Leaving Home.

A short story set in the EVE Online Universe.
EVE Online is a product of the awesome folks at CCP games.

I screamed.

The tiny, dark space I was in was filling with fluid.

I knew the space was tiny as a large number of small lights did nothing more than define its claustrophobic boundaries, not enough to illuminate the space.

The fluid was rising.

I screamed again, and gagged as I reflexively inhaled after the fluid had filled the entire space...

I was drowning.

A flash of memory... what was that? looked like space, deep space...

Was it memory? Where am I? What happened?

Again, a flash of memory, longer now, easier to focus on. I was concentrating on holding my breath, so my thoughts focussed. I recall jumping into Pakkonen in my shuttle.

My shuttle? I fly spaceships? Who am I?

Im getting light headed, why arent my arms moving? Why cant I bash on the walls? Why can't I escape?

A flash, different, a giant spear, stabbing the night sky. What? It's familiar...

Why?

Again memories flood in. The little red telltale next to the security status, blinking red, ignored, on the edge of my field of view. Im so used to this trip that I forget Pakkonen is beyond the range of CONCORD's patrols.

Was I ambushed? killed? who are CONCORD?

No, thats not possible, somehow I know that. Why isn't it possible?

I can barely fight the urge to inhale. Going numb all over.

A flash of something... different... a giant ship floating in space, the spear in the background. Oddly familiar...

Why?

More memories flash past.
Im floating outside a Caldari station in my Falcon, that same giant ship appearing next to me. It's "CMDR Smurf", Shamus, my good friend and the ship is called a Rorqual.
The bright flash of light as my biometric data is scanned and transferred to the clone vat within the huge ship.
Then, in a blink, its gone.
When my cynosural field generators cycle down I dock again.

And clone jump.

I splutter a little as I inhale the fluid deeply into my lungs, rapidly recovering as the oxygenated fluid settles down my reflex to gasp. I'm neither drowning nor dead, I'm in Pure Blind, lawless space.

In my pod, the small capsule that allows my clone based immortaility and affords me the ability to control an entire starship with my mind alone. Im a pod pilot, Jack "riprjak" Scratchard; Industrialist, Researcher and fledgeling combat pilot.

I hate clone jumping, those brief moments of disorientation and the dislocated feeling. Still, that was my first jump to a ship and it is much worse. I hope it gets easier.

I relax and close my eyes; the neural projection of the POS tower, the "spear" from my visions, and the Rorqual snap into focus; I look at the elapsed time. Not even 30 seconds since I jumped.

Here I am, floating in our shipyard in pure blind, having left the safety of empire for the first time. I take in the vista of space, note the bright new star burning here as in my old home system, a comforting touch of familiarity in this new environment.

As my heart rate returns to normal, I turn my attention to the POS, accessing the ship hangar. I concentrate on my Drake, Dauntless, my thirty third ship carrying her name; even the secure space of empire isn't "safe".

As the automated systems eject her unceremoniously into space, the Rorqual flares and vanishes, jumping back home. I take a moment to admire the clean lines of the drake as she floats there in space and, with the excitement that accompanies new discoveries, concentrate on engaging the docking systems; my pod is drawn into her protective embrace.

Time to see what the unsecured expanses of our universe have to offer.

Once again, but for the first time in this body, I hear the calming voice of my computer...
"Warp Drive Active".