in a way is deemed a corrupting influence on the faithful. 

On the surface, what she writes appears as a critique of the Republic, but the Theology Council has seen through that.

To someone unacquainted with library work, the task of the librarian seems easy: just get rid of all the works authored by Kámi Diá. Hah! It is not that simple. Some of her work has become part of anthologies, or appeared in magazines, or as quotes in theses, ... so many different places, and of course these are not all properly indexed or searchable, and will not show up on a computer-generated list of her work. 

That is why for each and every item put on the Index, there is a separate study group at the TC collecting all references to secondary material which should be edited or partially censored, to remove all traces and mentions of Kámi Diá. 

Any librarian can send suggested items to the proper study group. Conversely, we can find on the website of the Index the list of secondary works affected by any particular ban, and the action required to censor or remove offensive parts of a given secondary work. For example, if one of my colleagues reads this public log entry and adds it as a suggestion, I might have to censor Kámi Diá's name from the entry.

This is a living list, which needs to be monitored regularly. Acting on the daily aggregated list is one of the first tasks every morning for the assistants, and one of the reasons why a large library like ours requires many assistant librarians.

Back to the flock

We are back in Mehatoor, and I have mixed feelings about this expeditions. As far as new leads go, there is not that much to show for; except maybe that strange story about using clone bays to get into an abandoned Jove system. Of course, there have been interesting encounters, and I have a newfound appreciation for the Astero.

I did not have much time to ponder all of this, as it has been very busy as soon as I got back. Several capsuleers were in need of confession or just spiritual advice. 

There is a particular capsuleer concern that comes up from time to time, especially among young ones. 

They do contract work for a good Amarr corporation or institute, say the Theology Council, and are tasked with getting rid of some horrible heretic sect. The heretics then start pleading for their lives and spreading lies in order to sow doubt in their executioner's heart. Being human, and having an unspoiled conscience, the pilots then start questioning whether the assessment of the Theology Council was really right. Luckily, most of them perform their duty. But afterwards, these doubts gnaw at them, and they need reassuring. This I gladly do.

The way into Jove space

The contacts all have strange callsigns; often just a list of meaningless symbols such as "DY HEII K", "jie11 jie", or "JFZY2". But in the end, one of them agreed to talk.

There was something out of place about the man, I could sense it as soon as he entered the little restaurant. He did not fit in, like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. He acted at the same time nonchalant, flattered, and paranoid. 

He spoke a language I have never heard before; not even among the Grassbladians. Somehow the universal translator seemed to manage, but it did slow down our conversation a lot and I think some things got lost in translation.

He told me his alliance had a secret way in; it was not any lost gate like the Deathless stumbled upon. Rather, they have managed to keep a cloning facility running in one of the abandoned stations in the system of TO21-U. 

Apparently, there are no Jove to be seen in the system. They have abandoned the system altogether. A capsuleer (or several, that was not clear) from his alliance is able to clone-jump to that abandoned station, and has access to a ship that can generate a cynosural field. That is how they bring in others.

There are no gates to other systems from TO21-U. There are no pirates, or any activity in the system. My contact did not see any wormhole appear, but could not exclude that some might open up, as he was not actively looking for them. So, what are they doing there? They are there because they can, he said. I think it is some show of power or prowess among the barbarians. 

I would certainly not be allowed in, unless I broke ties with the Empire and joined their alliance; a thing I most definitely will not do. They would probably force me to adopt a callsign like "Th3O 7r". 

And that's it. That is all he wanted to say. He did show me some concord combat logs to prove his presence in TO21-U; then he left.

I am not sure what to make of this strange tale. Are the Jove really gone?

Meeting place in Jita

The informant gave me a list of potential contacts who had traveled, according to her, into the restricted Jove space. I tried to get in touch with several of them over the last few days, but none of them responded yet.

Meanwhile, we traveled back to Jita 4-4 for supplies and crew rest. This vast station has sprawling districts for entertainment, shopping, food, services, and just about anything you can imagine. It offers plenty of opportunity for the crew to relax. 

I cannot decide between Avindya and Levular for the job of cloak technician. So I decided to keep them both on the payroll; they have proven their mettle during our long expedition, camping out of station in deep-space safes. Both are exhausted, they have been on edge for nearly a month now. I think they've been sleeping for the last 24 hours straight.

Jita 4-4 is also a good place to wait for any of my informant's contacts to get in touch and meet up. There are many places where one can meet discreetly. 

I have picked a small Ni-Kunni eatery hidden in a back alley of one of the less popular souks. They serve half-way decent baby eels, the kind of food that scares away the locals. The coffee is dark, unfiltered, and strong enough to dissolve tritanium. The place offers privacy: each table is in its own nook that can be closed off by a curtain, and is rather dimly lit by candles in copper Mishi lanterns. The owner is never seen without a cheap cigar in his mouth, in violation of several food and health laws I am sure. He serves the food, and makes a show of pouring the coffee. He calls me Baba Amarr. Other than his wife in the kitchen there are no other employees. In short, a place off the radar. 

I have let the contacts know that I'd be there every day around noontime.

The informant

I talked to the "informant" as she likes to call herself. Perhaps more of a conspiracy theorist. I do not quite know what to make of it.

Her story is that Fraternity - that is the overarching alliance that the Grassbladians are vassals of - found a way into the Jove systems, much north of where I am trying to probe. She could bring me in contact with someone who traveled there. 

Sounds interesting, but she also showed some signs of capsuleer dementia or perhaps just old-fashioned conspiracy theory. She believes there is some organisation, deeply involved with the Jove and in full control of the cluster, and that organisation could make any person that trespasses into Jove space disappear. 

Nevertheless, I will continue to follow this lead. But first, I must give some rest and relaxation time to the crew, and get new supplies for the Indagatrix.

Timeo Amarri et dona ferentes

With the crew being tired, and the Indagatrix scaring the locals, we decided to head back. I left a parting gift in front of the Grassbladian's fortizar: a crate full of Pax Amarrias.

I then abandoned ownership of the crate, so they can safely take it and its treasure inside, rather than blast it to smithereens. Which they may still do, fearful as they are of strangers bearing gifts.

I was inspired by our blesses Empress' speech. Although the speech focused on the latest Upwell cloning shenanigans, the Empress also exhorted us to spread the faith, quoting scripture that says "You will bring its message to every planet of every star in the heavens", and adding her own emphasis: "Not only the reaches of our holy Empire, but 'every planet'."  I have done my bit to heed the Empress by bringing the good word to JZV-F4 !

I was about to head out of the system when I was hailed by a Grassbladian who wants to remain anonymous. She wants to meet me, and tell me about a way into Jove space. She believes communications in space are being monitored by some sort of agency with vast powers, and will speak to me via secure communications of her own. 

She sounds paranoid to me. Perhaps she is some sort of conspiracy theory nutcase. But I will listen to her, and accept her gift of knowledge. For I do not fear the gifts of strangers.

The pirate witch of the Vale

Just as we were making preparations to return, I got an answer (in words not combat probes) to my daily message declaring my peaceful intentions! 

The Grassbladians must have grown a tiny bit accustomed to my continued presence, or perhaps they tire from going red alert every time I send a friendly message in local.

Theodosius Savnar > Greetings, Grassbladians.

Theodosius Savnar > I am an explorer, interested in the regions bordering Jove space; I am flying around in an unarmed anathema and my intentions are peaceful.

Theodosius Savnar > Have any of you observed any anomalies, perhaps abandoned gates, specifically related to the Jove? 

Dr Rebot > I have not sir, pardon the histeria but the unarmed exploration ships tend to be the most dangerous

Polite, even! 

Dr. Rebot must have recognized a fellow academic, or looked up my record, and that instilled trust in him. This could be either my academic record, or my 100% snuggly combat record. 

Dr. Rebot explained that the Grassbladian peasants have been tormented by a deadly gang of robber pirates. They are led by a devilish woman, only known by her mysterious callsign "Flight Deck". She pilots a buzzard-class exploration vessel, fitted with a cynosural field generator. 

She approaches unsuspecting travelers, peasants, miners or any other Grassbladians that she encounters, sometimes luring them with siren calls or false promises. When she is close enough, she paralyzes her prey's warp drive and then her associates jump over to her ship, and kill all those nearby. 

Flight Deck has been a real scourge all over the Grassbladian systems, and their King cannot deliver his subjects from this robber gang. The poor Grassbladians have been living in terror of this witch. Naturally, when I appeared in the Indagatrix, they assumed that it was a ruse, that she had used some witchcraft to disguise herself in a respectable Amarrian friar. That was the cause of their "hysteria" as Dr. Rebot diagnosed it. 

Ah, if only I were a valiant paladin! I would offer my sword to bring peace and justice to the Grassbladians. King Vulpine would offer his daughter in marriage, but I would refuse, contenting myself with the knowledge of having done a good work. Alas, I am but an unarmed friar, unskilled in combat. Moreover, I have a vow of celibacy.

Anyway, the good doctor offered a simple remedy to gain their trust:

Dr Rebot > perhaps an Astero might be a better choice as it cannot fit a cyno

Of course! I will remember this next time I explore barbarian lands in the outer rim. Soon, the other Grassbladians were chiming in with less useful tips:

Perfect Stance > explore with a drake next time

I think I will stick to the Astero. In fact, I have one, the Ratakh Hubrau. I consider it a gift of God at the start of my quest, even before I joined the Societas. Now I finally learned its purpose, and for that Dr. Rebot has my gratitude.

Exploring in inhospitable territory

Despite being hunted, we manage to do some exploration. When new anomalies appear and I am the first to scan them down, I know I can safely warp to them and explore as long as no other scanner probes appear on d-scan. This has proven quite successful to go through these sites, although I did not find any useful artifact.

Nevertheless, these relic site explorations are like poking a stick into a hornet's nest. Grassbladians will scramble to try and locate me, ignoring a message declaring my peaceful intentions that I keep repeating daily on local chat. Their time and their warp disruption probes are being wasted.

JZV-F4 is quite a large system, and I managed to set up a safe warp spot that is more than 15 AU away from any celestial object. Of course I remain cloaked, and make sure cloak stability is maintained. But the long expedition is taking its toll on the crew. 

Mr. Firth starts to venture out of his panic room (he has been camping in the escape pod of the emergency life support backup unit) from time to time to offer suggestions. The cloak techs are getting tired. Both these things are signs that it may be time to return home.

Not a Jove gate

On various occasions, I have investigated the wormhole connections from the 88G-M4 constellation,  and searched them several jumps deep into Anoikis. There are no links to the Jove regions. All sorts of shortcuts to get (near to) home quickly, sure, but not what I am looking for. The wormholes here just like all the others that appear in that they do not link to Jove space. This makes me wonder if there are any wormholes in the Jove regions.

After an extended search, I must also conclude there are no broken gates. Also no warp gates that look anything like the ancient Jove gates leading to Zarzakh. Perhaps they are still cloaked. I did however find that the Grassbladians have built a gate of their own, or rather, have bought one from Upwell. It is shown below, with their Fortizar and the Jove nebula in the background.

You may wonder to what wondrous and far-flung lands this gate leads. Perhaps another pocket of Grassbladian worlds, disconnected from 88G-M4, or could it be a gateway to Jove space? No! The gate must be an attestation to their lazy nature, since it leads to a system a mere three jumps away, 7G-H7D, in the same constellation. Or perhaps not their lazy nature, no, it must be their overly cautious nature. I bet they do not trust the usual jump gates, just as they do not trust strangers.

The King's answer

We have been camping out in space, as I do not have docking rights in any station in the constellation. Having two cloak technicians has proven especially handy, as they can take shifts maintaining cloak, and keeping cloak stabilization.

Today, there was a unique occasion! King Basil Vulpine was in the system, probably for an inspection of his domains. I tried to contact him on local system-wide chat:

Theodosius Savnar > Hi Grassbladians!

Theodosius Savnar > I am doing some exploring in these systems close to Jove space; they intrigue me. I'll be flying around in an unarmed anathema with peaceful intentions!

Theodosius Savnar > <url=showinfo:1376//648365165>Basil Vulpine</url>, greetings! I sent you a mail a couple of days ago, about me hanging around in your space. 

Theodosius Savnar > I have not yet had the pleasure and honor of an answer, I hope you do not mind me being here.

There was no answer. Or perhaps, there was an answer, but not in words. An ice mining fleet docked up, a gnosis and a heron undocked and sent out combat probes. 

I consider that rude. 

Perhaps there is a certain ceremonial way of addressing the King of the Grassbladians? Have I offended them? I used the servile tense of the verbs, but perhaps it is different in their language, and the universal translator made a mistake between the servile, polite, familiar and and imperious tenses? Anyway, they should have given me the benefit of the doubt.

Most barbarian tribes are known to be hostile to strangers, but if I compare the Grassbladians with the Zerg of Feythabolis, the latter eventually grew to trust me and started conversations. And let me use some stations.

When I get back to Mehatoor, I will write up a sermon to be handed out to our capsuleers in Syndicate, about hospitality and answering foreign explorers reaching out in local. Using words, not guns.

An utterly boring border

I have been covertly exploring the border zone of the Jove regions now for a week. And sadly, I have to admit I did not get any results. This is an utterly boring piece of space, far from civilization, and cast aside by the large Fraternity alliance as a putrid morsel that is not worth picking up after it fell from the table.

There are no hidden conduits or locked gates that I could scan, even casting my probes way out to the edge of the system. There is an absolute infestation of Guristas sites, they form clusters around every planet in every system in this constellation. There are relatively few anomalies to scan down.

The Amarrian outpost that is supposed to orbit the first moon of JZV-F4, the one named "Vote Gigx for CSM XIV" in honor of the former king Gigx, is no longer there. Perhaps it was destroyed by his successor, king Basil Vulpine. Perhaps it is still there, a cloaked Amarrian listening post. If so, it did not respond to my hails. Not even to my "Hail the Empress".

In the background a very pretty nebula is visible - this is the direction towards the Jove regions, tantalizingly close yet out of reach. Actually, this nebula is inside Jove space.

More crackpot theories

While waiting for the barbarians outside the station to club each other to death, I am meeting interesting capsuleers that are Jove fanatics. There are many weird types of Jove devotees here. It is not just the Thoughtologists.

There exists a belief related to that of the earthers. Earthers believe that all of humankind evolved originally on one and the same planet, a motherworld supposedly on the other side of Eve Gate. The earthers get their name from calling this original cradle "earth". The Goners are an example of an Amarrian earther heterodoxy. 

The one I met in the station believes that after the collapse of Eve Gate, part of humanity got trapped here in our cluster. These colonies were cut off from the motherworld, and slowly but inexorably started to decay. The focus lay on preserving the tools and technology from the motherworld, but no new science or development was taking place. After a while, as more stuff broke down and could not be repaired for lack of replacement parts, infighting took place over the ever scarcer resources. 

Worlds declared their independence from the colonial governance and broke off - in their story the religious colony of Amarr was one of such worlds. Wars between the former colonies precipitated the coming of the dark ages, where nearly all technologies of the motherworld got lost.

A small group of scientists foresaw the coming of the dark ages, and planned to run away to a remote part of the cluster. There they would build an academy to centralize whatever active knowledge was left, and attempt to learn new things. They set out in one of the last jump capable colony ships, named after a planet in the motherwold's solar system - a gas giant called Jupiter. 

This particular earther believes that the Jove are the descendants of that group of scientists, which thrived from the preserved knowledge of the motherworld. The Jove got their name from the ship they ran away in, the Jupiter. They learned how to repair and eventually even upgrade the technology, and planned to use their superiority to intervene in the other worlds (us) in subtle ways in order to bring about a more rapid end to the dark ages. They would lead the rest of us into a new age of cluster-wide peace, and ultimately reopen Eve Gate to reconnect with the motherworld.

Well, some things must have gone wrong along the way.

((ooc: I think the dark ages from Eve lore and from Asimov's Foundation would make a nice match))

House Vulpine

The Blades of Grass barbarians are ruled by house Vulpine - not an Amarrian House, but for convenience's sake I will call the leading family a house. Basil Vulpine is their king, and his wife Eingang Vulpine is lead diplomat.

I have tried to contact lady Vulpine and her diplomats, but these scoundrels are not answering my letters or calls. I do not ask much: right of passage, unharmed, and if possible docking rights at just one of their stations in the constellation 88G-M4, one they can choose. I have given them the callsign and the fitting of the Indagatrix, and moreover promised to hand over to them all exploration loot that is not relating to the Ancients. But, no answer. Perhaps they are too busy with this conflict, which seems to involve the larger alliance in Vale of the Silent, even if it does not involve them themselves. 

So be it! I shall go forth even without having obtained their explicit right of passage. Hah, it may be of little use anyway to get these rights, for perhaps next week yet another group is in charge.

Well, I only got a few hundred meters out of the station before I had to dock back up. Landed in the middle of a battle between rival groups, right at the front door of the SoCT station in FDZ4-A. They tried to attack me as well! Even though I am neutral to their bloody conflict, and a member of the clergy of the Empire! Their attempts at bubbling or targeting did not work, luckily, but I must await a quieter moment to undock from this cursed place.

Lost and Found

I found frustratingly little new information on the Jove. For a school that celebrates a link to the Jove empire, they do not seem to have special knowledge about them that cannot be obtained at Hedion University.

Something that I did find and which relates to my quest, is that under the Jovian Directorate of the third empire, there was an agency called the Lost and Found Section Unit. This agency was in charge mostly of searching and retrieving missing Jove technology or artifacts that had resurfaced in the wrong hands.  Whatever they considered to be the wrong hands. More often than not, that would be us Amarr. 

The agents of this section unit, referred to as the 'Lost and Founders', were not just looking for Jove technology. In fact they were going after any advanced technology that would be harmful to a lesser advanced society that came across it. Think of cavemen finding a suitcase nuclear weapon. The job of the Lost and Founders was to identify and retrieve things like the suitcase nuke in the cavemen society.

They seem to have been quite interested in our relics as well, especially the Ametat and Avetat. They do not believe that these were a gift from God, brought by the Sefrim to emperor Amash-Akura. To them, these relics must be potentially harmful advanced weapons that the emperor has received from renegate aliens, perhaps Jovian dissidents. As they fixated on this blasphemy, they have searched for the sceptre and crown around the cluster. 

It is telling that they have been particularly active in areas and systems where also professor Bathana has been looking.

Thoughtology

The Society of Conscious Thought is quite eager to teach but at the same time secretive about the Jove. The emphasis on education is clear and their schools - including the one in this station - are renowned around the cluster. Their alumni, in every subject from biomedicine to physics to politicology, are generally successful and hold positions of importance.

I got a tour of some magnificent labs and libraries with all the latest equipment and technical gadgets. I got a library card and have started using the facilities. But, as I said, there is relatively little here that one cannot find elsewhere about the Jove.

Looking for other sources here, I encountered a group calling themselves the Church of Thoughtology. They are also both eager to teach and secretive about their knowledge. They say they have their information straight from Ion Labron, the Jovian who founded the SoCT. They claim to be linked to the School, but as far as I can tell they are not officially affiliated. 

In order to get access to what they know, they ask that you become member of their church, then follow some purification rituals for a couple of years, and then 'level up' in exchange of a hefty fee, to 'operational status'. Which means that you are allowed to pay even more in order to get piecemeal parts of their texts about aliens and Jove redemption.

I suspect they are a Jita scam, and will keep looking elsewhere for information.

SoCT station

The crossing from Jita to the Society of Conscious Thought's schools in Geminate was the first real test for my new cloak technicians. We left early, choosing a time where the local residents would not be very active, and once in nullsec I made sure not to jump directly from gate to gate. 

Both the cloak and the interdiction nullifier were manned. Although I control these modules from the pod, smooth and fast operation is ensured by technicians monitoring and tuning these delicate pieces of equipment. All went perfectly well, we did not encounter gatecamps or metaliminal storms.

The SoCT station where we docked looks unlike any I've seen before. Although a strong influence from Gallente station architecture is clear, there is also another, more alien, element. The hangars do look definitely Gallentean, but once you disembark and venture inside, you feel the same alien undertone in layout and atmosphere. There is something more organic to it, perhaps? 

I get the feeling that this station is past its heyday. Oh, it is still a fine place, services are up and running. Everything functions normally, but nevertheless there is this subtle sense of a grandeur passed. You see shops that are boarded up, and there are many offices for rent. Parts of the station meant for housing Jove are closed off for the general public, probably these habitations are still kept as they were in case the Jove return. The offices of various Jove corporations are still active, but no Jove are to be seen, and the personnel appear to act as caretakers waiting for their masters. 

The Society of Conscious Thought itself seems more active, they have found their own purpose. Or perhaps they are still maintaining some tenuous line of contact with the Jovian Empire even though they will not discuss this with outsiders.

I will spend a bit of time here, and try to gather information from the SoCT. Better not to go out of station much: an Astrahus citadel from Fraternity is reinforced in system, and Goonswarm pilots seem to be forming a fleet right here in the SoCT station. They seem utterly uninterested in Jove or their technology, and look at me with suspicion when we meet in station.

Schools of conscious thought

Rather than going straight from the Forge to Vale of the Silent I decided on a little detour via Geminate. Well, the shortest route is arguably also via Geminate, but I plan to go first to the constellation N-K4Q0 which is held by the Society of Conscious Thought. 

There are two stations, that the SoCT calls schools, in FDZ4-A. They are open to the general public, and even offer cloning facilities for capsuleers. This seems a good base of operations, until I get permission from the Woodland Nymph Lovers to use one of their stations closer to the edge of Jove space. 

I am also curious to see the SoCT stations, and talk to people there. At one point, when the Jove were still in contact with us, they passed on their knowledge - or at least the part that they saw fit to share with us - via these "schools". Schools have libraries, these ones should not be any different. If I can spend some time there I might find information about possible links between the Jove and our missing relics. Perhaps even why they are so interested in Anath, in faraway Aridia. 

Jita 4-4

I remember my previous visit to the vast trade hub of Jita 4-4. It has been three years since I came here. It has changed a bit, parts have modernized and the hangars are even more flashing with advertisements all screaming for your attention. The whole place is maddening and insalubrious like an Achuran pachinko gaming hall at its loudest and busiest. That hasn't improved. It got worse. 

I was somewhat prepared for this, but my crew, mostly new, was not. 

Mr. Firth and Avindya were clearly impressed, looking at everything with eyes as big as dinner plates. Levular was mostly looking annoyed, I cannot blame him. He proved to be a good help in negotiating with the merchants to resupply our ship, he is better at haggling than I am.

After dealing with the thieving merchants and ever-present scammers, I took the new ones and the rest of the crew to a nearby food district. Just as the advertisements are a full frontal assault on the eyes and ears, the food district is a massive attack on the olfactory system. We escaped it, and nausea, by going to an overly expensive restaurant (capsuleer funds provide), all the way up in one of the spires. It has a clear view of the moon colony below, and of its space elevator. 

The sight is amazing, the moon looms large over the station and takes up a good portion of the sky. The circular structures of the moon colony are clearly visible. The moon illuminates the station's vast exterior on which cities seem to have been built, right atop the hull of the station. Once you get away from the noise and the haggling merchants, you can start appreciating the engineering miracle that the Caldari have built here.

We'll stay the night here in Jita. The crew can book a nice spa hotel on my expenses. I think I will spend the night in the dark and quiet of the backup life support unit.

Crossing over to Jita

The life support backup unit has been installed in the Indagatrix. Of course the crew did not want to give up the ping-pong room, so the only possibility was to give up some cargo space. The unit takes up about one quarter of what I had for cargo space! But, if it makes mr. Firth feel safe enough to allow us to go on this expedition, it is worth it, I guess.

We loaded up on copies of the Pax Amarria as well, to spread the good word, but for the rest we travel lightly. Our first stop will be the trade hub in Jita, in the State. We can easily get all the  necessary supplies there, apart from the Pax Amarrias. 

The journey through warzone systems from Mehatoor to Jita will be a first test for the new cloak technicians. I'll let each of them do one half of the journey, and measure system response times. Perhaps simulate a malfunction (in highsec parts).

New personnel

Two candidates remain. The one preferred by mr. Firth is Avindya Alijia, fresh out of the Academy, head full of the kind of war propaganda that mr. Firth is also fond about. Personally, I prefer Levular Damus, who has the advantage of experience flying with capsuleers and handling cloaking in difficult circumstances. But he's a cynic, a trait not liked by mr. Firth.

Rather than keep discussing endlessly with Ivan Firth, I hired them both. They can take turns and then we'll see who is best.

When the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy

I have scheduled interviews with various applicants for the post of cloak technician on the Indigatrix. Of course mr. Firth will join me in interviewing and selecting a proper candidate. 

There were a lot of applications... I am always surprised at how eagerly people put their fate in the hands of us, capsuleers. They must be lured by the spiritual rewards that come with greater impact for the glory of the Empire. Yet they are wrong to think that somehow work in space is worth more than work, say, in the vast wheat fields of Nakregde.

Anyway, I should not complain. The faster I get a new expert, the sooner I can quit collecting conduit data. The appearance of so many of these conduits does worry me a little bit. What if the Triglavians and the Drifters start fighting here in our space? Without guidance of the Empress, what side should we take, or should we just be happy to let them slaughter each other? The Triglavians threaten to drag our systems into Pochven, and the Drifters assassinated empress Jamyl I, both are dire enemies of the empire. But what if we are forced to take sides due to the nature of the conflict, for example if it threatens our populations? 

In that case, with Luna is still on leave, the acting directors of the Societas -whom we now met during the 'meet and greet' session- will have to make a choice.