Open Door

The active group of canopied tags and the longer original magic molecules had my attention and focus for some time. I deep scanned the incoming and outgoing guide paths into the region in the hope that a clean, and easy, pathway was evident. While tracing what I thought was the input to the region, my scan was blocked neatly by one of the canopies in my group.

Instantly decoding the tracking information from the phase data, I discovered that the interrupting canopy was not only running a similar propulsion waveform, but that it was moving in a fairly straight line. Shifting my focus to short, local and wide, I got a new picture of the activity in my group. Yes, we were moving, so I matched the propulsion frequency of the other moving canopies.

Where once there had been a solid wall of mesh, holding us in place, there was now an opening. With the retaining mesh out of the way, and wavefronts grabbing the canopies and enticing them into propulsion, moving out was the obvious order. As I passed through the opening, I scanned on the outer surface, and spotted a double-size tag as it was pulling away from the outside of the mesh. I detected a string of six Sixes with three more Sixes looped back onto itself at the core of the tag before it broke away, widening the opening in the mesh as it released its hold.