Back in Business

The war is over and I'm out mining again. I figured since we were both in Egyfe, we might as well put some time in the ice fields. I've opted for Maya to fly a Mackinaw and myself in a Hulk to try and see what kind of progress we make with me jetcanning it into her ship and she mining and hauling. I'm not sure if having extra lasers on the ice part time is better than having the Orca boosts. We've been in the belt a couple of hours and pulled in a little over two hundred ice blocks. Maybe tomorrow I will try the Orca with a hulk to see how that goes.

Maya still seems distracted as we worked. It's understandable since there's not much to do while ice mining. The cycles are long and the ice blocks are so large you rarely have to re-target anything. I've fallen asleep several times doing this. When this ice is gone, we might try ice mining in Nein, but it would be more to do there because it's a 0.5 system and I'm paranoid to I would actually use my directional scanner while I mine.

I also started manufacturing, yet it's a hard business to get into. When I found some items I would make a profit on, I started making them in bulk. The problem is, most of it is sitting in Hek waiting to be sold but no one is buying. Another lesson learned. Make sure people are buying what you want to make, and make sure you can make it for a profit. I've been sticking to frigate rigs and mining crystals to start, of course with dreams of building large freighters and Orca's in my future, but I seem to have issues with spending mountains of money on materials for building. While mining, the credits in my wallet simply increased as I offload pile after pile of minerals in Hek for sale, decreasing only a little when I bought things like crystals or new lasers. I understand that with manufacturing, you need to spend money to make money, but like losing ships, I have this irrational fear of failing and costing myself money that I could have in my pocket.

For once, I decided to open up a bit with my co-worker. We were in Maya's Captain's quarters this time. Again we were drinking, seemingly the only thing to do on this station while docked.

"Have you ever died, Maya?" I suddenly ask in the silence. She had the holo projector on the coffee table pulled over to her side of the couch, lying down and lazily swatting the hologram of her ship as it spun like a top in front of her. She stopped and the glowing Mackinaw spun to a stop, drifting above the table.

"Everyone has to die to become a capsuleer, Sain." she said. It was true, the process is quite jarring. You're initially scanned, uploaded to a computer, then your consciousness is transferred to your first clone equipped with the interfaces needed to operate a pod. The interfaces wasn't something that could be surgically implanted since they were so intricately interfaced with your own body, they had to be put in place and a clone grown around it. Therefore, the only way to become a capsuleer, was to transfer your consciousness to the new clone, and your old body was terminated in the process. The first time is the most eerie. You're leaving the body you were born in, only to be forcibly put into a new one identical to the old. You could have the new clone altered if you like, a new face, new bone structure. You could even change gender if you wanted. But once you begin life as a capsuleer, it costs a lot of money to change it. Dying to start a new life is one thing. Dying because someone else wanted to end your life intentionally, is another.

"Have you been podded, I mean?" I asked. Podded was just a term meaning to have your pod destroyed after your ship was. Pirates do this all the time if they manage to catch you after they destroy your ship.

"No." she replied after some thought, "Have you?"

"I can't remember, but I think so." I replied, "I have lost ships to gankers." Another capsuleer term meaning pirates who attack in high security space, trying to destroy you before CONCORD shows up to destroy them. They do this in cheap ships to try and kill you, to loot your expensive modules off your wrecked ship after they get another ship and come back. I added, "I've also survived a gank attempt."

"Your point?" She asked, swatting her hologram again, "That's normal for a Capsuleer."

"I know, but that's the one thing I'm afraid of; losing ships and dying." I said, "It's pointless because I know I'm immortal now and ships are just flying ISK, really. Everything is easy to replace. I don't understand why I'm so afraid to lose ships. Maybe because I feel attached to them? I don't know."

She giggled and spun her holographic ship again, "You're attached to your ships? You feel sad when they blow up? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe because it sometimes feels like my own body with the interface, you know? Wouldn't you miss your arm if you lost it?"

"Not if I could buy a new arm identical to the old one." she retorted, going back to spinning her ship. I noticed a little counter appear underneath the image of the mackinaw and thought it interesting it was programmed to count the number of rotations if you got bored and decided to start spinning it...

Anyway...

"I suppose your right. I guess I haven't lost that many ships to be used to it." I huffed.

Maya sat up, "Listen, you're into manufacturing now, right? You have BPO's for nearly every frigate out there. Pick one, build a bunch, fit them, then fly out to low sec in an empty clone and don't come back until you've lost them all."

"I've been told to do that many times." I said.

"Then why haven't you?"

"I don't want to lower my security status and be locked out of High Security space." You still lose security status in low security space."

"Null sec?" she suggested.

"Too far away." I said, "Might not make it." We sat in silence for a while then she suddenly straightened up with a thought.

"Wormholes!" she said, "You could find a wormhole and fly around in one. I'm sure you could find a fight in one and learn about them while you're at it!" Now that wasn't a bad idea. I could jump into an empty clone and put my training on hold for a bit. Fly in a wormhole and look around. I haven't been in them because of the same reason I don't go to low sec. I didn't want to lose ships. But if i were trying to lose ships, that might be the way to go, since I wouldn't lose security status in unknown space as well. I also just trained up and bought a Crane as well, a cloaky version of the Badger for hauling during war time and maybe into low sec. I could try training for a stealth bomber of some kind and go for a wander around. But stealth bombers might be pricey to lose. I'd have to look into it.

"I will look into it." I tell her, then finish my drink.

The Case of the Missing Sister...

It was quiet around the table. Only the sound of ice falling in her glass could be heard in the dimly lit Captain's quarters on board a station in Aldrat. Our corporation had a station here and I had docked to run some research jobs to try and start manufacturing again. Maya and I stared at the large screen in the small room before us, watching advertisements for Quafe, bounties, and Concord roll by. I could see she was clearly upset after what happened, but I had no idea how to help. I've never heard of it before.

"Go over again what happened." I said, in a calm, comforting voice, "I want to get my facts right."

"Amalea was out mining ice in that Retriever you loaned her and went missing. Just over in Egyfe." she said, "I heard her snoring on comms and knew she fell asleep."

"And she just vanished?" I asked. Maya took another swig of Caldarian Whiskey and sighed.

"Yes. Comms shut off and I couldn't re-establish the connection." she said, "I mean I don't blame her for falling asleep while ice mining. You've even done that before. But to just leave and not say anything? And with your ship?!"

"I'm not worried about the ship." I said. It wasn't entirely true. If I could get it back, it would be nice, but its not worth losing a friend. Neither of us would be worried even if she ran off and got killed. I'd lose the ship but at least she would wake up in a clone vat somewhere right as rain. The problem is that the station that has her medical clone repeatedly states that her clone has not received any neural data and has been dormant for a little over a month since she first became a capsuleer.

A little over a month....Wait a minute...

"You don't suppose." I trailed off.

"What?" She demanded, "Say it, Sain!"

"Maybe her Pilot's license expired while she was in space." I guessed. We both sat silent while both of our cybernetically enhanced minds tried to comprehend the idea.

"License expired?" Maya asked, "Didn't an alarm go off to wake her up to tell her such an important piece of information?!"

"There is no such alarm." I advised, "As I understand it, the license is a code that allows linking of our pods to our ships, or allows operation of the pods alone in space. If it expires or we lose connection for some reason with our ships, there is a fail safe that will warp our ship to a random location nearby in space, then adjusts the chronoton frequency of the hull to phase out of normal space." Maya blankly stared at me and slowly blinked.

"What?" she asked, "Can't you just take your Heron out and scan her down?"

"No she's not out there anymore if that's the case. Her and her ship have phased out and vanished."

"So where is she?" Maya asked.

"She is wherever her ship warped her to, but has moved to another plane of existence."

"How is that possible? Is she cloaked?" she asked.

"No, but cloaking technology is along the same lines. I think it might be a part of the pod's subsystems that affects the ship it's connected to. It's lost Jovian technology after all, we just know how to duplicate it, not how it works."

"How do we fix this?" she asked quietly. I knew what was going on in her mind. I just could not afford a PLEX for Amalea right now. It's still war time and I can't mine, nor haul minerals or ore to sell. I just bought a Crane and fitted it with an advanced cloak so I could start Manufacturing. I could sell something, but that would mean taking a step back in my efforts. It sounds heartless, but the concept of well being is lost on most capsuleers because we are immortal.

"She should still be training her skills. As far as she knows, she went to sleep mining ice and will wake up when her license gets extended." I said, "I will try to afford a PLEX soon."

"I'm sorry, Sain. I shouldn't have joined your corporation with you. I should have stayed in your corporation so I could still be out there now. I'm good at ice mining too. I could be making some income at least."

"No, it was my decision to have you move over." I said, "Don't apologize. You've become the best Orca pilot I have seen and are valuable to the corp."

"I can still command from your corp." she rebutted, "Besides, I've never been in a fleet with other people in this corp yet to command. It's only been us, just like before. If I move back I can start hauling too. Shouldn't I be able to fly that Charon you've been drooling over and finally bought?" She had all good points and at the moment I've been wondering why I decided to have her move to this new corporation in the first place. I think it had to do with some method to warp a large ship faster using webifiers. I remember losing a Rifter trying it to Concord before realizing it was considered a hostile act, unless in the same corp. I had thought you could be in a fleet together and it would be fine, but I learned the law at the cost of a ship, and some security points...

She sees the gears turning in my head as I sit quietly and stare at the hologram of my docked ship hovering over the coffee table. Something else occurred to be as I sat staring, I glanced at her to see an expecting expression, as if waiting for me to give permission. But I realized, we've been stuck in this station for weeks now because of a war, and with her out of the corp, she could start traveling to Hek again, where her boyfriend works as a broker.

I was so stupid to not think of her personal life. My business mind had took over all aspects of my capsuleer life and I neglected her needs. There was no benefit to have her stay in this corp and many for her to leave right now. My personal corporation held by my sister would be perfect for her to stay in since it's so small, it would be pointless to spend money on bribes to concord to wardec. You wardec alliances anyway, not corporations, unless you are just doing it to be annoying. Darkwing INC. is not in an alliance and should be relatively safe.

"I suppose, if you really want to..." I muttered, taking a swig of my drink. A sneer appeared on my face, "You could always switch back to my old corp." Her face lightened as she nodded. At least she could get out and fly again, and not waste her license time. She wasn't ecstatic though, as something else weighed heavily on her mind.

"Soon we can rescue Amalea, right?" she asked.

"Yes. Soon. Unless something else intervenes." I said, finishing my drink.

"Something else?" she asked, confused.

"Have you ever heard of an entity called "The Player?" I asked, trailing off.

New Friend

It's been a while. Too long. I've stopped doing logs entirely as I moped about, intimidated by all the shiny things I could be doing. At this point, I think I'll put a stuffed squirrel on my pod as a hood ornament as a symbol of my endeavours. I've tried so many things and trained for them, but leave and do something else.

Things have improved. Maya is mining with me and had become the best Orca Pilot I have seen. The boosts I get are considered 'Perfect" since it's now not possible to make them any better. I have perfect refine skills and an implant away from perfect mining skills. I also bit the bullet and bought my freigher, a massive Charon that makes it so much easier to haul ore and minerals in. Its also the slowest ship I have ever flown, and I'm used to exhumers being the norm. A frigate is like ludacris speed to me.

But we've added another member to our group. Not sure how long she will be staying to help. Amalea Nao, Maya's younger sister.

She's very quiet and I think she only speaks to Maya because she has never opened comms to me, nor answered any of mine. However, she does what she's told and is learning to fly a retriever well. She has joined my sister's corporation, Darkwing Inc, while Maya and I are still in POM, however because of a recent war on our corporation, I've basically shut down mining operations because I don't want to chance losing ships. I do have some capital and can replace one if needed, but I'm not over the scare of losing ships yet, due to lack of PVP experience.

Mining operations are much better with three people. Maya boosts and we can pull in about two Orca's worth of minerals an hour. Ice mining is about the same. Since Maya and I are stuck in station, most of the time, Amalea is out in the ice fields pulling in what she can. Something I never asked her to do.

This however presents another challenge. Another person to buy a PLEX for. The license for this month came from unknown places as it has several times before. Concord's records simply get updated that our licenses are validated for another month, yet the payment source eludes me. I am starting to believe in this being called "The Player" and hope his good graces are bountiful.

I'm also wanting to get into Manufacturing. I have the skills trained, but haven't made anything yet. Something else to learn.