It is a quirk of FTL comms that the signal carrying the message is not all that different from regular electromagnetic transmissions, of the kind used before the golden age. Instead the signal propagates instantaneously along its route by sidestepping the usual lightspeed restrictions of light and radio waves.

Every Elysian schoolchild knows these basics - after all, they are what built the Empire as it is today. What many are unaware of however, is the quirk of physics which means these messages also travel at regular speed through regular space, facsimiles of the original transmission arriving years or decades after their sending.

Much of this is simply ignored, automatically filtered from the receiving equipment. Long-irrelevant stellar noise, the byproduct of a galactic civilization dumping raw power into space in order to bend the very rules of the universe in which it lives. For historians, however, these messages can represent something truly important: literal echoes from the past, messages from people and times long past.

Day Ta Rey Shin was one of the youngest aides in the Tel cultural delegation, brought along mostly for her noted expertise in Elysian political history and to do some translation work where necessary for the elder members who - despite their seniority and diplomatic expertise - were not entirely comfortable with the more esoteric Elysian dialects.

The delegation was on what they cynically referred to as the “sightseeing” portion of its trip - a downtime of a month or two between actually important diplomatic meetings. Prima was one of the most populous and wealthy of the Elysian Empire's core worlds, but after the decentralisation no longer had as many important politicians, meaning many Elysian politicians and diplomats had to travel to meet them.

Eschewing yet another of the parties that had been arranged for the delegation to fill the time, Day Ta had left to spend some time with Andrew, a young local who had been assigned to guide her around the archives at Cambria University in New Catarina. She met him at the steps of the university's physics building, a bounce in his step and obvious excitement on his face.

“Come in Day, I know it's unusual to bring you out here but there's something I want you to see.”

“You know I'm not a physicist, right?” she grinned, intrigued.

“Of course, don't worry, this'll be right up your street.”

The great hall of the physics buildings was busy with students and academics scurrying to and fro. Dominating the space as they walked past was a gigantic decommissioned fusion reactor, its protective casing cut away to reveal what to her eyes was a tangle of impossibly complex machinery. It was inspiring, but she couldn't help but feel out of her element.

Andrew led her down corridors and up stairs, the bustle of people giving way to more studious silence and an ever-present hum of high powered equipment. At last, in a laboratory which must have been near the top of the building, a crowd of technicians were working feverishly on what looked like some extremely delicate equipment. Separating her from them was a glass window and a bank of terminals at which sat a number of Elysians who looked just as out of place as she did.

A nervous voice struck up as one of them noticed her. “Oh! Hello! You're Tel, right?”, the student - probably not more than twenty - pointed at her voting implant.

Day Ta smiled at her, nodding. “Yes, I'm with the cultural delegation. Andrew here was just showing me around.”

“You've got here just in time. We think they should arrive any moment!”

“Who's arriving?”

Andrew chimed in. “It's not a who that's arriving, but rather a what. And a very interesting what indeed.”

“Shh, they're getting readings!” a voice to one side admonished.

Sure enough, the mood in the room shifted from a buzzing tenseness to almost electric excitement as words and images started flowing across the terminal monitors.

“Yes, this is it! Look!”

Andrew pointed to an unoccupied terminal. Huge amounts of text scrolled across it. Day Ta sat, and tried to focus on just one fragment of the words glowing on the screen. It was only then that she realised what she was looking at.

FROM: 6-0-SPD, ON ORBIT, C-ALCHEMIA
TO: RUSSELL FAMILY, LANDFALL, PRIMA

MESSAGE BEGINS

Mum, Dad,

I don't have much time. I don't know if you'll even get this, but I have to try anyway.

You're going to be hearing a lot about Exagora over the next couple of months. I want you to know that it's important, and it's all true, and Aves was the one who made releasing it possible. Please take it seriously, it could change everything.

I love you.

Nick

MESSAGE ENDS