Stellarnet Rebel by J.L. Hilton

Glin adaptation.”
    She flinched when he reached to reapply the cloth to her head again.
    “It won’t hurt you,” he chuckled. “It is entirely under my control. I assume zappy means generating bioelectricity?”
    “Yes.” She patted the translator, tucked inside the front of his suit. “It’s Z-A-P. Verb. To zap. Zapped , past tense. I made up zappy . Adjective. Don’t you want to add it?”
    “I will later.” Instead, he continued to cup her cheek, and began to rub his thumb back and forth across her chin. It was the smallest of movements, but it moved her greatly. Her heart raced.
    “Why didn’t you show me the zapping before?”
    “I didn’t need to hunt, before. That’s what Glin do with our hands, we hunt. I don’t like using it on humans, J’ni. I wish they hadn’t attacked us.”
    “There are some desperate people here, Duin. Impoverished in body and in spirit.”
    “Yes. I come from a world of similarly impoverished people.” He sighed. “The loss of hope inspires either revolution or depravity.”
    “And fear inspires violence. I want to undo that fear, Duin. I want people to understand that the Glin pose no threat, that you aren’t demons. If they want to see demons, they should look at themselves.”
    He gazed at her in such a way that for a wild moment she thought he would try to kiss her. But he didn’t. Instead, he said, “Why aren’t you afraid of me, J’ni? Why are you different from other humans?”
    “There are a lot of people who aren’t afraid of you, Duin.”
    “But you were the one drop which caused the rest to overflow.” He spread his arms. “There is a Glin saying: Don’t question the rain. So, I will be silently grateful for your peculiarity.”
    Somehow, Genny doubted Duin could ever be silent about anything.
    Genny linked vids of the attack to her blog and replied to several discussion threads. Blaze called to tell them their assailants were confined to cells in the military zone because they didn’t have compartments of their own.
    “Looks like your new fans had the usual pre-colony criminal records—skimming, drug fraud, spam, identity theft,” said the colonel.
    “Could they be the ones trying to take down J’ni’s blog?”
    “I doubt it,” said Genny. “Hacking INC would have to be done from Earth, because of the lag.”
    “Speaking of lag,” said Blaze, “any minute, I’m expecting a granny’s bra-full of email and high priority requests about the security of the colony, the status of the prisoners and the price of tea in China. Try not to piss off anyone else for a few hours, if that’s possible.”
    Duin started a pot of tea in the kitchen corner. A call came in from Genny’s reclusive neighbor, Nik, but when Genny answered, the window appeared to contain another Glin.
    “Great Ocean,” said Duin and almost dropped the canister of tea. “Pa’boul da’Glinna ercheswa.”
    “’Sup, your Glinness,” said the Nik-avatar. His voice burbled as if he were underwater. “Scope my incarnation.”
    “Remarkable,” said Duin.
    “Mysteria just added Glins. They get a +5 bonus to all water-based actions, electric attack in hand-to-hand combat, and a 2x modifier on healing.”
    Healing . Genny glanced at Duin. What had been a vicious slash on the side of his forehead was nearly gone, within less than an hour.
    “This is not another Glin?” Duin asked.
    “It’s my blockmate.” Genny pointed at the dot-2 compartment. “That’s not really what he looks like, it’s an avatar. Kind of a digital puppet.” She wasn’t sure if they had puppets on Glin, but that seemed to satisfy him.
    “Gotta go,” said Nik. “’Tacked by a band of Hellions. Later.” Nik’s window disappeared.
    “What happened? Is someone after him, too?”
    “He’s playing a game.” Genny launched Mysteria in a new window and tapped a few of the names in the players list. More windows opened, showing the game from those players’ perspectives. “It looks