Shuddering Interloper

For the most part, the synchro-drive requires very little maintenance. Once in a while, the force vector changes unexpectedly, but a small change gets things going in the desired direction once again. In other cases, there are perturbations that deflect the path and then reverse themselves. It was these later disturbances that were starting to occur with increased frequency.

Usually occurring in pairs, but sometimes in triples or quads, a small deflection would begin, followed by a strong surge in the opposite direction. Once the surge abated, the deflection would return and fade, and then any repetition would occur. I countered all of this by making sure that I was surrounded by soup and I slowed the synchrodrive to just above station keeping, thus limiting the total deflection and avoiding a mode-switching impact with a meshwork.

I scanned to see if there were more Shorties in the region, past the three that I had brought with me. I was getting an increasing number of returns, but only in the basic waveforms one gets from the Six-Six and Six-Seven bonds in the middle of a Six-Six-Seven chain. Off the Seven were a pair of Ones, which confused me at first, until I saw the malformed ring that hung from the second Six. This was no Shorty, but something nastier.