Shadows of Bankor

Mia went into the acclaimed Bankor News Broadcasting for one very pretty boy, Ria'la. She was seriously impressed at how good his hair looked. It was much better than even hers, not that she worried about it often.

"Hey again. Tell me, are you famous across this entire planet, maybe the sector?" Mia asked. She was hoping to gleam just how far the network could go without leading with the whole 'let us take down the Empire' bit.

As they had not yet gotten the tip of what atrocities would happen later in the day, Ria'la was just sorting out his transport to the absolutely thrilling cram berry picking day at the farms.

"Oh hi . . . Mia wasn't it? We broadcast across Bankor. Used to do local systems as well until the Imps barred access to the Galactic Holonet."

There was a burble of binary from the corner where Dray was plugged in to a power line. Meanwhile Binky was apparently traffic watching out the tiny corner window.

"Yup, you've got that right. Nice to meet you officially," she said, offering a hand.

"They blocked it out, huh? How's anyone supposed to know what's going on here on Bankor then?" Mia asked, innocently enough.

He gave her a wry smile.

"They're not."

A blurt of binary from Dray brought the smile back.

"Dray . . . if you have to explain the joke then it's not funny. OK, it's so the Imps can control what comes in. Each system only learns what happens in their own system and what the Imperials want them to learn from other systems. It's censorship. Plain and simple. I wouldn't believe half the stuff the official Imperial channels tell you."

"Very true. I guess we don't need to go too into details due to how we met each other." Mia looked around and then smiled. "How private are we right now? I'm guessing your droids are trustworthy enough to not record anything scandalous." She gave a few winks, perhaps ones that were too obvious for an actual spy to do.

"Heh. They record when they're told to. Dray here is busy charging and Binky likes to watch the traffic when he's not working . . . . I wouldn't be too open here. Not everyone at BNB thinks the Imps are a bad thing."

He put his feet up on his desk.

"They also all think I had a sick day just gone."

"Alright," Mia said, "I'll have to take you outta here sometime for lunch or something.

"But let's see what can be done now." Mia scratched the back of her head. "How hard would it be to get, say, one transmission out there through the censors?"

"Hypothetically speaking it would be possible if you had a way of cutting into the holonet. That would take a holonet transceiver with the correct codes . . . sliced or one already loaded with them."

He leaned back in his chair.

"Ours here has been downgraded by Imp techs to just access the planetary grid now, but they must have one somewhere to receive instructions from the Core and I would guess at least one backup. And you can bet the Hutts have a way of communicating offworld. So that's two options . . . neither great. Third option is Imperial Navy ships . . . . not great either. Right out in left field is if you can find or our friends already have, a functioning holonet transceiver. Then we just need up to date codes to slice into the network."

Transceiver. Well, that sounded like transport. So, despite her not knowing what the heck of 'holonet transceiver' was, she assumed it had something to do with transporting message.

"We might make a deal with the Hutts, though that doesn't sound like a great plan. As for the Imperial Navy, well, how long would we need to have access to it?" Mia was a little hesitant to sign up Dove for that operation, but if she knew anyone could go onto one of their ships, it'd be her at the moment.

"Well that depends on how long your message is. Even compressed a holonet message is a lot of data. Couple of minutes for a short one, up to ten or more for a documentary. If you know the access codes that is. Much longer if you don't."

He paused.

"And . . . err . . . everyone who can receive the message will know approximately we're it's coming from, so better be ready to bug out or deal with trouble. Unless you set it for delayed broadcast but you're chancing someone discovering it and stopping it then."

"Looks like we need a couple of minutes then. As for a delay, we'll see if that's necessary or not," Mia concluded. She scratched the back of her head. "Where are these codes exactly?"

"That . . . "

He waggled a finger.

" . . . is the truly difficult bit. The Empire has the Holonet locked down. You need access codes to get in and only the Imperials have those."

"Well, nobody ever said that getting the truth out would be easy. But the whole galaxy deserves to know. Otherwise, everyone will be isolated."

"That's how they win. Separate us all. Make us afraid and snuff out hope."

He was all serious now, smiles gone.

"We can't let them win."

. . .

"If you can get me the codes and access I can put whatever you want out on to the Holonet. They might jam it eventually but once it's out there it can be passed on again and again."

"That's what I wanted to hear," Mia said with a smile. She crossed her arms and then nodded. "Well then, I'll have to see what I can do then."

"You know where to find me."

"Lemme guess, you practically live here, huh?" Mia asked. She then rubbed her chin. "Is that an 'Imperial overworking' sort of thing or just part of the overall job?"

That got his back up.

"I don't work for the Imps. We're independent here!"

He quickly calmed down though.

"Except they watch everything we put out and censor without warning."

"Right, right," Mia said, holding up her hands, "What I meant is... did you have to work so much under the Republic?"

He calmed down a whole lot more.

"No. They didn't censor us. Barely interacted with us other than renewing our broadcast license every few years I believe. We saw the local civil enforcers a whole lot more than any Republic officials, and all they wanted was info when we reported on something criminal."

An actual smile came back to his face.

"I was just an intern back then, but you sure see a lot of stuff they don't think you see as an intern."

"Intern just makes me think of internment camp. But that ain't right," Mia said, running her chin. She sure wasn't bright sometimes.

"Sometimes the Republic might have been too hands off. Or maybe that's the way it should be. Hm..."

"They certainly didn't send squads of gun toting goons all over the planet."

"Right, right. But I mean, the Republic didn't always look out for the little guy, you know?"