form—no, it’s another circle, it’s just too large to see the whole thing. It’s another sphere, an inner sphere dead ahead, so large that Sarya has to crane her neck in all directions to see the whole thing. From its surface, she can pick out faint lines of activity, stronger lines of light that lead out from this massive glowing thing to the hundreds of subspace tunnels.
“That’s a star?” she asks. “I thought a Blackstar was a station.”
[It’s both], says Eleven.
Something has suddenly clicked in Sarya’s mind. “You’re not saying they built a station—”
[Around a star.]
“What?”
The suit rumbles. [It’s just the Network], it says.
Sarya doesn’t even attempt to argue. In her mind, a sudden realization has taken hold. “What’s the…population of that thing?” she asks.
Eleven hums. [Three hundred ten trillion], it says after a moment. [And this is just a little one, out on the edge of the Network.]
“Three hundred ten—”
[You think that’s something, you should see one of the big ones], continues Eleven, oblivious to her distress. Against the lights, its diagram expands into still more lines and symbols. [There are stations that connect Blackstars together like Blackstars connect individual solar systems. See that tunnel up there, the biggest one? That tunnel connects this Blackstar—and all its solar systems—to the Network. There are things on the other side of that tunnel that make our little Blackstar look like an asteroid, but you have to be higher tier to visit them. Maybe to even understand them.] The suit rumbles. [Even higher-tier than you.]
The jab passes through Sarya without effect, because she cannot process it. Three hundred ten trillion. Three hundred ten—
And now Ol’ Ernie is speaking again, but his harsh voice has faded to a buzz. He is probably giving them a schedule or telling them what to expect. Sarya hears the rhythm of the words, but they pass through her mind without leaving an impression. She stares into the diaphanous glow surrounding Riptide, into a sphere many times larger than a sun. Somewhere in there, among three hundred ten trillion intelligences, is the one she’s looking for.
Maybe.
[Nervous?] asks Eleven, one of its straps squeezing her shoulder. [Don’t worry. I’ll come with you. If Sandy lets me, I mean.]
But Sarya cannot answer. Three hundred ten trillion. No, she’s not nervous.
She’s hopeless.
The following is greatly abridged from the original Network article, in accordance with your tier.
NETWORK FOCUS: BEHOLD THE BLACKSTARS
Given the utter reliability, ubiquity, and ease of use of the galaxy’s only legal faster-than-light system, it’s easy to forget that the Network hasn’t always existed. In fact, it’s only been about five hundred million years since the first Blackstar came online. In the short time since then, the Network has grown from that single station to a gigantic superstructure built upon over a million Blackstars—all connected through subspace!
Isn’t that something?
Don’t worry if you can’t picture it; no one under tier four can. But Citizen members of all tiers have wondered, at one time or another: where, exactly, do Blackstars come from?
HOW TO BUILD A MINOR BLACKSTAR (IN FIVE EASY STEPS)
Step one: Find a suitable solar system. You’ll need a small- to medium-sized star—perhaps a million and a half kilometers in diameter—with a planetary system at least a tenth of a percent of its mass.
Step two: Rearrange all the matter in the solar system to form a shell around the star. The idea is to capture one hundred percent of your star’s output.*1 You’re going to need it for step four!
Step three: Pull the entire structure into an isolated pocket of spacetime.*2 Don’t forget the space around it! You’ll need room to park a few trillion vehicles. A diameter of a hundred fifty million kilometers should do the trick.
Step four: Now that your star is in a bubble of reality suspended in subspace, it’s time for the most important part: opening your primary subspace tunnel!*3 Without this single tunnel leading to one of the gigantic root stations that form the backbone of the Network, all you’ll have is a really big space station.
Step five: Using the energy from your star and the high-bandwidth connection to the Network, you can now open as many tunnels to nearby Citizen star systems as you want!
And you’re done! Sound difficult? For a mind like yours, it would be impossible. But for the higher-tier minds responsible for Network logistics, it’s no problem at all! Every day, somewhere in the galaxy, huge numbers of Network subspace tunnels open for business. Through each