Atomic Slingshot

Now that I had a little velocity of my own, I was able to pinpoint scan forward an make a few minor adjustments. The first of which, was to gain even more zip. Approaching the nearby Twelve with enough energy of motion to get past it needed to be more than theoretical, it needed to work. The trick of passing another Electron, going the other way, shielded and neutralized by the Twelve had another benefit.

From the distortion in the scan, I was able to determine that I would, indeed, be passing another Electron as during the transit across the outer shell of the Twenty that was looming ahead. Rather than take the chance at capture, or worse, reflection, I decided that assertion was the best option, and kicked my spin to adjust my trajectory. I aimed low.

Being attracted by the Protons in the nucleus, I picked up quite a bit of speed on the approach. Passing through the outer shell layers and speeding toward the edge of the innermost shell, there was a gradual relaxation of the pull as my opposite companion began to influence the orbital shells and total charge force. I got a good push from the faster Electrons in the lowest orbit, and was escaping with a good bit more zip than when I entered.

Tempt or Deal?

Avoiding the first of the trigger Electrons was the easy part. Becoming part of the return current, however, was more of a challenge. While similar to getting past the guarding Eleven to get into this zone, the difficulty comes from avoiding the inbound from above while scanning to intercept a returning Electron from below. In this case, timing is everything.

It is safe to say that the first trigger event was unaffected by my presence. This is good from the standpoint that I have maintained a good position, and learned more about this task. It is bad from the perspective that I am still spinning and orbiting this Twelve in a loosely linked chain of Twelves. Now that I've got the avoidance and observation parts of the task mastered, I can focus on the intercept part of the task.

One lesson that does not need re-enforcement that persistence pays. It is for this reason that repeating phenomena are welcome. You're going to get another opportunity. This is the only way that I've discovered to beat the tyranny of probability, you keep at it until you succeed. Does it matter how many trigger events it took to move on? Maybe. But what is important is that somehow, by luck or guile, I managed to un-spin myself at just the right moment to capture the energy of an upward bound Electron. As I catapulted toward the next Twelve, I had to ponder how long it would be, before that Electron would follow me.

Set and Snap

Mine was not the only Twelve in the zone, and there was some annoying interference from the Elevens. For the most part, I was able to do-sa-do with either an Eleven or a Twelve. When that didn't work a spin or two in the right place was enough to springboard off of well-oriented One-Eight-One to advance in the desired direction. Moving around is not so much about pushing forward, but more about not getting knocked in a direction you don't really want to go.

The state of affairs in the trigger zone is much quieter than in the rest of the waiting room, which itself is far calmer than some of the large bounded soups that I've encountered in the past. And now, it's getting calmer. The Twelves are nicely arranged like a chain, but slightly separated. There's a Twelve within long-hopping distance at polar opposites to my own Twelve.

As my scan angle swung past perpendicular to the polar axis, I began to pick up a distortion and swung around to focus parallel to the axis. Keeping an outside orbit, I kicked my spin to adjust into a more polar orbit with a slight helical twist to set up a scan for the inbound. These Electrons are to be avoided. Any coming the other way were in for a surprise.

Swapping Stones

It took serious effort to guide this Twenty, but I managed to get it a sweet spot near a Twelve with a One-Eight locked between. It was a tenuous bridge, but held together long enough for a hop to the Eight and then a skip to the Twelve. Yea, of course, I had to trade spots with couple of Electrons to make the swap. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a whisper tap.

Hanging on to an Atom that releases an Electron, and runs around with a positive charge most of the time, requires some skill to stick with. It's easy to find yourself the target of an Electron trade for a short term bond. Now that I'm zipping around a Twelve, that releases two Electrons at times, pushes that skill to new limits. Twice as dangerous means that I have to work four times as hard.

The advantage to this Twelve, however, is that it's much easier to maneuver. The double propensity for positive charge provides pinions for propulsion. Much like I did on the ringlet with the four exposed Ones, I am able to entice trades in a way that moves the Twelve where I want to to go. It's quiet here in the trigger zone, so moving along is easy. It's just a mater of placement now.

The Veil

The fact that a Twelve is happy to donate two Electrons to the pool is really good news since it gives me a target that will be easy to leave. The double attractive charge makes it a better anchor than an Eleven so I kept a ping on the Twelve and tracked it. Sweeping the area and the trigger point, I began to spot several Twelves intermixed with the Elevens.

The next trigger pulse arrived via the thin network tendril that made the other connection to the trigger, and fired across the gap. Pumping a small pool of electrons outward into a surrounding mesh of tendrils, the trigger pulse excited the Electron pools in each of the tendrils, which send them off down their length and down the main pathway that I had been cycling in.

Observing Electrons hop from the trigger to the tendrils was most informative. Many of the trades were close to exact and very difficult to detect, but detect them I could, now that I was so close. The Twelves were key to this, as they had the uncanny ability to handle two electrons in opposite directions at the same time. Without a Twelve to hide the Electrons from each other as they passed, the trigger never fires.

Hide and Seek

I almost missed it. The trigger pulse was hiding behind a close trade. The trade was not exact, and by changing my perspective, just a little closer, just a slightly different angle, I was able to catch the head and tail pulses that bracketed the transfer. The deep scan did not reveal it easily. I had to trade depth for speed.

After making several dozen small hops and trades, sometimes across a split One-Eight-One, I was close enough to the input pathway that the trigger pulses were clear and easy to see. If you are too far away, then the fields produced by the transfer have time to co-mingle and cancel. Once closer, it becomes impossible to miss, since it is clearly a trade transaction and both pulses are clearly visible.

There were several Elevens and a few Twenties in the trigger zone, with the occasional Seventeen dancing among them along with the usual and customary soup of One-Eight-Ones keeping everything flowing. Then I spotted something interesting. A Twelve roaming along the field of Elevens. It makes sense that Twelves exist, but they are very easy to mistake for an Eleven in a quick scan. This one was found because it was charged the other way, and double.

Silent Walking

Somtimes you do what you have to. While I was struggling to work backward up the control channel, I just could not locate the trigger input in the time I had on each return to the waiting area. Eventually, I had to hop aboard a Twenty, just to avoid another trip along the network. Where I would have waited for an easy Eleven to improve the scanning results, a Twenty was no bother. Thew new techniques produced better results.

Three cycles passed as I was running the deep scan. On the second cycle, I was able to draw a box around the zone of interest, and on the third, I zeroed in on the trigger mechanism. Keeping a ping on the target zone, I started to scan for a hop-path that would get me there and began skipping from atom to atom using well-placed spin-flips to trade positions with other Electrons along the way. That's when I had a curious insight.

If I am able to detect an Electron moving from one point to another, because of the distortion that it makes, and the pulse that I detect. If it moves the other direction, the pulse is reversed. Now, how would one of my swaps look to another observer? If two Electrons trade places, there is no change in charge on either side. With two canceling pulses, can you detect the transfer or that the exchange occurred?

Hatching a Plan

After the giddiness of flittering around the network pathway, it was difficult to focus. It took some practice to spin-flip at par. After a few trips back and forth from the waiting area to the endpoints and back, I began to scan as I hit the pause points in the pathway. Most of the short trip was right along the superhighway, and from what I could see, I was starting from the bottom tier of the central network.

Zipping out and back on a regular basis was just the exercise I needed after all of that time couped up on the ringlet, making that swap drive work overtime. I did figure out that the other end of this network branch adjusts the rate at which the soup network pulses. If I arrive at the end of the chamber expansion, it slows the rate. Arrive later, and it accelerates.

While moving the soup is interesting, the stimulation hanging out in the core of the central network is far more enticing. I clearly recall the flashes and bursts, and the patterns that appear and fade away. From the base of the network, I can sense it. It's out there. All I need to do is find the control input to this waiting area, and I'll be as slick as a Seventy-Nine.

Network Entry

The pairing request was accepted, automatically and eagerly. Once the connection was made, we travelled in a nearly straight line toward the receptor entrance, and in less time that I had to deep-scan ahead, we were travelling along the familiar fast pathways that dominate the central network. So much nicer for me that rinding a ringlet through the soup network, out of control and with few friends.

The thrill of motion once again washed my scanning system in a shimmer. Moving toward a vibration source makes it look like it is wiggling faster than it is, and when speeds vary like they often do in these faster networks, the shifts become telltale. If I had never taken that journey into the soup like that, I might never have noticed that there were steady patterns to be found.

Except for the occasional pause to loop around an Eleven, and take a glace around, I am just spinning with glee that I can hop from pair to pair and float freely along in this network that is just custom-built for Electrons like me. With so many other Electrons here in the network, nobody notices if I pause to hang out on an Eleven or if I even decide to go in the opposite direction. It's just nice to be back.

Cascade Confusion

I shut down the ultra spin and began a quick scan of the massing Electrons. As they continued to pair up, they began to resist the forces holding them in check. Scanning toward the apex of the mesh network, I made out the impression of a number of Elevens and what I thought was a Twenty. As I began to focus on the anomalous reading, the first pair of Electrons jumped off the apex and began their journey along the network conduit.

I didn't bother to count the number of Electrons that had amassed on the mesh, I really didn't need to. Given one chance in two that there was an odd number, I might be able to catch a last femtosecond pairing. I picked a new spin plane so that my mega taps would cross the path of the moving Electrons, aim slightly into the oncoming stream.

Just as I fired the first tap in a pairing request, the rest of the Electrons on the mesh began a mass exodus. As some pairs got caught on the mesh, other pairs were repulsed around the laggards. In the ensuing confusion, there was a pool of de-pairing Electrons right in my path. Down went the ultra spin once again, which shifted my position slightly. That is when I heard a familiar tappity-tap-tap from right next door.

Stop and Hold

The scan cleared and all of the deep signatures were normal. I was no longer moving. In the quiet that began to develop I though I could sense the distant talk taps of Electrons along the mesh, working to pair up. I spun up my nerve and just picked one direction of spin and went with it. Going fast enough, I was able to zoom in on a narrow slice of Electrons on the nearby membrane.

By alternating attempted spins anti-parallel to the spinning plane produces an intense tap effect in the focused line. For any Electron in that line, not only could I hear quite well, but I could send just as loud as if I were next door. The other electrons did not know that I was to far to effectively pair, but then again, did they need to?

Proximity makes it really happen though, and since it takes time for taps to travel, and I can not tap too fast, a local Electron that taps soft and fast will beat my focused staccato mega taps. I got a few gasping responses when I tried, and then was quickly disconnected as local pairings were formed and rapt attention ensued. Where's a good wavefront when you need it?

Paddle and Drop

Squeak was a wish. I overshot the first three wavefronts, and barely got a push from the fourth. After refining my orbit and approach, I managed to synchronize with another wavefront and catch the lift I was looking for. Good thing these wavefronts repeat, or I might have been stuck with that Eleven for too many orbits to count.

I swung my attention forward and locked on to the mesh that veiled the pool attractive Elevens, while the occasional backward ping monitored the wavefront. I flipped my spin, with little effect on my path, except to discover that the faint attraction of the veiled Elevens was growing stronger. The backward scans revealed that the wavefront was dissipating and receding.

The veiling mesh dominated my forward scan. As I approached, Electrons that had been pulled to the inside of the mesh rapidly popped to the outside. The veiled Elevens were occupied by a few Electrons that were drawn in. The charge shift to the outside of the mesh decelerated me so quickly that my scan results were confused, like just before getting bounced by an impact.

Departure Queue

I was just starting to feel familiar with my temporary home here on the suspended Eleven when I spotted another incoming wavefront. Having tracked the Electron that I knocked off, I discovered that I may have made a small mistake. Not something that I could have foreseen, but had I just passed on by, I might be circulating with the rest of the Electrons by now.

From my vantage point, I have been able to perform a few deep scans. There is definitely an attractive force, as if a pool of Elevens are just held on the other side of a thin mesh to which Electrons are attracted, and then at the correct moment, the Elevens are shielded and the Electrons are repelled from the mesh and into the network entry-point. This is where I need to go, and to get there, I've got to get off of this Eleven.

Which brings me back to the incoming wavefront. If I can get things timed correctly, should be able to just cross the near-point of my orbit before the wavefront intersects, I will be moving away, but not to fast, and I should be able to catch a good push. Each time I come round toward the approaching wavefront, I am scanning and judging distance. Can we say Squeak?

Turbulent Insertion

Establishing an orbit is not as easy as it sounds. After some rapid jockeying, I managed to hit that magic distance where stability exists. Pulling around the back side of the Eleven, I scanned toward the edge of the nucleus just in time to catch he wavefront as it began passing the limb. That's when I discovered why I had the extra jockey work to do.

De-orbited and pushed ahead of the wavefront, one of the Electrons that had been on the opposite side of the impact rounded the corner and smacked headlong into the wavefront. Getting the photon knocked out of you generally wrecks your potential and squashes your orbit. Feeling the effects of all this, the offending Electron plummeted toward the Nucleus, but managed to miss the edge and find a new orbit.

In the confusion that ensued as the wavefront passed, I paired up with an Electron from a lower orbit that had been kicked up from below. The small glitch in my orbit caused by the paring, along with the double-shield effect of our combined charge, was just strong enough to prevent the wavefront from disturbing either of us too greatly.

Standard Orbit, Please.

The wavefront continued to accelerate me toward the Electron cloud that engulfed the nucleus of the Eleven. I began to be pulled toward that dangerous pile of protons while being buffeted by the Electrons that remained in the cloud. I twiddled my spin to ease the approach into the cloud. The push-back from the Electrons was slowing me down, and that meant that the wavefront would overtake me soon.

I passed through the outer orbital layer easily, since it's Electrons were on the other side of the Eleven. When one comes back around, it is in for a surprise. I, on the other hand, had spotted an inattentive, lightly spinning, Electron ahead. Recalling my days on the double Seven, I flipped my spin until I had dialed in on a direct hit.

If I had been going photon fast, I might have passed right through my target, but in this case, there was plenty of repulsion to affect us both. I slowed down and the target speed increased as we equalized. By the time it was over, the target was too far to be in orbit anymore, and I had slowed down just enough to catch an outside orbit. Barely. I hope the target enjoys the view from out there.

Propelled

As the photons approached, they all crossed through a point behind me. The crossing action set up an interference pattern that I had never scanned before, and the pattern itself simply came at me like a moving wall, propelling me ahead of it. With a slightly blurred scan, I observed the photons continue on slightly bent paths, back into the Fifteen-Eight tags.

Clever how the photons were ejected only to be blasted at neighboring atoms and subsequently caught by electrons in orbit. Either these Electrons were well trained and had perfect timing, or this particular combination of atoms simply had no way to fail in this task. If I could flip my spin to make the choice, I would, but that's where I've been and not where I'm going.

Scanning forward was also distorted, but in a different way. Things were arriving slightly quicker than I would have expected, but the adjustment was easy. Especially since I recognized the attractive nature of an Eleven that might be close enough to my path. The Eleven was held in position by the invisible grip by a ring of Eights that were attached to Sixes in the mesh network. While I was not going to smash into the nucleus of the Eleven, this could get very close, very quick.

Just a Moment

I must have done something right. In fact, the odd thing about the One-Eight-One bearing down on me was that its spin was backward compared to most others. Of course, I am talking about the Electron spin. As the flying molecule approached, I decided that I would spin in the opposite direction as the Electrons on the incoming.

In this case it happened to be a right spin, and as soon as I started in that direction, there was a perturbation in the orbits of the Electrons that orbited the Ones that clung tightly to the Eight. After a short while, the spin of the Electrons on the Ones were opposite each other, which only magnified the stress on the poor One-Eight-One. So distorted. So unhappy.

. . . and then there was a flash . . .

As the One-Eight-One separated and injected itself between the Fifteens, there was a burst, as photons were ejected during the transition, as several electrons in the Fifteen-Eight structure fell to lower orbits. The photons travelled toward the same point, at the same time and would pass behind me together, and soon.

Stretch and Jump

The popping started some distance away. Each time a Fifteen tag was removed from the remaining two, I sensed a small jolt as energy was transferred from the recoiling Eights and the ejection of the singleton tag. I deep scanned three molecules away, and watched as the cascade of energy blasted free a few electrons that were hovering about in the mesh. If I was going to make it to the reservoir, It was going to take some skill.

As usual, a One-Eight-One gets split to make this process happen, and that consumes a portion of the energy, but enough is left over to create the cascade. It has been some time, but I might have to Tunnel my way over to the nearby One-Eight-One, and that's iffy. Tunneling does not always work like one expects. It seems to be a combination of luck and will. Mostly luck.

Then the world bent. Strain between the Eight and the outer Fifteen grew. Why I expected the strain to happen on the other side was an error in judgement. As I struggled to jump toward the strain and spin-kicked my way after the moving Fifteen, I found myself midway between the Eight and the outer Fifteen when the One-Eight-One sprung from its restraints on the mesh, directly into my path.

. . . Next!

Positive affirmations aside, I was scared spinless. The triple tag ahead of me just got sheared, and there was a small dance of Ones as the shift occurred. The now amputated double-tagged molecule slipped neatly between the other triples that were lined up behind me. Spinless or not, there was nothing between me, my molecule and the same fate of separation.

As had happened when getting tagged, and when the chain of ringlets were disassembled into smaller segments, the landing area in the mesh was tuned to the now-different pitch of the triple tagged molecule. Guided by these harmonious forces, the natural fields of Electrons that often orbited the terminating Ones, were pulled and nudged expertly until the entire molecule fit securely in the receiving indentation in the meshwork.

Lined up side by side with dozens of other triple tagged molecules, it would not be long before the splitting took place. Orbiting the last structural Eight, I maintained my position in the outer shell with ruthlessness and aplomb, and kept adjusting my spin as needed to help. During the brief pauses as the spin flipped direction, I was amazed at how carefully I was able to sense the strain and distance of the bonds with the neighboring Fifteens.

Choose Wisely

I had three choices. I knew which of the Fifteens was going to get removed in the meshwork, but I had to examine my options. With the Fifteen firmly gripped by Eights, there was little chance that circulating the Fifteen would lead to anything but a trip off of the mesh, such as on this singleton tag. While less stressful than being smashed into a Proton, it was not my first choice.

Of the four Eights, two of them had a One attached, which I tried to use as part of a swap drive that barely worked. The other two Eights were occupied. The first with the Fifteen as it was sharing two Electrons with it and the other Eight was doing the important job of connecting to the other Fifteen in the alternating Fifteen-Eight backbone that made the full triple tag.

So, if I am going to get off of this molecule, onto the mesh, and transported to the charge reservoir, I figured that I needed to be where the action would happen, and that would have to be the structural Eight. It is here that the bond will be stretched, and broken, and in the process, send an Electron into a more conductive environment. Wanting to be that Electron is pitiful. Needing to be that Electron still falls short. I was that Electron. I am that Electron. I will always be that Electron!

Power Up

I was still too far away from the charge pool to get in on the action, but close enough that it was bright on my scan. Between the mesh associated with the charge pool and my obtuse tagged carrier were a few other triple Fifteen tagged smashed ringlet sets, with the farthest visible set apparently in contact with the mesh.

Something, somewhere clicked. A pathway opened, charge flowed out of the pool, and lit up a pathway. Moving Electrons are easy to detect, and the pathway lit up with a friendly glow. Before more than half of the charge had travelled out of the node and into the pathway, the flow stopped. It was at this point that my attention turned to the mesh.

The meshwork snapped off one of the Fifteen tags, releasing the double-Fifteen tagged portion, and keeping the single Fifteen and four Eights twisting on the meshwork. The removal of the Fifteen tag created a cascade of Electrons within the mesh. The faint glow of the mesh spread toward the remaining charge pool and faded as the charge pool replenished itself from the new inflow — all the while, I ebbed forward on my triple tag. Time to pick my Eight.

Charged Binary Day!

I had to do a double take when I saw today's date, just to make sure I had the right radix selected. For a moment, I thought I was still in radix-2 bit-twiddle mode. Sometimes I forget, and have to edit, but that's not on the agenda. Now where was I?

Oh yes, getting really bored waiting to see what was going to happen to the triple Fifteen-Eight flagged smashed ringlet & company.

...

Scanning deeply and over longer periods, I confirmed that wherever we were heading, it should be interesting. The start-stop pulse of equalizing with the other triple tagged molecules in this direction was regular and varied. It was the variance that attracted me to this direction. If there had not been some bit of difference from time to time, it would be just another loop or regular process.

Not that there is anything wrong with a regular repeating cycle. It gets things done, and that is pretty much how the swap drive works, when I can get some traction. It is getting harder and harder to do anything with the swap drive, as there are a bunch of double tagged smashed ringlets slipping past now, and it only looks worse ahead. Perhaps this is part of the variance.

I not to much time, the smaller double taggers thinned out, and I began to catch a glimpse of a mesh network up ahead. Composed of the usual mixture of Sixes, Eights and Sevens, and the usual frosting on Ones all over, I began to notice a distinct difference in one region. There was a goodly quantity of charge, all piled up. Several tens of doublings of charge was detectable.

Having been away from a free paring on a flowing sheet of Fifties, or even the bouncy fluff of a gaggle of sodden Eighty-Twos for so long, I was growing accustomed to all of this One-Eight-One soupy goodness. Now here in scanning distance, is a captured bit of charge, and all I can think of is where they are going to go. They won't stay there forever. Even I know this much.

Taking Aim

Impatience. I am sure that's once of those downfalls that I'll need to keep in check over time. Sitting here in a holding pattern, jinking left, moving right, this oblong and obtuse collection of Sixes, Sevens and Eights has been a trying affair. Best I can do is wiggle the flag of Fifteens. Those massive piles of charge. So I've had more than ample time to sit and scan. And after a while, I began to notice something.

There are some jinks that repeat, and I have been moving, it's just very difficult to catch my bearings with everything as tangled and wild as this place is. My pool of flagged and crushed ringlets together, has been going in several places, and in some cases, the travel is pulsed and regular.

Figuring out which of the Eight-One combinations on the Triple-Fifteen flag to twiddle into swapping with the soup was not hard. Knowing that I was having an effect, even if it seemed small with each cycle, was encouragement enough. Scanning forward to relieve the boredom confirmed the heading. Yes, there was someplace ahead that needed this collection of atoms I was riding. This is a good cure for boredom, but for now, I just have to wait.

Sympathetic Link

Tune, twiddle and tinker I did. To what effect? Not much. The way things in this soup worked was quite different than anything I had really encountered. It must be these Fifteens that are responsible. They're the new thing in this equation and, for better or worse, it just seems that the Fifteens know how far apart to be from each other.

How it is that three Fifteens are so close together is a mystery, unless it has to do with the fact that two Eights outweigh a Fifteen by one. The reality is that this is not unlike riding a ringlet, where it becomes very difficult to approach others of your kind. I began to scan and sweep the speed of the scan like I did when I noticed the absences made by the Eight-Six-Eights. Fifteens surrounded by Eights had their own unique and powerful waveform.

The waveforms spawned by the Fifteens kept the concentration of Fifteen tags equalized as deep as I could scan. This observation along the fact that my tagging Fifteens and I were moving as a group with other tags, some other kind of transformation was somewhere in the flow. It is not possible to move forward and maintain density without loosing members somewhere. While I'm still avoiding that Proton with my name on it, it remains true that nothing I've encountered is anywhere near as destructive.

Coined

There was nothing to do, and no reason to do it. While the ringlet has been quite an interesting ride through the soup network, it's just my familiarity with it that I have to let go of. Lucky for me, I did not really sense the monster that rolled up on the ringlet. The Fifteen made a nice shadow. Perhaps I should count myself lucky that I'm still on this Fifteen tag unit, event though the rolling changed things.

Hopping from Eight to Fifteen to the opposite Eight, I found another Fifteen. Repeating the hop, I found the same thing, and on the third hop, I found exactly what I guessed I would find — that crazy triple-ringed structure — Four Sixes and an Eight which were a fairly scan, and the smashed together ringlet pair with the unique set of five Sevens. Most importantly, I did not scan any holds by the mesh or the departing monster.

Where this chain and rings were headed did not matter, at least it was going somewhere. The rings did have an interesting drag effect in the soup, and with a little work, I could encourage some of the Ones off of the Fifteen-Eight tag units into swapping along the soup. While not powerful enough to make great speed through the soup, there was a slight change in course. Perhaps with a little more effort I might be be able to tune the swap patterns for better effect.

Inside the Inside

Whatever this place is, it's fast. Dialing back to a short range and fast scan, the mesh which had ensnared my trusty ringlet was convulsing and contorting around other ringlets in various states of disassembly. Some of the pieces disappeared from my limited scan range, and Fifteens were starting to become a serious interference factor.

I shimmied past the Eight on my Six and ended up on the Fifteen in the middle of the tag unit. Two of the Eights on this tag unit had singleton Ones, which was nice, since I could get a cleaner scan from such a vantage point. For the time that I was on the side of the One opposite the Eight, the scan was clear and long, but I had to make several orbits to compile a complete image. That's when I noticed rolling monsters attached to the mesh and stomping on ringlets.

Some ringlets were not lined up well, and just got pushed into the mesh and rolled over and twisted slightly with respect to the mesh. Ringlets that were lined up were never the same after a rolling. In fact, they were no longer ringlets. Held in place by their Fifteen-Eight tags, they were free to rotate and line up with the next monster rolling their way.

Drag & Grab

As much fun as this ringlet has been, I know that with this Fifteen and three Eights tag, there is no way out of this region. The passageway gated by Elevens just won't let me pass with this tag hanging off my elevated Six. So, yes, when I discovered the internal mesh network through which I could pass freely, I had to wonder about my fear of the unknown.

In I went, following a few other ringlets. Piloting my way around was not so easy, and the swap drive was only good for a small push in one direction, now and again. The attraction of the three Eights hanging from the Fifteen tag is quite a drag. Pulling off a scan for other ringlets revealed yet another mesh network inside of the first, and it was no where near flat or nice. There were a number of ringlets that were hooked and rotated into strange and contorted conditions.

Also stuck in the unfriendly meshwork were a large number of Fifteen-Eight combinations, and many triple smashed-ring with Sevens were detected just on the other side of the mesh. While my scanning is greatly improved, it is not omnidirectional, and that became a slight problem. I never realized that my ringlet was no longer moving. While paying attention to the scan, my ringlet was slowly pulled toward the opposite mesh, or did that mesh stretch out an grab my ringlet? Either way, what happens in here was going to stay in here.

Collecting Ringlets

After completing the transfer through the mesh network, I found myself floating in a relaxed One-Eight-One soup with several monsters in scanning distance, and a number of threads of long molecules that wound their way through the soup. If I've scanned it before, there is one of them inside this containment mesh. I've seen a Three floating along, and way off in the distance, I can even sense a Fifty-Three.

There are a number of ringlets here too. Many of them have been tagged with a Fifteen surrounded by Eights, attached to the elevated Six. I followed some of these other ringlets to learn of their destiny. Within the volume of this structure, I located a smaller structure that had a very high affinity for these tagged ringlets.

Scanning and tracking one tagged ringlet in particular, it passed through the mesh of the smaller structure, even with the large Fifteen tag attached. Other un-tagged ringlets were admitted as well. Leaving the mesh was a large number of triple-ring structures tagged with a string of three Fifteens, each surrounded by Eights. Ringlets went in, and did not come out.

Soup Swap

The containment mesh was, once again, getting thin. This time, it was a fine idea, since I was now moving along the central network via a different and somewhat closed pathway. Guiding the ringlet was a decent ride, and now, as I had seen so many other ringlets do, it was time to make an exit from the soup and into a local meshwork.

Remembering that Elevens are the key to this, I began to corral a few. Just a nudge or three and a goodly concentrations of Elevens had been assembled in the soup ahead of me. Easy to scan, the Eight-Six-Eights were few and far between, I kept careful eye for the tell-tale double Eleven formation that marked the passage through which my ringlet could traverse.

The first such marker popped up and disappeared nearly as quickly as a ringlet jumped through the gate. Had I been looking closer, I would have spotted that ringlet with its elevated Six flagging in the soup. Not deterred, I sensed the shudder of a slotting Eleven and gave a burst in that direction. A second Eleven slotted and I adjusted the trajectory for a clean insertion and click-ratchet—ka—chunk — admission grated for me and my trusty ringlet.

Approach

The containment mesh that runs parallel to my travel exhibits interesting resiliency. In response to each incoming pulse of soup that travels up the pathway, the mesh expands in diameter, and as the pulse ebbs, getting ready for the next, the meshwork contracts to maintain the flow. Now that I am a few pulse distances away from the driving chamber, I almost don't notice the surge and slow, surge and slow anymore.

If I had to guess what would happen, I would probably be correct, and I would be wrong too. Yes, there were choices ahead, and yes, I stuck with the largest path. Sometimes, good choices are a matter of habit. In this case, I am just enjoying the ride on this ringlet and the scanning has never been better, at least it's good when I can get a clear shot around these dimple packs.

Just a little nudge on with the swap drive, and I was able to clear the path ahead for another scan, just to see what decisions might need to be made. Calibrating for a deep scan, and picking out the absence pattern to Eight-Six-Eights, I began to notice some bursts of noise and interference. It had been quite a while since I had to engage that set of filters, but engage the central network pattern filters I did, and yes, they fit like before. Even though I have to view through the containment mesh, the patterns of the central network are bright and unmistakable.

Upward Mobility

Ready to engage the swap drive a necessary, I piloted the ringlet toward the opening as the sealing mesh split open. Pulling a tight turn just after entry, I put the ringlet into a spin to dissipate momentum, kicking One-Eight-Ones out of the way in the process. I light touch on the swap drive, and I scanned my position just as the seals closed on the entry portal.

There is always an eerie pause before the next event occurs. The timing is never quite what I expect, but so far, they have always happened. It's just strange to be sitting here, idle, about to — whoosh — and off me and the ringlet surged forward, down a broad and wide parallel membrane. The dimple packets were a little out of shape from the force of the surge, and now I had to make a choice.

Ahead, arching, are several passages, three to be exact. The third scans slightly smaller and curves back, and I think I just missed my chance at the first. Pitching the front upward with a pulse of the forward Eight-Ones, I tugged the trajectory to catch the flow upward into the second passageway off the main. After having been in the previous direction for so long, it was time to move onward and hopefully, upward.