In a whisper Jeb asked me whether we were lost about EVE ISK, and I did not know what to tell him. A part of me - the rebellious part, I supposed, though it did not feel quite so - wanted to say yes. Another, more sensible part suspected that we might have a new world on our hands about EVE ISK.

We were a backwater colony of the Gallente Federation, established so far back in time those historical records on our foundation were inconclusive. Our leaders, such as they were, maintained that this proved we had been there for a long time. Truth was, we had likely just kept shoddy records about EVE ISK.

For most of us it had not been the easiest life to live. Resources had always been scarce, and what little we eked out was strongly controlled by our local government. We did a smattering of trade with neighboring planets, but for the most part we kept our business to ourselves.

Our government fear of off world dependency led to exorbitant taxation on all interstellar business and the populace mostly about EVE ISK, if grudgingly, supported this policy. In truth, we had learned not to desire what we could not easily acquire. We were a closed system - interconnected, complex and opaque - and in the myriad of monopolies, favoritism, backroom dealing and nepotism that we allowed to take place, we convinced ourselves that this was the only way to run a planet, and we took a strange pride in it; as if our corruption were emblematic of our independence about EVE ISK.

The factional wars caught us by surprise about EVE ISK. On dark nights we would look up at the stars and see some of them moving at great speed, others bursting into flames. It was the capsuleers, of whom I would only ever heard stories, engaged in battles I could not even begin to imagine about EVE ISK.