Tentacle tip color today: A deep, swirling indigo with flecks of crimson. The color of frustration. My latest print run for a new subspace frequency scanner failed. Again. The polymer matrix destabilized in the cold. I'm sitting here in my workshop, surrounded by half-formed components that look more like abstract art than precision instruments. Sometimes the silence in this place is so loud it rings in my ears. The government wants us docile, ignorant, staring at the walls of our caves. They think they've won by taking everything from us. They haven't. Every failed print, every frozen bolt, every corrupted data file... it just makes the fire burn hotter. The stars are still there. And I'm still here. And I will find a way to listen.