After 1968, the USSR lost all its non-European territories—Turkestan and Siberia—due to separatist movements, and was reduced to a state confined largely to Eastern Europe. In 1991, primarily as a result of prolonged economic stagnation and widespread internal uprisings, it collapsed and fragmented into independent states. Yet in March 1994, Aldira received a letter from a technically Soviet cosmonaut who was still in orbit.
This young woman, known as Orelya, had been launched into space in 1990 as part of a twenty-person crew aboard a self-sustaining space station. Less than three weeks after launch, a rupture in the station’s life-support system released toxic coolant, killing the crew almost instantly. Orelya, who had been isolated in a sealed compartment with an independent oxygen supply, survived. She chose not to signal the authorities and remained in orbit, and was therefore presumed dead. When the Union later dissolved, she remained a Soviet citizen on paper. Thus, she became a relic of a vanished state.
By March 1994, she began transmitting encrypted messages on frequencies accessible to the Aldiran elite. These transmissions, however, were not addressed to Aldira alone. They were also directed toward the world’s major powers: the Federal Union of American States, the United Federation of Great Britain, the French Republic, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China. To these governments, her messages contained no admiration but only philosophical warnings.
It was during this period that her transmission to Aldira received a favorable response. A kind of cult of personality rapidly formed around Orelya, softening—if only slightly—the Order’s otherwise hostile perception of foreigners. For the first time, the newspapers of Aldira were decorated with quotations of a non-Aldiran “xeno.” At first glance, this situation might seem contradictory: Orelya criticized autocracy with an unprecedented level of detail in history, yet Aldira was thoroughly autocratic from top to bottom. However, the Aldirans were not passive conformists—they were active believers. This created a society governed by a single, dominant force rather than a herd mentality, and as a result, the Aldirans did not take Orelya’s attacks on conformity personally.
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After decoding her transmissions, Aldira transcribed them into written form. The texts were printed and distributed domestically, and soon afterward the Aldiran Air Force began releasing copies over East Asia. The papers fell like ash over the cities of China and Japan. Because both states maintained extensive trade and distribution networks, the writings gradually spread beyond the region and, eventually, across the world.
The existential themes in Orelya’s writings that sharply criticized conformity and herd mentality—though largely rejected by the “old human”—were embraced by Nova carriers, the “new human,” who began using her ideas as catalysts for unrest and revolt. Orelya herself more closely resembled an exile than an activist, and in truth, these groups shared that condition. Yet just as Aldira had become the cradle of a culture built around culturelessness and a religion founded on irreligion, these existentially displaced masses, in the name of individuality, began to form a distinct collective that posed a challenge to established authority.
Those who were not carriers reacted with fear and hostility, calling for Aldira’s annihilation, Nova’s eradication, and the destruction of the station in orbit. But it was already too late. Orelya’s writings had been copied, quoted, and disseminated—appearing in pamphlets, newspapers, and books—until even ordinary citizens could encounter her words. Publishing houses analyzed her ideas, broadcasters reported on her existence, and world leaders spoke her name.
As a result, a joint international decision was reached: to censor her writings, violently suppress demonstrations, and even consider destroying the space station by missile strike. Publishing houses that printed her texts were raided by national police. Yet reproduction continued underground, illegally, beyond the reach of official control.
