Place
The Wick
BLACKFLAME's den: a decommissioned relay station in no sector's survey. Those who claim to have been there describe only a mast with the flame burned into its housing, a hot humming rack room, and one codec deck tuned to 142.59, volume low, channel open. Intercept footage adds a scarred viewport on a drifting field of wrecked orbital stations (ring stations, broken spokes, hulks); a desk of mismatched CRTs (a scope trace of live traffic, the burn-in in static, the relays as a turning constellation), analogue-metered radio and test gear and a steel mug; and, on the night side, a gas giant whose terminator crawls across the window and one lit relay station whose spokes are the channels it carries. The gas giant matches forty charts, so the Wick stays unplaced.
Lanes
Connected entries
den ofBLACKFLAMEThe network's operator: the legend who lit the first unlisted relay during the Switch-Off and keeps the Bromigos network's relays, racks, and worlds lit. Real name CLASSIFIED;
burnsThe relay beamA beam that burns up from the Wick's mast into the dark only while every channel on the network is answering. Seen in intercept footage;- setting ofThe empty chairOperator folklore from intercept footage of the Wick: when BLACKFLAME is away, the chair stands empty and turned, with headphones and shades left by the keyboard.
keeps a line open toVECTOR- hub ofThe LamplightersThe keepers of the unlisted relays' posts, one to a world. Their creed: a black flame gives no light, but someone keeps it burning.
- first post ofWorlds of the DriftThe worlds where BLACKFLAME's unlisted relays are kept lit because no one else will pay to serve them: one post to a world, each marked somewhere with the burn-in (on a mast, a buoy or a…
links hereHighwindThe cloud city: a station drifting through a gas giant's storm bands, airships moored at its rings, sky-whales in the bands and kite-birds in the updrafts.
On the timeline
When it happened
- Present
From the Wick, BLACKFLAME keeps the unlisted relays lit while the Meridian Reach tears relays down and they come back within the week.
- Present