Either End

Working the sweet spot for the double flip, and finally got the Seven end to free up. Once free, it took some time for the Seven end to re-attach to the meshwork and continue along in the glombing mode. By keeping up the separation pattern, I was able to extend the time it took for the re-attachment to occur. With enough persistence and guidance, I was able to pull the Seven end to far off the meshwork that it took the same length of time to return to the meshwork no matter which direction the soup punched it.

I let the Seven acquire the meshwork once again, and flipped my way down toward the Eights. With this pair being balanced, they were not as difficult to deal with. Here it was a different story, since all I was working with was a strongly bonded One that hopped from one Eight to the other. When an Eight is heavy, it is not as apt to accept the One, limiting the number of handoffs.
Passing the One from Eight to Eight was and event that I already knew how to exploit, since by charge alone, I can make a solo One do all kinds of strange things when moving. Just to be sure, I kicked the One several times and got the Eights to lift off of the meshwork, slamming back down just as soon as the other Eight snagged the floating One and glombed on once again.

Focal Point

Still glombed to the Ones in the meshwork, I continued to tinker and twist the timing of switching back to the One-Eight-One friendly mode that this Shorty is capable of. The more I tried, the worse the result. Beginning to approach maximum frustration, I began spin-flipping randomly. It was an action that produced a result, and that helped to relieve some stress.

Scanning the ends of the Shorty between random flips revealed a deeper and stronger bond with the Ones in the meshwork. Given such a result, I ceased the flipping and maintained a normal orbit about the Seven while giving another pass at the ends, confirming that they had returned to their previous bond level, mainly on the surface.

I began to experiment with timed flips, to see what effect was had, keeping the influence to the Seven end of the Shorty. I started with a single flip right underneath the shallow bond with the meshwork, and quickly discovered that a double-flip, just before and returning slightly after the closest approach, caused the bond to weaken and extend. There was a very narrow range that produced this effect, but at least I knew which direction I had to go.

Mode Glitch

Having reached the boundary between the meshwork and the outer soup of One-Eight-Ones caused no end of confusion for my new lighter Shorty. Rather than detach and float free in the soup, I kept the cloud interested in the sea of Ones that we were still glombing to. Moving along the outer edge of the meshwork was revealing.

The affinity that the neutralized Shorty has for the meshwork allowed the cloud and I to slide the Shorty around the outside, as the One-Eight-Ones were generally repulsed by the meshwork. While it may have been possible to explore the entire meshwork, the number of divots, traps and inlets that have to be avoided make the task more than unusually arduous.

I kept scanning the soup to locate a good transfer point. As vast and large as the meshwork is, there were no shortage to places to exit into the soup. As I tried to direct a transfer, it proved to be tougher than the consideration that I had given the maneuver. Sensing a learning experience, I worked to flip the mode of the Shorty by trying for a pickup of a One by the Seven and a drop of the One held by the Eights. It was going to take some work.

Flip-Slidin' Away

Compared to swapping my way through the impossible soup of One-Eight-Ones, I had a much easier time flittering my way along the meshwork and the coverings of Ones that formed the main barrier to the One-Eight-One soup. After flipping and scanning for a dozen or so hops, found myself bouncing between a pair of Ones attached to a Seven.

I made a quick inspection to make sure that I was on a dual-Six chain, and not something longer. After the second Six, I was relieved to find a pair of Eights, glombing onto Ones in the meshwork. A complete inspection revealed an ordinary balance of Neutrons so I took up a double orbit about the Eights so I could influence their choice of which One to glomb next.

There was a natural tendency for the original direction of travel to be preserved, and for the Shorty to permeate the meshwork and reach the other side. With things looking so similar, it is easy to loose track of your position, but I had a few of the heavy Shorties still locked into my scan as avoidance points. It took a little scanning to figure out the reference system the Electron group was using. After feeding some diligently applied taps to the cloud, my Shorty followed the cue and began glombing along toward the outer surface of the meshwork.

Mode Switch

With cadre of Shorties, the extra neutrons on my Shorty were no longer a detriment. Able to rely on the attractive nature of the other three Shorties, I was able to keep up as the four of us made a formation similar to the Seven triple-One at the lead end. I and the heavy Shorty took up the central position, like the Seven, and the other three were in positions that were symmetrical and between the Ones that clung to my Seven.

Together, we were able to make significant progress, but I was still falling behind and preferred the nimbleness of a single Shorty. With all attempts to pull off a soup switch yielding something different, I decides that it might be easier to effect a transfer if we were not so polar. A quick scan set up a course change and the cadre of Shorties began their collision course with a nearby meshwork that surrounded a holding zone for a number of Elevens.

Travel was quicker that I had imagined, and in moments, we were swapping a One off of the Seven, and down toward the Eights. Meshed with the membrane and the sea of Ones that constantly tickle and beg for your attention got exactly that. I began a rapid spin-flip sequence and dove into the welcoming sea of Ones, of in pursuit of the nearest of the three light Shorties.

Synchrosynergy

A local One-Eight-One was often pulled toward the Seven while attraction sweeping the trio of targets. I had taken to scanning the length of the beam's path for such intrusions, performing a reversing shutdown to kick the offenders off track. Selectively tugging at the targets continued relentlessly, and the wobble-zone of the Shorty kept shrinking.

As one of the targets neared, it's attraction to the One-Eight-One handle slipped a bit, but later re-established. With only a few doublings of One-Eight-Ones between my shorty and the targets, the commutation effects began to influence my Shorty as well as the targets. The swingshot pattern that was being used to generate the attractive zone was detected in each of the three targets, and in sync with the pattern running on my own Shorty.

What sends can also receive, as I recall from my early photon-shifting days. In this case, my own actions here were being reflected in the targets. The four Shorties, I on the heavy and the other three two Neutrons lighter, had formed a synergistic system. Loosely linked, and moving together, we were able to put much more force against the soup with a combined synchro-drive.

Triphasic Attraction

There were nearly four doublings of Shorties in proximal attachment to a One-Eight-One partner. Working with the whip Electron that I had spinning the Seven, we picked the closest three to spend some extra effort on. Rather than maintain constant rotational speed when encountering the blip caused on the attraction beam, we slowed to deliberately attract the One-Eight-One as best we could.

With each successive sweep of the rotating attraction beam, we pulled the target One-Eight-One slightly in our direction, and the Shorty followed, on two of the three targets. The laggard Shorty was still stuck, having a very ornery pair of Eights to contend with. All the better. I prefer my Eights to be cooperative, when possible.

A nearby backup was selected and extra diligence was paid to bring the replacement into neat equidistance. A rhythmic sweep pattern continued to import targets. While it is absolutely true that my Shorty moved with each attraction, for each pull in one direction, the sum of the other two pulls canceled the first. This opposition of force defined shrinking zone in which the focal Shorty wiggled and continued the relentless attraction of a trio of targets.

Quality Help

Bumps smoothed as I continued to twist the Seven and sweep the attraction beam. Processing the feedback was almost a good as a direct scan. While there were many attractive targets, only a few were in position to be of meaningful assistance. To help, I let the attraction waveform influence induce a synergistic alignment of any One-Eight-Ones in the path of the beam.

While it was nice to detect receptive targets, there was the need to find likely payoffs. This meant that a real scan was in order. It took a little training to promote an Electron to keep the scan circulating, and far less effort to get the Electron to transmit the stress level it experienced as it kept the Seven spinning After tuning the response level, I meandered over to the Seven and then up onto the stationary One.

The beam was working well, and slicing through the soup as the Seven continued its flawless rotation. The squeaks from the Seven's driver were advanced enough that I was able to focus in and take detailed measurements. There were a few candidates at a bit of a distance, but things can change rapidly. For this reason, I kept the proximity scan running, just in case.

Detentia

While I had a great deal of fun nudging the attach point of the Seven onto the central Six, the range of motion was limited and not entirely stable. It was always the case that the attachment quartiles on the Six were working to achieve balance. Once I released my influence, the Seven drifted nearly to its original position in relation to the Six.

Rotating the Seven, however, was something that did work and stay. It was happy to respond to my lead and the trio of attached Ones followed along with the Seven. With nothing to stop the Seven from rotating forever, the focus of the synchro beam now swept with more regularity than my scanning. After the third rotation, I began to notice a pattern.

At times, the Seven would pull away, rotating ahead of me. As I would race to catch up, the rotation would slow slightly until I was working harder than normal just to keep the rotation going. After a few more thumps from my Six orbit, rotation remained constant until another acceleration and jump away. After passing the same point in the rotation several times, the influence began to wane, and I was able to detect similar and opposite force patterns around the entire rotation.

Modulatory Attraction

I swapped positions with the swingshot Electron that had been responsible for attraching the ornery end of a One-Eight-One. Tinkering with the frequency of the Electron wiggle, I was able to cause the distance between our Seven end and the One-Eight-One to change. If I took the frequency to zero, It got released, and the Seven end was free to interact with the soup once again.

Realizing that this was an extended application of the swap drive, I began to interleave swap-drive and synchro-drive commands to my fellow Electron. After a few dozen exercises, all of the Electrons on the Seven end as well as a few from the central Six were able to keep the desired waveforms going and maintain a more powerful momentum that we had achieved with the weak synchro-drive alone.

With a trained circuit of Electrons keeping the Shorty under way, I spent some delicious scan time up on a One. The team that was cycling about was aware that we did not want to lock on to anything using the swap mode for too long, improving the scanning work. Tinkering with things on the Six gave me the chance to move the entire Seven assembly about the quartile of the Six to which it was attached.

Secondary Effect

It was still a waiting game. Even though I was able to easily detect that a One-Eight-One had been temporarily snagged on the Seven end of a Shorty, nothing was happening close enough to be of use. Either my focus was off or my frustration was getting to me. In an instant I was knocked off the Eight and almost thought I had been ejected before I realized that I was caught in the outer orbit of a Six.

Having regained composure, and having no desire to duke it out with the group hanging around the Eights, I meandered back to the Seven end. More than one Electron was happy to trade places along the way, shortening the journey immensely. I hopped into orbit about the Seven and then up onto a One to get a better view, shifting the Synchro-Drive into limp mode. I stayed on this One, forcing the other Electron to do the bounce between the other two Ones via a swingshot about the Seven.

I began scanning for pairs of ornery Eights that I might be close enough to interact with, reversing the logic of the prior attempts. I had not completed the first scan cycle before my initial attachment scan went off, and loudly. The pulse was so close that it seemed to be all around me, and then I realized that it was my local Seven group that had attracted itself to a One-Eight-One, giving us a magnified charge.

Alignment Confirmation

With two transfer opportunities to consider, I was far less bored. The movement of the One-Eight-Ones is always strange and unpredictable, making the use of a One-Eight-One split an event that was difficult to predict. Alternatively, waiting for the Seven end of a Shorty to approach closely to the Eights.

Keen on observation, I examined the orientation of One-Eight-Ones and nearby Seven-ends. There was a preferred orientation of the One-Eight-One to the Ones on the Seven, this being with the Eight pointed at the Seven, and tugged by a pair of Ones that were swapping a single electron between them. Funny thing was, the Eight wiggled slightly, being tugged to the exposed Proton in the One that was sans Electron at the moment.

When this wiggle-waddle happened, there had to be some kind of detectable waveform, and I began scanning. After a little tuning and tinkering, trying different scan techniques, a recipe was found. Each time a One-Eight-One would line up in this Eight toward Seven configuration, I could spot the initial attachment. Since I was moving predictably, locating the source of the aligned pair was simple, but what I was really after was the intense field emission of a close alignment.

Half the Uncertancy

I made several close approaches to other shorties, but not in the correct orientation as to effect a transfer. As much as I disliked the idea, I had to consider the possibility of using a One-Eight-One as in intermediary. Each time I completed a pass through the target zone and remained on a loop, the more I considered the other plan.

Observation is the key to success, and if there is something that can be done, the elements necessary are usually present. It is up to the individual to put the pieces together and make the solution. Here, I was relying on the fact that a One-Eight-One can split into a solitary One, sans Electron, with the extra Electron joining the remaining Eight-One pair, making a nicely charged transport.

All I needed to do was collide with a One-Eight-One, induce a split, and then be the Electron carried away on the Eight-One. With all of this done, in the presence of a sweet Shorty, the rest should be automatic. I just have to make sure that we have the Seven end of the destination nearby. That has already happened several times. Now I'll take either-or.

Certain Uncertaincy

The Eights were being more that unusually cantankerous as I approached from the Six. With an extra Electron hanging around the Eight that was closest to the Seven had things really bent out of shape, especially since the Seven was letting it all happen. Without that bend, we don't loop. Some things are necessary.

Of course, there really was no way to tell which of the Electrons was the extra one. Of the Nine that were floating about the target Eight, I was going to have to pick one to trade spots with. Once in, I have to stay in unless I catch, well, a nice Seven with some Ones on it. A nice clean Seven without any extra baggage. I'm not really that picky.

After getting my way once or twice, I slipped into a low and tight orbit on the Eight. I had to double check the list of anti-targets, and make sure that I had their positions and vectors recorded and updated. Sometimes these heavies would wander a bit in an odd direction, making them a bit more difficult, not impossible, to re-acquire. Now it was a matter of locating potential targets that I may be able to adjust to and intercept.

Top Down or Bottoms Up!

Being one Neutron heavy, I can handle. Any desire beats randomness. Being two Neutrons heavy put me at a far worse disadvantage than not even having desire. This left me only the option of turning back. Not my first choice in any situation, but in this case, I needed to come up with a transport that was completely normal. Down by two is just not in me.

After taking a detailed scan, I discovered that about one per hundred Shorties has a gimped Six, detectable even from my wide-arced perspective. Fewer than half that number of tinkered Sevens were scattered across the Shorties than I had scanned. In each case, the emission spectra from the scan targets deviated only slightly, and always in a pulse-elongating manner.

Committed to the return path and tracking the heavies that I had spotted, I plotted a course to avoid them. All of them. If I did run into a Shorty, and It was not on my reject list, then it was either way more messed up that I could detect, or it would be just what I was looking for. Having zizzed with enough Electrons on the Seven end, I had no trouble finding a replacement for myself in the swingshot chain and letting the Seven end run itself. I had to make my way down to the Eights.

Synchro Wobble

As impressed as I was with this Shorty, I was still having trouble with the direction control. It seemed that something was off in my efforts. Something was slightly off, so I took a good look at each of the atoms that made up this Seven-Six-Six chain. The ornery Eights were normal, counting an equal number of Protons and Neutrons on each, it was like hauling five doublings of Ones around, compressed into the volume of about three Ones.

Their negative charge aside, the eights were just a giant drag, giving us some unusual stability, even though they were bent to one side. Your learn to compensate for some things, but I had not compensated for something. Moving in and looking at the pair of Sixes, I almost missed it the first time. Where there should be six Neutrons to match the Protons, the central Six was contorted slightly, and that was due to the fact that it was a "Heavy." With seven Neutrons, it had a different degree of flex that I had expected, and this was altering the shape of the molecule.

Having found one interloping Neutron, I scanned the Seven, and nearly lost it when I kept coming up with eight Neutrons. I am surprised that the Seven was stable with eight Neutrons. Regardless, the extra two Neutrons made this molecule heavy by two, and the heavy Seven was more than annoying when trying to make swingshots. Now, if I can just arrange a collision with another Shorty, I might be able to shed a couple of Neutrons by taking a hop to a more nimble copy.

Swingshot Experience

While the Seven may have been bent toward the ornery Eights by the trio of Ones that it carried, It still had the Ones. Recalling the swingshot pattern that I ran in the canopy, where I had three Sixes - each with a trio of Ones - I settled into a similar rhythm. Because there was a missing electron in the trio of Ones, it made zipping around in the desired pattern much easier that with a full house.

With greater pull to work with, I was able to orbit lower, tighter and faster. That is when I began to experience orbital distortion. Even against the pull of the Proton that I was orbiting at the moment, there was a sideways push on me. Feint, but stronger the faster I moved, the push was being converted to a pull on the Proton, just because of the orbital link that I shared with the Proton in the middle.

As I hopped from One to One, the push remained as long as I kept a planar orbit. If I went random, there was no net effect. By angling the plane of orbit, I could change the degree of the push and the effective angle of the force that was applied to the Proton. This in turn, tugged on all of the bonds in the Shorty. Smaller a less cumbersome than the canopy, it did not take much force transfer at all to de-randomize our motion and begin to make some headway.

Zwitter Forward

Just as I was about to give double-flip my spin and confuse the current One that was glombed onto the ornery Eight when my attitude got changed. Torqued forward and sideways, the other central Six and it's Seven had broken free of their slippery sliding and had borrowed another One from the soup. This explains why the One broke away before I finished the double-flip and refused to re-connect afterward.

One-Eight-Ones nuzzled their semi-positive Ones along the sympathetic polarity of the ornery Eights. Slipping around the central Six and surveying the Seven end of this Shorty found the inverse situation with the trio of Ones that were sliding around the Seven in an oddly backward motion. Attracted to the semi-negative Eights of the intervening One-Eight-Ones, the Shorty had switched modes from mesh crawler to soup slipper.

It was no simple task to hang out on the Seven, since one of the three Ones was always missing it's Electron. The ornery Eights at the other end were playing catch with an extra Electron, and this created a stressed bond between the Seven and the central Six. The Seven and it's positive trio of Ones were constantly pulled toward the Electron ping-pong match going on between the Eights.

Flip and Rebound

While watching the Shorties, I had hopped a Seventeen to get a better view. I traveled farther into their zone that I had anticipated, and I had ventured too close to a meshwork. Ensnared in the vortex of vibrating ones that had opened below me, my Seventeen began to fall into the abyss of an inactive network pathway.

Not willing to get trapped inside, I made a dash into an elliptical orbit and back0-flipped around one of the Ones that was grazing the edge of my Seventeen's flight zone. After a few precision spin-flips, I had established myself in the meshwork, and began heading in the direction of the last seen Shorty. Finding one proved surprisingly easy, since the Seventeens were filling the node there had to be responsible molecules.

Heading over to the pair of ornery Eights, I checked out the floatable One that made all of this possible, and discovered that it was trading it's way along. Apparently, it's the fact that the Ones will freely trade with each other that makes it possible for this Shorty to slide along and do it's job. For me, all I had to do was pick when to kick the current One and I could make the Shorty slide in any direction.

Shorty Story

The riddle of the disappearing Shorties added a complex scan technique to my recipe pool. Tossing in a swap order with a Seventeen scan, I began the complex survey looking for different densities of Shorties and Seventeens. Once the baseline was established, I added a dash of Electron pattern scanning to complete the scan set.

Crunching the stream of information from the scan, it became possible to correlate inactivity with an absence of free Seventeens and a high concentration of Shorties. Where the ratio was reversed, an absence of Shorties and a nominal concentration of Seventeens, were active network channels and frequent pulses. While this correlation did not hold true for every instance, it was correct far more often than not, yielding considerable predictive value.

In my previous foray into this central network, I had a great deal of difficulty catching entire burst sequences for lack of knowing where to scan. Discovering the fact that these Shorties invoke a shutdown of network pathways will save time in pattern searches. They, along with the string of five Sixes that I found earlier, are clear indicators of regions that should be checked later.

Squeeka Trova

I began to lock on to the central Six in the single Seven-Six-Six chain. The pair of Ones nestled tightly with the Six, and their vibration patters did not shift much, making it possible to pick up and track either flavor. Floating free in the soup, the Eight end was repulsive while the third One on the Seven end made things highly attractive and compatible with the soup.

Scanning a nearby meshwork for the original version, I zeroed in and scanned in detail, starting with the central Six. When slotted in the mesh, the One on the Seven that was closest to an Eight would hop over to the Eight, relieving the strain on the Seven-Six-Six chain.

I had found the original version slotted in, and it was in the process of springing back that I caught the noise pips as each One shifted its connection from the Seven to the Eight. In this mode, the free frequencies and harmonics were quite visible and expected. It also had a neutral charge arrangement, making it compatible with the meshwork and keeping the soup at bay. It was the fundamental shift, and the associated harmonic changes, that effectively made this smallest of chains pop in and out of my scan.

Squeak Scanned

Sweeping for Seventeens, several regions exhibited lower than nominal returns, and all close to meshworks. Continuing, I spotted a Seventeen swirling toward a mesh network along with several more. Sticking briefly on contact, the Seventeen was ushered through the mesh and into obscurity.

Alternating between the Seven-Six-Six noise scan and tracking several Seventeens, I located a few of the disappearing molecules which had slotted into the meshwork. One of the Seventeens in the area was being drawn toward the mesh. Plotting the track lead to an bed of Ones that were vibrating in sympathy with the Seventeen. As the Seventeen nestled with the Ones, I switched scanning modes.

Several Seven-Six pairs lit up at the correct frequency, and I picked one to lock on to as it began to move. The frequency slipped and I followed the phase, tracking to the new lower frequency I maintained a positive lock as the target detached from the mesh and floated free in the soup. A trio of Ones sprouted from the Seven, which swung from a pair of Sixes, the nearest of which was sporting a pair of Ones and the later, a massive pair of Eights.

An Unclue?

To add to the challenge of the disappearing molecules were the photon detectors. Their constant and unpredictable inputs to the network created a din completely washed out my scan response. If it were not for that fact that the stimulus level cuts abruptly at semi-regular intervals, I would have no opportunity to probe in detail. Given all of the constraints, a sweep search was out.

A general scan of the space just outside of the membrane revealed a normal mix of easy identifiables; Elevens, Nineteens, a Twenty here and there. I kept scanning progressively farther outward, using the rare Twenty as the anchor point. It was easier to re-locate the Twenty at the beginning of an interlude.

Repeatedly, I probed the space in the Twenty's zone. It was not until I was scanning away from the Twenty, opposite the meshwork, that I started to pick up Seventeens. I kept checking, and Seventeens were meandering toward the freedom of the meshwork zone, held slightly in check by the pull of the Nineteens. Missing Seventeens. Disappeared molecules. Interesting.

Hide and Squeak

I had found tag molecules with seven, five and two Sixes in a chain connected to a Seven. It made sense that there might be three and four Six-chains also connected to a Seven, and I began looking for any returns that would indicate such an existence, but nothing popped up on the scan. Coming back to two-Six wavelength, I picked up a few canopies and some odd noise.

Of course, there are Seven-Six-Six chains everywhere, as they make up the backbone of monsters. These groupings, when linked, do not have the same absence waveform. The noise that I was referring to was as if molecules were appearing and disappearing. In each sweep, I would catch different numbers of returns, and all of them near containment mesh networks. These things would appear as long as they were in proximity of the mesh and then disappear.

I had never seen a molecule or an atom vanish, but I have seen them be masked or hide from the scan by having a different frequency, so I tinkered with some nearby frequency pairs to see if there had been a shift. Usually, if one frequency shift up, another slides down. In this case, there were three frequency components on these disappearing tags. Pairs are difficult enough. Trios are double-double the difficulty of a pair.

Hide and Scan

The active and directed phase of the network is far more complex that even I had first imagined. With absence scanning and phase detection techniques, I've been scanning for possible tag molecules that perform pattern enhancement and absorption. Like the canopied tag that I rode, and the long string of seven Sixes that I remembered from this place, I searched for other short Six-Seven groupings.

In the long side of the frequency range, I located a string of five Sixes, with a double-committed Eight one Six in from the end and a standard Eight-One termination, with the One out on an errand. This looked just like the small end of the seven chain, and I nearly mistook it for one. The other end was different. The expected Seven was missing, and instead, was located at the end of the fifth Six, sporting a trio of shiny Ones.

Not only had this molecule surprised me, but I had found and extra One on the Seven end, making this entire molecule look like a giant One-Eight-One as far as the soup was concerned. Wherever the pattern of this tag had a strong return, there were Elevens nearby, floating freely in the soup and not held in position to form a pathway. If I want to stay in a particular area for a while, I'll hook up with a five chain of Sixes with a Seven on the end.

Settling In

Using new scan techniques in the central network, I was able to transition from travelling pathways with the various pulses, or hanging out and riding a tag molecule to make jumps from one set of pathways to another. The cleanup patters were taking me to interesting places, but every once in a while, they would begin to loop and recycle, so I would hop a tag and if I it had a canopy, well, it was a smashing good time.

In the case of one such cleanup loop, I just punched up full speed and slammed back into a waiting area and voila the loop was broken and the cleanup pattern split up and headed out to keep checking and activating circuits. There was one instance when a weak circuit was snapped and another where it was strengthened and re-enforced. There is definitely something special and important with these cleanup sessions.

Then I froze. In a brief period of time, the optical sensors came fully online, and their input patterns began their pulsed stimulation of the network, banishing the cleaning patterns into the far corners of the network. It had been far to long since I had experienced the pulse and buzz of this active network. The new tools were working well to speed travel here, but with the network fully active, it was important not to kick off new patterns.

Teapot Tempest

Patterns swirled and washed across the zones of the central network as the pulse continued to stimulate the network. Treated to a good view, I was able to determine that I was still several zones from where I really wanted to be, but that was just a matter of time. I was well positioned and if the the pulse went there, it meant that there was a pathway that could be followed. Reaching a crescendo, the activity culminated in a final blast of command patterns, many of which were processed by the superhighway.

With the storm subsiding, I flipped through a number of scan options looking for other kinds of activity. The synchro detectors were fluctuating, indicating motion. With nothing changing from a traditional viewpoint, the synchro detectors showed that I and and everything else was moving, and then that subsided as well.

This was definitely a low activity period for the central network, and random cleanup patterns were beginning to circulate. It is at time like this that I am able to move about without undue concern for the patterns that I trigger, since the cleanup patterns quickly override the disturbance. With dedication and persistence, I began to explore the pathways, seeking the familiar location from which I could once again follow and decode the patterns and pulses that ring and soar through the central network.

Wrinkle and Ripple

Zipping along from Eleven to Eleven, I ambled along the pathway and further into the central network, chased by a few doublings of Electrons that were also dislodged by the impact. Scanning sideways, I was able to detect other pathways converging into a parallel bundle. Not nearly as large as the superhighway, it was far better that hitching a ride on a ringlet.

The journey ended as it had begun, in a small receiving area. Once a few more of the Electrons in the pulse cloud arrived, a tag or two were released from the outside of the containment mesh. The return phase began and Electrons left slowly, but not I. Surprising an inattentive Electron on a neighboring Eleven, I bumped it ahead of me using one of my old tricks and slipped into the vacated orbit.

It had been some time since I had run an intercept and pattern analysis scan, but after a few sweeps, I had adjusted nicely. New tools improved the accuracy and detail, but most of that was unnecessary when you're interested in the pulse patterns of moving Electrons. I was closer to the interesting pathways in the network, and could tell that things were quiet and almost in a shutdown state. Then I saw the pulse that I had been part of. Sweeping along and starting a feedback loop in the pathways, the pulse was growing stronger. Much stronger.

Punchout

Tension in the meshwork increased and outer orbits on some of the Sixes were beginning to bend. The canopy team was racing toward the meshwork, accelerating, canopy first this time. I was concerned about being centered in the impact zone, and flipped to get as close to the middle as I kept tracking the team's progress. While there were other canopies in the region, only the team was heading in.

As the team approached, the swingshot waveform washed upon the Electrons in the meshwork, myself included. Responding with slight orbit shifts, the local Electrons took up a pattern that welcomed the intruder by reducing the repulsion factor. It is difficult to push on another Electron when you've got a massive positively charged nucleus between the two of you.

Forces increased and the meshwork was abuzz with activity as Electrons scurried our of the way and matched synchronization with the waveform from the canopy. The swingshot rate continued to increase, accelerating up until contact and even a bit afterward, burying deeply into the flexing meshwork. It was all the strain that I needed to break the orbit that I had chosen. With a quick flip and a reverse, I snapped free at the moment I squared up on an Eleven.

Mark the Spot

Keeping a ping on the canopy team and the departing molecule, I began my exploration of the meshwork to which I had transferred. Fairly standard composition, the array was held together by Sixes and Eights with a number of Eight-One combinations protruding inward. Attracted toward these Eight-One pairs were a number of Elevens that were floating in the interior soup.

On my next outward sweep, I discovered that the team in the canopy had started their marker twitch and began to come around, looking to set up for another pass. Inward, the positive charge of the Elevens below were beginning to have a pronounced effect on me and the other Electrons that were circulating about the meshwork. With orbits that were distorting toward the Elevens, it was only a matter of an impulse before a cloud of Electrons would form and begin traversing the pathway of Elevens.

Sweeping outward once again, I picked up my old crew in the canopy, and tapped back at them using an "ahoy" code. The next marker twitch contained an acknowledgement shift. They had heard my ping, and were now scanning in my direction. Just for giggles, I punched out a "full power" command like I had done in the past. In moments, the canopy was making swingshots at an increasing rate and they were on their way.

Hopping One to One

The canopy crew ramped up on their scanning ability pretty quickly, and were able to spot me wiggling away on the far end of the molecule. There was the through that our paths may cross once again, so we exchanged a secret oscillation that we could use to sense each other. Of course, they would have a much easier time sending a signal, since they were nine times my strength and could rally off of one another. I would have to commandeer a molecule to send a reply.

Happy with their new abilities, the team was willing to help me transfer into the network that I had helped guide them to. Still on the far end molecule, I signaled the team for full speed as I guided us toward a backward collision that would try, unsuccessfully, to penetrate one of the landing and excitation areas of a nearby booster node.

These meshworks have an amazing resilience when it comes to impacts, and yes, we hit as hard as we could. As the Ones that buffered the terminal six began to grind under the repulsion from the Ones in the mesh, I transferred in to a split-loop orbit and made a quick swingshot move off the Six and around an impinging One. Letting loose with a double spin-flip when I felt an external tug, I began the short trip into the orbit that we had distorted. With the transfer complete, I spotted the structural Eight in my old molecule spring back into normal shape as the canopy waveform reversed phase and pulled away.