Blast

I found my way back to the long branch-point, which was still in contact with the simple entity. Shortly after returning, contact ceased, and I found that it was increasingly difficult to maintain position on the surface Eleven that I had managed to glom onto. An increasing push began, and that meant only one thing — I was being brought closer to a large charge.

This was not a new phenomenon, as I had observed many times that Ben would check to see that a Jar was charged by bringing a clenched branch-point into proximity of the central conductor, and allowing a small transfer of electrons to occur. Considering that the pair of nearby jars contained 56 doublings of my own charge, at high agitation, the check should pass easily. And pass is just what the charge did.

Normally, there is not a good path from a branch-point to the outside of the Jar, and not much transfer occurs. In this case, a very good pathway to the outside facilitated a rapid transfer. I got blasted along the surface of the branch point, and found myself quite disoriented as my Eleven pitched and heaved during the conflagration created by the transfer of all 56 doublings of charge.