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.