My Library

He tossed the rote back to the heavily vibrating form. (Sorry, I can’t help you. I would like to, hut I can’t.) The form vibrated. (You can’t! Why not?) AA smoothed even further. (Didn’t you go through your pre-briefing?) (Yes, of course I did.) (The part about blanking all previous rote? If they do that, I won’t have a rote of meeting you, anything about what happened here.) The form dulled, then closed. The haze settled again in a cluster around him. AA unfocused and continued his float among the clusters. He became cautious and avoided all the larger exuding rote tendrils. The others he moved through, picking up fragments of events, patterns, states of awareness totally inconsistent with those of home, KT-95. Suddenly, a quick sharp percept drove into him. (Ident AA! Ident AA! Ready for you at entry portal!) AA spun quickly, focused on the signal, following it through the haze and clusters. Looming through the haze was a large vertical slot, vibrating with a vivid energy AA had never before perceived. Red and Ed were waiting beside it. Red vibrated. (All set and ready, ident AA.) AA flickered. (What do I do?) Ed leaned in. (Imprint here, acceptance and agreement terms contained in pre-briefing.) Two carefully controlled spirals emanated from Ed. AA sent his own spiral in between them, then activated. Ed pulled back the spirals and leaned back. AA vibrated very highly. (What do I do now!) Red hit it hard and high. (Jump! Jump through the slot!) AA jumped. CLICK! Intense contraction, constricting … overwhelming signal input of unknown types … coming from parts of him he never knew existed … trapped, can’t get out of here … nothing works … can’t get