diff --git a/internal/link/hearing.go b/internal/link/hearing.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..303d7e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/hearing.go
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// What a host hears, as the host's own words for it.
+//
+// The outbound half went behind `Bus` (bus.go) and a node's two statements stopped naming a
+// transport. This is the other half — dialling, and the declarations that arrive — and it is where
+// the transport reached furthest: the run loop selected on a channel of the client library's own
+// delivery type, so every part of holding a node in its mesh knew which bus it was on.
+//
+// **The host still imports nothing of the mesh's own** (novox/hq ADR 0005). This is its own
+// interface over its own libraries, and it agrees with the controller only because a conformance
+// fixture holds both to one envelope.
+
+// Link is this node's live connection to its mesh: what it hears, and what it says.
+//
+// One interface rather than two, because **dialling is where the transport is chosen** and choosing
+// it twice is how one half of a node ends up on a different bus from the other.
+type Link interface {
+	// Bus is what this node says: what it applied, and that it is here.
+	Bus
+
+	// Declarations is what the mesh tells this node to be.
+	Declarations() <-chan Declaration
+
+	// Lost says the link ended, and why.
+	//
+	// **Read rather than discovered.** A node that finds out by noticing silence is a node that
+	// believed it was in the mesh for as long as the silence lasted, which is the one state ADR
+	// 0004 says must never look like being connected.
+	Lost() <-chan error
+
+	// Close lets go of whatever was dialled.
+	Close()
+}
+
+// Declaration is one thing the mesh told this node to be.
+//
+// **Handled, once — after the report is published.** A node that dies between applying and
+// reporting leaves the declaration with the mesh and applies it again on return, which is safe
+// because applying is reconciliation: it converges rather than repeating.
+//
+// There is one way of being done rather than two. A declaration set aside because a newer arrived
+// with it is settled exactly as an applied one is, on both buses, and the difference between them
+// is a fact the *report* carries — a second method here would be a distinction the transport does
+// not make.
+type Declaration interface {
+	// Body is the signed declaration as it arrived, bytes unchanged: a node verifies what it
+	// received rather than what it re-encoded.
+	Body() []byte
+
+	// Handled settles it. Called after the report for it has been published, either way.
+	Handled() error
+}
+
+// Open opens this node's link to its mesh.
+//
+// Named Open rather than Dial because Dial is this package's raw TLS dial, which the enrolment path
+// uses to see a certificate before it trusts anything.
+//
+// **Both transports ship and this is the one place that chooses** (novox/hq ADR 0116: nothing moves
+// a node's bus before step 5). Until then every membership names the bus the mesh runs on today,
+// and the rollout is this switch and the credential behind it — not a change anywhere in the loop
+// that reads from what comes back.
+func Open(ctx context.Context, m Membership, timeout time.Duration) (Link, error) {
+	switch m.Transport {
+	case OnNATS:
+		return dialNats(ctx, m, timeout)
+	default:
+		return dialCurrent(ctx, m, timeout)
+	}
+}
+
+// The buses a node can be on. Empty is the one the mesh runs on today, which is every node until
+// the rollout — so a membership recorded before any of this existed reads as correct rather than as
+// unset.
+const (
+	OnCurrent = ""
+	OnNATS    = "nats"
+)
diff --git a/internal/link/hearing_current.go b/internal/link/hearing_current.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..772e17e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/hearing_current.go
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"net/url"
+	"time"
+
+	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
+)
+
+// The host's link on the bus the mesh runs on today.
+//
+// Moved out of the run loop rather than changed: the dial, the queue, the prefetch window and the
+// return handler are what they were, because the mesh is running on this and a bus nothing speaks
+// yet is no reason to alter the one every node is on.
+
+// currentLink is this node's connection as a channel.
+type currentLink struct {
+	conn    *amqp.Connection
+	channel *amqp.Channel
+	arrived chan Declaration
+	lost    chan error
+}
+
+func dialCurrent(ctx context.Context, m Membership, timeout time.Duration) (Link, error) {
+	config, err := PinnedConfig(m.Fingerprint)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	dsn := fmt.Sprintf("amqps://%s:%s@%s/",
+		url.QueryEscape(m.Node), url.QueryEscape(m.Password), m.Broker)
+	conn, err := amqp.DialConfig(dsn, amqp.Config{
+		TLSClientConfig: config,
+		Dial:            amqp.DefaultDial(timeout),
+		// Kept short so a node that has silently lost its route notices, rather than holding a
+		// connection the broker forgot about and believing it is still in the mesh.
+		Heartbeat: 10 * time.Second,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, ErrWrongCertificate) {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot reach the broker at %s: %w", m.Broker, err)
+	}
+
+	channel, err := conn.Channel()
+	if err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	queue := QueueFor(m.Node)
+	if _, err := channel.QueueDeclare(queue, true, false, false, false, nil); err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot declare this node's queue %s: %w", queue, err)
+	}
+
+	// Applying is one at a time — two at once would race on the same filesystem — but SEEING is
+	// not: with a prefetch of one the host could never know that a newer declaration was already
+	// waiting, and so applied every one of a backlog in turn, at the better part of a minute each,
+	// becoming things nobody wanted any more (novox/hq issue 031). A window of unacknowledged
+	// deliveries lets it drain to the newest; each declaration still survives a restart on the
+	// broker until it is acknowledged, which happens only after it is applied or set aside.
+	if err := channel.Qos(drainDepth, 0, false); err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	deliveries, err := channel.ConsumeWithContext(ctx, queue, "", false, false, false, false, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	l := &currentLink{
+		conn: conn, channel: channel,
+		arrived: make(chan Declaration, drainDepth),
+		lost:    make(chan error, 1),
+	}
+
+	// Published mandatory, so the broker hands back anything it cannot route rather than dropping
+	// it. Without this a report goes to an exchange with no matching binding, the publisher is told
+	// nothing, and the mesh believes this node never answered while the node believes it did —
+	// which is what happened when `report` was left unbound on the other side.
+	returned := channel.NotifyReturn(make(chan amqp.Return, 4))
+	go func() {
+		for r := range returned {
+			select {
+			case l.lost <- fmt.Errorf("the broker could not route this node's %s: %s (%d %s)",
+				r.RoutingKey, r.Exchange, r.ReplyCode, r.ReplyText):
+			default:
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+
+	closed := conn.NotifyClose(make(chan *amqp.Error, 1))
+	go func() {
+		select {
+		case reason := <-closed:
+			select {
+			case l.lost <- fmt.Errorf("the link closed: %v", reason):
+			default:
+			}
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+		}
+	}()
+
+	// One goroutine turning the library's deliveries into the mesh's words, so the run loop selects
+	// on one kind of thing whichever bus it is on.
+	go func() {
+		defer close(l.arrived)
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case delivery, ok := <-deliveries:
+				if !ok {
+					select {
+					case l.lost <- errors.New("the broker stopped delivering"):
+					default:
+					}
+					return
+				}
+				select {
+				case l.arrived <- currentDeclaration{delivery}:
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					return
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+
+	return l, nil
+}
+
+func (l *currentLink) Declarations() <-chan Declaration { return l.arrived }
+func (l *currentLink) Lost() <-chan error               { return l.lost }
+
+func (l *currentLink) Close() {
+	if l.channel != nil {
+		_ = l.channel.Close()
+	}
+	if l.conn != nil {
+		_ = l.conn.Close()
+	}
+}
+
+// Report and Alive are the outbound half, over the channel this link holds.
+func (l *currentLink) Report(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error {
+	return OverCurrent{Channel: l.channel}.Report(ctx, node, body)
+}
+
+func (l *currentLink) Alive(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error {
+	return OverCurrent{Channel: l.channel}.Alive(ctx, node, body)
+}
+
+// currentDeclaration is one delivery from the bus the mesh has.
+type currentDeclaration struct{ delivery amqp.Delivery }
+
+func (d currentDeclaration) Body() []byte   { return d.delivery.Body }
+func (d currentDeclaration) Handled() error { return d.delivery.Ack(false) }
diff --git a/internal/link/hearing_nats.go b/internal/link/hearing_nats.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0f90e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/hearing_nats.go
@@ -0,0 +1,182 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+)
+
+// The host's link on the bus being built.
+//
+// Two things a host does here that it cannot do on the other bus, and one it must not try.
+//
+// **It declares nothing.** On the bus the mesh has, a host declares its own queue on connecting,
+// because a queue that is not there means a node that hears nothing. Here the object it reads
+// through is a durable consumer, and a host's account reaches no part of the JetStream API — by
+// design, because the controller is the only writer of consumer definitions (design 25 §3). So the
+// host **binds** to a consumer the controller made when this node enrolled, and a missing one is
+// said as what it is rather than quietly created with whatever configuration this client happens to
+// default to.
+//
+// **It gets order for free, and keeps the drain anyway.** The declaration subject is last-per-subject
+// (design 29 §4), so a node that was away receives exactly the current declaration rather than a
+// queue of superseded ones, and the stream's sequence orders them definitively — the wire-level
+// answer to novox/hq issue 107. What the drain in run.go still answers is the live case: three
+// pushes to a *connected* node are three deliveries whatever the stream later retains.
+
+// DeclareSubject is where this node's declaration lands. Its own, and no other node's: a host's
+// account subscribes exactly this and the subject is the authority on which node a declaration is
+// for.
+func DeclareSubject(node string) string { return "mesh.node." + node + ".declare" }
+
+// natsURL is a bus address as the client wants it. A membership records host and port, because that
+// is what genesis sealed into it and what the other transport takes; the scheme is this transport's
+// own business.
+func natsURL(address string) string {
+	if strings.Contains(address, "://") {
+		return address
+	}
+	return "nats://" + address
+}
+
+// natsLink is this node's connection as a JetStream subscription.
+type natsLink struct {
+	conn    *nats.Conn
+	js      nats.JetStreamContext
+	sub     *nats.Subscription
+	node    string
+	arrived chan Declaration
+	lost    chan error
+}
+
+func dialNats(ctx context.Context, m Membership, timeout time.Duration) (Link, error) {
+	// Pinned exactly as the other transport is, and for once the Go client makes that easy: it
+	// takes a *tls.Config, so the same PinnedConfig with the same VerifyPeerCertificate does the
+	// work. **The constraint recorded against the tool runtime does not apply here** — that client
+	// takes PEM strings with no verify hook, which is why the bus's certificate must carry a name
+	// matching the address *modules* dial it by. A host checks the fingerprint and nothing else.
+	config, err := PinnedConfig(m.Fingerprint)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	opts := []nats.Option{
+		nats.Secure(config),
+		nats.UserInfo(m.Node, m.Password),
+		nats.Name("mesh-host/" + m.Node),
+		nats.Timeout(timeout),
+		// A node that has silently lost its route notices, rather than holding a connection the
+		// server forgot about and believing it is still in the mesh.
+		nats.PingInterval(10 * time.Second),
+		nats.MaxPingsOutstanding(2),
+		// Reconnection is the caller's: Hold already decides when to try again and how long to
+		// wait, and a client quietly reconnecting underneath it would make that reasoning a
+		// duplicate of the library's.
+		nats.NoReconnect(),
+	}
+
+	conn, err := nats.Connect(natsURL(m.Broker), opts...)
+	if err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, ErrWrongCertificate) {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot reach the bus at %s: %w", m.Broker, err)
+	}
+	js, err := conn.JetStream()
+	if err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("the bus at %s has no JetStream: %w", m.Broker, err)
+	}
+
+	l := &natsLink{
+		conn: conn, js: js, node: m.Node,
+		arrived: make(chan Declaration, drainDepth),
+		lost:    make(chan error, 1),
+	}
+
+	// Bound to the consumer the controller made for this node, named after the node because that is
+	// what the node's own ack grant allows (`$JS.ACK.NODES.<node>.>`).
+	feed := make(chan *nats.Msg, drainDepth)
+	// The subject as well as the binding: the client checks what is asked for against the
+	// consumer's own filter, and an empty subject is refused rather than taken to mean "whatever
+	// that consumer delivers".
+	sub, err := js.ChanSubscribe(DeclareSubject(m.Node), feed, nats.Bind("NODES", m.Node))
+	if err != nil {
+		conn.Close()
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf(
+			"this node cannot read its declarations: %w. The mesh creates that when a node enrols, "+
+				"and a host may not create one itself — so this is the mesh's to answer, not this "+
+				"machine's", err)
+	}
+	l.sub = sub
+
+	conn.SetDisconnectErrHandler(func(_ *nats.Conn, err error) {
+		select {
+		case l.lost <- fmt.Errorf("the link dropped: %w", err):
+		default:
+		}
+	})
+	conn.SetClosedHandler(func(*nats.Conn) {
+		select {
+		case l.lost <- errors.New("the link closed"):
+		default:
+		}
+	})
+
+	go func() {
+		defer close(l.arrived)
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case msg, ok := <-feed:
+				if !ok {
+					select {
+					case l.lost <- errors.New("the bus stopped delivering"):
+					default:
+					}
+					return
+				}
+				select {
+				case l.arrived <- natsDeclaration{msg}:
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					return
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+
+	return l, nil
+}
+
+func (l *natsLink) Declarations() <-chan Declaration { return l.arrived }
+func (l *natsLink) Lost() <-chan error               { return l.lost }
+
+func (l *natsLink) Close() {
+	if l.sub != nil {
+		_ = l.sub.Unsubscribe()
+	}
+	if l.conn != nil {
+		l.conn.Close()
+	}
+}
+
+func (l *natsLink) Report(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error {
+	return OverNATS{Conn: l.conn, JS: l.js}.Report(ctx, node, body)
+}
+
+func (l *natsLink) Alive(ctx context.Context, node string, body []byte) error {
+	return OverNATS{Conn: l.conn, JS: l.js}.Alive(ctx, node, body)
+}
+
+// natsDeclaration is one declaration off the NODES stream.
+type natsDeclaration struct{ msg *nats.Msg }
+
+func (d natsDeclaration) Body() []byte { return d.msg.Data }
+
+// Handled acknowledges it. The ack goes to this node's own ack subject, which is the one thing
+// besides its reports a node's account may publish.
+func (d natsDeclaration) Handled() error { return d.msg.Ack() }
diff --git a/internal/link/hearing_nats_test.go b/internal/link/hearing_nats_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9a33e38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/hearing_nats_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,228 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"crypto/ed25519"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/nats-io/nats.go"
+)
+
+// The host's link against a real server, because every claim here is about one.
+//
+// Whether binding to a consumer the host did not create works, whether a declaration on the node's
+// own subject arrives, whether acknowledging it removes it from the consumer's pending — none of
+// that can be reasoned out, and the first two are the ones that would leave a node silently hearing
+// nothing:
+//
+//	docker run -d --rm --name t -p 14223:4222 nats:2.10-alpine -js
+//	MESH_TEST_NATS=nats://127.0.0.1:14223 go test ./internal/link/ -run TestNats
+
+func aBus(t *testing.T) (*nats.Conn, nats.JetStreamContext) {
+	t.Helper()
+	url := os.Getenv("MESH_TEST_NATS")
+	if url == "" {
+		t.Skip("MESH_TEST_NATS unset")
+	}
+	conn, err := nats.Connect(url)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(conn.Close)
+	js, err := conn.JetStream()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	// **Ensured and purged, not deleted and recreated.** Delete-then-add looked like a reset and is
+	// not one: a test that did that inherited the previous test's messages, and the symptom was a
+	// declaration counted as delivered twice — which reads as a redelivery bug in the code under
+	// test rather than as a dirty stream. Purge is defined to empty a stream; recreating one is a
+	// race with the server's own teardown.
+	for _, want := range []*nats.StreamConfig{
+		{Name: "NODES", Subjects: []string{"mesh.node.*.declare"}, MaxMsgsPerSubject: 1},
+		{Name: "CONTROL", Subjects: []string{"mesh.control.*.report", "mesh.control.enrol"},
+			Retention: nats.WorkQueuePolicy},
+	} {
+		if _, err := js.StreamInfo(want.Name); err != nil {
+			if _, err := js.AddStream(want); err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+		}
+		if err := js.PurgeStream(want.Name); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	return conn, js
+}
+
+// theMeshMakes is the consumer the controller creates when a node enrols. Made here by the test
+// because the host may not: its account reaches no part of the JetStream API, which is the whole
+// reason this binds rather than subscribes.
+//
+// Removed afterwards, and each test names its own node: two tests sharing a consumer name share its
+// delivery count and its pending list, and the first thing that goes wrong reads as a fault in the
+// host rather than in the test beside it.
+func theMeshMakes(t *testing.T, js nats.JetStreamContext, node string) {
+	t.Helper()
+	t.Cleanup(func() { _ = js.DeleteConsumer("NODES", node) })
+	if _, err := js.AddConsumer("NODES", &nats.ConsumerConfig{
+		Durable:        node,
+		FilterSubject:  DeclareSubject(node),
+		AckPolicy:      nats.AckExplicitPolicy,
+		AckWait:        300 * time.Second,
+		DeliverSubject: "_DELIVER." + node,
+	}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+}
+
+func signedBy(t *testing.T, key ed25519.PrivateKey, declaration []byte) []byte {
+	t.Helper()
+	body, err := json.Marshal(Signed{
+		Declaration: declaration, Signature: ed25519.Sign(key, declaration),
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return body
+}
+
+// A declaration on this node's own subject reaches the host, is applied, and acknowledging it
+// empties the consumer — which is what tells the mesh the node has it.
+func TestNatsADeclarationReachesTheHostAndIsSettled(t *testing.T) {
+	conn, js := aBus(t)
+	const node = "settling"
+	theMeshMakes(t, js, node)
+
+	public, private, _ := ed25519.GenerateKey(nil)
+	m := Membership{Node: node, Signer: public}
+
+	// Dialled directly rather than through Open: the test server has no TLS, and what is being
+	// checked is the subscription and the settling, not the pin — which PinnedConfig owns and its
+	// own tests cover.
+	l := &natsLink{conn: conn, js: js, node: node,
+		arrived: make(chan Declaration, drainDepth), lost: make(chan error, 1)}
+	feed := make(chan *nats.Msg, drainDepth)
+	sub, err := js.ChanSubscribe(DeclareSubject(node), feed, nats.Bind("NODES", node))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the host could not bind to the consumer the mesh made for it: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer func() { _ = sub.Unsubscribe() }()
+	go func() {
+		for msg := range feed {
+			l.arrived <- natsDeclaration{msg}
+		}
+	}()
+
+	if _, err := js.Publish(DeclareSubject(node),
+		signedBy(t, private, []byte(`{"declared":"d1"}`))); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	select {
+	case d := <-l.Declarations():
+		report := handleBody(context.Background(), m, d.Body(),
+			func(context.Context, []byte, []byte) Report {
+				return Report{Applied: []string{"store"}}
+			})
+		if report.Refused != "" {
+			t.Fatalf("a declaration the mesh signed was refused: %s", report.Refused)
+		}
+		if err := d.Handled(); err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("the node could not acknowledge its own declaration: %v", err)
+		}
+	case <-time.After(8 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("no declaration reached the host")
+	}
+
+	// **Nothing pending is the property**; a delivery count is not. Delivery is at-least-once by
+	// design, so pinning "delivered exactly once" would be asserting something the mesh does not
+	// rely on. What matters is that the acknowledgement landed, so the mesh can tell the node has
+	// it — and that no redelivery was needed to get there, which is what would say the node was
+	// too slow to answer for its own ack wait.
+	deadline := time.Now().Add(5 * time.Second)
+	var last string
+	for time.Now().Before(deadline) {
+		info, err := js.ConsumerInfo("NODES", node)
+		switch {
+		case err != nil:
+			last = err.Error()
+		case info.NumAckPending == 0 && info.NumRedelivered == 0:
+			return
+		default:
+			last = fmt.Sprintf("pending %d, redelivered %d", info.NumAckPending, info.NumRedelivered)
+		}
+		time.Sleep(20 * time.Millisecond)
+	}
+	t.Fatalf("the declaration was not settled, so the mesh cannot tell the node has it: %s", last)
+}
+
+// **A node that was away gets exactly the current declaration and nothing older.** Three pushed
+// while nothing is listening leave one on the stream, and it is the newest — the wire-level answer
+// to novox/hq issue 107, and the half of the drain that stops being the host's problem.
+func TestNatsANodeThatWasAwayGetsOnlyTheNewest(t *testing.T) {
+	_, js := aBus(t)
+	const node = "returning"
+	_, private, _ := ed25519.GenerateKey(nil)
+
+	for _, id := range []string{"d1", "d2", "d3"} {
+		if _, err := js.Publish(DeclareSubject(node),
+			signedBy(t, private, []byte(`{"declared":"`+id+`"}`))); err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	info, err := js.StreamInfo("NODES")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if info.State.Msgs != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("%d declarations survived for one node; a node that was away would apply a backlog "+
+			"of things nobody wants any more", info.State.Msgs)
+	}
+
+	theMeshMakes(t, js, node)
+	feed := make(chan *nats.Msg, drainDepth)
+	sub, err := js.ChanSubscribe(DeclareSubject(node), feed, nats.Bind("NODES", node))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer func() { _ = sub.Unsubscribe() }()
+
+	select {
+	case msg := <-feed:
+		if declaredIn(msg.Data) != "d3" {
+			t.Fatalf("the node was given %q rather than the newest", declaredIn(msg.Data))
+		}
+	case <-time.After(8 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("the node that was away was given nothing")
+	}
+}
+
+// A report goes through the stream and a heartbeat does not: the one that must survive the
+// controller's store restarting is kept, and the one that must not is not.
+func TestNatsAReportIsKeptAndAHeartbeatIsNot(t *testing.T) {
+	conn, js := aBus(t)
+	bus := OverNATS{Conn: conn, JS: js}
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	body, _ := json.Marshal(Report{Node: "anchor", Declared: "d1"})
+	if err := bus.Report(ctx, "anchor", body); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	beat, _ := json.Marshal(Alive{Node: "anchor"})
+	if err := bus.Alive(ctx, "anchor", beat); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	info, err := js.StreamInfo("CONTROL")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if info.State.Msgs != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("%d messages were kept; a report must be and a heartbeat must not", info.State.Msgs)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/newest_test.go b/internal/link/newest_test.go
index 7ad6cbb..5eab4a0 100644
--- a/internal/link/newest_test.go
+++ b/internal/link/newest_test.go
@@ -3,33 +3,46 @@ package link
 import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
-
-	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
 )
 
+// said is one declaration as a test hands it over, with no transport under it — which is what the
+// seam bought: the drain's reasoning was reachable only through a real broker before.
+type said struct {
+	body    []byte
+	handled bool
+}
+
+func (s *said) Body() []byte   { return s.body }
+func (s *said) Handled() error { s.handled = true; return nil }
+
+func arriving(bodies ...string) chan Declaration {
+	ch := make(chan Declaration, 8)
+	for _, b := range bodies {
+		ch <- &said{body: []byte(b)}
+	}
+	return ch
+}
+
 // A machine asked to be five things becomes the last one: what is already waiting supersedes what
 // arrived first, and everything set aside is named so it can be reported.
 func TestWhatIsAlreadyWaitingSupersedesWhatArrivedFirst(t *testing.T) {
-	deliveries := make(chan amqp.Delivery, 8)
-	for _, id := range []string{"two", "three", "four"} {
-		deliveries <- amqp.Delivery{Body: []byte(id)}
+	waiting := arriving("two", "three", "four")
+	apply, superseded := newest(waiting, &said{body: []byte("one")}, 50*time.Millisecond)
+	if string(apply.Body()) != "four" {
+		t.Fatalf("applied %q, not the newest", apply.Body())
 	}
-	apply, superseded := newest(deliveries, amqp.Delivery{Body: []byte("one")}, 50*time.Millisecond)
-	if string(apply.Body) != "four" {
-		t.Fatalf("applied %q, not the newest", apply.Body)
-	}
-	if len(superseded) != 3 || string(superseded[0].Body) != "one" || string(superseded[2].Body) != "three" {
+	if len(superseded) != 3 || string(superseded[0].Body()) != "one" ||
+		string(superseded[2].Body()) != "three" {
 		t.Fatalf("set aside %d: %v", len(superseded), superseded)
 	}
 }
 
 // One declaration with nothing behind it is applied as it always was, after the window.
 func TestALoneDeclarationIsAppliedAfterTheWindow(t *testing.T) {
-	deliveries := make(chan amqp.Delivery, 1)
 	began := time.Now()
-	apply, superseded := newest(deliveries, amqp.Delivery{Body: []byte("only")}, 30*time.Millisecond)
-	if string(apply.Body) != "only" || len(superseded) != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("got %q with %d set aside", apply.Body, len(superseded))
+	apply, superseded := newest(arriving(), &said{body: []byte("only")}, 30*time.Millisecond)
+	if string(apply.Body()) != "only" || len(superseded) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q with %d set aside", apply.Body(), len(superseded))
 	}
 	if time.Since(began) < 30*time.Millisecond {
 		t.Fatal("did not wait the window for a straggler")
@@ -38,13 +51,13 @@ func TestALoneDeclarationIsAppliedAfterTheWindow(t *testing.T) {
 
 // A straggler within the window is taken; one after it is the next push.
 func TestAStragglerWithinTheWindowIsTaken(t *testing.T) {
-	deliveries := make(chan amqp.Delivery, 2)
+	waiting := arriving()
 	go func() {
 		time.Sleep(20 * time.Millisecond)
-		deliveries <- amqp.Delivery{Body: []byte("late")}
+		waiting <- &said{body: []byte("late")}
 	}()
-	apply, superseded := newest(deliveries, amqp.Delivery{Body: []byte("first")}, 100*time.Millisecond)
-	if string(apply.Body) != "late" || len(superseded) != 1 {
-		t.Fatalf("got %q with %d set aside", apply.Body, len(superseded))
+	apply, superseded := newest(waiting, &said{body: []byte("first")}, 100*time.Millisecond)
+	if string(apply.Body()) != "late" || len(superseded) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q with %d set aside", apply.Body(), len(superseded))
 	}
 }
diff --git a/internal/link/run.go b/internal/link/run.go
index a5687cb..0288a4f 100644
--- a/internal/link/run.go
+++ b/internal/link/run.go
@@ -6,10 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
-	"net/url"
 	"time"
-
-	amqp "github.com/rabbitmq/amqp091-go"
 )
 
 // ErrForged is what a node returns for a declaration whose signature is not the mesh's.
@@ -33,6 +30,10 @@ type Membership struct {
 	Fingerprint string
 	Password    string
 	Signer      ed25519.PublicKey
+	// Transport is which bus this node speaks (hearing.go). Empty is the one the mesh runs on
+	// today, which is every node until the rollout — so a membership recorded before any of this
+	// existed reads as correct rather than as unset.
+	Transport string
 }
 
 // Applier is what the host does with a declaration that has been proved to come from the mesh.
@@ -190,108 +191,62 @@ func Run(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, say Announce, timeout
 	if say == nil {
 		say = func(string) {}
 	}
-	config, err := PinnedConfig(m.Fingerprint)
+	link, err := Open(ctx, m, timeout)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	defer link.Close()
 
-	dsn := fmt.Sprintf("amqps://%s:%s@%s/",
-		url.QueryEscape(m.Node), url.QueryEscape(m.Password), m.Broker)
-	conn, err := amqp.DialConfig(dsn, amqp.Config{
-		TLSClientConfig: config,
-		Dial:            amqp.DefaultDial(timeout),
-		// Kept short so a node that has silently lost its route notices, rather than holding a
-		// connection the broker forgot about and believing it is still in the mesh.
-		Heartbeat: 10 * time.Second,
-	})
-	if err != nil {
-		if errors.Is(err, ErrWrongCertificate) {
-			return err
-		}
-		return fmt.Errorf("cannot reach the broker at %s: %w", m.Broker, err)
-	}
-	defer conn.Close()
-
-	channel, err := conn.Channel()
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	defer channel.Close()
-
-	queue := QueueFor(m.Node)
-	if _, err := channel.QueueDeclare(queue, true, false, false, false, nil); err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("cannot declare this node's queue %s: %w", queue, err)
-	}
-
-	// Applying is one at a time — two at once would race on the same filesystem — but SEEING is
-	// not: with a prefetch of one the host could never know that a newer declaration was already
-	// waiting, and so applied every one of a backlog in turn, at the better part of a minute each,
-	// becoming things nobody wanted any more (novox/hq issue 031). A window of unacknowledged
-	// deliveries lets it drain to the newest; each declaration still survives a restart on the
-	// broker until it is acknowledged, which happens only after it is applied or set aside.
-	if err := channel.Qos(drainDepth, 0, false); err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-
-	deliveries, err := channel.ConsumeWithContext(ctx, queue, "", false, false, false, false, nil)
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	// Said, because it is the event anybody watching actually wants. Without it a node logs
-	// every failure and nothing on success, so a log full of "trying again" and then silence
-	// reads as still broken when it means the opposite.
-	say("in the mesh, consuming " + queue)
+	// Said, because it is the event anybody watching actually wants. Without it a node logs every
+	// failure and nothing on success, so a log full of "trying again" and then silence reads as
+	// still broken when it means the opposite.
+	say("in the mesh, hearing what this node should be")
 
 	// A word every so often, so the mesh can tell a node that is quiet from one that is gone.
 	// Cheap on purpose: it carries a name and nothing else, because anything more would be a
 	// report, and reports are rare where this is constant.
 	beat := time.NewTicker(AliveEvery)
 	defer beat.Stop()
-	publishAlive(ctx, OverCurrent{Channel: channel}, m, say, timeout)
+	publishAlive(ctx, link, m, say, timeout)
 
-	closed := conn.NotifyClose(make(chan *amqp.Error, 1))
-
-	// Published mandatory, so the broker hands back anything it cannot route rather than
-	// dropping it. Without this a report goes to an exchange with no matching binding, the
-	// publisher is told nothing, and the mesh believes this node never answered while the node
-	// believes it did — which is what happened when `report` was left unbound on the other side.
-	returned := channel.NotifyReturn(make(chan amqp.Return, 4))
-	go func() {
-		for r := range returned {
-			say(fmt.Sprintf("the broker could not route this node's %s: %s (%d %s)",
-				r.RoutingKey, r.Exchange, r.ReplyCode, r.ReplyText))
-		}
-	}()
+	declarations := link.Declarations()
 
 	for {
 		select {
 		case <-ctx.Done():
 			return nil
 		case <-beat.C:
-			publishAlive(ctx, OverCurrent{Channel: channel}, m, say, timeout)
+			publishAlive(ctx, link, m, say, timeout)
 		case unasked := <-outbox:
 			// Said without having been asked: a reconcile found what an adopted node holds, or
 			// its firewall, changed since it last said.
-			published := publishReport(ctx, OverCurrent{Channel: channel}, m, unasked.Report, say, timeout)
+			published := publishReport(ctx, link, m, unasked.Report, say, timeout)
 			if unasked.Done != nil {
 				unasked.Done(published)
 			}
-		case reason := <-closed:
-			return fmt.Errorf("the link closed: %v", reason)
-		case delivery, ok := <-deliveries:
+		case reason := <-link.Lost():
+			return reason
+		case declaration, ok := <-declarations:
 			if !ok {
-				return errors.New("the broker stopped delivering")
+				// The link's own reason, when it has managed to say one: "stopped delivering" on
+				// its own says nothing about why, and why is the whole of what an operator wants.
+				select {
+				case reason := <-link.Lost():
+					return reason
+				default:
+					return errors.New("the mesh stopped sending this node declarations")
+				}
 			}
-			// Whatever else is already waiting supersedes this one. Each set-aside declaration
-			// is reported as such, then acknowledged unapplied.
-			delivery, superseded := newest(deliveries, delivery, drainWindow)
+			// Whatever else is already waiting supersedes this one. Each set-aside declaration is
+			// reported as such, then settled unapplied.
+			declaration, superseded := newest(declarations, declaration, drainWindow)
 			for _, old := range superseded {
 				say("set aside a declaration: a newer one arrived with it")
-				publishReport(ctx, OverCurrent{Channel: channel}, m, Report{Node: m.Node, Declared: declaredIn(old.Body),
-					Superseded: declaredIn(delivery.Body)}, say, timeout)
-				_ = old.Ack(false)
+				publishReport(ctx, link, m, Report{Node: m.Node, Declared: declaredIn(old.Body()),
+					Superseded: declaredIn(declaration.Body())}, say, timeout)
+				_ = old.Handled()
 			}
-			report := handle(ctx, m, apply, delivery)
+			report := handleBody(ctx, m, declaration.Body(), apply)
 			switch {
 			case report.Refused != "":
 				say("refused a declaration: " + report.Refused)
@@ -300,12 +255,12 @@ func Run(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, say Announce, timeout
 			default:
 				say(fmt.Sprintf("applied %d resource(s)", len(report.Applied)))
 			}
-			publishReport(ctx, OverCurrent{Channel: channel}, m, report, say, timeout)
-			// Acknowledged after the report is published. A node that dies between applying and
-			// reporting leaves the declaration on the broker and applies it again on return,
+			publishReport(ctx, link, m, report, say, timeout)
+			// Settled after the report is published. A node that dies between applying and
+			// reporting leaves the declaration with the mesh and applies it again on return,
 			// which is safe because applying is reconciliation — it converges rather than
 			// repeating.
-			_ = delivery.Ack(false)
+			_ = declaration.Handled()
 		}
 	}
 }
@@ -333,12 +288,12 @@ const (
 // three deliveries, whatever the stream later retains. So this is narrowed at the rollout, not
 // deleted — and saying which half goes is worth more than a note that it "can probably be
 // removed", which is how a load-bearing window gets deleted by somebody in a hurry.
-func newest(deliveries <-chan amqp.Delivery, first amqp.Delivery, window time.Duration) (amqp.Delivery, []amqp.Delivery) {
+func newest(arriving <-chan Declaration, first Declaration, window time.Duration) (Declaration, []Declaration) {
 	latest := first
-	var superseded []amqp.Delivery
+	var superseded []Declaration
 	for {
 		select {
-		case next, ok := <-deliveries:
+		case next, ok := <-arriving:
 			if !ok {
 				return latest, superseded
 			}
@@ -367,10 +322,6 @@ func declaredIn(body []byte) string {
 	return d.Declared
 }
 
-func handle(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, delivery amqp.Delivery) Report {
-	return handleBody(ctx, m, delivery.Body, apply)
-}
-
 // handleBody is the whole of deciding whether to trust a message, separated from the broker so it
 // can be tested as the security check it is rather than as message plumbing.
 func handleBody(ctx context.Context, m Membership, body []byte, apply Applier) Report {
@@ -393,30 +344,13 @@ func handleBody(ctx context.Context, m Membership, body []byte, apply Applier) R
 // report a command makes rather than the running host — a rekey (novox/hq ADR 0105). The same
 // account, the same pinned certificate and the same exchange as the running host's reports.
 func Publish(ctx context.Context, m Membership, report Report, timeout time.Duration) error {
-	config, err := PinnedConfig(m.Fingerprint)
+	link, err := Open(ctx, m, timeout)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	dsn := fmt.Sprintf("amqps://%s:%s@%s/",
-		url.QueryEscape(m.Node), url.QueryEscape(m.Password), m.Broker)
-	conn, err := amqp.DialConfig(dsn, amqp.Config{
-		TLSClientConfig: config,
-		Dial:            amqp.DefaultDial(timeout),
-	})
-	if err != nil {
-		if errors.Is(err, ErrWrongCertificate) {
-			return err
-		}
-		return fmt.Errorf("cannot reach the broker at %s: %w", m.Broker, err)
-	}
-	defer conn.Close()
-	channel, err := conn.Channel()
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	defer channel.Close()
+	defer link.Close()
 	var said string
-	if !publishReport(ctx, OverCurrent{Channel: channel}, m, report, func(s string) { said = s }, timeout) {
+	if !publishReport(ctx, link, m, report, func(s string) { said = s }, timeout) {
 		return errors.New(said)
 	}
 	return nil