Pages

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Reawakening



Erun slowly reemerged from his sleep as his capsule registered signs of an impending mindlock in his psycho/physiological monitoring.  Quickly, but efficiently he ran through the procedures to decant from the womb-analogue of his pod.  Once he had emerged and cleaned off the the sustaining fluid he ordered the spiciest food available from the commissary unit in his quarters before he started some some basic calisthenics.  Odd to some, non-capsuleers mostly, Erun's actions served the important function of reaffirming his humanity.  During the initial screening for his capsuleer status he had been found to be susceptible to mind-locking over very long periods of time.  Not enough to prevent him from becoming a capsuleer, but it meant he could not participate in long term assignments like covert observations or wormhole exploration, both of which could last for months before a pilot was able to leave their pod. 

First observed in the earliest days after the Caldari were given capsule technology by the enigmatic Jove, mind-locking was a state where the pilot permanently disassociated their mind from their physical body.  Removing the "locked" individual from their pod would invariably render them catatonic as they could no longer function within their own bodies.  Improvements in the capsule technology and conditioning techniques had virtually eliminated the phenomenon, but there were still a few who still remained vulnerable.  These few must remain vigilant, as with their minds no longer attached to their bodies would not survive the cloning process, rendering bound to their pod and essentially mortal.  Having turned off his Neocom connections, a month passed before Erun's implants woke him enough to set the next skill to be trained before he returned to his slumber.  His training for the Elite Cartography Certification had been planned to take more than 45 days so he'd planned a period of somnolence to aid in his processing and retention of information.

Stopping his calisthenics as he heard the commissary beeping, Erun pulled his food - curry as it had turned out - before flopping on the couch and reactivating his Neocom.  Having been out of the loop for a month he'd expected a massive amount of information to assault him, but there were surprisingly few, consisting mostly of a couple Calls To Arms (CTA's) from Nulli Secunda but otherwise very little.  Bringing up his comm channels he found his new CEO skpopatoe3 active and struck up a conversation.  Half an hour later found him on a 74 jump journey through null-security space to his new home in the north of New Eden.