PROSE -
This story is to be read after ‘Mortifaction can’t be Avoided but Glorification is in our Hands’. I heavily advise that you read it first if you have not done so.
I awoke from the dream covered in sweat! It’s been decades since I actually had a dream making me suddenly wake up, ever since I became a Capsuleer…
I look at my hand, it’s shaking. I pay no mind to it, the shaking will fade away, the enhanced body of a clone takes care of this kind of anatomical anomalies in record times.
“We Kybernauts…”
The words linger in my mind, I can clearly remember the feeling of the light enveloping me during the dream and the presence with which I was talking. This feeling seems fleeting and yet it feels to me that I should to keep remembering it, or at least I should make sure to not forget it…
No matter, there is business to attend to, the materials from the Abyss I put on the market should have been sold by now, profits await!
I look at my wallet, I can see the lines of green numbers, they make me forget the dream immediately. The ISK is good, and despite the few deaths I have accumulated in Abyssal Deadspace, and that tingling sensation that stays everytime I die in that damned place, it is good to be a Capsuleer.
Suddenly, a communication request breaks in. One of my associates chimes in, she is the one I do my Planetary business with, a good face, a good mind, and a good sense for business, nothing to complain about.
“Greetings, Mr. Shinoni!”
“Greetings, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Well, I have a cargo full of the usual, figured you would care to take them off me?”, she responds.
A series of screens appear in front my eyes, she indeed has several of the Planetary materials that I could use. We should be able to get into an agreement easily.
“Certainly, I see that you have some of the good stuffs, as always.” I reach into my pocket and get my notepad out. Despite the cyber-enhancements and the ocular HUDs, I couldn’t lose the habit of noting what really matters in physical form.
I starts writing down the materials she has, “I deposit the funds in you corp wallet as usual?” I tell her.
“As usual!”
“Good!” I answer. Indeed, as usual the interactions with her are reliable and profitable, nothing out of the ordinary.
“By the way, have you seen the recent report on the Triglavians, Mr. Shinoni?”
The feeling of the Light comes back to my head, I can sense that presence from the dream again!
“Say again?”, I answer, the sensation clearly affecting me…
“The Triglavians, it seems they are on the move for something big!”
“Haven’t they been on the move already? It has been months since they have tried to invade several systems in the Galaxy, so far they have been repelled each and every time, even with the use of a goddam capital.” I answer, clearly unimpressed, the last few months have been spent fighting them both in K-space and in the Abyss. At this point the Triglavians were more the usual than something that could be considered a serious threat for me.
“Yes, but this time it seems different, they have noticed a pattern in the Triglavian invasions, and several of the communications and data they have collected point to something called ‘Luminality’ coming soon, thi-“
Luminality
The words come back to my head, I see the Shadows, hear the Beasts, feel the Words. Something else comes back to my head:
Yet you fled your Struggle to bring Mortification and Luminality to us.
“-s time it seems serious, everything point to a ramped up invasion of New Eden… Hey, are you there?..”
“Yes, sorry, sorry, I just… was in my thoughts.” I collect myself, obviously she doesn’t have to know about my dream, she is a good face and a good mind, but we are business partners first.
“I will deposit the… usual in your corp wallet, now if you will excuse me, I have to attend to something.”
“Ok…”
I prepare to close out the connection, she interjects a quick “You take care of yourself, okay?”
“Sure, I will.” The connection is closed, I’m finally alone to my thoughts.
You fled your Struggle to bring Mortification…
I open up the Arataka report, times flies as I download all the data from it to my consciousness. The research and everything processed by Arataka are truly impressive. But I have no time to marvel at their scientific methodology, a gripping feeling assails me, I can actually feel something brewing in my stomach.
The data are all in. I take a moment to make some sense out of it all.
When I am done, the feeling of unease is even stronger than before.
“She was not wrong, this time it’s serious…” I tell to myself.
The Triglavians have indeed mounted several assaults on New Eden, the latests developing into the deployment of one of their superweapons, the equivalent of a Dreadnaught for them.
Yet, despite the severity of those assaults, they have never really been more than a profitable annoyance for Capsuleers.
But this, this was a REAL invasion .
The Triglavians planned to take systems for their own, and by God some those systems were close to my home!
You out of the Struggle; you have achieved Glorification; and been judged fit to join us
By the Grace of God… Do we fit in all this?
The words come back to my head and this revelation suddenly appears to me.
Zorya Triglav has openly invited Capsuleers to join her cause and the cause of Triglav several times. But so far it has been nothing more than meaningless invitations to defeat their opponents during the Invasions.
Nothing has been said from the Triglavians as to how one could join them, and judging from their ways I have seen in the Abyss, they are not up for negotiations yet.
Still, the invitations were there, and since this time they are truly fulfilling their promise of an all-out war with New Eden, where do we fit in as Capsuleers?
Do they want us to help them??
I stop at the thought for a moment. After the unease I have felt for the last several minutes, I finally feel something akin to… calm.
The Triglavians are quite something, the technology they sport, the intricacies of their belief systems and the way they organized their society. Everything in them point to something that could only be defined as Post-Human. They have conquered a space that is anti-thesis to life itself, hell even to spatio-temporal material permanence.
It’s not named the Abyss for nothing. Nothing but an inexistent void should exist there!
And yet, they have created it, tamed it, and even prospered in it.
They are clearly as alien to what you would consider normal human existence in this Galaxy…
“As alien as we Capsuleers are…”
The faint echoes of the GalNet comes to my consciousness. Talks of the upcoming CSM election are underway. Absolutely no mention of the astounding discovery by Arataka. I am not really surprised, the media are usually the last ones to know, when they do not downright get it absolutely wrong.
Among the candidates though, one catches my eyes.
An actual human, her name @Komi_Valentine, an unaugmented, naturally born human.
A mortal human.
A candidacy for a seat on the CSM as a non-Capsuleer… Asking for a position of leadership and represention above the demi-gods that she considers her peers.
Bold.
But then, the imminent threat comes back to my mind. That distraction actually cleared my mind about something.
We, as Capsuleers, have very much thrown away our humanity by doing what no human has ever been able to do.
Dying.
We have transcended humanity, and we have also become something worse in many aspects, something alien.
I see it in the behavior of many of my peers, the endless quarrels, the use of human life as mere fodder for the use of our throwaway ships, the strange experiements and occupations some of them partake with, like the endless, deranged spining of their ships.
We have become something one could call Inhuman.
If Zorya Triglav extended a hand of friendship to us, would we betray New Eden and side with her?! Would we betray Humanity?
Would I?
I get on my knee and start praying God. I do not trust the Amarrian faith and their clergy, they are so full of human faultiness that I cannot consider them divine. Yet I believe that the Amarrian God is true, and despite the Afterlife I have forsaken to become one with the stars, I pray in hope that he accepts my prayers.
“What should I do, Ô God, if such a choice is offered to me? Have you sent that dream to warn me? Is that your will that I join them??”
I catch the ocular feed of the CSM talk, Komi is happily greeting several of the supporters that came to see her.
If only they knew of the Cornellian choice the demi-Gods among them would soon have to face…
The noise from the feed starts to fade away, whatever is to happen will come soon enough.
I get up and start heading out to my hangar.
If there are answers to my prayers, they are out there, in the Stars, and it is my duty to find them!
“Glorification is in our hands, we Kybernauts shall reach higher than you”
I pray to God that it is true.