"...if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." Friedrich Nietzsche

Karen spilled out of the clone bay in 1DQ, vomited and lay shivering on the floor. She was crying. She had been travelling to Cabeki to look at the location as a source of isogen for corporation projects. The plan was to try and find a good space to operate from that was not too far from 1DQ but afforded some freedom for high sec partners to join the team. A corporate associate had friends there. Hence the scouting mission. She had wanted Uldizo to do the run but he was setting up a cyno for Ekloke’s jump freighter. Abby was working on some science projects. And Mori was on a strategic op with Mist.

She had been careful, making sure she did not warp directly to gates. Taking time to scan them wherever possible in advance. Nothing could have prepared her for a cloaked Rokh sitting on the Goudiyah gate out of Baratar. The usual cheap ganker, to be expected really. For many this kind of death is pretty routine in New Eden. Gankers like to sit in the hope of catching

For Karen pod death was never a good experience. Something was wrong, very wrong. Every time she had been pod killed something happened to her in the spaces in between.

It always started with the darkness. Floating in darkness, suspended in the black, caught between New Eden and somewhere else. The first time she died it just seemed unusual that there was a delay before she woke. The next time she felt something grasping at her ankles and legs. A hand or tentacles slowly reaching around her ankles. The next time it was a full blown attack, she felt cloying slime, a tightening grip around her body, holding her from rebirth. Each time she died it took longer for her to wake up.

Image courtesy of Hotpot: https://hotpot.ai/art-generator

This time was worse, much worse. She saw herself surrounded by crushing tentacles, grasping, holding her, and tearing her limb from limb. A voice deep and dark inside her head.

“Stay with us.”

Image courtesy of Hotpot: https://hotpot.ai/art-generator

Then, a sudden whiteness fading, she woke up rolled onto her side on the floor. A new clone. It was some time before she moved from her cold, shuddering poise. The memory. The horror, the claustrophobic, cloying, grasping crush was still there. It was, of course, technically impossible to have a ‘memory’ from ‘in between’ and yet there it was. The tightness gripping her, tearing her limb from limb.

Worse still, she had to go back.

Her new clone felt strange, alien, almost roomy. Worse, in fact, it was voluptuous, long wavy hair, almost Gallente.

“Ugh, for the love of …..what is wrong?” Karen got up slowly, looked around, caught sight of a strange looking woman in the mirror and awkwardly went to the shower. The clone remould would have to wait. She had promised to scout the pocket for the corporation. A few hours later she was back down the pipe towards the system beyond Baratar making note of stations and the location of allies. She compiled her report for Dan and returned home.

She returned to 1DQ and started to research the next manifest for the corporation builds but couldn’t focus. The flashbacks kept coming, much, much worse this time. She turned to her neocom and started to browse Pod Technology. Something was very wrong.

The history of the capsule and it’s link to the clone proved interesting reading, there was history of things going wrong. Sure this was a long time ago and reports of problems with the current technology were few and far between. But there are risks associated with cloning and it certainly is possible that something is malfunctioning with her tech. If something can go wrong with technology, as it did in the Peralles incident then perhaps clone technology was equally problematic? Karen took some more time browsing the information on pod technology and decided that she needed to go speak to someone at the Ishukone Corporation. This would mean a trip to high sec.