Paths

Kiruss stood at a fork in the road, to be more precise he stood at a very busy intersection, in his life. A post in the center with many planks of wood shaped into arrows, destinations scrawled crudely on them, gave him direction to where these paths went. This marker though gave no indication as to what was right and what was wrong, but just before the horizon of each path stood something he would hoped or knew he would obtain from this path.

Some showed glamour, riches, and associations while others had what almost appeared to be images of Kiruss himself, somewhere in the future along that particular path. His eyes continued back to a very thin path, one where he would not be able to walk beside anyone as a friend along it, only having to be lead or to lead himself. At the end of this path though stood a man and two hounds. The simplest (though not least favoured) 'prize' in comparison to the other paths, each having a far more detailed or visually appealing end point, but still Kiruss continued to fall back to this one path.

There is of course no such place like this in the real-world, an intersection where one can go to visually see the choices that lay before them, but that doesn't make it any less real to Kiruss as he opens his eyes. Looking about the room he has shared with Kyber and occasionally their hounds for quite some time, the decor was plain and boring, there was a sense that many people had inhabited this room but few had stayed for long. Kiruss wondered how long the two would stay here themselves.

He twitched his nose and scratched at the side of his jaw for a few moments before standing, passing through the small door to the refresher almost going in sideways like a crab because the door was so thin, washing his face before returning back to the edge of the bed where he sat down. He contemplated back to this wild intersection his mind had created for him to cope and all of the choices he really could make; it was not as if choosing one banished him from dawdling along to another path here and there, Kyber had told him this very thing in regards to 'his' path, except that it was very likely choosing that path would block off others indefinitely.

Regardless of this worry Kiruss closed his eyes again to the intersection, laying down on the bed while still leaving his feet to hang over the edge, then taking a step forward.

.

Sport

Kiruss stood there with his hair still slightly damp from only being out of the pod long enough to dress and make his way to one of the few rooms still operating aboard Pas La Fin, he was fidgeting impatiently, the small team of technicians working in-front of him.

A blonde haired Achura woman shot him a look of question, "We can have the report sent to your quarters when it is ready, Monsieur Dasun, no need for you to stand around here all day" she cooed as if trying to appease an impatient child.

He stopped his fidgeting, peering at her, opening his mouth as if about to reprimand her for speaking so down to him. Him, a capsuleer, a man greater than she would ever be. He could do what he wanted and he would continue having the means to do so as long as he owned this tower.

A few seconds passed as he tried to find the select words that he felt would have the best affect at bringing her down a peg or two when he realized exactly what he was doing.

She blinked a few times, apparently the look on his face giving way to his thoughts, standing and giving a small bow.

"My apologies Monsieur Dasun," she quickly and quietly said, sitting back down and keeping her eyes on her terminal.

"No," he began, using his fingers to massage at his temples, "I shall wait in my quarters, you are right."

He quickly turned and walked out of the small room, missing the moments after as the other technicians in the room shot glances at the Achuran woman disdainfully. On his way back to his quarters he really realized to himself how much he needed to get out of this wormhole, he was becoming short and bitter with the remaining staff on the tower and today he had reveled in the opportunity to dispatch several other capsuleers who had stumbled and trapped themselves in the home system.

As the confirmation that many of them had self-destructed their pods to avoid being dispatched by the fleet and that they would return back to home system, in that moment then, he had been filled with a sense of not pity, compassion, or mercy for those that remained. But a sense of sport and regret that they had not allowed the fleet to chase after them. It would have been something to pass the time, the days, until he could have what he wanted again.

Kiruss slumped against the wall of the control tower's hall, he slid down and sat there, disgust for himself plain on his face. Thankful though at least that no staff would likely come down this hallway, to see him like this, as many of the rooms no longer served a purpose. But just then a blonde woman knelt down beside him, a datapad in her hand that displayed a report Kiruss could not see through eyes blurred, she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Monsieur Dasun?"



.

Departure

Kiruss hadn't so much as left the bed this morning, instead rolling around for the last few hours, knowing full well that he had to get up sooner or later. Instead he would occasionally sit up to glance at his work station where he knew he could at least busy himself or glance at the exit of the quarters where he could make his way to the hanger and take care of sleepers to pass the time. But instead he would rather just lie here in this self-pitying state.

It had not even been 24 hours since Kyber had departed the system, and only just over a day since Kiruss had announced that Advent Ltd. would be shutting down. But yet it felt as if he had no reason to get out of bed, why bother? Wouldn't be time spent with Kyber, wouldn't be Sleepers to make profit from by the looks of the Alliance's comms, wouldn't even be anything to look into on the tower as most of the work now was just shutting down each section as it was no longer required to keep the thing going. This month couldn't come to an end sooner, and it had just started.

Enough of this pity party. He got up, shuffled immediately to the refresher and took a long shower, exiting and rummaging around for clothing. He put on some trousers and then stumbled across an old shirt, it was Kyber's, he must have left it behind. Kiruss sat down on the bed, held the shirt for a few moments before putting it on, then lay down and encased himself back in the sheets and blankets of his bed.



.

Awake

All the lights in the single-room quarters were out, all except the light being created from the display of the workstation as Kiruss sat lightly illuminated and squinting at the screen, his eyes still not adjusted to the bright screen in the dark room. A holographic Jin-Mei woman, no bigger than a desk lamp, flickered nearby and was projected next to the screen on Kiruss' workstation. Her tone was decisive and her words quick, but not rushed, she paid no attention to Kiruss' mumbled salutations and the bags under his eyes instead jumping right into a discussion on figures and contracts.

"Dasun, excess ore for transport has been contracted to Robspierre, the expected profits to be made from selling to the Engineers is acceptable at best. Please make sure Robspierre deposits the ore back into our corporate hangers after he is done using Astral's facilities. We are reaching the end of this month."

No shit. She flickered out without another word before Kiruss could even nod and he continued to stare at the place where the projection was for a few moments before turning back to his screen. This is horrible. He stared at it for even longer, the woman's interruption apparently enough of a distraction for him to lose what little motivation he had to begin with when he decided to get some work done, despite the fact that it was some ungodly hour in regards to his sleeping cycle.

Enough of this. He shuffled back over across the room, trying as carefully to crawl back into bed without waking his partner, freezing instantly as a groggy grunt and shuffle was heard as he unceremoniously flopped down into the bed. He quickly shuffled under the various blankets and wrapped his arms around the other body. Several minutes passed before he sighed to himself, having not fallen asleep, rolling back onto his side of the bed staring at the ceiling. He glanced over to see two eyes peering at him.

"Sup Scruffs?"



.

Cold

Kiruss trundled up the boarding ramp of the shuttle quickly, bundled tight within his coat as the cold air continued to bite at his face until he passed through the containment field of the modest yet roomy shuttle, quickly removing himself of the large and furry coat as his body adjusted to the heated interior of the craft. Touching a hand to a nearby panel inserted in the wall he raised the ramp whilst querying the cockpit, "Salut Pilot, please return us to orbit and to l'Aide's hold," Kiruss requested softly; not waiting for a response he moved himself slowly through a narrow metal hallway, widening his stance momentarily as the craft lurched free of the landing pad, he entered a small room where he sat quickly in a lounging chair.


"Avoidance works for some, I suppose the worm hole is the ultimate expression of that."
"That is the idea, yes."


He grunted to himself, going over the conversation that was had, regretting that last quip before flickering out of the channel. He wasn't trying to avoid anything by being in the wormhole. It was work and work takes you places, especially when he was the kind of person who's work was primarily in space. It was just very convenient that his work took him to a place free of many of the issues that plagued the cluster. Every time things were going slow or he was just not as engaged in his current activity he would glance at The Summit, finding it to constantly being plagued with this issue or this tear jerking problem. He didn't have to worry about that out here, at least not yet, and hopefully never so.

But enough of that, he just had lovely tea with three lovely ladies and that was nothing to stick your nose up at. Getting to know more about Katrina and Simca was a joy that Kiruss enjoyed greatly, the two were actually very relaxed and fun in their home setting. Meeting this Mei was fantastic, a quirky and easily embarrassed individual such as Kiruss, he hoped to see her around more. He smiled lightly to himself as the shuttle finally docked in the hold of l'Aide, standing and making his way out of the shuttle.



 .

Isolated

Kiruss hadn't put his foot down anywhere that wasn't a bulkhead on Pas La Fin in so long that he couldn't exactly pinpoint it to any specific date. In the pod, at his workstation, in the pod, observation deck, in the pod, in the a laboratory. It was an endless cycle. You could argue that he had been "out", but docking his ship up to some station in some system that he was never likely to visit again, not even leaving the pod because the system of decanting, washing, and dressing was too much effort for simply organizing contracts for James, it wasn't the same. Sure he had visited James now and again, but in holographic form, with his own feet still firmly chained on the tower, that last thought leaving Kiruss with a frown.

Katrina visiting had only further dug the idea into his mind that he might need to get out more, as her Buzzard left the staging tower, flinging itself across the system where she was going to risk around two dozen jumps of deep null-space just to get out. Kiruss couldn't help but envy her in some way, not for what the cluster had to offer, but for the feeling of not being contained to one system; envy for the fact that she could choose her own path again and again. It could be argued that she was separated from what she wanted though, giving her a reason to go back for not wanting to be separated any longer from what she loved, a romantic across the stars thought that brought a smile to Kiruss' face. Kiruss had duties, a home, and someone here for him. No reason to go back.

A lack of other capsuleers around when he was didn't help either, where was Kat? He was apparently producing results without Kiruss even being around, which was good, of course. But he was still missing that certain head-up-in-the-asteroid-belts mindset that the man had developed. It was refreshing, but lately their cycles seemed to have shifted for some reason, he would have to check in with him somehow.

So as Kiruss trudged along the halls, stretching his legs, he stopped to glance out of a window and past the hum of the forcefield bubble encasing the tower. He was suddenly overcome with a feeling of claustrophobia, not from the walls of the tower or the bubble of the forcefield, but of the vast expanses of this class five wormhole, a sense of irony running even with the claustrophobic fears. Trapped within a place that was supposed to be without boundaries.



.

Rebirth

Change always seemed to scare people, large and noticeable changes that the masses could coral together and stand up against, where their lives would be altered in some horrendous way and they would never be able to go back to the way things once were. Kiruss wasn't exactly afraid of change so much as he was just open to everything that was presented to him. Being moved several systems away at your parents whim, having the capsuleer life thrust upon him, almost getting your footings in the stable high-sec regions only to be swept off to Placid, and just as quickly, some would argue too quick and too conveniently, being moved into a wormhole system and managing a control tower. Well that was all just fine with Kiruss and he was content to just go with the flow.

So having to give his corporation a "rebirth" of sorts wasn't seem as that big of a deal, in some ways a change can bring peace to you. This is what Kiruss was feeling now as he sat at his workstation, as usual, having recently placed a small ad over the IGS. Hopefully something would come of it, despite Kat's protests that it would dampen his profits, it would be nice to have some more bodies around the tower to help the cause.

He had put a lot of emphasis on what they could earn out here in the wormhole. If Kat was any indication, profits could motivate people to do what they might not normally do. Kat really didn't seem like the type to go looking for wormholes all on his own. He probably could have lived out the rest of his days, which would be a very long time being a capsuleer, mining the same rocks in the same asteroid field. Then again Kiruss really didn't know Kat that well.

If you build it, they well come. Well Kiruss built it, suppose he would just be waiting now, for likely a long time. Capsuleers, for all their curiosity, extravagance, and liquid assets were apparently shy of cutting themselves off from the Cluster for like, what, possibly forever? Sissies.

.

Waking

The explosion shook the pod as it was jettisoned, unprotected and defenseless, 'encased' in the field of a probe disrupting his warp drive. The pod was being targeted by the assailants second-hand as Kiruss angled the slow but nimble pod towards the edge of the field. Konici was already gone, his corpse appearing on his overview as both attackers turned their full attention onto Kiruss. The pod shook again as it's shields were quickly reduced by a single volley and damage was taken to the minimal amount of armour that was present.


Warning signals blared but there was little else Kiruss could do, they don't equip these things with microwarpdrives. Six percent armour remained as Aura warned of the likely damage about to be sustained to the pod's internal being, namely, Kiruss. But the second volley missed, with only a few kilometers remaining Kiruss was not hopeful, he was a small target but a fragile one. They could scrape the pod and he would still likely find himself in a cloning bay, who knows how far from the wormhole system. 


But he had somehow made it, a third volley flying past him as the pod passed through the bubble like field, his warp drive activating as it quickly soared away from the wreckage.


Kiruss' eyes opened wide and quickly, he was apparently laying on the couch of his quarters. He must have fallen asleep here while he was working. He removed the goggles, a handy device he had picked up that allowed him to not be chained to his workstation, sitting up and peering around the dimly lit room. He was alone apparently and this didn't please him. You don't like waking up from weird flashback-dreams where you were about to take the new clone out for a spin and then find yourself alone.

Why did it even happen anyways? Not the actual event, he knows exactly why that happened. Kiruss got cocky and Konici ended up paying the real price, he wasn't too proud of that. But it wasn't as if it was haunting him, Konici was a capsuleer himself, there was no real damage done to the man.

Perhaps it was just the stress getting to him, making everything more dramatic in his head than it actually was. He need to fix things, and fast.

Also where the hell was Kat.



.

Warp Drive Active

Daphne II dived down, passing between debris as several missiles impacted with the battlecruisers shields, a volley of artillery fired through the vacuum impacting with the Sleeper's hull and finishing off what was left of it. Kiruss aligned the battlecruiser out simultaneously reading over the last scan from his ship's sensors.

"No new signals. Good. Tower still quiet. Better. No ship signatures on scan. Excellent."


The ship warped off, coming out of warp a few thousand meters away from a large wormhole, the system's star could be seen through the large cosmic anomaly. Kiruss took advantage of the quiet locus to examine it. The various camera drones focusing on the magnificent anomaly. Capable of throwing him who knows how far across the reaches of space safely, but at any moment could become unstable and trap him here, possibly forever or until he was driven mad enough to self-destruct his pod. The man turned his Hurricane towards the wormhole, covering the distance quickly, and was pulled through by it's forces.

On the other side he did a quick scan, safe as usual, and turned the ship towards his corporation's tower. While in the warp he let his mind wander as he had told Kyber to do more often, he was probably off making sure his people at his own tower were doing fine. He registered enjoyment at the thought that the man had essentially stranded himself here in this wormhole system and set-up a several hundred million ISK tower and defense system for what he assumed was to allow him to spend more time around Kiruss, though the ISK he was making probably didn't hurt as well.

He brought his attention back to his ships, finally having his pod transferred to his ship fitted for taking care of sites filled with Fullerite gas. The activity was time consuming and solitary, it was perfect for him. The ISK he made selling the gas to Wormhole Engineers wasn't bad either, no idea what they did with it, but their tower had several reactors. He wasn't as much an industrialist as an opportunist. Getting certified for gas mining took no time at all and had already paid itself back quickly.

The Thorax aligned back to the wormhole, entering warp quickly, Kiruss turned his attention back to the task at hand. Would be a shame to find himself floating in his pod because he was spending more time daydreaming about what his evening would entail, than paying attention to his scanners; something that was something easy to do when connected to a pod and watching the harvesting modules cycle



.

Figures

The small workstation was pressed against a wall free from any posters or exterior facing windows, it would have been distracting, the desk had several view screens all angled so that someone sitting at the center of the station would be able use them all simultaneously. Kiruss' hands were resting on the keyboard but his gaze was past the screens, deadpan stare with eyes squinting, trying to figure out where that last thought had gone. His mind for the past few weeks was lost to a mentally exhaustive state where unless it was a simple task to delegate to another member of Advent or to simply follow the orders of Greater Realm's fleet commanders, then it was unlikely that Kiruss was able to do it efficiently and without pause.

And then just like that the thought returned to him and he quickly, eyes opened wide, returned his gaze to the view screens as he inputted data concerning the last few days and going over readouts for projections of the coming weeks.

"I wonder if all CEOs go through this kind of thing," he mused to himself as he continued to input processed ore that James had relocated and he was now trying to sell, "or if it depends on the project and the number of people assisting you."

Numbers, probably, though if he had an exorbitant amount of people he would likely have trouble controlling them all, not without a second-in-command. Unlikely anyone would want that job. Though if he had just a few more people he wouldn't be running around trying to take care of everything. Not to say he wasn't doing this alone and pulling all the way, mercy no. James not only invested in his corporation but was providing valuable logistics support back in known-space and Kat was to be given literally all the credit for the profit projections he was reading thanks to his mining expertise.

He pushed back off from the desk with an exhaustive sigh, chair gliding a few feet away and spinning a half-quarter around so that he faced the small quarters, a few boxes remaining in a small corner. Slumping his shoulders forward and keeping his hands in his lap. A few foreign items here and there that he hadn't taken the time to inspect yet and an even larger number of items that he had failed to notice the first time he walked into the room, coming to sit at the workstation almost immediately, funny how you notice these kinds of things only when you take a second exhaustive look.

He would take the time to inspect them all later, not out of suspicion, but out of curiosity and a yearning to learn more about the man from his possessions. If that was even a valid way to learn about him, he doubted it. For now though, he slowly pushed himself back to the workstation backwards with a reluctant feet and an even more so reluctant mind.

"Ungh."



.

Choices

He sat there, a small chip being tossed around his palm and through his fingers, he was silent and his gaze almost unnerving and deranged. It was a disconcerting scene; silent and contemplative but with an expression on his face that ruled out that idea that he was daydreaming of brighter days or futures to escape the cold and metallic world he now lived in.

Your choices in life define who you are.

He mused over this rather abstract saying. The chip he fumbled around was one he had found in the process of his own organization and adjustment to the new home, a rather exotic variety in comparison to it's more well known and easy-going counterparts, the 'happy chips.'

If his choices really did define who he was now, and in the future, did that mean a path of deviance led to a future that could only be deviance? He had heard of many cases of people being "turned around" or in Amarr space "shown the path of God," but did these really hold any merit, and if they didn't were these "saved" truly only on a delayed path to their own destruction?

But then perhaps the choice to change lifestyles changed your future as well. It was a choice after all, at least in most cases.

Kiruss grunted as he stood, pocketing the chip in the process, moving over to a small workstation set-up in his minimalistic and compact quarters. He sat down activating several displays, immediately accessing the tower's current status, the readout displayed the following:

TOWER: PAS LA FIN
STATUS: ONLINE
DEFENSES: OPERATIONAL


INCIDENT REPORT: 05.09.YC113
BESTOWER CLASS VESSEL SHOT DOWN
REGISTERED TO: Kybernetes Moros


He frowned at the screen, he refused to delete the report, a reminder that he needed to be more vigilant when advising the operators of this tower how to do their job. The incident had made him reconsider if he could manage a corporation. If he could not instruct simple battery operators on who and who not to shoot then how could he grab a hold on the markets, organize capsuleers during operations, or any of the many tasks he had taken on in the past two months.

Although Kyber had assured him that it was not that big of a deal, and he clearly wasn't upset with him as evident by all the boxes now in his quarters. It still irked him though, what if he was holding back?



.

Solitude

Kiruss sat by himself in a small transport shuttle destined for Pas La Fin's ship hanger array. Not so much a private shuttle as the many technicians and other support staff from the tower simply chose not to sit in the two seats that were free on either side of him, choosing to stand. It didn't bother him, why should it? In fact it should be expected, he was something much more than them and likely ever would be due to genetic limitations. He immediately brushed this thought off though for fear of creating himself some kind of superiority complex. Kiruss was about as domestic and plain as a capsuleer could come and he was happy like that.

As the small shuttle entered the hanger and came to a light stop he shuffled himself off the shuttle and was pleased that Kat had manged to bring himself in a sizable fleet of mining ships. Things were finally coming together, and hey, at least he was not alone on this tower anymore. Though in the past few days he had not been that alone anyways. But it was nice to have a fellow corporation member roaming the halls, even though Kat spent much of his time in the asteroid belts. He was driven and aware of the bottom line and Kiruss was happy to have him on board.

He moved himself through the halls of the large hanger structure. James had made a visit himself and Kiruss was glad that he seemed pleased with the set-up, though he had not stayed long. The man seemed to not like wormholes that much, Kiruss was happy to have someone that remained more on the outside anyways. He would make a note to ask James if he actually had any experience with wormholes as Kiruss had neglected to give James any sort of formal interview, he was a good man, very driven by his own morals.

"Monsieur Dasun?" A voice piped up behind Kiruss and he turned on his heel to face a technician, datapad in hand.

"Ouais?" he responded, as kind as possible, again he didn't want some ominous oppressor vibe going around but there had to be a good reason one of them had piped up to talk to him.

"The new modules have been fitted to your Celestis, you can begin focusing on Ladar sites, Mlle. Madeveda has apparently left you several sets of coordinates." he blurted out quickly, his eyes on his datapad the entire time.

Kiruss nodded, thanking him and watched as he scurried off into some corridor. He sighed to himself lightly and made his way down a series of turns until he found where his pod was being kept, he turned to the technician that was stationed there to keep it prepared at all times, signaling to begin the process.



.

Nothing To See Here

"And you salvaged the thing aftah?" Allyna sputtered between cackling, "Too good, too good. Don't know why he bothers comin' round here anymore aftah a second time bein' shot by us."

Kiruss sat there, arms folded and looking rather childish in a large sitting chair. The two were on the observation deck of Advent Ltd.'s tower. Hum sound from the forcefield ever prevalent even competing with Allyna's coarse and loud "laugh."

"Why did he stick around?" Kiruss wondered to himself. Not that he was complaining at all. But Kiruss would have thought a few things over himself if he kept finding himself a primary target every time he tried to visit Kyber. He hoped he wouldn't be telling his own people aboard his tower about this, he didn't want to be shot, but yet he always found himself in situations where he was.

"Awe come off that 'tude," Allyna rolled her eyes, trying to be sympathetic, "He can't have been tha' mad, heck by what you said it was just a little inconvenience." She punched him in the shoulder. He never understood how that was supposed to make him feel better, but she did it a lot. "By tha' way you make it sound. Wasn't no big deal tah him."

"I still feel horrible, Allyna." Kiruss mumbled quietly to himself, more than to her. He couldn't even remember a time he had gotten as angry as he had. Heck, he couldn't even remember what exactly happened when he had gotten mad after it was confirmed Kyber's Bestower had been shot down. All he remembered was that he almost put the man behind the targeting systems into an escape pod to "show him" how it felt.

"He's a little shook up is all. Ya almost sent him into vacuum after all." She tried to sound soothing, but the way she spoke made everything sound hoarse.

"I don't mean about that, not even the slightest."

Hum

The hum of the force field could be heard throughout the station no matter where you were within it, a constant reminder to the inhabitants of the tower that they were in a place that was not friendly in nature, with sleepers just around the corner or perhaps a roving band of capsuleers intent on nothing more than to cause havoc on others.

The sound could have likely been avoided with the purchase of something less "industrial" as he had put it the other day, but Kiruss felt some kind of charm was held in the designs of the Minmatar. Something about putting together a large, important, and costly structure with the minimum parts and no thought on aesthetic appeal and then throwing it into space hoping it stayed together, that took some real balls.

Kiruss Dasun stood in front of a large window, arms crossed in silent thought. Nothing could be seen through the window and in fact even past the force fields protective bubble except the moon that the structure itself was anchored to.

"Still mad 'bout ya Sansha-boy bein' shot up by our gun guys, eh?" a woman chimed behind Kiruss, interrupting his thought and causing him to jump a little bit. So caught up that he hadn't heard her boots clanking through the metal halls, she was right though, she was always right about what Kiruss was thinking.

"No, Allyna," he began a sorry attempt at keeping face, "I was just mulling over how we're going to logistically get the rest of our crew in. You know that new Robspierre isn't as sharp a scanner as you are." He turned away from the window to face her, not surprised that she was looking as tom-boyish as ever in a set of coveralls she likely swindled from a mechanic who left their locker open.

She shrugged, "S'why you pay me. We'll get 'em in, they might not be able to leave s'all." She snorted and continued, clearly enjoying herself, "At least not without chummin' up to me a little. Then maybe I'll see 'bout givin' 'em a hand."

Kiruss turned back to the window, refolding his arms tightly as Allyna steps in beside him, hands dug into the many pockets of the coveralls.

"Ya no fun anymore, y'know tha'?"