Chapter One: Every Satellite Forgot It

He called Lin Ji, an old university friend who worked as a data engineer at the municipal emergency center. “Did your system detect an orbital anomaly?” “No. Did you film another Starlink satellite?” “A hundred and seventy meters long. It stopped from orbital velocity in point eight seconds. Three thousand viewers saw it.” Silence. “Zhou, your peak tonight was 431. At 9:19 you were explaining a retired weather satellite.” The dashboard agreed. Peak viewers: 431. “Save your raw data offline,” Lin said, suddenly alert. “Don't upload it. Don't tell anyone. I'll inspect the underlying logs.” “It's already gone.” Three hard-drive lights died together, then returned. A foreign line appeared on his monitor: