Fabric Reconnaissance

While the network was in full operation, our activity was reduced. The limited deep channels were sufficient for basic communication, but the details had to be brought back via near-field communication. Hopping onto the Shorty gave the best bandwidth for information sharing. Knowing of our trade-off of bandwidth for distance, we agreed that certain available frequencies should be reserved for problem resolution, navigational assistance and other urgent but simple matters.

We continued the spectral survey to determine the useful distance of each potential channel while realizing there were certain natural frequencies that we had to avoid, especially those that we use to locate pairings and combinations of atoms. For us, these were observational frequencies only, with an appropriate shift band. The actual signal shifts in proportion to the relative velocity between the sender and our receiver, and was useful while travelling along the superhighway and other high speed corridors.

The pairs positioned themselves for signal quality checks, farther and farther out, which we verified on the navigation channel. As we approached the distance where the local channels became overrun with noise, I locked in on a pattern, coming in on another vector. I scanned in that direction on the quiet navigation channel and other selected frequencies. Residing mainly in a quieter niche between the Six and Seven center frequencies, it washed up into other bands and across channels as it shifted frequencies. The observed wobble in the frequency matched the natural variance that I observed when one of my pairs was having an internal information exchange.