Permission Slip

Flipping the scan to follow the passing 5-ring, I realized that the Shorty had not traveled far from the attraction zone, so I shut down the synchro-drive and drifted lazily. For a few moments, I recorded rotation, and discovered that it was not my Shorty that was rolling, but the 5-ring was reorienting itself.

The 5-ring emitted a final Wig as the tag slotted into the attraction area, nestling nicely. The rest of the process completed without incident, and I continued my float toward the meshwork as the 5-ring itself locked into position and began a pulsing waveform that began to travel across the sea of Ones that made up the vastness of the meshwork.

Another wave rippled across the meshwork, and a nearly regular gridwork of Ones began to rise. Each pulse from the attraction area rippled outward, jiggling the sea of Ones and pushing the gridwork farther upward from the nominal surface. Then things got bigger, as each of the ones was attached to an Eight that began to breach the meshwork. Locked in, just waiting to be be released by a pulse, the sea of Ones continued to thin, as the Eights began to wobble in response to the weakening force holding them in place.