Tuesday 17 March 2009

Leaving People Behind


Ship's Log Entry #2
(Monday 16.03.111)

I didn't wetgrave by sleeping in my capsule. That's something. I did sleep longer than usual and I can't figure out if it's something this J160014 place has done to me or if it's the capsule trying to take care of me.

I'm glad I did get some good sleep because I woke up to terrible news: Kanunu had not docked up in high-sec like I thought he had the previous night. He hadn't even moved over to the less-signal-ridden J160014. As I caught up with the faint signal of corporate comms, I realised Kanunu had in fact gone to sleep at a safe spot in J210247 - the place Jiko and I had found linked to J160014 and had elected not to sleep in because it was so filled with confusing signals that we couldn't find any other exits.

I have left a man behind in a horrible, horrible place and now he can't find a way out.

Of course I immediately checked to see if both systems were still linked, but they were not. There was nothing else I could do for Kanunu except show moral support as he reported finding more and more signals, pinning them down one after the other. The last I heard he'd mapped 29 scanner signatures, and still he could find no way out.

All I could do was launch my own probes and work on finding an exit for both me and Jikomanzoku. After pinning down a few more gravimetric signatures I finally narrowed down a wormhole signature and found a way out. Into known high-sec, no less.

Now I was faced with a dilemma. Jiko wasn't logged on to comms. No one had, in fact, heard from him all day. Should I leave, trusting he'd find his way out, or should I stay and risk another night of sleeping in a capsule?

In the end, and considering J160014 isn't really too confusing as signatures go, I elected to leave. Jiko has equipment with which to scan for an exit and in there he won't have too many conflicting signals to sift through, unlike poor Kanunu.


That's where I ended up. I lingered at the mouth of the wormhole, torn as I hoped Jiko would miraculously show up. But he didn't. So I left yet another corp mate behind, and it weighs heavy in my heart.

I clone-jumped out of my racing clone and hopped back into my Helios. I went back out. I don't care that the chances of finding an entrance to precisely the system Kanunu is trapped in are slim. I'm going to bloody well try.


I almost immediately found yet another wormhole opening into Ney. I hopped inside, deployed probes. J142649 seemed to be some sort of hidey hole for Sleeper among asteroids. I didn't stay long. I have to find Kanunu.

Tonight I get to sleep in Ney - I'm too exhausted to go on. Tomorrow I will be looking for my corpmate among the stars.

[end log entry]

4 comments:

  1. While I admire your dedication to your corp mates KayJay, I cannot but think you are risking your life needlessly on a search beyond comprehensible scale. We have no way of knowing anything about this phenomena; whether or not we are dealing with one galaxy or several; or even if the systems are connected in a linear pattern like our own, or ripped apart by the events to the point that space time is a mirrored soup, endlessly shifting around in eddies we can barely understand.

    Your search is unlikely to help. To dip into this soup is dangerous; to expect to cross paths with your corp mate, almost unthinkable. Better to light a candle for him and hope he takes honourable suicide as the way out.

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  2. The good news is one of the corp mates has found his way back home (I shall publish my ship log later, relating this.)

    But I cannot just stand back and do nothing to help Kanunu. I- Yes, I realise the scale of it. But I have to try. I can't just hope the poor man will commit suicide, of all things, knowing I was the one who left him there. No. There has to be some sort of way...

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  3. Well, I intend to try my own incursions imminently. Perhaps your corp mate and my team will cross paths. However, due to a blip in my IFF system (thankfully I'm docked), I'm unable to check the status ED holds your corp in, so I cannot guarantee it will be the sort of encounter he will enjoy - business is business, as they say.

    Nevertheless, if he isn't risking the mission and not a hazard, I will help him out.

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  4. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Any help is much appreciated. I don't see why we would be anything but neutral to your organisation.

    We've had no news from Kanunu all day yesterday, but I'll keep you updated on any changes to his status. Once more: thank you so much.

    ReplyDelete