TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE
03 May 2017Corrigendum
<<PERSONAL LOG - 2 MAY 3303>>I've never been one to keep a log. Private debriefing has been the order of the day. Keeping a log gets people killed in my old line of work. But... I'm not in that line of work anymore. The examples of several remarkable women have convinced me this is in my best interests, particularly now that I'm following in their shadows.
I spent the better part of my career tracking down people like me. At the Academy, they said I had an aptitude for "the dark arts". It served me well in the Imperial Internal Security Service, where I helped to apprehend ne'er-do-wells of all shapes and sizes, and advance the Empire's agendas. That aptitude will now be put to new use.
So, here it is. Such as it is. The story of how Cornelius Gendymion became a renegade.
It all started when I was convalescing in the Naval Hospital in Achenar following the failed raid in Tjakiri, and the subsequent incident in Nyalayan. It was there that I caught up on current events, and read of Elaine Boyd, the Federal Times Reporter. She had apparently prepared a contingency plan: an encrypted data dump to be delivered if media outlets reported her death. Her death had been written off as a suicide, with a note and everything. Perhaps she did kill herself. My gut feeling is that she was on to the same things that had to be scrubbed from another woman's mind, and that Elaine was permanently silenced. Whatever the case may have been, I'll be following Elaine's example, and uploading my records to various public servers, where they can be disseminated at a time of my choosing.
If her silencers knew what I'd pieced together from her work, they'd have probably silenced me too. That is why I took pains to anonymously leak some of my findings. I hoped it might cause someone to reveal their hand. If it did, I did not perceive it.
Now, I said there were several remarkable women who led me down this path. The second, and perhaps most influential, is... was... Kahina Tijani Loren.
Kahina disappeared without a trace in 3301. Everything about it seemed off. She'd just completed a tour of the Federation's core worlds, including several points of interest in the Sol system. I still don't know whether she was up to something there, but immediately after, she had her ship refit in a configuration tuned for exploration. She was summoned to Achenar by the Chancellor, and vanished from there. It's no mean feat for a Senator to vanish. Especially one being watched so closely by... everyone.
Despite, or perhaps because of her disappearance, she influenced my course in three ways.
First, having empowered Ambassador Cuthrick Delaney to act on her behalf, the Ambassador commissioned Loren's Legion with the goal of protecting and stabilizing the troubled Prism system. With Prism scant lightyears from Kumo-held territory, not to mention Federation territory, his Excellency hand-picked me, citing my experience dealing with insurgencies during the Pegasi War.
Secondly, Kahina's long absence became a nagging curiosity of mine. One that entirely consumed what little personal time I had, and found a way into my dossier alongside Elaine's tangled web. I could not wrap my mind around why she was gone. Why would she leave the Empire in such a way of her own volition? Who would take her by force, and leave her tiara and a medallion bearing the symbol of "The Dark Wheel" on one side, and the name "Salomé" on the reverse?
I sent my best man to investigate, and seek a resolution to these unanswered questions. He followed an imperceptible trail magnificently, but Kahina was apprehended before he caught up with her. Before she was arrested and charged with the attempted assassination of Admiral Patreus, she transmitted over wide-band comms that she had information for the Children of Raxxla. Information that would establish a link between the Formidine Rift, Hawking's Gap, the Conflux, and the odd happenings in the Pleiades.
She was stripped of her title, extradited to Prism for a closed trial, and sentenced to life imprisonment at Koontz Asylum - "The Oubliette" as some call it. It was a death sentence in disguise. Her prison convoy was destroyed en route, and I feared the information she claimed to have was forever lost, along with all my unanswered questions.
The third way in which Kahina set me on this path was through our mutual association with the Children of Raxxla. I had monitored them for some time, but never meaningfully interacted with them until the trial. They were anxious for her release. They helped Loren's Legion secure the system against the misguided Barbara Crew and other rabble-rousers causing trouble during the trial. But after the verdict, the Children did the unthinkable... They attacked the Imperial Freedom - Patreus' flagship. They were branded terrorists.
So, there I was, with gnawing questions, and a terrorist-tagged group with potential answers. What could I do? The only thing I could do at the time. I sent Isaiah, my most trusted man. He went out into the void with them during their appeal for exploration data from the Rift, the Gap, and the Conflux. He received assurances that they would share what they knew with him. What they discovered through that data was the stuff of nightmare.
There were bases scattered throughout those regions. Old, abandoned structures. Ships floating eerily through space in that region. Logs indicated a mission called the "Dynasty Project" was sent to establish a foothold for humanity out in the depths of space. Decades ago, during the early 3270s. And nobody made it back. They all perished.
Which leads me to the third woman who influenced me to take this path.
It's hard to believe the Zurara was discovered was discovered just a couple weeks ago, along with the first of her logs. These last few weeks have been a blur, what with all the confusion surrounding Kahina's return to the spotlight. If the data I believed she had were worth less than the 5 million credits on her head... well, I would be a hero instead of a renegade.
I'm not sure if there was more to what Kahina planned to reveal, but when Tsu and the others unlocked triggered the Cor Meum Et Animam's instructions to seek out beacons in Teorge, it was enough to convince me Kahina truly was on to something. Her sacrifice took the pressure off her friends. She did not die in vain.
The beacons in Teorge contained logs from the same woman who left note of her findings at the Zurara. The content of the logs confirmed many of my own findings and suspicions, but also drew connections and conclusions that I had not. "R" claimed her memories had been artificially altered over the years. She fingered the people behind all these coverups as the responsible party behind that editing. It's odd they went to such trouble when they could have simply killed her, as they have so many others. Perhaps her membership in their ranks granted her that small privilege. Perhaps they hoped she could be reformed. That question will likely collect dust on the shelf with the rest of my unanswered questions.
Regardless, I will be following the leads, despite the warning "R" left in her recordings. The corruption surrounding the fates of these three women must be exposed. "R" claimed their modus operandi was a hybrid of "bread and circuses" and "cloak and dagger". I believe I can now attribute several deaths, pestilences, conflicts, and many other horrors to this as yet unnamed organization. But that's beside the point. They are hiding a grave secret from humanity - something is coming. Just what that something is remains unclear.
The devices were discreetly placed in orbit around Teorge 1c, 3c, 3e, 4a, 4b, 5d, 5e. I rearranged the letters into something pronounceable - "debecca". Dropping the "d" and using the "R" signed from the logs, I've taken to calling "R" by the name "Rebecca". It might be silly, but it's the same name the Children of Raxxla used to discover the location of the Zurara through a curious anomaly in their exploration data. It's better than calling her "R".
So, that is it. That is how I, Cornelius Gendymion, became a renegade. It's certainly not the whole story. Not by a long shot. But if I keep my wits about me, there will be more to come.
My family's mantra is an ancient saying: "to thine own self be true." After years of guilt and regret, I'm finally at peace. A way to honor that promise I made to my father before I left Fehu over a decade ago. I can look myself in the mirror with confidence that I am being true to myself, and that I am doing the right thing. I have to see this through. Or die trying, like the remarkable women who blazed this trail for me.
End recording and encrypt.
<<END PERSONAL LOG>>
<<CIPHER: GENDYMION CHARLIE OSCAR ROMEO 1>>
<<COMPLETE>>