Meanwhile the printout (now as big as this page) for Turn Seven arrived. Amazingly I had still met no other players but EEKER. His score was 780, and mine was 689. He had a one-ship fleet each at W166 and W56 to pick up artifacts. The string of industrialized worlds, W187, W194, W130 to W2, played out when W105 and W70 turned out to have no industries and one and two RMP respectively. W196 was another Black Hole, W219 had neither industry nor RMP but had the Golden Crown, while W80 had no industry, one RMP and the Platinum Lodestar. W55 had no industry and four RMP (but it would take two moves to get the RMs to W44) and W30 had one industry and three RMP. This made seven industries I now owned besides those on my home world.

This turn I had 15 RMs at W44 to build with and unloaded 27 for next turn's use! The 19-ship fleet at W194 transferred six ships to I defense and carried 13 RMs home to W44. Five were brought in from W204 and 10 from W113. Also fleets carrying one RM each were staged into W113 from W80, W11, two from W82, and a fleet brought two there from W30.

A fleet with 34, mostly new, ships from W44 met them there at W114. In this way I could get a few odds and ends of RMs within one move of W44 and get several of my one-ship and two-ship fleets together with several new ships without having to take them all the way to W44. This turn's exploration consisted of a one-ship fleet sent from W55 to W165, four ships to W103 from W130, two from W70 to W183 and two from W105 to W10. One-ship fleets were sent to industrialized worlds W194 and W2 to pick tip more ships. Worlds W70, W105, W80, W219 and W55 were plundered for 50 points each, and W166 and W76 were the first worlds to be re-plundered, for 40 points each. The following letter was sent to EEKER:

You seem to be right about the universe not being completely symmetrical. There is some discrepancy in the area of W99, the Black Hole. However, the area on my "west" and "southwest" is, so far, developing into a mirror image of what you’ve shown me of your area, to my "east" and "southeast"!

Incidentally, I’ve run into another Black Hole, W196. This turn I am moving into W165, W103, W183 and W10. Did we ever decide who gets W163? Have You finished with W48 yet? - so I can move in and plunder it, according to our original arrangement. And who gets W222? Incidentally, I also border W6, W191, W136 and W52 and will be moving into them next turn. W66, W94, and W198 all border the new Black Hole.

Thanks for all the info on geography of our "universe."' Your home world has to be the one you labeled "Z. " You were wrong about mine. It’s the one you call "B." Interesting observation about the pattern of two hexes and two pentagons around your home world and mine. Another such pattern is emerging on my "southwest "side, which would make me think there should be somebody else's home world in there! But, so far, you're still the only other player I’ve met! How about you? Met anyone else yet? I'd like to make a complete exchange of geographical info with you, with W numbers and all, since there obviously are gates that connect seemingly distant worlds. If you promise to reciprocate, I'll send you a map of all the worlds I own and border on with W numbers. If we keep this up to date we can avoid conflict over worlds we both border on. It will also give us a considerable edge over other players, in the game who are dependent on what they can find out by themselves.

A phone call from EEKER then informed me that he had met two more players! These were FREEN, evidently another artifact collector, and KUBLA, a berserker. The latter showed up at W209, only two worlds from W56 (W46, belonging to EEKER, being in between). In discussing this development with EEKER we decided that we would try to confuse KUBLA and worry him by having me show up at unexpected places. So I diverted a one-ship fleet from W11 via W56 and W46 to W209. Also EEKER would give me, for plundering, W197, and W152, both off my map. The latter world was another spot where KUBLA had shown up. FREEN had appeared on the opposite side of EEKER from me. His score was 60 and KUBLA's was 12. These scores were so much lower than EEKER's and mine as to be almost unbelievable. We could only assume they did not fully understand the mechanics of the game. Anyway, I wrote to both KUBLA and FREEN, but, unfortunately, I did not keep copies of what I wrote. I evidently did not tell them how I knew about them. The following reply was received from FREEN:

Greetings!

I am happy to meet you! You're the third contact I’ve had, but by far the friendliest-sounding.

I am an Artifact Collector, which is not hard to surmise. I don't know whether you're located at W78 or W161, but I shall know shortly (I sent a fleet to W78). As a collector, I have no hostile intentions and I'm quite willing to do business for the artifacts - I have no idea what you'd prefer, but I can trade several things.

I offer you my aid. I have no foes and no real allies yet, and am flexible and peaceful, with no real plans. Currently my only idea is to keep out of a fight and expand as much as possible.

Incidentally, if you have any Plastic Artifacts go ahead and dump them on me. While anyone else loses points by having them, I merely get no benefit, so I expect I'll be getting those from the players I meet.

Off-hand, can you think of any way anyone can have amassed 975 at this point in time? I’ve run into someone who has and I can't make sense of it.

The tone of KUBLA's reply was somewhat different:

I see you know EEKER. Eeker is intruding on my space. (1) He just took W164 which he had said was mine (it was already mine) and (2) He ambushed a fleet (F14 on W209).

Both of which indicate that he had not issued a A=command. I have revoked my command. W164 and F14 are mine. They will be recovered - peacefully or by war. I am a berserker. I prefer to get points by converting my own population. At the moment I have been building up fleets and planets, and not getting many points - I also have a plastic artifact which is subtracting my points.

By Turn 10 things better be better on W164 or I will have to devote some effort to clearing the situation up. You may want to steer clear of the EEKER-KUBLA problem until it is settled. Of W209 links, I claim W122, W214. and W93. W209 is a vital link in my worlds. It connects the sides of my space. W93 is garbage but if EEKER grabs it, he'll have more trouble. I may sound antagonistic to EEKER, that is because he says one thing and appears to do another.

I hope we can be allies. I am very defensive about my worlds and fleets.

STARWEB Part III: Introduction
STARWEB Part III: Turn 5
STARWEB Part III: Turn 6
STARWEB Part III: Turn 8
STARWEB Part III: Turn 9
STARWEB Part III: Turn 10