The Mass Router: Difference between revisions
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He turned to face the cause of his anxiety. Attached to a bulkhead opposite the window was a cylindrical machine with a bore just large enough to fit a single yinrih, and maybe a satchel if the yinrih in question was particularly svelte. He floated over and looked inside, his rear paw nervously picking at whisps of loose fur on his tail. There was little within that seemed to warrant his apprehension. The inner wall was featureless polymerite, and there was a harness to keep the occupant from floating away. But he couldn't help thinking about the first martyrs from the golden age who shot themselves toward the starry firmament in primitive iron projectiles. | He turned to face the cause of his anxiety. Attached to a bulkhead opposite the window was a cylindrical machine with a bore just large enough to fit a single yinrih, and maybe a satchel if the yinrih in question was particularly svelte. He floated over and looked inside, his rear paw nervously picking at whisps of loose fur on his tail. There was little within that seemed to warrant his apprehension. The inner wall was featureless polymerite, and there was a harness to keep the occupant from floating away. But he couldn't help thinking about the first martyrs from the golden age who shot themselves toward the starry firmament in primitive iron projectiles. | ||
He tried to reassure himself. «You're going to be fine, Hearthfire. Nothing's going to happen. We did gross upon gross of tests inert object tests, live tests, and all the tree-dwellers we sent came out perfect.» | He tried to reassure himself. «You're going to be fine, Hearthfire. Nothing's going to happen. We did gross upon gross of tests, inert object tests, live tests, and all the tree-dwellers we sent came out perfect.» | ||
«Except Moonbeam,» nagged a tiny voice in the back of his brain. | «Except Moonbeam,» nagged a tiny voice in the back of his brain. | ||
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«One...» Should the intermediate router drop a single packet, the whole flow containing Hearthfire's mass would be shunted harmlessly back into realspace at that router, provided it, too, absorbed his momentum correctly. | «One...» Should the intermediate router drop a single packet, the whole flow containing Hearthfire's mass would be shunted harmlessly back into realspace at that router, provided it, too, absorbed his momentum correctly. | ||
«Zero.» Hearthfire felt a tingling sensation, as though his whole body had gone numb. The feeling lasted but a fraction of a second, then he felt the weight of his body pulling him down. He had made it. In less than the flick of a whisker, he had gone from a space station in low orbit over Yih to a | «Zero.» Hearthfire felt a tingling sensation, as though his whole body had gone numb. The feeling lasted but a fraction of a second, then he felt the weight of his body pulling him down. He had made it. In less than the flick of a whisker, he had gone from a space station in low orbit over Yih to a research monastery on the surface on the opposite side of the planet. Hearthfire was the first yinrih to traverse a mass router network, and he had done it without a hitch. | ||
This was going to change everything. | This was going to change everything. | ||
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[[Category:Stories]] | [[Category:Stories]] | ||