I-UU15
MEDICAL CLONE BAY

“Stop it! You’re killing her!” Lady Grey screamed at the top of her lungs, tears drenching her face. This was now their seventh unsuccessful attempt at using the DNAC to restore the persona of Elly into a clone. According to PyjamaSam, the first test was successful; Elly had been cloned, for exactly 2.3 nanoseconds before expiration. He was so clinically detached, so scientific and methodical in this, that he seemed to be unaware that it was a human life, a terran life, he was playing with. Her emotions were in turmoil over the repeated murder of this long dead woman.  This latest attempt had lasted seven seconds, and in that seven seconds Lady Grey had thought her heart would burst.

Elly had awoken within the clone tube, absolute terror etched across her face. She then spasmed in pain, the palm of her hand pressed flat against the tube, the duress evident in her eyes. Her readings went haywire, then flatlined; again, but they had seen each other. They had eye contact with each other. And in that moment, Lady Grey knew the look on Elly’s face; it was the look of “why?”, and it nearly destroyed Lady Grey as she honestly didn’t have an answer for either of them.

“We’re close, so close; just a few more adjustments.” PyjamaSam said, tinkering with his makeshift equipment. “The DNA may be degradated. I can’t be sure, and we’re out of time, no time.” PyjamaSam was straying close to that line between sanity and insanity, Lady Grey thought. Maybe he had crossed it already and nobody knew.

“No.” she said resolutely. “No more. I don’t know what this is all about Sam, but I can’t let you keep doing this. It’s just wrong. Don’t you see that?” Her eyes pleaded with him to see the error of his ways, to see the monster he was being through these actions, but his vacant stare told her that the effort was in vain. PyjamaSam had already turned back to his equipment.

Her mind was set. She crossed the distance between them quickly. She gave it no thought; she simply did. Whether it was to yank on wires, or flail at PyjamaSam she did not know. She only knew she had to do something to stop this madness. She grabbed PyjamaSam by the shoulder, and he punched her square in the face, knocking her on her ass. He actually punched me! her mind exclaimed, in shock at his unexpected action. She had no reserves left, and began crying freely. This was all her fault. If she hadn’t revived PyjamaSam, if she hadn’t been fantasizing about some fictitious and foolish romance between them, they wouldn’t be here now. Elly wouldn’t be tortured, Lady Grey wouldn’t have been punched in the face, and this nightmare would never have occured in the first place.

“You’re an asshole.” Lady Grey whimpered to PyjamaSam.

“And you’re a naive idiot who can’t possibly fathom the importance of what is transpiring in this moment. Have you even looked outside?” PyjamaSam spat out at her.

Why would she look outside? She slowly stood to her feet, rubbing her tender rump, and approached one of the station windows. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened, and what she thought had been a nightmare was only truly beginning.

—

The Rapier pilot reported in to General Mako. “The jammer should be destroyed within two minutes, sir.” he said. “There’s been no resistance whatsoever, and many of the enemy ships have evacuated the system through a jump bridge. Do you wish us to pursue them after our objective here is met, sir?”

“What I wish,” General Mako hissed, “is for my pilots to let me do the thinking, as they do the following. If I desired for you to pursue those insignificant vessels, do you not think I would have ordered it?” His voice spat with disdain and anger. He didn’t like being questioned. He didn’t enjoy his lessers thinking, even for a moment, that he hadn’t accounted for every possible scenario. In less than two minutes his Hound strike team would have the system’s cyno jammer destroyed. In three minutes, Mako’s fifty Naglfar dreadnoughts would be jumping through to I-UU15. In ten minutes, the DNAC would be his, Roc Wieler would be destroyed, and he would be in a grand position for Chief Tribunal on the Minmatar Council. Everything had gone exactly as planned, as it always did.

“Sir, yessir!” the pilot stammered, but Mako had already switched off the comm.

—

Lady Grey stared in shock at the sheer volume of ships. There were hundreds of them, insystem, launching thousands of cruise missiles at the cynosural jammer VAF possessed in I-UU15. The explosions were almost hypnotic, like pretty fireworks at the summer festivals she enjoyed as a child. She tore herself away from the sight. “How long have they been there?” She frantically asked PyjamaSam.

“About forty seven seconds. Station sensors are reading five hundred of them, and given their refire rate and capacity for cruise missiles, and the damage output necessary to destroy the jammer, they’ll be finished their task in approximately one minute, seventeen seconds. In that time, we need to finish our task, or all of this will have been for nothing, as I have no clear indication of what their next objective may be.”

Lady Grey paled. There was no time for her to get to her ship. She realized with deep regret that PyjamaSam’s insult was right; she was a naive fool. She shouldn’t have stayed. She shouldn’t have blamed him. She should have grown up, taken responsibility for herself, and done what any other self respecting capsuleer would do. The problem was, she had no idea what that might be. She hurried back to PyjamaSam. “What do you need me to do?” she asked, alight with a new fire from within.

—

The Rapier pilot smiled as the cyno jammer erupted in a brilliant display of fire and twisted metal. He sent the encrypted signal through subspace to General Mako, letting him know that the path was clear for his dreadnoughts to jump insystem. The Hounds were already moving to surround the VAF station from a safe distance, as the backup line to deal with any ship to ship defence they may be waiting to mount. With the force the General was bringing to bear, the Rapier pilot couldn’t imagine anything in New Eden standing against it.

He raised his arm reflexively to cover his eyes, even though in his pod, Aura automatically dimmed the viewport. At first, he thought it was secondary explosions from the cyno jammer, but it wasn’t emanating from the right direction. His sensors were going bonkers with anomaly readings he had never seen before in his career. He couldn’t even align his ship for a better physical view, as he was forced to remain static while he generated the field needed for the General’s fleet to arrive.

He commed the Hound of one of his squad commanders, ordering a visual relay of what they were seeing. Within seconds, it was in front of him as a three dimensional, full colour hologram. He couldn’t believe his eyes, but he knew it was true. 

An uncharted wormhole had torn open in space before them, with a single unidentifiable ship emerging from it, accelerating towards him at unbelievable speed.