Networks | Glowfic Constellation

"A physical letter or an illusion?"

"An electronic mail message. Not a physical letter, not an illusion, just a series of characters. At first. Sound and pictures will be doable too, but they have to be in a format the computer can handle. There are accessories for recording and displaying this sort of thing."

"Can a knowledge mage spy on it?"

"I'm pretty sure they can't. All the computers I sell are warded. The sat is warded. They could theoretically intercept the message as it goes up or down, but that's what cryptography is for. I have books about crypto, it's a bit much to explain right now."

"I wonder if you could hide the message on the way to the satellite. ...Oh, you know, you want to know what I just thought of. Give me a ring for it?"

"I'm already paying you quite a lot of money for this, let's not get too greedy, eh?"

"Suit yourself. If it matters you'll notice on your own."

"Hmph. You're deviating from the flight path a bit. Correct, please."

The course correction is perfectly professional.

The satellite deployment and trip back down is also perfectly professional. He does some more tests before they go down, little puffs of light from the holes in the metal box as the satellite moves itself minutely. And they both get paid in full when they're back on the ground.

"I'll contact you when I'm ready to put more of those up."

The perfectly professional agerah is just a little smug as he walks away.

"Do you care if you get me or my sibling who's also a force mage next time?" the thwilit asks.

"I'll hire you both next time if you're cheaper than getting him on board again. Though, remember the non-disclosure agreement."

"...I thought you only wanted me to avoid telling other people. You want me to keep it to the specific bird you've already met?"

"Oh, right. Thwilit do that. Eh, if you tell your flock no big deal, but don't spread it any further than that, okay?"

"Of course. Just let us know next time you need anything."

And off they fly.

...He just put a satellite into space, on a budget of less than a hundred thousand dollars, most of which was making the sat and the spaceship.

Holy smokes.

He pokes at the transmitter he has set up for a while. It's working almost-perfectly. He makes a minor adjustment to the code.

This calls for a celebration, honestly. And possibly an indulgence of human blood. Plenty of sellers these days.

Meanwhile people who have no idea how cool a thing he's just done are trying to move to New Dover.

Not a lot of people want to but relative to the size of the town it's enough they'll end up turning people away soon if they don't build more apartments. There's a belul who really likes the feel of the place and is willing to rent a human-style apartment. There's a family of five caralendri, who hope to be a family of a dozen caralendri eventually and want to know if they can rent a couple of apartments next to each other and take out the wall between them. There's a local human from Ehima who moves in and hears about God and asks the priest what that's about.

There are two more apartment buildings going up, but not everyone in New Dover wants lots of neighbors and there's only so much manpower in the city, so they probably won't be done until spring. A few houses are available for rent, though

Those five caralendri can have two apartments with the wall between taken out, as well as any other minor customization they want, if they sign a six-month lease on the place. If they want more apartments added to that later they'll probably have to bribe any neighbors that happen to rent nearby units away.

Nathaniel has practiced his spiel by now, and focuses less on God and more on the rules of morality and faith, and how everyone is happier and safer when everyone around them is religious.

They're happy to do that. They make quiet, considerate neighbors once they've moved in. Sometimes two of the men go around holding hands, which could totally just be them showing how much they're not jealous, right? The other man tries to tactfully ask if any humans need babysitters without implying that their two-parent families are inherently inadequate.

The human immigrant invites Nathaniel to come talk with her somewhere private.

Caralendri are a different species. Presumably what's right and moral for them is a bit different too, so it doesn't count. This doesn't get rid of all the unease and muttering, but keeps it to muttering.

A few pairs of parents will hire a caralendri babysitter now and then.

Nathaniel would be happy to discuss religion in his office at the side of the church, which is very thoroughly warded.

He's an unusual babysitter but not a dangerous one, probably. All the lullabies he knows are alien and extremely uncatchy. When the kids he's watching are napping he's willing to pick up the slack on any household chores that can be done while still keeping an eye on the kids - no extra charge, he thinks it's obvious that giving them a clean home and well-rested parents is part of taking care of them.

"Look," the immigrant tells Nathaniel, "I know God is something you made up. I like it, though. And it's sort of true once you have enough people acting like it is, isn't it? So I think I'm interested in being part of this thing you're doing, but... not as another sucker, I guess?"

It's pretty clear the parents do love them, but the kids tend to spend a lot of time at a school or all concentrated into one mom's house, or the like. Helping with the chores is appreciated. A clean home, nutritious food, many people but especially parents who spend time with them, and toys and educational materials are definitely all important for kids to have. And he also helps the little ones learn another language by mostly speaking it, that's a nice perk.

"Hmm... I'm glad you see the value of our community. It's helped us survive and thrive, it's made us happy and trusting. I know that the people of Har don't have faith the same way we do... Faith in something greater than yourself, believing in God even when it seems impossible, even when there is no proof, is difficult and unpleasant. I won't ask you to believe the message of God in your heart of hearts. But if you listen to the lessons we have to offer and live with mercy and compassion, that will be good, even if you do not embrace faith, and I'm sure the people here will welcome you."

Yup! Mostly Hari, unless anyone seems interested in learning Ilan too.

The human immigrant shows up to church to see what it's like.

Meanwhile a farmer wants to know if there are any quieter versions of their farming automata.

The Sunday church service has a lot of singing and some praying and some of the priest reading aloud and then talking about passages from this thing called the Bible. People welcome her politely. The sermon today is about being kind even to someone who is not kind to you. There's free bread and wine (and a little meat if any agerah showed up) at the end.

Why? The farm equipment is quiet enough from some distance away. Big machines are kind of inevitably loud, you know? These are already quieter than they were before because they have better engines now. Maybe making a box around the machinery and putting a lot of insulation material in it would help? It'd be a pain to clean and maintain probably, though.

The owner of the pub in New Dover is trying to establish a better brewery. He even has a book from Milliways about it. He has vats and pumps and coolers and so on - but controlling it all manually is turning out to be a massive pain. Aren't computers supposed to be able to handle this? He investigates - the vampire sells him some things and points him to a woman called Nimo. He tries to arrange a meeting.