“Sir! Wake up.”

“Hrmmh?”

“Sir! Roc! Wake up!” I feel myself being shaken by the shoulders and open my eyes. My team lead is there, looking at me with concern. “What is it?” I ask. “Sir, you were barking like a dog. It was kinda freaking out some of the new recruits.” I sit fully up, working the kinks out of my neck. Dreaming of dreams within memories that aren’t. I’m messed up.

The mind is a wondrous device. It has the ability to store every detail of every moment of our lives, and even those memories that aren’t from our lives. I am still haunted by what they have done to me. Obviously. 

“I’m good. At ease, Major. Report.”

“The storm’s finally died down. We’ve contacted the landing shuttle. They’ve brought fresh supplies and also commended us on our search.” He smirks at me. I don’t like it when people are in on a joke and I’m not; makes me wonder if the joke is about me.

“Our search?” I ask cautiously. The Vorshud Major salutes, turns on his heel, and walks to the entrace of the cave we had been holed up in. I arch my eyebrow, put on my enviro suit, and follow fifty two seconds later.

I put my hand in front of my eyes as I leave the cave. The sun is blinding in its brightness. I squint through my polarized glasses until my eyes adjust, then my eyes bulge, and my jaw drops. I lower my hand and stand in complete awe.

Less than half a kilometer away are a ring of twelve obelisks, each at least 500 feet in height, maybe more. We were sitting on it the whole time. The Elders were right. It does exist. After all our effort, after all our pain, salvation may finally be in sight.

—

“Entering the atmosphere now, sir.”, the pilot reports. “Very good.”, the Gallente capsuleer says. “Soon I will have you, Roc. Soon you will know your eternal death.”

—

“Ok, contact the ship and have them prep the dig teams. Send a few men to help with the setup. I also want snipers covering the site from there,” I point to an outcropping on my left, “there, and there.” I point out two more locations. No sense getting sloppy near the end. Stay alert. Stay alive.

“Sir, yessir!”

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

—

“Hard to confirm life signs, sir. The dust storms on the planet’s surface make it difficult to insure accuracy.”

I know you’re here. I’ve been following your trail. It’s because of you I’ve lost my honour. It’s because of you I’ve lost all credibility. Everything I’ve spent my lifetime achieving is gone, because of you. Your death will be slow. I will break you, Brutor. You will beg me to kill you, and I won’t. Ever. I will just make you wish you were dead; like I wish I was dead.

—

Hours passed; the dig was going well. The team had already found a few unidentifiable ship parts buried beneath the surface, a treasure in their own right, but not the one we’re looking for. I squint against the sun, looking to sniper position one. “S1 Report.” I say into my communicator. I get the triple click of all clear. I go through the same process with the other two snipers, getting the same confirmation message that all is clear. Good. I like it when things goes easy.

“Colonel, we’ve found something. It could be the artifact.” 

“Alright, I’m on my way over.” I say into my communicator and head towards the main dig site recovery area. This could be it. Months of searching, months of pain and torment, months of sacrifice. The Elders say it will all be worth it if we acquire the Terran artifact, but they also said time is of the essence. That if we could decipher its whereabouts, so could the other Empires. The fact that it was in Minmatar space only gave us a slight headstart. 

As I approach, I try not to get my hopes up. I don’t understand all the intricacies of science. I pay people for that. All I know is that if the Elders say it’s important, I’ll get it done. 

“Here we are, sir.” one of the technicians says to me. I walk with him for a few moments until we come across a completely bare and sterile looking table. On it is a simple black box. It’s about the length of my arm, maybe half a foot high. Not at all what I was expecting them to find. “That’s it?” I ask, not really understanding what I am looking at. “That’s the outer casing, Colonel. It’s what inside that is glorious.” the technician replies, moving towards the box. 

I hear the screeching of engines from above, then the sounds of laser turrets. I dive for cover to my right, but there is no cover, only sand. The technician gets incinerated by the laser turret, as does most everyone else around me.

The attack shuttle lands heavily about fifty feet in front of me, its two laser turrets appearing trained on our area. 

After it secures its landing feet, the side door panel opens, hissing against this dusty desert air. They have the sun behind them, making it difficult to see how many there are, or what formation they are breaking into. Five of them walk into focus, and I feel my blood boil. There he is, that treacherous cur. My friend, I think with utter bile on my tongue. All of my suffering has been because of you. I start walking towards him, hatred burning through me. He is flanked by two on either side, carrying laser rifles. All five of them have their weapons trained on me. We are thirty feet from each other, neither side stopping. 

—

That’s right you fool, keep walking. I feel a primal rage within me. His arrogance. His insolence. He just walks at me, by himself, unaware that he is already mine. His comrades are dead. He has nothing. What can he hope to accomplish? We will take the artifact, and take him as my prisoner, to do with as I please. Keep walking, dog. Walk towards your death.

—

The shuttle’s turrets aren’t moving, meaning his squad is probably all he has. I’ve already had my glasses adjust to compensate for the sun in my eyes. At twenty five feet, I give my head a slight nod. Three of them drop dead instantly. Of the two remaining, one panics, looking around for his assailent, his laser rifle pointing in every direction but mine. The Gallente is already reaching for his laser pistol. I reach for my ballistic pistols, holstered against my hips. 

—

No! No, you will not take this from me. You are mine, Roc Wieler, you are mine! 

—

The devil may be fast, but I am faster, and we both know it. A fourth shot rings out, and the last escort falls to his sandy grave. The Gallente immediately drops his pistol, hands reaching for air.

“I surrender. You’ve won.” he says far too smugly as he walks towards me. He disgusts me. Does he really think I’m new? Does he really think I don’t know what he is trying to accomplish stalling for time?

“I have to commend you, Roc. I didn’t think you …” I shoot him straight between the eyes. I have no interest in listening to his crap. I walk over to him, shooting him twice more in the torso, just to be sure. There is no satisfaction in this, despite the torture I suffered because of his actions. He was once my friend, and though he lost his way, I will not lose mine by making the same dark decisions and enjoy revenge.

I quickly give the orders for evac, taking our dead with us, downloading what data the technicians recovered into my datapad. We have the artifact, and undoubtedly there will be an ambush waiting for us in orbit. No capsuleer would’ve surrended so easily unless he had something else up his sleeve. I send the pre-arranged signal to the Renegades, who have been waiting this entire time behind a nearby moon, specifically to cover our exit. It’s a good exercise for them, as we are still new as a fleet. This will teach them discipline and patience.

We push hard for escape velocity, soon finding ourselves in the familiarity of cold space. The Renegades are ready and waiting, in beautiful formation. “All ships, align to Escape Marker Alpha One.” I blare over the secured channel.

That is when the Amarr fleet jumps in to ambush us, but they are too late. Before they can deploy their bubbles, we enter warp. They scramble fighters on pursuit vectors, but we didn’t just make a line for the nearest gate. We bounce around a few safe spots until our cloaked Rapier gives us the thumbs up on the gate we’ve selected for our escape.

All ships accounted for, I take the black box to my private quarters, and send a secured comm to Sam on a non military channel. He requests some three dimensional imaging scans of it, and I comply, as well as sending him our collected data. A few minutes later, he has this to say.

“Jesus Roc, do you have any idea what that thing is?” he asks.

“I know it’s Terran. I know it’s important. Why do you think I contacted you?”

“Important? Important!?! That’s all you have to say? Bloody hell, Roc, that thing could change New Eden forever.” he exclaims.

“Well, what is it then smart guy?” My patience runs thin. My patience often runs thin.

“Roc, open it up.” I am little skeptical, a little hesitant, but I know Sam. He wouldn’t tell me to do anything that would jeopardize me, my ship and my crew. I don’t know if my technicians had any special tools or process for this. I trust Sam. I open the box.

I see lots of circuitry, most of it inactive, and a small glass container with some type of electrical nodes wired into it. The container has a small glass slide suspended in it. It’s really nothing too impressive. I share that with Sam.

“You are SUCH a Brutor sometimes.” he says. “You see that slide? Zoom in on it, 20,000x magnification.” I do as requested. I see something on my monitor, but no idea what I am looking at.

“THAT, my friend, is DNA. What you are looking at is a DNA computer. There are trillions of terabytes of Terran data stored on that single strand, far more advanced than nanotechnology.  It’s the single most amazing thing I have ever seen!”

“What information is in it?” I ask ignorantly.

“I can’t tell that from here. Your technicians didn’t have the equipment to store that kind of data. You’d have to bring it to me.” That probably won’t happen. As soon as we reach our rendezvous with the Liberation Force, a special ops flight team will be escorting the black box straight to Maleatu Shakor’s office. 

Sam is disappointed, but duty is duty. The mission was successful. The price was high. I hope whatever data is contained on this thing was worth the cost.

One mystery solved; a new one revealed.

I am thirteen years old.

I live on Mekhios, otherwise known as Sarum Prime III. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place to live. I never want for food nor shelter. I always have work; and I am blessed enough to have been saved from my ignorant past. 

God loves me. He personally cares for me. Can you imagine that? The God of all loves me personally. It’s hard to wrap my head around sometimes, but thankfully the education collar helps me focus. The jolt of electricity it gives used to hurt, but now it just reminds me that I am free of my Minmatar prejudices and lies, and can fully embrace the glories of the Amarr if I am willing to reject and shun my old life.

The Amarr are the most advanced civilization in New Eden. They are the most peaceful society in history. They have wealth, power, and happiness for all their people. They were the first to discover space travel. They give of themselves freely to their neighbours, asking for nothing in return. I am so very lucky. 

—

“Patterns are holding. He’s accepting it.” the clinical voice says. “Good.” the military voice mutters. “Very good. Continue.” 

“It’s not going to work.” says a new voice. “You’re not gonna break him. He’s not some dog, he’s a bloody veteran.” There is an edge of disdain to this voice, an edge of worry perhaps? “Need I remind you of your place,” the military voice forces out between closed lips. “You did your job in luring him here. We are aware of your previous record with the subject, and your comments are duly noted. You are dismissed.” The new voice glares at everyone else, knocks some items off of a nearby table, then leaves dramatically.

“Pod pilots.” the military voice shakes his head in disgust.

—

It’s been a long day. We’ve been working since dawn. I don’t mind the labour really. Over the last few months my body has really begun to develop. I am growing toned and muscular. Mihan likes that too. And I really like her. 

We met here shortly after I arrived. Like myself, her family was a necessary sacrifice in order for us to freely appreciate what God, in His infinite wisdom, has given us the opportunity to experience. I used to miss my parents, but learned that they were the reason I was chained to a future without promise; a future without hope. I’m glad they’re dead.

“Roc!” I turn my head and smile. “Yes, Mihan?” I playfully ask. “Quit daydreaming and get back to digging. You know we’re supposed to finish this today.” I look back at my hands and see I am holding a power shovel. “But we’re not digging in the right spot. It’s not here.” I say. How do I know that? I don’t even know what I’m trying to unearth. It just felt right to say. Mihan gets that smirk on her face, and that fire in her eyes that makes me stir in my private areas. “Well then Mr. Knowitall, where is it?” She is fiercely radiant. I have never seen a more desirable girl. I want her so badly. Maybe if I find what we are searching for, we can take our relationship to the next level. Maybe I will finally become a man.

—

“Yes, yes. His neural pathways are following along nicely. Soon we’ll know the location, and then we can be finished here.” 

The military voice simply grunts in satisfaction.

—

“You know, Roc, I’ve been thinking.” Mihan starts. “We’ve been involved in each other’s lives for a long time now.” I nod in agreement. “You are the finest boy I have ever met. I know we’re more than friends, but how much more?” She bats her eyelashes at me, and my heart melts. I want to tell her I love her. I want to tell her how badly I hunger to be inside of her. She sees it in my eyes, in every moment of every day. She teases me with beautiful anticipation, always leaving me wanting more of her than she gives. It’s the perfect game. One I am only too happy to play. She turns back to her digging, and as her long dark hair falls over her shoulders, she says “Show me today, Roc. Let’s take this glory for ourselves. Let’s be the ones to find it. Let’s be the ones to receive God’s blessing.”

I take her hand in mine. “Let me show you where we should dig then.” She smiles, and we walk away from the dig site. 

Suddenly, I feel a stabbing pain in my head, worse than anything the education collar has given me. I grunt in pain, and fall to my knees. “Roc? Roc are you ok?” I open my mouth to speak, but the pain has silenced my voice.

—

“Dammit man! Are you completely incompetent? What is going on now? I am sick and bloody tired of your excuses.” the military voice screams. The clinical voice trembles, his hands scurrying between multiple diagnostic monitors as a master pianist does across his chosen instrument. “I don’t understand. All wavelengths are within normal parameters. He shouldn’t be responding this way.”

—

I can see it. I know where it is. I desperately want to show Mihan, but I can’t move for all the pain wracking my body. I fall hard to my side and begin spasming on the ground. “Roc? Roc! Can you hear me?” She hovers over me, her hands trying to comfort me, but there is naked fear in her eyes. Her voice distorts and echoes. Who is she?

—

“No adrenaline surges. Heart rate normal. Slightly elevated blood pressure. All brain activity normal. I don’t understand it.” The clinical voice motions for two attendants. “Get in there! Verify all the feeds are still attached. We need to find out what is causing this. If we lose him now, we’ve lost everything!” The sound of pressure sealed doors open and close, and two sets of rapidly moving feet can be heard. There is some brief chatter, then the sound of a large security door sliding back into the wall. Two additional sets of feet join the procession, but these ones are heavier, being clad in armoured boots. The resounding click of guns being cocked can be heard as the two attendants are given the signal by the security team that it’s safe to enter. They quickly go about their work, checking feeds, checking intravenous entry points, checking neural connections. It’s all in place. There is no logical reason for the readings the monitoring room is receiving. 

—

It’s day time. I see the bright sun beating down on me. Mihan is over me, cupping my face in her hands, smiling reassuredly like my mother does. Another streak of intense pain.

—

“Find out what is happening, and I do mean now.” the military voice growls.

—

It’s night time. We lay together in bed, something we’ve done before. This is the first time we’ve been completely without clothes. I feel the warmth of her breath on my neck as my arm holds her close. She runs a finger along my chest, sending shivers up and down my spine, and I lean down to kiss her. She slowly rolls on top of me, her pert, supple breasts brushing against me. It stiffens me instantly. It almost hurts. It hurts. IT HURTS! I scream in pain as my mind explodes in agony.

—

“Sir, we’ve found an anomaly. Look at camera drone two.” The clinical voice quickly responds to what the attendant says, driving his focus to the monitor for camera drone two. He increases the magnification slightly until he notices the discoloration on the front of the subject’s skull. “No…” he mutters almost inaudibly. “What is it?” the booming military voice demands. “A frontal hematoma. We’ve pushed his mind too far, and now we’re going to lose him.” All of their hard work; all their planning. Months of waiting for everything to fall in place, and now it was all going to fail, because of this cursed capsuleer. At least the subject will die his final death, not hooked into his pod. There was some small satisfaction in that. “You’d better stop standing there like a deer in the headlights and get your pasty ass in there and do something.” The military voice bellowed. “Yes, yes, of course. Right away.” The clinical voice does as he is told, but he already knows this will be the end of them all.

—

She is magnificent. I continue to thrust into her and she continues to impale herself onto my eagerness. It is the most glorious feeling I have ever experienced. She bounces up and down lithely, savouring every moment as much as I do. She is perfection. “Roc!” she yells. “Oh Roc!” the more she screams my name, the more primal my reaction becomes, until I am forcing myself against her as hard as I can. “Roc! Roc! Roc!” The pain shoots into my head again, and I can’t hear her clearly. “Roc! Roc! Roc! Oh Roc! Roc!” I don’t want to fail her. I can’t continue much longer. The pain is too much.

“Roc! Roc! Roc!” 

I release my love inside her, but it’s all I can do. My vision is darkening at the edges. My body is on fire. I want to tell her I love her. I try to form the words. I try to say what is most important to me.

Everything goes black.

I am six years old. I am playing in the sand near my house. It’s fun. Mom said not to go too far, and to be home before dark. That’s ok. It’s a long time before it gets dark.

I like digging in the sand. I make castles. Then I smush them. It makes me laugh.

I am going to be seven soon. That means I can start learning to fight. I am going to be the bestest fighter ever. One day, I am going to be a pod pilot too, like on TV. 

I pick up one of my toy spaceships and start swooshing it around. “Death to Amarr!” I giggle. I am going to kill many Amarr. I am going to be a hero.

I see a shadow over me. I turn and see my dad. “It’s ok, son. You just keep playing. Keep digging. What did you find?” I turn back to look at the sand and see a bunch of black blocks sticking up. I don’t remember them being there. “I found blocks!” I say excitedly to my father. “Well, just keep digging, little warrior. I am sure you’ll find more.” I smile as big as I can for my dad. He’s nice. I hear a dog barking in the distance. My father hears it too. “Don’t go too far ok? You know how dangerous it can be out there, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my precious little man.” He ruffles my hair. That feels good. My dad walks away, and I keep digging. I want to find buried treasure and give it to him as a surprise! He will like that. Bark! Bark! Bark! The dog sounds closer. 

—

“How is the subject responding?” a cold voice inquires. “Quite well. He is in a state of complete compliance. Accessing his neural core was easy, given his capsuleer interface. We can make his mind believe anything we wish.” a more clinical voice replies. “Very good. Carry on.”

They stand there together, arms behind their backs, behind a thick sheet of transparent reinforced steel, monitoring the numerous systems around them. One of them adjusts the intravenous drip slightly, inducing an even deeper dream state into their subject. Vital signs are strong and stable. Neural activity quite active. No hint of disbelief in the reality being presented to him. They would extract the required information soon, then simply feed a lethal poison into his system when he was of no more use.

—

I’ve made a big hole. Mom is going to be upset at how dirty I am. I still haven’t found anything. I need to keep digging deeper. Bark! Bark! Bark! That sounded much closer. It’s getting dark too. 

I stand up and try to dust myself off. It’s time to go home or I will be in big trouble. I turn to head back towards my house when I see the dog in front of me. It has dark fur. I know I’ve seen this kind of dog before, but I cann’t remember what they are called. They are rare, not like the usual strays, or the hunting dogs my dad and his friends used to go hunting. It’s very strong looking in the chest. I walk up to it. It doesn’t look angry. His tail is wagging. I think he likes me! 

“Roc! What are you doing?” My dad yells at me. “Step away slowly from that dog! It’s wild!” It doesn’t look wild. It looks nice. It looks familiar. “Roc! Step away from the dog!” The dog tilts his head to one side, looking at me, whimpering softly as I back away. BARK! BARK! BARK! “Run!” My dad screams, and I turn and run. I hear the dog growling as I run away, and when I look back, I see it attack my dad. I start crying. It looked like such a nice dog.

—

“It’s a mild neural spike. Nothing to worry about. It’s stabilized now.” says the clinical voice. “I don’t care if it’s stable now, I want to know what the hell it was.” a more demanding, military sounding voice retorts. “Running a diagnostic now, sir.” The clinical voice sounds nervous.

—

I don’t know what to do, or where to run to. I am on my hands and knees, still crying. The dog attacked my dad! My brain hurts. I love my dad. I hope he’s ok. What would a pod pilot do? What would a hero do?

I stand up, balling my hands into fists. I am going to help my dad. It was a bad dog. I start running back to my house. I am going to help my dad.

—

“It’s an adrenaline surge causing the spike. Stabilize the alpha waves.” 

—

I get back to where I was playing. It’s dark now. Mom’s gonna be mad. I don’t see dad anywhere, and my blocks are gone from the sand. The dog stands where my blocks were. He has sand all over his feet. His tail is wagging, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He looks happy.

“Where’s my dad?” I ask him.

BARK! BARK! BARK!

“Where’s my blocks?” I walk towards him to pet his head. He’s a nice dog. I like him. 

BARK! BARK! BARK!

What is he barking at? I look around. I can’t see anything.

BARK! BARK! BARK!

“I don’t know what you want, boy.” I bend down in front of him, so he doesn’t have to look up so much. It probably hurts his neck. Then he growls and pounces on me. I am very scared.

—

“I can’t stabilize the alphas.”

“Then elevate the deltas. Do I have to do all of your thinking for you? We need him to remain calm and compliant!”

—

I scream. The dog is on top of me. I can’t get him off. 

BARK! BARK! RARK! RAWK! ROC!

—

“There. It’s under control now.”

—

Everything goes white.