Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
29 August YC 128
A thin smile appeared on Aura’s lips as she looked at the card, “Hmm… Who would have thought?”
“What? What does it mean?” I asked anxiously.
Aura turned to me and intoned, “The cards smile upon you today, Captain Korff. They sent The High Priestess to guide you on the first leg of your journey into the unknown, and she leads you through a very familiar path. The path goes through her domains of receptivity and memory. To successfully navigate it, you will need to listen to the call of the Void and follow it to the place where memories are hidden and protected. Overcome the guardians of the secret knowledge and claim it for yourself. Only then you will complete your first quest.”
I looked at Aura in bewilderment, “You said you’d give me a task, not a load of hogwash. What’s that ‘call of the Void’? Is it some kind of allegory?”
“Of course it’s an allegory,” said Aura in her normal tone, “It’s tarot, after all, not a fortune cookie.” She continued excitedly, “Vlad, you are on the brink of removing the veil that covers your future. Try to feel the vibe and grasp the thread that will lead you to your destination.” Aura paused, looked at my confused face and asked in a tired voice, “Or do I need to draw a map for you?”
“Well,” I said meekly, “a map would be nice.”
Aura sighed, “Alright, Captain, if you want a map, all you need to do is open your Probe Scanner window.”
Probe Scanner? The scanner showed anomalies and signatures… A few things clicked together, and the penny dropped and rattled in my stupid empty head.
“Wait, do you mean exploration? The cosmic signatures are the call of the Void, and the containers at relic and data sites are the memories?”
“Yes!” Aura beamed and clapped her hands. “I knew you would get it!”
“Took me a while,” I conceded. “Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect — a lifetime of piracy, attacking a Keepstar, ninja mining — and all that suspense fizzled out resulting in a regular exploration run.”
“I was as surprised as you,” admitted Aura. “My system does not require a lifetime commitment to anything but it does have some unfamiliar assignments. I am so glad that you managed to draw The High Priestess.”
“Yeah, it’s not too bad,” I mused. “If I am lucky, there may be a data site waiting for me right in Tsuguwa, and I won’t even need to jump through a star gate.”
“Whoa,” Aura raised her eyebrows, “not so fast, champ. Where you are going to look for the exploration sites is not your decision to make. You’ve surrendered your agency to the randomness, and the cards will tell you exactly what to do. To find out the details of your assignment, you’ll need to draw two minor arcana cards and one of the five major arcana cards.”
“Which five?” I asked curiously.
“The Devil, The Fool, The Chariot, The Emperor or The Magician. They will tell you which pirate faction you are going to rob.”
“Oh, you mean that it may not be Guristas?”
Aura chuckled, “May not even be the high-sec. That’s what the minor arcana cards are for. Now, draw.”
The very next card I turned over was that damned Fool! Given it represented some ‘major endeavour’ if drawn first, I guess I dodged a bullet there.
Aura buried her face in her hands and mumbled, “I can’t believe that.”
“Can’t believe what?”
She looked up at me and intonated, somewhat sarcastically, “The Fool’s independence and irreverence very well matches the rebellious, anti-establishment character of… Guristas Pirates. Look, if the next minor arcana card turns out to be cups, I’ll stop believing that the laws of randomness apply to you.”
“What’s so special about cups?”
“Cups represent high-sec. This tarot reading stuff is more fun than I expected. Let’s see if your luck holds.”
I turned over the next card… The Star.
“Major arcana,” said Aura in a tense voice, “draw another one.”
Next card was The Sun.
“Another one.”
Strength.
“Keep drawing.”
The Moon.
“Still a major. Draw one more.”
I turned over the next card. In the background, there were ruined spires of skyscrapers and the billowing red smoke. At the top was drawn a clock that showed eight past ten. The foreground was occupied by a figure with a skull-like face and glowing red eyes. The figure crouched on a table or an altar and was surrounded by five goblets — three standing and two overturned. The card was labelled Five of Cups.
I heard a strange sound and looked up from the cards. It was Aura — she was laughing hysterically.
“I… I…” she started saying but was overcome by another burst of uncontrollable laughter. When she finally took control of her emotions, she said, “To be honest, Vlad, when I invented this system, I thought I would have a bit of fun at your expense. But now it appears that you are going to have the last laugh. I shall not be surprised if you find the exploration sites right here in Tsuguwa and be back on your couch 30 minutes later. But we still have one more card to draw. It will tell you how many sites you’ll need to hack and what type.”
“And what’s the largest number of sites I might need to explore?” I asked suspiciously.
“Just four,” Aura replied. “But the only high-sec system in which we found four exploration sites was in a pocket. So I hope you’ll have to travel a bit to finish this assignment. Let’s see what the future holds for you,” she said and gestured at the deck.
I drew the next card. It was The Tower.
“Not a minor. Draw another one,” Aura instructed.
Wheel of Fortune.
Aura shook her head in frustration, “Vlad, you should have shuffled the deck more thoroughly. There are only 22 major arcana cards in a 78-card deck but you’ve got eight of them in the first nine cards!”
“Hey, I am not an automaton,” I objected. “I did my best in the allocated time. If you want a better shuffle, try doing it yourself.”
Aura made an offended face and showed me a deck of cards that dropped into her holographic hands and passed through them, spilling on the ground.
I pointed a finger at her, “My point exactly. Everyone’s a critic until they try doing it themselves.”
But I have to admit that Aura had a point — the next two cards I drew were also major arcana — The Devil and Temperance. The third card was not. It showed a cityscape in the background. A lightning was hitting one of the skyscrapers from the purple-grey skies. A blindfolded woman dressed in tattered black clothes was walking towards me. In her hands she held two crossed glowing swords.
“Hmm,” said Aura, “Two of Swords. The number of sites you need to hack is proportional to the rank of a minor arcana card. Two is almost the lowest, so you’ll have to hack just one. The swords suit is aligned to the element of air which is as ephemeral as information you find at data sites. So here is your assignment, Captain Korff: find one Guristas data site in high-sec and obtain the artifacts they have hidden there.”
