This felt like a dangerous secret, but at least it was shared. It was nice to have some form of communication signal; there was some quality of joyous celebration about having a network again! It wasn’t lost on them that this little bit was given by those who’d taken the rest away – but who may have given it in the first place, via old-fashioned human highway robbery. This framework was understood or at least conceivable to everyone who had gained access to this connection.

Though people already had to infohack their way into it, the chats were miraculously as-yet unhackable. There was no sudden invasion of ads or porn, and people didn’t waste much of this time off-topic. Between the central and localized discussions, the prevailing collective will was to protect this connection, for now. They could do this by ascertaining the intentions of those providing it.

DephnV768: I’m bringing our building’s extra supplies over to you, but not with the escort group. Just be sure someone’s there to answer the door.

Navann smiled again at the neighborly resourcefulness that she saw on the screen, but she was also wondering about government suppression. Everything they were discussing about current events, and the way they were discussing it over an infiltrated program, felt more real than official news. If this was all as true as it felt, would authorities start harassing people with access if they knew? The tacit agreement of the chat room was that they could keep this network functioning for each other as long as they didn’t alert the wrong people. This Pan-Galactic administration may even have killed a planetful of people who had begun creating an unauthorized relationship of exchange with the Strangers. Those who were handling this new connection, however, were not just from one planet, but on many planets and federet capitals across the Pan-Galaxy, and they were interspersed among every other kind of citizen.

There were also presences in the chat who spoke differently, and though they didn’t announce themselves, they also weren’t hiding. They spoke in short info leak confirmations when people were throwing out questions about this circumstance. Their quips were knowledgeable and reserved.

Aubrt: No, this sort of measure has never before been attempted.

The language of these responding voices was basic and clear. There was a certain thrill when they spoke; what if these were the Strangers themselves? Navann considered whether someone might understand the story, and be in the chat network, but still side with authoritarian suppression, and may somehow subvert the collective access. That was as far as she could stretch in that direction of thought, and she didn’t bother trying to apply it to anyone specific. It just wasn’t her natural way of thinking.

There were some nice blends that could be formulated from the array of food powders readily available among the Vedani. These thick drinking meals were generally very digestible once she got the hang of them; Arcta’s condition didn’t suffer, and perhaps thrived. Sometimes she wished she had the Vedani constitution that didn’t require toilets, but there was a point where she decided to value her humanity. She had that amenity, as a courtesy. Some of her neighbors offered her occasional experimental human-style foods, though she didn’t much bother to request it. She was still laying low and keeping mostly to herself on purpose, anyway. There was a lot happening out there at this moment, and she was keeping her thoughts on that.

Arcta had herself a cushy spot facing one of those strange portholes. The thing she found unusual about them was the way they looked out onto non-continuous starscapes. They didn’t line up. There was an explanation, though bizarre enough that Arcta preferred just to savor the oddity for what it was. Whatever they were talking about with the porthole mechanics was not her field at all.

She had wondered where Vedani planets were, and what they look like. They did come from some, they had said, but with the sensitivity of the current times she was careful not to pry. Arcta was grateful for this much acceptance. She maintained her tenuous contentment, dead to her world, her love disappearing if not totally gone. Yeah, she did actually love him, when she’d been able. Maybe she’d reinvent herself, and maybe she was, depending on what this new world would allow. For now, this poem in her hand.

they know,
and I know that they know!
it is the sweetest victory
from our deepest hopes.
they seek their own
victory now, and to this
the response is
my innermost battle cry.
they can’t hear it
but they feel it already
much greater than I

({clinging to this dream moment, no body, no hands. hardly any self to hold a thought. most of this time without time not even sure who i am. except for these moments that feel like memories})

She stared through the porthole as though it would show her a picture. Right now, she gets her news by talking to somebody. Since even if they could pirate an Imperial channel for her, she didn’t want to watch that by herself, the news she got was all Vedani-filtered. Vedani news with human sidenotes by inference, on a basic inquisitive level. This was her world now, and life was not too bad, not bad.

Arcta still played with sphere dynamics on paper – she did get paper, of a sort – and had a room for it now in the aetherscape. She could use their powerful suite of virtual tools if she didn’t mind that the work would be instantly public in process. Seemed dangerously tricky to her ingrained habits of concealment – but it was honestly refreshing to release her notes immediately to casually receptive interaction, free from the teeth of workplace commercialism. The game of sides – she was over it, on a personal level.