Titans of Chaos

In reality the effect was too small to see, a million times per square inch in continuous ripplesdown my body as I soared aloft. I could see little nets of light and dark shimmering down mylimbs, as my submicroscopic-size, submicrosecond-long space warps were deflecting photons fromtheir straightline paths. Even in the air, I looked like a swimmer in the water.

Spacelapsing is not so tiring as it sounds, and I was in good shape. It was like long-distancerunning. I was glad I put in all the hours at the gym at school: Whoever says athletics areunladylike-come, sir, and try to catch me in midair!

I thought it would be cold this high, but the faster-than-sound friction of the ascent was heatingmy cap and jacket. I had to keep rotating several bodies (actually, three-dimensionalcross-sections of one body) into and out of the three-space to give the skin of one body a momentin hyperspace to cool down before plunging it back into the screaming hurricane of air. (Forobvious reasons, four-dimensional objects lose heat more slowly than three, but I found aheat-dispelling geometry.)

I could see the utility shining from my velocity. Too dim. Not useful. I was not achieving the speedI wanted.

I tried a new technique: finding the monads or controlling principles of the incoming airmolecules. I granted them free will and asked them nicely not to buffet me. Oh, and while theywere at it, could they form a cloud of breathable atmosphere at a temperature and pressurecomfortable for me around my face? Thanks, and you are all darlings, little molecules.

This was a luxury, I admit. I had a dolphin-shaped fourth-dimensional body I could use inhyperspace that did not need to breathe. I could have used it, I suppose. But what girl does notlike the feel of wind in her face? And my human face needed oxygen, so I asked the air molecules,and they did not seem to mind providing for me.

Of course, little things with free will could choose whether to be grateful, and some did not. Butthe statistical majority of them did as I suggested and did as their neighbors were doing, and thereseemed to be a general drop of the amount of free will as peer pressure brought the halo ofbreathable air into conformity. My own little pressure suit without the suit But it is thenonconformists who pull the stunts.