Station Keeping the Link

Continued direct monitoring of the away pair became impossible as the amplitude of their conversation with the new recruits was reduced radically as communication efficacy improved. The stationkeepers reported that the frequency of the conversation had jumped to a nanosphere channel that was one of the highest bandwidth channels available, but had the shortest of ranges. The stationkeepers were reporting only that that the conversation continued as the mixed pairs passed within intercept range.

The shift to wider bandwidth and higher frequencies was good news. I could not conceive of a bad situation that would result in improved bandwidth. Continuing to sweep the fabric of frequencies, I pleased with the noise reduction now that the chatty slide-talker had been localized. With the random sweeping of frequencies, a filter was out of the question. Probing deeply into the noise, I found some that was truly random from shifting electrons and a bump here or there, but intriguingly, there were other repeated pulses deep in the noise.

As I considered the possible reasons for regularity in deep noise, the navigation channel lit up:

Away Return.

Mixed Pair.

To which a double acknowledgement was returned. In moments a similar message was transmitted from the other stationkeeper, except that the last two symbols in the message were swapped, which was interpreted as "Pair: Mixed." It was vital for the stationkeepers to know that a return was coming, so that they could position the local electrons for a basic pair exchange. A kick from the stationkeeper did not hurt the process either.