Edencom woes

Today, we did some simple scouting in Seclusion itself, to get the crew acquainted and removed their fears of space monsters in wormhole space.

Meanwhile, the growing tension between LUMEN and the "Local is Primary" militia is causing me worries. Here in Anoikis, I should not be bothered too much by this conflict, but it affects my friends back in Nasreri and Mehatoor. 

The militia have never forgiven LUMEN's participation in Edencom alongside Electus Matari, even though the Empress sanctioned international collaboration in the framework of Edencom in order to fight the Triglavian menace. 

Edencom itself is under fire. Our State allies seem to suspend their collaboration with Edencom and even with Concord in the Athounon system, in order to obtain technology from a cloaked station there. Never since the Elder fleet have the Yulai accords been under such strain.

Luckily, the Empire will not fall behind in the arms race, and has fortified our position around the Stellar Harvester. However, all this goes not without causing incident with the other powers.

Docked in Seclusion

We arrived yesterday in Seclusion's station. I'd been here before, but it had been a while. The station has been much expanded since my last visit, the upgrades allowing for more inhabitants, more cargo hangars, and better defenses. The park is still there: it's known by travellers as Pilgrim's Rest. It is underneath a cupola that opens up to space, and allows for daytime sunshine from Seclusions small yellow star. At night, the unfamiliar sky shows none of the known constellations.

Scattered between grassy meadows and forested patches, the park is home to temples and churches devoted to of various faiths of New Eden. No heretical sects, but also not just our Amarrian faith - there is a small Achur temple, for example. Probably this is because Anoikis is a refuge for people of all over New Eden, who want to disappear in wormhole space and build a new life there. Seclusion wants to be welcoming and inclusive.

As the crew had never been to Anoikis, and the Indagatrix needed supplies and checkups of the scanner systems, I gave them the rest of the day off. Idesbald went straight to Seclusion's most famous bar, "Two Shots Minimum". I do not think he stopped at the minimum.

Heading for Seclusion

Now that our charity in Mycena is operating smoothly again, I can embark on the expedition to Anoikis that I had planned a while ago. One of the technicians has found other employ, I guess she was restless, or scared about the space monsters supposedly living in wormhole space. 

I know I could fly the ship without crew, but I do like to take them on board to relieve me of some tasks. However, I'm not going to replace the techie now, six crew is more than enough. 

We leave in a couple of hours, heading for Keikanen in State space where the wormhole entrance to LUMEN's wormhole base called "Seclusion" was last seen. 

The wormhole to our base is short lived, so the entrance system changes every day, and hopefully it will still be there by the time we arrive. Otherwise we'd have to wait for someone in Seclusion to explore where the new entrance is: when the old hole dies, a new one appears connecting Seclusion to a seemingly random system.

Start-up troubles

The clinic in Mycena experienced some trouble - it was even inaccessible for a while. The front door was jammed, of sorts, and the medbots were missing. 

Luckily, things are back to normal out now, and the clinic is resupplied and back in shape. It's very busy, there's clearly a need for this type of medical care in the district. As soon as it re-opened, there were again queues.

The local authority, mr. Ignis Phage, has been strutting outside and taking credit for this development in the neighborhood, much to my dislike. He had little to do with this LUMEN initiative.

After the disruption of a couple of days ago, now everything seems to run smoothly, and I can go back to the Lamp, and look at my duties there. Apparently, there's some yak handbook that everyone wants to read and I have to figure out how to order it.

Yun-Hee's home

I had a most pleasant evening visiting Yun-Hee Yubari - she had invited me to see her new home. 

Her home itself is minimalistic and spartan. A bit like a monk's cubicle, which I approve but at the same time find strange for a young woman of marriageable age. There's also a martial arts training building called a dojo, and a tea house that is still being installed. 

But the most magnificent part is the garden! It encircles the house and meticulously reconstructs a beautiful achuran landscape, in miniature. As the eyes wander toward the horizon, larger trees complete the illusion of a house in the middle of rolling hills and nature. There are dwarfed trees closer in, like the one I have, but with needles rather than leaves. There are elegantly arranged stones, and raked sand, and a beautiful pool. It is a place that invites for meditation and calm. 

The only downside is that there are no benches, except for sitting down right on the floor at some low table. I'll need my cyberlegs to avoid a screeching pain in my knees.

I brought her a plant for her garden, without knowing the design of the garden. Wild garlic - you prepare its leaves rather than a clove of garlic, it is a medicinal herb and grows well under trees. However, as a flowering plant it is probably unsuitable for her garden.... a faux pas of a gift, I'm afraid. 

Anyway, this makes me yearn for a little garden of my own, a herb garden. An aromatic place. A place to let the mind come to rest and stop thinking. I don't want to take up more space than I do, so I'll look for some publicly available grounds. More accurately: I'll put that on my ever growing to-do list...

A day on Oris

I had the honor of meeting the Praetoria's chapter master again. It took a while to get a proper appointment and to find a time where Lord Lok'ri could find a spot for me in their busy agenda. I do not think I know anyone who works as hard as his lordship does, perhaps with the exception of Lunarisse.

So, I went back to Oris, this giant of a planet, and the Oris Chapterhouse of the Praetoria. After an interminable wait, I was brought to the Chapter master's office by an orderly.

Lord Lok'ri took an interest in my work in the Societas, I was pleased that time was made to inquire about that and about how I had settled into my ministry there.

But once I came to the point, and asked about the operation of the Tetrimon order to retrieve their relics from the blood raiders now sixteen years ago, I had the impression the tone changed. Not only did the mention of the Aegis Militia and the Verisum family left a sour taste in the Chapter master's mouth, his lordship also held a devastating opinion about grand master Horm and the Tetrimon Order. There was no room for the subtle arguments that Horm was fighting the Blood chancellor, or that Horm challenged his own order to support Empress Jamyl, at least according to the records shown to me by the Tetrimon themselves...

Lord Lok'ri was quick to tell me that no member of the Praetoria participated in this operation, even though at the same time they claimed not to have much recollection of this operation. I was refered to the Praetoria's archives, and given permission to consult those. I'm not sure what to think of all this, to be honest. Is it the old wounds caused by the Aegis Militia that were opened up again, or is there something to hide?

Clinic is up

Our clinic in Mycena is up and running. I'm glad to report we've already had a lot of customers. It seems many inhabitants were delaying a doctor's visit and letting their problems get worse. So the medical drones have been working almost non-stop.

There seems to be somewhat of a problem with pollution here, lots of symptoms related to heavy metal poisoning. However, we are well equipped for it, with the help of good doctors at the medbay of Gottin's Lamp. 

I am glad we can make a difference here. Helping everyone in the cluster is not possible, but at least we can look after those who live at our doorstep.

Mycena

I visited a worker district called Mycena. It is located in the same station as our headquarters - the size of these stations keeps amazing me. Mycena somewhat of a city in its own right, with bars and shops and bad hotels and public transport. The parish is run by father Marn, an amicable man tending to his flock with great care.

There is a lack of good medical facilities, though, so I was happy to arrange for a semi-automatic clinic in that neighborhood, having obtained the permission from the representatives of Lord Valdant, the holder of this vibrant community. I'm looking forward to see this clinic serve our station neighbors!

Legs up

I am slowly getting used to the new legs. At first, it seemed like something else was propelling me forward, my upper body was dragged along by these legs. I have to find a new equilibrium, and a new pace to move my arms about in the right tempo for my legs.

On another matter - one thing I do not like about covert missions for SFRIM is that we have to compromise with folks that I think are evil. For our goals, it appears we have to strike a deal with a man raising child soldiers. That seems utterly wrong, even if the alternative will leave the children potentially worse off. I am struggling with this.

cyberlegs

I've had to postpone my expedition to Seclusion, because of urgent Societas matters.

Also, I need surgery. Well, not me as such: I need to have a clone that has cybernetically enhanced legs. Training doesn't work fast enough, and my trainer in the Lamp's fitness tends to forget my age just because I'm a capsuleer. 

Many capsuleers choose to reclone themselves in a young version of themselves, at their prime. I do not, I like to keep track of my age, and so my clones reflect my actual age. Of course, without any old-age disease and especially with painless joints. But that is not enough: I need to be able to run fast, and pass Ishta's "beep test". So I bought a clone with cyberlegs under real skin, the salesperson told me it looks and feels natural...

Down the hole

In between the cloak and dagger work that keeps my somewhat busy these days, I have been preparing for an expedition into wormhole space. The crew is a bit nervous, most of them haven't been to wormhole space and heard all manner of old wives' tales about space monsters living out there.

I could keep their anxiety in check by telling them we would be going to Seclusion, a wormhole system controlled by SFRIM. This reduces significantly the risk of being out there, as there will be a station where we can safely dock up and rest. The station, also called Seclusion, will be the basis of operations for this expedition.

Bersyrim relics and conjectures

I've continued to investigate the nature of the artefacts I recovered in Bersyrim. I think they were not collected over the years there from all sorts of other places. They are too consistently from a single time period, and in a singular style to be a hotchpotch mix you usually find in capsuleer's cargo holds or adventurer's collections. 

So, I hypothesize there was an expedition or a colonization attempt from the Takmahl at some time. The stuff they brought with them would be representative of a particular era and maybe particular style. The problem with this is that there is no known colony, nor did anyone find a colony ship wreck or exploration vessel wreck here. 

The other mystery is why they would choose such a place, far from their homelands. Maybe the even bigger mystery is how they got here! It is out of reach for their ships unless they would travel for decades. So, this leads me to another conjecture: Talocan wormhole technology. 

The Talocan, a much older and more advanced civilization than the Takmahl, possessed ways to open up wormholes. It is well known and document that the Takmahl found Talocan technology and reverse engineered it. So why not experimental wormhole tech?

The search continues

I responded to mr. Thorne, asking him what he intends to do with the Matari aspirant he wants to get from me, but again he has gone silent.

It appears my questions are compareable to kicking rotten woodwork in that all of a sudden a lot of strange critters crawl out. I've been contacted by several people pretending to help me find cardinal Graelyn for all sorts of payment. None of them have seemed trustworthy. But there is something about mr. Thorne that makes me think he could actually find his eminence, even though I do think he does not have pure motives.

Also, the small tortured tree is not doing well, a couple of leaves are starting to turn brown...

Thorne responds

Thorne finally responded. I had already given up on him.

It appears he has started the search. I had written a message I wanted to convey to his eminence Cardinal Graelyn, should he be found. However, Ulrik Thorne seems to think this message is -I quote- "good bait" to lure the Cardinal out of his hiding. 

So, I have come to suspect mr. Thorne has ulterior motives, perhaps nefarious ones as concerns the Cardinal. This is definitely not a Jita scammer who wants my money, no, he seems to use me and my cause to find the Cardinal for his own purpose! Sometimes I even imagine Thorne might want to harm high clergy, such as his eminence. Ridiculous as that thought seems at first sight, it is not impossible.

To complicate matters, Thorne has refused my ISK payment, and wants something else instead. A Matari aspirant of any sex or bloodline, third generation or later whose contract is held by the Praetorians. What does it mean? I'm not a holder, and why would I procure a slave for mr. Thorne? I don't know how to react to this request, to be honest.

Tree torture

Yulai and the systems around it are a melting pot for the different cultures in the cluster. 

That's how I found out about a horrible practice, in the State and more particularly in Saisio. 

They take a young sapling tree, and torture it. While it is growing, they knack it branches and curb its shoots so the tree never grows. It remains small, constrained and broken by its torturer. It is seen as an art to create these miniature trees, but in reality it is a slow torment to create a hobbled and abused plant.

I bought one, and I am going to let it grow how it wants, if it can in any way recover from its harsh treatment.

Letter from the Paladin Warden

Paladin Warden Saltz has replied to my inquery about the Aegis Militia, and told me the tale of how their relation with CVA deteriorated, and how they fell victim to the "Rekking Crew" invaders.

Few men were tested and put through such hardships as the Paladin Warden. May he remain strong and patient, and may his trials bring his soul closer to God.

I have decided it may not be prudent to accept mr. Thorne's request for money to find the Cardinal. The Paladin Warden dissuaded me from this course of action. I will look for other eye witnesses of the events surrounding the Temple of God's Assuring Whisper. 

Perhaps I should make work of a visit to Oris again, and try and meet Lord Gaven Lok'ri.

No answer

Still no reply from Ulrik Thorne. Did I insult him, offering only 75 million for his help? Should I reach out to him with a higher offer?

No.

There are enough veterans about that I should not bow to the whims of mr. Thorne. If he does not respond, then so be it. 

I've decided to go back to Oris and request an audience with lord Gaven Lok'ri. He has a sharp mind and a flawless memory, he might help me in this matter.

At the same time, I'm preparing the Indagatrix for another inspection of the Eve and Monalaz constellations.

The chivalry of SFRIM members

I have not yet heard back from mr. Ulrik Thorne, but the faithful members of SFRIM helped me. I had only speak half a word to Gaun Arel before he contacted his own agent specialized in finding a capsuleer's last known location. He quickly found out that Lord Cardinal Graelyn was last seen in commanding a vessel in E-YCML, in Providence. It's a bit creepy, this lack of privacy that we have.

This agrees with the information that his Eminence has retired in Providence, as indicated by mr. Thorne as well, although he pointed to Misaba. 

Enter a second champion, Jason Statesman. He rushed to his exploration vessel, and made haste to Providence to both systems mentioned. He talked to the locals but apparently no-one has seen the Cardinal for a while. He also reported that civility is in decline in Providence, and locals treated him quite boorishly.

Finally, ms. Renalard and especially our Directrix were very helpful in recalling events from the past, from a time before my kind paladins Gaun and Jason had joined SFRIM. The Cardinal appears to have a long and interesting history. 

Lunarisse also recalled Revan Neferis - though with great distaste. She fired a barrage of names at me, of capsuleers from decades past, and now I need to get cards, pins and tread in order to visualize all the connections.

I am grateful for all the gracious help from the members of SFRIM, and touched by their chivalry and unquestioning help.

Ulrik Thorne's offer of help

I have been contacted by a capsuleer named Ulrik Thorne, who offered his assistance in finding Lord Cardinal Graelyn. 

He asks for a reasonable recompense, and I informed him that I cannot spend more than 75 million. My vow of poverty does not allow me to have more isk than strictly necessary to replace the Indagatrix and her modules. I have to admit I blinged her out a little bit, and 75 mil is what she is worth now. If he will require more, I will have to figure out a down-payment plan.

Mr. Thorne seems to have a connection to the Cardinal. He was aware of his last known whereabouts, in Providence, and mentioned that he was owed money by the Cardinal. He wanted to try and broadcast my message to him, to draw him out.

I agreed, but I've become a bit worried since. I didn't sleep well. What if he uses me and my quest in order to draw out the Cardinal and harm him?

A spy cell

There was a theft of technology and pods in Jita, the main trade hub in the State. It looks like the Gurista pirates are involved. The theft also include a lot of information, intelligence gathering. 

Capsuleers all over New Eden are hunting down these capsules, and selling whatever information or runaways they find inside. That information then tends to spread around - no-one remembers the slogan "loose lips sink ships". So it was that via friends in the interlibrary loan network we were casually discussing the news and I learned about a piece of disturbing information.

Now, in one of the retrieved capsule's holostorage subsystems the following shard of text was found: "eard from one of the cell members based in the Amarr Trade Registry offices. Passed on some information about EDENCOM spending priorities during the invasion he'd dug u"

The Amarr trade registry station closest to the Concord systems is here in Nasreri! I can only conclude that the spy cell (hopefully not a terrorist cell) operates from here. I've alerted the board - it is no coincidence that this spy cell is here in the same station where SFRIM put its new headquarters. 

We're being spied upon! Aria may be confident in the airtight security cordon around the Lamp, but human error lurks around every corner. Now, how to unmask these spectres? I have to read up on counterintelligence operations, there must be some sort of handbook in our library.