EVE Online – At First Sight ¶
by Leonard E.
March 11, 2010
Part I.
Clone ID Number FNLS-EGLE1-M16-Gal00203411-Kappa.
These were the letters and numbers that flashed on the small LCD screen attached to the bottom of a tall, polyhedral glass sarcophagus. They were impersonal and vague, nothing that would lead to the identity of the clone residing inside. The clone maintenance technician could only make out a shapely female figure and a face. To his eyes, however, she was the most beautiful Gallente female to ever be under his care. Her auburn-red hair was curved and swept backwards into a disheveled ponytail. He could see her through the glass casing—lifeless and still. He wondered at times if she could hear him speak to her, or sensed his presence. But, he already knew that she was just a doll—no life, no conscience, no energy—a completely empty person.
The young technician lifted his right arm and wiped the LCD screen and the upper part of the glass casing to clear off some condensation that accumulated.
“Good evening, ‘Finesse’,” he said in an enthusiastic voice as he tapped his fingers on a small tablet. “It’s Rene, your clone maintenance tech to check up on you. How’re ya’ today?”
“Finesse,” a nickname Rene gave to make her more personal, was derived from her ID number. Federation Navy cloning policies disallowed real names to be used on the sarcophagus, so that the clones will not be identified as to preserve their anonymity and respect their privacy. These ID numbers can be linked to their real names, something Rene had no clearance or access to given his job position. He maintained the cold storage area of thousands of clones ordered by the pilots. Though the entire maintenance process was computerized and automated to make the job easy, he paid the most attention to this particular clone.
“Looks like temperature is within normal parameters, no fluctuations,” he said as he tapped on the tablet again. “Still healthy and beautiful as always, Finesse.”
Something about her captured his attention even if the clone was completely lifeless. She was like a porcelain doll without a frilly dress or makeup. Her skin was a fair color, but he never knew what color her eyes were. He likened her to a once famous female known as Snow White—a beautiful woman in an ancient Earth story who, too, was in a glass case until her prince found her and woke her up.
By the time Rene’s usual rounds were finished and when his shift ends, he’d pull up a chair and sit in front of her to talk about his day.
“I saw some DUST operatives in the station earlier on their way to the docking area. Looks like there is going to be another mission into nullsec soon. If I was only blessed with the abilities and the training, and especially the money, I would like to see some action myself someday. I wonder what it’d be like being a gun-for-hire out there,” Rene said to himself as if casually conversing with her. He rubbed his arms and held them close to his body to keep warm then continued.
“I bet it’s almost a lot like your life—never in one place, always on the move… always in danger. I get little snippets and exaggerations from pilots who stop by at the Eglennaert 16 Café. I know some are true, and others are too tall of a tale to be believable. And, today, some cocky ass pilot was boasting about tracking down a Gallente pilot to this system, and says that he and his fellow Corp mates will take her down today.
“Apparently she and several others podded his corp mates for can flipping. That’s understandable—you steal and you’ll pay for the consequences. He, then, mentioned that his Corp was offering a 20 million Isk reward to whoever pods the lead pilot of that group. Hoo boy! Hope that pilot gets her ass out of this system alive.”
Rene chuckled for a bit before resuming his composure. “Some days I wonder how many times you have been podded. For the five years I’ve worked here, you’re rather new to this station so it’s probably zero. Hopefully, we have a little more time together before that ever happens.”
He was then startled by someone tapping on his left shoulder, “Talking to her again today?”
“Oh?” Rene curiously asked looking up at a skinny Gallente man with short black hair. “Hey, Martin, nothing new here as usual. I’m just talking to Finesse.”
“This is getting scary, obsessive perhaps. Even brass is starting to take notice. Hell! I’m even worrying.”
“They know?”
“Of course they know, they have cameras here,” Martin said as he walked up to the Gallente female in the glass sarcophagus. “But, I do have to admit—she is beautiful.”
“What you need, Rene, and you know what I’m talk—“
Rene interrupted Martin, “Yes, I know, a real woman with a heartbeat, a conscience, someone that can stand on two feet and walk. You told me this story a million times that it’s probably etched into my memory implants already.”
“Well, if you already know that, then do me a favor and come to Bourynes and join me tomorrow at the UOC station a jump over. Remember that restaurant we like to hang out at? I’ll introduce you to a friend of my girlfriend, and we’ll double-date. How does that sound?”
“I don’t know, man, I still work tomorrow—“
“No excuses, you’re coming with me, even if I have to use a tractor beam on your ass and pull you out of the station myself. Tomorrow, 20:00 hours or tractor beam.”
Martin patted Rene on the back and walked back to the entrance and exited the cold storage area.
“That Martin fellow, always trying to set me up with someone,” Rene sighed to himself. “He once tried to hook me up with a Minmatar female a few months ago. I walked away that night with a broken arm for being dared to arm-wrestle her. Big mistake on my part, for sure.
“Well, my shift is long past over and I have to get going before security starts asking questions. Tomorrow again, Finesse, good night.”
Rene walked up to her and kissed the glass case and tucked his hands into his pocket as he walked away towards the exit. Another night in cold storage ended, leaving Finesse as if tucked away peacefully asleep in bed.
Part II.
The next morning at the Eglennaert 16 Café, there was the usual chatter of “capsuleers” talking jovially and excitedly for breakfast. This was the most noise coming out of Federation Navy Logistic Support station, an almost sense of normalcy here. Without it, it would be unusual.
Today was nothing different.
There were more talks of stories being passed on from nullsec pilots coming through the system, and scuffles with Guristas pirates in the area.
Rene took notice of the same group of pilots he saw yesterday in the Café. He could overhear them at the mini-bar talking about podding the Gallente pilot they encountered before.
“She sure did put up a fight. I bet she puts up that much effort in bed as well!” one capsuleer pilot joked loudly as he pounded his hand onto the bar. The bartender rolled his eyes and turned away pretending to ignore their conversation.
“Too many goddamn carebears in this system I tell ya’,” another capsuleer complained. “That pilot was a good example. We were just flipping her can, and look, now her Corp declared war on us. I can’t wait to pod a few of those shitheads thinking they can mine wherever they please and think they own the system.”
“I hear ya’,” a third pilot exclaimed as he took another sip of his can of Quafe. “This whole lot of highsec is being infested with these carebears thinking they know everything. I’ll show them what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a Navy Issue Mega. I bet none of them can even own one!”
Rene just shrugged off their usual chit-chat and empty conversations. After he hurriedly ate his breakfast, he paid the bartender then left. He was, as always, in a hurry to begin his shift and see Finesse. It was like this day-in, day-out for him ever since she was installed in the station’s cloning facility. The routine was to the point becoming religious and regular for him.
A scary thought to himself he once considered before. This was given that the Gallente female he fell for is nothing but an empty shell waiting for its owner to jump into in case if something tragic happened. And, if that happened, she’d be gone from his sight forever.
At the end of his shift, after letting the computers and robotics run through their usual procedural system of error checking, double-checking, scanning, testing and compiling data, he walked towards where Finesse would be.
“Hello, Finesse, it’s Rene as usual—“ Rene said startled as he turned towards the now empty sarcophagus. “Gone? This can’t be right!”
He pulled out the small tablet from his large lab coat pocket.
“Where did you go, Finesse?”
Tap. Tap. Tap-tap.
Rene was furiously tapping the flat LCD screen looking up her ID number and clone status.
“C’mon, c’mon,” he impatiently stammered to himself. “Clone ID number… FNLS-EGLE1-M16-“
He began typing in the long clone ID number.
“Let’s see Federation Navy Logistic Support,” Rene recited to himself as he tapped the letters in. “FNLS.”
“Station is at Eglennaert 1-16… -EGLE1-M16-“
“Serial number, serial number,” he said as he crouched down to read the LCD again.
“-Gal00203411-“
“And, lastly, clone grade… Kappa.”
Tap.
The tablet began loading onto the screen the following:
“Clone Status for FNLS-EGLE1-M16-Gal00203411-Kappa
Retrieved (hh:mm:ss) : 03:45:02 / 2xxx.11.03
Warning: [Rene Saracent] you do not have access to the next two options.
[Do you wish to retrieve the Kill Mail?]
[Yes.] [No.]
[Extend pilot information?]
[Yes.] [No.]
[ < Exit to Search query]”
Rene collapsed to his knees after reading it. “Finesse” was gone from his life—possibly forever. No more short conversations with an empty shell. His “Snow White” has disappeared and was retrieved by her pilot to fly the endless stars again.
“Unlikely she’ll install another clone here.”
“Dammit,” he told himself as he slapped the top of his head with the tablet.
He then looked up at the empty sarcophagus and realized that the Gallente pilot podded earlier was her. Rene was starting to connect the dots as he began to clench his fists tightly. “If I ever find them again at 16 Café, I… I… I’m going to eject them all out through the trash compactor system.”
“Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!”
Someone tapped his left shoulder but he was too much in pain and heartbroken to notice. “Martin, don’t bother me now. I know, I know we have that double—“
A young female voice then asked as he turned his head towards her, “Excuse me, are you Rene?”
“Um… umm… yes, I’m Rene,” he answered nervously back to a Gallente female with dark blue eyes and a familiar auburn-red hair. It was his “Snow White,” fully awake and moving on two feet of her own.
She came back, but why?
“I know this is silly but someone named Martin said he recognized me as I exited the docking area,” she said as she began walking up and down the aisle for a short distance. “But, he said that I should come here and use this ID card to get through, and to find someone named Rene.”
Rene was too much in shock over what he was seeing in front of his own eyes. This beautiful Gallente female was standing in front of him. Alive and breathing. His heart didn’t stop beating, and it felt like his own life left and ascended to another place that was not here. Physically he was in New Eden. Emotionally he was nowhere near New Eden, but somewhere unreal.
She stood in front of Rene who was still kneeling on the floor, “Anyway, Martin told me to come down here and remind you that you might be late for tonight. But…”
“But?” Rene asked himself in his head. “What did Martin tell her?”
“But, I want to say ‘Thank you’ for watching over me, Rene,” she said as she extended her right hand.
“And, you are?” he asked as he took her right hand, and was lifted up onto his own two feet by her.
“Oh silly me, my name is—“