Boy, that was a close one! That gas formation was a clever trick.

Hello there.

I know I've already spoken to some of you—I had hoped to do this individually—but it appears we need to move things along more quickly than we'd realized. That ship of yours seems eager to shake us, and we simply can't let that happen.

My name is Lina Barnez. The rest of the team and I have been working on contacting the Tranquility for some time. Unfortunately, our tech isn't perfectly compatible with what you're running on. It hasn't been easy, but we're managing. I don't know how long we'll have.

We're here to help you, but in order to do that, we'll need you to help us. You've been through a lot on this ship: it's a miracle so many of you are still with us. We'd like to make sure you stay that way, but we can only do that if you're completely honest with us.

We know about the events on Strela, the Cyllene and Arima, as well as the Scylla. What happened to those poor people was not your fault, and you have my word that we have no plans to hold you responsible for those events.

But we need to work together to make sure it doesn't happen again. The more you tell us about what's been going on aboard the Tranquility, the more we can do.

[ NOTE: All conversations will be cut off before too long by the engines suddenly powering back up, and the jump alarm sounding to alert characters to proceed to medbay immediately. ]

[audio:]

[L’s voice is the voice he’d use for any public announcement: smooth, measured, calm, not betraying much of the intense irritation and frustration that the network crash has caused him in the previous few weeks.]

Greetings. This is Ryuuzaki, speaking for the Communications Department.

The recent problems with the network were caused by an attack on our systems by a particularly malicious virus. Its effect was to systematically overwrite existing material with random characters. The department itself had no control over this and no effective way to stop it.

When network service returned, it was because a fail-safe rebooted the network software itself, something we’ve never had the authority to do -- or, to be honest, the desire. We are now active on the ship’s original network, and have learned that the system that we’ve always used in the past was actually a subnetwork.

[As far as he’s concerned, every bit of this is a clue about why posts from prior to the arrival of the first wave of passengers are only sporadically available. Was the network previously rebooted in response to an infection with the same virus, or something even worse? That doesn’t explain how they would have ended up on a subnetwork, but it might explain much of the rest of it.]

As some of you may have noticed, nothing posted prior to the network’s return has been accessible since then. One of the functions of the Communications department is to archive network activity, and fortunately, we were able to back up the vast majority of the network as it existed before the emergency shut-down.

I’ll be posting what I can of that archive in a minute. However, please be aware that we don’t have the technical capacity to make this available to you in the format you’re used to, and that any posts from the old system that had been subject to an encryption created by one of us are completely incompatible with the new one.

[A beat of silence.]

Related to that: while we’ve been trying, no one in the department has yet been able to create new encryptions that work on this network, and the built-in privacy function seems to be much stronger and more reliable than it was before. We can’t say that the privacy function will be reliable forever -- very likely, it will be broken in the future, which will compromise the security of anything you’ve done using it -- but it appears that it’s currently dependable. This also does not rule out the possibility that someone we’re not aware of has the ability to break it already.

If you’re able to create an encryption that the network will accept, or if you simply have skills in this area that you’d be willing to put to work, please let us know, and please consider joining the department. [He is now turning on the charm, such as it is, and sounds slightly wittier and less serious than he had earlier in his announcement.] We’re not short-staffed at the moment, but we wouldn’t want to let your talents go to waste.

Those of you who don’t have talents in this area should consider joining another department. Agriculture could certainly use your help, even if it’s only for a few hours a week.

[The lightness in his tone now vanishes.]

On an associated note, if you receive any anonymous messages in your inbox, particularly from someone calling themselves Lina, or attempting to strike up a conversation and fish for information, please let us know. The same goes for any situation in which your communication device otherwise behaves in an unexpected way, and if you can visit the Comms Hub with your communicator while any of these things are still ongoing, so much the better. We’re located near the Bridge.

We’re aware that it’s common to come from a place where this kind of network communication is unusual. If you need help learning how your device works, let us know. We also have several programs which can be added to it, and some people may be able to make music or game files available to you. Those were programmed for your communicators, not the network itself, so it appears that they’re still compatible.

Finally… [a hint of regret enters his voice]... as of the jump several days ago, Clara Oswald has left the ship.

If you have any further problems involving the network, please contact me or Bail Organa.

Thank you. Comms out.

--

[Filtered to Tyke | Private]

If we learn that someone onboard has falsified an anonymous conversation similar to the one I just mentioned on the network, particularly if they do so in the future, can Security consider a suitable punishment? I had to discuss the messages here, but doing it so publicly is likely to encourage pranksters. I'd really prefer that they didn't waste my time.

Likewise, we’re still looking into the matter of the virus. If it turns out that someone is responsible for it, I’d like them to be subject to brig time.

--

[OOC: Please note that even the most talented hackers won’t be able to get into posts marked private for at least three months, and new characters will probably need about that much time to get up to speed with this system after they come in! It will not be a smooth road, either: the new system has many built-in blocks and tricks, and some hacking attempts will even flag SEC.

The link within the post is to an open Comms log. Please have your character drop in if they're interested in being tutored in the ins and outs of smartphones, or if they want to ask a question, or if they want to bug someone who's trying to work.

The batch archive of posts from the old network is here! It covers everything prior to November 1, 2014, or a week before the 37th jump by TQ Reckoning. Notes related to technical aspects are on that post.]

Obviously terrible parts aside, there are some things from this that I wouldn't mind sticking around.

[ Carolyn's voice sounds a bit weird, rather like someone who's just gotten braces put on -- or someone who's found themselves with a mouth full of sharper, stronger teeth. ]

[ the camera turns on to reveal sally, up close at first but then she props the communicator up on her nightstand and scoots back to sit cross-legged on her new bed. she lifts a hand to push her hair back behind her ear but seems to think better of it (for bite-scar reasons, not that there's any real way to know that), instead opting to press her palms together with her index fingers to her mouth for a half-second while she thinks of quite what to say. ]

Right, so I know everyone's super busy packing their shit and trying not to live in some weird sci-fi ghost town, but you can totally put that down for a second because I'm seriously bored and we're playing a game.

[ okay? okay. ]

Pretty much everyone has some kind of space booze, right? Good, because there's this game back home - it's called Never Have I Ever. For pretty much the 5% of you who haven't actually heard of it? It's... actually pretty stupid, like for frat guys or thirteen-year-olds who found their dad's stash, but just shh, humor me here. Basically, someone starts off like 'Never have I ever blah blah blah'. Never have I ever ~ridden a bike~, never have I ever... I don't know, jumped off a cliff. Anyway, everyone who has done the Never-Have-I-Ever has to take a shot. Or a sip, or a rain-check for when you do have booze, or even just drink juice or something - it doesn't matter, that's not the point.

The point is, there are apparently way more people on this ship than I realized and I know pretty much nobody, and I know I'm not the only one. Apparently solidarity is a thing, so why not actually get to know each other a little? I mean, beyond that whole A/S/L survey that went around - not that it was bad or anything.

And if you roll in just to, I don't know, shit all over the game or something? Then you're a jerk and a loser and you should suck it up and play anyway. Like, what's the worst that can happen? You forget to be an angry douche for like five seconds?

Anyway, let's tear this shit up.

I can start, this one's easy:

Never have I ever voluntarily left the planet Earth.

[ go ahead and start your own 'never have i ever' top-levels, even if you don't reply to hers. c: ]

My name is Erik Lehnsherr.

[ His voice is rough, still raw from the scrape of the breathing tube up and out through his trachea. Blood from his nose is clagged thick down the back of his throat, the taste of copper on his tongue soured further by bile. ]

For the complacent -- for those of you content to shelter in place gumming canned corn while this ship bends you to its will: you need only ask if you crave the added comfort of certain death.

For the rest of us: we do what we must to survive so that we might live. It’s true that no dead prisoner has ever escaped captivity.

But neither has any man who hasn’t tried.

If you have a chance, take it. If you’re afforded a choice, make it. Fight, and suffer, and die screaming before you pass on an opportunity to break this cycle.

If no one else will take up the mantle of Commander Shepard’s mission, I will.

[ A pause, then: ]


An entity with nothing to fear from the truth has no need to kill to protect it.

[ The feed ends. ]