LNH: Flame Wars Final #0

[Scott Eiler]

Okay, now you're getting me interested.

Does this story take place in roughly the LNH Present?

Sent from my HTC Touch Pro2 on the Now Network from Sprint®.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Perron <pwerdna at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 23:01
To: racc at lists.eyrie.org
Subject: LNH: Flame Wars Final #0

The Commons were one of the lights of a lonely galaxy.

A race that split from the Cascaders long ago, their stock in trade was 
knowledge, and the stated goal of their society was to spread it.

They constructed a network of great energic nodes across the Orion-
Cygnus Arm and began trading. The great civilizations girded themselves 
for economic strife, but when the Commons arrived, it was with a 
question: How can we fit ourselves in without screwing you over?

Thus, the Commons slotted into the holes in the system, separate from 
it, but working within its rules. They traded old information for new; 
not just dry facts, but expressions of cultural distinctiveness. They 
translated handshakes and how-are-yous from one star-spanning nation of 
space to another.

Their one great flaw was their centralization. The Crucible of the 
Commons was the central node of their network, a library planet second 
only to Webster's World. Not all of the Commons' communications passed 
through it - indeed, it participated directly in very few trades. But 
the underlying assumption of the entire system was that it would be 
there.

And then the shadow came, and passed across it...

Now, the energic nodes are still. Hails, first annoyed, then worried, 
then frantic have gone unanswered. Acquisitions, new and old, sleep in 
stasis pods. And the Commons themselves...

Pity the Commons. But you may want to save a share of pity for the next 
target:

The Looniearth.

----

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, welcome to Flame Wars Final!