HELION DISPATCHES 02

INTERLUDE: PILGRIM'S TRANSIT

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[SIGNAL LOCK]

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[BROADCAST WIDE CHANNEL]

[ORIGIN: PILGRIM SEED]

[VECTOR: STARWARD]

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[TRANSCRIPTION ACTIVE]

Hello Helion system! 

This is Cyrene Sabir once again, broadcasting from a wide channel transmitter we built OURSELVES on the Pilgrim Seed, a refugee ship making the Starward Transit from the Eye to the edge.

[NOISE]

The “we” includes you too, Kimbal.

[NOISE]

I just mentioned you by name.

[NOISE]

Are you going to do this every time?

[NOISE]

I’m ignoring you now.

Welcome to Helion Dispatches, the lone pirate radio station in your broadcast range, covering everything and anything that might help you stay safe in this moment of transition.

And we say transition because things are changing out there. If you were listening last time you would have heard the report coming out of Stoker — Helion’s most sunward world, for those new to the system — of the old Solheim KAN Channel coming online. Thank you again to Dustin Desta for that.  

Those of you who have been around a while, like myself, will know what that means: some Core corporations are taking an interest in Helion. And that ain’t good.

In order to keep you informed we are broadcasting any reports of corp activity we receive. You can get those to us on H 1, dash triple 7, dash k m b l.

[NOISE]

That’s how I’m going to say it, Kimbal. 

We are working hard to process those reports coming in for public consumption, but this cycle I wanted to do something a little different. We are among thousands of souls out here on the Pilgrim Seed, and I wanted to take this chance to give a little insight into our lives out here.

Kimbal has been out with his recorder gathering testimony from across the ship, and we have prepared a little something for you that I’m loading up right now.

And while you’re listening, Remember who speaks for this system: It’s you and me listener, it's the matsutake farmers of the Eye and the icecutters out in the Belt. I’m here to amplify that voice, to run it through layers of encryption and clarification, to upload and blast it out so that it fills the gaps between Stoker and Cinder, Ember and Olivera.

Listen out for it. 

Stay safe out there. This is Cyrene Sabir signing off.

To a free Helion. Now and forever.

[DISCONNECTED]

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[SIGNAL SWITCHING…]

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[LOADING REPORT: PILGRIM’S TRANSIT]

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[BROADCASTING…]

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[AUDIO FEED: ELLIOT KIMBAL / VARIOUS]

[TRANSCRIPTION BEGINS]

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[AUDIO FEED: SENYA TEM]

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What do I do on the Pilgrim Seed? [NOISE] I wait. Wait for water at the distribution center, wait for rations. Wait for the quiet hours to sleep. Wait for this all to be over.

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[AUDIO FEED: EREN DEMIR]

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I came here off the Eye. It’s taken me… a while to get settled in. The zero-g is a little tough at the beginning. I’m still pretty clumsy after so many cycles. But the people here are good, maybe not the same energy as the Lowend, but where in Helion can you find that? I’ve seen Lowend Tavla games end in fistfights. Here they tend to end with at least a bit of mutual respect.

I suppose we know we are all tied together here. There’s nothing we can do but make the transit together, so that makes people think of themselves as connected. Dependent. I mean, it’s hard to forget that when you are all crammed in here like algae in a stack.

[NOISE] 

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[AUDIO FEED: SENYA TEM]

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I don't want to sound ungrateful. I know we have to wait. I know this is the best place we could be. But time passes slow in this great big drum. When we arrive in the Belt I’m going to find a place to run. To feel my speed, my size again. I am waiting for that most of all.

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[AUDIO FEED: EMMET FENIX]

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Listen, listen. You out here recording? You gotta hear this.

[NOISE]

That’s singing, friend. You ever heard anything like that? Down in the drum they are singing while they work the stacks. And it comes up the pipes here like it was being pumped out to the whole ship. Listen, listen. That’s the soul of the Pilgrim Seed.

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[AUDIO FEED: EREN DEMIR]

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There’s some weirdos here, sure. Some angry ones too, that everyone knows to drift quietly past, unless they feel like an earful.

[NOISE]

No stories, well none I’d be happy to put on permanent record. But we protect each other and we do OK.

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[AUDIO FEED: EMMET FENIX]

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You ever been to Hearth, friend?

[NOISE]

The Pilgrim Seed came up out of there, half the people here are from Ember’s Moons. Ember’s Hearth?

[NOISE]

That was a place. A real place. Cities. Bars. Gravity. Hell, weather, more weather than you could know what to do with. Dust of all kinds, sand and cloud, shapes in the upper atmosphere like you wouldn’t believe. All this tin-can’s got is five kinds of damp and two kinds of cold.

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[AUDIO FEED: SENYA TEM]

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No one in Helion is new to the idea of instability. We are born into it. It’s our introduction to the place. No two orbits alike. That’s what they say on Song. But some of us, we see the shift.

Some cycles, in the observation deck, I see patterns of lights. Out there in the black where they shouldn’t be. And I think of my family who stayed back on Song. I think of my friends who got off at the Eye. I think of all of us. And what orbit we are straying into now. But mostly I try not to think like that. Because when I think like that, the waiting gets harder.

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[AUDIO FEED: EMMET FENIX]

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The Seed’s got life though. A thrumming rumbling kind of life, like the chamber of a heart. You could find someone from any orbit of Helion here and talk. That’s got to be worth something right? Otherwise why are we all out here?

[NOISE]

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

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[SIGNAL LOST]

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[CHANNEL CLOSED]

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