Waking Up

"Can you hear me?" Tobias' eyes opened in the brightness of the lab. His mind raced through thoughts that most definitely weren't there. His mind felt blank for a moment, then the rush of his memories came over him like a bolt of lightning.

"Just warp damn it!" He screamed into the light and collapsed onto the floor.

"Get him up," Came the voice from earlier. Two men came and grabbed him by his arms, struggling to keep their grip through the fluids. They pulled up a rolling chair that had been set behind him, and sat him in it.
Tobias looked ahead and saw the face of the man who'd first spoken as he continued, "Do you remember where you are?"

"Ugh," Tobias said with a cough, "Medical services clone lab?"

"That is correct," The man stopped for a moment, "Would you like some coffee?"

"No, I'm good," Tobias looked around the room and took his surroundings in. The ceiling tiles in the lab looked like they were stone with black spacers between. The walls were white, the floor was white except for in front of the newly opened clone vat, and the doctor's long nose looked like a small beak. His skin was pale and his eyes sunken. The doctor pursed his lips into something of a frown at that reply but continued.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"We had jumped into A5-TR3, there was a gate camp," Tobias raised his hands and moved them in a circle, "Lots of tech two large bubbles. Sarah gave the order to align and hope. I uh, I guess I didn't make it," Tobias adjusted in the seat for a moment, suddenly aware that he was naked.

"Ok, what I'm about to tell you is going to be a bit hard to understand," it was Tobias' turn to frown at that as the Doctor continued, "That was over two years ago,"

"What?"

"Most pod pilots don't opt for a regular personality backup. The process includes killing the current clone, and most people aren't that interested in throwing even a cloned life away. You last died in a pod two years and ten months ago. Your current clone was shot to death yesterday. As per our contract, we took your last known copy and put it into this clone,"

"You're sure it's me?"

"Yes. Uh, you'll remember everything except the last three years,"

Tobias' stood up and steadied his shaking legs, "Can I get cleaned up and dressed now?"

"Sure," The doctor said as he stood up himself, "I'll show you to the showers. When we're done, there's someone you're going to have to meet,"

"Who?"

"Your fiance,"

Fragment Four

Just a song before I go,
A lesson to be learned.
Traveling twice the speed of sound
It's easy to get burned.
Crosby, Stills and Nash - Just a Song Before I Go

Yoshimi walked down the corridor. She felt the ship vibrate slightly as the warp bubble collapsed again. She sighed and walked to the makeshift entertainment room as it began to warp again. This covert ops frigate was a cramped space to be stuck for as long as she would be there, but it was her home for better or worse.

Yoshimi looked at the computer screen and mused over the last couple of days.

She'd signed on as a backup pilot. Most ships carry at least one crew member for insurance reasons. If the pilot is incapacitated, or needs a pair of human hands on a job, she'd leave her escape pod and do what she needed to do. In the last twenty years she'd only ever been out of her quarters three times in flight.

Yet here she was, pilotless and bored. The ship's AI directing her to the nearest system with a stargate. Four long years away.

She laughed to herself and pulled up a comm channel with her former employer.

"Paulie!" She said smiling.

"Hey Shimi," The man on the other side said without looking her in the eyes.

"So, wormholes,"

"Yeah,"

"To bad us normal folks can't clone jump out while they're waiting,"

"Heh," The man finally looked up, "Yeah. Uh, how much superfluid you got left in the comm tanks?"

"Enough for about 4 days of continuous communication,"

"Ahh, ok,"

"So, nice talking to you,"

"Yeah nice,"

She closed the comm channel and sighed. The ship vibrated slightly as it came out of warp again.

Fragment Three

I get weary, and sick of trying

I'm tired of livin', but scared of dyin'
And old man river, he just keeps rollin' along.

Judy Garland - Ol' Man River

Janice looked up at the sky. She longed for the stars.

The Amarr masters were watching her. Her trip here had been brief. The Antapi had been peacefully exploring their solar system for millenia before the Amarr came. Now they were just one of many enslaved races moved from place to place. Her expertise in asteroid mining was useless to her in these fields. She just pulled the trej berries off the plants and put them into her basket.

The sky here was turquoise, and Janice closed her eyes for a moment as the twin orange suns evaporated the sweat from her brow.

"Get back to work!" A voice from across the fields echoed. She felt a small tingle in the collar around her neck and sighed. The master was angry again. He was never a very happy person. Janice picked another berry and moved onto the next plant.

One day she'd find a way out of here. She would be free. This was not the life she deserved. This was not the life she wanted. She wanted to cruise the stars.

She felt the collar buzz before it knocked her to the ground. She'd been distracted. The shock hurt severely, and it didn't stop. The master was making an example of her. She knew now. It wasn't going to stop.

She was going to be free.

Free.

OOC: To anyone who's thinking about correcting the lyrics at the top as Kern and Hammerstein(who did indeed write it) or any number of the other folks who performed it: No.

No one did it better.

Fragment Two

Back at the homestead

Where the air makes you choke
People don't know you
And trust is a joke
Don't even have pictures
Just memories to hold
That grow sweeter each season
As we slowly grow old.
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Walk On The Ocean

Ted looked at the clock. A few minutes since he last checked. It was taking too long. It had never taken this long.

He looked up at the receptionist again. She'd stopped returning his glances for the last two hours. That worried him.

"Ted?" Came a voice at his side. He stood up and the doctor looked at the ground.

"What is it?" Ted's voice trembled.

"She's had a mindfade, the cloning isn't going to take,"

Ted's eyes went wide and he ran. Down the halls, to the elevator, down another hall and to room two hundred and thirteen. He sat down in the chair beside her bed. He reached forward and held her hand. Her eyes were closed.

She'd been aging normally for the last eighty years. She finally convinced him to buy a new body for her sixty years ago. It'd been his anniversary present for her every year since. His own body was new and whole due to a recent run in with some pirates, and he'd never had a problem with it. He bowed his head and held her hands up to his face.

She never opened her eyes.

Fragment One

Don't talk like one of them. You're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.
The Joker - The Dark Knight

OOC: This is the first in what will be a long line of fragments from New Eden. All very simple short stories.

Paul looked over his Osprey for a moment before climbing aboard. He was in the pod in moments and undocked.

The traffic controllers were announcing warnings as he left Rens. As he got further from Rens the traffic lessened, only to pick up again as he approached Amamake.

As he entered a belt in Amamake, he began to mine. Local channels carried news of ransoms, and engagements as he continued to fire his mining laser at the rocks around him.

Suddenly a Kestrel dropped out of warp on top of him. It began to target him and fired off it's rockets, webifier, and warp scrambler.

Paul grinned inside his pod.

He grabbed the Kestrel with his own webifier, engaged his warp disruptor, released four warrior two's and began to fire heavy missiles at his target.

The Kestrel was soon an exploding ball of plasma, along with it's pod. Paul inched over to the wreck and removed the modules and body.

Paul was starting to see the appeal of this.

A Mountain Exists

Cold winds on the moors blow.
Warm the enemy's fires glow.
Like the harvest of Culloden,
Pain and fear and death grow.
Deanta - Culloden's Harvest

The wind was cold.

I find the wind to be a comfort at times. There is something in knowing that something so immaterial is stronger than you. Stronger than anyone.

Stronger than me.

I stood with the wind at my face, I hunched over into the cold and hiked further up the mountain. I could already see the lights from the house. The snow was coming down hard now, I didn't have much time. I almost missed the tripwire at my feet. I wasn't particularly happy with myself for almost triggering a trap, but I stepped over it and kept hiking. The man I searched for was a few minutes away, just a little bit more. Just a little bit more time, that was all she'd needed. All I'd wanted.

She wasn't mine. Dolivia Hurst belonged to an Amarr master. She was resigned to her fate from birth. She was to service her master in any way he wished. She wouldn't talk about the things he made her do, and I learned not to ask. A week after liberating her from her master's compound out in Eifer, I took her to Ivar. The Brutors promised me they'd take care of her. She was so bright and so happy. I went back to Evati and was happy with myself for doing a bit of good. I was out for another week before Alfroren Karsteinn, a good friend of mine in the Brutor Tribe let me have the news.

Vitoc.

Vitoc is among the horrible methods the Amarr use to control their slaves. Without an antidote, they die slowly and painfully. I... I didn't know. Dolivia, a bright, beautiful, and wonderful friend, was already dying when I left her in Ivar.

I had to make it right.

I knocked three times on the door. There was a rustling in the cabin and it opened. There stood, almost defiantly, an Amarr slavemaster.

"I've been expecting you," He said softly.

"You probably should've been running then," I said, putting my hand on the pistol at my hip.

"Look, my family is upstairs. You won't kill me here. Just walk away," He began to close the door.

I put my hand on the door and forced it open, pulling my gun from it's holster.

The wind was cold.