Enro [ENRO] - Organizations - Roberts Space Industries

History

When you’re on a slow burn heading out to a jump point, turn off the lights in your ship. Turn down the display panels and indicator lights too, and let yourself sit in the dark. Watch the stars. Did you ever wonder what they are? I don’t mean giant balls of plasma – that’s the easy answer. What are they really? Why are they there? Why, when you are sitting in the great Silence and Dark of deep space do the stars seem to look at you and stare through you right into your soul, stripping away all pretense of skill and mastery of the world that we humans so blithely ascribe to ourselves?

The stars are like the eyes of billions of gods, all looking at you, daring you to seek them out and join them and yet also judging you for having the hubris to try. Yet we must try. The stars call to us and we must heed their siren song, for it stirs the depths of our beings and awakens unquiet visions that pervade our waking thoughts and fill our dreams at night with images of things just out of reach of literate description.

And the dreams! The dreams one has, while floating in the deep. Turn off the gravity while you sleep sometime. Turn it off, turn off the lights, and net yourself up next to a porthole so that you sleep under the watchful stars. The dreams I’ve had when doing that are like nothing I’ve ever experienced before – time warping and bending while light dances over my body in shimmering waves that resonate with the slow pulsing of the rhythms of the galaxy as it wheels away in the terrible, beautiful void of space. Sometimes, while piloting through Interspace, it feels just like these dreams. You seem to be going forward and backward at the same time, and you can never quite tell what is happening right now, what has happened already, and what is going to happen in a moment – in Interspace time and position seem not to obey the normal rules, but they do seem to obey the same laws that govern us when we dream. Is Interspace where we go when we sleep? Do our dreams actually carry us to other worlds in fact, rather than simply in thought?

I’ve seen things in Interspace. Things that frighten me and draw me to them at the same time. Ever since I was a child, I’ve had dreams of an “angel” as I called her – a winged being of light is how I’ve normally described it to anyone who would listen, but that is a very paltry description and until I grew up I gave it no importance. Three years ago while jumping out from Terra on a cargo run, I experienced a star pilot’s nightmare: my nav computer failed right as I entered the jump point and I had to grab manual control again to pilot my way through by hand. I’d never done that before and I was terrified. I could see things – rocks? asteroids caught in Interspace? some exotic matter of some sort? – whatever they were I was trying to dodge them desperately and make it through to the other side. But the distortions in space and time made it hard to do. There was a large object in front of me, and as I tried to go around it, it seemed to turn in ways that I just can’t describe. It stayed in front of me, and I could also see it behind my ship as I was flying away from it, and it was also coming at me from above and to the right – nothing made sense and I panicked and let go of the controls, my ship spinning out of control. Just as I was about to crash, time seemed to suddenly flow … sideways? I could see myself cowering with my arms up. I could also see myself a moment ago still with my hands on the controls.

And I also saw my angel.

I’m sure it was the same being that I’ve dreamt of for so long, she radiated such a feeling of familiarity. But also coldness. She seemed to coalesce around the obstacle about to destroy me and she opened up her wings wide, covering the whole thing. When the ship reached her it felt like time suddenly froze completely in the chill of her being, and in that utter timelessness I knew and experienced the entire jump point passage at once as if I were in all places simultaneously. And then that eternal now ended and I was on the other side of the obstacle, my ship racing away from it, my hands once more firmly on the controls. I came out into normal space again shaken and unsure of what had happened. I immediately put into port, of course, and had my systems inspected and repaired. Naturally, the ship’s logs recorded none of what I experienced: the flight recorder shows that I was fully in control throughout the transit with no obstacle and no angel. But I can’t believe that. Every since that day I have only flown that jump point by hand, never using the autopilot, and each time through it’s as if I know exactly where everything is, was, and will be.

I know, now, that the angel of my dreams is real, and that Interspace and the land of dreams are one and the same. The stars are the eyes of my cosmic angel, and she watches us with a cold light all of the time, but it is not an unkind coldness. It is the coolness of distance and separation both unwanted and unwelcome. Her arms are spread in welcome. Her eyes call to us and beckon us to find her and join with her.

She is waiting.

And I am coming.

Sora Yamauchi, Dec. 30, 2783

Last log entry of the captain of the freighter Lorinand, recovered from a log buoy ejected just before the ship activated a jump point leaving Terra. The ship never emerged from interspace and was presumed destroyed.

Manifesto

UEE ADVOCACY INTELLIGENCE BACKGROUND REPORT

PUBLICATION: UNCLASSIFIED, LEO ONLY

TITLE: CULTS IN THE EMPIRE: ENRO

SUMMARY

Name: Enro (遠路 Japanese: “Long Road”)
Founder: Benjamin Meitner (Terra)
Planet of origin: Terra
Central figures: Sora Yamauchi (Saisei); B.Meitner
Sacred books: The Log of the Lorinand; The Book of Inifinite Eyes (The Life and Teachings of Sora Yamauchi)
Core teachings: Enlightenment achieved through solitary meditation during space flight. Sanctity of jump points.
Number of adherants: est 7 million
Activity level: low
Threat status: moderate

HISTORY

Born during the political upheavals of the end of the Messer era, Enro is a small but growing religion based on the writings of late 28th century star pilot Sora Yamuchi, published in two primary texts:

The Log of the Lorinand – A short work consisting of the final weeks worth of log entries of Yamuchi’s light freighter Lorinand.
The Book of Inifinite Eyes (The Life and Teachings of Sora Yamauchi) – A large work consisting of the supposed personal diary of Yamauchi, along with extensive commentary and additional material by Benjamin Meitner and a few other early Enro founders.

Yamauchi was a freighter pilot from Saisei who eventually worked her way to Terra and established a small but profitable business running light cargo. She was born the only child of two factory workers and apparently had an unremarkable life, though it is known that she experienced unusual dreams and had an interest in philosophy. Her ship disappeared in late 2783 while making a routine jump out of the Terra system, but she ejected a log buoy right before the jump.

The logs were recovered almost immediately, but lay unnoticed in the files of the UEE Starflight Safety Administration for several years before being examined by an inspector, Benjamin Meitner, cleaning up and closing old unresolved reports. Meitner’s personnel files show that he was considered strange by his co-workers, and that he had a large interest in occult subjects and was fascinated by stories of ships disappearing under unusal circumstances. After reading the logs he became obsessed with learning more about Yamauchi and tracked down her widowed mother, still alive at the time. He began telling people that he, like Yamauchi, had visions of angels, and claimed that they told him to follow her to the stars. His increasingly erratic behavior cost him his job, but he also attracted a small following of devotees who were drawn to his teachings. Meitner is the founder of Enro and his books form the core teaching of the faith, while Sora Yamauchi herself is held up as a kind of saint and holy figure.

Since it’s founding, Enro has spread mostly by word of mouth, and usually among pilots and traders, with small groups of followers meeting in homes, ships, and starport rental halls throughout the Empire.

TEACHINGS

Enro teaches that jump points are actually gateways to Heaven, or the “divine realm” as they call it. For an Enrosha (the term for a follower of Enro, though “Enroist” and “Enrist” are often used by people outside the faith), traveling through interspace is a religious experience and they sometimes book passenger ships simply to fly back and forth between systems many times in a row – as many as the crew and jump station authorities will put up with. They claim that the temporal and spatial distortions of interspace are the result of the human mind failing to comprehend the true nature of the divine reality, but that through meditation and devotion, one can achieve a spiritual worthiness that would allow one to see interspace as it truly is.

They teach that Sora Yamauchi was a spiritually perfect human, who achieved grace and was allowed entrance into heaven while still alive when she flew through the Terra to Goss jump point. This particular jump point holds a special place in their teachings, and they call it the Gate of Dreaming. Enroshas study Yamauchi’s life and seek to emulate her, many of them becoming pilots themselves. But in fact, there is little reliable information about her. She never married and had no siblings or children, and her parents died of old age in the ten years after her disappeaance. She did leave behind a diary and dream journal in which she talks about her own beliefs and philosophy of life and these form the core of The Book of Inifinite Eyes, but the authenticity of the diary has been questioned by scholars as it was found more than 20 years after her disappearance.

The general teachings of the religion include an emphasis on solitary meditation and experience of the Universe, with a special emphasis on the stars as an important way to connect with the divine. Stars are seen as the literal eyes of God. (Or Goddess, or of many gods depending on the individual Enrosha. The original writings of Yamauchi use the Japanese word 神 (kami) which has been translated differently by different Enro scholars, and there is no official dogma on the gender of the divinity.) Enroshas are encouraged to learn to pilot a ship so that they can take a kind of pilgrmmage called the “Journey in Darkness” – a solo flight into deep space for contemplation, reflection and self-discovery. A key part of the Journey in Darkness is the passage through interspace during a jump, which is considered sacred. Of course, there are many Enroshas who are not pilots, so in practice they often undergo the Journey with the help of another Enrosha who has a ship, and the Heaven’s Door Foundation (see below) helps to arrange these trips. The Foundation also owns two small asteroids in Goss where they maintain a retreat that is a popular destination for pilgrims undertaking the Journey.

ORGANIZATION

The Enro community is small and has little central organization. The closest there is to an overall leadership is the Heaven’s Door Foundation, on Terra, the direct descendant of Meitner’s original group. The Foundation publishes books and pamphlets, and organizes group flights for the religion’s followers to experience interspace passages together, as well as maintaining the previously mentioned retreats in Goss, but it does not provide any coordination of other activities, and its finances are very limited. In general, Enroshas either practice their religion alone, or in small informal groups, often consisting only of family members and close friends.

THE CHURCH OF THE INFINITE EYES

There is an underground splinter faction, however, called The Church of the Infinite Eyes, and this group has proven dangerous. Founded sometime in the mid 2890’s, the Infinite Eyes group claims that jump point travel by non-Enroshas is a sin and that only spiritually cleansed people should be allowed to pass through interspace. They claim that a non-Enrosha using a jump point is an act of sacrilege which defiles the divine realm and this group has on several occasions engaged in terrorist attacks on customs stations. The last such attack was in 2936 in Nemo, after which several of its members were captured and sent to prison. The group has been quiet since then, but it is not known if they have abandonded violence or are merely rebuilding and planning new attacks.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Enro is not practiced by large numbers of people, but it does seem to attract an unusal number of independent starship pilots, especially explorers, prospectors, and cargo haulers in more remote regions. The Enro philosophy seems to have some sort of special appeal for people who spend lots of time flying alone in deep space, which is not terribly surprising given the religions origin.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

While the majority of Enrosha are peaceful and present no danger, the possibility of radicalization into the Infinite Eyes cult means that UEE personnel and employees with Enro ties should undergo extra scrutiny during background checks and security screenings. In particular:

Due to the possibility of unknown ties to the Infintie Eyes faction, Enro adherants should be prohibited from working any position at jump point customs stations.
Enro law enforcement and military personnel should undergo semi-annual security screenings to detect radicalization before it becomes a problem.

Charter

Our esteemed leaders have summoned a conclave to put into writing the foundation of our Faith. Please come back soon to learn more about our community.

Enro / ENRO