mikeazariah

Mike shoved the coffee to the side and spread the two comms before him, on one he scrolled the text while on the other he made notations. Dee watched him focus on the information in a way she sometimes he would focus on . . . other matters. He stayed that way for the next hour, pausing and thinking before making notes or muttering to hiomself over some point that was in the transcripts.

Finally she took a piece of pie from a waitress and brought it over to the table along with a fresh cup of coffee. “Good book?”

Mike grimaced and looked up from the comm. “Oh heyas, Dee, did you just get here?”

She bit back her immediate reply as she saw the bloodshot eyes. “When did you last sleep?”

“Um, yesterday? what time is it, no, the day before . . . . ” Mike shrugged and looked back at the comms. “I promised myself I would get through this and dammit, I will. Kry has given me some new responsibilities in the corp and I am still not sure what they are, just . . . ” His sentences trailed off like he lost the trains of thought in mid-word

She looked down at the pilot and smiled. He could be so friustrating and she knew she could try to force him to stop and finish when he was more alert but it was easier to help him finish the job then know that he would rest properly. “Fine, so tell me about the summit.”

“Well, from what I can see, it went better than it might have. Even the Goons worked.”

“They had to, seeing as they are seeing their world crumble around them.”

“Nah, ‘Goonwaffles with syrup’ will pick right up where the Goonswarm left off. There are few constants in this universe but idiocy and griefers are two very solid ones. But that is beside the point. They did get things done and that is what is important. My only regret in regards to the goons is that Helen did not manage to go.”

“So what did they decidee on, at this summit.”

Mike started to tick things off on his fingers as he listed the accomplishments of the CSM summit. “Now remember, not all of this is going to go through, but these are the things that were breought before the higher powers, the movers and shakers of New Eden. The first thing is that they may make the CSM term a full year with TWO trips to the summit. I think this would be good for continuity but bad in another way. It waoud better if they alternated the elections so there was an election every six months with a 1 year term. That way experience could be teamed with youthfull enthusiasm. There would be fresh blood at each meeting and some ‘old hands’. They also discussed the abolishment of term limits which might be a good or bad thing. I could see dynasties forming but then again, the continuity of a good team would be a very sad thing to see eliminated on the basis of ‘your time is up’”

“So you are for it or against it?”

“If they did the alternation, I think I would fall on the ‘for’ side, and I agree that term limits are an artificial construct that the political nature of the universe would self correct. The next thing they discussed was security, basically it came down to design better locks on the one side compared to teach people to remember to USE said locks in a proper manner on the other. There is not a perfect lock that a thief can’t get past if the owner is careless. Then they discussed the way problems at the stellar level are addressed and asked that fewer canned replies are used and research is done before a proble is treated as trivial. A higher profile of the people in power was requested on the comms and in mail contacts. THAT I am not so sure about because I have seen many a logical discussion degenerate into name calling and chanting. Mob mentality on the comms is common.”

“A mob has the IQ of the average of the members divided by the number of people in the mob.” Dee said.

“Heh, you are meaner than I am, I was just going to say they sink to the lowest common denominator. But it all comes down to expectations. If something is even mentioned then there are those who take it as a died in the wool promise and start howling if it is not delivered the next day. They discussed the shockwave events that have been causing massive fleet losses as ships fail to recalibrate coming outr of warp, but no answer was found at this meeting. Then they spent some time discussing the new plans for the tourneys to be held . . . ”

“Ever thought of going into one?” Dee asked curiously.

“The same way every young lad dreams of being a sports hero. Yeah. But I think it very very unlikely a corp or alliance such as ours would ever manage to field a team. It was interesting to hear the concepts batted about, though. How points will be tallied, teams chose, that sort of thing. Then came some issues on the background of the economic system which was mercifully brief and even then, over my head. Once they got to the next part . . . ” Mike whistled. “They want to make corp and alliance memberships open information.”

“Open? How is that a bad thing?”

“It means that all of the members of a corp will be trackable during a war and easier to hunt. Currently some effort or espionage is needed to get the complete membership list, this will make things far far easier for extortion attempts to be made in hisec. There is freedom of information to consider but I agree with the CSM that this might be going too far. The sad thing is that if they even try it all of the cats will be out of the bag and very hard to stuff back in again. The they discussed nullsec and asked that more mapping expedition s be sent out to try to find new routes into that territory.”

“Why?

“Right now the known paths are ‘chokepoints’ and often ‘camped’. It is too easy for a group to hold a vast amount of nullsec at the cost of effort in only a few systems. More maps and connections might ease that. As to why we want to go into nullsec there is talk of more research division moving their offices down there or maybe the planets in that regiuon (with the relaxed labour laws) will be more productive than their hisec cousins. Then they got onto warfare that is common to the low and nullsec space and discussed things like redesign of stations to keep people from docking as soon as a battle was going against them or allowing a captain to see the surrounding space before undocking. Discussion of current weapon designs, such as the silliness of having the close range weapons mounted on slower vessels. Things for the engineers to look to.”

“You honestly find this interesting, don’t you.” She asked, playing with a strand of her hair.

“It all IS interesting Dee. This is how the world works and we are getting a ‘peek behind the curtains’. This is the sort of thing MORE people should be interested in, but they aren’t. They just complain how they wish things were better, fail to vote during elections . . . passive whiners.” Mike shrugged. “Someone has to care, not just during the election, but the rest of the time as well.”

“Someone like you.”

“And you, it is not just the pilots that are effected. Charity events, how time is allocated in the big research projects . . .decisions that were made there have bearing on how all the lives in New Eden progress. Just because you try to ignore it does not mean that the world will ‘go away’”

“I never said that.”

Mike sighed. “I know, you do care enough to put up with me rambling on about this and that, one of the reasons I love you I suppose. But the meetings then went on to discuss the ideas that the CSM itself was bringing to the table. Thinsg like Black ops ships and battle recorders . . . um, is something wrong?”

She was staring at him intently as he yawned and blinked at her. “No, no, continue. The sooner you finish the sooner you can c . . . go to bed.”

Mike nodded sleepily. Well from there the ideas were layed out on the” another yawn, “table and discussed. Bookmark improvements, insurance frauds, suicides . . . all were presented for consideration. In the end I think the most imp[ortant thing done was the growth.” He rubbed his eyes and blinked at Dee. “The CSM is coming into its own, they are starting to be treated like stakeholders in all of this, not just representatives of the whiny masses. For all our bickering, squabbling . . . ” another yawn, ” . . tching about this and that we are beginning to be heard. I got word they even broughtin the media in to witness this.”

“That is important?”

“Things done in the light last longer . . . are truer. That is why we talk of a black market, shady deals . . . when they shine a light on what is done . . . um, what?”

She was tugging on his arm, almost lifting him from the table. “You do not know when to shut up . . . come on, time for bed.”

“bed sounds nice, I could do with forty winks”

She lead him from the diner and down the walkway. The rest of the patrons watched grinning.

“Hey, isn’t the docking bay to the right?” The customer was idly cuffed on the back of the head by the waitress.

“Matter of fact, it is.”

*******************************************************

The writeup by the devs is up and available, I just went for a short summary.

with some opinion, of course.

from what I hear, PC GAMER was invited to send a reporter. That is an issue I am looking forward to.

m

Mike tossed his pad on the table top and turned it o silent as Dierdre joined him. “Ah, you are just what I need, some tranquility and common sense.”

She looked down at the notes he had been making. “Another CSM meeting?”

He nodded. “Each one adds something, both to the universe and to my impressions of the people who were elected . . . and not elected.”

“Not elected? How would the meetings alter . . . oh, the alternative representatives. But they only come into play when someone fails to make a meeting, or must leave early.”

“Yup yup, and so far Helen Highwater has had a chance to speak and vote at every meeting, and has not missed that duty nor, may I add, done a bad job of it. On the other hand, the Elected Representative Trzzblat has failed to show up for another meeting. Those people who voted for that one would have been better served voting for Helen. But in the end it turns out to be the same thing. In spite of that, this meeting went better, and differently.”

“I thought the meetings were set in format, how can one go differently?” She nodded her thanks to the waitress who delivered their drinks. Neither had bothered ordering as they came to this cafe so often it was a given what they would have and the staff did not bother even asking, anymore.

“Well, it seemed smoother and also longer. Smoother because Zastrow also was absent for more than half the meeting. With two goons gone the discussion seemed more . . .efficient.”

“Isn’t Helen a Goon?”

He nodded. “Helen is, but if the fleet starts noticing how reasonable and well thought things have been going they may ban and kick, out of general principles.” He grinned. “Or maybe there is more than one type of Goon and Goon agenda.”

“So what did they talk about?” She asked, smiling at Mike in a way that made him flush slightly.

“um . . .let me see.” He fumbled his notes and flushed deeper as she dimpled at his obvious discomfort. “They have asked that more confirmation steps be implemented in the creation of Alliances. That there be color coding set into mining laser crystals. That a calender system be set up for corporations to schedule more efficiently. They also discussed the concept of censorship in the matter of public discussions. This one was a bit closer to my heart as I have been vaguely threatened while writing for the tribune.”

“Threats are trying to control the news from below. Censorship usually implies it comes from above.” She corrected him.

“Yeah, well trying to skew information from either end is not quite right. Although I suppose what I choose to say and write about is also biased in its own way . . . aaargh . . .anyhow they are taking that up with the major networks to at least slow down the cutting of open discussions.” He looked down at his notes. They also decided the EOS needs some fine tuning and that battle recorders could and should be mountable for large fleet engagements. They decided that Fighters should be tracked in killmails and that destroyers are in dire need of re-tasking and re-assessment. Nobody is quite sure WHAT they are to be used for right now.”

She nodded. “Most of the ones I see come and go are either fitted for small salvage operations . . . or gink?”

“Gank. Out to kiill and be killed in highsec. That got brought up as well but it was one of the issues that proved that the council is growing and adapting. Instead of just voting yes/no now they are thinking deeper and further ahead. They will send smaller groups off to rework proposals and bring them back at future meetings. Suicide ganks, the ability to import export standings, and price ceilings were set as too vague but not bad ideas and so they were not dismissed out of hand but tabled for more work before the vote would be made. They agreed on the general concept of capsulleer security needs to be tightened but did not try to get too deep into the specifics of how.”

“Know what is good, what is bad, and what is not ready to be judged. Book of Issha”

Mike blinked. “Pardon me?”

She looked at him straight on and said. “Finish what you are saying . . . we have time for this later.”

Mike paused for a moment before nodding. “Like I said . . . they took four hours to do this but very little of it was waste time. The alternates T’Amber and Helen did excellent work. It was a near run thing to even make quorum but with alternates like that it is working out fine for the council as a whole. Personalities and motivations are beginning to show through. Krovin is most likely to vote against changes but I think he mainly is worried about the changes being unbalancing to the stabilities that currently exist. Song Li is a very reasonable person who is always trying to make the little things better. He has they eye for the details of things. Teadaze brings a lot of experience to the table and still manages not to be distracted from whatever question is at hand. Elvenlord is excellent at keeping things flowing and on track with very little lost time. Zod isn’t noisy but his comments are usually straight to the point and he stepped forward to help rework some ideas showing he does not have to be loud to be proud.”

“What about Sokratesz?”

Mike scratched his head. I don’t know. Haven’t got a handle on that one, yet. Zastrow showed up in time for 5 issues and I think he was too tired or hung over to be much of a nuisance. Trzz-whatever is a no show. Alekseyev is impressing me the more I learn about him and his organization, NOIR.”

“How so?”

“Just little things are beginning to add up to a better image of him than I had, initially. Turns out sometimes you do have to toss the first impression and be willing to look deeper . . . who knew?”

She reached out and laid her hand on his. “Sometime, though. The first impression is just fine.”

Mike was rescued by the arrival of their food as he had no idea what to say to that.

***********************************

Lessons

The old communication protocols that the CSM has had in place work just fine when a good hand is at the helm.

These folks are working hard (some of them) Drop them a line in game to say thanks, they deserve it. After all, some few of you elected them.
They are coming up on the deadline for what they will take to Iceland. If you have some axe you want them to grind, get to it, Assembly hall forums.

Head reeling from the party Mike barely made it back his ship. He collapsed onto a bunk and lost all connection with the real world. The problem was that his mind had not yet gone to sleep and oh, the dream he had.

—————————————–

The Lord of all the Elves sat in his white trimmed red suit and glared down at the representatives before him. “No, you are not allowed to have wishes. We fulfill them for children all across the universe. Do you know how much trouble there would be if we started granting our own?”

“But sir, ever since the last round of contract negotiations . . . ”

“I knew it was a mistake, letting you lot go union. Very well. But keep it snappy, this is a busy time of the year for me.”

The elves shuffled about till one stepped forward. “I know it’s been asked for, before. But can we please have the people in charge take another look at Logos for Alliances. All the little people like to have something to belong to and sometimes the logo is all they have. ”

The Elven Lord looked about and saw all the other elves nodding and made a small note. “I will ask, again. But no promises. What else?”

“Well, I thought that it would be nice if we could trade naughty and nice lists, to save time and space. As it is each one of us must maintain their own naughty list . . . ”

Another voice at the back piped up. “No! What about kids who are only naughty in one elves’ eyes? IF he shared his opinion then the poor thing would get coal from any of us or all of us.”

Ideas and compromises were offered and discussed but in the end little Song Li’s idea was shot down and the Elvenlord made no note to pass on. “Next?” He demanded, looking at his watch.

“Me! Zod, sir. Black Ops, the sleigh is getting no love for being fast and invisible and capable and we need it and its kind to get some love.” An elf to the side chirped.

“I agree, and so should you all.” He looked out to the assembly who all nodded and he made another note. “Now Teadazy here also has a simple one, faction war standings need fixing as the neaughty and nice lists are getting mixed up due to an accounting error. All in favor? Passed. Now this is how a meeting should go, we may get out on time after all. Faction spawning . . . any discussion? No? All in favor? Passed. Bloody thing needs to be made more even, nuff said. Now, sentries . . . um, Soccer ates?”

“Me, sir. Sokratesz. Some of the advanced stationary sentries need to be upgraded or the others downgraded so they are more racialy specific.”

Voices all over the room piped up to disagree with using nerfs or buffs for devices that already pwned. While Elvenlord and others agreed with the proposal in the end the majority overruled it and no note was made. Then they moved on to docking games and again, everyone had to have his or her say. In the end it was agreed that docking games were no fun and needed something to make them playable. Though no firm suggestion as what that fix would be they did have another note made. ECM was brought up and shot down in short order as few wanted to open a can of unbalanced worms

“Sir? Some of the goony elves are wandering off, should we wait for them?” One of the assistants pointed out.

“I gotta go poop!” Yelled one as he wandered off.

Elvenlord closed his eyes and shook his head. Several replies to that were available and none would make the process go any faster so he held his tongue and signalled one of the assistant goony elves to step up to take the open place.

“Now, what is this about Titans?”

“Sir, people keep bumping them and they get moved too far from jump bridges.”

“Biggest, baddest ship and it is being bumped around? What do you propose?”

“Just widen the sphere of influence for the jump bridges so the Titans are less crowded.”

The dissenting voices were few and the note was made. The next two proposals involving directional scanning and logistics warp speed were swiftly acclaimed good ideas and joined the growing list. Then a few elves dragged a dead horse through the assembly before presenting the concept of totally changing how POS’s were constructed, looked and the call for color matching counter tops in the washrooms. The color matching managed to win over the most negative nellies and it was also added to the list.

Then came one of the big issues (other than the dead horse). The ability to share bookmarks. Every elf wanted his or her say on this one and most were amazed that anyone had an opposing opinion. Little Korvin (who had also voted against the Titan fix) thought the bookmark system should be left alone but he was shouted down by the rest of the elves and the note was made to allow the shariung of bookmarks and perhaps even the ability to save and store them. This was followed by a pair of proposals that the elves should be able to keep track of their friends, even when they are being sneaky, so they don’t bump into each other and the idea that communications within large groups could stand a few subtle improvements.

They were down to the last issue and Elvenlord had given up looking at his watch as he was fairly sure the clocked was ignoring the passage of time and he had been here for months, now. “Self destruct?” He asked, hoping for a simple presentation and vote.

No. It was broken into parts and the parts were broken into subparts and each was voted on as there were so many parts that the parties of the first part found that parting with ships was partly self inflicted and did not want to be party to the party of the second part who wanted part shares in the part of the kill mail. This at the end of a session was partly too much for some and the partitioning of the idea into smaller parts only served to partially paralyse the parties involved. In the end the parts passed were that self destruct should revoke insurance, generate a killmail, and the timing should be dependent on the ship size.

Some elves wanted to continue on other concepts while others were begging for permission to leave as they had gone on for a very long time. Common sense won out and the meeting broke up as little elves vanished to where elves go when not in meetings, some to make toys, some to daringly dance darkly for donations, some to perform in plays by a man named Will. One slim one stayed behind staring out into space and then tunred and asked. “Is this what you were expecting, Mike?”

——————————–

“Gaaagh” He sat bolt upright and banged his head on a bulkhead. “Ow!”

The dream was horrible and had been so real, so long, so very very long.

“Next time, I will not chase zombies with ale. I will not throw away the eggs and just drink the nog. next time . . . i . . . grzzzzzmff” his snores soon filled the room again.

*******************

Lessons

Some issues are easy and some you marvel that anyone would vote against them at all.

Just because an issue makes it to the list does not mean anything will happen. But it does mean it will be taken to CCP where ‘Top Men will be working on it’

Teadaze is still the god of communications and those of you who voted for him should be congratulated on your good judgement.

mike

Mike slumped down into the seat and grunted his thanks as the waitress brought him a beer. Scotty, already seated looked at him and grinned. “Hard day at the office?”

“I am trying to decide if I am just suffering from sour grapes or not.” Mike sipped the beer and sighed. “I just finished going through the logs of the first CSM meeting.”

“And?”

“Well on the good side, Teadaze is phenomenal. He got said logs out and available so fast it made my head spin. I doubt most folks are even looking for it, yet. On the bad side . . . ”

Scotty reached over and topped up Mikes glass. “You know the drill, start at the beginning and keep going till you get to the end.”

“I would, but the beginning is where some of it is ’secret’. I understand that the CSM has a policy of nondisclosure on some features but there was just enough said to indicate that things are happening in the background that could change what I believed the CSM to be.”

Scotty frowned. “How so?”

Pulling out a comm pad mike tapped it and brought 2 pages of text. “I read both the raw feed (slightly edited for security reasons) and Teadaze’s summary. It is something about an email reminding the members of the CSM to, and I quote, ‘Additionally, I want to reiterate the point I made in the email about us wanting to emphasize more on ‘larger’ issues and less on the ’smaller’ topics’ A couple of the members asked for clarification of that but I still don’t quite get what they mean. I think there is going to be some more give and take on that but it sounds almost like the council is getting less able to deal with specifics.”

“And you think that is bad?”

“In a way, yes. Some things are grand sweeping changes that are easy to ask for but hard to prove when they have been delivered. Small specific things are easier to measure completion on. If the CSM asked for a ‘Launch Drones’ button, for example. You can say ‘yes they succeeded’ or ‘they didn’t get that wish’. But if you ask for an improvement of the UI control schema of our ships it is too vague to say whether a simple font change warrants calling the job done and a victorious outcome.” Mike took a gulp of beer and continued. “It was like that in the election. Some folks focused on specifics, others were just quoting ‘mom and apple pie generalities.’”

“And some folks didn’t even bother campaigning.”

“And were elected just the same. Which was the second frustrating thing for me. One member of the CSM did not make the meeting so the first alternate had to step in. Oddly enough, both were Goons. The third Goon, Zastrow, showed up late and was pretty much a disruptive entity through the entire meeting. But he was elected and I was not, so is it just me being a whiner?”

A glass slid across the table from Scotty to Mike. “Collect the tears in there, I can sell them to some folks later on. Nah, late and disruptive slows meetings down.”

“So the rest of the meeting was fairly straight forward except when it got derailed by arguing about communication protocols. They confirmed Elvenlord as chair, elected Zod as Vice-chair. Teadaze was made Secretary (the hardest job on the council in many peoples opinion) and Zastrow was made vice secretary.”

Scotty sprayed beer out of his nose. “WHAT?”

“Yeah, was pretty much my reaction as well. I Just hope Teadaze stays healthy. Then they discussed when the next meeting is and called it a day.”

“So it was nice and short, eh?”

“I wish. All of that took one and a half hours to accomplish. A simple election of three officers. Now how long is it going to take when they start to discuss the controversial subjects? I mean the ‘wish list’ is long and growing every day.” Mike finished his beer and rose from the table. “I ran for the CSM and I am not going to drop it, just because I lost horribly.” He grinned. “I am too stubborn to quit, even when I have lost. I think there are some good people in there and the word needs to get out about what is being done and how. Maybe next time more folks will show up for the election.”

“In knowledge there is power.”

“In a good Battleship there is power, in Motherships there are frustrated pilots. Bah. I have places to be, things to blow up, maybe that will make me feel better.”

********

Lessons

There is a reason for communications protocols like Roberts Rules of Order. If you have ever tried to run a meeting with more than four people, you know why.
There is always someone who thinks the meeting is a joke and they are the comedian telling it.
I will try to keep up with the CSM doings and keep you updated as the information comes out.

mike

“Okay, try it again” The voice was muffled as he yelled out to the computer with his head deep in a panel access.

“Beedoop `. . . b]uzzzzz”

“Dammit.” His feet twisted to the left as he reached for a module deeper in the system and checked all the contacts, one by one. “Reboot, try again.”

. . . . “Beedoop `. . . b]uzzzzz”

The feet stiffened for a moment and then he sighed. “Okay, reset to previous, try it again.”

“Nice to know you don’t give up easily.” Dierdre smiled at the feet as they jumped and muffled clang was followed by an even better muffled curse.

“Do you delight in scaring everyone or am I something of a hobby for you?” The computer buzzed again as though rating his answer. “Computer, reset to setting default alpha and if you buzz me again I will tell Ev on you, then you’ll be in trouble!”

Dierdre delighted laugh filled the small cockpit and he waited for the reboot, still under the console. The rattle of tools and squirming indicated he was probably cleaning up. Dierdre looked down and said in a softer, more serious voice. “The election results came in.”

There was a pause. “Since I don’t hear the pop of champagne being opened I assume this is not a congratulatory visit.”

She was silent.

He sighed and the feet went limp for a moment as he rested his head against some inner surface. “Ah well. I got some messages out there and a few people heard me. Please tell me I got SOME votes.”

“Some, but not many.”

“How was the voter turnout?”

“Lowest ever. Newer pilots were the least represented and senior pilots voted en masse.”

Another sigh echoed inside the console. “Tell me the people I favored got the votes they needed. Song Li? Teadaze?”

“Both elected.”

His voice cheered up. “Well great! The election was a success if there is a good span of representation. My not winning . . . well I suppose I knew that was coming.”

“But you tried anyways.”

“Knowing something is so doesn’t always mean believing it. I could hope.” The voice went softer for a moment. “I did hope”

She bent down to lay a hand on his leg. “You do a lot of that, don’t you?”

“Comes from being an optimistic person in a kill or be killed world. I live on hope, dreams, and a well stocked drone bay.” The sounds of tidying slowed asnd then the computer chimed it satisfaction with the current settings. “Damn, gonna have to reprogram the settings by hand again. Comm channels, battle overview, the whole shebang.”

“That bad?”

“Just time consuming and if I forget a setting it means an enemy will get a few free shots at me before I can even find and target him or her.”

“Things are not going your way right now, are they?” She asked as he stared to shimmy out of the access.

He finally was clear and looked up her from the floor, dust bunnies tangled in his dark hair and a smudge of fluidic conduit gel on one cheek. “They are going fine. What is broken, can be fixed. What I lost, I never had. You still come and scare me until I can feel my own heart beating and I look into your face and can feel . . . my own heart beating.” he blushed. “I mean . . . um”

“Amazing you lost the election, you smooth talker, you.” She smiled and he blushed even deeper. “You probably have a girl in every station you use these lines on.”

“No! I don’t go to that many stations . . .I mean . . .uh . . .”

“She was still laughing, tears coming out of her eyes when the comm chimed. “Mail back online. New message, labelled Most Urgent.”

Mike looked from her to the computer and spoke “Relay message, audio.”

[Mr Azariah, we thank you for the receipt of the last shipment of shuttles and regret to tell you that their pilot has been detained and unable to use the last six. We would appreciate assistance in the securing and transport of our lost pilot at you earliest convenience. If you are available please contact me at . . . ] The comm chimed indicating the message coordinates were now part of its files.

Dierdre looked at Mike and saw that he was pale as a ghost. “You worry about all customers of yours this way?”

Mike looked at her and paused. “This stays between us, right?”

She nodded, concern alight in her eyes.

“I have a contact who is targeting slavers. I sold her some shuttles that she used in, well, there is no nice term for it, assassinations. If she cannot fly the shuttles that means that someone has caught her. If they are coming to me for help it means one of two things and neither of them is good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Either they have broken her and I am being set up as part of her gang which means I will be flying into a trap.”

“So you don’t go.”

“Or they are afraid that their network has been compromised and that I may be removed enough to effect a rescue without being the traitor within their ranks. If I don’t go, she doesn’t get to die.”

Dierdre blinked at that.

“She has a clone. Dying would be release. No, they will break her body, mind, and soul but they will not let her go and will not let her die. It might be that I am going to be asked to go find where she is being kept and kill her. But there is only one way to know for sure.” He paused. “This is what I do. Usually for a corp, but this is what I am. A ship with guns and a mind behind it.”

She shook her head. “No, you are wrong. They are not offering to pay you, and I know you are not going to ask. What you are is a man who goes out and does what needs to be done. Even if it means killing a friend. You are the person they called because they most likely know what I know.”

“What is that?”

“That you will go.” She smiled and gently wiped the gel from his cheek. “Is she pretty?”

“Deadly and dead sexy. Doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

She kissed him on the cleaner cheek and smiled. “It is amazing you didn’t get elected with lines like that. Make the contact, be careful. I expect a full story when you get back.”

“In olden days a man would take a token of his ladies favor into battle.” Mike grinned.

“In those olden days said man would let a woman know he was considering her his lady, FIRST.” Dierdre sniffed at him then gave him another peck on the cheek and left him standing there, stunned.

“uh, yeah . . . .computer open channel to last caller . . . ”

“Beedoop `. . . b]uzzzzz”

“DAMMIT!”

***********

Lessons

Of all the parts of a computer to fail . . . the hard drive hurts the most. Mine just fried three very long days ago.

There is an oft ignored button in settings that lets you save overview. If I had used it I probably still would have lost it when the hard drive tanked. But I will use it once I get the settings done once more.

Better to have run and lost than not to have run at all is easier to say than to believe.

I do want to thank those who voted for me. Both of you were very nice.

grinning at himself

mike

Mike pushed back from the comm panel and sighed.

“Rough?” A soft voice asked from behind. He nearly shot right out of his chair in surprise.

“What the . . how did you get in?”

Dierdre looked about the room before settling against a panel that had only standby status indicators lit. “The boys were bringing on new ammo, I wandered in then.”

Mike made a note to watch the loading crews a bit more closely. “Not that I mind . . . .just you scared a weeks growth outa me there.”

She made a moue. “I doubt that, a dangerous capsuleer such as yourself?” She pointed out the view-screen at a ship being assembled across the hanger floor. “They tell me you will be shifting ships.”

Mike grinned and leaned back. “I am just a peaceful man in a violent universe. That ship will help me endure the slings and arrows . . . ”

“And missiles and lasers . . . ” She smiled. “I know an Ishtar by reputation. But why are you changing over to that from your Drake?”

Mike grimaced. “More questions . . . ”

“Something wrong?”

‘Not wrong, just I feel like everybody is asking me things lately. This Campaign for the CSM is in its final week and the news media finally seems to have noticed me.”

“Well that is good, right?”

Mike smiled and nodded. “It is and I have enjoyed the interviews but in a way they drain me emotionally. The interviewers have been very professional and kind but they still ask questions for which I must answer on the spot with something that sounds reasonable.”

“Politicians do that all the time.”

“They have strategists and campaign folks and practice a platform till they can answer the questions in their sleep. I don’t so I answer with what I think and worry after as to whether what I said was the right thing to say, or not.”

“You say what you think? Honestly?”

He sighed. “I cannot keep track of anything other than what I think and feel. So I have to be honest. It’s all I have. But in a complex world where issues have many more than just two sides honesty only flies so far. Half way through the interviews I feel like I should have been studying or had someone standing by to whisper answers in my ear. Then there are the odd messages I been getting.”

“What sort of messages?”

“Some saying that they support my campaign. One telling me that he was voting for someone else, but still enjoyed hearing from me in the interviews.”

She laughed, throwing her head back. “I can see that.”

“You can?

She nodded. “I can. So who interviewed you?”

“Well I stated with the Planet risk interview a while back.” He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “I thought that one went well enough. The questions were good and it let me take part in asking other candidates questions as well. Then came the one with the Tribune.”

She whistled softly. “They have quite the readership. Who did your interview?”

“Zarch AlDain. Seemed nice enough and he asked fair questions. Gave me a chance to say things he didn’t ask directly about and tried to cover a lot of territory in a little time. He and I agreed on one thing and that is that the CSM need to work on being a higher profile. If one of the CSM could summarize . .. not post the minutes of the meeting but something in a conversational tone, more folks might learn about the issues that are being discussed, might start to ‘care more’.” He looked her in the eyes. “But sometimes I worry promising honesty is a high risk maneuver when dealing in a world that has secrets. What is research and changes in the wind are forbidden to be given to the general populace.”

“That would be where you would have to decide what you could say and what could not be said.”

Mike grinned. ‘I am not well known for holding my tongue. I am the kid who yells that the Emporer is naked. But that interview went nicely. The other one was for internal news items among the capsuleers. A podpilot named Chainer interviewed me and then posted the q and a session for general consumption.”

“And how was that one? Is he a journalist?”

“No, but he could be. He managed to do about the same length interview and yet we hardly repeated any material other than the ‘who am I’. I had a lot more fun joking around with him and it was slightly more relaxed. With him I wasn’t as stressed . . . but I still worry about how many people will change their votes based on something I said or didn’t say.”

“The point is you said something. You are out there and leaving a mark. Those who are paying attention will notice you.”

“I know, That is why I am getting a bigger tank.” Mike grinned and gestured out at the Ishtar.

“Named it yet?”

“Kry Baby. A corp mate of mine helped me find the funds to buy this one so I thought I should do somethig to say thank you.” Mike chuckled.

“I am not sure that naming the ship that will be considered a ‘thank you’.”

“I’ll consider changing it, after I see her face when she finds out what it is called.”

“Her?” The tone did not seem to change in any audible way but Mike could swear the room got colder for a moment.

“Kry and Sab are good friends in the corp. They have been together a long time and they both are always willing to send me a message or lend a hand when times are hard.” Inside Mikes mind was going a mile a minute as he tried to figure out how to rescue himself form the conversation trap he had wandered into. “Seldom see one of them without the other around.”

“So she is just a friend?” The voice had warmed a bit.

Mike realized that every time he opened his damned mouth it was an interview. He had just not noticed it before. He settled for nodding slowly. The the warmth of the smile she gave him confirmed that, for once, he had given the right answer without saying a thing, but he was not quite sure what the real question had been . . . just like all the other interviews.

****

Lessons

Interviews drain you, best rule is tell the truth, easier to keep track of than lies.

A good interviewer does not cover the same ground others have.

There is BLOODY LOT of eve material to read and keep up with, i doubt anybody reads all of it.

mike

OOC

Not mandatory but this incident follows the Planet Risk Podcast episode 9

*******

He closed down the communication channels and leaned back. It took a moment for the pounding on the hatch to get through to him. “Knocking? Nobody ever knocks.” He tapped a control that allowed entry into the ship and turned to hear someone in heels marching up the corridor.

“Not bad but you screwed up some of it, you big goof!” Kry exclaimed as she stormed into the control room. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“We didn’t get the questions in advance. That was all off the cuff.” Mike popped open a quafe and downed it, feeling very dry after the session with LA and QP.

“I know that, and for the most part it was fine EXCEPT for the question you messed up! And it was the most important one!” She wasn’t quite yelling but it was close.

“Which question was that, oh Mining Queen?” Mike started to relax a bit and smiled into the fury of her frustration.

“The one where TeaCozy . . ”

“Um, Teadaze?” Mike softly corrected.

“Whatever, when he asked how you felt being the least experienced of the Candidates on the show. You went for the underdog status.”

“Well? To a certain extent, that is what I am.”

“Wrong. You should have taken it as if they were making you the cruiser to their battleships. You are faster, sleeker, the choice of the new generation of capsuleers.” She waved her hands about while she spoke. “You are NOT less than them, you are different. So you are not on your fiftieth incarnation of clone. What you are is what a lot of people out here are. New, not jaded. Scraping out the isk for the next ship and the next fitting. There are still things you haven’t seen, haven’t done and that means the universe still excites you.” She spun and pointed right at his face as though accusing him. “You called yourself the Average Joe. Good. Do you want the people you represent to think they are lesser beings? That they don’t measure up?”

Mike sat up, a frown forming on his face. “Of course not I . . . ”

“Well then? What are you going to do about it? Take the fight back to those other three who were on the show with you? Especially that . . .” Her voice dripped scorn. “Goon.”

“No. That is not what I am about and not what I am going to do. The CSM is an election of a board. The folks on that board are going to have to get along or NOTHING will get done. I will not throw mud, will not start fights. Hells, I thought the others did fairly well and we all agreed on a lot of things. If all four of us got elected I would count that a win not to mention a real BIG feather in the cap for the Planet Risk folks.”

She sighed. Then laughed. “You are so damn nice sometimes. You’d be polite to the pilot podding you.”

“I am serious . . . Each of those guys said stuff I agreed with, and some stuff I didn’t. They all came from different backgrounds and had areas of expertise. But they cared enough to take the time to be there, to talk to each other and to the population that listen.”

“I am serious as well. If you keep speaking of them in such glowing terms you might convince me to vote for one of them instead of you. Especially with that crack you made about mining. ‘Mr. I don’t mine excessively’” She wagged a finger at him.

“Caught that, did you?”

She nodded. “But other than that, you did well. You showed you could think big and think small. That you knew where your boundaries were and that you appreciated the boundaries of the others. I suppose the fact that there were no attacks does show that you four would get along and maybe the CSM would be more . . . open. You know most folks still don’t know what exactly the CSM is. So a lot of the votes are going to be blind ‘Her name sounds good’.”

Mike sighed and rubbed his face. “That is why I thought the Planet Risk folks were doing a good thing here. Trying to let a few more folks know what was going on.”

Kry shook her head. “But you know for all that they try, most of the people listening to a show like Planet Risk are experienced capsuleers. I mean after all, they focus a lot on wormholes. You would have done better to do an appearance on ‘Missions Collide’.”

“One little detail to that. Song Li is the host of that show and I doubt he wants to give his competition that much of a platform. I mean he is a great guy and all that but nobody should be expected to be THAT impartial. By the same regard I am glad the alliance tournament wasn’t closer so Teadaze wasn’t tempted to blow his own horn while he had a very large and captive audience.”

“I notice you didn’t mention Helen the goon.” She almost spit the name out.

“No, I didn’t. That one has me a bit . . . confused. The Goons have two official candidates and Helen is not either one of them. I don’t know if the Alliance will rearrange to vote as a block for three candidates or whether Helen is counting on an outside set of votes to make it to the finish line. Unlike the other goons Helen is actively campaigning.”

“Once a goon always a goon.” Her condemnation was final.

“Look Kry, I did what I did and now I move on. Whatr else can I do to convince people I am the right candidate.”

“Earn your decoration. Be the Cat. Get out there and get noticed. Talk to people in local, in the places you hang out. Let them know that if they vote for you they are votong for the person who is where they are, someone from their own neighborhood. That is what you do.”

“And what do I say?”

She sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Answer their questions, talk to them. Be yourself. I know you won’t kiss babies and shake hands . . . but let them meet you.”

“That. I can do.”

‘Then GET STARTED!”

***************

Lesson. People don’t know what the CSM is

People don’t know who I am

Underdog is pretty much defined in the above two statements.

Dierdre smiled as she walked up to the table where Mike had three comms open and was cursing softly. “You do not look like you are having fun.”

Mike gave an exasperated grin and swept two comms to the side, making room for her and the coffee that the waitress brought over. “I am sorting. Worse, I am trying to decide where I should be sorted.”

“Sorted?”

“The CSM finally announced the election and I made it onto the candidates list. It is a big list and I need to see where others stand and where I stand among them. I have spoken quietly to a few folks here and there but I am already seeing interviews and plans for audio broadcasts and all sorts of campaigny things.” he sighed. “I am serious about this but I need to know if others are going to take me seriously. There are enough people out there who ran for a joke that it is easy to be missed, or worse, misunderstood.”

“You don’t want to be thought of as one of the joke people?” She looked at the closest comm and turned it around so she could read it. “‘Yiff yiff?’ That is the sum of this persons platform?”

Mike grimaced. “Puts him two words ahead of some of the others. There are a lot of blank slates out there, by my count. Or they provide interstellar links to locked databases. The goon is a good example of that.”

“So you think this group,” she tapped the comm lightly “are no threat?”

“Sadly, no. There are loyalties of corp and alliance. I expect that at least two of those ‘no platform’ candidates have enough internal support to make them a force to be considered. Goons are notorious for mass efforts to advance their causes and Pandemic Legion is coming off of the high of the Alliance tournament.”

“But you still have them in this ‘pile’.”

“I narrowed the piles down into three categories. Those who are trying that I disagree with,” he tapped the comm on his left, “those who I would vote for myself” he tapped the one on his right. “And those who have not given me enough information to be sorted.” he gestured to the comm she was holding.

“I would have thought you would sort the Goon right off the bat.” She pointed to the disagree pile.

“No, I may not like some of the wars they do, but every time I do research into goon training I wish I could put some of them into capsuleer basic requirements. There are some very well thought out tactics and lessons to be gleaned from them. If I thought a Goon was going to be pushing for better education among the young up and coming poddies I would consider him or her a very valued addition to the CSM. That is one of the things I think needs some attention from the CSM is basic training. Some corps only recruit people who already ‘know the ropes’. Others have made an effort to train and teach. I think groups that favor this philosophy are closer to how I think and act.” Mike sat back. “I do some light training with new folks in my corp. Monitor the Help comm channel every now and again. Help if they need it . . . give some basic instructions on things that are not well covered in their initial education.”

“So you are in favor of improving the initial experience levels of people new to space.” She pulled out a small personal comm and entered something onto it.

“Yes, but that is a ‘mom and apple pie’ type platform issue. You are unlikely to find someone saying they want to make the start in space harder so fewer and fewer poddies survive. Even pirates want targets, if for no other reason. For all they joke about ‘carebears’ they all have associates who mine, or build, who pilot freighters and act as supports.”

“So what about this guy? He looks very pro-support.” Dierdre tapped a name on the comm before her.

“Troll, liar, call him what you like. I looked up his Concord record and he is on their ’shoot him now’ list. He is just seeing how muddy he can make the water.”

She hummed and looked at the picture attached. “He IS dead sexy.”

Mike snorted and tapped one of th comms in front of him. “Does that mean yer gonna vote for him?”

She smiled and looked Mike in the eye. “I am still down as undecided. So who is on your list of folks YOU would vote for?”

*******

Lesson.

49 people can not be evaluated, dismissed or considered in a single post or a single evening.

I doubt most people are gonna make the effort.

I also doubt everyone will agree with my opinion. But that is what opinions are all about. How I think and feel about something.

mike

He sipped his coffee and looked out onto the ship hanger complex. Small vessels scooted through the larger docked ships, carrying cargo and resupply. Bright flashes showed where work crews were busy doing repairs of battle scarred ships and dark shadows hinted at motion where less than savory trades and exchanges took place. Light and dark, action and stillness. It was liking some nest of small mechanical insects, each bustling to do their own little task.

“Quiet day.” The Scotty nodded as the waitress brought him a cup and a pastry and sat down next to Mike, also looking out.

“This is quiet?”

“Yeah, action slows down this time of day. Even some of you poddies sleep . . . or so I been told.”

“Pfft, don’t believe everything you hear.”

“So why did you call me up here?”

Mike grimaced. “Don’t make it sound like some sort of summons. I haven’t the clout to back a simple request.”

The Scotty shrugged. “The local agents like you well enough. You treat folks right and thank the bay crews when they make deliveries. Compared to a lot of folks . . . you have clout in a more personal way.”

“Manners. Ma always said they’d pay off in the long run.”

“But others think they make you look weak in the short run.”

A wolfish smile flitted across Mikes face. “I always like to be thought of as weak. But I had a few questions for you, simple ones but I cannot seem to find answers for them on the net.”

“Fire away”

“I have a button to summon my drones back to the bay, a button to send them at things that need some attention. Why don’t I have a button to send them out of the bay?”

“Tradition, mainly. Arming weapons and taking offensive action used to have a lot of interlocks so someone did not accidentaly start a shooting war. That and the fact that one button would not let the bay know which of your dozen drones you wanted launched.” Scotty held up a hand. “I know, a preset line of buttons customized to be launched in or out of sequence is not that huge of a technological shift. I am just telling you the answers I get in the trade journals.”

Mike sipped his coffee and nodded slowly. “If I were king, that is one of the things I would make a decree about.”

“And what else, yer highness?” The hanger supervisor grinned and bowed slightly.

Mike stared off into space. “I have a cousin who is a groundling. Works in the local police force . . . kind of a ground based Concord. He tells me that a persons vehicular insurance is voided if the loss is shown to occur while the person is committing a crime. If we moved that idea up into space it might make a few hulk miners sleep a little better in the belts.”

“You out to stop the suicide gankers?”

“Now that is the thing. Yes and no. There have been times when I could tell that there was not a podpilot on board, just some mechanical program running the vessel on automatic. Big corps keep trying to replace the pilots. THEM I would love to see hunted into extinction. But if an average joe is out mining in a hulk, half asleep, to a ganker looks just about the same. He IS working and he does have a right to be there. If there was a way to tell the difference, a test that could be performed, then a ‘hunter’ could apply for a license and their kill would be considered law enforcement, not a crime.”

“The term you are looking for is ‘privateer’.”

“If I use that term I would expand a lot more on their scope of operations. They could hunt anybody who was in a system and considered ’shoot on sight’ by the locals. I have to make fast and quiet transitions through Amarr space right now. Bad enough the local constabulary try to lock me up. I shudder to think what would happen if the militia of the area or just people who don’t mind working for slavers also were allowed to shoot.”

“Might mean you’d have to avoid that area a lot more.”

Mike glanced sideways at the Scotty but his eyes were calmly surveying the hangers. “It does make sense, even if it would make life tougher for me.”

“What it would do is make life more interesting for a lot of folks. When Concord starts getting help with . . . well see that ship down there? The one being loaded up. All the damage we repaired on it were from sentry guns. He tanked his way in here even though he ain’t welcome and once his is docked we are supposed to treat him just the same as you.”

“That is insane.”

“Ain’t it?”

“Speaking of insane, I scouted a few wormholes and sites in a local system for some corpmates. Drove me crazy that I had to dock or drop a can for them to see what is pure information. If I can talk to them and even send ship fittings on the comm channels why can’t I send a simple location?”

“Now ya got me stumped on that one, boss.”

Mike grinned. “Problem is, who do you ask that can actually do something about it?”

“Why not you?”

“What?”

“Step up. I know you don’t think you represent anybody and in a way that is what makes you right for the job. The axes that some of the big corps and alliances have to grind make their viewpoints skewed. They want changes that make life better for them. You want changes that make some things better for you and some that make things worse for you. Why?”

“Just because it makes something worse for me does not mean it is not the right thing to do.”

The Scotty smiled widely. “That right there. That is why you should step up.”

“Step up to what?”

“The CSM. The Council of Stellar Management. They are the movers and the shakers that change tech manuals. They determine how research funding will be directed in major centers across the galaxy.”

“I thought they were just the galactic equivalent of a High School Student Council, with all the petty bickering and popularity contests that go with it.”

The Engineer laughed. “That, too. But they are the only way for a pilot to even try to make a change. So you can wait for someone else to be the agent of the change or you can try to be that agent. Step Up, Mike. Step the hell up.”

*****

Lessons: It is easy to complain about something, to be willing to work towards addressing the complaint is something else.
It is scary not knowing if the application for CSM candidacy actually made it in.
IF it did, and IF you have something you would like to see ‘made right’ send me a note.
Even if I don’t manage to qualify as a candidate, post a comment here.
I am trying to represent the average players (whoever they are) and the new ones. Not the mega corps and alliances.
Make little changes in simple mechanics of the game, not radically changes as to who owns what space.
I love this game and want to make it better, not different.
If you agree with that and you think of it, toss me a vote when the time comes, please?

mike