to sleep perchance to dream

[warpfairy]

Isabella drifts into a new system. This is farther than she usually ventures, but she can make it back to a new human colony after a complete survey here, with a margin of error, and refuel there to get back into central Federation space. Still, she's a little apprehensive as she drops out of warp. If the system proves to be unusually complicated she'll have to do it in two stages.

Comments

[warpfairy]

"You don't have functional autopilot?"

[evesystem]

"We have route autopilot and advanced enough automatic processes that I can just think 'execute this maneuver' and the ship does it. What I'm saying is that I'm not very aware of my physical body while I'm piloting: I have to consciously make the effort to notice it."

[warpfairy]

"Huh."

[evesystem]

"You get used to it. Did I tell you about Jump Clones? They're the most freaky part of the whole thing, in my opinion."

[warpfairy]

"Jump Clones?"

[evesystem]

"Aside from my medical clones, I also have spare bodies called Jump Clones. They let me use this process for casual FTL travel of my consciousness."

[warpfairy]

"...Just checking, the clones never wake up except when you're using them, right?"

[evesystem]

"So long as everything's done properly, yes. Theoretically I could have myself copied into more than one of my jump clones at once, but there's very strong legislation against that sort of thing, due to the obvious issues involved with having more than one of me in existence."

[warpfairy]

"Makes sense."

[evesystem]

"There are occasional horror stories about misuse of the tech - one of the major cartel bosses who trades in neural enhancers is rumoured to have copied himself many times - but most Capsuleers have no desire to have extra versions of themselves."

[warpfairy]

"It sounds useful, though. The ansible alone without the clones, even, although less so. Immortality has eluded everyone I've heard of."

[evesystem]

"It hasn't come without its problems. Capsuleers are almost universally exceedingly wealthy, and their immortality has caused some very strange developments in society. It's almost impossible to arrest and try a Capsuleer: you have to capture every single one of their clones, otherwise they can just commit suicide and wake up elsewhere. There's a Capsuleer War League in empire-controlled space that routinely conducts live-fire war games. And, of course, there are the nullsec empires."

[warpfairy]

"Which are?"

[evesystem]

"Capsuleer political bodies, warring for territory and resources outside the policing range of CONCORD. Usually they keep their fights outside of CONCORD space. Usually."

[warpfairy]

"...What is the approximate total population of the descendants of the lost colonists?"

[evesystem]

"Many billions: I haven't been keeping up with the statistics for ground-bound population, but CONCORD polices about a thousand systems. This is compared to a total active Capsuleer population of about thirty thousand or so. We're an exceedingly rare breed."

[warpfairy]

"That's... a lot. It is not larger than the Federation, but it's more than some of the less populous species combined."

[evesystem]

"Well, CONCORD isn't a governing body so much as an international peacekeeping force. Empire space is actually administrated by four nations: The Amarr, Gallente, Caldari, and Minmatar. The Amarr and Minmatar don't get along: the Caldari and the Gallente don't get along. I'm Gallente, but Capsuleers as a whole tend to ignore the national divides: we're much more similar to each other than we are to anyone planetside."

[warpfairy]

"I'd say I should just turn the entire matter over to Starfleet but they wouldn't get here instantly and the wormhole isn't permanent - why are you here, anyway?"

[evesystem]

"All the rare-ore asteroids in empire space were captured and refined long ago: asteroid mining there isn't very profitable anymore unless you have a really heavy-duty rig. Wormhole space? No such problem. If I can find a few asteroids with the right material composition out here, it might pay well enough to buy me a Hulk-class hull."

[warpfairy]

"That makes sense. What do you suppose the other ships are here for, the same thing?"

[evesystem]

"Some will be doing the same as me, harvesting interstellar gas and ore. Some will be raiding Sleeper complexes to take their tech back to reverse-engineering companies. Some will be setting up temporary bases for moon mining or more dedicated exploration. Some will be pirates looking to attack and steal from any of the above."

[warpfairy]

"The wormhole is temporary, right? There's no good way to establish permanent communication between yours and ours if so..."

[evesystem]

"Their average lifespan is about a day: my instruments tell me the one I came through has more than a quarter of its lifespan left, but less than three-quarters. The fact that it's bridged to by a wormhole at all suggests that there will be more, though. I haven't scanned the system thoroughly enough to know which of these anomalies my computer's reporting might be a wormhole, but I would bet you a decent number of ISK that the one I came through isn't the only one in-system."

[warpfairy]

"ISK is a currency?"