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There was a massive warping of time and space. Time, space, matter, and
biology and anatomy - his biology, and his anatomy - were a great mix; intermingling at the
molecular, and atomic levels. There was a massive warping of all that was Tanis, and of
whatever constituted this strange whispering wall. Streams of obsidian bled ocher where
swam no name particles visable by the electron wakes they left as they sang in the
pitch. Time hung spidery in webs, and washed blacks and spots of light. Streams
of red swarmed about all horizons; a dance of cell, of red and white blood cells, long
striated tissue cells, the skin represented in porous sheets, and long strands of
compartmentalized hair structures, and more to the merry palette staining his view.
Bullet proof atomic structures married bone and marrow constructors. Red speckled white
grains, and powder, and dust, and yellow globules, played toss and catch, and hide and seek
with better organized metal compound components, and the great force of gravity
particles. Oh what splendor; a cavalcade, a great circus, a waltz, a trot, a glorious
spectikal all this display of the most elemental. No pain, thought Tanis.
Exhilaration the only possible emotion. And he was still Tanis and still thinking, and
that at least was of some consolation and comfort, but again, no pain; more adventure, more a
carnival than anything else.
In the physical world Tanis had fallen through the dark wall in a fraction of a
second, but perspective is everything, and relativity is king. From where Tanis
experiences collided with reality, he had been completely conscious, cognitive, and aware of
every molecule of his person as it was meticulously mapped, deconstructed, sorted, packaged,
transported - translated - and then unpacked, and painstakingly reconstructed by some unknown
force, and all this time he was still Tanis, and still the conscious observer. Beautiful the
moment.
This process took a considerable amount of time - centuries perhaps - but he new
also that it had been instantaneous on some level, and from someone perspective. What
masters could devise such a device, and such a process. And as suddenly as the visions
of blood and cells, and atoms and molecules had appeared, they were sucked from his view in a
slow dissolve, and he was aware now that he was falling out of the great mysterious wall, and
back into the world. And so he arrived, and for the longest and most brief time he hung
in mid air...
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