Technological Drift

Fiction Friday. Escape pod here.

This is a short one as I came up with the idea last night. Obviously there is only one real topic being discussed in Eve at the moment. Now I try to keep my fiction on canon. No teleporters, no Star-Trek-crap (its too early in the morning). However this one is sort of poking into what may or may not be happening right now in New Eden.


Technological Drift

The two scientists were dressed in white lab coats. The pale body laid out on the slab in front of them was humanoid but had extensive augmentations and technological implants covering its entire body. A silver bar slowly passed over the top of the body, a wide blue light shining across the corpse as it passed. The Federal Navy Intelligence Research Facility was located in a hidden dead-space pocket. An area of space where unique sub-space properties meant warp drive was unable to work effectively. To reach the facility required an acceleration gate. A massive structure that could propel a ship to warp speeds without warp drive. These areas were ideal for covert facilities as the acceleration gates could be locked down and easily guarded.

The door behind them hissed open. The scientists turned to see who the new comers were and were surprised to see two armed Gallente men dressed completely in black step into the laboratory and take up flanking positions either side of the door. A third man stepped in. One of the scientists gasped.

"Mr President! This is indeed an honor!" he exclaimed stepping forward and extending his hand.

President Roden shook the man's hand but his attention was entirely on the body in front of them.

"Is that one of them?" he asked approaching the slab.

"Yes sir. We were able to recover this specimen following an caspuleer engagement in the Arant solar system. An Empyrean engaged their battleship in a cruiser, a Sister of Eve class Stratios I believe. His ship was destroyed but the Drifter had fired its primary weapon during the engagement. Someone came upon it and destroyed it whilst the weapon was still recharging. They looted the wreck but did not salvage it. The Navy reported the wreck a few hours later. A specialist salvage team was dispatched and was able to recover some technology and the pilot."

The President stared into the bodies lifeless face.

"Is it a Jove?"

There was a silence. The President turned to the scientist he'd been taking to. His expression showed he expected an answer.

"I'm afraid we don't know sir." the scientist admitted.

"OK, best guess then."

The scientist look horrified at the suggestion.

"Let me put it another way. I know bio-science team at Duvolle Labs that will give me their best guess. Do I need to replace you?"

"No sir." the scientist spluttered "We cannot be sure but we think its either a Jovian or a close relation of the Jove. Perhaps similar to the way our DNA is 99.99% similar to Caldari DNA and 99.98% to Minmatar. Actually probably more like us and the Amarrians which is 99.5% or even...."


The President held up a hand indicating he didn't want the long story.

"Sorry sir. The body certainly looks Jovian but the implants are like nothing we have seen before from the Jove. The real issue is nobody has seen any Jove in a long time. Its possible these 'Drifters' are Jove who turned to technological implants rather than the more historic bioengineering in the last decade. The issue is we don't know if these are Jove from five years ago, two hundred years ago or two thousand years ago. We have no DNA samples from current Jovians to compare with."

The President turn back to the body, his mind turning to the recent events. A massive explosion in Jove space had occurred. Soon after the strange supernova-like explosion Sleepers had started entering New Eden and scanning anything thy came across. Lately mysterious structures had started to decloak all over New Eden and within Empire space. These were followed by strange wormholes and then the Drifter's arrived. Strange never-seen before battleship sized vessels with advanced weaponry. So far they had not aggressed unless provoked but they were a massive worry to all of New Eden. They had reportedly even taken down Empyrean capital ships who had been foolish enough to attack them. The President of the Gallente Federation needed to know who, or what, they were and what they wanted. So far all attempts to communicate with them had failed.

"Are they a threat?" he asked.

"Potentially. Their technology appears to be as advanced as the Jove. Their numbers mean at the moment they are not a significant threat in themselves to us, but should their technology fall into the wrong hands..."

"The Caldari?" the President asked.

"No sir. We doubt the Caldari will have any more luck than us. The technology in the wrecks we have had access to has been badly damaged. Reverse engineering has been almost impossible. I was referring to...."

"The Capsuleers." Roden finished for him.

"Yes sir. The implant technology is similar to our own Empyrean technology just a lot more advanced. The Capsuleers might become even more powerful with it if they were to adapt it."

"Explain."

"As you well know sir. The Capsuleers tend to 'visualize' situations to control their ships. Whilst they can do it by thought, most 'see' themselves and controls within their mind. We don't think the Drifters do. We think their implants link fully with the ship and computer."

President Roden was a Capsuleer himself. He knew exactly what the scientist was talking about. When floating in their capsule many capsuleers created a mental image of themselves at the controls. It help organize them during high stress situations. Whilst they fired their weapons with just a thought, they imagined themselves pressing a button on a console.

"Whats the difference?"

"The ships will be faster, stronger and more powerful. There will be a general improvement in all sub-systems of the ship. We also think crew requirements can be vastly reduced. However we think the main benefits will come as part of computer interfacing."

"You are talking about Capsuleer data and relic analyzers?" the President asked.

"Yes sir. The Capsuleers create a sort of two-dimensional construct currently to visualize the hacking process. Drifter technology could bypass that, letting the capsuleers hack with their brains and little or no visualization. The real issue is if they develop this technology. It could be terrifying."

The President turned around. "Worst case?"

"Imagine Capsuleers able to 'talk' direct to any system without distracting them from other ship operations. Stargates could be turned on and off as the capsuleer battled other capsuleers. Even stations and their services could be denied with very little effort. If a computer runs it, then capsuleers could hack it theoretically. Even CONCORD systems could be at risk."

The President nodded.

"Thank you for your time gentlemen. I'll be keeping a close eye on this."

With that he shook their hands and left.

"Can you believe we just met the President!" the older one said as the doors closed.

Outside a Gallente woman waited. The President went up to her.

"Is it as bad as we feared?" she asked.

Roden just nodded. His trusted adviser had brought the work here to his attention. She felt it needed his attention more than the footnote it had been presented as in the official intelligence briefing.

"I want our best minds looking to harden critical infrastructure against potential capsuleer hacking. My god, if the State Protectorate capsuleers were able to turn off the Villore stargate in Old Man Star we are fracked." the President ordered.

The woman nodded and started tapping away on her datapad.

-o0o-

Many light years away....

"Like a target painter?" the man asked.

"Pretty much although I'd compare it to a Heavy Interdictor's warp disruption field generator set up with an infina-point script. Whilst fire and forget but you are going to be vulnerable when its running."

"How so?"

"The beam is going to affect your shields badly. Remote reps and the like are not going to work same was when using an infina-point. However it gets worse. Our computer cores cannot handle the interface of this technology on their own. We need the extra teraflops from the ships navicom to get it to work."

"So the warp drive will be offline?"

"Exactly. You'll be very vulnerable when using this device, but we believe the hacking technology will allow a single ship to disable a territorial control unit within ten to forty minutes."

"One ship? No supercarriers, titans, bombers or battleships? One ship?"

"Yes sir, and it can be pretty much any ship with a hard-point. We are still running the numbers but we think a even standard low-cost frigate could be used."

"Excellent. Phase two is authorized. Get me a working prototype."