Similar conversations played out across every news channel. Experts struggled to explain. Analysts fumbled for frameworks. Everyone agreed on one thing: this was unprecedented.
Reddit exploded with speculation. The r/NovaGate subreddit, created just days earlier to discuss Nova Technologies, saw its membership surge from 400,000 to over 3 million in hours. Threads multiplied faster than moderators could organize them.
"They have to be using some kind of quantum communication system. That's the only explanation for real-time solar system streaming."
"Quantum entanglement for data transmission is theoretical at best. Nobody has made it work for actual information transfer."
"Nobody except Nova Technologies, apparently."
"What if they're not even human? What if this whole company is first contact?"
That last comment got downvoted into oblivion, but similar theories proliferated anyway. When technology advanced too far past the known baseline, people's minds went to strange places.
