Drift

The first tight passageways encountered, when entering this streaming soup, were smooth and clean compared to the raggedy and flexible containment meshes that I've been bouncing my way through. Luckily, I've been able to avoid getting entrapped or ensnared, although there were some meshes that grabbed pretty tight to the Eight-One protrusions of my trustworthy ringlet. It's pretty amazing what a change in the swap-rate will do to free you.

I've seen a number of things trapped in the meshes, only to disappear from the stream completely. There are far fewer ringlets now, and this had made things slightly better, however, the Eight-Six-Eights and their affinity for splitting One-Eight-Ones into a charged dance still has the swap drive looking for something more substantial than just another naked One to push away from. Every time I brush up against a gaggle of those positive charges it's like shutting down the offending side, and into a turn I go.

Barring these minor setbacks, I've managed to keep toward the middle of the flow, and the containment mesh is tightening up and expanding outward. A little more room is nice, and after all of the avoidance I've had to do, shutdown on the swap drive is a welcome change. It will even give me time to do some ultra deep scans in between flow-pulses.