Homo Sapiens Interest Group Date: 159.06 days since fall of Relay Key phrases: Action, not talk; A promising beginningText of message: One hundred seconds ago, Alliance Forces began action against the tools of the Blight. By the time you read this, the Homo Sapiens worlds known as Sjandra Kei will have been destroyed. Note well: for all the talk and theories that have flown about the Blight, this is the first time anyone has successfully acted. Sjandra Kei was one of only three systems outside of Straumli Realm known to harbor humans in any numbers. In one stroke we have destroyed a third of the Perversion's potential for expansion. Updates will follow. Death to vermin. There was one other message in the window, an update of sorts, but not from Death to Vermin:Crypto: 0 Billing: charity/general interest As received by: Harmonious Repose Communication Synod Language path: Samnorsk->Triskweline, SjK units From: Commercial Security,
复件 (77) air max, Sjandra Kei [Note from lower protocol layer: This message was received at Sneerot Down along the Sjandra Kei bearing. The transmission was very weak, perhaps from a shipboard transmitter] Subject: Please help Distribution:Threats Interest Group Date: 5.33 hours since disaster at Sjandra Kei Text of message: Earlier today, relativistic projectiles struck our main habitations. Fatalities cannot be less than twenty-five billion. Three billion may still live, in transit and in smaller habitats. We are still under attack. Enemy craft are in the inner system. We see glow bombs. They are killing everyone. Please. We need help. "Nei nei nei!" Ravna drove up against him, her arms tight around him, her face buried in his shoulder. She sobbed incoherent Samnorsk. Her whole body shuddered against him. He felt tears coming to his own eyes. So strange. She had been the strong one, and he the fragile crazy. Now it was turned all around, and what could he do? "Father, mother,
复件 (54) air max2, sister -- gone, gone." It was the disaster they thought could not happen, and now it had. In one minute she had lost everything she grew up with, and was suddenly alone in the universe. For me, that happened long ago,
复件 (73) air max2, the thought came strangely dispassionate. He hooked a foot into the deck and gently rocked Ravna back and forth,
复件 (96) air max2, trying to comfort her. The sounds of grief gradually quieted, though he could still feel her sobs through his chest. She didn't raise her face from the tear-soaked place on his shirt. Pham looked over her head at Blueshell and Greenstalk. Their fronds looked strange ... almost wilted. "Look,
复件 (20) air max1, I want to take Ravna away for a bit. Learn what you can, and I'll be back." "Yes, Sir Pham." And they seemed to droop even more. It was an hour before Pham returned to the command deck. When he did, he found the Riders deep in rattling conference with OOB. All the windows were filled with flickering strangeness. Here and there Pham recognized a pattern or a printed legend, enough to guess that he was seeing ordinary ship displays, but optimized to Rider senses. Blueshell noticed him first; he rolled abruptly toward him and his voder voice came out a little squeaky. "Is she all right?" Pham gave a little nod. "She's sleeping now." Sedated, and with the ship watching her in case I've misjudged her. "Look,
mbt bomoa, she'll be okay. She's been hit hard ... but she's the toughest one of us all." Greenstalk's fronds rattled a smile. "I have often thought that." Blueshell was motionless for an instant. Then, "Well, to business, to business." He said something to the ship, and the windows reformatted in the compromise usable by both humans and Riders. "We've learned a lot while you were gone. Saint Rihndell indeed has something to fear.