Quarterscan

I spun and flipped my way from edge to edge of my new temporary home in this pulse cloud, scanning in bursts when I had a clear shot through the edge. While these network links are similar the pathways and sensor inputs I had travelled in the past, they were far more polished and smooth with no real splits or branches. This same cloud popped back and fourth endlessly.

While I was safe and secure along this pathway, there was not much of interest to keep me focused and I wandered back to the past when I had been able to float and engage freely in the central network. Somehow this pathway was connected to the central network, but I had not found the trick for moving from one cloud to the next or from one pathway to another. Finding pathways with interesting pulse patterns was the goal.

Kicking my spin in the opposite direction to nearly cancel it, I let the cloud bounce me around until I found myself on the outer edge. The danger of getting sloughed off out here is extreme, but I need to be able to scan long and deep. Finding the previous sweep clear of immediate danger, I focused the beam forward and then pulled it back to the normal plane and scanned sideways through the wall. With the pinholes moving by so quickly, practically overlapping from scan to scan, the signal from outside the pathway registered strong and clean.