People_are_meddling_in_our_affairs

But the meddling didn’t stop at the dirt. Next, it was our governance. We settled disputes with a circle of elders and a handshake. The UED found this "primitive" and "legally volatile." By the second month, they had installed a digital voting kiosk in the mess hall.

"What is this?" Henderson shouted, his voice cracking. "This is a violation of the Oversight Act! Turn the power back on!" people_are_meddling_in_our_affairs

The breaking point wasn't the nitrogen or the voting. It was the "Heritage Assessment." Henderson decided that our oral histories—the stories we told of the Great Migration and the First Frost—were "factually inconsistent" with Earth’s central archives. He began editing our schoolbooks, scrubbing the names of the rebels who founded Vesta-4. But the meddling didn’t stop at the dirt

That was the night the lights went out. Not just in the mess hall, but across the entire UED landing module. The UED found this "primitive" and "legally volatile